casts_by_fly

That's the Falcon Heavy cover jig. 7'4", labeled Heavy fast, but that's a 6-power falcon heavy which is more like most others' MH. rated 1/2-1 and designed to throw jigs. They don't offer it in the Expert at $200, but in the Cara it is $250. I love mine. I'll throw jigs and texas rigs on it during the day and buzzbaits at night. It currently has a 1/2 oz bladed jig on it.

Cruise control is great. Cruise control plus heading at the same time for going down the bank was maybe more useful than spot lock on the kayak. On the boat I haven't decided yet.

So you guys vary your speed then. I guess that's what I'm really asking. Do more people vary their speed via the dial or leave it on high and just tap here or there. the spooling up was new to me on the ultrex. The first trip out I was on a 6 or 7 and hit the button- felt like nothing happened. Wasn't sure if I was actually hitting the button. Then it ramped up and I could tell. Anything over that level and it's going to give you a good jump when it kicks in. god forbid you have the motor going left and right or its going to throw you.

hi all, This is more curiosity than anything. When I’ve run my dad’s boats, my kayak, and now my own, my preference is to have the trolling motor around halfway from min to max power. On his motor guide that’s a 3 out of 5. On my ultrex that’s 4-5 for me. I’ll use my foot to roll the speed dial if I need to adjust it during the day. His preference is always on max. He’d rather it be on max and just give it a little bump on the momentary switch. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve jumped up front after him, hit the motor, and been thrown around. Different horses for different courses I guess. I’m curious how you guys all do it and why that’s your preference. Rick

When rod blanks are laid up, they are first sheets of graphite and sheets of scrim that are alternated in some way. The sheets are wrapped around a mandrel (think a carpet wrapped around a cardboard tube). Much like carpet wrapped around a tube, rod blanks are then wrapped with a ‘plastic’ wrap that spirals up the blank. After the blank is baked, the plastic wrap is taken off leaving the spiral ridges you see on the blank. In the past it was common to sand that down and apply a lacquer coating similar to a thin urethane coating. Then manufacturers started sanding them down and not applying anything, leaving a matte black blank. Now they just aren’t sanding them at all to save a step in the process (and associated cost). My preference is a sanded and uncoated or matte coated blank. But, if the rod does what I want then I don’t much care.

I know its only recently released to the US and it is JDM prices, but we have a lot of JDM direct orderers on this site. Anyone try it and can compare it to 832 or 131? @bulldog1935? The strength to diameter is pretty impressive, even after you consider how much 832 is underrated in strength (ie 10 lb is more like 15 actual pounds strength). 832 in 10# is the same diameter of 24# PEX8. thanks rick

Yep. From 9 to anything bigger should be plug and play aside from the gimbal it sits in.

The varying answers on this post are largely all correct- depending on the situation and what you ae trying to achieve. A lake with high biomass will be very different from a lake with low biomass. A lake managed for trophy caliber fish will be different to a lake managed for 'general public use'. A lake with many bass but with low size diversity may require selective harvest or a slot limit. A large lake with significant biomass and a diverse age structure may be fine with a 'free for all' approach. Rivers and streams have their own challenges as well. Then you have people. The first thing is knowing what a lake needs, the second is having that applied in practice. Bass anglers are largely C&R but some aren't. What proportion of anglers fishing a given lake are going to keep fish? What fish are they going to catch and keep? How many? How often? Using the live scope example above, many states had assumptions about the effectiveness of anglers fishing for panfish. Sure, set a limit of 50 for crappie because most guys can't catch that many anyway. Live imaging has changed that. Now do all of this analysis across all of the fish species and/or types for the state (panfish, bass, trout, walleye, Esox, 'other'). All of that is to say that state fisheries biologists have to manage all of those competing factors on a state wide scale. And then have to recommend management plans and regulations that make sense for the waters they are responsible for, that fit within the overall set of regulations that the state uses, and that are simple enough for the average angler to understand. Imagine having lake by lake regulations where in any given county/region you have multiple different sets of rules, different minimum or maximum lengths, some catch and release (but only during certain parts of the year), etc. For an angler who only fishes a couple of those lakes it might be okay (especially if you're a C&R angler anyway) but what about the wardens who have to enforce it? And then if you're setting rules that specific you need to be monitoring them every other year or so. On top of all of that, there is a balance of setting regulations that are best for the water balanced with regulations that are acceptable to the public. Imagine a world where the best regulation set for the entire state was catch and release. If implemented, you would lose a considerable number of anglers who want to keep fish with implications on license sales and future recruitment. In summary, the answer is "it's complicated".

No way. The calibration is inside the chip in the head, not in the remote. Also, if you haven’t done it yet add the minn kota app to your phone as a backup remote.

Nice. That should make for a nicer, cleaner setup.

Just fixing the grass that the fungus and dog wear killed. The dog yard had fungus on one side (from overspray coming from me hydrangea beds) and dog wear from winter on the other. I just seeded and put blankets down yesterday for that. The pool yard had some fungus but also a lot of digging, enough to take 3-4 wheelbarrows to fill them all. That also got filled, leveled, and seeded yesterday.

I was also going to say just get the jdm stradic. It’s basically your budget and you won’t touch another reel at that price point that’s as good.

When I was using the horizontal rod holder on the kayak I would start the day with the first rod I planned to use in the built in rod holder and the next most likely as the first rod nearest the boat. If I had a spinning rod with me it had to be the outside rod. Then through the day they would all rotate around. The two most used though would be in my hand and in first slot.

Got a solid day on the water in today. New lake, awful conditions, and didn’t catch a bass (though I’ll go back to this lake again). But did a lot of tweaking on the electronics, proved that a 10 pitch prop is too much for a 9.9 on a small aluminum bass boat, got 3 more hours of the break in done (4 to go), and caught the first fish out of the boat. I thought I had found some bass- outside swing of the creek channel in 12’ of water when most of the lake is far less, big brush pile close to spawning grounds. Alas, not bass. After this one at it the others moved away from the pile and I knew it was a school of crappie before I even landed it.

medium heavy, moderate fast. Plenty of choices there. Get something in the 7' range. 1/4-3/4 or 1/4-1 oz casting weight range. Fish the same rod all year for most of the techniques that catch bass. That's the most do everything setup you'll find.

air temps aren't that critical aside from the shallows as Tom said. I've found in the early spring or later fall if we've had good warm water for a while and then get one of those 35 degree nights the shallow fish bite will shut off and you have to back out a couple feet deeper. They don't go far, but they won't be in the top 2' of the water column. If you get a warm day following it then they will slide back up when things warm up again.

I think the most obvious answer hasn't been mentioned yet- because that's what his bass want! How many times here on this very forum is the answer 'listen to what the fish tell you'? Well, it sounds like they have told him.

yeah but if you’re using them for soft plastics and catching fish then the bait doesn’t last as long as the dye.

I keep a zoom chartreuse dye marker pen in my bag. Just for a tail tip highlight here or there on a plastic. Or maybe craws on a beaver/craw worm.

I don’t know farringdon. But I know musconetcong and so don’t bother with a map. It’s a big bowl. The bowl is a little deeper by the dam and a little shallower towards the top, but we’re talking 3.5 to 5.5 feet variance across that range. I am only 20 minutes to the ramp there and have mapped the full lake (before the grass grows).

I didn’t have lake master on the helix so I bought a zero lines card and mapped them myself. There were basic maps for 3-4 lakes and that was it. The explore unit has more and comes with lake master premium. I’ve only had it out once and it was hopatcong, probably the most popular lake in the state for tournaments and thus the most mapped. That said, the mapping was dead on (once I applied the depth offset which I need to remember to take off next time out). I don’t know what other lakes are on it but I’ll have a look next time in the boat.

Take what fishingmickey said to heart. The helix units are great units and come at a really nice discount right now. If you’re the guy who doesn’t upgrade hardly ever and keeps units for 10 years then that’s not a bad shout. Humminbird side imaging is fantastic (9” units and up with full size transducer) and if you want 360 there is only one way to get it. if you want live imaging in the future, ml1 has been superseded with ml2 which is arguably as good as livescope. But the only way to get it is new head units (xplore) which are full msrp or higher end used units (solix and apex) which might not be better than the new ones anyway. I wouldn’t get ml1 at this point in time. If you want the best side imaging and very good live imaging then get an xplore and ml2. If you want the best live unit and very good side imaging then get a garmin.

Here are two more from the last unit (helix 9 MSI), first one rock and pebble/sand bottom, the second one a thick grass bed ending into silt/sand bottom. they are both a little hotter than ideal, but hard to argue with that.

the side imaging is just clearer and crisper. This is auto settings and unoptimized while being rocked side to side in wakes in a brand new boat. That’s the starting point and it only gets better from there. And what you’re seeing is the medium quality compressed version that I can upload here.

I run Humminbird so I wouldn’t pick either for side imaging.