MN Bassin' nOOb

Gull Lake is one you're probably going to hit. It's basically "the" lake to fish in the Brainerd.

In Black back chartreuse. MONEY.

I'm in MN, so us bass guys are definitely a minority. Vast majority of serious fishermen in MN that I meet are mostly either walleye or muskie guys. Most of the muskie guys I know were former bass guys that eventually moved on to a much bigger/more exciting catch. I think they also have the easiest crossover because it's so similar to bass fishing (especially topwater). What's amazing to me, having had a number of them pop up to my boat, is that they are completely fearless...they will swim right up to your boat and look at you without a fear in their eye. Or they come up and attack your figure 8 swirl at the end of a cast directly 3 ft under your boat. Unbelievable fish.

I'd definitely be interested...but don't currently have a boat. If anyone is looking for a co-angler to head out whenever...let me know! (I live in Excelsior, but could get anywhere in town).

You don't walk from Fichts, you RUN.

It's an ok deal. I've been looking at used boats for a solid year now, and have seen a boatload of the non-Comanche '98-02 Rangers. I'd say your price is pretty typical of asking prices that you'll find on Craigslist. Some R81, 83 or R91 93s go for around $9-10k, some even lower, at least here in MN.

I went up to my cabin on Bay Lake near Brainerd over the weekend and slammed them! Primarily between 10 am-3 pm on both Sat & Sun and each night between 6-7 pm brought in about 30-35 bass total with the vast majority coming in between 1.5-3 lbs (and around 40-45 northerns). 3 solid fish between 3.5-4 lbs. At one point I was catching a fish literally every other or every 3rd cast! 70% were caught fishing 9-12 ft of water along weedlines with noisy cranks (KVD Sexy Shad Series 4 crank, Rapala Clackin' Crank in Helsinki Shad). The other 30% were caught in 3-8 ft of water fishing with KVD 1.5's (Black back chartreuse aka The Bass Slayer) and Manns Baby Minus 1. If you can't tell, I'm a big crankin' guy...don't fish a lot of finesse/plastics. P.S. One big negative was the custom-made 7'10'' glass crankin' rod I had made and waited 5 weeks for from Thorne Bros in Blaine broke at the tip on the 2nd cast when ripping a lipless crank through some weeds. That was the first custom-made rod I've ever had; pretty brutal first experience with both a custom-rod and Thorne Bros (when I called they insinuated that I broke it in the car or something on the way up there from picking it up on Thursday night).

Same thing happened on my Chronarch. You can get them pretty easily if need be online. To answer your question, the only thing that can happen if you only have 2 is that those 2 will be the only you can use (brakes on), so if you need more than that, you're SOL. However, as long as you keep them opposite each other and you only need those 2, you'll be fine. Keep in mind, with only 2 brakes on, the other 4 are disengaged anyway, so it's just the same as you not even physically having them in there.

I've rented over the past year; and I take 3. Curado 200E5: deep crankers, shallow slow roll cranks, spinnerbaits Daiwa Zillion 6:3:1: all purpose Curado 200E7: jigs, topwater (buzzbaits, frogs, etc.)

Thanks guys

I can usually spot a fish...but I can't figure out what this is? Anyone?

Assuming everything checks out; decent deal would be $7k, great deal would be $6k. Big thing that could swing it is quality of the electronics which you don't list...

Sounds good. I live in Excelsior...looking at buying a boat soon, but if anyone is ever looking to fish Minnetonka and willing to take a fellow member out (Vinny?), let me know! I'm 28, big into bass fishing, and am an attorney by day (but don't hold that against me!). Wow...that felt like a online dating profile...

Maui Jim>Costa.

Now...coming from a MN guy with our opener ticking off in about 15 min, that is one helluva 'eye!

Welcome to another fellow MNsotan! And a guy that enjoys Minnetonka as much as I do...

x3. 7.5 lber on DeMontreville? Not Guntersville right? Not calling you a liar...but throw that thing on an actual scale and you'll probably see that weight drop by a pound or two Just to give you an idea...this is a legit 7 1/2 lber I found on the internet; don't see too many of these around these parts!

If it helps, I've seen a few asking prices around $2,000-2,500 here in MN over the past year or two...but don't know what they actually ended up selling for.

x2 on that.

200E5.

200E series is the way to go; I absolutely love my 200E5 and 200E7...favorite reels in my arsenal. Not overhyped at all. There is a reason they are by far the best selling reels at their price point...they are that good.

Sufix 832

All right guys, hopefully would like to hear from someone that has held/used both reels. I have a solid 5:1 cranking setup, and a good 7.1; basically looking for a sweet spot 6:1 setup. Would you guys pair a Premier with either a Lews Tourney Pro or Daiwa Zillion? This would primarily be used for some lipless cranks, topwater poppers, some spinnerbaits, etc. Basically an all-around setup except not many plastics or finesse stuff. I currently just bought the Zillion, but haven't even fished it yet (seems a tad heavy at 8.6 oz), but I'm hearing good things about the Lews TP and could probably get it cheaper than what I could get on an auction site for the heavier Zillion. Thoughts?

Wow Vinny...gorgeous looking boat...you definitely have to take me out next time you're going to fish Minnetonka!

x2 on the Strike King. Had a faulty one, got the same type of response (and they sent me an additional one "for the trouble.") Probably cost them $5 total, but they have a customer for life. Can't comment personally on Rapala, but I've heard similar stories in the past 2-3 years. Strike King has my business for the foreseeable future, even though I'm not a huge customer, I still probably buy $100 worth of their lures/year.