The Jason Mitchell Meat stick and Dead stick rods are great for this application. I have 2 bait feeders on them myself. I have owned a walleye snare and a panfish snare from JT… they are great rods no doubt, but they are north of $100 each and made me nervous they would break or get damaged in transport or getting kicked or something while fishing in the shack.

The snare rods will catch you more fish if you do not have the bait feeder reels and MAYBE even if you do. But I think for shy biting fish, the okuma bait feeders set properly on a broom stick handle will out fish a Snare rod with whatever other reel there is out there.

The Jason Mitchell rods are often on sale somewhere for $35. I have found the Dead Meat is better for true dead sticking, but I like the Meat stick almost as well, and it does have a better tip for strike indication if you decide to jig with that rod on occasion as well. I bought one of each when I sold the snare rods and figured I would see what one I liked better and buy another of it. I am still undecided. I guess I cannot advise what one to get over the other, But a slight nod to the Dead Meat as it sets off the bait feeder audible clicking faster than the meat stick. If you don’t want to mess the reel settings very much at all (adjusting drag) then go with the Meat stick, as some of the larger minnows will be able to work the rod tip, but not pull line. Mine are both 36 inch rods, but wish I had 32 inch sometimes. I have hit the top of a shack or 2 setting the hook with the 36 inch rod.

I would have said they are great… I have 2 of them. Fished with them maybe 20 half day outings each. Both of them crapped out on me in my last 2 outings. I Have a buddy that bought one last year and he called me to ask what he was doing wrong after he bought one towards the end of the season last year and took it fishing on his last outing. He couldn’t get it to free spool. I mentioned to the guy that was with me when I bought mine (and he bought one as well) that it was odd both of them just stopped free spooling within a couple days. He informed me his did the same and he threw it out after a few trips when it quit working. Not sure if we all got a bad run of them or what, but I would say they are junk. The pascifun seems to be the front runner if you are wanting a trigger and not a 13 fishing.

I have a couple otter hub shacks, the lodge and the monster lodge I think. I also have a one man flip and a old 2 man flip otter wild. Last year I bought a quickfish 2 just for traveling light. I have not used the other shacks since. I normally hop around and wear my float suit, set up the quickfish for a place to thaw out frozen eyelets and warm up. I did buy a duffel bag to keep it in. I have a buddy that keeps his in an old hard side rifle case he took the foam out of. I think it is about 44 inches long folded up and my old hard side gun case is 42 so I just got the duffel.

mxskeeter wrote:

Well the last item that Scheels would not match was HB transducer. It was $220 at Scheels. Hodges Marine had it for $151. Another online store(forget the name) had it for $143. Hodges had like 97 in stock. The other company with 16 locations had over 200 available.
Scheels reason for not matching—the other companies were not HB Certified dealers. I find that hard to believe the other 2 companies are not certified dealer with the inventory amount that was on the shelf. Scheels had 12 available to ship.
Don’t get me wrong I like Scheels but it’s policy must have a lot of fine print or the employee can make his own decisions to deny matching.

I would be curious to know what store you were in. I was told by an employee at one of their locations the Sioux City store did not have enough competition and they get away with a a lot more crappy customer service. We refer to that location that has given me trouble for years as an “emergency stop only”. My dad and I both will drive 80 miles further to go to on of their other locations. Too many customer service issues. We both have spent a fair amount in the store too. I would guess between my folks and my family we have spent approx $10K in 2024 at Scheels. Not 10% has been in the Sioux City store, and I drive by several times a month and have to drive by on my way to the one I go to.

leave the cover rolled up unless you have something in the bad that cant get wet.

A 16 foot rebel with a 25 2 stroke is a real nice set up… No need for power trim. May take a trip or 2 to adjust the trim, but I imagine a 25 Zuke on a 14 foot lund with electric start would be plenty. I can get a 16 footer up on plane pretty quick and I go 270#. Add a 200 pound guy in and takes a bit longer but never had a thought of getting a bigger motor.

waterdog87 wrote:

The majority of my hunts will be solo with the dog, but occasionally will have another hunter with me. That being said I am sticking with the 12ft for now. Could you elaborate a bit more on the layout blind idea?

Basically you build the boat out so you can sit on the floor while hunting and have doors that open like a layout blind. This will keep center of gravity low, and also make the blind much easier to hide, as it will be much lower profile.

Are you hunting Solo or with another person? If solo I would 100% build it to hunt as you would out of a layout field blind and have the dog on a stand off side of boat. IF you are needing to hunt 2 guys, I would say you need a bigger boat, especially with a dog along. 1448 jon boat is a great 2 man, stable platform to shoot from is pretty important for safety and accuracy.

Amazingly slow. Been fishing that area for a long time and I about to post a thread asking where to go in Minnesota. Lake is full of shad. There was a local tournament out there and quite a few teams posted zeros. The 2 day 14 fish total winning weight was 32 pounds and included a fish just shy of 7… 51 teams and half of them weighed less that 15 pounds. All the guys I know that fish out there are pretty puzzled. Had some years with slow starts, but by now that bite should be pretty strong. Memorial day to Fathers day is typical peak time for that area.

I bought a 5 foot stick of pvc and a 1×4. I cut the pvc up into 3 inch sections and screwed them to the board. Screwed the board to the bottom of a rafter. Then used tea cup hooks screwed into the rafter 4 foot away from the pvc holders to hold the rod tips up.

better late then never I guess!

I live in Iowa, I have watched more WBB games then the men this year. Hoping to watch again Friday and the Championship game as well. The first WBB game I ever watched on TV was last seasons final 4 and Championship game. They are fun to watch!

looks like an old alumacraft to me… what does it actually measure? I am thinking it may be a model A or F

Anything gas operated that I own and gets stored for more than a month gets nothing put 91 non oxy fuel, stabil or seafoam and i just park it. when It comes time to use it again I drain the gas, mainly to get the water out from condensation and fill up with fresh. The stabil or seafoam I feel keeps the fuel from getting gummed up in the carbs and the carbs stay “wet”.

Just an audio clip of coon distress and a Bluetooth speaker that gets loud enough and you are good to go. I will tell you not to use too expensive of speaker, if there are several coon they will tear up a speaker pretty good if you don’t get them all shot.

However, this is a very cheap, yet effective option.

https://www.scheels.com/p/vengeance-flx-50-handheld-electronic-predator-call/61637650705.html?src=hardlines&srsltid=AfmBOop7vAILzloxCRTgpr9MnxMU5fX4raRiLLgj3oDdm37f2L6wcapVHJE&utm_campaign=unpaidlistings&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google

A son asks his father one day, “Dad, why is my sister’s name Rose?”. He replies, “Well, on our first date, I brought you mother a bouquet of roses, and every date or holiday since I have bought her flowers. She loves them so much that when your sister was born she named her Rose.” “OK, thanks Dad” said the son. The father replies “No problem, Flicker Shad”

mojogunter wrote:

Your Lund may be different, but I had a stratos and my current ranger both needed the front strap eye on the bow adjusted out further so there is enough room to attach the winch strap. I also had to switch the winch strap to pull from the bottom rather than over the top, or the bow would bounce on the trailer pulling down the road. Two things I will also say with the stratos on the bunk trailer once I was up close enough to power load to attach I had to make sure the motor was trimmed down enough or a couple of times the bow was light enough to lift up and over the drotto. I did it twice and that was a PITA to get the front back over the drotto to try again to latch. With the motor trimmed down it wasn’t an issue. The ranger bow is heavy enough it isn’t an issue. The Lund may be completely different. I actually have enough room to attach the strap and the safety chain. That may be overkill, but since there is room I put it on too.

100% solid advise on the bow rise. I bought a used boat with it on the trailer and I hated it for the first trip with it. Finally the last day of the trip there was a friendly guy at the ramp and gave me some pointers on loading with it… Keep trailer out of water just bit more than I was before, and keep the bow down.

my 2011 tundra has 240K gets washed every 5 days, and has no rust. The kids 05 is rust free, the wives 06 Lexus is rust free, the 99 Tahoe is rust free… they all get washed every 5 days. I have the app for my local car wash. 28 bucks a month… Get one wash a day.

I would call the collection agency within 30 days and ask them for proof of debt. They will have to look into your account and if T Mobile wiped it clean after they turned it over to the collection agency, they will let you know, if not they will send you a detailed breakdown of the charges. If you hold a $0 dollar balance and no charges dated after that… they cant really do anything. KEEP ALL YOUR DOCUMENTS FOR AT LEAST 7 YEARS. If after you tell them they still try to collect it, ask them for a court date ASAP… or just pay it and be done with it. $312.78 is what I call tuition. Everybody pays it if they go to college or not.

I replied to the other thread, but if its a new skeeter vs a used Ranger, I think the new boat is a no-brainer.

Been in a few skeeters and a few rangers… I would rather have a skeeter, but mainly just because of the layout and the Yamaha’s… either way you go, it will be a good rig that should treat you well.

Bimini top with assorted covers… Please explain this. I am looking into fixing some rivets in my boat and buy and buying a custom bimini that is tall enough to stand under and just long enough to allow to deploy the net and not interfere with the trolling tree set up on the rear of the boat and rear vertical rod rack I use while running. What all covers for the bimini are you talking?

I want a 20 foot alaskan tiller to ride as well as my old 177 warrior did. The only issue I had with the 177 was room in the “cockpit area” I have 2 sons that are about 6’2 and 6’4″, and I go 6’1″. By the time we got in that boat and were comfortable, we were out of space. So i bought a 19 foot windshield boat that is much wider and we all fit in it comfortably, but I hate not having the boat control I did with my warrior. A 20 foot boat that takes big water waves and cruises about 30-35MPH and tops at 40-45 is good enough for me.

Taco Tots is something we do…

1# ground beef with taco seasoning
1 can of campbells fiesta cheese
2 cans rotel (drained)
small container of sour cream
jar of texas 2 corn salsa
Top with tots and then with shredded cheese

Not a bad car at all, but for that $$ I would go to a Honda Accord or a Toyota Camry. I always tell people I like a car or truck that is just as good for the 2nd and 3rd 100K miles as they were for the guy who put the first 100K on. Hard to find a non Honda/Toyota with 200K on it and still look and drive like it did with 50K.

In one of my boats if it rains I have to pull it to a hill and let it drain. The way it sits on the trailer I can get the front end high enough to drain it all.

Pretty much spend 70% of the time I fish using crawler harnesses or lindy rigs. I also troll cankbaits 25% of the time and cast very little. This boat will be used mainly on the Missouri river in SD, Winnie/ Leech lake and possibly on Mille Lacs, now that I have a buddy that has a place on that lake. I may go up there for a weekend occasionally. All I know is I would like to have a bait well in reach, some tackle storage in reach (enough for a few 3700 boxes) and have a decent ride with enough room to fish 3 guys sometimes, but most often 2. Does not need to be a speed demon but cruise at 30-35 without being wide open throttle. If the ride is comfortable at those speeds I do not mind taking a longer ride up or down the river to get to a spot.

I am not a guide… I have noticed that the floorplan and layout differs greatly between brands. I am know I enjoyed my warrior when I had that and would buy one again in heartbeat, but they hard to find in my area. I have thought about giving the guy that bought mine from me a call, but would like to get to a 20 footer.

I recommend 1000 hours or 10 years (I would double check to make sure its not 5 a 5 year service interval from the factory). DIY or certified Yamaha mechanic and you will be fine. If you have any tools and mechanical ability it looks to be a very easy job no doubt.

I think you will wind up with 4 24 team Conferences. They will be divided up into 4 divisions of 6 teams. Teams will play 5 Division games, 3 games against the same place finishers of the other 3 division from the previous season, 2 Non-conference rivalry games. 10 game regular season. First place in each division are in a playoff for conference Champion. Winner of 4 conferences are in playoff for Nat Championship. Most teams play 10 games, Some teams will play 11, 12, or 13 games. 2 teams play 14. The teams 96 Teams in the 4 conferences will split the money from the playoffs equally. The 37 teams currently in FBS conferences will have to join FCS. Season will start on Labor Day weekend with 2 Buy weeks, Playoffs start T-Giving weekend. 4 weeks of playoffs with week off before NC game. Nat Championship game is on Saturday closest to New Years Day. All the regular bowls invite teams they want from the field of those no longer in the playoffs after the conf chaps have been crowned.