SnowBass23

Does your transom saver have a strap that goes around the outboard? Mine does, and I would assume that helps keep it from turning. I've heard that there is some kind of lock you can put on the boat that keeps the outboard from turning, I have no idea how much it would cost or where it goes, though.

Kayaks are great for fishing! I use a Prolwer 13. I'd recommend you check out kfs.com. It is all about kayak fishing and you will learn more than you ever wanted to know about it. There are so many ways to rig up kayaks and help bass fishing (especially on those awesome smalle waters) and the best part for me, is there is no gas cost involved! Strap it to the top of your hybrid and you're good to go.

I'm confused, do you mean it has a drain hole, but no plug for it? If that is the case you can buy drain plugs at most marine stores (wally has them for about $3). The plugs usually have a sort of screw handle. You screw it one way to widen the plug, and another way to make the plug narrow. Then when the plug is approx. the size to block the hole you simple push it into the drain hole, and usually pull the handle down to lock it into place. These are usually really effective. I have a cheap one from wal-mart at aat the end of a long day fishing, I might have 4 or 5 drops of water come in under the plug. My description of using the plug is probably confusing, but when you look at one it'll make sense (hopefully!). As for covering a hole I have no idea.

My best advice is to look over any boats you're interested in with a fine tooth comb. I looked at a lot of models (I wanted a 17-ish aluminum) before I settled on a Tracker 175. On any of the boats you want, you really need to get in them and get your hands dirty. If you buy new (or even out of somebody's back yard) just looking at the boat may seem nice, but as soon as you climb around it and start trying to figure out where you want things you will notice extra likes and dislikes you may not have considered before. As far as just general boat layout (meaning, how comfortable/effecient, but not necessarily whether it's a sound used boat or not) look at how much room you have at the helm seat, whether you have to squeeze in behind the wheel and if you have room for your legs. How are the rod lockers? Are there enough to get your gear stowed and will it safely hold everything? Will it be a pain removing longer rods? Try to figure out where you would put your junk--uhm, I meant tackle! Right away you will fill that sucker up! So make sure you have all the storage area for the things you want to take, but also the things you HAVE to take: extra pfds, a light, signaling equipment (if required), etc. A new boat will quickly run out of storage space and all the little things you didn't notice before will turn into much larger headaches after you've had the boat for 6 mos.

X2! Heck yeah they do! RW is right, it doesn't seem to matter as much with darker colors. I recently made the mistake of putting some lighter purple and motor oil colored culprits together. Now I have neutral greens. Grrr..I didn't much like motor oil color anyway!

I still consider myself very much a novice. I fished for bass my whole life, but it was casual until a few years ago. Now I can't get enough and I'm always trying new things and trying to get better. If I hit a small stream I might get around a dozen by myself. On lakes however, on an average (non-optimal conditions) I might get 3 myself, and my wife will usually get a couple. During high times, like spring I might get 5 or 6 on my own.

Thanks for posting the formula, J_Zink. Where does the hp limit fit now with that formula? My only other guess would be that it is a way for Tracker to force you into a bigger boat. "Well, you wanna go faster than a 50 will let you? The only way to do that is to upgrade to our next model...which we have sitting over here..." and the sales pitch begins. lol

Also, depending what happens with the gas situation (meaning I only expect it to go up!) that will help the price in your favor too. The cost of gas may not be a huge factor in boating at the moment, but I think it will become bigger as the price goes up. As it does many folks will look to get rid of gas guzzlers. That means you could inherit someone else's gas guzzler, but also that if nobody wants to buy a gas guzzler, they might have trouble offloading it for as much as they might want.

I know someone posted the formula here before, so hopefully they will again. I know there was a formula posted at one time that measured several different aspects of the vessel to determine the max hp. Does the coast guard plate say 50hp also, or is that just what BPS says?

Glad to hear it is all starting to work out for ya! That was one long painful thread to read through, and I think we all felt your pain. Let us know if you find a fix on that gas issue, though! I think we'd all be interested and write you in for President in November.

Congrats on picking up your next boat! I can't really add anything to the topic on what to look for, other than the time of year. Over here in Alabama, I would imagine is very similar to Arkansas (I assume that is where you plan to buy). Hands down, the time to buy is in the fall. When we hit that transition period where hunting seasons are starting and the weather is turning cooler I see ALOT of good deals in the paper and on used lots. When people start thinking about hunting fishing/boating becomes the back-burner hobby. Around here a lot of guys are trying to off load older boats to go out and buy all that new hunting gear. For the price range I'd imagine you could get a rocking new boat. If you are planning on buying something a few years old (or older) then I'd imagine you could find one heck of a ride with decent hours and wear on it. Good luck with your search!

Since we all know opinions are like back-ends (and stink even worse) I thought I'd throw mine in! Personally, I like the replicas, as long as it is from someone who knows what they are doing. Just like everyone else has said, it really is personal choice. As long as a person is following a state's creel limits then I have no problem with them keeping their fish, whether for food or trophy. That being said, I don't like to keep bass. For me, I have passion for the hunt and the actually catching of the fish. When I finally get a bass in, especially if it has any size, I don't like to kill them for any reason. To me, I take far greater pleasure in knowing that for just one minute, just one instant, all the stars lined up right, and in something that feels so primal and passionate, I fought and beat this beast. No one else. For me, killing that creature (for any reason) is not something I want to do. I am much happier sending her back on her way, knowing that I beat her. Now, a few weeks ago my wife caught a 6.5 LMB that had just finished spawning (she had an enormous head/mouth but was real skinny). I think if she had caught her prior to spawn she would have been an easy 8. I have never gotten one that big, as soon as I unhooked her I wanted to throw her back. My wife wanted to eat her. I tried to emphasize the time it takes for a bass to grow bigger, and that this one was well on her way to being B I G. She wouldn't relent and demanded to eat her. So we did. Now, As much as I disagreed with my wife's decision, it was HER decision. She caught it and she has a license so I felt she was within her rights as a fisherman to keep a fish that meets the slot requirements. I still occasionally give her a hard time for it. Anyway, I'd go with the replica and the satisfaction that that big fish is out there still hunting and outsmarting other fishermen! I wouldn't hold it against someone that wanted a trophy either. It's a personal issue.

Well, can you be more specific in what info you are looking for? I have a 50hp 2-stroke on an 18 foot aluminum. I am running right around the same weights as you mentioned. My fastest so far is around 27 on the speedo. I have heard that the only way to get an accurate reading is off a gps, but I haven't had the chance to try. Also, I know nothing about propeller designs so that might be able to change things. I'm still breaking my engine in, so I have yet to have the throttle wide open. One of these days I'll use a gps to see what exactly I'm accurately getting.

First off, congrats on the phenomenal work on the boat Bassassasin. The work you have put in looks great. I think what everyone has been trying to say here is that since registration is essential, you could (and probably should have) taken care of it in the first place. From the situation you have described, the legality of that boat could certainly be brought into question. And no one wants to see you lose something you put such great work into, providing it is all done legal like. Not necessarily bashing you, just make sure it is legal. Also, saying "no forum but this one has given me such a hard time" isn't exactly true. Over on that other forum, once the origins of the boat are brought into question, it appears their response is pretty much exactly the same. No one likes a thief, and everyone wants to make sure that you take the steps to safeguard yourself. At the same time, we're all a bunch of Redneck Brothers in this lifestyle we live, and I would hate to see ANYONE, be it a close friend or just someone I met at the dock this weekend have to deal with getting their stuff stolen. More than once I have been tempted to give the shirt off my back to help a fellow basser in need, and I have no doubt the majority of everyone else on here would do the same thing. And I'm pretty confident THAT is where all the questions have come from on this board. The boat does look great and hopefully it'll all work out.

Well, I could have this Bass Ackwards so take it with a grain of salt (hust a warning! ). I have always heard that it is much easier for a TM to pull a boat, as opposed to pushing it. Or, as they say it is easier to pull a rope instead of trying to push it. If you have an 18ft Jon I assume it's one of the big boys like those Tracker Grizzly jons. Although I wouldn't want to be the one doing it (at least not long term anyway) a 55lb thrust will certainly pull you along, at least in the manner that trolling motors normally work. You know, getting from place to place, while fishing. So if your goal is just being able to get on the water to fish from it, then it would work. For comparison I have a 46 lb thrust on my 18 foot boat. I really wish I had more, but it does work, and for the purpose of covering the holes while I fish it gets the job done. Now when it comes to getting from one hole to another I have the outboard. Good luck!

IME fishing from in a pond goes in one of two directions. The least likely direction is that you can throw in any bait, and I mean anything, and you will have bream all over it. The bass will still act like bass usually. The other direction (and this is probably your case if it is a public pond) is that the fish get a lot of pressure. Because of that (and this is really how lake bass are different than stream bass also) you might need to slow down your presentation. Stream bass are usually more willing to dash out and grab anything that swims by; they are used to life with moving water and realize that any piece of food floating by has to be grabbed quickly or it is gone forever. Fish in a lake (or pond) however have a chance to inspect your bait. If they see a lot of baits they might be much more selective. This means it will take time to inspect what you are offering and be much more paranoid about it. Personally, in areas that get fished heavily I like to use small finesse worms, smaller spinner baits, and finesse crankbaits. It feels to me that when they get pressured, bass are much more likely to take a smaller lure, fished nice and slow, than something big that is ripped through their environment. This might just be me, but it is how I've learned to fish. Good luck!

Fish finders can be very helpful in a lot of situations. Are you fishing from shore, or from a boat? If you are confined to shore then it is a lot less critical IMO. Even from a boat, depending on the size of the lake you are fishing you can usually get topo maps that will give you at least some ideas where the major structure is at on a given body of water. If you don't have a fish finder now, that certainly won't stop you from doing great this summer. You will just need to develop different tactics to find those optimal places to fish. To be quite honest, I rarely use my fish finder on my bass boat, but that is just because I have learned to 'fish blind' so to speak. I know that what works best for me is finding structure oriented close to shore, drop offs, areas where creeks feed in, weeds, riprap. These are all things that you can find quite easy with out a ff. I like to fish these areas from shallow, and then work my way deeper. I'd probably have much more success if I used my ff more, but as it is I just use it as a general guide. Good luck!

I don't know because it says DO NOT EAT!!! SO I never know what the contents look like as I am afraid to open it! Now that I think about it, I'm sure that is what the yare. I had never considered it before, but when I was making this topic it suddenly occured and made sense to have those in with hooks (at least the cheaper ones I buy sometimes) to keep them from rusting. Speaking of nipples...it's swimsuit season so I probably need to find myself a set of eyepatches so the ladies don't get jealous... :-* ROFLMAO.

I agree with what Gatorblazer says as far as a 'no boater'. Not only can you get great experience that way, help split the costs, and you'll still be out there. As far as the actual boat there are always good deals out there, it is just a matter of finding them. Even from a jon boat you can install a relatively cheap livewell kit. That way, you can be tourney qualified, spend low low low money, and have the pleasure of doing a lot of work yourself and not be completely broke. Around here the best time to watch for used boats is approaching deer season. It seems everybody wants to trade their old boats on atvs and hunting gear. Every year we see a lot of decent older boats for all range of prices.

Just like the topic says! After reading a post about the bead that comes with ribbit frogs I got to thinking. Over the years I have bought several different packages (makers/styles) of hooks. A lot of times they have a single bead in the pack. It is usually a pink/orange or clear color. It does NOT have a threading hole like a bead you might use for a C-rig. Does anybody know why these are in there? (heck, maybe I'm just too dumb to recognize it as one of those 'dessicant (sp!?) things that soaks up moisture) I have often wondered and it just occured to me that this is the place to ask about it. Thanks. Oh, and why do men have nipples? 8-)

My transducer in particular is a dual beam. To my understanding the primary beam is the one that is going to give the most definition of structure and objects, it is the one that will also be giving you depth readings. The wide beam is there just to give a bigger picture of objects moving around the boat. On a lighter note I have had things hit the transducer before and make it point at a funny angle, so it will suddenly read 800+feet and show thousands of fish!

You've already got some great advice with what Sneaker and Fishfordollars have said. I like the idea of turning the fish id off and getting used to just fishing structure. I am learning myself, and with my ff it has the 'dual beam' meaning it has a more direct beam directyly below the transducer and a wider beam out and around it. The problem this gives me is that it shows 'fish' of a different color to let you know when they are in theory directly below the boat, or out and around it. So take this information with a grain of salt. Since I don't know for sure that the fish is on the left or right side of the boat, I use it as a guide of where the fish are located as far as depth. Again, get out in places that you have a good idea what is below you (clear water helps! ) and then learn how your unit displays it.

This is completely an uneducated guess but I would think the real difference would not be in "power" per se as they are the same hp. I would expect the big difference to be in the efficiency of each motor. I'm sure others on here have way more experience as to the difference of each motor. My guess is that they are going to have slightly different requirements for maintenance as well as overall effeciency (effeciency=mpg!!!). Because of that, you might get a few mph out of one motor over the other, but probably at a higher purchase cost. Good luck, and I'm sure the experts will chime in soon.

I have only used the chatterbait, so my experience coems from that. But, no you should not be getting line twist. Others have mentioned the different action of the gambler, so perhaps the way it is tied on it is causing it to helicopter when you first cast. I've had other lures do it but never a bladed lure. Good luck.

For me the word gimmick is summed up pretty well by ManorAstroman: I agree just about all lures are designed to catch fishermen, with a secondary emphasis to catch fish! And I love the 3x or 4x willow-bladed spinner baits. Anyway, my favorite gimmick is the banjo minnow. At least it was until the point I joined this website, and about 2 times a week someone asks "How about the Banjo Minnow?" and the typical battle ensues. Overall, I define gimmick baits as those that are advertised in cheesy-over-the-top infomercials with some guy repeating the mantra of how simple and phenomenal the product is.. along those lines...Roland's wonderful 'Rocket Pole'. My buddy got one for Christmas and we can't stop laughing at that one, the Insta-Fisherman travel rod is pretty funny also. Perhaps, I think the biggest sin in gimmicks and advertising is when you open a magazine like Bassin' which is full of adverts anyway. But there are several companies now that have their adverts look like a newspaper clipping touting how said item should be banned from tournaments because it gives such an unfair advantage. Anytime I'm told that lights, a moving tail, a 'super-life-like body' or anything else elicits a GENETIC RESPONSE from the fish I turn and walk in the other direction.