Vilas15

I'd agree with this. Lund or Alumacraft for riveted, if you want welded maybe look at Crestliner.

Here's a 8.78 caught in a tournament for comparison. No guessing the weight here or questioning the scale. No measurement of length but this thing looks like it swallowed a 3 lber. In regards to the "9 lber" I'll just say it's a real nice fish.

Some species dont appear to be all that bad and maybe have a benefit like you mention with gobies. But i dont see any benefits from EU milfoil, zebra mussels, or especially rusty crayfish near me. The rusties have destroyed the big cabbage weed beds that are preferred by most of the fish here especially muskies. They are larger and more difficult to eat for smallies than native crayfish. And the milfoil takes over the areas where the cabbage used to be. Each species is unique with some a lot worse than other.

I dont think theres a good way to pick up 8 oz of weeds with a rod rated for up to 5/8 oz. High sticking or just straight up lifting too much can break a graphite rod. Enjoy the new one!

I always like this idea of reintroducing them to the Illinois River, bring back a native species to help with an invasive species. Google search shows they've actually just stocked some. Hopefully it will work out and the bowfisherman don't shoot all of them ? EDIT: Just read an article from Illinois DNR that says “Contrary to some reports, the IDNR is not stocking alligator gar in an attempt to control Asian carp. They will have no effect on Asian carp, but they are a large, interesting, unique species that once swam in southern Illinois waters."

All St Croix! I can go to the factory and get my panfish, trout, walleye, bass, and musky rods. Reels are any number of brands. Abu, Pflueger, Shimano, Daiwa, Lews. Leaning towards sticking with Daiwas for casters and Pflueger/Shimano for spinning in the future.

X2. I think the graphite cranker would be a little better for the lipless cranks while sacrificing a bit for the occasional deep crank. Seems like it would be a good middle ground. I just got a Premier 7'0 MHM but haven't had a chance to really try it out.

Looks like it would hold leeches very well but that's about it. Those things will survive just about anything. I'd put holes in it and keep it over the side as others mentioned.

I use ultralight/light for brook and brown trout in streams here. Mostly using small inline spinners which work best with those rods rated for the light weights.

OK I'll stick with the 5 colors of Pulse-R I've already got. I might get another one of the ringworms since I've only got one. The tiny curly tail I think is a lot more subtle. It got me my PB walleye in tough conditions on the river last year.

I don't fish anywhere with dink largemouth, just hammer handle pike. Is the moxi worth trying? Or really that much different than the pulse-R or ringworm? Overall I'm trying to only focus on baits that are pretty versatile for both species and ways to fish them so that I don't end up buying things I never try or only work in one spot at one time, etc.

It floats (no rocks or zebra mussel concerns), and no fish should be getting their teeth on it. Unless youre casting this thing into trees and other cover above the surface you should have no abrasion concerns.

Does anyone use these for smallmouth? They're getting pretty popular with the walleye crowd and I've used the Pulse-R paddletail and the ringworm on the Fox River in Green Bay. I recently tried a ringworm on a regular ball jig and got some smallies working it through the rocks.

Its getting close! Within 1 lb with 20 minutes to go.

This may help ?

80 lb Terrova 24V on a 1650 rebel XS has a max speed of 3.0 mph. Very happy with it and can hold in pretty high winds. Never run out of juice either.

know that feeling bro ?

Sounds awesome. I imagine it would be like catching a Musky at the boat on a figure 8 but with more aerial acrobatics. You're right about just hanging on, thats when you hope your drag wasn't locked down too tight.

I wouldn't buy it. Lots of reviews saying wires bend on the first fish. Stick to the regular plopper which gets plenty of action based on this thread alone.

Everyone's saying they eat the 20-30" pike, but I prefer the 15-20". Above 20" and they start to be more fun to catch and have a better chance to make it to 40". Everyone complains about too many small ones then why not eat those? Unless your lake is overrun with 30" pike in which case I'd love to come visit. I'll target pike in the summer when I can't catch anything else, or in the winter when my options are only panfish, walleye, or pike.

I've read that going to an SS prop will only give you any performance gains if you're running 150+ HP. I'd agree with the other post about aluminum being more forgiving if you hit something again in the future. Even if the SS got you up on plane a second faster or gave you another 2 MPH it wouldn't be worth the additional cost.

Not storing rods in your locker isn't fun, but shouldn't be a big problem if you can strap it to the deck and only travel between home and the launch. I have rods that don't fit in storage and couldn't be strapped down so they had to travel in the SUV every trip or if I needed to lock things up. I'm just not sure how a musky rod's action would compare to dedicated swimbait rods. If you think there will be no problems with a longer rod you can't fit in storage, then I would go that route. I would stay away from getting a longer rod and trying to shorten the butt section. I think having along (proper length) butt section is real important for casting large baits.

St Croix Mojo Musky 7'6" MH (3/4-3oz) or H (2-6oz). They also have a 7'2". You can also go down in price (Triumph Musky) or up (Premier Musky).

I think the 70 lb 24V would probably be fine for you. There's a chance you could run out of juice fishing the larger electric lake for a whole day if you're on the motor the whole time, you'd just need to be aware and check the power level occasionally. My 80 lb 24V does great with a 16.5' Lund (wider, heavier than yours) and it's only ever gotten low after a fully day, never fully run out of power yet.

I think a 52" shaft should be adequate. I wouldn't go any shorter. I would go minimum 24V setup which it looks like the Maxxum is, maybe even 36V if you plan on fishing them all day and they're of any size. Are you fishing only in relatively shallow water? Or would you benefit from a TerrovaUltrex with spot lock?