thetr20one

I am trying to get up there. I am close but my time has been super limited lately. I will get up there this month sometime. For sure. I have been jonesin for pig smallies!

Anytime I feel a tap I set the hook immediatly. Like Catt said hooksets are free, and I too after many years I still set hooks in trees, rocks, weeds, dicarded fishing line and so on. You never know.

So, that means you need to drill holes to have pump in back of boat, and then have pump in livewell to circulate the water in there(and add O2)?? Does just a cooler livewell really work? Is it a waste of money? Mary You might want to exchange water a couple times a day. Just get a bilge pump with a long hose and battery leads and pump water in and out that way. You could hold the pump submerged and get a little cooler water. The get the recirculation system or the airstones to keep oxygen in the water.

Two Quantum retroflex rods I use for cranks. They feel great and do exactly what I want them to do! I forget how much they cost.

If the Opti is a 2000 MAKE SURE IT HAS BEEN UPGRADED. That was the absoulute worst year for the Optimax. I have an 2001 and It blew fist sized holes through the block when the wristpins and connecting rods let go. Mercury actually knew there were problems with those years and replaced my powerhead with a new not remanufactured 2005 and upgraded the computer. The older ones were not called POPTIMAX for nuthin. Good luck!

Last year 6 1/2 pounds about 9 a.m. Windy and raining. White Strike King Pure Poison chatter type bait.

10 degrees cooler than surface temp. And 2 liters filled with water frozen.

Welcome!!! And don't feel bad it has been smoldering hot up here in Ohio the past couple days. It was cool forever and then BAM 94 degrees and HUUUMMMIIIDDD! I will have to google tiger bass. Is that a hybrid of sorts?

Great fish and pics!

I'm sorry you feel that I am a poacher. I am not going all there because you are a young guy. If anyone is the poacher it would be the adult that helped you measure. The more you fish tourneys at higher stakes the more you will look down on this type of close decisions. An expierienced adult would have got ripped more problably. Sometimes your willingness to succeed will override your moral judgement. Those will be my last words on this thread also. I hope you do well all season Bass XL!!!

Last week I had a miserable day at a tournament getting smoked from the back of my boat. Mydogdamit had a great day that day and bet me lunch we could repeat his success. Matter of fact he made the rules. We would meet at his house at 5 a.m. and be offthe water at 11 a.m. We spent a couple hours on a good spot with no bites. He was getting a little worried and we made a move. Shortly after that I caught a good one 2 1/2 -3 then a 3- 3 1/2 minutes later a 3+ smallie here came a 5 and finally another 2 1/2 +. Noticing how fast they were coming I started getting nervous but happy to buy. Well that was the last fish for me and he blanked. Whew! I never wanted to buy lunch so bad but I had alot of fun. Mydogdamit just kept saying "I can't believe you schooled my on my home lake off my boat". We have been fishing together a long time and he knows if he puts me near em I will catch em. So I don't think he was surprised or disappointed. We have tons of fun fishing. We or I came close but he ended up one fry short of a happy meal. Sorry about the goofy faces and droopy shorts, It just got hot this week in Ohio and my summer clothes are still in a big tote box. Here they are!

Congratulations. But a Legal keeper takes 5 seconds to measure, never a minute and a half. We had major problems at my old club with guys trying to "stretch" fish. I have never been to a non-club tourney that would do anything more than flip the fish one time. For some what you did is a huge gamble to take a fish to the scales unsure if it will measure. I have to agree with Wayne P on this on BassXL

thats really funny! whats funnier is, you're right, i didnt even notice! ;D looks like you two had an awesome day! X2! My wife used to point such things out as well!

Have you ever caught a large smallie? If you have or ever do you will answer your own question. Smallies are incredibly athletic and very strong. Largemouth are more bulldogish and much slower. We catch alot of both here.

Nice fish!!!! We know Ohio has nice fish! SSSHHHH!!! Don't let out the secret!

I have ridden in an X and the are very stable but, somewhat slower than the orginal TR platform. I have talked to a guy who went from a TR-20 to a TR-20X both with 225 OPTIs and he said he gave up 8 mph. The first time I tried to push my boat at about 66 mph the chine got so bad I about s--t myself. Then I found out what was happening. The only things that cured the chine was seat time and adjusting my jackplate height. My brother in law has the same year (2001) TR-20 with a RUDE RAM 225 and he goes about 72.7 gps with a fixed jackplate. I imagine he could easily go 75+ with a hydro plate but, he has his set for minimal chine with a respectable top end. Driving his boat has a completely different feel than driving mine for some reason and the only difference in hulls is his has a dual console. I really wish that Triton would release at least a limited edition new TR series but I don't think that will happen. I fish Erie alot and have never really been worried about big water, with one exception when I took a 8 footer from the side and pretty much swamped the boat. She stayed floating and running getting us back to the launch but, it was a long ride. The lake went from 3-5s to 6-8s in a hurry and caught us out in the lake. That was a good lesson on big water and high waves.

My boat chines like crazy if you let it. Over the years I drive and don't even notice it anymore. I can raise my jackplate and eliminate it but I lose some top end, besides the chine keeps me alert. My hull seems to be 85% or more out of the water at WOT and is very responsive to input. Water pressure is not an issue because of the snorkle water intake on the front of my gearcase and it never drops below 15#. It is a very fun boat to drive and hate the day I must trade it in. We kinda hijacked this thread but I hope we have shed light on some things. I am just saying other than boat choice there is a trade off for everything boatingwise. Although I could never reccomend a Nitro. As I have stated in another thread I was at a boat show I walked across a Nitro deck and the compartments flexed and gave me a uneven feeling I could only imagine what they are like on the water. That is one of the boats I have never ridden in and don't care to really. Sorry Nitro guys feel free to knock Triton.

I took a look and my oh my how inconsistent can you be with numbers. There are guys running 150s and 175s that are outrunning guys with 200s and 225s. You can do the math and see that some of the post are BS, even with zero prop slip some of those numbers are odd. I only found a couple of 150-175s going over 64mph. Those guys must have made their performance runs when ALL the satellites were working. Obviously!

I think fishfordollars was spot on with his observations. My rig is set up for tourneys, to run 70+ with me, my partner, full livewells,all the fuel I need and all the equipment I may need that day. As I posted earlier I can change out props and be much, much faster but there is a trade off, that is hole shot. Our lakes here are kinda small so it's more of a drag race than a endurance race. That being said I have honestly NEVER beeen passed by ANY make or model boat. You could tell us on here you can do this and you can do that but to prove it on the water is another thing altogether. Your boat could very well be faster than mine but, driving it faster under all conditions is another thing. At blastoff I would love to see an 18 footer cut through the chop and wakes and pass me, I would problably jump off my boat if that happened. I would also like to have an 18 foot 150 challenge me to a top speed duel that would be funny too because I would then just change out props and lighten the load to run near or over 80 mph. I am not trying to stir up contoversy but, unless boats are tested under the same conditions these numbers are just numbers. My tourney partner has the same model boat I have with a 200 EFI, in theory since we are running the same prop he SHOULD be able to outrun me becuase he can spin to 6000 rpm and I hit the limiter at 5750. Well that is a theory that doesn't work real world because I get out of the hole so much faster and have power on tap when he is flat out. I have driven his boat to 72.3 GPS, that is faster than mine with that prop. However that was with very little fuel and nothing more than safety equipment aboard. Put in his gear and other tourney goods and his top end falls to somewhere around 67-68. Those are real world, real deal numbers that have been put to the test over and over many, many times. performance is in how you look at it. I want my boat to perform consistenly and it does, there is really no guessing to how fast I can run because it goes the same speed loaded or empty. There is a guy we talked to at the ramp as he was getting ready to launch his 14 foot tunnel hull with a 75hp who told us he was going over 80mph. Now I would not doubt him but, I would also not be worried about getting outrun be him seeing how he was waiting for the lake to clear out so he could run that little thing without hitting wake or waves. Also I take it this post on *** was an older one, I don't think you would be breaking in a 04 in 08. I am gonna head over ther and see if there is any other Skeeters tha are posting those numbers, or he is the only one running 68mph with a 19' 150 Yammie Skeeter. There should be some consistency.

Yeah. I learned a ton of info AFTER I bought my first high performance bass rig and try to keep up with the performance side of boating too.

X2!!! This is my exact thought but I usually say "size of a peanut".

I have a Triton TR-20 with a 225 Opti. With a 25 inch Trophy I get 71.9 gps all day no matter the load, full wells, a partner, all our fishing gear and plenty of gas, it will run all the way up to the limiter. With a 27" trophy the fastest I have been able to go because of the size of our lakes is 78.7gps at 5600 rpm but, unless it is cool and I have a light load it dogs out of the hole. A 26" Trophy is what I need. Either way my speedo stays pegged at 85+ mph at anything over 65 mph. Countless times I have proved to reacreational boaters their cabin cruisers and fun boats won't really go 60mph. A GPS is the ONLY way to find out your true speed. You can go to ***.com and see what you can expect from any boat, they have forums for all makes and motors. Just don't post numbers you get off your speedo those there is too much info there to make false claims or guess speeds. That being said I have a friend with a 18 footer 150 Merc and he gets 63.5 gps all day. 08 Nitro 750DC Vengeance prop, Lowrance X47 tx, Garmin E-Trex w/mount, Robert G - OK 07 90 Merc Optimax Legend. Motorguide Pro 46#. 48 mph @ 5800 rpm (gps). GPS is bummer sometimes and I hope I didn't burst any bubbles. I just would like to save face for some guys who are unsure. Safe boating all!!!

You might want to check that speed on a gps. 58MPH with a stock 90HP is really not possible is it? Do they even make a perfomance prop for a 90? I have had a, and know 2 guys with 17 foot 115hp and 50-54 is max. Speedometers are NEVER correct. Even with a 115 you would have to seriously tweak and give up lots of holeshot to get 58gps.

That's awesome. I love when my daughter catches fish too. It's amazing how some guys around here use gloves. Little Em holding CATFISH without gloves, very cool. Starting her off good, next thing you know she is sightfishing solo and catchin em like dad!!

We fished Erie well into November last year and did really well. our last outing was Nov. 25 and we slayed em including some big steelhead.