WIGuide

The little grey box is an auto reset circuit breaker. The red caps look like something they found to cover up the terminals.

I prefer to use these over a weight jig head. They're an Eco Pro Tungsten Pro Wacky Weight. it pushes up through the worm and you run your wacky hook through some of the plastic and the loop in the wire. It helps you get a few more fish out of your worms since they don't rip as easily and it also allows you to change weights without having to retie.

I think my favorite is a Rapala X-Rap Prop. That thing will catch the fire out of them around the spawn and gets some of the best blow ups.

I fish them pretty much the same. The only real difference for me is I'll slow it down a little more when I'm fishing largemouth with them as largemouth get more lethargic quicker where a smallmouth will stay a little more active in cooler water than the largemouth will. I might throw something a little brighter for smallmouth, but usually the cold water periods have the clearest water of the year so natural colors aren't a bad choice regardless of species.

Hey Corey, there are quite a few around the area. The Chippewa Valley Bass Attack is the club I fish in and is very competitive and is based out of Chippewa. I'm not sure if we have any opening this year as we normally have a waiting list to get in. Other clubs/circuits are listed below The Flambeau Bassmasters are based out of Ladysmith. Northwestern Bass Club is a Tuesday night league based out of Lublin Central Wisconsin Bass Anglers is based out of Medford The UMBCS is a tournament circuit that is very well run and have multiple divisions. Greg, the tournament director is based out of northeast Wisconsin, but their three divisions are The River Division, Western Lakes, and Central Lakes.

I jumped into the tournament game being a boater from day 1. If I could go back, it probably would have been better for me to start as a co. I had spent a lot of time on the water at that point, but it had been pretty evenly divided on 2 bodies of water that were actually very similar to one another in the ways of cover, depth, structure, and even water color. Those first few years were a very eye opening experience fishing water I've never fished before. Learning how to break it down quickly and factoring in far more variables was something I wasn't used to. I feel like I could have learned some of the lessons a lot quicker fishing with someone with more experience. Instead, I had to learn my lessons the harder way falling flat on my face multiple times in the same situations before learning what the right move was. Your situation is slightly different given that your club derby's don't have entry fees. You aren't out anything if you don't do well, except maybe in points if they track those. It's really up to you and how you feel about your own fishing skills.

Welcome to Bass Resource!

Welcome to the forums!

I love fishing for both, but I end up fishing for largemouth more often. Most of the closer lakes around me have a better population of the green ones than the browns if they're present at all. If I'm headed up north a little farther though many lakes have the opposite demographics.

I haven't jumped up to the Zillion even though I'm hoping to get one this year. I will say the Tatula SV is a great reel to learn on and takes some serious effort to backlash. I'm sure the Zillion is even better, but for the beginner the Tatula is a great option.

The rod I really love for that is a St. Croix 7' H/F "Dock Sniper". I've got the discontinued LTB model, but they do still make it in the Mojo Bass. Despite it's name which it does excel at, it's very good around deep grass, shallow grass, pads, reeds, laydowns, as well as light punching and can be used for throwing a frog in a pinch as well. It's got a nice soft tip, but a lot of backbone, and the shorter length lends well to making pinpoint roll casts in tight quarters, but is long enough to pitch with. If you're going to be punching heavy matts, I'd go with something a little longer, but for the majority of the grass around here I feel like it's pretty much the perfect rod.

It's suited pretty well for a lot of things. It can be used for winding baits as long as you're one of those people who can slow down your retrieve. Otherwise, the 8.1 is great for anything where you're primarily moving the bait with your rod and using it to pick up slack. Techniques like walking a frog or spook, t rigged anything, carolina rigs, jigs, and as you mentioned jerkbaits. Wacky rigs would be another good option. Although they do have a shallower spool, they'll still hold 100 yards of 14 lb line. which is plenty for most applications.

If I remember correctly, the Motorguide has a smaller shaft diameter than the Fortrex, but people have been successful by using some sort of rubber to wrap around the shaft to bulk it up. There may be something out there that has been machined to do the same thing. If not, it could be, but I'm sure the rubber is a cheaper option.

Not sure what type of boat you own, but running wide open in heavy wind is rarely a good idea. The best advice is to take it easy and learn your hull and how it handles water. The only thing that can really teach you is seat time. I doubt you'll get too big of waves on a 600 acre lake, but it's always best to run into or with the wind. When you need to run cross wind, angle slightly down wind at an angle to keep your boat in-between the swells. This is what is commonly referred to as "running the trough".

The 6'8" M/XF rod is a tremendous wacky rig rod and works very well for a lot of other finesse techniques. The 6'10" would be great too with a little extra length. I wouldn't hesitate to go with the 7' MH/F as your all purpose as you won't have any issues with that.

Just saw this come out in a few places. It's got some kind of cool features to it like the buttons and display, but not sure how I feel about those. One, they're wireless so more batteries to replace and one could die while fishing and the pedal is wireless too. I'd rather have it wired so as long as the tm has power everything to control it does too. The other thing with so many people running more graphs up front, shallow water anchors, the foot controlled turrets now where do you put it all? It is lighter weight by about 10 lbs. vs the Ghost which is a huge advantage as far as overall boat performance I'm sure it's overbuilt and is backed by one of the best customer service departments on the planet, but I'm not sure it would justify the price. On a side note when it comes to thrust, I remember a few videos of people trying to measure the actual lbs. of thrust to see if it aligned to what the tm's were rated at. They were unable to replicate the numbers advertised on the other trolling motors and I believe Garmin was the closest to advertised so I'm assuming Power Pole is accurate with what they're advertising. I'm not thinking that even if I did have the money that I'd be dropping that much money on. I've been beyond pleased with my Ghost and it has more sonar options available that tie right into the system. After doing a little more research, the only wireless portion that uses batteries is the spot lock/heading lock buttons. The wireless display and wireless foot pedal are only wirelessly connected to the trolling motor, but are still wired into the boat batteries. Still doesn't change my opinion.

If you do a lot of drifting you might want to just look at putting it on the tm shaft and getting one of the G-Force Troll perfect accessories for your tm. Even in the big waves it should stay whatever direction you point it then you don't have any other mounts or anything to worry about. Ideally, a motorized turret that mounts to the tm is probably the best, but in my opinion they haven't come out with the perfect one yet. Minn-kota is close with theirs and having the ability to control the ff independent of the trolling motor, to mirror the trolling motor movement, and the ability to lock onto a target and let it control itself independent of boat and tm movements. From the early reports it sounds like it's good, but there are some bugs that need to be worked out with it.

maybe someone should put this sweet looking combo together lol

Tried snelling quite a few years back now. Watched the videos, took my time, did it right. Was excited to never lose a fish again with all the hype surround it only for it to fall flat on its face all afternoon. Finally got annoyed, cut it off and tied the hook back on using my trusty ol'palomar knot and didn't lose one the rest of the afternoon. If the snell is better, I didn't see it and haven't fished with anyone who could convince me otherwise either. Until that happens, I'll stick with what has worked for me.

What kind of pole were you thinking? Fixed, hand controlled, or an electronic model? If you were thinking like a separate pole mount, the constant stowing and deploying I think would be a pain unless the pole mount was mounted to the TM. Having it on the TM shaft allows hand free control with the draw back of always having to move with the TM. Side note with the slop in the TM steering. You can usually adjust the cable tensioners to get rid of that. It could also indicate that your cables have stretched a little which is what happens shortly before they completely break.

Perspective mode is probably a horse a piece either way, just depends on your skill using it. I find it harder to pinpoint an exact target in perspective mode because there's a lot more calculation in your head to guestimate the angle based off the tm direction at any given time and what you're seeing on your screen. Regular forward mode is always pointing the exact same direction the TM is facing so it gives you the casting angle. When it comes to mapping, 99% of the time you're going to get more detail out of a chip. Garmin, Humminbird, and Lowrance all own mapping companies now and if they gave you the best most detailed maps on their units there would be zero incentive to buy the mapping cards. On a positive note, both Garmin - Navionics, and Lowrance - C-map allow you to look at their maps online. You can look them over and see what you're getting and you can compare to what you're currently using on your locator too.

I used to have a Rapala high contrast digital scale for about 5 years. I liked it and it was quite accurate and it was easy to operate to store weights in. My only gripe is it didn't have a handle which could make it a little awkward to hold at times. It ended up losing it's accuracy and got to a point where you could weigh the same fish/item multiple times and come up with vastly different weights. I now have the Berkley Precision scale that I've been running for the past 2-3 years and have liked that as well. Pretty easy to operate to store weights and has the added benefit of having the handle on top and a padded case.

Glad to hear you're headed in the right direction!

I know I made that mistake in my post. I know "boat buckle" is just the brand name and they make multiple types of tiedowns, but when I hear boat buckle I jump to the assumption that it's their popular ratcheting transom straps.

I've had a few different kinds on my last 3 boats and haven't had an issue with any of them staying tight. Is the issue that you're having that they don't get tight when you put them on (like you can pull slack into the strap after you tighten them up), or are they disengaging while you're driving?