done

Thank you all for your service, and your sacrifice for this nation and it's people. You are the reason we all can enjoy the freedom we all treasure in this country.

Welcome, You'll have to give me a hollar if you ever come down to fish Wylie.

This stuff does happen. Not everyday but it does. I got one on my laptop once that pulled down "normal" porn to my HD. I monitor my network traffic so when i saw the spike I knew something was up. My laptop is patched latest greatest and locked with anti-virus which is updated but it still did not stop this from happening. From what I found out it came from a mainstream technical news site that had somehow gotten the some nasty code inserted into its site. Though I can say, a good deal of my job involves being online. Been doing this more than 10 years and only once did I get infected like that. They fixed their site quickly but it is definitely possible. For work, I have had to sling some serious amounts of legitimate code into web pages, some of which runs within a end users browser. I can think of more than a few ways I could code something to wreak havoc like that. As for news agencies bias, I do not think there is a news agency in the US, possibly not the world who reports without bias. All you need to do is bring up google news or something similar and see the different ways different orgs will write the same headline.

one of our local bands A.M.M.A.S. is pretty good. They have some samples: http://www.myspace.com/ammasband

thanks guys. I really appreciate the feedback. One that note, do they make a good repair manual for boat engines? I have seen a few online but anything that anyone would recommend? I have the Haynes manuals for each of my vehicles, and they have saved me a mint on repairs. Any specific brand you guys would recommend?

LOL. Got 4 girls of my own 2-7yrs. I will add #3 A fenced in yard with a swing set. Kick 'em out the back door and let them run themselves out. Throw a large dog back there with them (we got a black lab), that will tire them out good too. The dog and the kids will sleep well when the bed time comes.

It is a 2009 60 hp Mercury OB. I took it for a test..seemed to run perfect. It is a good motor, very quiet, I never really pay a ton of attention to it, so I do not know if my worry about it running "rough" was because I was being extremely anal listening to everything it did after hitting bottom or not. I gave it a good inspection afterwards, besides a VERY small chip on the paint on the prop there is thing I can visibly see wrong. Intakes are clear (from the outside) and the flow out of the motor is strong and normal. My main thing is, after I buried it in the bottom, I have no idea what to look for to verify nothing was damaged. I figure: 1. Check for obvious external damage. 2. Verify water flow is going through the engine. 3. Monitor RPM's and make sure they are "normal". 4. Watch motor to verify nothing is leaking from it. I may have just been extremely lucky up till now but I have never hit bottom at all with any of my boats, I am happy it was just mud and not something that would have hosed my prop. I would kill for a temp gauge on the dash like my car, would make me feel more comfortable in general. Got to figure, in most cases something wrong in an engine, you are going to see your RPM's mess up, temp mess up, or oil pressure mess up. I just have no idea what else to check to verify that no damage was done.

I don know if it is sad that I do not know this or impressive it took me this long. I was out the other day in a spot which can be touchy depth wise. I was at just barely above idle speed and managed to bury the motor in the muddy bottom. the second I heard it I cut the motor, just to make sure i did not tear up the prop, motor, or start to pull a mess of mud into the intakes. Anyway I pulled up the motor, and it was covered in a ball of mud. Used the TM to get back into deeper water, dropped the motor down and ran with the TM until I brought it back up without any mud left on it. Then fired it up and got out of there. It felt like it was running rough. Water was still going into the engine and shooting out the side just fine. RPM's seemed fine. Not sure if I am being paranoid or not. Is there anything special I should check in such a situation to make sure I do not damage or tear up the motor when something like this happens?

That is a great log. totally missed it up there. Thanks for the ideas guys. I am trying to use my inner geek to help me a bit. I think i can code something real quick and my thought was to push data into a database and do some fun analysis for trends. I figure. I do not want to recreate a day per say but to see if i can capture as much data during a period as possible and determine trends. Find a way to merge my inner geek with my fishing geek. A lot of this comes from fishing patterns on my home lake. They just do not seem to make sense sometimes to me. I think what it is, I am missing a variable somewhere that I do not take into consideration. I mean I have gotten a LOT better at finding the fish, but not good enough for my taste yet.

So if you are keeping a fishing log, what data points would you want? I can think of a mess, Weather( how granular though pressure, clouds, temp, etc), date and time, fish count (by species). Maybe a note on where you went on the lake? What information would keep on each trip to make the most of this listing?

I guess part of what bugs me is Fedex usually does much much better for me. I was more than a little disappointed in this. And in general in this job market all it takes is one single guy in one terminal to slack off on his job, get a handful of packages beat up every day and cut demand enough to get half a dozen guys laid off. I have little to no sympathy or tolerance for folks who do stuff like this to themselves but absolute contempt for those who do this without any concern whatsoever for others they would impact.

Continuing my forcing myself to follow the advice in that BR video. Was out on Friday morning, fishing the moment. Got into a cove I have always ridden by but, my usuals were not working and figured what the hay. Right at the start I an getting hit by large number of smaller LMB. Then I get about 1/3 into the cove, and notice severe large gray rocks in about 2 ft of water just off the shore. One of them turns to look at me and it finally dawns on me i am looking at some large bass. First time I have gotten a perfect setup like this ina LONG while. So I cast out at then and TOTALLY choke. Cast about 3 feet to their left. As soon as my bait breaks the surface though, one of them turns and runs straight at it, take my bait and my line halfway across the cove before I blink. I hooked him, and after a couple runs, get him on deck, was a 4#. His friends did not stay around though to give me more shots at them. I gather my composure and move further into the cove, I keep getting hits nonstop from 1#ers all the way through it, this cove is infested with LMB. They are everywhere. All told one of them most successful days I have had in terms of number of LMB caught I have had on Wylie. Also nailed a 5# catfish on a spinner. He gave a surprising Basslike fight, made 4 real long runs on me. On a side note, I held on to the 4# to for a bit to test out my livewell. Never have used it. It was a very worthwhile experience though. I found the drain plug sucks, the bass kicked it out twice. I also found out that you do NOT run the aerator on the livewell on a Tracker proTeam 175 while you are running down the lake. Once you get over idle speed it cannot pull in any water. So in effect the aerator empties the entire livewell bit by bit. Next tasks for me will be getting somewhat an idea what I am doing with jigs (no luck with these at all), and spoons (brand new bait for me).

Alright. I know things happen on ALL the package delivery companies. I ordered a 16 rod holder online and had it shipped. It gets here Friday. The package looks like 3 Gorillas used it to beat each other senseless then threw it under a subway train. Contrary to the commercials, I know they don't put on silk gloves and gently move each package but this is way over the top. Apparently it happens a lot cause the guy who packed the box put extremely large amounts of packing material in there (the only reason it was not broken). I just do not see how you can do that job and take such a total lack of concern for items entrusted to your care. With the economy the way it is, and the job market the way it is, you think these guys (like all of us) would be doing their job extra special to make sure they still have one. I mean I can choose other, cheaper options than Fedex. I got just as many UPS stories and i have heard enough from the USPS here on guys trying to ship rods to make me never attempt it. I know accidents happen but I have seen a lot of flagrant abuse of packages with my own eyes from all these carriers, just kills me when the whine about running out of money or layoff in those companies when THIS is how they treat our packages.

I'd drop them. Really i would. I have had a couple cards in my past (we only keep a couple) screw with me (on a month ago). Like that. I tell them "I have never been late, I have an awesome credit rating. I am the type of customer you need in this market and you need me much more than I need you. See ya!". I find there are tons of card companies out there, and fewer people right now willing to get a new card. But yeah a $100 limit, not worth the effort to even open to statement to look at it. Buy something worth $23 to clear that credit on the account and close it out.

I would think you would need to merge everything you would inspect for a camper and a boat in one. 1. Hull inspection 2. Motor inspection 3. Any relevant boat type maintenance. 4. Check all plumbing for sinks, drains, sewage, etc 5. Above waterline check for water damage, condition of roof, play in the rails, flooring/carpenting inside and out. Weak spots in the flooring and roof. 6. Electrical, turn on every light, everything you can think of at once, check the breakers, make sure they have not been jerry rigged. 7. Steering, drive test, etc. That is a guess though. it is what I would think of

I would do 1 of 2 things. 1. Get a Lawyer and let him go after them. 2. Which is what I would do first depending on the dealership, go in and talk to the head manager. Tell him what they told you, tell them all of what has happened, tell him/her what steps you think they should take to resolve the problem to your satisfaction. Don't threaten, don't lose your cool, simply tell him you want to give them the opportunity to do the right thing without outside interference. If they change their story, lie, or start playing ya, just quietly get up, walk out and do #1. If they do work with ya, going forward ask for everything in writing "For their protection and yours." and take it from there.

I feel your pain. As to what you do, whenever that has happened to me, I work REAL hard at not pitching the entire rod/reel out into the lake. Like these guys said, check it before you set out, and another be careful of how you sent the rod down on the deck. Do NOT ask me how but i managed to knock my drag on one of my spinning reals once when I set it down. The result was is lowered my drag just enough to cost me my next fish. Just part of fishing I guess. In general once you flip that fish...you ain't gonna see it again. I would say 99% of the time that has held true for me with BASS. Now sunfish, you can catch the same fish all day long and as my oldest showed me once, you can do it with just an empty hook.

great news man! Don't sweat the jaundice too much. Out of my 4 kids 2 of them got it to some degree. My second after we got her home she turned yellowish on us. A few days of sun and some messy diapers later, she was fine. Congrats on the little one and especially to your missus on the job well done.

That's a good point for any of us. Check out your local launch(es) and see what kind of grade they have, surface type, etc. The ones near me are excellent but there I have seen some seriously poor excuses for "ramps". That should help you figure out if it will work for ya.

It was a great video Glenn. I listened to what he said but the other part of that I do not think I would have gotten any other way, was watching him. Everything from the way he positioned his boat, the way he pitched that bait around, etc. it is probably stuff folks on here has written on posts plenty of times. Seeing it, made it sink in. I think a continued video series with stuff like that would be awesome. Even if it is just a mook in a boat focusing on how his/her bait is rigged, to how they position their boat in relation to the area they are fishing, where and how they cast into areas, etc. The effort you took on that video, was very appreciated.

It is unlikely but really possible that nobody realized it. They could have been in the zone. When i had my jon, there was a weekday I took then entire day off to fish Wylie. About 35 minutes straight drive from my launch I was working the shore and just happened to look over my shoulder and suddenly saw a dude on top of his 35 ft pleasure boat waving his arms. When i saw him before, I really just saw a boat and did not look for detail. Figured he was just drifting (a lot of boats do that on the lake). Anyway, when i got over to him. He was completely out of gas. Since I have no chance towing a 35 ft glass hulled boat with my 9 hp, I gave one of the dudes a lift to a nearby dock so he could run and get about 10 gals of gas from a gas station and ferried him and the gas back to the boat. He told me he had been jumping and waving and yelling ta me for about 10 minutes before I saw him. I also reminded him, he should really consider grabbing some flares, an SOS flag and at least a Whistle, probably an airhorn. Sad as it seems it is possible the fisher dudes were in the zone, and maybe they saw you, did not see a flag or flare and assumed you had it covered. Would have been nice if they would have checked but being in a tourney they may have been more apt to follow that train of though. Anyway, glad you did get back safe. Like you said, lesson learned. Definitely go out and get the kit. Another way to ruin your day is have the CG stop you for a safety inspection and fail it.

It does have an overflow. The dude I bought mine from suggested I not trust it too much. Said the pump can outpace it if run for a long time.

I used to love hooked. All they do now it seems is rehash their old episodes into "best of" or "biggest" episodes. Ticks me off, I am about to give up on them. You ever see the one on tiger fish? Those things are freaky

Good luck man!! Our first was 14 hours and of course labor did not begin until 7pm so it was a LONG night. Anyone who doubts how tough your wife is, only need to stand by her side through labor.

When I bought mine, the dude walked me through it. He said to use the pump to fill it, once filled use the aerator to recirc the water. He told me, if it get scummy or too hot (in the summer), you can run drain it down some and push more water into it.