Smokinal

A whole different view of this situation is that a reputable manufacturer or a reputable supplier would want to know about issues like this.

Good for you A-Jay!!! Glad to see it!! Anyone else not open yet? Can we close this dreaded thing down now??

Well she had scales on her back, sooooooooo.......

Last week I caught one that was 14 lbs, 3 oz. Had her right next to the boat and the line broke before I could lip her for a pic.

^^^Man you gotta be close!!

Are you fully open now?

Well not to rub it in but I finally made it out today for the first day. We opened last Sunday on my home lake. I let it get some sun for the week and took a couple kids out today. We had a good time, catching between 10-20 bass each, and somewhere around 40 big crappie. One of them caught 6 different species; lmb, yellow perch, crappie, pickerel, 1 brookie and 1 brown! All while targeting LMB on jerkbaits! They had a good time! Good luck A-Jay! Keep us posted!!

^^^WOW! Ima quit my crying! I checked my web cams on my home water and I'll be open tomorrow!! Some big changes happened today. I actually saw ripples and waves on the water for the first time in months!! So excited! Still some floating ice but it will be gone by tomorrow night. And I'll be out next Sunday, 29th, smashing em on jerkbaits!! Good luck everyone!

Well we are close now boyos! Getting some rain this evening and through the overnight. Temps going into the 50's tomorrow. My lake's web cam shows dark, dark ice. It's going to be mealy after this pattern goes through!! May be out Sunday!!

I think it's more important to have the correct charger, rather than the charge rate. My experience with this is I was using a standard automotive, single stage, typical battery charger and my TM batteries weren't lasting as long as I thought they should on the water. After a lot of homework, I learned that deep cycle batteries can benefit from a true marine deep cycle charger. I thought it was wichcraft but I ended up buying a Promariner Prosport marine charger and my batteries have doubled in their capacity. The same, identical batteries; not new ones of the same brand but the same actual bateries that were failing before, now outlast my days on the water with just a change to the correct charger. These chargers use multi-stage charging where the charger fully charges the battery, then automatically ups the voltage to over 14v for a designated time, then back down to a maintain mode. This process cleans sulfate off the plates; exposing more surface area of the plate to generate battery power.

This is something you definitely want to check with your own, local law enforcement on. Maine is very, very sensitive to this topic; to the extent of resulting in huge fines, jail time, even confiscating the truck you used to transport the fish. Which, by the way, transporting means to remove the fish from the body of water. Some weigh-ins have to be held with the boat in the water, fish in live well and recirculating pump on the whole time or above said fines may occur. They're still bent out of shape about the whole white perch in Moosehead Lake thing.... https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/07/us/act-of-vandalism-threatens-rare-brook-trout-in-maine-lake.html

I don't always fish for cats. But when I do, I'd rather be fishing for bass.

fluke1 flo͞ok/ noun noun: fluke; plural noun: flukes unlikely chance occurrence, especially a surprising piece of luck. "their triumph was no fluke" synonyms: chance, coincidence, accident, twist of fate; More piece of luck, stroke of good luck/fortune, serendipity "what a nice fluke, finding you here" .....in other words, whenever I catch a fish

I named my boat after you

This is something that you will want to, if you can, get to Cabelas or BPS and try for yourself. I upgraded my spinning reels a couple years ago and went through the same thing you are. I found that a 2500 in one brand can actually be a different size and weight of another brand's 2500. Also keep in mind that spool size will change with reel size as well; kinda Captain Obvious but some may not realize that. I ended up with the Presidents in #6930

Nice work A-Jay If you want a nice variation of a lunge, try these: I have bad knees from heavy sqatting in my younger years so I do a lot of leg variations to hit the quads well but stay knee friendly. These don't bother my knees at all and really hit the kwads well!

I'll 2nd this

lol same situation here. I've been complaining about the little mess we got yesterday and some of you have it a lot worse than me. Take care folks!! It can't be long now!!

I have some reports of some open ponds close to the coast where temps are a little better and they have a little salt breeze. The web cam on my inland home lake shows iced in still but there are a few holes and puddles; getting black. I estimate full ice out in 2 weeks, possible a day or 2 earlier. Getting excited!!

What a SOW!! Congrats man! Great fish

Similar for me. 7' MH/F baitcaster with a 6.3:1 reel; 30lb braid and 14-15lb fluoro leader

Just got home and had a great time. My fishing buddy and I went down, met Jordan, sat in the seminar, then shopped some fishing stuff while we were there. What a nice kid! Very easy to talk to; down to earth etc... Definitely has not let any of his success get in his head. Many questions were asked during the seminar; some new, some old, but all good. Met Zell Rowland in the store. Chatted with him a while as well. Also very easy to talk to; just a regular guy. He's was staying with a buddy of his up here in Maine. If anyone is curious about some info from the seminar, I can do my best to answer if for you.

That's Rosie for sure man! Nice job and congrats!

There are many vids of bass eating/mouthing a bait, then spitting it right back out. Bass don't have hands or fingers so one of the ways they test objects is with their mouths. This is why a scent/attractant can be so important. Not only to make a bait smell or taste more natural but also to cover or mask human scents as well; the fryolator oil from that McMuffin, the grease on the winch handle, the gas on the primer bulb and the list goes on. Sometime you only have a split second between the time a bass engulfs a bait, to the time he smells/tastes something unnatural and spits it. A scent can make a bass hold on just that much longer to get a hook in him.