WIGuide

I'll second what Mike said. I'd go for a spinning setup for finesse fishing. I throw just about everything on my casting reels, but I still own spinning rods for the lighter side of finesse presentations. It's not that you can't do it with casting gear, but it's generally easier on spinning.

If you want them on the gunnel and don't want to drill holes, I think this is about your only option. They aren't great though. Otherwise you could probably fab sometihing similar up with larger c-clamps bolted to a piece of wood that you could mount some bases on. It'd give you a better rod holder as well as more clamping power. Just be sure to use something to prevent the clamps from marking up your boat.

Looks like a good buy if everything checks out.

If you're not already mechanically inclined learn to be. You can save a boatload of money (pun intended). I've seen so many people take boats in to the mechanic for the simplest things. For instance, something electrical stops working and they won't even check the connections. There's one dealer around here that charges a minimum of 1/2 hour labor if the work on something so their 5 minutes to fix said problem will cost you over $50. That being said a big thing to research is finding a good mechanic in case something comes up that you can't fix yourself. ^ as a side note...they should be proud of the metal arms. The plastic ones don't do much, seriously one good yank and they pop open.

Well look at it like this, fix it and have no issues, or not get it fixed and quite possibly watch you trolling motor splash into the water in front of you no longer attached to the boat. I'd get it fixed.

I'm in the same category as Blue, I would use an EWG for all of those. Obviously size of the hook depends on the size of bait, but my most used hook is 4/0 as well.

They definitely got an upgrade that's for sure. I knew I was going to be getting a new one to replace my 1st gen that I snapped last year. I haven't decided if I'm just getting one rod this year or if I'm going to order a 2nd one as well. Guess I should make up my mind soon haha. Thanks for the review Hootie, my last Mojo will be replaced by a new Mojo to see the difference.

Best of luck to ya!

Well you've got 3 basic choices when it comes to netting. You either have the old schools stuff which you're dealing with and finding to be a pain, you've got rubber coated nylon, and finally there's full on rubber netting. From what I've used it seems like this, nylon has the least resistance in the water and is the cheapest. It's not exactly great for the fish with all the rough spots in it, but it's been the standard forever and a day. The other down side is it's super easy for hooks to get tangled in it. The next step up is rubber coated nylon. It's the same netting (although most newer ones don't have knots to help protect fish) as the old school nets, but it's dipped in liquid rubber. The result is a net that only has slightly more drag in the water but hooks have a harder time of getting stuck in. They can get tangled, but for the most part they come right out. Up here in the land of the toothy critters that have a tendency to "gator roll" once they're in the net this can still make for a pain in the rear to untangle, but again it's far better than the old school net. Finally you have the full on rubber netting. It's the most hook resistant netting of all as hooks won't penetrate it. The majority of the time you can lift the fish right out. There are no knots to scrape up the fish so they're eco friendly in that regard. I've said something about resistance with the other two netting types which isn't something you think about, but with the rubber net I've used, there's much more resistance as it moves through water. If it makes it tough for some to make a quick net job one handed. For some that can be an issue. Also, from my experience the rubber nets don't flex much and are fairly shallow, so be sure to use one sized correctly for the size fish you could run into. Granted there may be some rubber nets out there that may flex more than the one I have experience with you might want to check that out before buying one. No matter what you do, you don't have to go out and fork out tons of money to change netting. If you have a currently functioning hoop and handle, a lot of times you can just buy replacement netting. It's much cheaper but then again the bait monkey might urge you to trash it and buy a whole new setup.

It's not going to scare anything away. If it did, guys in fiberglass bass boats would be screwed. If you want to keep it looking shiny, there are sealers out there that will help. I can't vouch for them as I haven't used them before though.

Glad you figured it out!

What model do you have?

Congrats on the new ride!

From what I've found the two brands that get the most praise are Dual Pro and Minnkota. Dual Pro's are the only serviceable charger, as the other brands are disposable. I can vouch for the Dual Pro chargers as my dad has the original in his 99 Ranger. He hasn't had an issue with it. I've got a newer Dual Pro charger in my Ranger as well. I bought it off of a guy upgrading to a 4 bank instead of a 3 and it's been in my last two boats. No matter the charger you buy, the higher the number of amps the quicker the batteries charge, and it's better for the batteries as well. a 4/4 might take all night or longer to charge your batteries, where a 10 or 15 amp charger will have them done 2-3 times faster.

Is there a drain valve in there somewhere? If you keep trying to pump water in and the valve is on empty it won't fill up. Also, it seems to be a bit over complicated for what it needs to be. My Ranger has a the flow-rite valve for fill and empty. Put it on fill and it fills up, adds fresh water slowly, and recirculates while you're running or if the boat is out of the water. When you're done, slide lever to empty and it empty's out.

Last week I decided to get some fishing in before the wave of city-iots hit full force. It had been a while since I took my aunt fishing, so I had arranged for her to meet me after work as I was going to take her to one of my favorite lakes to fish. It's a fairly small lake tucked squarely in the middle of nowhere. Rain and thunderstorms had been predicted earlier in the week, but the forcast had changed eliminating the storms and lowering the chance of rain significantly. On the trip up there it was cloudy and we had no more than a few sprinkles hit the windshield on the 45 minute journey up there. We get the boat in the water and head down the lake and the boat no more than sets down off plane when it starts to rain. I threw my rain gear on and started to tie some baits on my aunts gear. Before I even finished she had one in the boat and had a norther jump out of the water to try and grab her bait as she picked it out of the water. For the next 4-ish hours, we didn't waiver a whole lot from that initial pace. All in all we finished up with 29 bass 2 northerns and a crappie. My aunt lost another 4 or 5 and I missed a few more than that. All in all it came out to a fish in the boat roughly every 7 minutes. Unfortunately, the rain never stopped the entire time. My aunt was starting to get cold so we had to go. It would have been nice to see what the evening would have had in store, but it wasn't in the cards. Biggest one of the trip was the 18 3/4" that pulled like a freight train. Other highlights were a 17 1/2" that my aunt caught as well as a handful in the 16" range. All fish were caught on Big Bite Bait Cane Thumpers with keel weighted hooks. All in all it was a great trip and I'm glad I got to share that experience with my Aunt who doesn't get to fish all that often. P.S. It stopped raining as we were driving away haha

Largemouth - 21 1/2" 6.5 lbs, Caught on the opening day of fishing season in 2007 on Miller Dam near Gilman, WI. I caught my first bass of the year about 15 minutes after I started and it was 18" thought I was off to a great start to the season. Caught another dink or two in the next 15 minutes and then it happened. She fell for a Terminator Super Stainless "bleeding bait" spinnerbait. White with double gold colorado blades. I remember the second I laid eyes on her, the first thing I saw was the mouth open under water and I just about crapped myself right there. Smallmouth - I've caught two with identical stats 20 1/2" and 5 lbs even. The first time was opening day of fishing in 2008 (I had pretty good opening days those few years haha). We were fishing out of my dad's boat on Lake Holcombe (WI) and his batteries took a digger over the winter which we were finding out while we were fishing. After a few hours and his 36V system virtually dead to the point the tm prop was barely spinning. We were going to call it quits and idle out of this stumpy flat with a small channel that runs through it. Having not caught a fish and not wanting my 5 year streak of not getting skunked to come to an end I asked if we could drift across it until we got to the channel which we did. On what was going to be one of my last casts before we got out of there I threw a Terminator T-1 in clown pattern to a stump on the other side of the channel and it smoked it in the first few reel turns. The second one I caught just this last fall, and was probably my true PB as it wasn't a prespawn fish that had eggs in it. I caught it on Sturgeon Bay in WI. I had found a small school of fish the day before hanging around a shipping channel marker anchor, but couldn't get anything to bite. Checked the next day and sure enough they were still there, so I dropped my Berkly Bottom Hopper Jr. down there on a drop shot a few times. I decided to just dead stick it, and when I went to lift it up, there was just dead weight and I thought maybe I had gotten tangled in something down there when i felt the pulse of it swimming a little, so I set the hook and it was game on!

The 375V is a nice boat. The 300 series hull is a very well built hull. The 375 has the lounge seats in the front which can be nice if you're planning on using the boat occasionally for tubing/skiing but still maintains the functionality of a bass boat. Only down side to the 300 series is the consoles are low to the floor. If you're a normal size human you might find them a little tight. If you've got go go gadget legs like I do, it's tough to fit under them. Also, the owner could be wrong on the age, but it's possible it could be a 96. Since Ranger hand builds their boats one at a time, you can order whatever you want. They keep all their old molds, and if you want one, you can order a model not in production anymore. I'm sure it doesn't happen all that often, but it's possible someone wanted that boat and had it made in 96. If you look at the HIN number (little tag on the back right side of the boat) the last two digits are the year of manufacture.

Thanks guys!

Congrats A-Jay! Sweet looking rig. I know how long that wait seemed and how pumped you must be to have it now! Super happy for you. Hopefully the weather cooperates so you can get it out soon! I have to say, if it were me, unless it was a sever thunderstorm going on I don't think you could keep me off the water haha.

Tuesday night I decided to head out and get some much needed time on the water after work. The weather was wonderful, mid 70's bright sunny sky, so I hitched up the boat and headed for a lake close to home. The lake I picked is known to have a decent population of bass, but it hasn't been known to produce much for size. In the few years I've been fishing one int he 17" range is about as big as I can remember catching there. When I got to the lake and pulled up on my first spot, there was an overabundance of minnows everywhere. There were fish all over the place rolling and chasing bait. I was a little worried at first as normally situations with an overabundance of bait makes fishing tougher. I was soon reassured though after catching one in the first few minutes of fishing. In the roughly 3 1/2 hours that I fished, I pulled in 13 or 14 largemouth and one small northern. Not tremendous numbers by any means, but an enjoyable evening. What was surprising, was that my biggest 3 bass were 16 3/4", 17 1/4", and an 18 1/2" pig. Combined that, with beautiful weather, a gorgeous sunset, and an up close encounter with a loon and it was a great night. I was dying to replicate it yesterday but thunderstorms prevented me from doing so!

I'm not a swimbait expert by any means, but what I've found as by using the larger size hooks I have a better hookup percentage. I think it's because of two reasons, the first is the hook point sits further back in the bait so the fish doesn't have to take it as deep to get the hookpoint to grab. The second is because when they bite down on the bait, the gap between the hook point and the top of the bait is greater leaving more "biting" area for the hook. I try to use as big of hook as I can as long as it doesn't change the action of the bait. I'll usually use a 7/0 in a 5" hollow belly and the 9/0 in the 6"

What size do you buy? I ordered some a long time ago thinking I had picked a good size only to find out it was way smaller than I thought.

I think they've been confused here in WI. They've been in and out a few times. I've caught a few smallies on beds, but there hasn't seemed to be a big wave. I think it's going to be game on here soon! Hopefully you haven't missed it there.

I use Trokar weighted swimbait hooks, usually in 5/0, 7/0, 9/0, and I got some 10/0 to try this year. Obviously it depends on the size of the bait I'm throwing as to which hook I use, but whatever hook you settle on, make sure the top is flat. I bought some a while ago, and didn't realize until after that the hook point rounds down slightly and those had a horrible hookup percentage! Looking on TW almost all of them look like almost all the designs have been changed so they offer the better hookup percentage. In case anyone was confused by what I meant by flat top, I've included the pick. The hook on the left the hook point will run straight across the bait's back, where the one on the right will dig deeper into the bait.