Further North

Like a lot of folks on this topic...I'm not a big believer in line spooking bass. I use leaders for two reasons: I fish a lot of cover that'll beat up braid on the end...I've seen a difference in the number of lost ures since going to a leader. We have nasty, toothy fish around here in abundance. A leader gives me a better chance of getting them to the boat. If I'm in a lake with a lot of pike or musky, my leader is often a 2 ft. piece of tieable stainless. ...The only fish I've seen spooked by line were trout - that doesn't mean it doesn't happen, only that I've not seen it. I tend towards fluro and hybrid for my leaders.

There's this option, but it's rough on the equipment:

I know a guy selling a '68 Chevelle big block to fund a new boat...he's going for a bigger boat though... A few years back, I sold an Austin Healey and an Arrieta shotgun to pay for a boat... Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do...

A couple of things: You still have to drill some holes - you need to attach the plate - but it's a lot fewer holes and it's a better seal, IMO. You can buy cheap (make sure they are thick) plastic cutting boards and cut them down to the size you need...but I can't emphasize enough that they have to be thick enough. ...at the end of the day the $20 piece from Cabela's will work just fine, with less work.

Think hard about how you are going to fish - and tailor your boat to that. I fish a lot of smaller lakes where getting anything bigger than an 18 ft. on them would be either a pain or impossible. I also prefer to buy used...I was talking to a friend tonight (we're re-rigging all of his electronics) and another friend of ours has a boat he paid $55K+ for brand new a couple years ago...another guy we know went and looked at one used, one year older, for $27K...My head just can't get wrapped round taking that kind of a beating unless I'm planning on keeping it forever. This is correct...but unless you've got cash to plunk down, it'll be hard to get the loan written to cover the electronics.

I wire the knobs that hold my electronics to the mounts directly to the starting battery...I'm the only one who knows where the kill switch is... I'm kidding....I never leave the electronics in the boat when I'm traveling. I modified a gun case to hold them, egg crate foam cut out to the shape of the units. Cost about $100, works great.

Rather than predetermining how much I'm going to spend on each component...I do a bunch of research, try some set ups and buy a rig I like. More dollars doesn't always equal the best for what I want...

You guys are a big help....

LTX got here today...it'll work. I can easily throw a Ned rig as far as I need to...maybe not quite as far as with a light action spinning reel, but close...and I'm more accurate already.

My Dad had a Lund 16 ft. Mr. Pike that he bought in '85 or '86 - great boat, we put a lot of time in it and caught a lot of fish.

Yup. I used fly rods only for a couple of months a few years ago..It made a difference. So...after a lot of reading, learning, poking round here and there, looking at reels...I decided to bite the bullet and cough up the cash for the Abu Garcia LTX. Reasons: I like Abu Garcia's stuff and am confident with it. It "felt right". I had to start somewhere and I decided to go with an "in the box" solution and work my way from there. A bunch of Cabela's Points, and rebate made the decision less painful. Reel's on the way, we'll see how it gets the job done.

Not at all - I've enjoyed every post. Learned a lot.

I looked at one at Cabela's on Friday...nice reel, looks like an absolute steal for $100. Only one problem for me: Right hand crank only.

Any chance it's because a lot of people go light on trolling motors?

Great application for the Sterlite boxesl We use them in the house, I'll check if they'll fit in the compartments I'm using for baits now.

I've never understood this...I have two friends that have multi species glass boats that get blown around a lot more than my CMV, and my boat doesn't get moved around any more than similarly sized glass bass boats that other guys I know have. At roughly the same size and free board...sure looks like six of one, half dozen of the other to me...and I have a hard time seeing weight as an advantage in a boat that I have to push through the water and tow behind my truck...but that's me.

I use a large trout net on my CMV all the time. Way better for the fish...and it gives me a little extra reach.

1988 to 2006. I gave up fishing when my Dad passed away, didn't get back to it until my daughter asked to try it.

I stopped caring what he thought right around dinner time. He's just an odd duck, best left to his own thing. I'm not going to change him and see no reason to try.

I thought about it...no benefit to it...it woulda made a mess of the trip. Ignoring him worked better, kept my blood pressure lower. I enjoyed the trip, despite "Bob", enough that I've been back to the same place several years in a row now. There's not much we can do for the purists...they enjoy what they do just for the pure fun of it. Most of them anyway...the folks I can't abide are the one who act like their way is the only way, the best way or somehow morally superior to the way other folks fish. Nah...I washed up real good, brushed my tooth and everything.

So...a couple years ago, the guy who was supposed to join me on a Canadian trip had to back out (he had a good reason, family medical issues). I happened to mention this at a meeting I had for a local conservation group. One of the guys at the meeting spoke up and indicated he'd like to go if there was room. We'd fished together a a few times, and while he hadn't been the best partner I'd ever fished with, he hadn't been terrible. I thought about it a while and thought, "What the heck, how bad can it be?" Here's how bad: Didn't want to come up the night before and pre-pack the boat and truck so we could get going on time. One of his "tackle boxes" was a 5 gallon bucket...the other one was a 12 pack Leinie's corrugated box. Lure organization was...a pile. We were 40 minutes down the road when he remembered he'd left his passport in his truck. Sat at a different table when we stopped to eat on the way up. On the first day of fishing, at the end of the day...this plays out: When I'm done for the day in Canada, I like to spend some time straightening up the boat at the dock so it's not a three-legged cluster #@%$ in the morning...so I start doing this, putting stuff away, cleaning off fish schmutz... My fishing partner...let's call him "Bob"...picks up his three rods, his Leinie's box and his bucket and takes off for the cabin...keep in mind that there's a dozen boats at the dock, with tens of thousands of dollars worth of tackle and gear n them...all better than his... I think to myself, "What the heck?"...and then I thought, "NO problem, he's probably going to fix dinner." I finished cleaning up the boat, headed back to the cabin, walked in, where "Bob" greats me with, "Hey, I hope you've got something to eat, I just brought enough of this for myself." BTW...he was standing there drinking one of my beers... ...so I warmed up some killer chili I'd brought along...about the time it was done, he says "That sure smells good, can I have some?" I said, "Sure." and I went to bed. When I get up in the AM, the chili is still on the stove and when fumblenuts stumbles out of his bed a while later, he let me know, "Hey! You left the chili out last night." All week long, he wanted to fish for walleyes and lake trout...even though they were not biting and pike, muskies and smallies were killing each other to get to our lures. He never...not once...helped net a fish, all week. He never commented when he had a follow on a fish...in fact...the few times I saw him have a follow, he try to hide it, or flat out deny it. He's a musky guy and never boated one all week...mostly because he kept throwing huge baits when they told us, clear as a bell on day one, that they liked stuff that was about 7" - 8" long... He sulked for two days when I caught 3 muskies in an hour... He didn't offter to drive at all on the way home...just sat in the passenger seat and complained that the sun was too hot on him and that we needed to turn the A/C in the truck down (it was set at 70°). "Bob" and I don't fish together any more...he keeps asking...but oddly, I've always got all the seats in my boat full for that trip...

Hard to say...but I towed campers well beyond 50% of the capacity of my tow vehicles for a long time without any noticeable effect on vehicle longevity. One was an Isuzu Trooper that made it to 420,000 miles before it finally died. I think that taking care of your vehicle, and not abusing it has a lot more effect than whether we choose to tow at 80% capacity...if we think that 80% is near max capacity.

That's pretty cool - thanks. I like it when I learn new things...

When I'm wet wading, one of the things that drives me nuts is getting little rocks or other debris inside my shoe...which is why I've moved from Keens (which I love) and that type of wading shoe to something more like a flats boot (Simms makes some, so do other fly fishing companies). If I'm in the rivers around here (lots of rocks, trees, other abrasive and sharp underwater hazards) I just wear my wading boots. I had a pair of waders that sprung a leak, so I chopped them off just above the neoprene boots and use them to make the fit better. There's a lot of great equipment the fly fishing folks have figured out for this kind of fishing...I've figured out it's easier to not re-invent the wheel.

Chippewa Falls area now, grew up in SE WI. Wouldn't go back on a bet...few lakes, more people... I fish all over the area, from where I live to Lake Superior, into Da Yoop a little (haven't done that in a few years). I like rivers as much - maybe more - than lakes, especially the ones too small for boats. I get up around Hayward a few times a year. A relatively short drive will get you on lakes better than WIssota. I live 10 minutes from Wissota but probably only fish there two or three times a year. I won't post them on the forum, but PM me and I'll get you started on some of them.