done

Good job man! Just chalk her immediate reaction to shock.

Ditto. Used to go trolling with my father and Uncle in a 21ft Bayliner Trophy. Absolutely awesome time. He had a nice rig so we would get close to 20 rods out back with the riggers and planer boards on that things. edit: We would head out south of Dunkirk, NY

Where abouts you located man?

I use my "general" species rod (medium light) spinning reel combo for mountain trout. Depending on which stream I hit I will go 4lb or 8lb on it. The sensitivity is important without a doubt.

Another thing I tend to do is hit the forums at edmunds.com. Specifically the forums for that vehicle. I look for issues folks are posting. Basically for repeated patterns. For example you hit the boards on Trailblazers, you would see a TON of issues with the left brake light a chunk of folks with tranny problems, rusted rotors up north, etc. I will look for those and miles, and if available geographic areas folks report them on just to gauge what I am likely to have to deal with. But i do not *** you. I loathe car salesmen. a good, honest one is worth his weight in gold but I have run into too many sleazy, backstabbing, no good ones who try every trick in the book to get you to buy from them.

Definitely not flashing it. That is one guaranteed way to bring attention you do not want. Especially with that crowd. I would not be surprised if one of them or more was armed (I actually expect they are) and I do not want to get in a gunfight. But I want to have the ability to defend myself if they I have to.

I would have thought the motor would offset a lot of that weight up front. You add those batteries you got to have enough to keep it down some. I had the same issue a while back when I had my jon. I only had a 8 HP on it, and i kept the battery weight in the middle of the jon. It just helped the overall balance of that boat. But x2 with the thing getting blown all over the place. It is just part of life with a tin boat.

Hey guys, I did search for a thread like this first so if I am repeating a pre-existing one forgive me. Just curious, as I get my CCW, I am seriously considering carrying when I do my late night fishing runs. We have been having issues at the docs here at night in summer. A LOT of rather seedy individuals gather and hang on the docks, and being alone, there have been a number of times I have not felt too safe in that situation. During the day I am not too concerned, visibility is good, there is a lot of bystanders and the seedy crowd does not take over the docks. Just those late night excursions. So without giving your own status away, would you or would you not advocate carrying concealed when out on these trips?

You got that right! My boat has been dry for a month and a half waiting for Wylie to look more like a lake than a chocolate milkshake. I have never had much luck in Wylie under those conditions. When it is warm at least you can go shallow and pick some up.

I have had all version of windows since 95. Now I had little problem with Vista, almost even liked it. The key to Vista was, you needed to have upgraded hardware. Even then there was soo much new to the platform they had some bugs. I got 7 now and I really like it. IF though you are coming from a XP world, it does take time to get used to what they did to the control panel and some other admin interfaces.

lol. again, agreeing to disagree. this is the best movie of all time. LOL, while not the best movie, it definitely is a classic. I love it. You cannot go wrong with a guy whose super power is he can blow himself up.

I have a PT 175 TXW and love it. I do not have personal experience with the lowes but the few Lowes boats I have seen, were definitely superior in the build and structural strength. Not sure what the cost difference is. The PT 175 TXW is a good package for the money.

Maybe but our lake here is still not frozen at all..

H_E, I guess for my part I was referring to a specific project in my county. Per Homeland Security agencies across the US are required to have there communications systems upgraded to be what is called P-25 compliant. Each agency is soley responsible for this. In my county, we spent tens of thousands of dollars for a consulting firm to tell our communications tech and us, the end users, what we already knew; except that they were incorrect in some aspects and almost misdirected us in there recommendations about our needs. I do understand that there are times that it is cost effective to farm these studies out. Depends on the type of consultant too. There are the "Bobs" from Office space. Which give all the consultants a bad name. Then there are types like what I do. We go to clients, conduct interviews and architect and build IT solutions for them. The technology we work with, is expensive and training at the level we have is expensive, you throw in the experience and a company would pay a fortune to hire someone like me. In the long run it is much less expensive for them to bring me in for a project, mentor their folks, and get on out of there.

Yeah. Before the baby come, I am going to fish as much as I can. haha Ya...I would plan on that time being shot at the beginning, and real short at the end. LOL. More than worth it though man. Congrats!!

Salute!? I darn near worship an honest mechanic with decent prices who does the job they say WHEN they say they will do it. It is easier to dig in your yard and find a gold brick than it is such a mechanic in this area. Like other work areas though there are plenty of them who do crap work, don't stand by their work, or keep your car for 3 weeks to complete an oil change. I hear what y'all are saying on child care too. I got 4 little ones and my wife stays home because we simply could not make enough to pay for 4 kids in childcare. I am extremely blessed in that I have a career that gives us more than enough money to allow her to stay home without financial ruin. Not everyone is so fortunate. It is one of the reason I love the recent influx is legal central American immigrants. I have had a number of Costa Ricans and mexicans working on my home. These guys come here 8 am, work till 3 am, and they WORK. Not 1 guys works and 5 watch him, they all worked and got a TON of stuff done and done well. I think an influx of that type of work ethic into American society is a great thing.

Work ethic sucks all around. You know it is bad when I have been called "exceptional" when I work 40 hours a week M-F. Which to me means doing your job. I do interviews for my company some times. I really do not interview recent grads too much anymore. They all think their piece of paper earns them a salary that we would give someone with 5yrs experience (BTW a degree is a min req for the position not extraordinary). It is just depressing sometimes. I have seen CTO's and CIO's(usually the board members I would deal with) at large companies who are the laziest and most useless piles of human flesh you could imagine. It is depressing when you see so many hard workers on unemployment while some absolute losers keep their jobs.

nice. Love 'em

They do a sniper competition here in Gastonia, NC every year. Get teams from all over. It is real cool to see. I am not a sharpshooter by any means, but I know enough about shooting to really appreciate the talent these men have. Not JUST the shooting part but in the patience and skill they have to sneak up on a target without being noticed.

I would ask new or used. IF you go new, look at the tracker line. They are 15k new and come with the complete package. You will want to upgrade electronic and TM first on those. With the 60 HP OB you will get a feel for a boat moving fast (not real fast but fast enough to learn), you will get an idea of how to use electronics, position your boat in wind, and overall get some good fishing in. That being said, IF you buy used, I would definitely take the time to read the ton of threads on here on what to look for when purchasing a used boat. The guys on here have some awesome advice on what to look for. Couple questions that might help out too. How big is the water you plan to fish on? What's it like (Depth, wind, etc)?

Don't worry about your wife killin' ya---70mph should take care of that. The other thing I think of is that YouTube vid that has made the rounds on here a couple times with the dude going WAY to fast for conditions and the boat her had. Crosses a wake poorly and spins the boat. I think they tried to use it as an example of why to wear you vest and kill switch. To me it was an example of know what the hell you are doing before you go tearing across the water. I reckon it is like anything else, you need to learn before you go too far.

LOL...What was she doing with it? So weird.

Well y'all got better vision than me. LOL. Like I said I can fully understand tourneys on a large lake, get to your spots ASAP, but still, I know on my lake, the debris I have seen I would be a nervous wreck.

Makes sense. Maybe add a small bilge pump to your rig to help you out in case you need it. I added one to my jon, and while I did not have to use it much, when I did, I was VERY glad I had it. Sounds like you got a good plan there. If you did it before with that weight, I would not see why it would not work again. If possible you could do your work in chunks and take it for a test voyage in between those chunks to see how it handles weight wise as you go. if possible, add some extra flotation in case it does fill up then, it will just stay at the surface. I loaded the underside of my custom deck with marine flotation crap just in case.

So funny, all 4 of my girls, totally different Number 1. Likes to fish, plays with worms and dirt. Smart as heck. Way ahead throughout school, and even just being 8 now, she has days where she out fishes me (wont let me forget it either). Number 2. VERY tomboyish (loves physical sports), a born leader, but extremley emotional and loves to wear pink. Pink with an attitude. Number 3. Very shy, and emotional. VERY girly, does not like to be dirty, loves dress up. Number 4. She is almost 3 and is evil. She will hit her sisters and steal toys just to hear them cry. Evil then sweet I should say. Will kick you in the knee, then give you a hug and say "sorry" and hug you. It is funny, all 4 came from the same 2 people, yet are so completely different. Dating years should be very interesting.