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Posts: 2280
Location: Chisholm, MN | Todd, I agree that the pedal could be shorter with larger left and right buttons. I think someone who uses the Terrova vs a cable drive gets very good at using it without looking down or at the head to see which way you’re going. It probably takes more practice than a cable drive but the balance issue with the tall pedal is a big red flag for me. Eventually it wears on my lower back as well. Being able to put the motor on constant and just controlling direction and speed is the most important part. To anyone comparing a cable drive to a power drive, there is a hug difference in performance between the power drive and terrova.
I also wish the speed dial was a little bigger and easier to move lightly with your foot. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | Kirby, use the remote to control speed.. the dial sucks  |
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Posts: 2280
Location: Chisholm, MN | Yeah, I like hands free! |
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Posts: 596
Location: Duluth | Again this is why I absolutely love link. Just select your contour on the graph and set the speed! |
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Posts: 4269
Location: Ashland WI | CincySkeez - 5/7/2020 3:00 PM
Again this is why I absolutely love link. Just select your contour on the graph and set the speed!
Agreed. When the wind is a bit high, it doesn't work all that well though. |
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| Fishing pressure and zebra mussels is the biggest game changer I have seen personally. Still some nice fish out there but they are not as easy to catch as they once were. |
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Posts: 33
| Everyone seems to have forgotten the most obvious game changer.... the internet . All the information, videos, boards (like this) 10,000 lifetimes of experience at the tip of your fingers. |
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Posts: 523
| I just got a terrova last fall for my Ranger 692, so far it’s pretty sweet. I definitely like the spot lock option! I am really looking forward to linking it up to my new helix and auto charting some lakes to get the contour lines to follow with the terrova. Seems like a pretty sweet option! All that being said, I started long ago with an auto pilot minnkota and hated it because the electric pedals would crap out and the steering was terrible slow. I went to a cable steer motor guide and couldn’t have been happier. I still run a cable steer on my Ranger bass boat and love fishing that boat when I’m out alone...so, long story longer, I like them both! |
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| OldMuskyGuy - 5/7/2020 6:36 PM
Everyone seems to have forgotten the most obvious game changer.... the internet . All the information, videos, boards (like this) 10,000 lifetimes of experience at the tip of your fingers.
Great point. Back when I started in the 1970s, trying to learn about musky fishing unless you had a buddy who would coach you, it was a long, slow process. Folks did not share information easily, if you had a question about equipment you were at the mercy of the sales man. I am continually impressed with how folks on this board will help people with questions about equipment, techniques, etc. |
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Posts: 714
| Everything is better and that changes the game. Every single piece of gear on or in my boat is light years ahead in every way.
But to discount the DCG and Dawgs (because they were both firsts in their categories) is just silly. When those two lures came out the fish just came unglued on them like nothing else introduced in the past or since. |
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Posts: 735
| I had that skyline rod as well, 5'09", aluminum oxide guides, with an eva handle. That was top of the line back then. And your right about the time frame, '78-79. I had my abu 6500ca, the reel that was first with the palming side plate. And yea, wire leaders with 36lb. black cortland musky master dacron line. Game changers have to be the tackle used today. Kdawg |
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Posts: 104
| Yea kdog. To think the bucktail rod i use today is 10.5 feet, so nearly 5 foot longer. Proper figure eights are much easier now. Not to mention how much easier the baits are to cast. |
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Posts: 357
| I'd say nets have been a game changer, for fish and fisherman. |
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Posts: 718
| Catch and release instead of grilling them? |
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| Bondy - 5/10/2020 7:26 AM
Catch and release instead of grilling them?
Great point! When I started fishing them, there were discussions about the best way to dispatch them, billy club, heavy file applied right behind the head, etc. I would think that CPR with a replica has allowed a lot of trophy fish to keep swimming as well, because even as catch and release became common, folks might keep that big fish to have mounted. |
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Location: 31 | To me a game changer would be something that when first introduced changed or revolutionized the sport. Although a particular lure, rod, or trolling motor, etc. might have been a personal game changer, they have also pretty much evolved, along with the information the Internet provides. When the Internet was first introduced it was certainly not a game changer, it slowly evolved along with our boats, lures, and pretty much everything else we now take for granted as previously mentioned.
My all-time number one game changer has to be GPS, and although it has certainly evolved as well, when it was first introduced it almost immediately revolutionized almost everyone's approach to fishing (all fishing), especially big water. I would rather go back to a fiberglass rod and dacron line than give up GPS.
The only exception I can think of might be if you were (or are) only fishing smaller lakes that you are intimate with, then “maybe” the lure or trolling motor might take precedent, but IMHO that would be the exception rather than the rule. GPS allows the masses to safely navigate and explore big water, get on a open water spot, or stay on a nondescript edge with confidence. The before and after GPS was pronounced, it changed the game over 20 years ago, and remains something that probably over 95% of us use every day, or wouldn't consider going fishing without. |
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| I fear those lake associations will be a real game changer. |
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Posts: 36
Location: Honor, MI | How 'bout the color selector and the ph meter, eh? |
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Posts: 1196
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State side there where more resorts and less people had there own boats back in the 70's.
Powerful trolling motors and spot lock ect, GPS , side imageing.
I rent boats nowadays and good luck finding a bigger boat with a set of oars!
And yes the average boat are way bigger.
We have Long powerful rods made from graffite (my dad had a long glass surf rod) and braid not dacron and of course bigger baits, no plastics and outside of Cisco Kid no deep divers.
Had a net for fish up to 45 inches or so then it was a gaff and club.
Shooting fish was before my time.
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Location: Neapolitan Chain Of Lakes | Since the cowgirl and Dawg/Dussa etc. plastics aren't game changers then I have the ultimate most epic bait game changer in the entirety of history hands down......The Odyssey Pig....Thank you everyone you've been a wonderful crowd please remember to tip your waiters and waitresses. |
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Posts: 1204
Location: Walker, MN | greyghost - 5/10/2020 5:05 PM
How 'bout the color selector and the ph meter, eh?
Don't forget the HydroWave lol
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Posts: 304
Location: Lino Lakes, MN | Biggest game changers are all the electronics from GPS to Trolling motors. the GPS Mapping chips are huge. It took many years to learn parts of Vermilion and then the first chips came out and wow!
Size of baits has taken a pretty good jump- or the availability of larger baits is way better.
Another game changer- The Pig jerk bait - good old Reef Hawgs, Eddie baits and many others were all $10 when the Pig came out and it was priced at $15- Game changer now we are spending big money on baits.
Bob Turgeon said it correctly everything is better-
Another is the quality of the baits. Some of the older baits were not really durable or set up for good hook ups.
Muskie Mayhem bucktails and all of the others are building great bucktails with top notch hooks, big hooks and good ties. Look at the Lake X line of topwaters - they just hold up- paint is overated
Lots and lots of incredible Rods, Reels lines, leaders
Rods that are long, Have killer backbone and make fishing big baits all day a reality.
Have a good season we will see what the Covid 19 does to all of our muskie fishing plans.
Steve |
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Posts: 426
Location: Perryville, MO | I've appreciated this discussion. I didn't even consider CPR, which has been huge. As a youngster I remember the club and even hearing the pistol. Boats in general, electronics, the internet, and rods too. I even understand a bit more on the contribution of double 10's and large plastics. But not yet willing to get the pig (hahaha). |
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Posts: 1080
| As I was reading through all of this...it surprised me as to how many posts were made in this thread and how long it took, until one person nailed THEE single most effective game changer of them all: Bondy.
Before even seeing Bondy's post...I had been thinking all along, to myself, as I read through everyone's gear related posts, that everyone is missing out on thee single, biggest, most effective game changer that ever came to be for this sport.
THEE single, biggest, most effective game changer in the sport of Muskie fishing is and absolutely always will be: the C.P.R. program, education to anglers and yes...even stocking programs.
A guy can have all the money in the world, the guy can have the best of the best of boats, electronics, rods, reels and every single bait ever made....but...if the fish simply aren't there...well then....that guy with all the money in the world and all the best of the best of boat and gear won't catch any more fish than anyone else.
There's your game changer.
Edited by MACK 5/11/2020 2:19 PM
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Posts: 104
| 100% agree releasing fish. Biggest impact by far |
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Posts: 480
Location: Northern Illinois | ^^^^^^^ Yep! |
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Posts: 426
Location: Perryville, MO | Agreed. Bondy nailed it. And you're right, Mack, that it's strange many of us overlooked it. |
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| hawkeye9 - 5/11/2020 9:14 PM
Agreed. Bondy nailed it. And you're right, Mack, that it's strange many of us overlooked it.
I am guessing for most anglers under the age of say 45, catch and release has been the norm for them since they started. It is the old guys like me that should have said that from the beginning. First guy I knew that did all catch and release was back in the mid 1970s but he was very much the exception. And for the time, he caught a lot of muskies. |
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Location: 31 | North of 8 - 5/11/2020 9:41 PM hawkeye9 - 5/11/2020 9:14 PM Agreed. Bondy nailed it. And you're right, Mack, that it's strange many of us overlooked it. I am guessing for most anglers under the age of say 45, catch and release has been the norm for them since they started. It is the old guys like me that should have said that from the beginning. First guy I knew that did all catch and release was back in the mid 1970s but he was very much the exception. And for the time, he caught a lot of muskies. Although I understand the C&R premise, if we are going down that road I would think that stocking would supersede C&R because there would be some slim pickings in Minnesota, Green Bay, or any number of other premier muskie waters without it... not much to release.
After rereading the original post though, my impression is meaning something more along the lines of what invention, equipment, or method had the largest impact on the sport.
Edited by Jerry Newman 5/12/2020 9:32 AM
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Posts: 1080
| True Jerry. I understand a lot of people would immediately take the initial question, in the initial thread, by the original poster, to be about: gear. But he didn't state it specifically to be about gear.
Yes...advancements and improvements in boats, gear, electronics and baits, could certainly help a person to put more fish in the boat. But the fact remains, these fish can still be caught, today, using all of the old gear of yesteryear as well. As effectively? Well...I'm sure that's all a matter of opinion.
The fact remains, these are simple fish with brains the size of a pea, they need to feed and will feed when they're good and ready and can be downright moody as all heck most of the other time. And any bait, that's wet, and is in the water and moving: is food.
Doesn't matter if it's an old-school spoon from way back in the days, to the latest and greatest, high-dollar one-off basement made baits of today to a small panfish jig...to a simple worm on a hook under a slip-bobber...to a bass fisherman's Texas rigged rubber worm...and everything in between.
It's been proven, over and over and over and over again, countless times throughout the years that anglers, fishing for other species, with gear and tackle meant for the species they're focusing on, ends up incidentally catching some nice muskies. Simply put: right time...right place...and offering the bait of interest to that fish, at that time.
There will no doubt continue to be further advancements in boats, electronics, gear and baits as the years move along. But, when it comes to baits: they're still an object with a hook on them that's moving through the water. That concept remains the same.
But if the fish are no longer within the those bodies of water...if a guy is using old-school gear and baits in one boat and the guy next to him in the other boat has the latest and greatest gear of them all....the results will be the same. The field is completely leveled at that point.
I haven't been fishing for these fish for very long. I've only been fishing for these fish since 1982. But I have seen the huge transitions once the school of thought changed from catch & kill to catch & release. Things became a LOT easier to not only catch more fish, but bigger fish, due to catch & release.
Some bodies of water sustain themselves with natural reproduction. But only to a certain extent. Will it be a large population of fish to sustain a fishery with a catchable population? That's up for debate. Some of those bodies of water that do have natural reproduction are still improved upon with the additional efforts of time, money and labor with the stocking of additional fish. Some lakes have zero natural reproduction and 100% rely solely on stocking efforts.
Old gear...new gear....doesn't matter. Gotta have the fish in the bodies of water first and foremost. Get a bait in the water...move it around. Eventually it will get bit. Yes...some baits profiles and vibrations and water displacement do attract more fish (at times) than others. There's no doubting that either. As that has indeed been proven. But I know of several muskie fishermen that are good anglers that have never caught a single fish on any large, double bladed bucktail nor a large rubber bait such as a bulldawg or a medussa. Strange how things like that work so well for some, but don't work at all, for others. Have those anglers that don't seem to catch any muskies on those baits mentioned, been using those bucktails/dawgs/'dussa's in the wrong place at the wrong time, in the wrong ways? I dunno? It's not terribly difficult to work any of those baits. All of those baits...for the most part...are nearly..."fool proof." Cast 'em out...reel 'em in. Sure...there's variances in ways to work them, different speeds, rips, pauses, etc and the such. We get that.
And yes...paying attention to Solunar tables can help to increase the odds for an angler. But each angler should always know, that weather is the trump card (no presidential pun intended).
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