Functional

I had this happen to my ARK Tharp rod. Tape off the outside of the carbon and the raised part the carbon bumps into. 2 part epoxy of your choice...nothing less than a 5 minute set time. Clean out the inside of the hood and scrape the upper seat with a pick or razor like above and glue the two together. Once its in place clean up any excess (dont go hog wild with the glue) and peel off the tape. If you let the glue cure before peeling the tape it can sometimes make the job a bit harder. While I agree for a rod that cost that much warranty should be the first option, something that simple I wouldnt bother.

I caught a lot of fish on my dirty jigs swim jigs but my new favorite are the 6th sense swim jigs. The wire bait keeper is golden when using FAT Impacts. My biggest issues with any other swim jig without a bait keeper is the FATs after 1-2 fish slide down every single case and it gets tedious to fish. I only use a 3/8oz and toss them into the firs 1ft of weeds/reeds and swim them out or run them horizontally to weed lines. Fantastic lure.

@rangerjockey I had a Table Rock SP in my cart and I was trying to decide if the lure was catching me or it would be good for fishing. Historically I have not had much luck with Chartreuse but it is a really nice pattern. I'm heading to a fishing show this weekend so i still may end up with one. @Bluebasser86 I'll still probably end up with one. At least from pictures its a nice blend of white and subtle chartreuse. I do get stained water on my home lake so thats good to know.

@rangerjockey I'll give it a try on the braid to leader on spinning and see where to go from there. I get the slack line sensitivity I may be missing out on with the braid but hopefully a long enough (10ft) leader will have enough mass on a twitch to give me some sensation. If not I have other rigs I can re-arrange to use full floro or mono. If I'm not mistaken a braid to leader is what Ajay uses on his spinning jerkbait setup so I have some faith. I ended up going all megabass 110 jr +1s in Mat Shad, Elegy Bone and GP Pro Blue. I figured that variety will give me a version for every occasion.

@JediAmoeba thanks I definitely don't want floating in non winter temps. Jr +1 it is and I'll check out the X-80 also. @A-Jay appreciate the input none the less! My biggest issue now is not breaking my 2024 intentions too badly only 8 days into it and just picking a FEW 😇. Those MB colors are working on me.

Thanks @A-Jay. Your thread was the only one I could find really mentioning true depth. So long casts 6-7 on the +1jr and probably 5-6 on medium casts I take it. What's your experience been with the regular Jr and it's depth? At this point I'm kind of going to assume a true 4' with a decent cast and similar line setup. I know water temp will play a part, just trying to find average conditions not during winter temps.

Got a few gift cards to cabelas over Christmas and I've decided to invest in a jerkbait or 3. I already have 2 megabass 110s (one silent, one regular) in sexy shad and a Berkley of some flavor. The few I've been looking at but open to suggestions are below. Water clarity when I'd use a JB would be anywhere from 1ft to 5ft visibility. 6th Sense Provoke - Jaint Juice Lucky Craft Pointer SP - Chartreuse Shad Megabass 110 JR - Elegy Bone, French Pearl OB, Tablerock SP, Ito Natural, Matt Shad Megabass 110JR +1 I definitely want 1-2 of the 110 JRs but I'm curious about their true running depth. I'll be throwing these primarily on spinning gear with 15lb braid to 8-10lb mono leader. What is their true running depth (non cold water) with a line setup like this? The JR seems a bit too shallow if it doesnt hit depth and the +1 seems a bit too deep for my typical fishing if it does run true. A true 4-5ft running depth would be perfect.

I thought long and hard about buying the Ulterra over the Force for this specific reason. Clearly my choice was not to go with the Ulterra but those 2 times I was kicking myself. First time I did it was in January with high 40s low 50s water temp. I stripped down and got almost to my waist and thought better about it. Drove home quickly and got the kayak and towed it in. Wife was sure confused when she heard the garage door and me running out of the truck in my underwear throwing the kayak in the truck. I heard about it for a few weeks...

Never forgot to put the drain plug in. I'm paranoid about it...even have 2 spare plugs in the boat, 2 spare plugs in my truck and even 2 plugs in my wifes SUV (just in case) in the event I forget or lose one. I have, however, launched the boat completely unattached from the trailer and watched it float away. Not once mind you...but twice.

Little wins are still wins. Great to hear it

In my late teens to mid 20s I just stayed active. I raced motocross, chopped wood (actually love this), hiked mountains, was on a national airsoft teem (think paintball) and did Brazilian Jiu Jitsu 3-5 times a week. In my late 20s and early 30s I competed in tactical rifle competitions and mainly had a kayak for fishing. The rifle comps doesnt sound strenuous but when you have to throw a 20lb rifle around with speed and control over 12 courses of fire in 5 hours and lug about 50lbs of gear all day over a few miles it is. Now that I have a wife, house, kids a lot of that has become once in a while. I've gone to the place I hate...the gym 4 times a week. Its only 30 minutes but I get on the treadmill at the steepest incline and fastest speed I can handle. Right now im at 11% incline at 3.2mph...which may not sound like much but for someone who was told they need a heart transplant in a few years I'll take it. I know this thread is about exercise but two of the biggest things that contribute to staying fit and feeling good I havent seen mentioned is diet and hydration. Once I cleaned up my diet and stayed consistently well hydrated with water its pretty incredible the difference I've felt. In my opinion its as important as staying active.

Right there with ya. 2022 and 2023 max out of pockets have taken my Mega 360 money each time.

2 lures this year way out produced all the others. -Chatterbait Mini Max (got my PB on this fella) early season -Swim Jig the remainder of the year after spawn. Surprising me this year my favorite Spinnerbaits did horrible and I really tried to force it. The 2 years prior to this one it was my money bait and it just fell off this year.

A good topography map like WRB said would do wonders for those lakes. If you cant find any try and shift the view around to see if you can see how the above water terrain moves. Should give you a good indication if there is a sharp bank/drop off or if its relatively flat its likely shallow (unless its on the outside of a river bend). You can also use Google Earth to see if you can spot any bare ground right in front of the water....looking for big downed trees or chunk rock. The topography map will make short work of taking educated guesses on how the below water layout will be.

I tried a few knots for the exact reason you asked this question. Faster to tie on the water than the FG. What I quickly learned was a few break offs at the leader knot and the amount of times it took to retie to be confident in another know...I might as well have just took my time with the FG on the water. Add up all those reties for others and you'll be ahead with the FG.

I dont have a freeze out but I have less time in the winter to get on the boat so I do like most and spend the time planning new approaches or places for the spring. Navionics and Google Earth here as well. I'll also look into the fishing studies (electrofishing, general wildlife) for some of the new lakes or updates to the ones I fish.

Could have had a health scare he isnt comfortable sharing for many reasons. Would explain cutting out drinking and what I imagine is him spending more time with his family. Could be what Pat said above. Either way I think your window to ask directly passed months ago. A year of him dodging is a big enough clue to let it go. Personally, if I was in your shoes and had the opportunity to fish very often with my father in just a month I'd hold out for that opportunity. Friends will come and go but that time is limited and you'll never get it back.

The bait monkey may push me into a 360 setup this year but as far as tackle I plan to just chew through what I have on hand. I've at least been able to hold to my rule of "if it cant fit in the boat, dont get it". However I feel like I add anything else I'll be breaking that rule. The bait monkey did bite me one last time for 2023 when Dicks had 6th Sense Trace baits 50% off just before Christmas. Picked up a floater to test against my slow sink.

$25 inland $16 coastal $41 combined $53 sportsman (hunting and inland fishing) Good for 365 days. No increase from last year that I can find.

I have their blue color in 12 or 15# on my ned rig rod. Bit more coarse than my favorite Power Pro Sick V2 but I like the blue color a lot. Its lasted quite a bit.

Little late but I have a 2013 175 TXW (original owner) with a 60hp motor. With a loaded down boat, full gas tank and 4 batteries I can run 34mph (GPS clocked) at WOT on a moderately calm lake. I can squeak out 35 maybe 36 on a glass lake with no wind and not a full tank of gas. I do wish I had the 75hp motor, more so to get out of the hole faster with a passenger but it goes great otherwise. As with most tin boats it does seem to be pushed by the wind somewhat easily, having a good TM and boat position go a long way. The only issue I've had with the boat has been the pedestal seat mounts. For some reason the screw portion of the posts will not catch any threads in the base anymore. Still useable and work fine but just odd. There are also some tricks you can do to seal up the hatches a bit better. If you buy it send me a PM and I'll send you the minor mods I did.

I've had sporadic success with paddle tails on chatterbaits. A lot of times the waggle of the tail messes with the blade. I'm still messing with the full size version but on the mini max I've settled on a plain ole Zoom Split Tail trailer. A small zoom fluke worked pretty well also on some lakes. On swim jigs Keitechs FATs in the 3.8 (pretty sure its this size) has been my go to. Their durability sucks but they catch fish for me. Started trying the rage swimmer and it gives close to the same action but havent used it enough to determine anything. It was late in the season but I also started to try a 2.8" Keitech FAT on a SK Bitsy Bug for a really small profile swim jig. The few times I've thrown it they action looked excellent. Effectiveness I cant say much on as I've only thrown it twice in late season. EDIT: I do use paddle tails exclusively on spinnerbaits as a trailer. The Zoom paddle tails have been great for me here, gives good action without messing up the retrieve.

I never had plastics react but I have had cases where certain baits would get kinked (soft jerkbait types) or if it had a florescent green tail and purple body the colors would bleed, etc. I've had MUCH better luck just keeping all my plastics in their bags they come in and store those in plastic storage containers. Added benefit is if I ever need to pull some stuff from the boat for a travel box I can pull specific baits/colors instead of an entire tray of baits.

@Mike L GTO isn't my particular car style but I can certainly appreciate just how clean that thing is! You've kept it in excellent condition. Completely agree on research before buying. With how old the age of the cars are it would be hard to expect everything is original which I personally wouldn't mind but also don't want to get a poor deal.

There is more tech in that thing than my truck 🤣