Stan Smith

I know nothing about this sort of stuff. Well, just enough to get one in trouble. BUT, what if you bought an ultrex trolling motor and one talon anchor? Would this be a good team at keeping things nice and steady when used in tandem? Sorry if this is bad or something. Just thinking of different solutions

from a young age I learned to efficiently cast baitcasters and skipped out on learning to cast spinning gear all together. Mainly, because I quickly got tired of the line problems associated with spinning gear. Well ,armed with the knowledge of how to properly set up a spinning rig now, I decided to give it another try. After several days of trying to perfect the cast today it finally clicked. The motion/technique used to cast a spinning rod is much different than a baitcaster. Casting a bait caster is very similar to throwing a baseball. The best way to describe throwing a spinning rod I would have to say really feels more like you re shooting the lure out there. You really focus on loading the rod up. Tell me what you guys think.

Any recommended dealers to shop with in the southeastern US?

Lets change directions a bit. I still a pretty young guy BUT, I ve bought several new vehicles and in doing this i have found that one should never pay sticker price on a new truck/car. How much wiggle room is there on a new boat to negotiate a good deal? Is it similar to new automobiles?

I just went through this and I did it this way. Fill your spinning reel all the way up with your backing. Tie a plug on and go cast it. Make the longest cast you can make. Then, pull about 20 more yards of your backing off. Then cut your line at your reel. Now you can just fill it back up with the braid of your choice! should now have the perfect amount of braid on your reel

Well i actually have a moderate amount of experience on jetskis/waverunners. I have boating license from when i owned that. I dont feel this is adequate experience to operate a boat however. maybe i m wrong. I think i will start with a nice trolling motor, one with spot lock and wireless controls. this is a neat feature that can be used no matter what type of fishing i will be doing. Then i will probably get a nicer fishfinder. I ve never even used a fishfinder! I probably just need a NICE but basic one. I think these would be the only 2 places to focus money on outside just the boat initially. I can then outfit further depending on my needs that are uncovered.

I checked the Raymarine Dragonfly out. The built in WIFI streaming is a great feature to put another screen at the front of your boat! If i bought one of these raymarine units, would it be compatible with the tranducer that would be built in to one of the minnkota trolling motors?

Got it! so a great compromise would be get a nice trolling motor with spot lock. Forget about the shallow water anchors. I m sure they are a great addition but for 3 thousand dollars!! I think i will enjoy my first new boat just as much without them. Maybe consider a nicer fish-finder depending on how the budget lines up at the end.

Thanks PECo! What an informative post. I m playing around with the idea of maybe buying say a cheaper boat and rigging it out with some nicer options like say dual minnkota talons, nicer minnkota trolling motor with i-link and a higher end fish finder. I dont know if this is the way to go or not though as i am very new to the boat market. I really like the look of that triton 18 TX and i am a firm believer in "you get what you re willing to pay for." Any advice here?

How do you like the 115 Mercury Pro XS? From the small amount of shopping around i have done, this looks like a great motor. I know nothing about boat motors though.

very little its gonna be a learning experience.

I m kinda playing around with the idea of picking up a fishing boat. I mainly bass fish. I thought about buying a fishing kayak/ canoe. Then I looked into the twin troller boat for a bit. But, fishing is just more fun with a partner lol. I was looking around at some nice aluminum boats a found this one below. I ve never owned a boat before so give me somethings to keep in mind while shopping please. http://www.clarkmarine.com/2017-triton-boats-18-tx-inventory.htm?id=1454454&in-stock=1

Im using 20 and 30 lbs braid on all my rods. I have them set up like this to help with the very problem you are experiencing. First make sure you have a mono backer of some type. If you have a spool full of soft braid this is only making an environment where braid can dig into itself. to best solve this braid snapping problem you probably want no more than 80 yards or so of braid with the rest being tied to a monofilament backing. ALSO, this is big. I know everyone wants maximum sensitivity but i have found that about 10 feet of mono leader has lots of benefits. I usually use about 6 feet or so of 12 to 15 lbs test. This mono leader helps by giving you a shock absorber on the end of your line. This will soak up the extra shock associated with backlashing braided lines and keep you lure attached to your line. This also will help in keeping you from setting the hook to hard and jerking the lure out of the fishes' mouth. with the mono leader set up, i tie it to the braid using an FG knot. This setup used with the advice of developing a smoother cast should solve you problems. Nothing cast like a properly setup bait caster IF you know how to cast one properly. Its a smooth deliberate cast not a muscle up and chunk it cast. Unless you are chunking crank baits for maximum distance, with the correct casting technique i think 90 percent of all cast can be made by just using the strength in your wrist.

I recently purchased a 2 piece Kistler M.A.D rod. You must go through their build your own rod program. BUT, if you re looking for the best 2 piece rods, Trey @ Kistler rods will build it for you. Send him an email first informing him of the rod you want so he can get the 2 piece blank required to build it. Kistler makes great rods. You ll be proud of it

I m a long time farm pond bass fisherman. I have mostly just stuck with soft plastics,purple worm to be exact. But I decided to try something different and branch out a bit and spoil myself. I have a Kistler 7'11" M.A.D. rod coming and i plan on putting a Shimano Metanium MGL on it in a 7.2:1 ratio. I was planning on using this rig to launch swimbaits no bigger than 6 or 7 inches into farm ponds to cover lots of water and see where the big ones are. With all the experience on this board i bet you guys could tell me some other techniques to try with this setup. Help me guys!! Thanks, Stan