dwtaylor

You can still get around brushy with a pond prowler. I would recommend launching at the north end of the lake. One of the things I miss most about Iowa fishing is the farm ponds. My grandpa has a farm pond that had an awful fish kill 3/4 years ago and it killed almost all of the largemouth in it, many of them over 20". A lot of core memories and the foundation from my fishing passion came from there.

Not to further complicate things, but omnia has some awesome content showing rod actions on their site and on their youtube channel. Idk if they have these rods shown, but consider it a good resource for rod shopping going forward.

I have the power target cranker and I think it is the best medium diving crankbait rod that I own. I throw wiggle warts, rkcrawlers, DT6, money badgers, etc on this rod and it is awesome for bottom contact cranking. Very sensitive for a crankbait rod. It is also good for 1.5 sized squarebills around cover, but I don't think I need the sensitivity like I do those bottom cranks and I have other mh action glass cranking rods for squarebills that I use over this. I don't think it would work great as a bladed jig or single hook rod as it is a moderate action and a little on the soft side for medium heavy. The mod-fast action would likely be a little better and feel a little true to rod power. I have 7'6"mhmf blanks from the legend elite and legend tournament lines that would make great rods for chatterbaits and single hook baits that you are looking for. I would imagine the 72mhmf rod would be way better than the 72mhm rod for this.

Overall used. I have at least a couple dozen shimano e series reels between citicas, curados, and chronarchs. They are easy to service, perform well, and deals can be had. I have purchased some newer reels, but mostly spinning reels.

Probably the 4.65 I caught as a kicker fish in a 3 fish limit (summertime wisconsin culling rules) on a jig I made. I also made the rod too. I won the tournament too which was cool as that was my first win ever. I have caught a bunch of good fish on baits I made though, just no giants. Yet.

All, I am getting into the "medium" swimbait game and need suggestions on storage for these baits. So far I have a collection of 5" and 6" magdraft/cullshad style baits (freestyle and regular), comeback shads, 5" and 7" nessie soft glides, osakana slides, some savage gear 4 plays, and some 168 sized s wavers so far. I might add a chad shad sized hard glide too, but tbd. Right now I am planning on keeping them in the oem packaging to prevent tail warping, kind of like how I store my keitechs. However, I don't think I need to do that with the glides. I was suggested to try the thin single compartment 3700 sized lurelocks, but those seem to be quite thin and potentially warping the tails on the soft baits. They would probably work great on the hard baits though and a local store has those boxes on clearance right now. Id like to keep one box if possible, but I am open to other options. Any thoughts?

IMO the cheapest route is to just get a cradle for the front with a power cord and a transducer and move the head unit with you from the console to the bow. Click it in, power on and go.

Haha, It was the right place at the right time, not angler excellence. My pb was 6-6 from the sturgeon bay area. Id like to catch a 7+ but typically that is a spring bite and the weather and wind can be very unpredictable and unsafe so I will be patient on that one.

The lakes here still have ice, but it is melting quickly. We have a river impoundment that is wide open now and guys are catching smallies in the main wintering hole. If I wasn't sick and had my stuff together I would be out there this weekend. Id like to get there before all the ice is gone, water levels go up, and the water clarity goes to chocolate milk.

For 6" baits I think you might be ok, but I don't think fishing them with a beast style hook on a freestyle/freeloader you will have enough backbone for hooksets. Rig them with a line through treble and you are golden. Lob casts and you should be good.

I have never caught a PB in the spring or fall window. I am dabbling into the 6"+ swimbait game this year to help with that. I did catch my biggest 5 fish bag ever at 22.5lbs last fall, all smallmouth on a tx rigged 3.5" tube with a 5/16oz weight flipping wood on mud banks and cut banks. I think the leopard frogs were migrating into the water for their hibernation which turned that bite on that day. It was amazing. Before that day, I had never caught anything above 4.5lbs on that river.

I had a person break into my storage unit last summer, but they didn't steal anything. They were interested in the receipt to my new trolling motor though. I think it was someone walking through with a backpack and couldn't fit too many big items in their backpack. I filed a police report anyway in case so if I did find stolen items or damage, I could reference it to insurance.

I went from a 80lb 24v motorguide x5 to a garmin force and I will never go back. It is quieter, faster, stronger, more weedless, and more efficient than my motorguide. It has gas shocks on the mount so it has lift and drop assist. My tourney partner has an ultrex and he loved my force for this reason. I also have spot lock now which is huge. Two downsides: the cost and the pedal sensitivity. I got a very good deal ~2500 for my force but normally its a ~3600 trolling motor (57" shaft). The pedal sensitivity is because it doesn't have the cables providing drag and its a stand alone pedal. I tightened the pedal a bit but is still way looser than my x5 was. I have used the original ultrex and the lowrance ghost as well and all are great trolling motors.

I am not trying to complicate things, but are you running the factory wiring harness from the battery to the graphs/fuse box? I had this problem with my humminbirds before I went with a dedicated wiring harness. I have since switched to Garmin graphs, but still. I have never seen voltage less than 11.6 even when cranking up my engine. Most of the time it is between 13.2 and 12.8 without cranking. The factory wiring harness was basically a 14g wire which is way low. I went with 8g from a cutoff switch to the fuse box and 10g to the units and livescope. From the battery to the cutoff switch I put in 4g starter cables. Think of small wires like your plumbing in your house. Bigger pipes get less restrictive flow and it kind of takes more effort (pressure) to keep the same flow in a smaller pipe. Bigger pipes feed smaller pipes to keep up pressure. If you have only smaller pipes, you are going to see a pressure loss on your sink if you flush the toilet. Same thing happens with electricity.

I like my plano edge jig/bladed jig boxes. Super durable and waterproof. They can store a ton of jigs as well which is nice. Bulky, yes. I actually buy a lot of the waterproof boxes from harbor freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/tool-storage-organization/parts-storage/large-water-resistant-storage-container-56578.html They are a cheaper knock off version of the similar style from plano. I too put silica gel packets in my boxes, but waterproof boxes are the way to go.