Don_B

You can with channel cats, don't do it with the other ones though, unless you have a crowbar handy to pry your thumb out.

I was just up Erie this past Sunday, and although you are talking about Ontario, Erie is exactly the same. I was catching them all day there, and they will wear you out after a few hours of hauling up the hawgs! I'm a die hard fisherman, but by the end of the day, I was more than ready to go home.

Here's another on, taken right after I got it trailered after about a 15 minute struggle.

Some good stories. I can only imagine the chaos if some of them were launching at some of the unfinished ramps on the rivers here, especially when the rivers are a little high. I fish mostly by myself, and sometimes trailering a boat back on in current can be quite difficult, to say the least. The courtesy ramp is a little to the left......

Good luck with your Muskie quest. A big one "on" definitlely gets your heart racing. You ask if you have all the right stuff for this quest. Yes and no. Musky fishing is the same as all other fishing. It doesn't matter what lure, or this brand or that brand of braid. You can catch one 4' long on a tiny spoon, or one 18" long on a huge swimbait. Presentation, conditions and location are the most important thing, as with any other species. Sounds to me like you have more than all the right gear for a battle with one. Read up on Muskie habits and behaviour and you will definitely run into a few....... If that just doesn't work, just go bass fishing with your most expensive lures on any lake or river that holds them, and....well....you'll see what happens!

I hate to brag but.........take a look at my pb and weep boys.........

For me: Pa Game & Fish, In Fisherman, Bassmaster, Muskyhunter, and Esox Angler.

I've got a big grype about Lake Arthur and Pymatuning. Those hp restictions suck in my opinion. I've fished Arthur from shore and always caught a few, but can't take my jet out on the water. I paid plenty in taxes when I got my boat, and pay for my registration and fishing license(Erie combo stamp too!).They use tax money for those lakes but it's almost like a club lake for anyone with 9.9 or 15hp or whatever ridiculously low number they decide on. Those lakes are both pretty big. I can take my 175hp jet on Crooked Creek or Loyalhanna, both of which are a puddle compared to Arthur or pymatuning, simply because they are run by the Army Corps of Eng. I can fish any river in Pa., anywhere I so decide, but not Arthur or Pymatuning? What's the deal? Are they worried about speed? Waterskiers or something like that? Overcrowding? Bigger tournaments? I have a Tracker Jetboat, not one of those Skeeter, Trion, Ranger, etc., and thank God I do because I can fish all the great rivers, shallow and deep, we have here in W.Pa. I guess anyone in Pittsburgh that has one of those big glass boats either has to fish in and around Pittsburgh, or go to Ohio lakes? The state sure wants their taxes, registration, trailer tags, etc. for those kind of boats, even though those guys are limited in lake access. Shenango and Wilhelm are open to them(or me), but why not the others? I guess I just don't think that it's fair to all the boaters. Should they charge less in taxes, registration, or trailer fees to a guy that has a 250hp boat as compared to a guy that has a 9.9hp and will be accessing more public water? I'm just thankful the state isn't in charge of the rivers yet.

I prefer fishing alone when out on my jet. I will take my kids anytime that they want to go, which is every now and then. I will take a friend with me maybe about once or twice a year though. I tried to fish with a guy on a sort of regular basis, but it was awful. He never offered to pay for anything, and his talking about himself over and over just made me want to just jump into the river/or out of the truck! I put an end to that after about three or four painful boat/truck trips. I try to be prepared for just about any fishing situation, so I usually bring about 5-6 rods/reels and two small gear bags, which doesn't leave much space on the casting decks for someone else's gear.

Wow! That's just unbelievable what stupid ideas some people come up with. Who gives a crap about them chubs anyway. Pike and smallmouth are a major species for a lot of sport fishermen. All that for some chubs???

Wow! A few pictures before and after seem so simple, but in between them, there must have been months of hard work! I'll bet your're proud of it.

Maybe I should have said "rivers in Pa.". I've never even seen a prop boat on the upper Allegheny, or the Clarion, or the Kiskiminetas. I've only seen a prop boat once or twice on the middle Youghiogheny, and both times I seen them bang their props trying to navigate riffles, turn around and head back p'oed.

Nah! In all seriousness though, I really couldn't use a boat like yours in the rivers that I usually go fishing. I travel a lot over areas that may be only 6-10" deep to get from one spot to the other, shooting through rapids, shallow flats, etc. You can only get to a lot of these places via jetboat, but once there, it's like a private fishing preserve. In the Northeast, I'd bet jetboats outnumber the propboats for fisherman. I'm not limited by much of anything as far as movement, except for actual exposed rocks. It's just a different kind of fishing that requires a different kind of boat. I can actually do about 50 mph through an area that two guys in a canoe would probably have to get out and walk through! If I lived down south by a few deep-water resovoirs, or even by the great lakes, I'd probably get a boat like yours for sure. Good luck with the new boat, get an anchor for it, and please go out an catch some fish so you can bust it's cherry already!

I would think that a real bass fisherman would know what his real bass boat should need ............if not: I have an 19' jetboat that I fish with mainly on the rivers(in current) for bass. I use a 20# river anchor to hold in place after I get my poser bassboat into position. I've also used my anchor on Lake Erie and a few others lakes without any problems. Hope that helps.