New Equipement Put to the test this Year

[ivanputski]

[QUOTE=JLH;802154]Wearbars & Cabelas Ultra Light wading boots: Way way way better than strap on Korkers. I have put a lot of miles on these and they are holding up well. One of the best thing about these boots are nice and snug on the top which helps with keeping gravel and sand from getting in.

I second that... the MVP of my purchases this year... Goodbye bulky, heavy k-5000! Get online and order some wearbars damnit!

[Tagger]

Sebiles ,, magic swimmer,,stick shad.,,,north bar plastic bottle darter.. diawa sp minno..

Chota boots .. Feel like slippers , lots of support,,go on fast ,the elastic cord system .. Little screws they give you for cleats are adequate .. might consider another cleat but worked for me all year .. my feet love em ,, way better than my simms..

That $12 dollar plastic ,floating , vice grip type , gripper from cabella's.. Like it better than my $130 boga because the gripping surface is flat and controls the fish (littleguys)better than the boga that come to a point . They tend to swing and pivot more on the boga.. No scale ,,but my eyes can't read my boga anyway ..

Hobbie Outback.. Great fishing platform ,, extremely stable ,,(except mouth of north river).. Moves pretty good ,, Raced Mac in his Revo and we stayed kneck and kneck .. (I eased up he was huffing and puffing) .. If your going to spring $$ for a Hobie definately get the turbo fins and sailing rudder ... good upgrade ..

St. Croix rods ,,.I snapped one I've had for 3 yrs. .. I shipped it back and recieved a new rod in the mail .. Can't say enough about those people .

Fireline smoke color ,, I'm back with it ... no braid issues all year ,, no wind knots , no mystery break offs (sebilles).. 30# plugging line .. Stuff looks like hell ,,all grayed out and fluffy but that's when it's well broken in ..

[goosefish]

The screw in studs have been working well for me, though I didn't screw them in until early fall. I don't know if one set would last a season or not.

Other than that all gear is old gear for me.

[Rockfish9]

I made three upgrades on the boat...

first I installed a pair of
absorbed glass mat batteries to replace the two 4 year old flooded chemistry batteries..... the absorbed glass mat charges 40% faster than flooded batteries,which is a big consideration when you mainly fish at night, or you run a bait tank for extended hours...I never had to put a charger on the house battery once this season...

second: I bought a small solar panel this season, made by sun force.. it produces a 350MA trickle charge which equates to about a 1.75 amp input based on 5 hours of sun light.. I did this mainly to aid my 40 A alternator on my outboard, most nights, the run in is not enough to recharge the batteries after a night of short stops and starts with lights, radios and other accessories on.. eventualy I needed to hook the house battery to a external charger... coupled with the new batteries, the system remained fully charged all season ( Early April until last week) for the first time since I've owned the boat ( since 1980)..

Last upgrade was a new GPS plotter/depthfinder... the new unit is a Garmin 541S... it replaced a monochrome out dated GPS thad did n ot have mapping capabilities.. I like the unit alot, it is very user friendly and is much eaiser to see with aging eyes....I cant say alot about the sounder part, I use my Lowrance as a primary and only selected the combo unit as a back up..

[Ken_J]

Hi everyone. This is a great thread!

New stuff tried this year:

Korkers Cross Currents size 15 - didnt fit properly, gave them to a friend, havent heard if they fit him yet.

Cabelas Ultra lite 2's wading boots size 15EEE - so for so good

Fish Grip - fish lipper, awesome, best tool for handling fish

30# Boga - another good tool, I use for weighing fish here and there

Darters darters darters darters - murdered fish on darters this year -
Anco Darter (sold in soco mostly), awesome darter
SS Darter
Mag Darter

7" Redfin loaded with 30 bbs, unreal fish producer this year, thanks Pat for the hookup on this

Dragon Tail lanyard - did about 150 or more trips this year and only one mega tangle, was not fun though

Rash guards - Under Armor cold gear compression tops and bottoms, really working out nicely for rash guards under 3mm wetsuit, thanks Mike for tip on the bottoms, I would have never thought they would work well




there are probably more new things for this year, but I cant remember

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by Ken_J

Korkers Cross Currents size 15 - didnt fit properly, gave them to a friend, havent heard if they fit him yet.

Cabelas Ultra lite 2's wading boots size 15EEE - so for so good

You have big feet

[doc]

...by far, the vs 150...

[Raider Ronnie]

Fishing gear.
Switched over to Daiwa Saltist reels for bass rods, and LOVE them !
Planning to switch all cod reels over to Daiwa Saltist high speeds for next year. (Haven't decided on their high speed or super high speed)

Boat upgrades.
Loved having the new winter back door !

The tuna tower turned out awesome. Great being up there that high when offshore but was even more helpful inshore finding the bait..

Plans / upgrades for the boat next season

Auto pilot.
Decided on Simrad AP28, The boat is not getting launched without it ! Tired of driving on long runs ! Everyone with a downeast tells me the auto pilot can steer the boat better than you can.

Need to upgrade the transducer for the GPS/sounder up in the tower (because I installed the tower in the water I 5200 a transom mount as a shoot thru hull for this year rather than hauling out to install a thru hull.)

May upgrade the back up GPS in the house to a combo plotter/sounder with side imaging sonar. (trying to find out how well they work in a downeast boat 1st )

Going to move my outriggers and center rigger from the roof up to the tower.

[JamesJet]

Plugs

NB PLastic BDs
Diawa SP
Rapala X Rap

Really not much else. I stayed away from Sebile until late in the season so I cant comment but the above all really produced.