done

NO worries, we followed the break in listed in the engine manual to the letter (actually kept it out on the seat next to me LOL). First hour vary speed never going higher than 3500 RPMs (never went above 3000), Second hour same thing, keeping it below 4500, except every 10 minutes take it full throttle for 60 seconds. Now I am in the 3 step, for the next 8 hours, do not fun at full throttle for more than 5 minutes (I won't go over 4 minutes). That first hour was hell, I SOOOO wanted to slam the throttle up full. I resisted the urge looking forward to the 1 minute intervals in the second hour. Got it out today with the wife for a 3 hour cruise. Saturdays mid-day you can count on serious wake. I wanted to take it out and see how it did, how it handled and see if there were any issues with the welds on the hull. Ran great! Scared the heck out of my wife, but really worked the hull (nothing sick but I used it, it they are bad welds I want to find out now before it is winter). Only got about 30 minutes of fishing time but spent my time scooting around the lake, getting to know the handling a bit and using the fish finder to scope out fishing spots I have not been able to reach to date. Tomorrow I am planning on getting out with 2 of my young ones for a long fishing excursion. Hopefully, we can get the first fish in the boat.

LOL. i will get some pics out soon. I sent up that post then ran out the door into the truck and took it for the shake down cruise/break in. It is the red color, I got the 60 HP 4 stroke, got it up to about 35 mph once I figured out how to trim it right. Man, it is nice. I have been eying it for about a year at BPS. Finally, decided it was time. With the motor break in I only got a little time to actually fish, but it was nice. Getting out there up in front, even sitting down, quite a difference from my jon. Really nice boat.

Got an 09 Tracker 175 txw. I an totally stoked, cannot wait to get this thing out on the water this weekend.

Be picking up mine in a day or 2. Will let you know. They are a big seller, Seems like a good boat for the price.

The TO thread got me thinking the other way. While in college, I had a job renting cars at the Sheraton in Cheektowaga, NY. I ran the gift shop as part of that job. The Bills used to stay there before home games. I had the chance to meet most of the Bill then (the Super Bowl team). Probably the best guys I ever met were Bruce Smith and Thurman Thomas. They would come in and joke around, they seemed to have a really down to earth, blue collar way to them. They would talk to you without talking down to you, just like a couple of normal dudes chatting with ya. I met a lot of other players like Jim Kelly and while they were cordial, they were not really as much down to earth. Anyone here ever get the chance to meet NLF, or even MLB players like that? I always found it curious with the celebrities I have met, those that were real people and some that were just total snobs.

If I can (depending on who is in the boat and how wake is), I will stand. Get a better view of what is going on and I have much more control while casting. That being said I do my fair share of sitting, and can be effective that way as well. The new rig I want to buy in the spring, that will be a standing rig.

As the father of four i can say with confidence, that is definitely not true, definitely will again. And don't sweat it man, if I can survive having kids, well just about anyone else can. LOL. And it is more fulfilling and gratifying than you will ever believe. One word of advice, the expecting mother will be going through some tough times for the next 9 months. Be extra understanding, bite your tongue, and pamper her as much as you can. You need to keep her happy and healthy. I for one am amazed at what my wife went through 4 times. Pregnancy can really give their bodies a whooping, more than I think us guys can really realize.

Ouch! Had a double hernia fixed May last year. That sucked, mostly because I have extremely bad reaction to any narcotic painkiller and the doctor ignored me and loaded me up with them. Good luck man.

Congrats man!

LOL. I had a thread a bit ago asking about folks following jugheads like actors are role models. MUCH to my pleasant surprise, a majority of folks on here actually reaffirmed my faith in humanity in declaring no idolization for celebrities. From having a job that requires a lot of travel around the US, I can say, there are some who follow celebrities but the majority of folks I meet do not in any way shape or form. A lot tend to use them as examples not to follow. The problem is the celebrities who you should not follow grab the cameras and make the news. There is no news to be made about a celeb who goes to work, then goes home to his/her family and acts like a responsible, respectable adult. As to the lyrics, I would classify them as another one of the truths of the world. Destruction may breed creation but it is not a pre-requisite to creation. Staying with the idea of deep lyrics, Rush was a good band for statements like that in their music. Some of the oldies (that means 60's and 70's for my generation), have some great "deep" lyrics. I am sure team depends could throw out some doozies.

He definitely plays with passion but his big problem is not what he does while he is on the field. I think his teammates and coaches could deal with him if he was just intense on the field. He becomes his own worst enemy when he gets in front of the cameras. I don't care if you work for McD's, IBM, or an NFL team you should NEVER publicly bash your employer try to negotiate/resolve disputes on TV. I would bet a good deal of quarterbacks/receivers/lineman have serious words in the locker room after some games. IMO, if he would just learn to words "no comment" and stick to them, his issues would disappear. He is a great player no doubt. The problem with being a great player and an a** is as soon as you are a little off your game, you are gone. A real good player conducts himself better, leads, and ensures his leadership role will keep him in the game after he has begun to role off his A game.

So my oldest has been absolutely itching for a catfish. She has never caught one. We hit the lake this morning for a couple hours before I got to work. She finally got one. She fought it for about 10 minutes, it ran 3 or 4 times, ran half her line out with her drag. She did great! Absolutely awesome time. Now I LOVE fishing, but I had more fun out with her than I did catching my PB LMB this year.

I tell ya it is heartbreaking. I never saw it like this up north but down south ( a lot more narrow roads with soft or no shoulders), this time of year we see a lot of horrendous single car wrecks around here. Almost always they are 17-18 yr olds, SOBER, driving mach 3 down some road while talking and/or texting, and just losing control. I can tell ya when I was that age I was a maniac on the roads. However the roads in my areas (Buffalo, NY) we all curbed, wider, and straighter, in short there was room for mistakes. IN this area, I live now (CLT, NC) the roads are not forgiving and I am sick to death of seeing pics of 17/18 yr olds getting killed in these wrecks. Just horrible. If you are in this age range, really no disrespect guys/gals but you need to be careful. Like I said, I was a lunatic then (would never believe back them if you told me though), you need to keep the speed down and pay attention as best you can. Your pics need to be in graduation announcements not obituaries.

Awesome info guys! Thanks!

I'm guilty of this. But I'm a mile or so, off shore, on Lake Ontario. I drop the buoy, then drop a waypoint. Then I drift to where the I'm a 100 yards or so away, and drop another buoy and waypoint. I might have 4 or five buoys out there. Its never been an issue. When you are out in a vast expanse of nothing, the markers give you real, visual conformation of what you are seeing on your GPS. My buoys all have my name and cell# on them. I would imagine the unwritten rules on Ontario are a little different than the 4 mile long lake I fish on. I have no doubt you are courteous on the water. On Ontario you could leave a couple dozen boats drifting as markers and never interfere with folks.

How about this one: Mysterious fish eats a duck...not for those with heart conditions...

The navigation was one thing. He also literally marked a 3/4 mile stretch of the lake off. I mean, it is a big lake but, IMO, it is for all of us to share. If someone is actively fishing a hole, I give them at least 100 yards berth. I do not appreciate folks in my face when I a fishing so I give the same consideration. That being said, if I am on one hole I have no right whatsoever to lay claim to every other decent hole in the lake. If someone wants to fish those, they have every bit as much right as I do, IMO. It just seemed like he was marking off this whole section as HIS. he is the first person I have ever seen do that on the lake. I usually see one or 2 of these orange things floating here or there, but the way he did it, just ticked me off and got me to wondering what the "rules" were as far as courtesy goes with these. Would you fish a hole where someone had left a buoy? Obviously, taking them would be shady, but fishing it? I see these from time to time on a few of the WELL known and best producing holes on the lake. Just one of those areas (sort of like ramp rules), I just have complete ignorance of when it comes to the courtesy around their use.

I have no idea what the boating rules are for these. More importantly what is customary. When someone puts these out, is there a code of honor about avoiding them? I got a guy a bit agitated last week on this. He put out not 1 or 2 but like 15-20 all within 10 ft of each other across an entire navigation channel. My first thought was he was with the state and maybe there was some navigational hazard or something he was marking for safety. Turns out he was fishing. To avoid these things altogether I would have had to run my boat into some rather hazardous areas. I pretty much ran one over while trying to avoid them and ticked him off. Seems to me, dropping these things in a navigation channel like this you should have no expectation that I am going to endanger my passengers or my boat. It also seems to me, since he was staying the the exact same area (within 3/4 mile) fishing, there is no reason to be dropping them like this. I see them from time to time on the Lake and it got me wondering, what is the general polite way to deal with these?

Hey guys, I have only worked on aluminum hulls so I have complete ignorance on fiberglass. My buddies boat has a nasty gouge out of his hull righ on the keel. I thin kit was from sometime his boat went on the trailer a bit and hit a chunk of metal. Now it did not punch a hole right through, but it actually dented the fiberglass. This was about 3 months ago i think he told me. Last time we went out, I noticed before we even got in the water, there was water that appeared to be dripping/seeping out of that dent. My thought was he waited to long to fix it, and now there may be water and damage to go along with it in there. Just how much damage can you do to the hull/gel coat of a fiberglass hull before it should be taken out of the water and fixed immediately? With Aluminum, obviously you can scratch it pretty good and not have to care too much. My rough impression from what I have read on here is this is not the case with a fiberglass hull.

Hey guys, I know there are a TON of threads on these. I have been trying to find a recent one that I could get an answer from but no luck. I got roughly $500 to spend. I want something that will give me as much detail as possible on the bottom. Does not need to have GPS, I am really needing something that I can use to zero in on structure and get a good idea what is going on out there. I got a rough finder I use when at speed to help me get general depth and bottom characteristics and find clumps of baitfish, etc. What I need is that thing to help me zero in once on the spot I know there are fish and to get a detailed look at what is down there. Any recommendations that I could pick up at a BPS, Gander, WalMart, or West Marine (local stores) would be very much appreciated.

LOL, I got the rapalla one for the Wii. There is some wierd glitch in there. Every now and then I get a LMB that is like 35 lbs. It is funny when he pulls it up on the boat with him, it is almost as big as he is.

Good point Tokyo Tony. I will tell you why they sue though. Not too long ago I was working at a company. We had an employee who had worked for us for 5+ years. Each department they went to, the turnover rates went through the roof, the department became dysfunctional, and every exit interview pointed to 1 person. After 5 years we fired the individual. The sued for sex discrimation PLUS for a company owned laptop that they said they owned since the original company one issued to them broke and they had to argue (during company time) with the manufacturer to get them to replace it under warranty. This persons attorney deposed our CEO, CTO, CFO, and 4 VPs repeatedly over a 6 week period to the point that our company could not function any longer and it began to endanger our company altogether. They paid a settlement of more than $10k, to just end it. It cost us far more to continue to fight and prove we were right, than it did to just throw a chunk of cash at them and be done with it.

Please send him over to my house. We have a squirrel infestation.

Looks like it is a BIG problem http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31920273/ns/us_news-weird_news/

If this is true, then they were negligent. Their process is to put up the cones 1st, then open the hole. yeah, I definitely saw that. Anytime someone opens a hole it should be marked with cones, or something. It just seems like she was a victim of bad timing and inattention. What really got me was why would you sue? Maybe, maybe tell the city to pay for a new shoe. At the least I could see them saying the city should have marked it with a cone, we lost a shoe, replace the pair. However, Beyond laundry and a lost shoe it does not appear any damage was done. So I do not see a need to sue anyone over it. Seems to be a waste of time and money to try.