Shimano CORE 101 MG

Shimano’s new Core 101 MG baitcaster reel is amazingly light. But how did it fare when put to the test? Read on!
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G•Loomis STR 1263C

GLoomis’ STR 1263C is ten and a half feet of bad-ass steelhead whipping technology.

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St. Croix Premier PC76LM

St. Croix hits the kokanee market with the Premier PC76LM rod.
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Lamiglas X10 MTC

If you’re into tossing spinners and spoons for salmon and steelhead, the Lamiglas X10 MTC may just be your rod.
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Hodgman Lakestream Lite Wading Shoe

Has Hodgman has married quality with vaule with its Lakestream Lite felt soled wading shoe?

General Overview Hodgman has been in business making boots, waders and a whole host of other products aimed at sportsmen since 1838. In the past, I've owned some of their less expensive models and have generally been happy with them. Back when I was dropping 50 bucks on a set of wading shoes, I never had great hopes of them lasting more than a full season. Some hung tough for as many as a couple years, but the way I burned through boots back then, it was a lot to ask to have my foot wear survive from one steelhead season to the next.

I hadn't owned a pair of "Hodgies" for several seasons but when I saw the Lakestream Lites, I decided to get back to my roots. At just under $75, the were a bit more spendy than previous models but far less than boots made by some of the fly fishing manufacturers.

In the store, I was attracted to them for their weight (lack thereof) and apparent durability. I went with gray for no particular reason but they also come in dark brown.

Key Features

• Durable mesh upper with PVC reinforcements
• Scuff resistant rough skin counter and toe box
• Padded collar and tongue
• Convenient speed lace system with taslan laces and locking speed clips
• Nylon heel pull
• Super lightweight PU midsole
• Removable cushioned insole and replaceable felt outsoles with rubber toe and heel grips

On the Water Test

I bought the Lakestream Lites in Size 13, which is a size to a size-and-a half larger than my regular shore size. I’ve found that the improved circulation I get (translation: warmer feet) offsets the added bulkiness.

Right out of the gate, I noticed how comfortable they are. The wide base gave me lots of support and stability on cobble and the big, soft tongues are nice as well. The only down side is the laces seem a bit short because of the thickness of the padded tongue…not a real big problem, though and it improves if I really tie the laces tight.

The speed lace system is also a nice feature…I’ve had boots that required almost a full unlacing to get them off, but the Lakestream Lites are a snap to get on and off.

The toe area on the Lakestream Lite is nice and wide, which is a huge plus for me. I’ve had some wading shoes in the past that narrowed like a ship’s bow at the toe and my dogs would be more than barking after just an hour or so after wearing ‘em. The reinforced toe box is another attractive feature. I’m the master of jamming my toes into hard, immobile objects and these boots have held up to the abuse so far. You’ll notice that the stitches are still holding strong.

The same goes for the aft end of the shoe — it’s protected with a durable outer layer that seems to be holding up nicely.

I’m not sure that the rubber heel grips give me any better traction but they’re a great feature for a heel dragger like me. Normally, I grind the felt on the back of my boots down to nothing in just a few weeks. The grips are certainly prolonging the life of my soles!

Comfort aside, the Lakestream Lites really seem to want to come apart pretty quickly. The inseam of my right boot tore only a couple weeks after I started wearing them. My pal Vin Man bough a new pair for our trip to BC last week and he had three tears after two days of fishing from a boat. Not a good sign! Our guide Darren Bisson also had a pair and they were coming apart after only a few weeks of guiding.

I’m really bummed about that as these are possibly the most comfortable wading boots I’ve ever owned!!

Conclusion

After wearing the the Hodgeman Lakestream Lites, I’m extremely satisfied with the level of comfort they provide — and their lack of weight. The durability, however, remains severely in question…

If I had paid $40-50, I could probably live with the lack of toughness.

Lowrance LMS 527C iGPS Fish Finder

The Lowrance LMS 527 iGPS DF fish finder is one serious piece of high tech fishing equipment! Packed with features, this is one graph that can truly help swing the odds of catching fish into your favor.

General Overview

The LMS 527C is one of marine electronic leader Lowrance’s hottest graphs and it’s easy to see why. The unit is well-designed and easy to use (mostly) and gives you a clear image of what’s going on under the water’s surface.

The internal GPS receiver is one of the 527’s most attractive features — which means you’ll have no extra stuff to mount on the boat.

The sonar’s crisp 480 X 480 screen is kinda like Hi-Def for fish finders and affords you excellent target detail and bottom separation. The GPS features a built-in map of the Continental US and Hawaii and comes sock with 3,000 lakes with bottom contours. Of course, you can also buy charts for other areas all over the globe if you happen to be headed some exotic destination with your boat.

The dual frequency transducer also makes this fish finder an extremely versatile unit. Without overloading you with too much techno mumbo-jumbo, the 200 khz frequency is the the way to go for all-around applications because it gives the best detail and target separation, works best in shallow water and at speed and typically shows less “noise.” The 50khz frequency has a wider, a deeper-reaching cone that is good for saltwater and also for tracking multiple downriggers.

Key Features

• 5-inch, 480V x 480H high-resolution TFT color display with LED backlighting
• 50/200 kHz dual frequency skimmer transducer
• Internal 12 parallel-channel GPS with selectable WAAS reception
• Temp, speed and distance sensors
• 4,000 watts peak-to-peak/500 watts RMS, depths to 2,500 ft. with 50 kHz
• Built-in background map of the U.S. with over 3,000 lakes with depth contours
• Waterproof memory card slots
• 5-pin Ethernet expansion port compatible for radar, video and satellite radio
• Compatible for NMEA 2000 networking

On the Water Test

With an instruction manual the size of a small town phone book, it’s obvious before you turn the unit on that the LMS 527C iGPS does so much stuff that most of us mortals will never scratch the surface of its capabilities. As a true male of the species, I quickly tossed the instructions aside and just started playing with it out on the water. The first thing you notice is the navigational buttons are pretty easy to use and understand.

I was able to get around pretty much everywhere without having to look things up. Good thing too, since I left the book back at the dock!

Basically, you use the buttons to access main menus and then, once inside, the directional oval allows you to scroll through sub menus.

It’s not all super-intuitive, but still easy enough for most folks to use, even if you don’t have a degree in computers from MIT.

Exploring the interior pages of the unit, I confirmed my initial suspicions that this is one very powerful machine that has functions that I will probably never take advantage of.

For example, I found that there’s a “retro” mode for all you fans of the old school flasher style of fish finder.

I had one of the original Lowrance flashers on my first-ever boat and appreciated the simplicity of the thing but now that these units look like video games, I’m not sure why I’d ever use that feature.

There’s also a radar screen on the 527. This little magic black box is all gassed up and ready to be your radar with the addition of the optional radar unit.

Mount that thing somewhere above your head, plug the cable to the back of the unit…and…PRESTO! You’ve got the ability to see in the dark or fog. Pretty nifty. I’m sure we’ll be watching satellite-fed ESPN in our graphs pretty soon!

The LMS 527C gives you the ability to run several different split-screen modes. Sometimes, it’s handy to run a split of the two different transducer frequencies or some navigational data on one side and the map on the other. My favorite mode was the map-chart display. I could see where I was headed and what’s going on down below at the same time. The only draw back to the split screen is you often have to back out to a single screen if you want to adjust something — say the sensitivity or depth range on the sonar — and then you have to work through the menus back to the split.

In the GPS map mode, I also found the built-in bottom contour lines really helpful for pinpointing hot spots.

Enough of all that…so how does this thing really look out on the water? That’s the bottom line, right? Well, I have to say I was extremely impressed with how much I could see. You’ve all seen the simulated screen shots they sales guys show you in the stores, but here are some actual photos from trips I took with the 527. This one is a massive school of stripers in the California Delta…

And then, here’s a typical screen shot from Lake Tahoe last summer. I was absolutely amazed at the detail I was able to see…on a daily basis, I was able to watch mackinaw actually bite our jigs. In this photo, you can see the jigs falling towards a school of fish and then one moves up to intercept the lure and then the fight is on!

Conclusion

With excellent power, screen color and resolution and a fantastic GPS map, plus loads of other features, the Lowrance LMS 527C iGPS is one bad ass fish finder. Some folks may like larger screens, but the only thing that you’re seeing live in real time on a graph is what’s on the far right hand side of the the screen and the rest is just “history,” so I don’t really have a need for a big screen unit.

The only downside is there’s so much stuff on the menus that you sometimes have to work your way through several sub pages to get where you need to go. While most of the pages are easy to figure out, there are some things that can stump you. For example, I hit the MOB (Man Overboard) button but couldn’t figure out how to immediately erase it. Of course, everything’s in the manual but if you’re like me…

New SPRO BBZ-1 colors for 2008

Hopefully, the epic spring swimbait bite at Clear Lake this year will be like it was in 2007 when tournament records fell all over the place. Of course, the hitch is the big bait of choice over there and everybody’s always looking for swimbaits in that color scheme. SPRO’s Bill Siemantel has added a hitch pattern (far right) to the popular (8-inch) BBZ-1 line, which will be unveiled later this year.

This is a sneak peak of what the bait is going to look like…should be deadly! Also new paint schemes in the 2008 lineup include the Natural Perch (Left) and Killer Carp, which are designed for the Musky Boys up north, but would probably temp a striper or two out west.

Waterproof Digital Cameras

Underwater Cameras: Which one?

If you’ll recall last summer, I dropped my last water-proof digital camera over the side while taking sub-surface shots of mackinaw.

For a year or so prior, I had been using a Olympus Stylus 720 SW as my waterproof rig. It took pretty decent sub-surface shots (like the one of the brown trout above) and it had its moments — good and bad — above water as well.

Overall…
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Bet you’ve never seen one of these before!

Noted for their innovative driftboat designs, Willie Boats just introduced something radically new and different….the Takelma drift-raft. I just saw this thing last night at the International Sportsmen’s Exposition. Part driftboat, part raft, this thing is pretty cool. Basically, the boys at Willie HQ in Central Point, OR have dropped a beautifully-welded driftboat interior into a raft. The result is all the creature comforts of a drifter, combined with the rock-bouncing properties of a raft. Pretty slick!

Got an extra $10,000 laying around?

Cash to burn? Then maybe you need this new Hardy fly reel that retails for about $10K. It also doubles as a nice downpayment on a house…

Read more about it: Hardy

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