I currently have all Stihl 2-stroke equipment and have been more than satisfied over the years. But, in all honesty, if I were starting over today there is no doubt in my mind that I would go electric. Neighbor at the lake has the M18 trimmer that you have and I’ve used it several times, it’s everything you could ask for. I have the Dewalt version of the pole saw you mention (mainly because I already have Dewalt tools and it’s amazing what that thing will do with even a 4ah battery.

I’m sure my Stihl equipment will likely last me long enough that I’d never truly need to replace, but your last point about the Mrs. now using the equipment herself may just be the motivation needed to change!

I’d check with H2Outfitters in Big Lake

Go to the sport show and there will be plenty of freebies

Tony Hanson wrote:

That one looks like a winner, that hadn’t come up in my google search for some reason. Thank you!

Looks like I spoke too soon, they had these listed and I could put them in my cart, but as soon as I clicked to checkout the site locked up. Tried from my home computer as well and same results, back to the search.

That one looks like a winner, that hadn’t come up in my google search for some reason. Thank you!

Everything that I have found that is available is for their “new” style tournament series pumps. My boat is a 2007, so has the “old” style pro series pumps. I’ve checked with several places with no luck so far. Looks like I might be installing all new pumps.
Thanks for the replies.

Or you could be like me and take the renewal class but forget to go to the sheriff’s office before the permit was expired, so I had to pay extra for the renewal

Got out for the first time this season with my younger dog and there were no shortage of birds, but they definitely were easily spooked. We hunted for a few hours on Saturday and flushed around 50 birds, almost all out of range. She did manage to put one rooster up in range and I was able to make the shot count, so she got her first wild rooster. Most birds initially flushed out of the red dogwood brush, but once bumped they went into the cattails. Was interesting in the cattails with 2-3″ of water on top of the ice from the rain. Hopefully we get enough cold weather to freeze it all up solid again, I’d like to get out another time or 2.

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dirtywater wrote:

This isn’t for everyone but hear me out: A new identical drill with 2 batteries is $125. The batteries separately are 60 apiece. buy the brand new kit and sell everything but the batteries for $50. Somebody who has a bunch of batteries already will be excited to add a brand new compact dewalt drill (typically sells for $90 new), and you will have 2 new batteries for about $75 all in.

I’ve done this twice. If you can take advantage of the sales when they come along you can wind up getting the batteries for close to 50% when it all shakes out.

^^^this. I’ve done this with some of my old 18v DeWalt tools. Sold the bare tool to someone that already has batteries and then replace with new 20v

Well, mine actually shipped and showed up on the 3rd, so they far exceeded their updated estimate. I was able to get around to assembling it yesterday and all seems well. Thanks again for the heads up!

They are now telling me the new estimated ship date is 8/13. Glad I’m not in immediate need of this thing, and hopeful that it arrives in better condition than yours.

JEREMY wrote:

I would pick it up if you can their delivery is a shat show.

I should’ve cancelled my order and listened to your advice. Was supposed to be delivered 7/29 and it hasn’t even shipped yet, and HD can’t seem to figure out where it is.

Wow, thanks for the heads up! Glad I’ve been dragging my feet on buying one all summer, this just saved me $450, and includes free delivery to my house.

Welcome to the Ulterra, mine did this last year (1 month out of warranty) and ended up needing to replace the mother board. Parts were back ordered then, so I was without mine for 2 months last summer. I gave up after the first month and replaced mine with an Ultrex. After the debacle that was the MinnKota Genesis, I should have known better than to buy the Ulterra, shame on me. Hopefully yours is something lesser and/or parts are at least available to fix it.

As someone mentioned above, I think almost every circuit/tournament has their own conversion chart, no idea where each of them come up with their weights. I will say that any of them that I’ve seen seem to be inflated from what the actual weights would likely be, but that is irrelevant for the most part since all entrants in the tournament are graded on the same scale.

A quick google search for AIM pro walleye conversion chart gave me this for the scale that they use. Again, I would say the weights are likely inflated, depending upon time of year and body of water.

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FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

Yeah the pretend weight thing is pretty dumb IMO and always has been.

Measuring inches, just add up how many inches in total and display that.

Soooooo exaggerated for JUNE fish weights. And where in MN do we have prespawn boat tournaments? No where obviously, which is why prespawn weight charts are dumb. Border water is only prespawn tournaments. Regardless of spawning status fish weights vary drastically. Like a Stdev of 3. Making the conversion complete bologna.

What difference does it make on what the actuals are? Each team in the tournament is playing by the same rules and same conversion chart, so actual weight means nothing. As far as inches, they convert to a weight because if they strictly went off of inches a team with 2 walleyes of 15 inches would equal a 30 inch fish, and I don’t care what kind of conversion you use, there is no way 2 15 inch fish outweigh a 30, thus still rewarding the teams that are catching the bigger fish.

Browndog wrote:

I just purchased 2 group 31 Duracell AGM’s from sams for $390 to replace my old interstates. For what they were I thought the price was right.

I bought these same batteries 2 years ago and they have been great to this point, and the price through Sam’s is tough to beat.

Paul D wrote:

Wife & I got in before the plague hit, damn lucky. Bought a 2020 Forest River product. Went to the RV show in 2022 where the queens play. Found the exact same model from a local dealer there, it was priced 27K more than what we paid, for the same camper, I was dumbfounded.

Pretty similar experience to yours, though we bought in spring 2021. We found the model we wanted and then I did a search online of all dealers within 500 miles that had that model in stock. I then reached out to each one explaining that I would be buying that model by the end of the week from whomever offered the best price and delivery package (ours is a destination trailer). Ended up saving significant money over buying from our local dealer, with free delivery to our lot. In 2021 our trailer was in the high 30’s, at the recent RV show at the convention center the same model is now low 60’s. Glad we bought when we did or we wouldn’t be in this trailer, because IMO it’s not worth anywhere close to today’s price.

beardly wrote:

I use lead core for cranks and started using the 50/2 method for trolling spoons. Both methods have a “known” depth position from charts. If using snaps weights for cranks how do you know where the crank is running? Use the 50/2 chart and add in the dive curve of the crank?
Spoons don’t dive so the chart is easy to follow. Maybe I’m over thinking it.

Exactly what you said, use the known depth for the snap weight and add whatever the dive curve of the crankbait you are using based on line out behind the weight.

I find that each option has it’s time and place, depending on a number of factors/conditions.
As has already been mentioned, the leadcore is much easier to read your baits as far as fouling. However, often times the snap weights will act as a guard or barrier to block weeds from getting to your bait.
When fishing alone, depending on rod length and lake conditions snap weights can also be a bit trickier to remove without risk of losing fish.
When fishing deeper water where letting out many colors of leadcore is required to reach the depths you’re after, snap weights can be advantageous for the simple fact that much less line out is required to reach the depth if using a heavy enough weight. In some cases this can mean more fish caught simply because your bait is in the right area for a longer amount of time, translating to more bites.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I’m interested in trying these snap weights. Is there a kit I can buy that’s a good go to. I see all sorts on the Google machine. I’ve never fished this way before

Not sure if they still make/sell the kit, but Church tackle used to sell a nice kit with releases and multiple size weights to be able to interchange.

Will be going out of our place on the SW corner, probably not going too far there while I test the recovery from my back injury. Most likely hit the lake at the crack of 9-10:00 am after cooking the kids a big breakfast. I expect the shallow bite to be pretty good this year.

All of our labs have loved being in the boat, we started them all young. They can be a pain in the butt at times, but we enjoy having them with us.

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Rodwork wrote:

I am going to make this a spinning rod, 6’6,” with a longer handle. I found that the longer handle made a big difference with the amount of leverage they can apply pulling the fish in. He just doesn’t have the wrist strength. Here is the 1st fish he caught on that 5’ <em class=”ido-tag-em”>bass rod with the lure me made together. I want to say I put a 10″-12″ handle on it.

That’s a great fish and pic! I like the idea of a bit longer handle on the spinning rod to give the kids more leverage, will definitely look into that on the builds for my younger kids.

Rodwork wrote:

I also picked up a bunch of lures this year but went the opposite direction with smaller and lighter. Something my son can toss with the 6’-6” rod I am making him. I don’t want all of those hooks flying by my head.

Harson, what rod did your daughter use for when she got her muskie?

My friend modified an older St. Croix to fit her by shortening the handle. I can’t remember the exact specs but it is roughly a 7′ rod, I would say about like a medium-heavy to heavy bass rod with more of a moderate action and a bass sized Shimano baitcaster. Spooled up w/ 50 lb. braid it worked very well for her to cast smaller muskie baits. I actually use it myself sometimes to throw larger swimbaits for walleyes and it performs well for that.

I’m thinking of building something like you’ve mentioned above for the younger kids so that they can use their baits too and think that the 6’6″ would be ideal for length, but will probably be a spinning rig as they aren’t quite ready for the baitcaster.

Attended for the first time in 3 years, I liked this venue better, felt like it had a lot more room to move around in the aisles. My kids had a blast with all the activities for them which meant less time for shopping for me (probably a good thing). The lure making area is great as it really gives the kids a great way to get involved. My 2 youngest got to make their own baits for the first time. The fish pic is with my oldest and the fish she caught on her bait made at the expo a few years back, so awesome for her to catch one on a bait that she painted!

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Sad news for sure BK, he was certainly a great guy and a real ambassador for the fishing community

I ran a spread with both cranks up higher behind planer boards and leadcore last weekend and the cranks behind boards far out fished the lead. Going to give it a shot this weekend too if I can convince my kids to leave the beach for a while so we can fish

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B-man wrote:

Ha that’s awesome! Truly a fish of a lifetime

One of my six year olds caught his first musky too this weekend. Looks like he got showed up by a girl

(Forgive his hold in the pic, he didn’t get raked and the fish swam away with a splash lol)

Awesome catch and great job with the hold, the fact that at 6 he’s comfortable holding a muskie on his own is impressive, it was all I could do to get her into the picture with this one.

Sylvanboat wrote:

Think about making a replica with photo attached. I did that for my son and he smiles every time we look at it together.

That’s my plan, have to get momma talked into it, but I think I have a solid partner to help me convince her