Junger

I've done really well on Rapala X-Rap XR08's that go down to about 5', it's a smaller profile jerkbait with a tight wiggle. I find that bass are willing to come up pretty far for it. The hooks suck, so I change those out. For deeper jerkbaits, I use the Jackall Rerange MR.

Is there a way to block users here? Asking for a friend.....

I have the Tatula CT 5.5 (TACT100P), and an older Alphas SV105HP 5.8 and both are really smooth. I carry a Ray's shallow spool for the Alphas so I can throw really light crank baits for creek/trout fishing. You'll likely only find these used on eBay or for trade/sale fishing forums, but if you want brand new, the ones Columbia Craw noted would be great reels.

I think TW will take 20% off any item in the email confirmation, but not in the checkout screen for certain brands, such as Shimano, Daiwa, St. Croix, Megabass, GLoomis, etc. The only time you won't get the 20% off is when you see the little italics in checkout "This item is not eligible for advertised discounts."

They were trending downward until recently. Back in October I saw a 100AH LiFePO4 no frills generic brand on Amazon for $88. I have a 105AH bluetooth that went from $170 to $130, but it's back to $170. I think prices won't be going down anytime soon, and probably upward a little with the incoming tariffs. Do you absolutely need batteries now? Or are you just planning to upgrade in a few months and want to hedge pricing? You can always fall back on cheaper wet lead acid or AGM batteries if the lithiums go up.

@MediumMouthBass It's probably extra 50% off instore clearance items. My local store does that for the clearance items in the bins from time to time.

I think Lund added waterproof storage to the Renegade in 2022, so consider that. It seems like that was the biggest criticism of the Renegade.

Can I room with you after I tell my wife she’s being petty over my gear? 😁

I've had two Helix10 G3N's since 2021 without issues, and I've run them in downpours several times. The one thing I did for my front/bow unit that is flush mounted is put a rubber gasket between the bow plate and unit so water doesn't sneak underneath. I had two Garmin's before that for several years with no problem too. Like others have said, I think most units will become obsolete before they break.

Only from my wife.....everyone else doesn't care.

I run high vis braid for pretty much all my bottom contact presentations, with a long lighter FC leader (long enough but doesn't go into the spool) so that if I get hung up I break off at the lure knot and keep most of the leader. I dislike breaking off and possibly leaving a bunch of braid in the water. I retie frequently and the leader will usually last me several outings.

Works fine chopping up the pad stalks. Same with grass, trim up the TM so that the cut stalks don't stack up on the lower unit and shaft, otherwise you'll have to remove them manually.

Found this video of the ML2 side by side with LVS34; Looks pretty comparable, and ML2 looks better in landscape.

Dry January again...

PAD173MHA, I use it for chatterbaits and spinnerbaits too, paired with a Curado150 MGL and 40lb braid. I can't remember the last fish on lost on this combo, I really like the modfast+ tip.

Hmm...maybe I just don't fish enough too then!

My wife asked me what I wanted this year for X-mas, and I told her she already got me a present, then proceeded to pull this bottle out of a bag. Now all she does is have to put some lures in my stocking and I'm set.

Anyone else able to recall almost all your fishing catch memories, such as time, place, conditions, lures, what was working, what was not working, etc? But then I'll go see if my car needs an oil change and I had just done it last week. It's like I have a photographic memory related to fishing, but then amnesia for everything else.

I had two on my older model Ultrex and it worked fine in really thick hydrilla, but with one caveat. I had to trim the TM lower unit just below the water line, otherwise the hydrilla would hang and build up where the shaft meets the lower unit. If that happened the only way to remove them would be manually, or a grass chopper shaft type blade like: https://a.co/d/5ZiolyQ But the NGB worked great when keeping the TM trimmed up.

Mount it to your TM, they’re made to be used that way. But if you’re OCD enough that it would bother you, then there are a lot of after market live scope/transducer poles.

They would be smart if they issued some kind of rebate for previous generation owners (that have proof of retail purchase).

Spatterdock everywhere, and hydrilla all around, it's tidal so I fish inside the grass on the incoming and start of the outgoing to where there's enough water over the hydrilla to trim just under the water line. Sometimes the fishing is too good back there that I fish open pools and have to push pole out. I don't even turn on graphs when I fish this these spots. But I plan to use ML2 with Targetlock for other areas 30% of the time (deep ledge reservoirs, brackish water flats).

I fish heavy vegetation and spatterdock a lot, I'd say 70% of the time. For me picking M360 over ML2 really comes down to the hassle of trimming them both up when going skinny. It looks like TargetLock has two knobs to loosen/tighten the transducer pole, whereas M360 has bolts to tighten it up. I think ML2 w/ TargetLock will do most of what I need it to do, with minimal hassle when I need to trim it up.

I'm trying to decide if I need Mega360 if I get ML2. From what I understand, ML2 reaches out much farther now, and I'm thinking that I could just use it in landscape mode to find schools of moving fish on big grass flats. I fish brackish water, so I'll be targetting LMB, redfish, speckled trout, and even some white perch. Would there be any advantage of Mega360 I'm missing out on?

The Xplore has HD resolution, so you'll get even better MSI/MDI over the Helix 10's, which are pretty good already IMO. My boat also came with Helix10 G3N's in 2021, and while they do their job, I'm ready upgrade them. I've played around with other people's HDS10 and UHD10s and the touch screen is a big deal to me. The Helix cursor button is pretty clunky compared to just being able to touch a screen somewhere and select a track, mark or select a WP, or pinch and zoom the screen. You can also wait for the next generation of the Xplore to get a couple more years out of your Helix10's. Maybe the Xplore G1's will have hardware issues like the first Solix's.