Jig Man

We have them here in MO, mainly in streams. We call them goggle eye. They are small but quite tasty.

Try Barlows Tackle Shop, Jans Netcraft or Stamina Inc. one or all of the will have what you need as well as the components and equipment to bend the wire.

As far as the insides look, there seems to be 1 more ball bearing in the Stradics. My eye isn't good enough to tell if the bearings are the same quality or not. I own both and like both.

Thanks. I hadn't even thought of that possibility.

I never owned a 2 stroke motor that got any kind of decent mileage. I run an Optimax connected to a smart craft gauge. It shows around 6 mpg when in the 4-4500 rpm range. At wot it gets about 2.5 mpg. I have a little over 300 trouble free hours on it so far. One thing you should know is that those Lazer spark plugs are quite expensive. From a dealership the run about $25 @. I get mine from O'Reilly Auto Parts for less than $10 @.

The spook is a great bait. Once you get the dog walk down you can do lots of other things with it. One thing you may want to try to learn is to take up 1/3 of a reel crank with each twitch or snap of the rod tip. The tip doesn't have to move very far each time and you should move the tip back to the bait slightly before the next one (like on a jerk bait). Also try different rod levels to see which one works best for you. For me it is to keep the rod tip down. I know guys who like it level and one of my friends holds his tip straight up in the air. I also like a short rod with a pistol grip if I am going to be doing it a lot.

The only way I have been able to really maintain a fall like that is with a spinning reel by leaving the bail open.

The plastics I don't make myself I buy from Ztackle.com. I buy hooks by the 1000 from Shorty's.

Something you should know is that there is funding available to boat buyers of up to 125% of the value of the boat. I will cover the price of the boat, licensing, and even sales tax. It is available for buyers who haven't had charge offs or bankruptys. It can be done for a period of 180 months. The kicker is that kind of loan usually comes with a hefty interest rate.

Yes I understand about the antenna. My 480 is on the console and the antenna is on top of the console only 6" away. I have some problems with that and would like to get an antenna up front with the second unit and its transducer on the tmotor and run them both from that antenna. I'm thinking about mounting it somewhere on the starboard gunwale.

My first boat was a 12' styrofoam canoe that cost me $39.

I have the IMX blank in 843c in both spinning and baitcaster. In baitcaster it is great. In spinning it is one step more than I like. If I had do overs I would back down to an 842.

That is similar to my setup only I use a fluro leader instead of the straight Power Pro to the bait.

A bud of mine took carpet knife blades and bolted them together. He puts it in a vice, places the tube on top and rolls a dowel rod over it. Works well and didn't cost much.

Lowrance must have a team of guys on staff to keep switching those colors around. No matter how often I make a switch, it seems like I am one color behind. I have heard it both ways and am still unclear; when a waypoint or icon is marked is it the antenna location or the transducer location that is the actual spot?

The boat itself has to be safe with a good dry ride. The first and most important add on for it is a good strong tmotor with a long shaft.

Decide what you are willing to spend and then start reading the newspaper. Check out websites like boats.com and usedboats.com. You can also select brands, go to the company web site and get dealer locations and web sites. Many of the dealers have most of their inventory on the web because boat buyers will travel well over a thousand miles to get the right deal. Take some time, look around then get serious once you have decided your type and price range. There are a lot of good new and used boats on the market and there are also a lot of dogs.

Get an on the water test ride before you buy. Go over the boat, motor, and trailer with a fine toothed comb. Have at least a compression check done on the motor. Look at the lower unit lube (bottom screw). Look the unit up in the nada guides to see if it is properly priced. Just to name a few.

The one I have been looking at is the 522c I believe. Anyway it is the one with the external antenna.

Right now I am running a Lowrance LMS 480 at the console. I use a hand held up front. I really want to be able to mark something from either location and have both units record it. I am thinking about a color unit for the front. I just don't have dual gps experience and none of my friends run them at all.

We all have opinions. Right now I am looking for an FnF guy who has a bag of goodies and a special smallmouth color. Like I stated I am catching them on tubes, jigs, and drop shot. I want to catch them on FnF. I really don't care about a slow bite 'cause when I fish for big largemouth I only expect a bite every couple of hours.

I have been on a smallmouth pattern for about 3 weeks and have been getting them on tubes, drop shot and jig/beavers. I have caught many different species on FnF but never a smallmouth. I am going to try FnF in a few days and want the best advantage so, for you FnF guys what is your best smallmouth color so I can make some up before I go?

What units do you have? Do you have them networked? How are the antennas set up? Is either one of them color? Anything else which you think is valuable.

If any of you guys are running 2 I would like to ask you some questions.

When I used pork, I kept a small pen knife open on the front deck to make the slit bigger before I put it on a jig or spinnerbait.