WIGuide

Everyone has had days like that. It sounds like you could have made some adjustments to help try to better the situation. With the dropshot you may have wanted to try a different bait profile, color, and/or downsize your presentation. From the sounds of it, you may have been around some small aggressive fish, or you were around bigger fish that were leery of just eating that DS right up. Once you decided to switch techniques entirely, you switched to a bait that in its short lifespan has already had many complaints about the hookup ratio. It sounds like you shared the same experience. Having already been frustrated from the ds you escalated your frustration level by doing so. Once you switched to the wacky rig it sounds like it was back to the same situation as the DS, the fish weren't committing to fully taking the bait either because of size or they were in one of those leery moods. I don't know if you tried switching or not, but sometimes switching colors will help, or instead of throwing a 5" move down to a 4" or even a 3". Hindsight is always more 20/20, but since you had some good hits on the swimbait, it may have been worth sticking with it and using one other than the livetarget. Between the ds and wacky rig, I don't think that was a hook issue. It'd be one thing if you consistently had them on and kept losing them, but from the sounds of it, they didn't consistently have a hook it their mouth to even know if you had a hook issue. Stick with it though, and remember if you're getting bit, you're getting close to solving the puzzle. A lot of times it's just a slight change that will make the fish commit better.

With as many posts as you have about watching the trailer tires while you're driving, it makes me question if you watch the road at all You can use a clearance marker light wired in under the fender. If it's in front of the wheel which I would suspect is where you'd want it, the light has to be amber in color. Doing so would be legal. If you for some reason want the light behind the wheel, it would have to be red.

A few decent ones from the past week or so.

As far as worm weights go, I usually carry about 6-10 of 1/8, 3/16, and 1/4. Flippin weights I'll carry about a dozen 3/8, a half dozen 1/2 and 3-4 4 of 3/4, 1 oz and 1 1/4, and 1 1/2 oz DS weights I don't keep many tungsten ones on hand maybe a handful spread out over a few sizes. There are still some advantages to using tungsten ds weights but to me, it's not as important as it is with other weights.

Personally, I think it's pretty accurate. Those people who are really hardcore into fishing tend to associate with others that are as well, so when we think of others who fish is skewed because our perception is based mostly on them. We tend to forget about the thousands and thousands of anglers who aren't hardcore, nor do they care to be.

I fish mine straight out of the package about 98% of the time. I have trimmed the legs to different lengths on a few and that usually makes them easier to walk.

I throw spinnerbaits and swim jigs on a 7.1:1 as far as the belly weighted swimbait, I'd rather throw it on a 6.3:1 since those baits have a tendency to rise if retrieved too fast.

Something like a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser might do it, otherwise, you could always use aluminum polish. The drawback to polish is you'll most likely have to do the entire exposed aluminum surface to make it look uniform.

Getting skunked is part of the game. The better fisherman you become, the less it will happen, but that doesn't eliminate the possibility. Just fishing from the bank adds to the challenge because you're usually very limited by the amount of fishable water you have access to. As some have suggested, smaller bodies of water are usually your friend when it comes to this. As far as what you see from others in person, on social media, youtube, or the interwebs don't let it get you down. Fishing tournaments, there have been days that even on the same smaller lake someone hits the jackpot and nobody else does. Or the case of the two boats passing each other one saying they can't catch a fish on "x" bait and boat two says they can't catch them on anything but "same x"bait. As for social media, posts, or videos you're only seeing the highlights of their outings. Someone may have put in a 16 hour day on the water and had lots to show for it, but you're seeing the highlights of those 16 hours in the course of a few minutes in a video, or in a few pictures. You don't see the 4 hours straight they went without a bite, or the other 3 hours they kept getting short strikes. On the other hand they could also just be fishing a tremendous body of water as well. I'm not saying that to take anything away from them as fishermen because that's fishing, but when you see those type of posts you have to take all of that into account. If not you start to develop unrealistic expectations for your own fishing.

I'm a fish kisser...deal with it.

Didn't have very much time to fish last night, actually debated not even going. I'm glad I made the decision to go. Caught 6 5 of which were keepers including these two big girls

Being around boats a lot, I've seen my share of tm issues. Not saying they all don't have issues at times, but from what I've seen and experienced Minnkota seems to have more issues than Motorguide. They also seem to be more popular, so on a percentage basis they could be very close, that's hard to tell. Just a quick story that sums it up for me, a few years ago I was fishing in a tournament on the Mississippi River. Water was just below flood stage so the current was absolutely ripping on the majority of the river. The club was somewhere in the 17-19 boat range and the field was split pretty close to 50/50 as far as tm brands go. In that one day of fishing 4 trolling motors burnt out....all 4 were Minnkota. I'll stick with Motorguide until they give me a reason not to.

Keep and it and you'll get one worthy of it

I'll always stay out there as long as I can. I can usually count on hooking into something regardless of the day, but even if I don't I won't get discouraged. Fishing is just that....fishing, catching is just a bonus.

Nice replica! They are the way to go, they'll last far longer and you won't have to worry about cracking or anything like that. My pb got mounted as a replica as well. Mine only took about 4-6 weeks and when I got the first one it wasn't right. The coloring was washed out, and the mount didn't look like the fish I caught. Fortunately, the company I went through guaranteed satisfaction. I called them up and told them about it and they told me to ship it back and they'd try again. Because my fish was caught prespawn the gut on it was bigger than the average bass of that size so they needed to order a different form and then paint it according to the pictures I had sent. The second one came back perfect and I couldn't be happier. Replicas are made on fiberglass blanks that are ordered based on length and girth and then the blanks are painted to match the markings of the fish caught. To get one you only need the length, girth, and pictures of the fish which allows you to release the fish to be caught another day. Some say that if it's not a skin mount, it's not the real thing....those aren't the real thing though either since the skin is stretched over a form shaped to fit into the skin and then the skin is painted anyway. Reproductions, are very comparable cost wise as well and usually run just slightly more.

Congrats on the success, I too struggled in the jig department, but put my foot down last year. It's become one of my confidence baits now. You'll be glad you decided to pick up the jig in the first place!

Welcome to the Forums!

Nice job, congrats on the PB!

You can, but I wouldn't. You won't fit very much line at all on that reel using 8 lb test, and you're going to have management issues. Also, you're using an ultralight so 8 lb test is overkill, I'd drop down to 4 or 6 lb test or switch to braid that has the same diameter as 4 or 6 lb test mono.

Definitely worth the investment. Regular cam style straps don't seem bad until you have ratchet straps and then you'll realize you'll never go back. I've put them on my last two boats and don't see myself ever going back.

Personally, I'd be looking at two different units. The reason being, is pontoons are like kites in the wind, if you plan of fishing out of them often at all, you need a pretty beefy tm unless planning on only fishing dead calm conditions. I wouldn't suggest anything under a 24V tm for a pontoon, where that would most likely be overkill for the john boat depending on size.

Ranger has had the spare tire mounted in the same location since the early 80's. If it was a common problem they would have moved it, as they fix issues as they arise. I've had experience with quite a few Rangers on many different landings and a tire only rubbed slightly on one, and that was because the hitch on the vehicle is mounted lower than the recommended spec. It appears that the owner of the boat in your picture may have mounted the spare on the bracket incorrectly as well. There are two lugs that stick through the mounting plate, and depending on what holes you use in the rim it drastically affects the level of the spare tire. Looking at the picture below of a correctly mounted tire on the same model and year boat, you can see how much higher the tire sits off the ground. It doesn't mean it will never be close to scraping, but in the vast majority of situations, it shouldn't actually make contact. As far as seeing your axel mounted tire while you drive, this setup still allows you to do so. They are not mounted so low that you can't see your tire and they are also set in slightly so you can see the outside edge of your tire as well. To answer your question about how they're attached to the trailer, they are welded. I'm sure if you were ordering a new boat you could get one without the spare tire carrier since Ranger manufacturers their own trailers and doesn't farm them out to a different company. Then you'd be free to bolt whatever type carrier to it.

Welcome to the forums!

When you're pitching to cover or structure you can pick it apart fairly quickly. Something like a dock hit the posts, and some under the dock in the shade. If you feel confident that there are fish under it, you might want to spend a little more time on it and saturate it with more pitches than if you're just prospecting. If you pitching to something like a laydown, start around the outsides, and work your way in towards the heart of the tree. In grass, if you have a nice edge you can just work your way down the edge and be sure to hit any points or cuts in the grass. Keep an eye on the different types of grass and depths when you do get hit. On our natural lakes up here, we tend to have large submergent grass flats, with a mix of grasses. The bass tend to have a preference as to what type of grass they group up in/around so making note of what type of grass and the depth of it when you get hit can pay huge dividends. The last few days I was on vacation and was out on a lake that had such grass flats. Every time I'd get bit I put a waypoint down on my GPS while I zig-zagged up and down the breaklines. After a few catches, it was pretty clear that the fish were in the 7-10 foot range and they were in millfoil. Shallower was unproductive, deeper was unproductive, so I narrowed my focus on that depth range to avoid wasting my time fishing water that I was not likely to catch fish.

Yes...take it off 80% and put it on 100% or high bypass