WIGuide

They just came out this spring. They were designed to use with their jig heads for forward facing sonar similar to moping. I'm sure they'll work for river smallies too.

Yikes, you might want to go by it for him so he doesn't forget to take it. Pretty sure one call would have gotten this all straightened out, or at least got a steep discount on the rim.

Tungsten weights I carry 1/8, 1/4, & 3/8 worm weights. Then I have flippin' weights in 3/8, 1/2, 3/4, 1, 1.25, and 1.5 oz. I might even have a 2 oz. in there too. I did try the dropshot weights, but have went back to lead since I didn't feel they offered as much of a benefit. I also carry some tungsten Pro Wacky Weights in 1/32, 1/16th, and 1/8th.

A lot of times in a tournament you want to fish your strengths, but at the same time if your strengths don't match up with what will catch fish you have to make a choice of either grinding it out and trying to make your strengths work, or try something you might not be as good at but you think will work. Given the time of year, you might want to keep your options a little more open. Fish will and should be moving up, but they don't all move up at the same time so a lot of times you'll find fish in all stages of the spawn at the same time.

I'm a big fan of 832 for all my braid except finesse which I've switched to Sufix Nanobraid.

@PABASS I see you have a G3, which I haven't had to rig before to know how much of a headache it is. Install price is generally going to vary greatly by boat make, the ease of rigging, and if things need to be upgraded or not. Not knowing the year of your boat, I'm estimating they'll need to upgrade the wiring going up front to run the 12. They'll probably sell you a Sea Clear harness or something similar for a few hundred dollars and then I'd be guessing between 2-4 hours of labor that most dealerships charge anywhere from $100-150/hour. Doing it yourself, this could be done in an afternoon, maybe two, and even upgrading your wiring, your own cost would be roughly $60-70.

That's very true, I just wish they were still cheaper. With the amount of toothy critters we have up here, it doesn't take long to mangle them. Super glue can help prolong their life to a point, but it can only do so much haha.

@looking45 Have your friend call Basscat. From what I've heard they have pretty good customer service and should get things straightened out. They also might like to have the dealer information since they're unwilling to do anything.

I really like the Booyah Pad Crasher. It used to be the more budget friendly option. They've went up in price but are still cheaper than some others, otherwise Spro's are really good too.

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the new rig! The 60 should move that along pretty good! As far as 2 stroke oil, you could use that, but any TCW-3 rated oil will be just fine. I used the Walmart brand in my old OMC 2 stroke and put on way more hours than the average person and never had an issue. It's significantly cheaper than what you picked. As for electronics what are you looking to spend. There is a very wide range of prices and features and "budget" is definitely a relative term.

Doubtful, guys who try to steal spots off youtube or otherwise, in my experience, lack the skills needed to succeed. Sure the blind squirrels will find a nut on occasion, but not often enough to survive.

Absolute tank! Nice job, but no more Youtube videos... How am I supposed to get my dose of brown fish porn? lol

@GoneFishingLTN the 4" are popular, but just like any other soft plastics, the size and weight can be changed to fine tune the technique to meet the demand of the conditions.

That they do, I absolutely love my ghost! I haven't looked into lithium's too hard, but it seems like a lot of the videos I've seen are pro's talking about how little they've drained over the course of a day, but they all seem to have the charge too. Wasn't sure if the 50 ah would be enough without it, but it sounds like they definitely are.

^^^ THIS!

I've got an old Vortex rod that was a Gander Mountain house brand. I think I picked it up on clearance for like $15, I believe they were only in the $20 range before closeout, and it actually still gets use. It's listed as a medium power, but I feel it's a slightly on the lighter side of it and action wise I'd say it's more of a moderate to mod-fast. It loads up pretty well with a ned head and little finesse baits and some light crankbaits. It's held up thus far, and although it's nowhere near the quality of the rest of the rods I fish I don't mind using it at all.

Where did you get the impression that you should only be flipping a 4" tube? Generally the bigger ones are thicker walled and hold hooks better, but you can flip any size tube you prefer.

@Siebert Outdoors was that 15 hours on straight battery power or do you have a Power Pole charge paired up with them?

Congratulations on the new boat first of all! I'm thinking it would still make the most sense to put it in there, or maybe even up in the bow. It looks like the locker has a little different shape in those and may not have quite as much room right in front of the console, but I still think it'd work well to put it inside there somewhere. Less vibration and impact than the bow, and easier to troubleshoot on the water if something happens.

Some of that may really depend on the boat itself. The starboard side locker is where a lot of accessories like that get mounted as they offer good access and it's in a dry storage. They generally have enough flat real estate to mount accessories as well and many also offer reasonable access to the bow so you won't need to sneak wires around access as much.

@scbassin not sure what kind of boat you have, but be sure to check the plug if you have one. Some of them have an option to jump at the plug with little plates. If my memory serves me right, those plugs have 4 prongs, but there may have been others.

It can most certainly be done! As suggested, braid is your friend.

In that case, I'd put my head down and try to make as many pitches as possible over the course of the day.

I was referring to the Xj4 Jimmy

Excalibur and Xcalibur were both under the parent company of Pradco. Excalibur offered better finishes as well as upgraded Excalibur rotating treble hooks on baits from the Pradco family ie Bomber, Heddon, Cotton Cordell, etc. For instance you could buy a Fat Free Shad in either line, and the bait itself was the same. Xcalibur may have been the rebranded version of Excalibur to refresh the line. I'm not positive on that, but they offered higher end baits. The baits were exclusive to the Xcalibur line. For example, they made a walking topwater, but it wasn't the same as the spook, the body style looked more like a LC Sammy. The two most popular baits in the line were the XCS squarebills and the XR lipless crankbaits. Both have been brought back under the Booyah brand.