MN Fisher

Small laptop - 10" screen, no CD/DVD drive. Back when most laptops got 3-4 hrs max time off the battery, HP came out with the Mini series. 7-8 hours off each charge.

And I thought I was in the 'stone age' with my 7 year old netbook. Though I'm normally on my desktop when cruising the board.

I tended to ignore most PSAs when I was younger....I think I'll keep following that trend.

Modern 2-piece rods are WAY better than the old 2-piece. Finding a good-quality baitcasting rod in 2-piece is going to be the problem. 2-piece baitcasting rods of those mentioned. Diawa Aird-X - a 6'6" Medium or a 7'0" Medium-Heavy Diawa Tatula-XT - no 2-piece models available Dobyns Fury - no 2-piece models available St. Croix Bass X - no 2-piece models available 13 Omen Black 2 - a 7'1" or 7'3" Medium-Heavy Kind of limits your options.

I know you said elsewhere that the Aird-X aren't sensitive - to you anyway. I think they're sensitive enough. I don't palm my reel or put a finger on my line, but with my MH/F Aird-X, I feel every vibration of my chatterbaits as I retrieve...so they're sensitive enough for me. Options for a better rod would be a Diawa Tatula-XT rod for $100 - or a Dobyns Fury for $120.

I'll add my vote for the Fuego CT reels...I have one, and another on my wishlist. Great reel for the money. I've been very happy with my Aird-X rods, so that's another vote there. Retail, you'd be looking at around $175, but going with Amazon - you can get a setup for about $130

Given my personal brand preferences and that budget. Reel: Mitchell 308 $50 or Pflueger President-30 $60 Rod: Diawa Aird-X ML/F rod (AIRX701MLFS) $55 Puts you at $105-$115 plus tax. That rig will handle Ned, Lighter drop-shots, inline spinners and such. As @MickDsaid, however, for heavier lures you'll want a M/F for proper loading on casts and power for hooksets. Remember that jig weights don't include hook, skirt or trailer - so a 1/4oz swim jig will end up weighing close to 1/2 when all is said and done.

Reel - 7.1:1 to 7.5:1 - I'm a fan of Diawa and Pflueger brands. I'd suggest one with an aluminum frame, so your starting price would be about $100 for a Diawa CA-80 or $120 for a Diawa Fuego-CT. Rod - Medium Heavy in either Fast or Moderate-Fast. I've been happy with my Diawa Aird-X which runs about $55, but for a MF action you'd have to move up the Tatula-XT, starting price is around $100 again.

Gotta ask - what's your budget. You can get finesse rigs from $40 for a combo (my Avocet is my finesse rig and cost me $39.99) all the way up to...sky's the limit.

Way things are going here - we'll have idiots on the ice before then.

If you're an ice-fisherman.

Where - approximately - in North MN? I grew up (mostly) in Central MA - 4 years of HS and 2 of college were in Bemidji before I went into the Air Force.

We're hardy up here. Even my wife says she wouldn't move back 'home' if something happened to me...and I 'imported' her from SE Florida.

With the pink 'dangly' off the dorsal fin - I'd say that was his winning bass.

Bit your tongue, Mr. Fry. I hope to be panfishing from the canoe mid-April.

Other than the GPS, that's my unit. For the plotter - I-Boating app on the 8" tablet. 'Tonka is only 14,528 acres.

So I'm guessing this little hump might be a good spot? This is part of Lake Minnetonka in the bay I normally fish.

Hits: 1) My $99 sonar combined with the App on my tablet lets me fish like I had a much more expensive unit - despite not having DI or SI - the mapping and GPS are a great help all by themselves. 2) Pulled in a decent fish this year, the 3.9# in my profile pic. Still short of my current PB of 4.7, but a decent fish none-the-less. 3) Trial and error showed me some more things I need to do with the canoe this winter to make it a better fishing machine. Misses: 1) Also didn't get out near as much as I wanted. Uncooperative weather and a hit-and-miss sitter for the wife led to most of the missed opportunities 2) Several skunk trips where I got nothing at all. Good on half-dozen - some day soon he'll far surpass the 'old man'.

I do the same thing, with one hand cupped over the spot so that if the clip goes flying, it hits my hand and drops down instead of being lost in the (as the wife calls it) 'Room from Hell'.

Dude - you got an echo.

If our ice-out is average - 5.5 months here...of course a couple years ago it was late.

Scout-SS is in the garage and I've already started this winter's modifications - changing some things and adding some things. That's my main winter project.

On my way doing errands this afternoon - yep, it's freezing over. Emerald Lake was about 1/2 socked in.

No problem...it's just going home to the freezer is all - after surgical removal of the expensive swimbait.

Right now I'm involved in some more canoe mods...that'll take me through December. Yule gift gets spent from 26 December through January - wish there were decent sales during that period. Then reel maintenance happens during February-March time frame. Tear-down, lube/oil, rebuild. Beginning of April is when reels get re-spooled (if I de-spooled them) so I'm ready for ice-out which averages the middle of April.