WIGuide

Yep you absolutely can! When I started out I threw everything on spinning rods. I was the one to get my dad into baitcasters eventually, but he's still more spinning dominant and it works for him. If your finger hurts at the end of the day...you're doing it wrong :/

I'd probably have to go with 10 or 12 lb Berkley XT. It wouldn't be the best for all situations, but it could get the job done.

Bass and Walley Boats Magazine (now defunct) used to do performance tests on a lot of outboards and would list the speed and fuel consumption of the motors. You might be able to find a comparable motor to yours to see what it gets. Yamaha has performance bulletins on their motors doing the same thing. For comparison a 150 hpdi (fuel injected 2 stroke) on an 18 1/2' skeeter topped out a 5 1/2 mpg 22 mph, at WOT it dropped 3.93 mpg at 56 mph. Being that your motor is older though I doubt it's that good of mileage.

I haven't used the BPS crankin' rods, but I throw square bills on a M/M rod and it handles them great and can work on baits that run around 10 feet ok. A MH/M would be better suited for them. If I had to pick just one, I'd go with the MH/M as it should handle both just fine.

Mark another one down for fast. I don't mind extra fast, and there's one style of bait I throw on a moderate just because I don't want as much action in the bait. The fast allows you to work the bait without having to work your arm off. Back the drag off a bit to prevent fish from pulling off. Up here though it seems like the best jerkbait bit is after the bass start slowing down because of the cold and they don't fight as hard then anyway.

Although I haven't used the Mojo Bass Glass rod I've got an LTB Graphite rod in M/M and you can fish a DT 10 on it, but a MH/M would be better suited for that application. If the glass rods are the same, you might want to step up to a MH/M.

I'm with catt, it depends on what I'm trying to accomplish. I'm not going to try to bomb an overhead cast with one hand, but if I'm casting side arm or roll casting i'm not going to have a second hand on the rod unless I'm throwing a extra heavy bait or if the rod is on the long side and due to leverage, overpowers my wrist. Do what feels comfortable to you. If you find yourself straining, use a second hand.

I use the palomar knot for everything. It hasn't let me down so I'll stick with it.

I fall into the minority here. I'm trying to get all my rods switched over to St. Croix's. Since power and action aren't a standard across the industry, it makes it easier for me to buy a rod sight unseen if I stay within one brand. (I live in the middle of nowhere so getting my hands on any specific rod can be impossible.) I've tired other brands and have been let down by their performance, but I've fell in love with every Croix I've bought and when I bought them for a specific purpose they've always excelled. Their factory is also only about 2 hours from my home so if I need to handle one of their rods before I buy I can do that as well as just taking my rod there if it needs to be serviced.

Mann's has had a few over the years. The vampire spinnerbait with a tunable blade, they made some sort of weedless diving lipless crankbait I believe but I can't find any info on it. They also made an Undulator spinnerbait. Bass Pro had a two piece lure. The front part your line goes through and it floats, the back part is a slow sinking deal. It could work, but I've never thrown it.

You can use braid if you like. I've thrown them on braid before, but I'd rather throw them on mono or fluoro. I'd go with either 10 or 12 lb test of either.

I'm not sure which model Crestliner you have as they change hull weight based on the model, but you may have been mislead by how much glass boats weigh. For example the Ranger 1850 LS is an 18' 8" platform that's a pretty deep boat. I don't know if it's quite as deep as a walleye boat, but either way it's a tank. But the hull weight on that comes in at 1900 lbs. Lund's 186 Pro-V GL comes in at 2100 lbs and is listed at 3450 towed. Their Pro-V 1875 aluminum version comes in at 1600 lbs hull weight and 2948 towed. There aluminum is lighter, but it's not half the weight of glass. If you start talking bass boats, the Ranger 518C comes in at 1550 hull weight. The RT188 which is pretty much the same dimensions is and is only about 300 lbs lighter in the hull.

In Wisconsin, we have seasonal regulations. Fishing season opens the first full weekend in May for gamefish (bass, northern, walleye, etc). However for bass, the state is split into a northern and southern zone Doesn't make a lot of sense when you look at the map). Up until a year or two ago the southern zone you could keep both largemouth and smallmouth from the fishing season opener. In the northern zone you had to wait until a date set in June. Now they changed it to where you can catch and keep largemouth in both zones from the beginning of the season opener, but smallmouth are still c&r only until a chosen date in June. It gets hairy at times since the lake I live on is split in two; part in the northern zone and part in the southern zone. Fishing season runs into the following year and is open the first Sunday in March. If you fish on the Mississippi River though the season is open all year. For panfish and rough fish there is a year round season. Muskie season is split depending on zone. Northern zone is from Saturday nearest Memorial day to November 30th. Southern zone is from first Saturday in May through December 31st.

There's times when color doesn't matter. A lot of those times seem to be when you're fishing them over really heavy cover such as matted veggies. Other times it comes into play such as when you're fishing around the edges or a downed tree, or lilly pads. I feel that since they sit down in the water and roll from side to side as they walk the color of the top and sides is reflected off the waters surface. My favorites are yellow/white, green/white, shad pattern, and a bluegill patter. Black can be a good color as well.

Crawfish are found in the kind of lakes that are wet.

The looks are decent, but I doubt you'll find one in my boat unless someone else brings it to use.

5" Yum Dinger

Welcome to the the forums!

You would pick up some speed. I've never run a motor that big on a 12' john boat, but I upgraded from a 45 lb thrust to an 82 lb when I had my 16' Ranger. It did increase in speed but not by a huge margin. Given that it's your only mode of propulsion though a bit of an upgrade is better than nothing.

It's a little on the small side, not much for storage, but if it's in good condition and everything works, $1500 seems like a good buy. Especially since most jon boats would run you that much or more with a motor and trailer.

It really depends on the model of power pole you're looking at. For instance the Sportsman II is cheaper than the Tallon. ($1,395 vs $1,799.99). If you compare the Power Pole Blade to the Tallon the Tallon is cheaper. ($1,995 vs $1,799.99) If you don't have a flat transom or don't want to drill holes in your transom, you'll also need adapter brackets. Power Poles brackets run around $200 where the adapter for the Tallons are $299.99. So comparing Blade vs Tallon with brackets they are very close in price with a Tallon being slightly cheaper ($2,099.98 vs $2,190). I hear you on the space issue though.

The flying lure was one. I had a topwater bait that when you popped it, it'd pull a string making the tail of it move up and down much like a child's toy. Not sure what that one was called but it was a gimmick. The vampire spinnerbait by Manns. I think they had one called the undulator as well with a segmented blade. I know there are plenty more, but I'm having problems coming up with them off the top of my head.

Hmm...maybe you've got some bad ones? I haven't had too many issues with them tearing. Maybe a few over the years after considerable service use. Most that I've had tear around the collar have been due to a northern tooth slicing them.

No problem! The good thing about it is you get measurements so you can calculate a weight plus it forces you to retie after that big fish which is always a good practice.