MickD

I've built eternity 2 fly rods, and they are excellent, have no experience with the other Eternity blanks. Many on this and another forum give them high grades. I have built a ton of other Rainshadow blanks, RX6, 7, 8, fly, spin, and cast, and have been pleased with all. One other that you might consider before making a decision is the Point Blank from Anglers Resource. I have built a number of them (baitcast) and they are top notch, too.

My boat is black, and after only a few trips, it looked awful with the white water spots. Someone here (A-Jay?) recommended CLR for the first clean-up, then only Slick Mist after every trip to the water, and it is not only easy, but very effective. My boat now looks like new all the time, and only takes a few minutes. If you are starting with a new boat with no water spots, no need to use the CLR. It is a good idea to check our owner's manual for the manufacturer's recommendations and cautions.

The power trim is almost infinitely easier than turning a knob on the shaft and adjusting the depth of the motor. I use it a lot in the rocky areas I fish. NH, go with the motor that gives you the most functions from the remote. It will work even from your wheelchair. :-). Sounds like it's time for you too to go the easy way.

I have an Ulterra with one year on it. Have had no problems. I love the remote stow and deploy because I too have shoulder issues. I've heard the spring assisted stow/deploy are nice too, but you cannot stow and deploy from anywhere in the boat. I do not regret my spending the bucks. One guy I know who drives very fast and hard on Lake St Clair (bass boat) has had mulitple failures of the belt which drives the stow/deploy. He has cobbled a support strap for the head so the stresses of the hard wave hits don't get transmitted to the belt. I really believe that if one drives sanely that this will not be a problem. Minnkota tells him he is the only one who has reported a problem. Now you know all I know about the Ulterra. Regarding the foot pedal, all I use it for is steering adjustments and now and then speed. Mostly I operate from the remote.

I'm not into this yet, but from perusing my new Janns Netcraft catalog, if the don't have the skirt material you're looking for , I'd be very surprised. it appears that they have multiple pages of material. They are a good source for much stuff that is hard to find, and are fast, reliable. I've ordered from them for many more years than I can remember, seems like I ordered from them when in high school which was a long time ago.

Strike King KVD swimmin caffeine shad, 5", I guess it is. They offer 4 and 5 in, and the one I use has to be bigger than 4. Pearl white. I've found that for a good percentage of hook sets I need to make sure when I put it on the hook that I don't close up the gap too much. I went through a streak last year of fish that aggressively took the lure, and were on for 10-15 seconds, then came off. I paid attention to the above and increased my percentage significantly. I use the Gamakatsu darter head jig in 3/16 and 1/4, but also am going to try another with a 3/0 hook (to get a larger gap). They can be put on the jig with the hook coming out the side, too. Gives a bigger gap, not sure about how effective it is that way yet, but since it's coming off the bottom so aggressively, I can't see how it would hurt.

For casting I like the Fuji RV as the first guide, then about 3 KB's, then KT's to the end. The RV will be a size 6, after that use what you like, smaller the better for sensitivity. I think for casting the 5.5 is a sweet spot, small and light yet able to take a double uni with most line weights. All the runnng guides, whether KB or KT can (should) be the same size. There is nothing to gain by using multiple sizes.

SmBass19, good choice. Not sure where you're from, but in clear water in MI, one of the best is the white 4-4.5 inch swim bait (with the "boot tail," I think it's called) on a 3/16 darter head jig twitched off the bottom. Good for searching since you can make long casts, fish it fast. Walleyes, northerns, and LM will hit it too.

Sounds like a good plan to me, if you have trouble with manipulating the split rings, the Texas pliers with the orange handles really work well.

Very good point. After dumping my brother over one time, and trying to bring him back into the boat by his standing on the horizontal fin on the lower unit, we found it very difficult since his shoe was slipping on the fin. I added some of that yellow "sandpaper" tape to the fin in case it ever happened again. It is VERY difficult to get a person back into the boat. My Lund dealer puts the ladder on every boat, and he expects it to be a requirement soon. My son kids that I must always wear a PFD- he doesn't want to waste a lot of fishing time searching for the body.

My experience indicates not a major advantage in having down + sonar over just sonar. However, I believe that the transducer required for down will give better sonar performance than the sonar-only transducer. I hope others can chime in to support or disagree with this statement. I have both and a top of the line transducer on my Humminbirds, and the only advantage I've found after one season is that the down gives a better portrayal of the weeds than the sonar view. I've never seen a fish on down view. Maybe in my second year I will figure out how better to use the down-view so that it becomes more valuable.

Under some conditions it definitely can help catch fish. I've seen it many times. There may be conditions under which it might be counterproductive, depending on which message the bass got that morning from Bass Central. I don't remember encountering that situation, though.

The wind on Saginaw Bay and Lake St Clair interferes in two ways, by simply blowing you off the water, and by messing up water clarity along the shores. Pre-spawn and fall can be great, but the wind can screw it up fairly often. The fish will be easier to find than summer, but it's not a piece of cake. Summer, if you can find the fish in 15-18 feet, can be great, also. But this is big water, with miles and miles and miles of what appears to be featureless, fishless, bottom, but there are spots the pros know will most likely produce, so a good guide is essential for the fisherman new to the area. I am fairly familiar with the deep water summer fishing, but have yet to "break the code" on summer fishing on St. Clair and Saginaw Bay. Even with a guide, there is no guarantee. You need to talk in detail with one of the good guides in the area to make the right decision for you. I would do it sooner rather than later as the good guides have regular clients that fill much of their calendars.

Sifuedition has it right, there is no single answer to how to do it. You have to let the fish tell you whether they want a slow gentle nudge, a sweep, a sharp twitch, etc. I assure you there are times when one works and nothing else does. As others have stated , the slack line lets you control the next move. For example, if you don't have slack line, you cannot execute a sharp twitch. Rapala just introduced a new lure based on getting a total stop, then the twitch, or sweep, or . . .

Don't try to fix it. I doubt if the manufacturer will argue about it, but if it does, do not easily give up. As stated, that is not an easy or cheap fix and you should not have to deal with fixing it.

If your priority is balance why would you be considering a 7-3 rod over a shorter one? Given similar blank characteristics, the longer rod will always be more tip heavy. I think other considerations take priority over balance, a characteristic that is affected dramatically by the lure you attach and the attitude of the rod (when vertical, all are in balance, when horizontal with lure attached, almost none is).

Sometimes they like fast, sometimes slow, sometimes twitched, sometimes just reeling constant speed. You need to try all sorts of techniques and colors. But greens are good almost anywhere. When I first started fishing jigs I had all sorts of trouble. When I finally started making my own high modulus graphite rods and using braid line, many times more effective than before. As someone already mentioned, if you have a "sloppy" rod, and don't set the hook, then you are giving away a lot of advantage. You need crisp actions, at least medium power, and a solid hook set for plastics. I also recommend you try exposing the hook point (no weedless feature) if you have not already done so. A mistake many newbies make is assuming that hook sharpness is not a big deal. It is a very big deal. Make sure your hooks are "sticky" sharp, meaning they will grab onto your thumbnail as you drap the point across your thumbnail. As you gain experience, you'll find out what is more effective, and come to your own conclusions. And you will catch more fish. Another possibility with clear water canal fishing is that a smaller lure might work better. If you have not tried the Ned rig, I suggest you get some. Very easy to fish, small, so few fish will refuse them, but big fish eat them too. Lighter colors for clear water. Buy both the grubs and the jigs designed for them. After gaining experience with the real Neds you might want to experiment with your own similar options, but start with the real stuff.

Works well on both SM and LM.

In the rivers here, olive wooly buggers are, based on my experience, the best color for SM, and in Lake St Clair and Saginaw Bay, white plastics twitched off the bottom are very effective. I've not used hair at all in the past, but will be doing it this next season. A jig that has an entirely different action, and may be effective, is the "glider" jig used for bonefish fly/jigs. I'll be trying a few of those, too. I think that white in SB and LSC is so good because fish there are often found in schools, and when one is caught it often disgorges very white partially digested shad, which the other fish in the school eat.

Nice looking jigs. Do you have a favorite color for clear water?

Neds come in a lot of colors, so try at least a few different ones. Makes a difference. Around here for LM the PB&J is very good, the Junebug is very good, especially in stained water. For clear water SM the greens are very good. For rock pile SM late in the season, snapping a white one off the bottom works well at times. Remember, as others have written, there are a lot of ways to fish it, and fish sometimes want one over the others. Experiment. When you get it right, it is a really good lure. Some times it has been the ONLY thing we could catch SM on. My son says it catches only small fish; he is wrong, it catches all fish. There are just more small ones than large. It has been a tournament winner for big SM in this area (MI, Lake St Clair, Sag Bay).

I'm looking forward to recognizing what I'm looking at.

Light breathable low hiking shoes. With the pant legs on the rain gear long enough to go over the shoe tops.

Give him one of those hospital urine jugs for Christmas, would be a real step up for him.:-)

I would replace his old "lacquer" with new. I really like UV curing epoxy-you need a UV light and the epoxy (do a web search and you'll find a number of offerings - I've used solarez). You can do your own weed guards from 30# hard mono leader material. If you're making a minnow imitation, you can get stick-on eyes, too. But you should cover them with epoxy or some other head cement or they will fall off. Again, UV cure works well. I like it because it hardens in 15-20 seconds and is crystal clear. Another fast drying option that is easy to find is the hard clear topcoat for fingernails.