mcipinkie

The reason they cost that much is simple: People buy them. I don't. I buy heads from Boss and add my own skirts.

If you fish where I fish, and back trailers in places I do, you will cut that bottom step off, or move it back. Perspective could be off in the pic, but looks like accident waiting to happen. BTW, I'll be 79 this year. Fish 90% of the time by myself. 184 days in 2024. 1 in 2025, so far. Never had steps until I bought new boat in 2020. Never be without them. Mine came on the Skeeter trailer. Different design than those.

I'd go to BPS and buy a couple Crankin' Sticks. 1 - 7'-6 or longer MH or Heavy for big cranks. I - about 7'-0 M for small stuff. If you can afford only one, or three, get a 7'-0 MH. Won't handle the little stuff well, but good all purpose rod. $80 - $100 as good of a crank bait rod as you can buy for twice a much. Pick what ever reel you can afford. I like the Lew's LFS for about $100. I like it because you can get a 5:1. Revo X is nice. Same price range. You can spend a lot more money, but this is good tournament level equipment. Think "Tools" not "Status".

Put your mouse away. Get away from the keyboard. Pick up a rod and practice. In the yard, in the basement, in the family room. Gerald Swindle gets old, but he has it right. "Years of excessive practice." It ain't the tackle. I've got expensive stuff. I've got cheap stuff. After 70 years of excessive practice, one or two casts and I'm dialed in. The last five new reels I bought are $50, on sale for $30, KastKings from Amazon. They work well. Yes, after almost 70 years, I still practice. Craig is right. Put a reel on a broomstick and an experienced caster can make it work. You got a lot of high dollar tackle on your list for a beginner. I'd spend a fourth of that at the most.

I have fished 179 days so far this year. I plan on over 200 in 2025.

I've used SI on the bow ever since it came out. Very useful. You learn quickly how to control the rotation of the TM. You can actually use the rotation for for a crude 360 if you try. Now I have M360 on the bow. It's replaced SI. If I didn't have it, I would still use SI.

No! You don't need a dedicated jerk bait rod. You need at least 2, preferably more. I carry 4 in the Skeeter this time of year. 2 - casters, 2 - spinners. Plus a couple other rods, than I can use if needed. All of mine are old, 20 years and counting. Short 6'-6 to 6'-10. Mostly glass.

Get on AZ and buy a couple of $50 Kast Kings. I have boat full of medium to high dollar equipment. Got a notification about this time last year from AZ of a KK sale. $50 reels for $25 What the hey, I can always throw them in the trash. Ended up buying 5 over a few months, and am very impressed. Graphite frames. I prefer aluminum framed reels for power work (Heavy flipping, frogs, etc) so I use these for lighter applications. Cranks, jerks, spinner baits, etc. Highly recommended. Buy you one or two and practice casting. ALL bait casters will backlash unless you either tighten them down so much you can't cast, or you learn to cast. I've been throwing bait casters since the 1960's. I turn everything in the reel off. Wide open. I used to take the magnets out of my reels to speed them up. After years of excessive practice, and lots of backlashes, I can handle almost anything. Start out with some spool friction and some braking with the goal of turning them off.

Not intending to insult you personally, other than you happen to fit in this group. People like you that have never owned or operated a boat have no business starting out in a 21', 250 HP bass boat. You have no basic boat skills and are now going on the water in a boat that probably will run in excess of 70 MPH. It isn't the same as driving a car. I really isn't. I would be much more concerned about my children's safety in a big, fast boat driven by someone totally experienced than the size of the boat. You can learn all the technical stuff. Lots of good sources out there. What you can't learn without serious water time is basic seaman skills. Get you a small boat. Stay off big water. Learn how to launch, retrieve, tie up, fish, maneuver, and all the other basic skills. Spend lots of water time. I'm 78 years old, started out a long time ago in my dad's 12' jon boat with a 5.5 HP motor. Worked my way up through various size boats until now. I'm running (because I choose to run this size boat) a 19.5' Skeeter ZX200 with a 200 HP motor. I can run almost 70MPH. I've been running high performance boats for almost 30 years, and I still scare myself occasionally.

If you really want reliable high speed sonar readings, get out of the bilge. Get a Stern Saver, or equivalent. Epoxy it to the transom of the boat and mount a skimmer to that. XNT-9-20T for my Helix 12. Now you have an adjustable transducer mount. When you epoxy one in the bilge, no adjustment. Get the aluminum bracket, not the plastic one. I run about 1/4 inch below the hull line and have a very good signal, depending on water conditions, to about 45 MPH. Still get a usable reading at 60. Seldom go faster. Every once in a while, I'll kick it up on wood. I re-did the transducer mount and moved the toothed washers. I just lay on the back deck and push the transducer back to where it goes. I've been running this way since I bought my first Skeeter in 2002, and will never have another shoot through. Another advantage, you just get better returns when the transducer is in the water, not shooting through some unknown thickness of fiber glass. I have multiple rants scattered on various sites on this subject.

"I have been trying to make it a habit of retying every trip, as I noticed a couple trips ago the knot had come undone or broken I can’t remember (possibly from aforementioned cold exposure?) Line was relatively new, respooled a month or two ago." Anyone but me think think the OP has defined his issue. Retying every trip won't get it. Big Game is good line. Palomar is good knot if tied correctly. Regardless of knot or line used, if the OP is "trying" to retie every trip, he's is deep trouble. Should be retying every hour or so and trying to spool new line every trip. So to be an . . . hole, but the truth is the truth.

Looks good to me. My Ultrex sets the same on my Skeeter and has on two others. My only concern is if enough room for the motor to move aft when you hit something. I'd go fishing.

We used rubber washers a long time ago on aluminum boats thinking they worked for noise isolation. Doubt they did, but we used them. I put old conveyor belting under under a motor I rigged in the 70's. Doubt it did anything. I've cut the flange off the MG mounts and bolted for the same reason. I don't like the sheet metal screws, would rather use the MG mounts, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I put toggle bolts in a old boat many years ago when I couldn't get nuts on the bolts. There are lots of good blind fasteners to chose from now. I'd avoid sheet metal screws. Look like a weak spot IMHO. The screws might work if you can get good bolts in the rest of the holes.

The 1/4 flat bar would be ideal. The unistrut washers would work. I run an 80 lb. Ultrex on my old Lowe Big Jon. I doubt my deck is 1/8 thick. I have no problem. 6 - 1/4 stainless bolts, big washers, Nylok nuts. I put a piece of treated 1 x 6, or 1 x 8, on top of the aluminum and bolted through. I think I used this to raise the TM up so it would land correctly when stowed. Make sure you check this.

I remember when the Lucky Craft jerk baits first hit the scene. $14 for a jerk bait. I swore I would never spend that much, and that I could match them with a Rogue. Now my standard is a Stunna. $15 per. I also have a box of MB jerk baits, some of which I ordered from Japan at $30 per, most at $25. Don't say you'll never buy a $35 dollar spinner bait. Next year, you'll have a box of them.