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@gimruis is correct. One comes with the active target module and one does not.

I've got about 4 trailers I use on a swim jig on a regular basis that I'm going to swap out on activity level. My list is how I categorize my trailers starting with the finesse to most agressive. Yum Swimmin' Dinger Kalin's Single Tail Grub 3.8" Eco Pro Tungsten Swing Shad Missile Baits Mini D Chunk The majority of the time I'll start with the swimbait and adjust from there.

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I've got a little stock to burn through yet, I'll start checking out some of these as replacements. I wish Z-man made something in between the TRD Tubez and the Ez Tubez as that'd make it pretty easy as far as durability is concerned.

Hey guys, I like throwing tubes in the 2.5" to 2.75" size range. In the past, I've used a lot of the Berkley Power Tubes and have had good success with them as far as putting fish in the boat and they held up ok for as soft as they seemed. However, this past year I was running into a lot more durability issues than before and having tube heads popping through the head of the bait many times even on the first fish. Maybe they had a few runs that didn't have quite as thick of walls or something, but I'm looking for your recommendations on your favorite small tubes.

Just because you can drive over logs and stumps doesn't mean you have to. Mud motors are great for running in shallow water so if you have a lot of that, it would be a good option. It might let you access more water than you currently could with the motor you have.

It's a long haul, but it's a cool area to visit. Plan on staying for a while with the number of good lakes around the area you'll want to do a little exploring.

My pick would be the St. Croix Victory 7'1" MH/F "The Grunt" You're never going to get a rod that's perfect for everything, but it's a very versatile rod. It's got a softer tip allowing you to cast lighter baits, but enough backbone to drive bigger hooks home. It's rated down to 3/8 oz. but I regularly throw 1/4 oz. jigs on it without any issue.

None of the above. I use a Palomar knot for all of my line to lure needs. I've never had a reason to switch as I've never had an issue with the strength. Super quick to tie and if you take the 1/2 a second to wet the knot and cinch it down slow and smooth you shouldn't have an issue.

A 14 inch boat!? Your Solix is an inch bigger than the boat. That's taking tiny boat to a new level! I've gotta see pics because it sounds like a feat of engineering to get all that stuff to fit! I know it was just a typo but given the conversation I had to give you crap about it. At 14K what you've got offers more value than the Veer, definitely more equipped and rigged for fishing. If you put the same stuff on the Veer, that'd add another $7k to the price tag and you still would only have a 9.9 since that's all it's rated for.

I would think both would work. If you're worried about water intrusion, putting it under the console would help reduce any exposure to water.

I fall in the majority here where I don't abuse my gear for no reason. It costs money so I'll take care of it, but I'm also not going to treat it like it's some crown jewel either. I have Rod Gloves and Reel Gloves and they go on when I put my rods in the locker, but when I'm fishing...I'm fishing. The rods I plan on using are on the deck and I may add more throughout the day. When they get put away their covers again unless I'm in a hurry in a tournament, then I may toss them back in the locker and wait until the end of the day to recover.

Are you talking about mounting it to the outside of the console or up under it?

Congratulations @raggydoo You'll definitely have to show off the new ride on here!

It took me a bit as well, when I finally pulled it up it was covered in so much nasty muck, I set it on my trolling motor bracket to drip/dry off before I put it in the boat. Went about 100 yards down the bank and the guy I was fishing with set the hook wiggling the boat just enough to dump the anchor back overboard...

I'll be going into my 11th season of fishing tournaments this year and I still get that way the night before! My best suggestion is a bottle of neuroSleep! That stuff will knock me out and not leave me groggy in the morning.

A boot; a redhorse on a square bill; a rock...and I actually mean catching the rock not getting hung up, somehow the bait got stuck in a small crack and I reeled it in; a 15 lb. anchor; had a Northern Pike that jumped into the boat chasing my spinnerbait when I pulled it out of the water; I've lassoed a few northerns when they hit the weight on a texas rig and the line and hook tangled pulling the line tight behind the gills and over it's head ; caught a few fish of the toothy variety while reeling in other fish a few of those got hooked and one just hung on until I got it in the net...I've got a pretty long list of oddballs. Probably the craziest one though that to this day I still can't believe actually happened, was fishing a lake I hadn't been on before, and was idling out of a bay and noticed a line of cribs on my side imaging. One of them had an absolute ton of baitfish around it so I stopped, made a cast, and felt a little tick so I reeled down and wailed on what I thought was going to be a good one. Instead, there was nearly no resistance so I immediately thought a northern grabbed it and cut me off. As I was reeling my "slack" up there was a little resistance and my line was moving much like when you get a leaf on a crankbait. If my hands weren't on my rod and reel I would have been scratching my head. When I got my bait in, this is what I found. How It didn't pull out is when I set the hook is beyond me. Definitely couldn't do that again if I tried.

With the weigh bags, it's probably going to depend on how they weigh the fish. Given that it's a conservation club, I would think fish care would be a high priority. Most tournaments I've fished, they provide the bag so they can ensure the fish are cared for and by limiting the number of bags they hand out, they can shorten the amount of time the fish are in bags getting stressed and possibly dying. A lot of the tournament bags have a mesh bag inside the weigh bag that the fish are weighed in. They tare the scale with an empty mesh bag and that way they can pull them out, weigh them quickly, and get them right back into the water. If they provide them, they use the same manufacturer so all the mesh bags are the same weight and you're just getting the fish weight. Sounds like it'll be a fun run right away! The anticipation level will probably be through the roof!!

As someone who's been heavily involved in the used boat market, I have to disagree with the last few post about accessories adding zero value. They do not add as much as what they would when brand new, but there is still value added. As the accessories age, that value goes down, but it's not completely gone. Normal market, elevated market, low market, it doesn't matter.

You should get in one, I have a feeling you'll enjoy the experience. It's good that you're wanting to go in prepared and a good set of culling clips is a great tool you'll want to have. Finding a good set has gotten harder in recent years as most tournaments have banned the old style puncture clips (some will even DQ you if they are seen in your boat) and for good reason, they were used incorrectly by many anglers and ended up ripping huge holes in fishes mouths that don't heal. With the new non puncture clips companies have had a hard time of finding the right balance of design and material that keeps the clip durable enough and produces enough clamping pressure not to come off, yet light enough that it's not too heavy to put strain on smaller fish. A perfect example of this is the set of Rapala cull tags that I have. The overall design is good, and there's nothing on them that can rust, but the clips are not strong enough to be able to lift fish out of the livewell with them or put them on a beam to find the heavier fish. I also had my livewell lid drop on one of the clips and blew it apart into about 8 pieces. I've continued to use them though, because they're light and don't stress the fish out. On the other hand Cal Coast seems to have a heavier duty clip, but has a lot of reviews of their clips having a tendency to kill smaller fish and smallmouth. When it comes to weigh bags, check with the tournament organization before you buy one. I bought one before I started fishing tournaments and then found out a lot of clubs/tournaments provide their own and require you to only use their bags. No reason to spend money on something you won't use.

It's a good thing to learn about before you fish a tournament. Had you not, you'd pretty much be guaranteed to have one of those days where you catch a ton of fish all about the same size and at the end of the day realized you spent a ton of time that day in your livewell trying to figure out which fish to cull. Mike do you have the gen 1 version or gen 2? I looked at them before and given that they come with the beam and a tag holder they seem like a pretty good value overall.

Maybe you want one of the new Vision Marine outboards instead then. https://visionmarinetechnologies.com/vision-marines-record-breaking-v32-boat-nominated-at-the-2022-gustave-trouve-awards-for-excellence-in-electric-boats-and-boating/

If they're 12's they wouldn't be gen 1's as they only made an HDS 10 and the 12's didn't come out until the 2 touch's came out. Worst case scenario, g2touch 12's would be about $500 or so on the used market and a used Ghost will still be over 2K. If they're newer the prices only go up and I wouldn't bat an eye.

That's a bit of a toss up in my mind. 360 is great for seeing what's around you such as brush piles, weedlines, etc. and gives you more of an overhead view so you can see and understand the lay of the land. Forward facing sonar gives you a great amount of detail and ability to see what's going on in a very specific area and obviously it's awesome to be able to see fish moving around and how they react. Humminbird also offers landscape mode which you have to turn the transducer sideways and it will give you a view somewhat similar to 360. If the transducer is mounted to the tm it can be hard to follow exactly where you're looking at on the sonar. Both technologies work best with as little of movement from the boat as possible. To answer your question about returns, yes hard spots show up on live with brighter returns just like on down or side imaging. When it comes to grass though, unless there's quite a bit of water over top of it, you won't see much. Since you did mention a lot of grass, I feel like the 360 grabs or drags more if you're in the grass. I know there are quite a few guys in my bass club that run Ultrex's with 360 and they have cut a small piece of 2x4 to lift their trolling motor and lay across the bracket leaving the tm elevated so the 360 unit is completely out of the water. I really think the decision comes down to how you fish and the knowledge of the bodies of water you fish. From your earlier comments, it sounds like you know your body of water pretty well and have spent enough time on the water to know how these spots are laid out. Since that's the case I think you'd benefit the most from adding Mega Live first and sometime down the road compliment it with 360. Since you already have Birds and a Minnkota, I'd personally stick with them and incorporate them into your system.

I once thought going straight fluoro was a good idea because I didn't want to deal with leader knots either. I have since scrapped that, as braid to a leader seems far superior. I generally use pretty light braid too and when fishing stained water I'll just forego the leader entirely.

Serves ya right @Steveo-1969 that's a big no no up here! ? Tough to be accepted if you don't bleed green and gold and ooze cheese. I suppose we can make an exception for you though since you do at least like bass fishing.