Beautiful woodies eyekatcher, I wish I had a backyard view with them in it

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

Where, Mitch? Seems way early for hummers!

I live in Menomonie, WI. I Saw another hummer fly to my empty feeder this AM. I will try and get a picture of it, they are just so fast.

mplspug wrote:

One of these days when my time has come
You can take me back to where I’m from
Put me on a westbound train
And ship me off in the pourin’ rain
Don’t cry for me when I’m gone
Just put a quarter in the jukebox and sing me back home and
Tip your hats and raise your glasses of cold cold beer
They say country’s fading
But just keep waving that flag around here
And I know it’ll keep on coming back
As long as people pledge allegiance
Where folks still pledge allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the Hag

Rest in peace.

Great song/tribute to the Hag from Church. RIP Hag

Just saw a hummingbird fly to my empty hummingbird feeder this morning, only to be disappointed! Seems this is the earliest I have seen a hummingbird for a while

Does anyone have a copy of the xcel chart the dtro put together? I never printed one, just saved it on my phone and I lost it. The original link doesn’t seem to work anymore either. This chart seemed to be right on the money and was super handy to have

Gonna bump this thread, just saw that the King Kat rods were on sale again, click on the link I posted above. Very hard to go wrong with this $20 rod

Great info, thanks for the help everyone. A little annoying that the new starting battery that I purchased last year doesn’t work for me. Any suggestions for LED boat lights? I am also putting some LED interior lights in my boat this year as well. I should be hooking these up to my starting battery as well, correct? I have a buddy that shames me for not running accessories to my trolling motor batteries.

The difference between the Helix 10 and 899 is crazy, thanks for the pics David. How’s the ease of use of the helix? hockey’s tux, let me know what you decide on. I was considering picking up a helix this year to replace my 898

riverruns, did you ever pick up some nanofil before your trip? How did it work the rest of the ice season? I used it for the first time this season lake trout fishing and was really happy

I would check into Cabelas King Cat rods. Extremely strong and a great night fishing rod too. I use two 7′ medium rods and have quite a few fish over 40″ on them. I really wish I would have gotten the 8′ rods however. I got them for $20 each on sale.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/cabela-s-king-kat-reg-casting-rods/738559.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3DsearchForm%26N%3D0%26fsch%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3Dking%252Bcat%26x%3D10%26y%3D6%26WTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%252BProducts&Ntt=king+cat

20.5
7.9

I know it isn’t a vex or marcum, but I purchased a used humminbird ice 55 for this ice season and have absolutely loved it. I fish Lake Trout up to around 90′ of water to panfish in 4′ and everything in between. I was picking up a 1/64 oz tungsten jig in 60′ of water catching ciscoes, that impressed me. I used to run into quite a bit of interference on my FL-18 that I had for years and haven’t had an issue with my humminbird. If I were to buy brand new I would go for a Humminbird Helix, GPS and sonar in 1 would be pretty sweet

I would check out Cabelas King Cat rods. They are super tough and great for night fishing. I have caught quite a few flats over 40″ on my 7′ medium setups. I really wish I would have purchased the 8′ version instead, but I use the 7′ rods for inside setups. They go on sale a few times every year for $20, tough to beat IMO

I use braid on all of my setups for every species as my main line. I seem to change line every 2-3 years but I also strip around 10′ of line alomost every outing, I do fish a lot of rock though. I don’t use backer most of the time but I probably should, would probably save some cash. For walleye/panfish/trout I always use a floro leader if they aren’t extremely aggressive, never have for Flatheads though. If I tie direct its hard to beat a Palomar. If I use a leader I’ll either connect with a spro power swivel or a uni-to-uni knot depending on the setup.