WIGuide

As stated here we catch them in WI all the time and they'll hit just about anything. I'd recommend using a spinnerbait though. You can use it without a leader with little chance of getting cut off. Also, using a willow leaf will up your chances a little bit because of the added flash. Color wise chartreuse is always a good place to start. Try targeting shallow weed beds and I don't think it will be long before you hook into one.

2500 is a good size, I actually like their old 2000 size better, but 4000 would be overkill for bass.

I don't fish shaky heads much but here's some food for thought that I found about graphite on another site. IM6, IM7, etc.: These are trade names for particular graphite produced by the Hexcel Corporation. These numbers are not industry standards or an indication of quality, especially since other companies use the designations to refer to graphite not made by Hexcel. At best, they allow you to compare the quality of the material used to build different rods by the same manufacturer. You can be confident that the IM7 rod would use better graphite than the IM6 rod if both are made by the same manufacturer. It's more difficult to say the same about rods from two different companies, since they could be made from material from completely different manufacturers. Modulus: As stated above, modulus refers to the stiffness of the graphite, not the amount of material used or the number of graphite fibers incorporated into the sheets. Buying a rod based solely on the modulus rating is a mistake because other factors must be considered. For instance, you don't want the stiffest rod for light line techniques or cranking. In addition, other qualities must be incorporated in the graphite itself and the rod must be designed correctly to ensure the best performance and durability of the rod. The other components that go into a quality rod can also add significantly to the cost.

I'd suggest that you take the reel you intend to use with you to your local tackle store and see how each rod feels with each in hand. Base your decision on how they feel. Split grips have a little advantage of a slight reduction in weight and help aid two handed casting, otherwise it's pretty much just an aesthetic. Personally, I'd go with one of the St. Croix just because I know their attention to quality and detail is second to none. They also have a great warranty and flat out make awesome sticks!

I prefer to T-rig my creature baits and use them mostly for pitching and flipping applications. My go to presentation with them is to just hop them. If you head over to the Missle baits webpage, they have videos of all their baits where John Crews talks about them and then they show the actions of them under water. http://missilebaits.com/index.php/d-bomb.html Hopefully that will help you out.

How much are you looking to spend?

The club I'm in lets us pick our partners and we keep them for the year. We use the team format and just fish for 1 limit that way an individual can compete as a boater without a co-angler and still have a chance to win.

Got mine Monday

I'd classify Northern WI as anything north of Eau Claire so anything north of there and minus either of the Great Lakes this breakdown would be pretty accurate. Largemouth 17" = 2.5-3 lbs nice fish 18" = 3-4 lbs very nice 19" = 4-5.25lbs big bass for this area 20" = 5.25-5.5lbs very big bass for here 21+ = 5.5-6.75? trophy class fish I haven't heard of many stories of a legit 7 up here although I'm not doubting there could be a few out there. fish in this class would be in the trophy class for up here Smallies 17" = 2.25-3lbs nice 18" = 3-3.5lbs very nice 19" = 3.75-4.25lbs big smallie 20" = 4.5-5.25lbs very big 21"+ = 5-5.75lbs trophy class for here. I'm sure that there's a 6 swimming around here somewhere but pretty much unheard of unless you're on the great lakes. Those are a whole different beast though. Last year there was an 8 something caught in the big tourney out of Sturgeon Bay, but like I said in the inland WI waters that's pretty much unheard of. You have to remember that those weights are averages for around here and will be different from fish to fish and dependent on the season as well. However, they should be pretty acurate

I'm sure a lot of it is personal preference and fishing style. I'm just going off of what's worked best for me and off of what the Humminbird regional rep explained. Also, seeing the way many tournament boats are rigged they have the smaller of their two units up front unless they're running two of the same size or more.

They're popular because they have the action of a hand poured worm. Basically that means they are made out of a softer plastic and have a more natural action in the water. Also, they are popular because although they are a little more expensive than other worm, they are cheaper than actual hand poured worms because they have a robotic system that makes them. Hence the name "Roboworm". Help me out if I missed anything guys.

I've had great success with the Booyah Pad Crashers. They're nice and soft with good hooks and offer a great hookup ratio. They're also really easy to walk and offer the best value as far as I'm concerned. I've got a few Spro's, KVD's and Live Target. I think they're all good. The only one I've tried that I really didn't like was the BPS version when they first came out. The bodies were really hard and that caused it to have a horrible hookup ratio. However, I see in the last year or so I see they've softened them up quite a bit so they are probably better in that respect now.

What he said! Minnkotas have gotten better over the years than what they used to be, but IMO Motorguides are better. I like the stainless steel shaft on my Tour 82 and the Gator Mounts help to streamline any wires you run for transducers, hydrowaves, etc. Also, take it for what it's worth, in a club tournament I fished in last year on the Mississippi with very strong current four boats had relatively new trolling motors burn out. Could be a coincidence, but all 4 of them were Minnkotas.

If you buy a Ranger you won't have to worry about going back to a dealer because you won't have any issues with it. Also, if you buy it and for some reason don't like it, they have the highest resale value of any boat on the market.

Personally, I'd suggest running your bigger unit at the dash. The reason being, that's where you're doing most of your "searching" from. You can get more detail on the larger screen and really get a good idea of what your looking at. Once you find it you can mark it and when you start fishing you're already fishing in a much more condensed area. You already know what it is your fishing, and you can run your smaller front graph zoomed in a lot more just to get a confirmation that it is there and to position your boat from that.

You've got a few different options: 1) Put your HDS on the dash and either of your other units up front. The Elite 4x shows the fish icons because there is an option in your menu that is turned on. You can turn it off by referring to your manual. With this setup, you could run your Gen2 on a ram mount and just spin it around so it faces your front deck. Definitely not ideal, but it could get your through until you save up to get a second one. 2) Put the HDS at the dash and also buy the GoFree WIFI Module (http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/Products/Wireless/GoFree-WIFI-1-Module-en-us.aspx) which allows your locator to broadcast a wifi signal which can then be picked up by either your smart phone or tablet and will mirror the screen of your Gen2. If you get a Gen2 Touch instead, you can actually control it from the tablet or phone, however in your case you can get the information you need from it just being able to mirror. Not sure if you like either of those options, but hopefully they can head you in the right direction.

If I were you I'd step up to the DSI. Down imaging is definitely an advantage to have. It helps you determine what your actually looking at on your screen.

Definitely guilty of this. I took advantage of TW's 25 days of Christmas sale and after a trip to BPS I've got about $400 worth of new tackle. Yet to be ordered are my 2 new St. Croix's, some more Eco Pro Tungsten, and most likely a new HDS Gen 2 Touch 9.

You'll like your new trolling motor. Cable drive is the way to go for bass fishing. Not only is it more durable and more reliable, it also gives your more maneuverability vs. the electric steer. With a cable drive you never have to guess the direction you're going or look down at the head to see the direction it's facing, you'll just know by the position of your foot. It will literally take you about 10 minutes to get used to a cable drive, and that's given that you've never run one before. Electric steer tm's have their applications, especially the new I pilot with Link, but for bass fishing cable drive rules. If you need more proof just watch FLW or Bass Masters. They all run cable drives.

I've had a few: Most recently, this past summer was fishing a small lake out in the middle of nowhere and I fished until after dark. After loading my boat, I pulled ahead into the small clearing in the woods that acts as an unlit makeshift parking lot instead of staying right by the water like I normally do when I fish there. I left my Jeep lights on so I could see what I was doing while I was putting my stuff away and I was almost done when I heard a noise. It didn't register right away, but after a few seconds it hit me. It was a deep low growl that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up! Needless to say, I hopped in my Jeep and got out of there and finished putting my gear away when I got home. I also did a little research online and I'm about 99.9% sure the growl came from a wolf. While prefishing for a tournament last year a storm was blowing in, and was quite a ways out. We had been tracking it on my dad’s Humminbird and it looked like it was going to miss the lake. The storm was quite a ways out too so we decided to fish a little bit longer. About 15 minutes later, we started noticing if you were to lift your rod tip anywhere above your head you’d hear these little snaps and could even feel it in your rod a little. Needless to say, it was a little unnerving to say the least. The other one that comes from fairly recent memory was a time I went out knowingly before a storm on the lake we live on. I knew I had limited time but I thought I’d have at least an hour if not longer. However, I was wrong. I no more than got to my spot and started fishing (caught one right away too), and I saw a flash of lightning and heard the thunder, so I turned and headed for home. About halfway between me and our house there was a pontoon that had their motor cover off. I stopped to check on them and they had gotten lost and on top of that their motor wouldn’t start. I sat there hanging onto their pontoon while I helped them get the motor started with lightning flashing all over and in a downpour. Probably not the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but I was blessed that someone up above was protecting me that day.