Smokinal

I'll throw in here. I'm a braid/fluoro leader guy on all my setups. Braid just casts so much better, farther, better feel, no stretch, no memory...on and on. And yes, my ned setup is 10lb braid to 10lb fluoro. I like 6-8' of leader

I guess I need a trip to experience the St Lawrence. I met a couple of guys today that recommend staying in Clayton and just fishing right around that area. I'd take any tips and advice! Probably be a late summer trip...smallies...deeper I assume at that time Any do's and don'ts? Oh, I'd be bringing my boat and a buddy from Maine. Anyone planning this timeframe wanna meet up? Probably do an air B&B

Short answer...no, they all stay on. If I'm using Mega360 on the Helix, which is most of the time, I'll just switch to 2D and pull the TM up. My Garmin for FFS, I put to sleep for a run, then just touch the screen to wake it up.

Ebay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist

Garmin and Bird are the Ford and Chevy. And Lowrance....well they're the Dodge Jk, jk...really just depends on what platform you like and prefer to use. I would highly recommend going to a Cab/BPS and play with the displays to see what you like

I'm sure there will be mixed responses but personally I believe it does. I think scents help to make a fish hold a bait just that hair longer to set a hook; but I think they are most effective at masking human scents. One of my OCD tricks I've done for years is I keep a Ziplok bag of baking soda in my boat. Once I'm done launching, priming the bulb, handling all they equipment needed to launch the boat etc...I scrub my hands with a little baking soda and rinse in the lake before touching any of my soft plastics. I don't do this if I know I'm throwing hard baits/reaction baits all day long as I don't believe it makes a difference there. But any soft plastic days...hands washed first.

Dude! I'm sick to MY stomach reading this. So sorry to hear; it would crush me for a while too.

People either love em or hate em but I've ran Interstates for years and years and have had great luck with them. As mentioned above, most batteries are just a label. Personally, I think a large % of a battery's "success" is how it's cared for. Mine are all on the onboard charger, a specific deep cycle conditioner/charger, and always plugged in immediately after usage. I used to use a generic charger and had battery life issues way back then; until I read and learned more about actual deep cycle chargers. Now my batteries last years before needing replacement.

I like going to a big party but sometimes I like to take a quiet walk by myself

I just picked up a 106sv Ultra and LVS34 I'm a bird guy and the rest of my stuff is bird, but I feel Garmin has the best ffs...imo I'll mix it together with my Mega 360 and call it good. I'm not one that has to have them all the same. Note: I haven't even mounted the FFS yet. Should get to it in the next 2 weeks. Can't wait

If they're out, bass will eat them. The biggest takeaway from this would be the color. More than once I've been having a rough day, caught a bass, see an orange/green craw in its throat, changed baits and colors and started whackin' em.

It's only cheating if you're in a situation where there are rules against it. To be honest and open about it, I believe if you let a few anglers in the Elites use live bait in a tournament, they wouldn't be in the top half of the field at the end of the day. I believe you can cover so much more water with an artificial; you also have the reaction factor which is huge in making a fish bite when it may not otherwise. We've all seen many vids of bass swimming pleasantly with bait fish all around them. They don't just automatically eat a smaller fish because it's there. I bet over 50% of bass caught in major tourneys bit due to reaction.

We had the earliest ice out to date, possibly a record. My home lake was wide open March 7th. I took my neighbor out for the first trip last Sunday, 17th. We caught 55 between the two of us and left them biting. Mostly bass; a few crappie, couple pickerel, 1 yellow perch and 3 16" brookies. Really odd, welcomed weather this spring! I hope you all get out soon and have a safe, productive season!

GP TRD on a Ned head

I'll echo joining a club and fishing with different partners helps for sure. You see different baits, different techniques, styles etc... Also, for me, keeping a log helped tremendously. I didn't keep anything fancy; just date, air temp, water temp, sky condition, where I caught them, where I didn't, and baits I caught them on. Then, before every trip, I'd go look at the same time of year on previously logged trips, and got info before heading out. It's not gospel, but it's a starting point. Then when I saw the patterns being the same for the same water temp, sky condition etc...I could go out and catch em pretty consistantly. I can't recommend this strongly enough.

I'm out next weekend and plan on whackin' em!!

We could be in for the earliest ice-out to date if this trend continues. We just got back from a trip to Canada and it's very warm here, rain, and more warm rain in the forecast.

Nice article I'm all about this technique this spring.

Definitely a weird winter in Maine this year. Not much snow and it's usually followed by rain. It drizzled yesterday and we have 3-4 days of 45 degrees and rain coming this week. It could turn into one of the earliest ice-outs to date. 😃🤞

https://www.pure-gas.org/ All I use in any small engine and my boat

My home lake has a couple web cams on them that I watch all year. The owner of them sent me this screenshot from our last trip out, on New Year's Eve day. I had the boat all washed, polished, covered and tucked away...until a warm rain opened everything back up. I called my buddy, who's just as nuts as me, and I dug it back out for 1 last run. This is officially the latest we've ever gone. And we could have gone on New Year's Day too but I didn't push it. I caught 2 pickerel, 2 perch, a brookie and a brown; my buddy caught a pickerel, a couple perch and the only bass. Post front and water was 35* I'm guessing he knew we were the only nut cases who would be out this late, dodging ice...

Incredible! Congrats man!

I admit I didn't watch the whole thing...does anyone take fizzing into consideration?

An old crumb trail on my graph has saved me more than once