Sorry, I forgot to put that….bibs are a size 12 and coat is a size 14.

I picked up a 5+ this weekend at the Kabeles Shop with the Pros Event in Spirit Lake, Ia. Brad Hawthorne had his there and insisted I messed around with it (and twisted my arm ALOT! Lol) and ended up pulling the trigger on it. I can’t wait to put it to use!

Rods still available!

Reels are sold pending payment!

Rods still available.

All I did is got some heavy duty and very stick Velcro from an auto body supply place and put it around the top and sides of the screen and the front and sides of the case on both of my 7’s and it doesn’t move at all now. Took me all of about 15 minutes and $25 bucks for 6 pieces of Velcro.

I have both the bullwhip and Quick Tip and love them both. I use my whip for tungsten stuff and used my qt for spoon stuff. I just like the qt with heavier stuff cuz it gives me a little better feel of the spoon as it did with the jig.

My fiancé and my buddy ran 2 LX 7’s in the same hole last weekend with zero interference.

I emailed Marcum about the update last night and got a reply before I even got out of bed this morning. Here’s what they said…..

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There’s a few inches in the Spirit Lake area. Also fishable ice on Clear Lake. I’m gonna be hitting both of them this weekend.

Ed, I’m going to keep the seats out of my cabin. My brother has a 1200 lodge and he can use an extra seat for one of his kids and have a spare.

I’m thinking of getting one for the fiancé and one for myself. They just have so many options, which is a good thing, just makes it hard to decide!

I fished the IGLs a lot last year and didn’t hear of Spirit doing much consistently. We had excellent luck on East and West Lake Okoboji. Caught tons of perch, gills and a few eyes. My fiancé and I were driving from almost 2 hours away to go there. John Grosvenor (fish okoboji.com), Kevan Paul (paulsfishingguide.com),as mentioned and also Ryan Hale are very good guides up there and also very nice guys! Kabeles is my second home for about everything from tackle and bait to lodging. Hope that helped a little. I spend a lot of time up there so feel free to ask me anything!

I’ve been fortunate as the place here in Iowa I bought my 1200 lodge and cabin from, assemble them free of charge and never have a problem with the canvas being tight or a problem installing the wind poles.

Ice is still fine up there. People were catching a good amount of perch last weekend when it was nice out. Even a 40+” musky caught thru the ice too! I’m heading up there next weekend. Pretty much the only place I have been going this year. Walleye season closes this Saturday night at midnight I believe.

I bought a brand new lazermag in late 2013 and after a couple weeks I couldn’t drill a complete hole with it. It would start and idle fine, but when u would drill the hole and put a good load on it, it would bog down the die. I’d take it out of the hole and have to turn it around so I could run the throttle wide open with my right hand and pull it with my left and it would finally Fire up, but do the same thing. Finally got the ok to send it to Strikemaster in March of 14 and they had to rebuild the carb on mine and reset the carb settings. Now it sounds like a 2 stroke should, crisp and clean and cuts awesome now. They said it could have been a unit that sat for a while and the diaphragm dried up and got hard and caused the problem. They took care of everything so Im very happy with it this year!

Email marcum and tell them your problems. I did last year and they sent me the old version. So I have it on my computer should I ever need to switch any of my 3 LX7’s. I’ve had very good luck with emailing them and usually get back to me the next day if I send the email at night.

I fish out of a 1200 cabin and occasionally a lodge and never had a problem with 2 7’s side by side. I always make sure both transducers are as far away from each other as possible and the sensitivity on both are never above 2. IR is usually best around 4-5 on mine. I only adjust one unit until it clears up if there’s any when I drill the holes a little close otherwise I have none.

Well to be honest, Ice Force pro and guide, John Grosvenor, took it for us. He is also a killer photographer! Many pix published in magazines. Check out my other post about my personal best perch. He took that pic as well!

Joel, are u the one who greeted us as soon as we walked into the show on Friday? Sorry, met so many people who saw the engagement pix that it’s hard to remember who everybody was! Lol
John is a great guide and guy! He’s always on fish and is well worth the money! Check out my other post and look at the Perch Alyssa caught on Tuesday!
Thanks for the reply!!

Here’s a better pic of her awesome perch!

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Thanks guys! Out with the fiancé again today for a while til we head back home. You can sight fish in 15 FOW where we are and she things it pretty cool!

I cut small holes in the side of my soft case and put big fender washers (larger diameter, small hole) washers on the outside and pinching the case between the thumb screw and hard mount. Then u don’t have to dig to get to the thumb screws to adjust the screen cuz they will be on the outside of the case. Works good so far!

hamms wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Steve Strain wrote:</div>
2004 Dodge Ram quad cab with the Hemi. 360,000 miles on it, that’s right 360,000 miles! Never had any engine or trans work done to it. Basic stuff, water pump at 350,000 miles, radiator cuz the plastic tanks leaked like they all do, and a couple u joints. Who cares what it gets
for fuel mileage, it’s a truck and I can’t town my Ranger with a Yugo!

That is freakin awesome! How rusted out is it?

The box is pretty much trashed but it didn’t show any rust til 270,000 miles. If I’d replace the box you would never know it has that many miles.

2004 Dodge Ram quad cab with the Hemi. 360,000 miles on it, that’s right 360,000 miles! Never had any engine or trans work done to it. Basic stuff, water pump at 350,000 miles, radiator cuz the plastic tanks leaked like they all do, and a couple u joints. Who cares what it gets for fuel mileage, it’s a truck and I can’t town my Ranger with a Yugo!

Brushy Creek is a damn good lake! I know theres monster walleyes in there! Plus big gills, crappie, Muskie and bass. And there’s a fair amount of perch too. I caught 2 nice eyes early this summer, both 5 pounds and that’s where I’m gonna be ice fishing just as soon as I can get out there! Here’s one of my Eyes from this summer. This one was caught the Friday following Memorial Day.

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You guys are awesome! Thanks for the welcomes again! I’m in North central Iowa and have to drive an hour or better to find ice so it’s a good thing gas is cheap! By mid week next week Brushy creek should be solid and fishable so I won’t have to drive much!

Since u guys like pictures, here’s one of my favorites. I proposed to my girlfriend on November 29th of this year at my favorite bait shop, Kabeles in Spirit Lake,Ia and they set up an Otter ice shack like the one I’m buying this weekend, put candles in it and going up to it, and I tied the ring onto a 13 Fishing Tickle Stick and Black Betty reel. Thankfully she said yes! She loves going fishing and ice fishing with me and is truly a catch of a lifetime!

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Thanks for all the welcomes! I look forward to learning from everybody here and sharing what I’m doing here in Iowa!