Scott F

Not knowing ANYTHING about you, where you live, or how you fish, I could never suggest anything for you to buy. What would you like to do, that you can't do, with what you already have?

If you get a Garmin, you can save $200 on a map chip because the Garmin's come with high def maps built in plus the software to create high def maps for any lake that is not one of the 17,000 maps that came with the unit. Right now, Cabelas has the 53dv, a $400 unit on sale for $279.

Never heard of a chill. Can you post a picture?

This is nothing like any flight I've ever taken.

Isn't Sesame Street on public television?

Maybe the judges were vegans.

It's not always going to be productive. We had 6 guys who know how to fish rivers pretty well float a 5 mile stretch of river yesterday. Between us only about a dozen smallmouth were caught. Half of those were caught in one small spot by two of the anglers. Tough day for sure.

The correct use should be just "Can I get YOU anything." The word you can be used to mean a group.

This may not be the record, but it is definitely a smallmouth. The curious thing is, this bass is 1 year old! It was caught this spring in Northern Wisconsin, before the spawn which means it was born last year! Talk about slow growth rates!

My wife always gets irritated when a waiter or waitress address' the two of us as "You Guys". As in, "Can I get you guys anything else?"

The first pair I got, I couldn't read almost anything no matter how I turned my head. The store had them remade and the second pair is better, but not as good as I was hoping for. I'm taking everyone's advice and I'll live with them for a while. To me, it's like saying you will get used to that stone in your shoe! I sure hope you guys are right! Thanks for the replies.

Did you have any luck in deeper water? In the rivers I fish, success for me comes near deep water not in the deep water. Bigger fish nearly always come from areas that have a deep area nearby. I don't seem to get hits when the water is more than 4 feet deep. In some rivers, 4 feet is the deep water.

Do you have any idea if there are others fishing the same waters you are? Typically, there are not a lot of prime holding spots like the one you found. Likely, others know about the same spots and may have fished them not long before you got there. Somebody probably came behind you after you did well and wondered why they didn't get anything. There may also have been a concentration of bait in one area that most of the bass were following around leaving some good looking spots void of fish I have fished the same river a few days in a row and found them on shallow flats one day and not the next. This is fishing. Bass may not be smart, but they react to things that we can't always see which can make them unpredictable to fishermen. The more time you spend chasing them, the more you can stack the odds in your favor.

I think the problem is you are using left handed rods with right hand reels. Or is it the other way around?

2D sonar only with the built in transducer. You can still mount your own transducer to the trolling motor if you want.

There is some kind of interference. I'm no expert. But I would try several things. The trolling motor shouldn't give problems if it's not running but I'd disconnect it from the battery and see if there is a change. It might not be easy to do, but if you could, hook the depthfinder to a another battery, that is not your starting battery, see if that makes a difference. Check the plugs on the back of the unit. Look for a cut or pinched wire on the transducer. Check the power connections and look for loose or bad wiring. If, the trolling motor is not connected and the power supply is isolated, the problem is probably the unit itself

The only thing sacred in television is money.

I've been spooled when the line on my reel was getting low and I then tossed my lure into a tree. Broke off at the knot that tied my braid to my backing. Does that count?? Other than that, while bass fishing, I've never even been close. I don't fish for largemouth much but I can't remember many largemouth that even pulled much drag and I keep my drag pretty loose. River smallmouth often test the drag on my spinning reels, but have never pulled more than 10 or twenty yards of line. I use small spinning reels, 10's and 20's for the most part, braid that goes 10lb at the most. If I use up enough line that I can see my backing at the end of a long cast, that reel gets retired for the day. That almost never happens either, well...once.

15 to 20lb braid does not say "finesse" to me. I'm like Darren, smaller reels 10-25 size will hold a lot of 6 to 10lb braid. Light braid will throw those light finesse lures a lot farther than 20lb will. A 40 with 20lb braid would work for well for any power fishing you'd want to do.

Gear ratios do not always tell how fast a spinning reel is. A larger spool will pick up more line per turn than a smaller one even with the same gear ratio. I currently have a Quantum "Speed Freak" spinning reel with a 6.2:1 gear ratio. My 25 size reel will pick 33 inches of line per turn of the handle. The 50 size reel picks up 42 inches per turn.

Here is an article on fish aging from this website http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/fish-aging.html

Does the depth finder use the same battery for power as the trolling motor? Do the lines happen all the time or only when the motor is running? Do you have a second depth finder operating at the same time?

The Flying Wallendas couldn't balance on that tightrope!

I've been using reading glasses for over 15 years and at the age of 61, my distance vision has been getting progressively worse. It isn't horrible, but seeing items across the room isn't as clear as it used to be and my HD TV isn't so HD. I saw my eye doctor and got a prescription for bifocals. Never having worn bifocals I really did not realize how limiting they are. My distance vision is so much better but the field of view trying to read my phone, iPad or laptop is so small compared to my reading glasses, I am very disappointed. Trying to read lines of type on a page or screen, I can only see a few words clearly then have to continually shift my head around until the rest of the words become clear. The people at the shop where I got the glasses, said this is normal. I got progressive bifocals in the largest frames I could find on the shelf. For you guys with bifocals, is this really normal? Is this what I have to look forward to? I am so sorry I spent so much money on glasses. At this point, I'm going to toss them back in the drawer and go back to my readers and less than perfect vision. Far distances like while driving are pretty good and I don't really need glasses for anything over 100 yards away. I can take the glasses off and see just as well at those distances, it just closer stuff and indoors that I could use some help. I like to sit and watch TV use my iPad or laptop at the same time, switching back and forth between reading lasses and regular glasses is not practical so functional bifocals seemed to be the solution but so far it's not. What are your experiences with bifocals?

The foot pedals have gotten much better.