J Francho

Bar room rules here: no politics and no religion.

It all looks the same to me, so long as the line is off the blank. Everything else they all talk about is academic to me.

I've run across smallies that were in a topwater mood hit a 6" Punker like it's their last meal.

Should have made him swim for it, since he was already in the drink!

I've tied my boats off to a dock at a cabin many times. I never thought about it this hard.

I thought the Jack Hammer was made by Evergreen or someone and they have exclusive marketing rights on this side of the pond. That's a totally different deal.

After all the boats over the years, I don't think I can agree with that. Yes, bigger boat, greater complexity and more systems that can possibly fail. My Xpress was an absolute PITA to figure out minor issues, but in the end were easy fixes. In contrast, any issues I had with the Bullet were easy to figure out, but good luck getting at the parts that needed repair or replacement. I had to remove the gas tank to install new bilge pumps, lol. There were sections of the Sea Nymph where there was no hope of ever seeing the wiring, so you checked the fuse, all the connections, replaced the switch, to find there was a short in the wire from rubbing. What are you going to do? The first two boats were bass boats with the toys and 20 years old, the Sea Nymph was purchased new, and was a simple tiller deep-V. Some of this figures into my purchase. BTW, the wiring in the Pathfinder is like fine art.

A bait cannot be copyrighted. It can be patented., and the name/logo can be trademarked.

They are not, and will never be, on my list. In no order: Pathfinder Boston Whaler Scout

Caecer, may he RIP, was an SOB. The hook on that jig was removed. I would rather tangle with a rabid pit bull, than mess with that cat when he's "in a mood." I miss him terribly. Siamese cats are a lot of fun.

I hear you there! The whole idea of a bigger boat came about when we were looking at cottages. There are shacks on the water that are 5x the price of my dream home. Never mind the yearly taxes. We decided to get the boat, and squat at our friends' cottages in exchange for a couple bottles of wine and our stellar sense of humor. Seriously everyone, I appreciate the feedback!

I made Gorten's fish samiches tonight.

My Lakemaster chip was around $125 and has 1' intervals. I've been very happy with the map coverage. You get what you pay for? On second thought, are you sure you are pointed at the chip and the settings are right for displaying all depth lines? This is the base map and it's not 1' increments:

Looks like a coppernose to me.

Uni to Uni knot works, until it doesn't. Mine just randomly failed. That went away when I learned the Crazy Alberto variation on the Albright knot.

Great Lakes folks as well. Before we got the hoist, the big bowrider was just tied off with fenders in the right places all summer long. If you don't have an auto bilge pump, you're gonna want to watch out for rain.

You're thinking of the halftime show.

That seems like it happens every year. Security should probably apply for the Chiefs. Seems like they might be an upgrade at DB.

Count me in for round knobs.

Bayliner gets a bad rap for being a price point boat. They sort invented the package deal (boat, motor, and trailer) that Tracker did with bass boats. They suffer from the same reputation, though optioned out, they look pretty good. I've just seen too many nice looking Bayliners with underpowered Force O/Bs in permanent dry dock for me to ever consider them. Looks like they do the same thing - pimping a 21' bay boat for less than $30k. It comes with a 115, lol. Nope.

I was genuinely shocked. They're more than a Chris Craft.

Fixed it. For giggles, I built a 25' runabout with basic options and it was $200k. Nope.

This is a highly produced video that shows flipping, pitching and a "flip punch"

They're actually the OLDEST. They were the first. They're still the only one to run their own formulas and extrusions.

Two: Meh. One new, the other maybe five years old. Everything that looked cheezy on the new was ratty on the used. Not impressed. Reminded me of a Ranger Bay I really wanted to buy, before I bought the Bullet. I expect more for the money. There isn't a single model in their line up that I'd even try to fish from. We had a Sea Ray stern-drive bowrider when I was a teenager. That boat was awesome, but not a fishing boat. I have three kayaks and an 18' pontoon boat as well, so I'm covered there. I'm not ruling out a little tin can tiller either. I still love that style boat. We have SO MUCH water here one boat will never cover all the bases.