done

Isn't this bordering on a religious debate? LOL. I think if they can learn the lessons from Football and Instant replay ahead of time, it can be a good thing. Course that is a big IF.

Assuming you have not already looked at them, the Eagle Cuda series is really reasonably priced and I have seen some good reviews on them. I plan on getting one for my jon. As to how and where to mount it, I had a thread on mounting my tranducer, Team_Dougerty provided this link: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?type=pod&id=0000844 which would help you in temporarily mounting it just about anywhere on your jon. Then you could try different spots until you got one that worked without drilling holes all over your boat.

As long as you are not stuck on it being brand new, I would keep you eyes on some of the legit sites that sell boats. Something will come along. With your parents paying, what you might be able to do is get them to give you the cash or put money aside for you as you look for something.

There is some dude that launches near where I do. He has an inflatable raft maybe 8 ft long. Somehow mounts a little pull string motor on it and tools around the lake. The motor is like 300 yrs old but it works, and he gets around and gets some good fishing. Probably should have asked before, How big is pond, river, lake you go fishing in?

Not to restate the obvious but that sucks!! Those types of people sicken me.

Sweet! Thanks guys!

For carpet, it definitely does not get real hot. How long it lasts, depends on how good it is. I knew someone who had the cheaper stuff and it didn't last more than a a year and a half. My fathers old boat, we had it for 5 yrs and he installed carpeting and actually used industrial snaps he screwed down to the deck and into the carpet. The carpet was good stuff and was still looking good after 5 years.

When I was shopping for jons I saw 10' that were as little as 80 lbs. I started looking at 1032 and ended up with a 1436 on a trailer. That size, i could safely bring someone with me, deck it, put in a 8 hp and really get some comforts in there. It is still light enough on the trailer that I could tow it with a family sedan. Heck my 7 yr old can push it on the trailer easy enough.

"Ive been fishing scence i could walk ive always loved the sport.I begain fishing in lil tournaments in and around my home town 5 years ago and i love the competition and would like to fish for a living " I have been fishing since I could hold a pole. Father took me out in Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Niagara River (upper and lower). Participated in many smaller tournaments in those lakes. Deep Sea (off Maine, and South Carolina Coast), Fished 60% of all hatchery supported streams in the state of NC in the last 3 years. Also hit Lake Wylie on the NC and SC border. I fish chest deep in streams to 21 ft private fiberglass boats as well as some charter. I LOVE fishing, could go out and catch nothing and still call it a GREAT day. So to start, answer this question, why would any of the sponsors on this board want you over me, or any of the other thousands of passionate fisherman out there? What is it that sets you apart? Passion is great. Experience is great. Winning tourneys is better (as is shows a record able pattern to success). Also as other folks here have mentioned, it is a business. So, in your efforts to get a sponsor, be professional, show the proper respect to the folks you contact, and show appreciation for the companies brand. The brand is everything to any company. When I have helped companies on their public websites, you can easily spend a week on aligning pixels for their logo and shifting color codes on to make everything JUST right.. Their brand is everything and when you ask them to sponsor you, you are asking to become part of that brand. Take your time in communicating and formulate what you write very carefully. Use this board as a proving ground for that. It is tough. I tell you I have had technical white papers and small contributions to books published and the publishers will be EXTREMELY brutal. People do not general walk around putting in professional grammar, but when someone nails it, they appreciate it. And lastly, constructively take criticism. As with any field you will get plenty of it. If you can learn from it, and refrain from allowing your ego (we all have one), to get in the way, you can learn a lot. These guys here are probably a lot less brutal than a sponsor would be. Plus with these guys you get to hear the criticism, most times it is something uttered behind your back. Good luck dude! I wish you the best.

Heck if someone would try to pass a rubber suit off as bigfoot for some cash. I would bet someone would try to pass a homegrown WR off as wild so they would hit up the aforementioned sponsors. Makes them sound much better when you talk of bringing your ranger boat into a cove on Lake Wylie, using your BP rod/real combo and x bait. That is something they can really sell.

Not bad ideas. I have my anchor off the front of my boat, and it has a clamp on it that will lock easily. I know I could easily pull my anchor off the font and use the line from it to climb on board. i was half thinking of making a 4-5 ft line with knots tied in it that I could set up front within easy reach from say...overboard. that way if it ever did fall out while driving it could not reach the motor. and the knots would make it easy to climb up. It has been on of those little things, that could be a big thing, that popped in my head.

So had a though recently (which doesn't happen too often so I went with it). I have a flat bottomed 1436 jon and thought, if I ever fell in or one of my fishing buddies, HOW do you get back in without flipping or swamping the boat? if i tried the sides I would swamp it, same with the back. I assume the bow is the only way to go, but I think I would have to use the anchor to climb up. Have been thinking of making a rope ladder to help make it easier that i could throw off the bow (it is a square bow). Also, was reading a thread in the fishing trip with a canoe when a dude fell in, and had some folks mention getting back into their Bass boat. So, hoping for some preemptive lessons learned here so if I am in the middle of the lake and drop in or drop a passenger I can safely get everyone back in. Anyone?

Hey guys, Sorry to get all sappy on everyone but this is one of those things that has impacted me. The link below leads to a pdf that pretty much spells out something one of my cousins has been going through. She has been like a sister to me growing up, me and her would cause some trouble, hang out, etc, just a real fun person. Anyway she texted me in Dec 2007 throwing joke at me about how her ophthalmologist could not fix her vision. Since that day, she literally went from the fun loving, carefree girl I have known my whole life to a shadow of that person. The message, the subject says it all. I would give up fishing for life for a single day with the old Beth. I really took those days for granted and never thought in her mid 20's that she would be facing something like this. So, take it as a reminder to really cherish the time you have with your friends and family in 24 hours those times could be gone forever. http://www.friendsofbethhayes.com/history.pdf

By George...that sounds like a wonderful idea! I have a buddie I fish with a good deal and we alternate boats, and that would give me the potential to make it portable. I could probably use the industrial strength velcro I got all over the place to mount the screen itself. Either way, I would be able to satisfy my paranoid nature and not drill holes in my hull. Heck I drilled enough holes on the seats and supports in the boat decking it, I do not know why I am so nervous about a couple more holes.

Thanks for the info guys! I am getting one either way. Not having one really impacts my fishing. As this is mostly a new lake for me and the bottom has not been detailed really in 30 yrs, I cannot really rely on my maps to be 100% accurate and I have run into more than one case where a hole was not in a place it was mapped to be in. I think once I get it, I may see how brave I am feeling then. Assuming I feel brave, what is the normal way to seal something like that if you did attach it right to your hull?

Sweet! I actually just got my first phase of work on my boat completed today. Take about 24 hours to seal up and of course looks like we are going to have a ton of nasty weather the next few days. I need to get 'er out and test it as soon as it clears up. I just do not want to run in the rain with a brand new electrical system (and sick bilge pump), in a rain storm. I tested it in a bucket, drained my entire bailing bucket dry in < 1 second which was a nice surprise. So I will be annoying you guys VERY soon with requests for fishing Wylie.

Yeah, the transducer. Sorry, definitely not up on the lingo. LOL. I will probably put the screen itself in the back. I have a rear "mounter" trolling motor there and ironically, with all the decking I put in, i rarely will end up using it. Probably be in back and have one of my girls, my buddy, or my grandfather up front. Course I still love my seat in back. Out of curiosity, how do you seal holes on a hull like that? It is not leaking now, but if course that is an area I would rather know how to fix ahead of time. That is probably a good part of why drilling through the hull for the transducer makes me nervous.

Alright this is a very newbie question but I don't care. I have a 1436 jon and i was looking at grabbing the Eagle® Cuda 168 for it (the key is low budget on this boat). What I was curious on, in order to install these things, do you have to do it on the hull? I am a bit nervous when it comes to drilling holes into the hull on my boat. I have only played with on unit before, on my fathers boat when I was young and we did have to drill into the hull to mount the unit.

Could not get multiple images in there..here is another one.

Just about done. Got some additional work to do on the "trolling" motor, then I should be done. Woohoo!!!Boats been dry way to long.

LOL! I have gotten harassed by my wife when she saw her the first time. However, I would rather look at her than pay for access to the forums anyday. Besides, scoping through the junk mail I get on a daily basis in my hotmail account, there are a LOT worse things they could be advertising there.

Along with the other recommendations here for you to use a live well. To do it on the cheap, Walmart sells a D-battery powered aerator you can use on up to 7 gallons of water. You can use that on a cooler, a sheetrock bucket, basically anything you can put 7 gallons or less of water into. Keep your fish alive for a long time with that and not spend a ton doing it. Get rechargeable D's and you can use it for a while. Probably end up costing you about as much as a good stringer anyway. I think it was like $12, they had a cheaper one for $7.

Well I am hoping to have these upgrades done by next week so I will probably start harassing you guys then.

So I was tying the wiring into my switch box the other night could not get that thing to work for the life of me. Seemed to be the entire switch was messed. Then I looked at the wiring diagram better. Turned out, I was slightly off. But what threw me off, they reversed all the colors on the panel. All the negative wires off the negative bus were RED and positive wires were BLACK. I had done what I normally would do on any wiring project, connected black to black and red to red. Anyway, the mess threw me behind a day. Hopefully I will get caught up tonight and once Fay makes up her mind if she is coming up here or not, I can get back out. Carpet glue should be cured by Friday.

Do either of you guys have jobs that would be flexible enough to allow you to go on weekday mornings every now and then? I do that from time to time (usually 6 am to 9 am) and just tack hours onto the end of the day. You usually own the lake, and fishing is awesome.