Jig Man

I use a MH 6.5 or 7' for spinnerbaits and buzzbaits up to and including 3/8 oz. I go to the H 7' for 1/2 oz and above. It just feels better to me.

X2 except when I am staying at the lake for a week or so then I fill it all the way.

Don't those lights on the lids blind you? Mine were out in the open and they drove me crazy so I shielded some and moved others.

I would set it higher than 5 amps especially if charging 2 batteries hooked parallel. If your T motor is pulling much from the batteries, I'd also get a hydrometer and check each cell before I unplugged it because if it is old and not actually giving you a full charge it will, over time, shorten the life of your batteries. I have an onboard 3 bank 15 amp Dual Pro and it takes almost as many hours to get a flull charge as the time of the fishing. NEVER NEVER NEVER allow your battery to set over a day before it is recharged. Do it as soon as you get home if possible.

Around here you can fish up to 30 on most lakes if you have a big T motor but it is not much fun. I fished one day with gusts to 50 but could not stay on the main lake and hated to move back to it heading for the ramp. That was a lesson learned. A couple of my friends got caught out in a night T with a tornado that had clocked winds to over 100 mph. They quickly became day fishermen.

A friend of mine has one for his Champion. He was so proud of it when he got the boat. He and his wife talked about it for a while. He has had the boat for at least 10 years and I have never seen it on the boat and he hasn't mentioned it in many years so I guess there was some type of inconvenience.

When you go to a bigger wire hook you usually have to do some mold mods. Some put the bigger hook in and force the mold to accept it. Some (myself included) prefer a Dremel tool and a few minutes work.

YES

Spinnerbait trailer... 3/0 hook Swimjig trailer... swim jig chunk Jig trailer... salt craws, critter craws, hula grubs, twin tail grubs, chunks, beavers

The only reason that comes to mind is that they are poor in the hook world.

Count your money and match it to the Shimano that fits it.

Alberto's knot.

bassmajor, another technique you might employ is swimming the jigs over the tops of the brush piles. If there are any actively feeding fish they will be around the edges and on top of the piles. It is down in the middle that the old lazy mossy backs will be wanting something right in their dinner buckets. If you stay with one size jig and trailer and learn its fall rate, you can do a count down and slow roll the jig over the brush till you find the proper depth.

That is something that I would be interested in getting more info about, especially when I am throw those $20 jerks in shallow water next spring.

I use the Alberto's knot.

You might repair it with liquid rubber or it can be spliced and sealed with shrink tubing.

I have had lots of trouble with braid on cranks, tops, and jerks. I have completely quit trying to use it on those baits.

Since Mercury by far has the lions share of the market, I'll stick with them because you can find a decent wrench turner in every little town around most any lake.

A couple of things I do for brush pile fishing is: Down size the hook to a 2/0. It will come through brush a lot easier than bigger hooks and still give you good hooksets. Use braid with a (measured leader). When you are pulling it up a limb it will feel like a hack saw on a dowel rod. When you feel is go smooth then you are on the leader. You can expect that after (X) feet the jig will be against the limb and you can usually jiggle it over that limb and repeat the process until you get a fish or clear the pile. Those two techniques have saved me a bunch of hangups over the years produced some really good bass and walleye as I too fish a lot of big brush piles and don't ever move the boat over them to get a bait back.

There are times when a leader is a must. I use PP Hi Vis yellow and fish clear water. I didn't use to use a leader until 6 of us fished the same area one day when the water was pretty cold. Two of us were using PP w/o the leader and the other 4 were using mono. Well two of us got a good butt waxin' that day. Since then I normall use a fluro leader that I start out being about 4-5' long and attach it with an Alberto's knot.

My trailer on a spinnerbait is a hook. If I want more lift I use bigger blades.

Around here in MO bucktails aren't very good for crappie. They tend to like maribou or craft hair jigs.

I have no problem with them their warranty or price. I just wish I had 10 more of them to replace other brands I bought before I got my hands on a Loomis.

The big money around here for crappie dudes has gone to the guys using the Wally Marshall rigs trolling cranks on 2# line. That and the big guru using 1# line over brush piles.

Your size of brakes and whether or not you have a tranny cooler would be very important to me. Smaller bass boats and alums. don't tend to have trailer brakes. Stopping is very important. Summer time pulls even short distances can really heat up a tranny. I hear my cooler kick in every once in a while in July and August on trips of under 50 miles.