haggard

For smallies and largemouth: 6'6 ML/F or M/F spinning with 6# copoly for light techniques (weightless worms, drop shot, plastics on light jig heads) 6'6 M/F baitcaster with 12# copoly for soft plastics (TX rig) 6'6 M/F low gear baitcaster with 12# mono for topwater & trebles 6'8 MH/F baitcaster with 40# braid for bottom contact jigs, frogs, deep TX rigs I sometimes like to go for panfish while bass fishing so I might swap the topwater combo for a 6'6 L/F spinning with 6# copoly.

Fished a few beds at the start of my second season just to try something new but generally like to leave them alone and let them do their thing. I figure they've got enough on their minds with trying to reproduce, coming out of a long winter, and facing pressure of everyone targeting their beds.

Haven't used the Loomis but have a Mojo Bass MJC68MHF that I consider my "heavy duty" rod. It doesn't see a lot of use but when it does, it's usually a 3/8 oz TX rigged 5-inch worm in deep water (up to 40 ft) using 12 lb test mono. I love it for that application. Something about the rod just feels solid and sensitive. But sometimes not sensitive enough so for the upcoming season, thinking I'll try it with braid and use it exclusively for deep water worms and bottom contact jigs. Same could also be used for frogs and thick stuff but in my home lake that's rare. Reel is a Curado 201K at 6.2:1. Mojo Bass gets my vote (great rod at great price) but again I haven't tried the Loomis.

Yes it was a sad moment. I was literally heading up to the lake to get it on the water that evening. Fortuntately their insurance got it settled and the company was pretty quick and easy to deal with, and the payout was fair. Not low, not high, just fair. What probably helped a lot was having receipts and photos of everything - motors, accessories, etc. I highly recommend saving that stuff. Hope you never need it but when something like this happens I think it really helps you.

Modern 2 piece should be fine and is a great choice for travel plus making the small fish more fun. Mine's a St.C PS56ULF2 (5'6" UF/Fast). Only gripe is it doesn't cast too far but then it rarely needs to and what do you expect from a 5'6". I like the shorter length because it's great in tight spaces from the bank (less chance of snagging a tree) and I find anything north of 6'0 on an ultralight to be too noodly. Dinks and crappie are a lot of fun on it. As far as bend/weak points, never a problem and that includes landing an unexpected and rather chunky largemouth on it once from the kayak. Rod was bent way over and it was a blast! I wouldn't recommend lifting a big bass out of the water with the ultralight, just to be safe.

Bought a new Tracker 1448 MVX plus trailer for short money. Solid all welded aluminum platform with built in casting deck. Built it up over the winter by stripping everything off the old boat and re-using it on the new Tracker: seating; strong running 1976 15hp 2-stroke Evinrude; cable/drum steering system (built a DIY console). Added new front and rear pedestal seat posts; accessory/grab rails (for cup holders, rod holders, etc.); bimini top; trolling motor. Got 2 months out of her before she died in a crash but in that short time she made some of the best memories and showed a custom build can work. I'm not saying it looks like much, and the photos are kinda crappie ? but it was functional and really enjoyed it.

Just know that removing shields sometimes warps or destroys the shields in the process. But then, running without shields can make future cleanings easier. Everything's a tradeoff.

I got some of these Rage Toads from @jbmaine and he had it rigged with a unweighted swimbait hook. Not sure what size but I'd guess somewhere between 5/0 to 7/0. It has a screw lock to hold the plastic and a ring that couples to the hook eye. Pop the hook point through the body Texas rig style, into the underbelly and out the top.

Got it now, my bad. Maybe we just have to wait for the public announcements. I'm still trying to find where I can get a Garmin EchoMap Plus 73 or 93 for $250 to $400 off

https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/hidden-kale-3?storeID=12

Go to stores.basspro.com and click on the pin point for your desired store. This brings up a specific store page. View the page source code using whatever method your browser supports (in Chrome, right click somewhere on the page and select "View page source"). Bring up a search (Chrome: Control-F) and search the page for "catalogCode=BassPro" (excluding the quotation marks) and that should bring you to a match followed by something like "Jan_3_19_50_tab". There may be several matches; keep going to the next one until you see one with this format. The 3 and 19 are days of the month; the 50 is the store number. Or just find your receipt, if you want to do it the easy way

Which lb. rating are you using? I have a spool of 12 lb YZH that I'm going to try on the M/F baitcaster with 1/4 oz TX rigged plastics, but thinking that might be overkill for spinning gear with light plastics. But I have trouble tying knots with anything thinner than 6 lb mono so I'm wary of trying the lighter YZH lines.

Can you elaborate? What's the parachute effect and are you saying it's good or bad? I've been trying for a long time now to settle on a spinning gear line setup for light lures, but getting nowhere. Not talking about top water lures, but more like ned rigs on the bottom, or small paddletails on light jig heads for mid column, and weightless worms. I'm wondering if floaty straight braid would adversely affect the sink rate or feeling the bottom, so copoly might be better. Or if braid plus a leader, is that relatively short leader even going to make a difference in sink rate?

which is probably just the reason we don't see the large sheets of deck padding anymore. There's more money to be made with pre-cut. I bet there's a still a good DIY solution out there somewhere, just need to find it.

Tracking might depend as much on hull design (such as bottom and bow shape) as it does on length but in general the 10' will probably feel more nimble than a 12, but you may have to add more paddle input. Tracking sounds like something that's important when you're moving, not fishing (unless you fish while you move, which is very hard to do if you're paddling). If you want to go in a straight line from point A to B, you don't want to be making corrections all the time. You might think a longer boat would be better, but I have a 12' yak (no not the Hobie ) that seems to want to wander off course and is very hard to bring back, while the 10' tippy cheapo Sundolphin responds better to corrections and may actually be easier to keep on track for that reason. If boat weight is a concern, for loading/transporting/etc, then tracking may not be as important a factor, but only you can decide that.

Makes sense. What a relief!

Hoping to do that at the New England Fishing Expo this weekend

The first two rods I bought were a $120 St Croix and a $37 Ugly Stik. Even at my newbie level, I can feel the difference, no comparison. Just my experience and opinion. You know what they say about opinions

I bought a Lowrance Hook 4 just over a year ago, model 000-12649-001. It's now discontinued but probably replaced by something similar. 4 inch display, GPS/finder (downscan), came with transducer, transom mount and Navionics charts. New $279 but it was on sale at the time. I've used it only on the kayak where it's mounted about 2 feet from my eyes so the small screen isn't a problem. You want something with a larger display for a bigger boat especially if you're it's mounted at the bow trolling motor. It has the usual features including split screen, waypoints/markers, etc.

The hardest part will be motoring around for a few hours without being able to stop to fish.

If the "rumor" ends up true, I may have already bought my last new St. Croix. I understand businesses do what they need to do to survive but I've seen too many products and services outsourced in the name of making budgets or gaining efficiencies, only to see the overall product or experience diminished and cost more in the long run. On a positive note, it's a free market economy so this could open up some opportunities.

For sunnies I had good luck on a trout magnet (with a small split shot weight about a foot up from the lure, to help casting).

The 2 inch curl tail grub on a simple ball jig head is my go-to for panfish on a L/F spinning setup, and it catches an occasional bass. Cast it out, swim it back, it always gets something, and it's usually when the lure is almost all the way back to the boat, near the surface. Not bad for less than $3 for a pack of 10 or so. If I don't catch a single bass all day there's some comfort in knowing I can at least catch something on the way back to the launch. It's literally the only lure I run on the L/F spinning setup.

Thanks all, I appreciate it. Was hoping someone with a 60 CT could literally just take a pic of the instruction text in the manual. Can you tell I'm eager? This is worse than the bait monkey

Got a Mercury 60 CT four stroke on order and I'm trying to find the manufacturer's break-in procedure so I can plan ahead (what else am I going to do for the next several months until ice-out?). Even at the Merc site all I can find is a link to purchase/order a manual. Can anyone with a 60 CT tell me what the manual recommends?