WIGuide

The 1st prototype was even worse believe it or not. Pretty sure it's the counter balance so if you lean back the whole thing doesn't just tip over. My thoughts...I'll save my money and pass on this one.

@airshot He's talking about the bow stop/bow roller. In the past I've used the yellow poly ones and they do last longer and don't mark up you boat as much. If yours is worn out though it might be worth looking at a Drotto. They aren't cheap, but they're great addition to your trailer.

They started up north more, but they have a decent fishing department. The one closest to me is a smaller store, but despite that they have a good selection and some of the higher end tackle. Their newer stores are a lot bigger and they seem to cater more to the specifics of an area, so I certainly believe they'll have a good selection of fishing gear there.

I love the DT line, they're great fish catchers regardless of model and a staple in my crankbait boxes.

In order to keep my sanity...I won't count them so I'll never know lol

They do weigh a bit more, for sure, but like you said, they've got a lot of room. Plus they handle rough water really well!

Congrats on the new rig! It definitely looks like it was well cared for.

Congrats on the new ride!!

@DaubsNU1 stated a version of the adage and others have chimed in on the reasons behind it. As I've fished more and more, it does hold true to an extent, however fish can still be caught regardless of direction. In my experience, as long as there's wind of some sort that's out of a constant direction, fishing is better than with no wind.

I don't know for sure on the Classic XL. The PT175's do but even with those depending on what unit you're going to run, you may have to run bigger wires. Easies way to find out is to take out the 10 or so screws that hold that piece on and have a look. If nothing else you could run some splices from your front navigation light base. The switch would have to be on in order for the locator to be on, but there wouldn't be any additional power draw unless the lights were plugged in. Being that it's new, I wouldn't jump to that option though.

nicely done!

It was an Atlas No doubt the 10 claims/day is due to the sheer amount of idiots on the water. The lake I grew up on had an island with a long super shallow point off one side with hazard buoys on top of it. You wouldn't believe the number of people who would drive right in between the buoys thinking they were channel markers despite clearly being marked hazard and not being red or green. SMH

I usually leave my keys in the boat, but the spare set is in the glove box of my vehicle. The spare set has the keys for the trailer locks so I can't pull out of the driveway without at least a set of keys...now having the keys in the boat when it get's backed into the water is a whole different story lol.

All you have to do is skip taping on the upper stationary shaft. I have a Ghost instead of a Fortrex, but the shaft concept is the same as the cable steer motors or any with a stationary head design. The trolling motor will only raise to the point where the bottom of the upper shaft is at the bottom of the mount. The FF transducer mounts to the lower shaft so secure the transducer cable to the bottom shaft and if you do tape it to the stationary shaft do it right at the bottom and be sure to leave a small loop of slack at the top which allows for the lower shaft to rotate and not put pressure on the wire and then either tape the wire right under the trolling motor head, or straight to the cables. As far as adjustment, the Fortrex has a collar with a thumb screw to adjust height just like the Maxxum.

@RHuff What rod and reel are you using when fishing this way? I doubt you're ever going to get a line to cut through pad stems as they're just too thick and tough, but you should be able to increase your landing rate considerably over what your current rate.

Welcome to the forum! You live on some of the best bass waters around! 7 & 8 are two of my favorite pools to fish. They get pressured, but they still fish great! The river provides so many opportunities and since you're using a kayak, you can access some of those backwaters normal anglers can't leaving you with some nearly untapped waters.

What about the good ol' fashioned ziplock bag?

As others here have said I could do it, but I'd much rather not. There are tremendous benefits to using it in both shallow and deep water. Structure is structure regardless of the depth and fish will relate to it. There's a few lakes around that have a very shallow average depth which makes the small depth changes big deals. Without sonar, you're not going to find those no matter how many times you jab your rod tip into the water. I love fishing visible cover too and it can be great at times, but there are also times you need to fish cover that isn't visible and without sonar, that's very hard to do. To each their own though, but if it doesn't effect how you fish, you're under utilizing one of the best tools in your tool chest.

If you're looking to dial in your setup this isn't the way to do it. Every prop will run different on different hulls and different motors. Like Way2slow stated nothing set in stone. To answer the question though I run a 24 Pitch Tempest+ on my Ranger 518c with a Mercury 200 Pro XS two stroke. It runs well, but I might look at a few other options this year.

On my last boat I had a bigger version of those clam shells and they worked great. With the more complex setups these days with more wires looking at something like these might be worth the investment as well. https://ashmoremarine.com/shop/ols/products/amp-mega-shell https://ashmoremarine.com/shop/ols/products/amp-ultra-clam-shell https://cornfieldfishinggear.com/product/wire-puck/

The most common reason for proposing is over trimming. This can happen at any speed. As you increase trim the thrust angles up in turn pushing the bow up creating "lift". If the thrust is not sufficient to lift the weight of the bow and hold it, on most bass boats you'll get a proposing effect as there is enough to lift it a little but it can't sustain and the bow drops again. There are generally two ways to get out of it, either trim down, or power out if it. A beat up prop can make it happen more as they don't have as much grip. A 4 blade will generally be better than a 3 blade as well as the more blade area also provides more grip. If the boat is set up properly, the fin probably won't help since when on plane and trimming your cavitation plate is usually out of the water anyway.

Not sure what kind of boat you have to know if this would be a cheaper alternative, but Ashmore Marine Products has a "helping hand" device that tightens down with your locator gimble and can hold your rope up higher. It doesn't provide a post for you, but would keep it higher so you wouldn't have to bend down as far and doesn't take away from your deck space. https://ashmoremarine.com/shop/ols/products/xn-helpin-hand-ti3f

Yes, it goes over the rules and laws how to safely share the water and everyone out there should have to go through it. One of the biggest things I see around here when it comes to Kayak's is they need to realize they aren't as visible as a boat or pontoon. One in particular used to fish evening past dark. He liked to fish out in front of the unlit landing with a dark colored kayak and always wore dark clothing. He occasionally carry a flashlight he'd shine your way when you're coming in, but many times he did not and he was virtually invisible against the backdrop. Because I knew he liked to fish there I was always overly cautious coming in after the first time I saw him, but for others who didn't have that knowledge that could set up to be a horrible situation.

If what you've done for the past decade is working and you have no problems with it, there's really no reason to change. Since there's a possibility of using it on multiple boats the 42" will have you covered on all of them.

Here's a way to visually interpret what you're seeing. Because the beam is smaller on the higher frequency you're seeing a narrow segment of bottom. Using the 200khz in the situation below you'd only be seeing 1 arch because only one fish is within the sonar beam even though there are more fish around. Switching to the lower frequency you would see more arches like you did in your first picture. As the water gets deeper, the cones get and larger so it's showing you more information on the same image. Looking at the specs on that transducer the 77kHz cone is a 45* cone and the 200kHz is a 15* cone. In the water depths of the first shot, the base of the 77kHz cone is roughly 31' in diameter where the 200kHz would be about 10'.