WIGuide

A few pics of the total bag in case you missed the video link.

It was a blast of a weekend, and for sure a blast of a day! Thanks for the positive vibes! Haha Derek, it might be a little harder writing yours for you without having the first hand experience but I could try

Usually I tend to stay off the water on the busy holidays, but fortunately for me, the weather was projected as iffy all weekend which kept a lot of crazy people away from the lake. Had a pretty decent weekend of fishing, the passing fronts had them tuned up a bit and had a blast with dad catching our share of northerns and bass, including a few nice ones. Given that the lake our cabin is on is still in rebound from a die off roughly 6 years ago it was good to see the numbers coming back along with some size as well. That was great, but Labor Day itself turned out to be one for my record books. The day also coincided with my aunt's birthday. She enjoys fishing, so I decided to take her out on a lake that's been on fire to have some fun hoping for her to hook into some good fish. She did get a few, but in the meantime, I managed to put together quite a bag of fish. I wasn't catching the numbers I'm normally used to there, but every other spot I'd pull up on, we'd work for a while and I'd smoke a good one cranking. It was later in the day after we had went up shallow in hopes of her getting a little more action, when I decided to hit a small hump not too far away. I caught my smallest keeper right away, and then had a giant engulfed my crankbait a few casts later. When I first hooked into her, I actually thought it was a little one. Not much of a pull, not much of a hit like the others I'd caught that day and just some small head shakes. However, about a quarter of the way back to the boat she decided to come up. Despite jamming my rod tip down into the water almost the whole body came out of the water and after that the fight was on. She started pulling like a freight train coming up and jumping at least one more time. My heart had just about stopped as bass very very rarely reach that size in northern Wisconsin. Between the battle and my aunt freaking out in the back of the boat I was beside myself at what was going on. I was just praying that she'd stay on. With my aunt having somewhat limited mobility, I was left to battle and land it myself. Luckily, I was able to get the net under her and get her up in the boat. Fighting this fish I knew it was big...but being up close with it, it started to set in just how big this bass was. I had the shakes pretty bad and my whole body just about felt like jello, but I had put keeper #5 in the boat...my kicker and it tipped the scales at 7.34 lbs bringing my days total to 21.73 lbs. I could have fished slightly longer, but we decided to head in a little early to get some good pictures not only of the fish, but my limit as well. I almost wish I would have stayed out a bit longer as I feel like I could have made another cull to put me into a minimum of the 22 lb range and the way the day was going...maybe even higher. Days don't get much better than that around here, but it was a blast and some great memories were made! Not a day I'll soon forget. All fish were released to be caught again another day, but I've got the measurements to eventually get a reproduction made. Link to the whole bag --> https://www.facebook.com/michael.mudgett.9/videos/10214557160715206/

Sounds like a heck of an experience for the youngster and you as well! Way to make some great memories! The world needs more of this!

I really like the St. Croix LTB "Dock Sniper" as a frog rod. It's a 7' H/F so it's a little shorter and lighter and handles fish very well in the thick stuff.

Looks like a job well done!

1) Do you have a dedicated jerkbait set up (or a set up that doubles as a jerkbait set up which is frequently used to throw jerkbaits)? It's dedicated during certain times of the year, the rest of the year it's one of my lighter plastics setup. 2) What is the primary species you're targeting when throwing jerks? My primary species are usually largemouth or smallmouth, but occasionally walleye and regardless northern pike are usually caught as well. 3) Is your jerkbait set up spinning or baitcasting? Baitcasting, unless I'm throwing a very small one. 4) What is your preferred rod length for jerkbaits? 6'6" or right in that range, too long and you slap the rod on the water or boat gunnel 5) What is your preferred rod Action and Power for jerks? Medium power, fast action 6) If your jerkbait set up is baitcasting, what is your preferred gear ratio? Gear ratio doesn't matter to me since a jerkbaits action is usually caused by the rod action and the reel just picks up slack in the line in between jerks.

Personally I don't own a kayak either, but from what I've read, a lot of people that fish from them prefer the longer rod for fighting the fish, because when you're sitting in a yak you have a large portion of the craft sitting in front of you so when you're playing a fish and it decides to go under the bow, the extra length allows you to move your line around the bow without it getting caught on the craft. As for landing a fish, they've reinforced the tips to allow you to high stick a bit more. One thing I've learned about St. Croix, they don't bring something to market on a whim, or because it's trendy, they do their research and make sure whatever they do is done right.

As much as I'd like to say that this has never happened to me, I'd be lying if I did. It sucks when it happens, and it rather embarrassing, but it's not the end of the world.

Being that the motor is only a 75, I'd be guessing it's not a counter rotating motor. Steering torque is normal and on a boat like yours that doesn't have a no feedback system, or hydraulic steering, being able to take your hands off the wheel on plane would actually be fairly rare. Way2slow, gave you some good info on the causes of excessive steering torque so I would check those out.

A friend of mine who makes custom jigs, told me earlier this year Dicks was supposedly transitioning from carrying the majority of same stuff at all locations to each store getting a budget to pick tackle, equipment, etc that is best suited for their area. They work off some sort of purchasing budget and they can pick what they want in their fishing department. Maybe that has something to do with it.

I've run the same CMC plate on my last two boats. I've been pleased with it, although not as nice as a bob's or as fast either it has served me well. Jackplates tend to raise the motor roughly the same amount, the size you're seeing is the setback, or how far the motor will be mounted behind the transom once the plate is installed. The larger the setback the more leverage can be applied to the hull. Your best bet would be going on a sight like scream and fly or even *** and finding other users that run the same setup as you and see what they put on for setbacks and how their boat preforms after. A few things you'll want to purchase along with your jackplate is a water pressure gauge (if you don't have one already) and the blinker style trim as it'll allow you to keep your hands on the wheel and still control the plate.

I prefer the 4" for wacky rigging, it just seems to get bit a little more and that's usually what I'm looking for if I'm going to throw it.

The only real downside to them is you may not retie as often as you should, other than that, there's really no drawback.

That's a really personal decision. Aluminum boats have been made better and better over the years and the designs have improved immensely. A-Jay's Pro V Bass is a prime example of that as it's basically the same layout as a fiberglass boat with a little added depth. Not sure what models you're looking at, but that most likely isn't the case with other brands. Personally, in most cases, I'd go with a glass boat as a tournament rig. The main reason for me is just the fact that in most (not all) they have a better layout and make more use of space giving both you and your co-angler a better platform to fish out of with the ability to grow into it more with all your stuff. I was just comparing some at a show this last weekend and the glass hulls are wider and virtually every inch of space is utilized and although more expensive, the difference really isn't that much and it'd be worth it to me.

Congrats on the pb man! Next time you find yourself in the position where you forgot your tape measure and you need to measure something think of what you're using to catch it with. Take your line with bait still attached and run the line from your connection knot the length of the fish and cut it off. On something like a pb that you might want to get a reproduction of, wrap that same line around the largest girth of the fish again using the connection knot on your bait as the starting point. Where it intersects the line that has went all the way around the fish, tie a small overhand knot. Put the bait back in your tackle box, pocket, or somewhere safe and when you get home, measure the length of line and then from the connection knot to the overhand knot and you'll have both the length and girth of the fish.

I'll go with neither as my answer, I'll balance the two. There's no reason to go all or nothing. I don't need a 2 oz tungsten weight to punch with if I don't have a rod that I can use it with. Conversely, technique specific rods are nice to have for every technique, but what good does a 7'11" XH/whatever do me when I have a don't have anything to throw on it? I would balance mine arsenal and let some rods do double duty.

I would, but I can't find the transaction in my history as it's been a few years now. Just look at the sellers feedback before you go through with it.

BEAST! Heck of a catch man!

Crazy Bag!

A few of my favorite non- worm dropshot baits SK Dreamshot and Mag Dreamshot SK Baby Rodent Yum Kill Shot Yum Warning Shot Missile Drop Craw Missile Fuse

Cool stuff! I looked at some a long time back with my childhood toy microscope and it was interesting looking at some close up. I had checked out some cheap brand that I was hoping were decent and looking at the hook points really close like that opened my eyes when I compared to some Owners I had. It was night and day difference.

I got mine on ebay as well and actually for a price that made me wonder if they were knockoffs. They were the real deal though and I've absolutely loved them.

At that price point, I'd throw the 7'4" H/F St. Croix Mojo Bass into the mix. It'll handle the frogs and slop well and although it might be a little overkill for a jig, something like a heavy football jig would be a possible use.

True, but since I can't convince a bass to tell me what he sees, I can only go with what I can see. Thinking of the physics of color, white is the reflection of all colors and black is the absence of all colors in other words black is caused from absorbing all visible light. Regardless of what color spectrum they see, that should equate the same. Basically when it comes down to it, we're all speculating anyway so do what you believe in and you'll mostly catch fish doing so.