I have put down my Yellow lab Remington and my Chocolate lab Benelli in the last year. I feel for ya and my thoughts are with u.

Bore sight it or find someone who can. Start at 25 yds so you aren’t wasting time and ammo. If your windage is perfect at 25 it shouldn’t take much adjustment at 100, should be more of an elevation adjustment game.

File that birdshot thing under “That sounded better in my head.”

I live in Northern WI and when someone pulls up too close I smile and ask “So, what part of Illinois are you from?” (I think everybody knows what a FIB is)

Do you have to be a whore to join? Nobody else has five ads on every single post BK.

As far as I’m concerned you’re not culling until you reach your bag limit. At that point (although it may be only for a minute until you swap fish) you have more fish than you are legally allowed.
I don’t like the rule for two reasons. First, I think it is the first step down a slippery slope. Second, I have seen firsthand dead or near dead fish at the end of tourneys and it seems like a waste of a resource.

If it was me I’d use nice big blades (#5 Colorado) which give more lift and keep you from getting fouled up in the salad. They also make a great vibration that brings fish in from a distance. If you can, use a bright color like chartreuse or orange so you can see the rig and know if you’re clearing the weeds. You should be able to find them anywhere and tie your own rigs. PM me if you have /’s.

I have found that it’s much easier to use cruise control if you use the manual controls to get the boat moving at the correct speed first, then engage the cc. Otherwise it seems to take a lot of adjustment.
I also use spot lock in a different way. I like to drift. After I use my outboard to get to the start of my drift I engage the spot lock. That way I’m not halfway down the lake before I get the sock out and the lines in the water. I can disengage the spot lock and drift when I’m ready!!!

Never. Coil it up and ziptie it.

I don’t mean to ruffle any feathers here but I don’t think the problem is the transducers being “snappable” so much as that people don’t install them properly in the bracket. If you are snapping them off it means you have tightened the bolt too much. You need to go easy on the bolt so the transducer will “kick up” when it strikes anything. The mount has teeth in it and doesn’t need to be tightened very much. You can even test it in the driveway after install to make sure it will perform as expected…and save you some cash…

Of course you have to transfer ownership. That way the governor gets his cut of the sale…lol

Could the Twinkies possibly suck any worse?

A jointed rap will wobble at an even slower speed than a standard one. I routinely troll J11’s and J13’s at 0.4-0.5 mph.

They put it off for about a year but the new rules REQUIRE a passport. Period.

IMHO, you can soak them all you want but if they are made of the traditional soft plastic material they won’t have any more appeal than if you gave them a quick dip. Gulp is a whole different animal. It shrinks and gets hard when it dries out-it obviously absorbs moisture/scent.

Gander can kiss my ***. It’s bad enough that every time I go there I can’t find anything (last trip I was looking for a specific Gulp product and they had gulp in 11 different locations) and get “help” from a kid who looks about 12 and doesn’t know ANYTHING.
Every time they build a new store they are closed for months and have NO store. They then have a grand opening expecting everyone to be excited about it.
I would be perfectly happy if they kept the same crummy little stores, stocked them with what I needed, and staffed them with people that possessed enough knowledge to be helpful.

I’m in.

Hey, sorry if my previous post sounded harsh. I forgot about those lakes in Northern WI that have no minimum size limit. I’m just a big believer in following the rules. I’m from Washburn and fish all the time near Hayward. Where are you located if you don’t mind saying?

Doh…just found the Al forum…my bad!!!

I can tell you from personal experience your HDS-5 is not going to show you much in Canada. Roads are OK, lake info is nonexistent. No help from Lakemaster either, only card available is Rainy/LOTW. Try getting some real maps from the MNR and translate them to what you’re seeing on your chart screen best you can…

Use backing on all of them. You don’t want your line spinning on the spool. You also will be able to fill 2 reels instead of one if you use backing (Fireline ain’t cheap!) No it shouldn’t hang up during casting, unless you are the world record caster, it shouldn’t go that deep into the spool.

The chintzy plastic fitting on the aquaviews is a joke. In the instructions they state that the cable must be unhooked when not in use…they know it’s going to break. I repaired mine myself with a microphone connector from radio shack and have had no more problems. It was even the perfect size to mount in the existing hole on the unit.

Lots of situations can be avoided by planning ahead, having the right equipment, and filing a flight plan. Even so, bad things can happen.
Sounds like in the case it was just a case of pure idiocy. They should send the $20,000 bill for the rescue to this guy, maybe he’d learn his lesson then.

As in life, any change is bad…
My bet is always on STABLE weather.
That being said, my day to fish is my day to fish and I won’t catch anything sitting on the couch…I’m kinda known for being the guy who goes out when conditions are ridiculous.

Start with a map. You can eliminate about 90% of the “unproductive” water and focus on key structural locations. (Not that fish can’t be roaming featureless flats, but structure is a good place to start.) You can pick out 5 or 6 good-looking spots from your map and drive right to them via GPS, saving yourself a lot of time.I like to run the Lakemaster chips in my HDS-5 with a FHS map as a backup and to see the “big picture.” Also, taking something huge like the ‘Chip is easier if you break it into smaller sections.

Believe it or not it’s probably worth the time to just rewire it. All of the wiring on the trailer is the same age so you might eliminate one spot just to have another show up later. I’ve always been surprised at how much plastic is in trailer wire insulation, even when it doesn’t wear throught it cracks, especially in cold weather.

Did you use drywall primer?

Add the “snapper” release to your boards, you’ll be glad you did. Putting that loop in the line is a pain, especially in wind/waves and with cold wet hands.

Decide whether the fish fry is worth the fine. Although it may be true that harvesting some smaller fish may help the size in the future, that is for the DNR to decide and their current size limit requires them to be 15″. We can’t ignore the rules just because things aren’t going well. Enjoy catching the fish and let them grow.