fishnkamp

I use a rod rack from Field and Stream. I got it at Dicks. It holds 16 rods.Here is a picture from Dicks website.

I doubt a plug could stand up to the pressure while running. I would have it fiberglassed or have left the transducer in place.l

That Irod is money

I love the original FireLine on all my spinning reels. I use a lot of other braid on my baitcasters, but I do the exact same thing on all of these reels to save money. Most baitcasters hold 150 yards of line. That is way way more line than you will ever need in most cases. So hear is my tip I buy a spool of 14 pound test Stren Original mono ( the clear blue stuff. I fill the reel 1/2 way up with the mono, the tie my braid on using a double uni knot. That leaves me with 75 yards of braid and a mono backing that I practically never change. The 330 yard spool of mono costs like $8 and a yard of line costs pennies. Your 125 yard spool of braid will now fill two reels cutting your cost in half. The mono also adds the benefit that it can be tied tight to the spool and will not spin like the braid often does when tied directly to the spool.

This is easy for me I fish from MD to VA, PA, TN, KY, Mo etc and my absolute favorite for smallies, largies and KY spotted bass as well as stripers is a Reaction Innovation Skinny Dipper. Actually all 3 sizes. In water 10 foot or less it is rigged with a belly weighted hook. For deeper water, it is rigged on a swimbait jighead like the Big Hammer jigheads or Picasso Smart Mouth swimbait jigheads. Either way I swim it, then kill it. The insane motion it has on the fall is terrific. That is when most of my strikss occur on that fall.

I look forward to it. The nice thing about launching at Anchor Marine in the North East is that it is located on your side of the flats so you will not have cross the bridge to Harve De Grace. That should save you probably 20 to 30 minutes drive time.

Hey Cabled70. If you ever feel like coming back down to the Upper Bay I would be happy to meet you in the town of North East ( at Anchor Marine) and help you with those reels. We could meet, play a little with the gear and then hit the water in my boat. I have no idea if you are interested but it would be about a 3 hour drive for you. You said you are originally from MD. but maybe you have never fished the Flats and the North East River before.

Once you set the free spool on the Daiwa line of reels you no longer adjust them fro lure weight, at least I never need to. Think about the Mag Force Z as a lawn mower's governor. It works without your input. The dial on the outside I rarely need to adjust but if I were top be trying to horse something or had bad wind conditions then I might bump it up a notch or two.

Also do not forget live bait. Hech they use live bait and balloons in Florida all year. They also catch some of the biggest bass that way too

Do yourself a favor when you go try one on make sure you sit down with it on. It might fit great standing up but sitting down it might not be as comfortable. I know with canoeing that was true. You not only need it to fit but you need room to paddle and fish. Try looking at some videos on youtube. It is a great resource. https://youtu.be/L5RoxxIkCEw https://youtu.be/hooZcMYwrK0 and these are just a few ideas.

Here are a few of the baits I use all around the country, but especially when I visit the really clear lakes in Tennessee and Kentucky, like Dale Hollow and Center hill. First your waters are very clear and highly pressured so natural colors like the colors of bluegill, shad or your local baitfish. My wife and I never fish those places without throwing small 5 inch grubs. Our favorite grub is a Kalin Lunker grub in bluegill color, smoke-salt and pepper and watermelon seed. I use a particular hook from bass pro for rigging these. It i called a Perfect Finesse worm jighead. It is pictured here next to a Kalin grub. Next try a swimbait like a Reaction Innovation Skinny Dipper and a belly weighted swimbait hook. Gamakatsu makes good ones so does Berkley. Here are a few pics of these baits. The swimbaits with the belly weighted hooks work well down to about 10 foot after that you need a jighead like the Hammer Shad heads. These are just a few ideas. They have worked all over the US for my and I. Different conditions have required different colors but those rigs work everywhere. Try different retrieve speeds and pauses till the fish tell you what they want.

Let me say have been fishing over 40 years and tried all sort of reels. Everyone has a different casting motion and personal preference so take it for what its worth. Several years ago a friend put a Diawa Exceler in my hand and I fell in love. I started using one of those and several Daiwa Tatula, Tatula Type Rs and Tatula CTs. I quickly sold off a bunch of Shimanos (including a Chronarch E7 and some green Curados). Before you spend big money on other reels I want to ask you how you adjusted your Tatula R. These reels do not work properly, or more accurately, work to achieve their best casting distance if you adjusted it the same way you adjust every other baitcaster. Let me explain the difference a bit. In most cases you spool a reel, run your line out the guides tie on a lure and adjust the spool tension according to how fast or slow you want the lure to drop. That will inhibit your casting distance big time with any Daiwa reel that has Mag Force breaking in it, especially Mag Force Z breaking which most all the Tatulas have. I am not sure how well you cleaned and lubricated your reel. I would suggest you send it out to someone like DVT to have it's maintenance done professionally. You might also consider upgrading a few bearings and replace the bushings inside with a few bearings. This has made some Tatulas run as smooth or smoother than reels much higher priced. Anyway back to its adjustment. Here are two videos. The first explains the break systems Daiwa has used. Your reel is the last one in the video(with mag force Z). The other video explains how to properly adjust your reel. I will get some disagreement on this point,but I have heard this point from a few pros and I always follow this tip. I back of my drag ( the dial on the outside) before adjusting the spool tension. I then set the dial to half way, or 10 out of 20, after the spool is set correctly. Try this before you spend any money. Give it a few casts the way you normally set your reel and then follow my method. Let us know the difference. Also, be sure the lure you are throwing is heavy enough to fall in between the spec of the rod. This is essential when testing this out. Notice, Brent is talking about the newer Daiwa Tatula SV TWS. All the Tatula family reels adjust the same way so you need to adjust it as he tells you. It will feel way to free to you and that is true if this were any other reel. Daiwas are not any other reel. I hope this helps. If you think you might want to upgrade that reel just let me know, I have several friends that will lead you down the right path on those reels. They live and breath fishing reels, all brands and know all the tricks.

All you need is a simple mushroom anchor. Here is a pic from Walmart These are all you need to begin with. I would add I large spring link (carabiner ) like this one from Home Depot. I would attach it to the back of the boat where it could be strapped down or run the rope around a cleat and then thru the link. You probably only need 50 feet of rope for your use. This way you can easily attach it to the boat before you begin. I would then temporarily tie it off to a cleat or a seat etc to set yourself when you need to.

You are probably right. Johnny is not in the charger building business. He has most of his branded stuff made by a major manufacturer or he buys said major manufacturer. I just know it has always worked well for me. Hey Way north bass guy how do you like your Terrova? Are you using the foot pedal much? I am about to upgrade from a Maxxum to a Riptide Terrova ( the salt water version).

In my 2010 Lowe bass boat I chose a Bass Pro charger that does 10 amps on 2 banks. It is very fast and my batteries have lasted over 7 years of use. I chose that one because it fit in a storage compartment and some of the Minn Kotas and other brands were a bit larger. I have never been disappointed with it. In my 20 foot Pro Craft I had a 10 amp 2 bank Dual Pro and it functioned well also. I really do not find I need to charge the gas engine battery very often. My outboard has always done it unless my boat sat for an extended period without use.

neocrunch I do not throw the baits you mention, but I do throw the 5/8 ounce 5.5 inch Rebel minnow for bass and stripers, as well as some of the count down Rapalas in that same size. I even throw some broken back rebels in the larger size, so I do think it would work well for them. I am old school with many of my lures. I am also cheap but they work well for me. I regularly fish with 12 baitcasters in my rod locker along with 3 spinning combos. That means I have dedicated rod for specific duties. Most of the time I will have 3 or 4 rods out on the deck, this allows me to quickly change techniques or cover different depths without re-tieing. I have never used it for anything but jerkbaits, since that was what I needed in my arsenal. I am sure it would be useful for many other things, but for me I have never tried to use it with any other lures. Consider this, the blank and components are laid out about the same as a typical 6'6" split grip rod would be, only the rod has a bit of a shortened up butt section on purpose. It was designed to let you fish the rod with the jerking motion and not hit your wrist or elbow.

That rod will throw small plastics like grubs, tubes, belly weighted swimbaits like a Reaction Innovation Skinny Dipper, hair jigs and lots more.

Since I first tried a Daiwa Tatula three years ago, I have gotten rid of all of my Shimanos and a few BPS in favor of over a half dozen Daiwa Tatula, Tatula Type Rs , one Exceler, and a Tatula CT. I would strongly recommend the Daiwas with the Mag Force Z brakes. The Tatula CTs, CT Type Rs, or a Tatula SV TWS. Take your pick there is no wrong choice there.

You will see a big difference by upgrading to a 24 volt system. The Terrova is a nice piece. Remember, in this instance your batteries are your fuel supply ie. do not scrimp on the batteries. I run a 17 1/2 foot long Lowe Stinger 170, very similar boat to the Ranger Rt 178. I chose to use two Cabelas AGM batteries in the group 30 size for my trolling motor and one for the gas engine . These batteries are expensive like $250 each but go on sale annually. They also weigh like 65 pounds each! The have a great big reserve minutes rating, much higher than most others. Mine are beginning their 8 year of service, so I got my use out of them. Make sure to add an onboard charger to your must have list and then USE it every time you come off the water. 36 volt is better but you will probably find it difficult to fit 4 batteries on board

I thought that was the area you were located in and you are in deed about an hour and a half from the town of North East MD. There is a great marina there called Anchor Marine. That river feeds directly into the Susquehanna Flats. That is where we will meet and you will gain enough experience in one day to help answer many of these questions. I posted a picture earlier in this thread of my 17 1/2 foot Lowe Stinger 170. It is very similar to the Ranger 178. I first set that boat up with a special jack Plate and a 25 HP Merc in order to fish Lake Marburg in Hanover PA. I lived about 30 minutes from it back then. Once we moved to the RT 95 corridor, I exchanged that motor out for its current 75 Merc. I have a 788 Hummingbird up front and a Lowrance Elite 7 at the console. It currently has a MK Maxumm 70 on the front deck and a bunch of other goodies. I am about to exchange that trolling motor for a Mk Terrova with I pilot. These are high end pieces. For your use a 70 Maxumm or even an Edge would be fine.

First you will need to save your money as you have said. The features question has endless answers, but I have owned 11 fishing boats in 42 years of bass fishing so I will share a little of what I learned doing it.. Here would be my most important features: A 24 volt trolling motor and 3 high reserve AGM marine deep cycle batteries. You will be fishing some tidal water and will need that as a minimum. I would forgo the fancy painted trailer and go with a galvanized trailer. It will not look as pretty, but if you intend to fish places like the Delaware river and the Upper Chesapeake bay you will encounter tidal water and that has salt in it. It will rot out a painted square tube trailer in a few years, and it does it from the inside out. Road Armor coating do not help. Have them install side boards to help in capturing the trailer easier when loading in heavy current. Tidal water is almost always moving and rarely helpful when at the ramp. Trailer brakes is a luxury and safety item on a light weight boat like this. This is very dependent upon what your tow vehicle is. My Lowe does not have brakes on its trailer, but it could have. I tow with a big enough truck I did not need them. My 20 foot Pro Craft fiberglass bass sat on a tandem axle trailer and had a 200 Merc on it. It was big and heavy. It had to have brakes on it. The on board charger is a must for me. I prefer a 3 bank, but I have a 2 bank on this boat, mostly due to space. Ask to have an external A/C plug installed. It makes it so easy to just lift the cap and insert your extension cord. For the motor, I usually say to go with the biggest possible. The top speed is not the only aspect that the full HP affects. It will make getting on plane quicker, and if you are cruising part throttle you will get better fuel economy since you will be working the engine less to maintain mid range speed. If you decide to go with less HP never go below the 90 on that boat. Boat Buckles are worth every penny. I would look at some of the newer engine supports that only mount on the motor. Motor totters that connect to the trailer are just old technology and not the best idea. I run a Motor Mate but you would have to see what model fits your engine. Electronics depends on what you can afford at the time and what brand you prefer. I can not help with how to earn the money, we all have that problem! How do I learn to drive my bassboat? Now that one I can help with easily. From your posting I figure you should be about 1 to 1 1/2 hours from the Upper Chesapeake Bay-Susquehanna Flats. If sometime this spring or summer you are willing to go fish the Northeast River and Susquehanna Flats I would be happy to meet you there and teach you how to launch, load, drive and fish from my boat. They are very similar boats. When to buy depends on when you have the money. Show season can provide an opportunity to gat a deal, however I would be looking at the used market too and that requires I pay attention to what some dealers and craigslist has to offer.

Hands down I prefer Daiwas braking system. I have had many baitcasters over 40 years of fishing. Once i tried a Diawa Tatula I sold of 7 Shimanos, Lews and BPS. I own 1 Exceler, and around 8 Tatula originals, Tatulas Type Rs and CTs. All of the Tatulas and many of the other Daiwa reels use the same system called Mag Force and Mag Force Z. The Tatulas use the Mag Force Z and I love it. I have linked two video. One is Brent Ehrler talking about the Tatula SV TWS reel and how top adjust it properly. This is important they run differently than other reels. The second explains the brake systems Daiwas has used including the Mag Force Z.

I use an Abu Garcia Ike series 6'4 delay series rod and like it a lot.

Lets turn this question around a bit. Is this your first baitcasting rig? You already said it is for general purpose and that is good info. What lures do you prefer to fish with the most? What weight lures. I fish some G Loomis rods and I love them. They are all either IM6 or IMX versions. Great rods. I have not fished with one of the E6 versions so I can not comment too much on that lineup, sorry. Lately my preference in rods has been rods from Dobyns, Powell and Irod. For your needs I would look at a Dobyns Fury FR 734C. It is a workhorse rod for sure. In a Powell I would look at a 723 or 683 Max 3D. I own an original Max 683 CEF and that is the most versatile rod in my arsenal of 14 baitcasters. Go read the Tackle Tour review on that rod. The 723 is basically the same rod in a 7'2" length. Have you thought about what reel you will match this rod up with? My suggestion would be a Daiwa Tatula CT or one of the other Tatula family reels. I sold off a lot of my other reels as soon as I got my first Daiwa Tatula.

I have fished dozens of rods over the years. My favorites today are from Irod ( Genesis II ) Powell and Dobyns. In the Dobyns lineup their most popular rod for all around use would be a 734C. It is available in multiple series, but a Fury FR 734C matched to a Daiwa CT or SV TWS would be a high quality combo for around $240. It is not a Black Max combo that you will upgrade from later In a Powell, I love my Max 683 CEF. It is my most versatile rod I fish. Go read the Tackle Tour review on it ( just do a google search for it). Now mine is the original version, not the newer Max 3Ds. If you prefer the longer version than a 723 CEF would be the choice. These rods run around $120 right now. I really like the Irods I own, but mine are more specialized rods. The 733c would probably work well. I have never had one in my hand, but the build quality in the entire Genesis II series are equally good. A friend of mine turned me onto the Daiwas and I ended up selling off over a half dozen Shimanos, BPS and Lews reels in favor of 9 Daiwa original Tatula, Tatula Type Rs, Tatula CT and one Exceller. The SV TWS did not exist yet. I just prefer that braking system over anything else out there. It is important to adjust these reels properly and they do not adjust the same as every other reel out there. If you get one I would be happy to help you get it set right.