WIGuide

Yeah, it's kind of like driving a dark vehicle on a dreary gloomy day without the headlights on. Other drivers should be cautious enough to see you anyway, but let's face it....people can be idiots and I'd much rather do what I can to try and avoid any accident possible. Especially when boat vs kayak is pretty much like train vs bike.

I'm not really superstitious. I did used to have a lucky blaze orange Bass Pro hat. I caught my PB largemouth with it on, my PB smallmouth with it on, and my dad borrowed it during hunting season and shot his biggest buck ever with it on haha. I don't put too much stock in it though. I used to think catching one on the first cast was bad luck, and there's been times it's seemed that way, but I've had days I've pounded them after that too. When it all comes down to it, it's fishing. One cast in the right spot is going to catch a fish and it doesn't matter if it's the first, last or anyone in between. For tournaments I do have a ritual of drinking a Monster on the way to the tourney. I'm jacked enough to get out there to begin with but that just takes it to the next level. My tournament partner is usually my dad and we also always have to stop to get a couple 100 Grand or Payday bars so even during a bad tourney we still are in the black haha.

Glad he survived and also glad you did too! It might be worth adding wearing something that's a bit more visible as well. Not will it only help in the even that something terrible happens, it also makes sure you're more visible to other boat traffic. Blending in when you're out in a kayak is not a good thing with other boats ripping around.

Just from looking at the pictures, it looks like the shallow version would be for the electric steer foot pads as those don't sit as tall.

I carry quite a bit, but not that much as what you've got there. Maybe look into going a step more organized, or broken down. I'd organize those shoe boxes by color and what colors you'd use under Muddy/Stained/Clear water. Then have an empty container or two and load them up before you head out that day filling it with baits you think you're going to use.

^ must be a new model? Haha seriously I can't stop laughing at that. Apparently I'm having one of those days. On a more serious note, I use the Trokar Weedless Wacky hooks in 1/0 and 2/0. Paired up with a Pro Wacky Weight for just about all my wacky rig fishing.

Depending on how many rods you have, it may work better without them. The organizers are nice to keep things organized, but using rod gloves and reel covers keeps them just as protected and you can jam way more setups in. Also, if you have rods that are really tight in there length wise it might be better to go without as you can angle them to make them fit better.

Nitro's aren't bad boats, they also aren't made like a Ranger either. They are built to be a package boat just like the Tracker aluminum boats. The prices they give you are usually stripped down with a smaller motor than what the boat is rated for. They offer plenty of features as options many of which come standard on other boats. Things like power pedestals for the seats are considered options. With a few extras I added on the build it part of the Nitro website, I was up over 60K. That's still less of an investment for something that will do the job, and if that's what you're after it's available.

I don't think it'll be ideal. You might be up in that 3/4 of your max towing weight. If you're extra careful It can be done.

It'd have to be either Jimmy Houston or Gerald Swindle. Both great guys. I've met Jimmy quite a few times now. Crazy thing is the second time I saw him he remembered me by name and I hadn't seen him for a year. Maybe it amazes me more since I've forgotten peoples name within minutes after we've been introduced haha He's a great down to earth guy though. Swindle is just a hoot. The guy could have a career in stand up if he wanted. I think if I got to fish with her and she wore what she does in most of her pics I'd have a very hard time concentrating on fishing!

That works too, I forgot to add that option.

So to stretch the use of your soft plastics AFTER your hook tears the plastic some, un-rig the bait. Rotate it anywhere from 90-180* and re-rig. It will be rigged on the opposite side on unbroken plastic. After you wear out that hole out too, take the bait off the hook, and bite the torn up section off. You only loose about 1/4" and you're free to do it all over again.

To the two above, You don't actually put your fingers in the gills. If you do you'll get sliced. Your fingers go in between the outer most gill and the gill plate. What you're actually doing is grabbing their jaw bone. As WIangler said it's almost like a little pocket on the back side since the jaw bone is almost L shaped. This method easier done with bigger northerns. The smaller ones you can grab around the back and put you pointer finger and thumb under the gill plates on both sides. If you don't slide your fingers under the plates the fish can still get you because they have a sharp bone that basically traces the outline of the gill plate on their body. ^ To these next two you can definitely eat them and they're pretty darn good. We do both with them. Because they have so many bones we keep part of the fish to eat regular, and another part to pickle because it dissolves the bones in the meat. Unless it's a pretty decent northern (probably 24" and up) it takes more time and you waste a little bit of meat. We just open them up, remove the rib cage, take the boneless tail section, and everything below the y-bones. The top portion that has the y bones gets frozen in water until we have enough to make a batch of pickled northern. To the OP, the best way to work around them is to harvest some. They inhabit waters from shallow to deep and consume a lot of forage. By harvesting some of the smaller fish in the system, you'll be helping to keep the population in check, and be taking home a delicious meal.

From the size of the fish you're stating it's not too late quite yet. Get a bunch of the runts out, add some cover, and if possible add some forage as well. If the little ones start looking the same way and continue to, they'll become stunted and will only produce stunted bass as well.

My uncle had a two on Bayliners and he managed to have two that weren't complete grenades like yours was, but even the ones that ran ok had the issue of being way under powered. All outboards are supposed to be within 10% of their advertised hp rating and Force violated that all the time. Where most other manufactures run on the high side, Force was the opposite and were well below the 10%. Their 150's were said to put out something like 80-90hp.

The knot shouldn't matter with a soft plastic. What you need to do is change how you rig your bait slightly, so when you start your texas rig you go a little deeper in with the hook, so the hook eye (and knot) are buried within the body of the bait.

Anything moving that puts off a fair amount of noise, flash, and or vibration.

Your organization leaves me envious! Very nicely done! I could only hope to be somewhere between tornado and disaster in terms of organization haha.

If you're looking to do it occasionally, you can do it with casting gear, but if you're looking to do nothing but skipping, a spinning rod will be much easier in the long run. Not to say you can't get really good with a bait caster, but it takes much longer to learn.

If I were you I'd probably go with the new Mojo Bass in the 6'8" M/F. Although I haven't fished the new blanks yet, I've heard nothing but good things about them and I liked the previous gen as well. I fish my jerkbaits on the m/f rods. With jerkbaits having such sharp and light wire hooks on them you don't need a huge hook set, and with the fish generally being less active I don't have issues with losing fish or pulling the bait away. The fast action will allow you to work the bait easier than with a moderate action, and will also give you better control over it. Not that my theory is right or wrong, but it works for me and that's my rational behind it.

I prefer faster for everything. I only own a few reels under a 7:1 ratio and those are only because they were the fastest at the time, or they were only offered in a slower gear ratio but too good of a deal to pass up. I find it much easier to slow down my retrieve if I need to, rather than burning myself out cranking like a maniac to speed up.

Figure out what type of motor it actually is. Around that time Mercury had acquired Force and marketed the two tracker engines as the Tracker Pro Series and Tracker Power Series. The power series is what was left of the Force motors and is basically worthless. Depending on the year, some will actually say Force on them and others will not. I believe both said "By Mercury Marine" on them so you need to know what you're looking at. I'd say 4k is pretty high for that year, even with a good motor on it.

You could do them either way. Removal is pretty straight forward. There should be enough slack in the cables to gain clearance. My only tip is to have an extra set of hands. Aside from that it's a pretty easy task. One other thing to check before you start is if your motor has a built in lifting hook or if it needs the screw in type that you screw into the fly wheel.

It's no different than a vehicle. If you buy new you take the hit when the boat is no longer "new". If you have the money and you plan on keeping it there's really no reason not to.

Good info here for you. If you're on a lake with no contours and you just want a general idea of what the contours are you can always leave your tm down and idle around. Not ideal, but it'd be quicker than trolling all over. I think most of the time though you'll be fine with just using the tm.