Jig Man

A 12' boat won't take much to push. 50-65# should be plenty.

You can get good quality batteries from auto parts stores which carry deep cycle marine batteries. If you will look at the Wally World batteries they are usually 105-140 reserve amps. Check the auto parts store's and you will probably find 180-200 reserve amps. I won't spend money on anything less than 180s.

Your best battery should be on the trolling motor. It is the one that does all of the work. You will get less interference with the sonar on the cranking battery.

If you don't have boat experience, find some who has a lot before you make the plunge. Have that person go with you if possible to look at any boat you may want. Otherwise you stand a good chance of buying something that will cost you a lot of time and money to keep it afloat.

The first thing I'd be concerned about would be the brakes. Make sure they are top notch before you tow. My guess it that the 4 cylinder engine will have a load pulling that boat. A friend of mine bought a 4 cylinder pickup and pulled a 17' Tracker. I rode with him once and it was down shifting all of the time.

My original unit was put on at the factory. I have kept successive ones in the same place to keep from making more holes.

I fish all 4 seasons with a lot of different techniques so I only have what is working at the time for favorites. Right now it is a Shimano bc on a Gloomis 6'10" MLF rod and a Shimano spinning on a Gloomis 5'10" rod because we are fishing very clear stuff with mostly 6# mono.

We have been catching bass all winter long in less than 15 fow. The last time we went the surface temp was 36° and the fish were about 10' deep. Eggs take several months to develop so a females are very eggy this time of year.

I fish into the wind so I fish off either side. My tmotor is on the port and my sonar is on the starboard. I don't need to watch it all the time unless I am fishing in the cone then I am fishing off the bow.

Used boats like that are priced to be able to accept a trade-in and still make a good profit. There are 2 or 3 commissions to be paid plus what ever work the dealership had to do after they traded for the unit so the asking price is 30-40% more than they have in it.

What would you like to know? It is a very good 480X480 b/w unit.

I prefer a big wide stable platform with lots of storage that can handle rough water. That is why I now own a 20.5' Champion. I have had smaller boats and hope I don't have to go back to any of them.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there won't be any arches unless you are moving. If you are going slow or still then you will see flat lines.

Very interesting. I hadn't thought about swimming the poisons. Those are really nice looking jigs BTW.

Yes your ff goes to one battery only. As for the 29 series batteries they should be worlds of juice. Do you know how many reserve amps (reserve capacity) they have?

Here is what I use.

The last time out the water was 36° and we caught all of our bass in less than 10 fow.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I am going rod shopping in the morning.

Yes you will lose some sens but I doubt you will notice it. You can install a switch and have the best of both worlds with xducer in both places.

I normally do but have a wrist injury which won't allow all day fishing that way. I need something that I can trade off every hour or so. I do a bit of left hand spinning casting but am not a good hook setter with spinning lefty.

I need a bc rod that will allow me to fish 3" grubs with 1/8 and 1/4 oz heads on 6 or 8# line. This is way out of my league. The lightest power I own is a MH. I only need one rod and only want to buy one rod but don't have a clue. Here are three I thought might do the job but I really don't know. G.Loomis SMR811S-SP Bronzeback 6'9" Light G.Loomis SBR811C Spinner Bait Rod 6'9" Light G.Loomis BSR801 Mossy Back Jig/Worm 6'8" Med-Light

It all depends on your units. If they can't be networked and are Lowrance then there is a switch that allows both to run off one xducer but you have to switch them. If they are Lowrance and can be networked and etherneted then you can have both looking at the same xducer at the same time. I have 2 units and 3 xducers. I can have them looking at any of the three at the same time. One is primary and the other is slave.

A woman who has been willing to work 40-50 hours each week to feed my habit.

That is the only color Power Pro that I have ever used. In really clear or shallow water I use a leader but I have only seen adverse effects in January and February here in MO without the leader.

If you want to get a first hand look, go to a battery mfg site like exide and look at their battery comparative specs.