J Francho

I loved my Xpress. Congrats!

I'm forgot that you could swap Zillion spools on them.

Bass can be sold as food here, so long as they are farm raised. You can guess what gets poached and sold as farm raised.

They sell them at the farmers market here for like $4/lb.

You are like a beacon in the night on this forum. I like similes.

If I was fishing for them, I'd rather be the one to eat them. I really don't need to use a bait that replaces what I'm actually after with spiny squirts that don't put up any struggle. If I was into that I'd be on CrappieResource.com.

Those old 50s were indestructible. Hook it back up and do normal maintenance. A pontoon without normal outboard power is not very safe. It only takes a brisk breeze to blow them off course even with a trolling motor.

I was not shocked by all the yellow perch I caught fishing it.

They may have a similar profile to a Zillion, but their roots are in the TD-Z. It is a magnesium framed reel that retailed at $200-230 in the early 00s. They were marketed along side the slower, lighter baits TD-Sol (Alphas platform). The only reels above them in the line were Zillion and Steez. These were considered the working man's Steez. If it is in excellent working condition, I recommend a Carbontex drag, and fish it like you stole it. They were great reels.

I still have a Zebco 33 classic and a Daiwa Goldcast that get used. Good fish have been caught on both. It beats trying to teach someone how to use another reel when the bite is hot.

These things are the devil. At least they only go down around 5' so the deeper weedbeds recover.

Barge for transporting materials and building docks.

LMAO

I preferred going out in Lake Erie with mine over my 22' Bullet. Your last statement is 1001% correct sir.

My Commander 140 weighs 65 lbs., goes in the back of my pickup in five minutes held with two cam straps, has two seating positions as well is one of the most stable hulls to stand in, holds a ton of gear, doesn't require a motor but has a transom and is pre-rigged for mounting a foot steerable motor, is rigged with gear tracks stern to bow for accessories, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. It comes in a 12 foot version as well. I much prefer it to any floating bathtub I've fished in. Plus there's room to take a kid with you:

Please tell me you counted and laughed like the Count when that happened.

They don't charge for a second rod (yet!) in NY, but the two lines out rule makes follow ups much easier. I also like to toss a BIG wake bait out behind the boat like an MS Mini Slammer or Deps Buzzjet, and leave the rod in a rod holder as I slowly work a shoreline. I catch quite a few fish this way. So, it might be worth the $16 to be able to cast a $30 lure on $40 line with a $500 rod and reel and set it in a $25 rod holder. Perspective is everything.

Two rods with lines in the water.

you can bark!

"Yo! Hit that laydown!" is a common expression on my boat.

You could probably flip it quickly for a profit if it isn't exactly what you wanted.

LMAO, so true. You can always tell who those guys were in the parking lot. Part of what I liked about my SportMaster LU was that it was unpainted.

Braid and "not too noisy" don't really belong in the same sentence. Some are noisier than others. Seaguar Smackdown isn't too obnoxious.

I stood in a Malibu Mini-X, but I'm only 165 lbs. and 5'8". That thing felt tiny.

How do you break a reel seat? I mean, I have over 50 rods that I'm not very nice to (ask @Maico1 LOL) and the only one I ever broke was a Fuji seat on a Saint Croix Avid that was over 10 years old. I stripped the threaded locking hood wrestling with a huge northern pike, and SC fixed it by the way.