Goose52

My set of red plates came in yesterday - they look great - as good as factory. They will go on this 2500C that has already been tricked out with 11 bearings, cf handle, carbontex drag, and aluminum line guide...

I'm hoping the Army gig was the first one, THEN you joined the Few and the Proud...

Something like this perhaps ?

Thanks for the tip - I have a set of RED plates inbound... Didn't see any in Simon's eBay store for the 1500. Maybe contact him and see if he has any future plans for 1500s. He's "dj51706" on eBay - Simon Shimomura

Are these from Simon ?

You're good - the point is to go fishin' and do some catchin' - size is secondary! I've posted some photos of real small dinks with my new gear but by golly they had genuine fish slime on 'em

I have been wearing that exact model of PFD from Cabelas for 7 years now - I wore the first one for 3 years, then re-armed it and wore it for another 3 years. Then at the 6 year point I bought a new one. The original unit would have still worked OK, but it had been worn for about 2,000 hours on the water and was fairly grungy with sweat, sunblock, etc. In those 7 years, I've never had an unintended inflation...but then I generally don't fish in HEAVY rain. The bobbin is inside the front of the vest, behind the clear window area. It shouldn't get direct rain...unless you are bending over of whatever and some moisture migrates upward... In regard to the highlighted part of your quote - ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WEAR THE PFD UNDER ANY OTHER GARMENT. You DO NOT want to have anything prevent the PFD from fully inflating. If you haven't tested your PFDs for inflation (using the manual inflate valve), then take a look at the photo - this is how BIG they are after inflation !

Sounds like a good plan. You may be using the NRX for a lot of "tip-up" presentations so you theoretically benefit from having a lighter reel on that rod. For the Avid, that's "tip-down" and reel weight (to me) is usually not a factor.

I would say that your decision could be based on what line you plan on running on that rod and then focusing on what reel gives the desired line capacity. I consider my NRX 843 a "jack-of-all trades" and as a result typically have either 15lb mono or 14lb flouro on it. For me, that counts out some of the reels that have low line capacity. Other than that factor, you can slap about any reel on that rod that you want...

I don't recall too much (if any) discussion on this board about that earlier generation of the Met DC so that may be why you didn't get any responses. There have been lots of threads discussing the 2013 Met, the 2015 Met DC, and the 2016 Met MGL - but not much talk about that 2008-2014 Met DC. Perhaps someone will eventually chime in...

I use a 55lb MK Traxxis as the primary power on my canoe. I use a Group 24 battery and have plenty of power for up to 8-9 hours on the water...BUT, that's at slow speeds working my way around a lake. If I was spending a lot of time motoring at higher speeds from spot to spot, my run time would of course be less. I also run a sonar off that Group 24 as well. So, as Angry John said, you really have to decide how much time you will be spending on the water and at what speeds and go from there. On a "single-bank" charger, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that. I wouldn't expect that you would be mounting a charger inside your boat and leaving the battery in the boat. Just get a regular battery charger and recharge the battery as soon as you can after every trip. The Schumacher charger has a lot of advocates on this board.

A baitcasting reel or a spin-cast reel.

Normally, that would be two different rods. However, if you must go with only one, I think you'd be better off with the Bionic Blade in something like a 7' medium-fast as a compromise. This rod will be better for hooksets on soft plastics than the Crankin' Stick, but will still handle small cranks relatively well. I have no experience with the current iteration of the Bionic Blade, but I do have quite a bit of experience with the version from about 7-8 years ago. I have a 6'6" Bionic Blade med-fast two-piece that I used as a travel rod and it handled both bottom contact and cranking reasonably well.

WOW - those are GREAT side images! They look quite a bit better than I'm getting with my 1st gen Helix 10. AND, that certainly is a MASSIVE transducer !

"Worth" can only be determined by the one that plans on spending the money. I can say that one of my six PQs was the subject of a 5-year long endurance test in which it reeled in over 1100 fish (up to 48 pounds) and probably made somewhere between 55,000 and 75,000 casts. I feel that I got my "money's worth" out of it.

Flouro line ? WHO ARE YOU and what did you do with the REAL A-Jay !

I fish lipless cranks on a bunch of different rods, depending on conditions, but the general, all-around rig in open water is: Daiwa Tatula rod - 7'7" medium - "regular" (moderate-fast) Daiwa Tatula reel - 6.3:1 15 lb Big Game line

WHO ARE YOU...and what did you do with the REAL oldschoolbasser ?

My Helix 10 is the 1st gen unit so I can't offer any personal experience with the imaging that you get from the latest units. I don't know if anyone on the board has yet reported buying the latest and greatest Helix 10 either so personal reports might be limited at this point. Wayne P. might chime in on this as he keeps VERY current on the HB offerings...

I don't have a kayak, but I can speak to issues related to using a Helix 10 on a small watercraft. You mentioned space, in relationship to placement of a battery for the sonar. BUT, if you haven't yet, you might want to make up a cardboard mockup of the form factor of the Helix 10 to determine how and where to mount it in your boat. I did that to see how it would fit on my canoe before I purchased the unit. Even then, I was surprised when I received the unit at how BIG it is - it dwarfs the HB 798 SI that it replaced. On weight - sure, probably not a problem for the battery on that big a boat, but going back to the sonar - jut FYI it weighs 6 pounds for the head unit alone (not counting the stock mounting bracket). Something else to take into consideration when determining how to mount the unit (especially if considering the various RAM-mount based solutions. On current draw - that is indeed something to think about. I run my Helix 10 off the Group 24 that also powers my TM (and yes, I am getting RFI from the TM) and I notice on longer days that I'm down on power compared to when I was running the HB 798. I may have to eventually consider getting a separate battery for the sonar but if you plan long days then you have to look at around a 25 AH (absolute minimum) or bigger battery. I have plenty of space for a U1 (in addition to the Group 24) and I will probably go in that direction (plus I can use the juice left in the U1 as a limp-home power source in the event I drain my Group 24). Finally, on transducer mountings, I use a deployment arm. As John said above, this is VERY handy when launching/landing the boat, and for me it also comes into play when I go into a bunch of slop and I can raise the transducer to keep it from fouling with a bunch of pond weed. Otherwise, the Helix 10 is a fantastic unit and I'm glad I got it. I stand the entire time I'm fishing and that big screen is MUCH easier to see than my old 5" HB 798.

Thanks Roger. That reel has been in the boat nearly every trip for coming on two years now - it reels in bass every trip...

@DP82 - this thread was a review of the Met DC - not the MGL. Here's a thread from last year where there was discussion about Met vs. Aldebaran - of course this is the 2013 Met not the MGL. Here's a recent thread on MGL vs. Aldebaran (you might want to post your questions on this thread) : AND, here's a recent thread about MGL vs. everything else! There's enough reading to tide you over for a while...

Never heard of it until you mentioned it and don't believe it has ever been discussed in this forum. I am always interested in new small watercraft and I have my own selection criteria that come into play. For this boat - the downside for me is the weight. It's 150 pounds for the bare hull then add in your motor(s), batteries, gas,gear, etc. So, you basically have to trailer it. If you're going to trailer, then you have LOTS of options for all sorts of boats. Once you're in the water, it looks like a cross between a kayak and a Gheenoe. It would paddle fairly well (for a big boat), and gives you a gas motor (or TM )option, and would handle skinny water well. One of the photos shows a person standing so it probably has good stability. It would get through weeds and slop fairly well and would be easy to pole if necessary. BUT, OTOH, you are solo in a big heavy boat and give up the passenger option, have limited room for stuff, and still have to consider how to rig stuff on it. It doesn't have all the nifty accessory tracks and other gadgets and gizmos that kayaks have. At the end of the day, I think it comes down to being appealing for the folks that like that gas motor option but still want a boat that can get in skinny water and through slop.

If you have any doubts, get the MGL. DC reels are nifty, fun, fascinating, audio-addicting (the DC "whine")...but at the end of the day not absolutely necessary... (I have all three modern Mets, '13, '15 DC, '16 MGL - all great reels)