WIGuide

October is an interesting month up here, pretty much everything is still on the table. By the end, lakes can be close to icing up and when the water is that cold, your bait choices go down. Here's a few solid choices that should put fish in the boat throughout the month though. Largemouth Jig Jerkbaits (deep and shallow) Lipless Crankbait Carolina Rig Smallmouth Jerkbaits (deep and shallow) Tube Small boot tail A-rig Blade Bait

Looks like you killed it again! Way to go man!

I'd move the 5 up front for now and upgrade it later. Moving a unit back and forth or spinning it around doesn't seem like a big deal until you're on the water and you realize just how much you move and how annoying it gets spinning it around all the time. Eventually upgrading to something that networks with your other unit to share waypoints makes for a big upgrade. Against the popular opinion I always have my SI running up front. I run it from the transducer on the back of the boat, so yes I'm already past it, but I've got pretty good at lining up with things I see and have caught a lot of fish that way.

I really like my Costas. I've fished with a ton of people, and I know some of it is because I'm taller than most, but I truly feel I see more things in the water than anyone wearing anything other than Costas.

Pretty cool idea in theory, but I'm wondering how well it will work in reality. I could be wrong, but my whole reason for having 2 Power Poles instead of just 1 is when possible I'm using them to pick my boat position. If I put them down in a cross wind, the boat will stay in the same position instead of spinning downwind. If you use either the jog or drag detection, you're not going to be able to keep the same position since the trolling motor can only control the front of the boat so as it navigates back to where it was previously, the rear of the boat will drift and then anchor in a completely different position. I'm also curious which transducer does this operate off of to determine water depth. I would think it would network to the rear transducer so it's accurate to the depth by the poles, but if not, there's plenty of times I'll fish a steep drop where I'll move the rear on top of a ledge and put the poles down, but moving 5' ahead they wouldn't be able to touch anymore so if it pulls off the front one, it would end up using spot lock instead of dropping the poles. I'd have to see it in action as maybe they have already though of all this and can make it work great. Honestly though, I don't feel that it's that complicated to figure out which button to press.

I'm sure there will be more information at or around Icast, but zooming in on it, it sure looks like they all come out. They might be able to tell you early.

Never heard of them before, but it looks interesting. They seem to be pretty proud of their 8 second deployment time, which to me doesn't seem very fast. I also don't know how I feel about the all electric design on a Power Pole styled unit. Having experience with the design, the hydraulic factor allows a cushioning force as the hull reacts to waves and allow you to stay anchored even on hard bottom as they continue to provide a downward force as the hull rises over a wave. If the actuator is static, as the hull goes up, the spike would only be held at a constant distance below the hull where it would lift off the bottom if too big of wave rolls under the hull. Maybe they thought of that, we'll have to wait and see.

Looks like Daiwa's new boxes coming out may have the dividers in both directions removable, could be an option. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Daiwa_D-Box_Utility_Storage_Box_3600_Deep/descpage-DSDB.html

That's a nice looking setup!

An old Bass Pro Johnny Morris Signature Series. I believe it's spooled with 50 lb. Berkley Professional Braid currently.

BoatFX makes a whole bracket and everything with locks on it all...it's not cheap though. https://boatefx.com/products/boatefx-bow-graph-mount?variant=43709969203443

Try tapping the starter with the handle of a screwdriver and see if it'll engage.

I'm definitely all for adding a jack plate as long as the transom can handle it. I'm curious as to why you'd want to run a 10" over a 6" on that small of a boat. The 10" seems like overkill for what you're looking for. Most boats you see a 10" or 12" on are 20+ footers. My 18.5 it's not recommended to go bigger than an 8". A 6" plate would still allow you to bolt shallow water anchor brackets to it. If you wanted to try to go bigger you could buy some fixed setback brackets and put them between the jack plate and the hull like these https://bobsmachine.com/product/fixed-setback-brackets-no-lift/ If you get the 4's and adding them with a 6" plate would give you the 10" you're looking for and at least that way if it doesn't work out, you can move back to the normal 6" plate. One other consideration, would be your steering cables. Depending on where they come out on your boat, you may have to order longer cables, or possibly even convert to hydraulic steering to make it work.

You can run performance plus, but DFI oil is recommended. It's a tough pill to swallow, but bite the bullet and run it. On the positive side a gallon will last you quite a while. I haven't done it yet, but some dealers will sell it to you from their bulk drums and give you a discount.

I use the Trokar TK97W weedless wacky hook. The guards do enough to keep a little bit of the grass off, but soft enough to prevent missing fish.

Blue/white/chartreuse, golden hues work well too, and don't overlook natural colors either....natural forage still gets eaten in those lakes and isn't full of wild colors.

Check out Tackle and Tacos. It puts a little different spin on things, but it's a good listen.

Generally whatever mapping card you buy will be more accurate than the base map on your locator. Each of the big 3 have their own mapping companies now Humminbird owns Lakemaster, Lowrance owns C-map, and Garmin owns Navionics. With the exception of Lakemaster, you can go online to preview their maps and see the differences. I actually run multiple cards in my units. Generally I run a C map card or C map genesis map, but I also have a Navionics card as well. Some lakes have a clear winner on who's the most accurate and when that's the case I run with that map for the day.

With an upcoming tournament and a busy schedule, the only possible day I had to prefish was father's day. Since my dad loves to fish just about as much as I do, I figured it'd make for a good fathers day trip to invite him to come with. After some minor hiccups in the morning delaying our progress we did finally get out on the water and began our search. The crystal clear water is always challenging and amazing to me at the same time. A lot of the waters closer to me have at least some stain to them where 5-7 feet of visibility would be considered super clear, but on this lake when the sun is out and you're out of the wind, you have visibility anywhere from 15-20'. We caught a few little largemouth shortly after we started, and while reeling one in, a big football was trying to steal the bait away from it but was unsuccessful. Unfortunately Dad was untangling something otherwise I think if he had dropped a bait right around there he could have picked it off. Mother nature couldn't seem to make up her mind on what she wanted to do and the multiple passing fronts seemed to keep the fishing pretty slow. We did manage to put some good ones in the boat and put together a decent limit. Our 3 biggest were all over 18.5" and the biggest was 20" on the head. I think it's going to take a limit of fish like those 3 to finish in the money, so hopefully I can find them and a few more next weekend. Given the here today....nowhere even close to here tomorrow nature of smallmouth, that's a lot easier said than done, but regardless, it was a fun way to celebrate fathers day!

Very nicely done!! A couple of tanks right there!

Not sure what you're putting them on, but one of these might work for your setup. https://www.amazon.com/Dasen-Universal-Receiver-Bracket-Off-Road/dp/B07PTPCRC2/ref=asc_df_B07PTPCRC2/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=343269704531&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4468402798437232224&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019155&hvtargid=pla-738796843658&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=69167827335&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=343269704531&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4468402798437232224&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019155&hvtargid=pla-738796843658 Otherwise, replace your normal backup lights with a good set of LED's. Like other said, the light output is a huge upgrade! You can also add ones like AJ posted to the trailer. I did on my old boat and it was a huge help.

The pro's you're seeing running all day on their batteries are using bigger batteries. Group 24 series are about the smallest used for a trolling motor and you'd see those on something like a jon boat. The group size is the physical size of the battery and most bass boats would be running a minimum of 27 series and many run group 31's. I would think they'd run a little longer, but maybe not. Since you're in La Crosse, go to Team Marine. The guy that owns it is a good guy and will get you back on the water where you can actually fish a full day. If it's a battery issue, Interstate batteries are sold all over here and they should be able to warranty them if needed. You might have to buy a couple batteries, but it would really be terrible to come all this way and not even be able to put a full day on the water in the National Championship.

A little above your price point, but I throw very similar size and smaller crankbaits on a St. Croix graphite LTB 7'2" M/M. It's by far my favorite squarebill rod. They have 7'1" M/M that would handle them very well too.

Sounds like you hooked into one of those 50/50 fish or at least that's what I call them. In those kind of situations you have 2 options, either keep pressure on the fish and keep the line tight, or give them slack and let them try and swim back out of it. You'll never land all of them and you'll always second guess your choice when you don't land one. Fishing from the bank makes it more challenging too since in a boat or kayak, you just need to keep the fish on long enough to get over to it.

Bait companies must love that guy! To each their own, but I've absolutely put a hurt on them using the same piece of plastic to the point it's so mangled it barely stays on the hook.