Story by Hunter Sales
Rigging season is in full effect and I’m super excited to get things completed and on the water. Each year, I feel that I’ve learned more about how to make my setup more efficient and bulletproof. I’m going to be running a 2026 Bass Cat Lynx with a Yamaha SHO, Humminbird graphs, Pro-Guide Batteries and Power-Poles at the rear. I’ll dive into the details of each and why each piece of equipment has a place on my boat.
One of the biggest factors in deciding where to spend your money should be reliability. For a tournament angler, a big component of reliability is whether or not a brand has on-site tournament support. Bass Cat Boats has a trailer at every NPFL event to help take care of their anglers who run into mechanical issues throughout the season. Yamaha has long supported tournament anglers with on-site support at more events than the competition. Each ACA College series event always features a Yamaha service trailer with technicians that spend long hours working on motors, regardless of brand. This has always stood out to me, and I applaud Yamaha for making that investment. At NPFL events, having a service trailer for your outboard greatly reduces the likelihood of missing a competition day due to engine failure. At $5,200, I can’t afford to sacrifice that entry fee due to equipment issues. Power-Pole is the other company that shows up on-site with tournament support for anglers. They have long been known for their customer service and that gives me great piece of mind when choosing where to spend my money.
My graph setup has always been an area that I put a lot of thought into. I’ve always loved finding a way to get an edge using my electronics, and even without FFS, your electronics matter. Having Humminbird Mega 360 on my boat is a necessity when fishing without FFS. The ability to see structure, waypoints, and fish at any location around the boat is paramount. In order to see waypoints that you have marked on your 360, you must be taking advantage of having other Humminbird units in-network. At the console, I am running both an Apex 13 and an Xplore 12. Both units will have their own Mega Side-Imaging transducer.
I was really impressed with the Xplore side-imaging last year but have heard the Apex is even better. I’m excited to find out. Having two transducers at the rear also helps in case of a failure. I will leave one of these units on the LakeMaster Charts screen and the other will show my sonar imaging. At the front of the boat, I will be running two Xplore 12s. One of these units will display mapping and 2D sonar and the other will display the Mega 360. The Xplore has a super-bright LED screen, and I was happy with how easily I could view that screen in direct sunlight last season. These will all be tied together into the One Boat Network along with my MinnKota Ultrex Quest and a precision heading sensor to ensure 100% accuracy of waypoints.
This whole setup will be powered with Pro-Guide Batteries. I will be using an AGM to start my Yamaha. The AGM adds weight to the rear of the boat which helps with performance and gives me peace of mind given the time-tested AGM technology. I will be using two 36V 75 AH lithium batteries in parallel to power my trolling motor and a 16V 160 AH battery to power all my electronics. Both batteries have enough power to eliminate any concern with battery consumption during a tournament day. I really like to get my electronics off my cranking battery for multiple reasons. For one, it certainly limits interference on my units. The bigger reason for me, is that it protects my AGM from ever going dead and leaving me stranded. The only things that will be running from my AGM starting battery will be the lights, livewell pumps, and motor. That group 31 AGM will have enough power to sustain those items from daylight to dark. All these batteries will be charged on a single Pro-Guide charger which certainly beats having to carry multiple chargers around with you.
This article may come off as a bunch of sponsor plugs, but I pay for most of these items. I’m a big believer in the value of having the proper system on my boat to increase my efficiency on the water and prevent lost fishing time. I have the expectation that this setup will be my favorite to-date, and I’ll report back soon!
