Sk8man

Yeah the reg used to allow 15 points per rod (interpretation at least) that you could have on each of two rods per person (before they changed to allow three rods but only 5 leaders per rod).

X2 One primary value of a gas kicker is for saving your butt in rough weather and/or emergencies. The new 8 stroke ones are a lot better on fuel than your 2 stroke. Had a 2 stroke 9.9 which was a great motor but the 4 stroke 9.8 have more torque and a little less top end speed. I would think that electric trolling motor would be my back up to my back up

Have used them in the past but had to change hooks to singles because of the hook number limitations in the regs and adjust for weight difference (e.g. 9 hookpoints on a Rapala vs 3 singles replacement) so I could run five at a time. In my opinion spoons are more effective.

If you intend to go to the Watkins show at the end of March I'd check out Fishy Business as he is great to deal with and usually can get you whatever you need at reasonable prices. Always good to go with our LOU guys when possible

I have a 2016 Tohatsu 9.8 kicker and it runs great but there are differences from the Merc 9.9. The Tohatsu is not physically an exact replica of the Merc when you put them side by side and there is a weight differential with the Tohatsu's being lighter too which i8s one of the reasons I selected it as I wanted to minimize weight on the bracket. It is my hunch that the two motors although both made by Tohatsu are made to slightly different specifications.Thye are both excellent kickers.

An additional consideration to the great info already provided is the availability of open water anywhere on the body of water fished and it can be a long way away from the persons position on the ice. When the wind comes up and depending on velocity, and direction it is coming from can change ice conditions underneath the surface in a matter of hours or overnight making ice that was safe the day before unsafe because of the see-sawing action of the waves created by below surface movement. This is especially possible near stream entry or outgoing points and may not be visible to the fisherman with no way to detect it.You can never take anything for granted out there and carrying a spud with you and probing the ice by the sound of it as well as the hardness as you go along is a good idea.Water on top of the ice also adds weight to it and is another reason for caution.

Don't take the bait folks the guy is always trying to create dissention with his comments.

Keith's comments are right on target. I would add that a lot of folks may not be aware that in many cases there is a fine line between suicide and homicide and males and females differ greatly in their choices of lethal methods. Males in our society display early interest in firearms while females show little interest in them. This interest can become facination and often becomes part of the developmental experience of many if not most males. Females attempt suicide more often but they seldom use firearms or kill others with them, but males do and so the lethality factor is also very different. Males on the other hand often do actually kill themselves, or kill others and then themselves, and sometimes the actual outcome is situational in whether suicide translates into homicidal behavior. My own daughter was a senior in high school when a student brought a shotgun to school in an active shooter situation and ended up taking his own life with it in the bathroom, but it is still unclear what his original intentions may have been.The chances to intervene may be greater when potential fore shadowing signs may appear as females may give more verbal clues to their intentions via Internet postings, chat messages, or verbal exchanges with others close to them. In the current case, there were ample signs that the shooter had significant emotional concerns, had firearms accessible, had repeated life trauma circumstances (e.g. death of both natural parents), repeated visits by law enforcement for various issues, an apparent assessment of danger to himself or others by a social worker suggewsting he was not deemed a threat, alleged reports of cruelty to animals, and the graphic postings with firearms on the Internet - so a myriad of informational clues existed and still nothing occurred to prevent this atrocity. The glaring weaknesses in our existing response "systems", lack of effective integration of informational reporting and sharing between agencies or potential intervention sources, failure of safety protections within the school, and inadequate follow-through by the FBI reporting system have been highlighted, and once again there is an opportunity to change some of the important features that gave rise to this situation that we may have some control over so that futture repetitions may hopefully be averted. One of the things that I find very disturbing is the extreme attention by the media and others paid to the perpetrator because I'm sure there are other unstable folks out there thinking to themselves I too can become "famous" by doing even something more horrendous than this or even learning from the weaknesses that have been exposed by the coverage and detailed descriptions involved.Teenagers and youth are particularly vulnerable to the influences of the "copycat" phenomena. I know there are probably a number of people out here that are saying to themselves " Why is this being brought up on a forum of fishermen and hunters? etc" To that I would say that what better place to bring up this set of serious issues than a place where thousands of people may see the information and opinions expressed to get folks thinking about the safeguardiing of their own firearms, and support for changes in the current state of affairs?

The Mustad braid seems to hold up better than Power Pro in my experience without the extreme fading.

We've certainly identified many of the potential sources of the problems here but the real trick is to come up with answers and solutions. Have you heard some of these kids from the Florida school responding to this situation? It is heart renching and they have very good points and the adults of our society have in fact let them down. Yes there are many negatives connected the current way some of our youth are developing but there are also many very good kids out there who are intelligent, aware, and actively involved in trying to make it a better world and striving for changes in the environment that they feel are critial to having a viable future for themselves and their potential children. These are complex issues requiring complex solutions and involving the efforts of all of us together. We can no longer depend on government alone to solve these issues for us we need to exert solid and united pressure on them to do their damned jobs and not just vote for the name on the ballot box we may recognize from the ads on TV. Some of these politicians should have been out of office long ago on both sides of the aisle and both in Albany and Washington. The always mentioned "gun control" which like the bogus SAFE Act translates into doing absolutely nothing to address the actual problems but to make a fake show of it all the while indicating that they know absolutely nothing about firearms themselves (indicated clearly by their own public statements) let alone what to do about the problems of the wrong people obtaining guns and the illegal transfer of them etc,. Radical adherence to the current NRA stances and lobbying influences is not rational in light of all these repeated situations either. There are some things that can be done rationally but it may not be popular with everyone.. The current background checks are a sorry joke and are not inclusive enough, nor are they given adequate time to complete as per the existing waiting periods. The waiting periods should be standardized at the federal level to apply to all states and there should be adequate resources and personnel devoted to this activity freeing up the FBI agents and consistent sharing of information that is kept current. The current HIPA regulations prevent a good deal of information to be forthcoming and used in the data base. These regs need to be modified to correct this. Yes, it may involve specific adjustments to personal liberties but isn't our kids safety worth it? Many of my contacts who appeared on my pistol permit application years ago were personally contacted and interviewed at length by law enforcement before the judge issued it. Again, a separate unit (thus not bogging down law enforcement) properly staffed with adequate resources and specifically devoted to this task should be created. When I was in the military my interim security clearance was done by FBI agents interviewing at length my neighbors, the high school, and my family physician among other sources. This process should be nearly as rigorous. It is easier in some places for teen agers to purchase either online or in person semi auto weapons like AR-15's and AK-47s or their like without anything but a flimsy incomplete background check. People shouldn't have nearly immediate access to purchase them and social media sources should also be thoroughly checked as part of the process; pistol permits in NYS take months to clear the process so why should these weapons be any different? Recently another twist has come about - the assembly of these weapoins from individual parts requiring no serial number on them and it is a very lucratiuve business and an active source for drug dealers etc. The recent situation in Las Vegas pointed up the need for something to be doneabout the bump stocks that allow semi's to become virtually fully auto. I'm not some anti gun person making these comments....something needs to change here to at least try to limit access to people that shouldn't possess these weapons. Gun shows need to be more clearly scrutinized as well and the more thorough beckground checking process implemened there .Our schools need to be beefed up security wise and the processes for egress and identification fortified with someone that can effectively intervene where necessary (e.g. security presence) and they can't be encumbered with other distracting duties. The Florida situation points up glaring weaknesses in our detecting and reporting systems and follow-through, flaws in the background check process, failures of adequate safeguards in soft target areas such as schools, and a lack of systematic transsmission of important data that could affect or possibly avert these tragic outcomes.

As far as the drags go I'd just send them to Tuna Tom's for replacement with he carbon fiber ones. They clean the reels up too and they are VERY reasonable

The thing the "cop shooters" and these school shooters have in common.....they are all cowards

Sean brings up a whole bunch of excellent points and he and his colleagues deserve our respect as well as our full support. Part of the problem is the whole political correctness crap, liberal judges failing to do their job effectively because of fears of criticism, and a whole range of things. The mental health system of which I was a part for over 30 years has been totally gutted, facilities closed without offering effective alternatives, no active consistent follow-up for folks on psychoactive medications, the inability of information sharing among interested parties including family members because of the HIPA regulations (covering the sharing of personal or medical information with others), a nightmare of trying to get affected people services or to get them admitted anywhere for treatment whether voluntarily or against their will unless they have committed a crime, mental health professionals retiring without replacement in broken or now non-existant systems and on and on. Law enforcement is now forced to deal with these individuals much more frequently and in more extreme conditions because of the lack of availability of services and there are many folks out in the public arena that should be in treatment facilities after appropriate diagnostic and informational work-ups. Lots of people have gone years now without accurate detection, diagnosis or treatment and our government is doing absolutely nothing about it. I share Sean's frustration.