Smokinal

Thanks for the warning. I'll stay off the sidewalks! JK, congrats. That's a great feeling.

Don't be nervous, keep calm and a cool head. You'll do fine.

Well, to truly check a battery, you need to check the specific gravity of each cell. Pick up a gravity tester (around $8 at any parts store) and follow some of these instructions: http://www.trojanbattery.com/BatteryMaintenance/Testing.aspx Please wear safety glasses and basically, you just pull up some of the electrolyte from each cell and get a reading. You can check state of charge that way and test for a bad cell too. If all the readings are similar, most likely the cells are all good. If all are up but one is down, you have a bad cell. Pretty easy and straight forward. The link above shows what the readings should be on a fully charged battery. So, charge them, let them cool and then test them. Then, go fish and test them again after to see what the state of charge is after use.

Yes, you can only use one bank for one battery; unless you did some yankee engineering like cut the rings off the wires and put big charging clamps on them Then you could just unclamp them from the first 2 batteries and clamp them on the second 2 without undoing all the wingnuts etc... Personally, I'd try it a couple more times and if you don't lose battery power on the water, I'd leave it alone. I wouldn't go by how long it takes to recharge.

Sure will. You will double your reserve capacity. You said above "I dont know for sure the batteries were dead. Im basing that off of how long it took to recharge." Did you actually have a loss of thrust from your motor or are you just going by how long it took to recharge the batteries. And nice wiring figure there Numb!

^^Wicked happy for you! Glad to hear everything is complete and shined up. I bet that's one sweet ride. And I love the led trailer lights. Nothing like em; I replaced my tail light assemblies last year with leds and they are amazing. So we expect a post in the "show us your ride" thread now!

This is the direction I'm heading in as well; sounds like something else is wrong. You should be able to go almost all day on 2 good, fully charged batteries. As Slone asked, are they group 24's? 27's? Deep cycle or are they just "car" batteries? Are you sure your charger is charging from both banks? Sure they were both fully charged?

I'd love to hear them say the F word on the weather forecast! FIFTIES!! Unfortunately they have been using the T word (teens)

Thinking the same thing.

don't ask...

And to Opie, you can see, as AJay wisely stated above, many different thoughts here. I would recommend trying to find a buddy with each style of rod, ask to borrow and try for yourself.

Absolutely Mike. I should have worded my first post a little different. If I only had one rod to throw both of those baits on, a 7-11 MH Composite crankbait rod would be ideal. I guess I would err on the firmer side for the deep divers and you certainly can throw a trap on that rod as well.

Wow; I find it the complete opposite. That would be like dragging a jig though grass and rock with a medium spinning rod.

I have been reading a lot of posts where you guys are throwing a wacky 4" Senko for a tough bite. Any favorite "standby" colors?

That one definitely made it past the "bait" stage!

No question: line reel rod

I don't mean to hijack your thread here but I have managed auto centers for the last 22 years and every winter, without fail, I get out the super glue and glue cracks together. So this last fall, my wife's dermatologist came in for some service and saw me using the Gorilla Glue on my finger tips. She laughed and asked what the heck I was doing. She directed me to get this stuff: http://www.hardcorehandcare.com/ and I'll never need any other hand product again. I had tried Working Hands, which is good, but this stuff is 10 times that product. I'm not a rep for them, just a very satisfied customer who will spread the word about a product that really works. Your in good hands with either one.

Well keep us updated as to what was replaced and how the whole thing goes for you.

I won't usually start out using a scent but if the bite is slow or they aren't really eating a bait well (just pecking at it, spitting it out before hookset, not holding a bait long) then I will use a scent. And I typically use Megastrike which technically isn't a scent but an amino acid paste which I feel helps fish hold onto a bait longer so you can get a good hookset on him.

That's why I like a scent with a paste-like carrier or an oil based scent. I feel those will cling better and stay on longer. And yes on adding Megastrike to pre-scented brands of plastic.

10 lb Super Slick with 10 lb fluoro leader

Nice to hear! Can't wait for a good crankbait day myself.

Sure, bass "eat" for a number of reasons. They eat to feed themselves; they eat out of instinct (reaction bites); and they will "eat" just to see what something is. You have to remember, bass don't have hands and can't talk so if a bass sees something, natural or not, they may pick it up to feel the object. Sometimes it's blown back out if the bass senses something unnatural, that's when we went to set the hook but nothing was there. That's also why scents can help getting a hook in the fish if a bass hits your bait and is deciding what to do with it, a scent can make him hold it just that split second longer to get a hookset on him. So just because a bait doesn't look like anything in a particular lake, bass will still hit it.

I'll typically throw a swim in weeds or clear water; bladed in dirty, stained or green water. Like AJay said the thump in a bladed jig is easier for them to hone in on when visibilty is limited.