bob101

The Eagle Cuda is not like the larger units. It is a GPS but not a chartplotter. You'll have the ability to drop waypoints and return to them, but you can't add say a Navionics card with counter lines for the lake. You most likely won't even have a background map of the lake your on. It would be nice if you know the lake fairly well and simply want to use GPS functions such as a route, or GPS speed etc...but you won't be able to view detailed maps on the unit. Think of it as GPS handheld unit with sonar.

I wonder where you launch? Around here that's a 2 lane boat ramp that will handle 100's of people on tournament day....

Put your thumb on the spool after you release the catch. Start with a lot of pressure and you'll get 20foot cast but no backlash. Slowly let up the pressure till you get the hang of it. You'll get to the point of not having to "thumb it" till the very end to keep it from backlashing. Once you get that down you can adjust the cast control for the specific line/lure for max cast distance.

Come on it was your girlfriend you can tell her anything and would she know?

I almost made the same observation about Barry's 18.18 fish here in Texas being caught while crappie fishing.

I'd say it's a LOT less than 1 in 4 serious fisherman have caught a 10+. I live in Texas and even guys who fish Fork every weekend many have never caught a 10+ fish even if you see them on the beds... I've caught one fish over 10+ pounds and it wasn't on a lake known for 10+ pound fish, caught it on a 3/8 oz. black/blue jig under a cypress tree at Caddo Lake. I caught another one just shy of 10 pounds and it was on a 3" craw soft plastic bait off the bed with 1/8oz. jighead. I've been lucky enough to be in the back of the boat with 2 different people who caught bass that would qualify for our state's share a lunker program (13+ pounds) both were returned to the lake in a matter of minutes and not donated. Before I moved to Texas people where I fished mounted fish over 3+ pounds. Now if I go out and don't catch one fish over 5+ pounds it's been a subpar day. It's all in perspective of where you fish.

I guess it's a regional/local thing. Here you are expected to power load/launch almost 100% of the time. Doubly so if you have 2 people, you might get some slack if launching alone. Your expected to drive down the ramp with one guy in the boat ready to go (except maybe minus the winch strap and he'll do that after the engine cranks) - crank, back off the trailer and move to the beach area/dock till your partner returns. If your alone your expected to back down, crank, get off the trailer, beach, move your truck asap. Loading is the same thing, just pull up to the beaching area enough for the guy to get off and get the truck while you idle around and get on the trailer, get the winch strap down (many skip this part) and pull out. Of course it's pretty common here to have more than 1 tournament on a weekend launching at the same launch and just one tournament might have 300 teams so there's a lot to launch in a short period in the morning. You can take a lot more time at the smaller "community" lakes and it's understood that you know how to load/unload your boat by the time you take it to the "big" lake on a busy weekend.