done

Well it IS a boat. So sooner or later...you are getting screwed...just hope you get some good times between now and then.

The music they put to this one just gets me. Exceed the maximum capacity a bit...you are alright. Obliterate it and...

Why is it MOST fathers are trying to get their 17 yr old to wear MORE clothing, hers is trying to get her to wear less. > Sorry guys...as a father of 4 girls, I just have no understanding of her dad. SHE is acting like a 17 yr old girl, I know I dated one once. HE should be acting like a dad not a pimp.

your advice has to be the one that had the most inpact on me and opened my eyes as soon as i read it so thank you for that and i want to thank everyone else too,cause she has been nothing but good to me in every aspect of life and to but up with my crap it takes alot,i am staying and we are going to work it out,im sure everything will be ok,and for some of you guys,im not a dead beat dad that just want to run away from my family and in what i wrot i dont see how you got that but i came here cuz i knew ther had to be someone on here that had gone though the same thing so i want to that everyone Dude, no you are not talking about being a deadbeat dad. But you are talking about being "bored" and tearing those kids lives apart. I grew up in a broken home, and the kids...no matter how you try to convince yourself are not good with it. You got a woman that treats you good, puts up with you and your stuff (we ALL have stuff), and gave you 3 kids. You are blessed beyond belief right there. This year, I am celebrating my 10th married year with my wife. I met her when we were in high school. yeah the last time I dated a new girl we were passing notes. Yeah, life is not always a romantic comedy. Sometimes married life is more like a horror movie, LOL. I have so many friends who never found THAT person. Never. And probably never will. Really, you need to man up, appreciate the blessings you have in your life and be the best husband and father you can be. BTW, I can appreciate the courage it takes to post that up here. You had to know you'd take a beating for it.

Be nice is Tracker had an email address too, we could email them links to these types of discussions. To date (knock on wood) my PT175 has been good. Though with the feedback I have heard on their customer service, I do not think my next boat will be a tracker.

Some of the comments on that story are scary. One in particular about "what difference does it make if they had their lights on?" is REALLY scary and I hope that person does not own a boat. BTW, to the current line of discussion, my vest is on me before the hull is wet. I I go out on Wylie quite a bit at night and what I see out there is pretty scary. Folks doing WOT at night, there is absolutely no way you are going to avoid debris in the water. You are pretty much betting your boat and maybe your life on there not being anything in front of you. I mean I was out last year maybe 5 mph and hit a plastic buoy that was just floating free out in the middle of the lake. If I was going any speed it would have done some damage. I see a lot of boats (more every year) with no lights. Especially pontoons with folks adrift or anchors in the middle of a channel sleeping with no lights at all. You couple that with every department on the lake having little to no money for marine patrols and to me the miracle is we do not see more of these. BTW in line with the current line of discussion, my vest is on before the hull is wet.

Dude...that sucks. You are nicer than I. I think I would have a lawyer involved at this point. There is absolutely no reason it should take 2 months to replace a crap product. They are doing nothing but destroying their reputation and ticking off a customer. After 2 months wait without ANY boat, who would ever buy another tracker? After posting on this board about it, I would bet they have lost other sales. It is just retarded beyond belief that the company would do that to a customer.

I thought the tazer was a bit much. Yeah the dudes being a nimrod, but really dropping him (while entertaining), seems a bit much. Course it would be easy to avoid by, say, no running out on the field in the middle of a game.

Well like a broken clock (talking OLD style not digital), even the paranoid are right every now and then. I do have to say, if I was an opponent of offshore drilling, I do not think I could have picked a more advantageous time for this to occur. It is a very scary coincidence but I still have enough faith in humanity to believe that nobody would do something so horrible like this. To those in this things path...I feel for ya. While I cannot imagine what you guys are going through...there is still a chance the worst case can be avoided and things can work out. Lets just hope we learn from this and these types of scenarios do not play out again.

IMO any college worth its salt will have internship programs as a requirement for ALL students. To just give them a degree and a "good luck" without experience does them a disservice. As a student you go in expecting to be educated for the real world. Sometimes you get lucky and have professors with real experience, sometimes you got guys who have not been out of an educational setting for 10-20 years and have no clue. The internship balances that. It is frustrating, college is not cheap, but it is what it is. The good thing is right now, you know how important it is and you can do something about it (getting that internship) before you are out of school. My first job out of college (even with 2 years of internship experience), was really a step down from what I was qualified to do. I took it to build the experience and left that job after a year and have never had an issue getting a job since then. Just keep in mind that first job, you may have to get on the utter bottom rung and work a job you consider beneath you to work yourself up. You need humility, work ethic (sadly lacking these days), and tenacity. You keep those in your arsenal you will get work, and you will succeed in your career. Unless of course you happen to be in the field that is getting beat by the crash dejour (currently construction). IT got hit right after I got into it big and for a number of years it was tough.

Yeah this totally sucks. We had been planning a trip down to the gulf coast for vacation. I am pretty much forgetting about that. It is tough to really gauge the damage this is going to do. What is really scary is they are saying it may not be capped and cleaned (from the water) until after hurricane season starts. All we need is one of those to push this slick way inland. it is unbelievable that their only plans for such a disaster is booms, and fire. You'd think they might just might keep a set of contingency plans around. Maybe even one of these "domes" sitting already build somewhere for them to deploy.

I would say experience ALWAYS trumps education. I have a BS in Computer Science, and I can tell ya, that degree, is squat in the real world. It gives you a great foundation in learning to do the job. However, it does not really qualify you to do the job without plenty of additional training at the employers expense. If your college offers it, get an internship (paid or unpaid). That is what will get you the job. The other thing...the GPA is awesome but do not rely on it. Also make sure you do not go into an interview with the "I have a degree and I am better than you" type of attitude. It sounds stupid, but I cannot tell you how many dudes I have interviewed who think their stuff don't stink because of that piece of paper. Showing humility and a strong eagerness to learn goes a real long way in an interview. Don't get me wrong, a college education is a good thing, just not a guarantee of a job and they teach you non-real world ways of doing things. Also realize in this market you are competing with a lot of folks with a lot of real world experience. I do not *** any college graduate right now.

put it this way, I have a Tracker PT175txw and I put a 60 hp on it. That will get me about 45 mph by myself. If you are not familiar with that boat, it is an aluminum hull. I would never go with a smaller motor than that on my boat.

LOL...been married about 10 years, I can say from day 1, finding a way to have a fight with my wife, not a particularly difficult task. LOL.

Always have a knife or two on me. What have I used them for... 1. cutting an anchor line I pulled up with my line. 2. cleaning trout in the stream 3. security (never had to pull it but my handgun took this role now). 4. cutting fishing line wrapped around my TM 5. cutting up trash pulled out of the lake so I can fit it into a bucket. I am sure everyone has a million things they had to use it for. Just a tool with about 7 million uses. The times i have not had a knife, i have regretted it. 5.

Welcome to my life man. I work 85% of the time out of my house. Most times it is awesome. But I also have 4 daughters. So try to use the bathroom (we have 2) in that situation. Because unlike the ladies in your office these youngins' HAVE to know what is going on in each room in the house every second. Yeah I love it when you are on the throne and they have a conversation outside the door as to what may be going on inside....

As well they should. All boats should have dam avoidance radar. I really do not see how this type of thing happens. I mean, it is not like hitting a partially submerged log or something, it is a DAM. How do you not see a dam? Was it dark? I hope so. I hate to think someone drove over a dam in broad daylight.

<at the risk of crossing the politics line...> This will not happen while we have a country that is run by lawyers. The other problem with addressing it is, if you restrict litigation, you will inadvertently hurt folks who have a legitimate case. it is like when they talk about capping medical malpractice cases. There are a LOT of bad cases, but then you have cases like my aunt. She went in for a hysterectomy, the butcher surgeon she had cut her bladder open and did some other damage and just closed her up (did NOT fix anything). The damage it did before they went back in for a second operation, nearly killed her and kept her out of work for 6+ months. The lawsuit was the only way she kept from losing her home. While I definitely agree the sue-happy society needs to stop, I cannot fathom how to go about it without harming the right for legitimate suits.

Good luck man. Either way, getting off the shore rocks. It was not too long ago I was shore bound.

Sorry to hear it. Prayers sent Glenn.

My local BPS guys were VERY helpful on this front. I got a lot of great info out of them. Maybe they are the exception to the rule, but I was very pleased with the sale and the hour long walk through of the boat, trailer, maintenance, etc. Dude knew his stuff, no doubt.

I would get a bigger motor. I had a customized 14' jon with a 8 hp on it and with just me, it really did not get too fast. With 2 people forget about it. As for what to look for, go over the hull inch by inch look for cracks (usually appear on stress points or on the welds), repair jobs (new welds, replaces rivets, custom brazing jobs, etc). Especially around the transom. Check the condition of the paint. I would ask the owner to take it out for a couple hours. That way you can see if it leaks, how it handles, how stable it is, how low in the water it sits, etc. Before you go throwing a motor on it, find out what it is rated for, and how much wiggle room you got as far as loading it with weight. Once you have all that info, go out and be sure the price he is asking is within the norms for your area. Check Craigslist, boattrader.com, etc to ensure it is within some level of sanity. Now the other question is whether this is the boat you want. To answer that I would look at the water you plan to fish (size, depth, boat population), the number of people/stuff you plan to take, type of fishing (shallow up on shore vs trolling, etc). Make sure this boat fills those needs and does not leave any unacceptable gaps. I moded by own 14' and it was a great boat to fish from. I really enjoyed the crud out of it.

I would not see them doing that. Be sure to mention to them this thread and how many threads we have in this section about first time boat buyers looking for suggestions. May help persuade them a bit.

Good to hear the surgery went well. I just did a 5 day trout trip (REAL rough wading/hiking) with a guy who a year and a half ago went through a triple bypass. You'll be healed up and back out there before ya know it.

Where'd ya go? Just did a 5 day stint at Linnville, Wilson, then Little river, and cranberry creek. Got my creel limit every day. Wilson was especially jumping. One day hit my limit in an hour.