Fishing Rhino

Clubs?? Yard sales, yard sales, yard sales. Specifically, go to nicer neighborhoods where you're prone to find golfers living. I picked up a Taylor Made 360ti driver in excellent shape for $5 a few weeks ago. Craigslist is another place to look. Before you go any further invest in lessons. The golf swing is absolutely what the game is about and getting good swing habits started early will really help your game along as well as making it more enjoyable. Also understand that while crushing a long drive is nice, it's the short game and your proficiency at it, that really helps shave the strokes off the final score. That and putting. You don't have to always play full sized golf courses to sharpen that part of your game. Try playing some par 3 courses, the St Louis area has several. Yes, the game is addictive. I've literally given up fishing the past year and taken the game up again. I used to be pretty good, an 8 handicapper at one time. That was 25 years ago. I really love the swing mechanics of the game and understanding that part. I will say that the 25 years of aging has made the game a little more challenging than it was. If I had some of this equipment back then, especially the drivers, I'd have been crushing 300+ yd drives all the time. Enjoy. I didn't think they had yard sales in gated communities.

If the Giants were to make it to the Super Bowl, all bets are off. The undefeated Pats were supposed to drub them a couple or three years ago. While it was a close, and a good game, the Giants defense really put a hurting on them. Who'd a thunk that the escape by Manning and the receiver catching the ball against his helmet was all that stood between the Pats and victory. Still, when the Giants gave the Pats all they wanted and more in the last regular season game, you had to give them a chance. Not much of a chance to be sure, but a chance. They made the most of it. I've seen teams that were not supposed to have a prayer win the Superbowl.

Kinda goes with that double entendre avatar subtitle of yours. ;D C'mon Tom, you ran 8V71 Detroits for years. You probably bent a rod or two in your day. I was lucky in that regard. Never had one bent rod. I know guys who did. Bad head gasket. Water in the cylinder. Tried to start the engine and voila, bent rod. I did have an engine rebuilt a year earlier, totally destroyed when a screw rotted out of the raw water pump, and shot water directly into the intake. By the time I became aware there was a problem, because the engine was surging, it was too late. Every time a cylinder fired, it evaporated the water, and the remaining salt crystals scoured everything, including the injectors, the valves, and the valve seats. Insurance covered all but the deductible, $500.

Kinda goes with that double entendre avatar subtitle of yours.

I've got to hand it to the guy at the front. He didn't run after the others, he went around the front of the car. Was it a police cruiser that had the video recorder?

Welcome to the club.

Funny thing is, I was a fishing nut years ago, then got involved with golf. Got to the point where I regularly shot in the 80s from the back tees and on a good day in the 70s. Got involved with a local stock car team for about five years and never touched a club. Then I decided to play golf again. Struggled to break a hundred. Hit a few good shots and several horrendous shots. Aggravating as heck. When I realized that it was unlikely I'd ever get back to the playing form of a few years earlier, and stopped being so serious my game got better. Mostly in the 90s now, with the occasional round in the mid to high 80s, but it is what it is. Oh, and by the way, just as my golf game was starting to come around a bit, I got into fishing again. Now, I spend more of my free time on the water, but still try to get the clubs out a couple of times a week just to keep life in perspective. My golf game is wild. I've played nine holes in one over, only to shoot in the fifties on the second nine to end up with a score in the 90s. In that regard, it's much like fishing. Good days, great days, and days when nothing goes right.

The Giants? I used to live and die with them, but lost interest in most professional sports because the owners and players were nothing but crybabies, whining about how tough they had it during the contract negotiations that ended in walkouts. That was several years ago, and boy it was great to have my Sunday afternoons back. Play some golf, go fishing, get the lawn mowed, I preferred them all to watching pro sports except for those such as golf and tennis where an athlete was paid by how well they performed in any event. The Giants do remain a sentimental favorite, and I have watched some of their games. Do they belong in the top three or even top five? It depends on which Giants team shows up. They have the ability to dominate a game as they have demonstrated in a couple of games this year, but also have folded up like a cheap suit in a couple of others.

When I enjoyed following pro sports, the Giants were my favorite football team. That harkens back to the days of Charlie Connerly and Frank Gifford, prior to the AFL. Their games were broadcast in the Providence/Boston area, and they were the home team. I suffered through several losses in league championship games. I remember Y.A. Tittle standing dazed and bloodied in their loss to the Bears. Suffered through their losses in championship games to Green Bay with Bart Starr, and Baltimore with Johnny Unitas. I then suffered through their demise. Their past successes of making it to the championship games did not provide solace to the fact that the only thing they shared with the winning teams of the past were the uniforms they wore. What they have done in prior years does not get credited to the account of todays teams. In sports, it is what have you done for me lately. It's fine to stick with a team through thick and through thin, but when they stink, they stink. But hey, remaining loyal, and imagining that but for a break here and there they would be undefeated, is better than a fair weather fan who hops on the bandwagon when they are winning, and deserts the sinking ship when their fortunes turn sour.

Dallas has a lot of problems. They cannot even win a game when the other team tries to hand it to them. Problem 1: Apparently all that preseason press about their great talent went to their heads. Problem 2: They play with emotion...........at the wrong time. It looks like they practice celebrating more than actually running plays. Then again, when someone actually accomplishes something, it's so unusual it's worth celebrating. I've never understood how any player, on any team can celebrate a meaningless play, no matter how spectacular when they are getting their head handed to them. 3: Do they understand the team concept? 4: Owner and coach, see number three. Neither seems to understand their role. Jones relishes the publicity and his monument of a stadium. Putting a tuxedo on someone with a serious health problem does not solve the problem. But it gives Jones something to point to that he has accomplished.

My wife and I will be arriving at our daughter's place in Temple on Sunday, the 7th of November. I'll have my Nitro in tow, with my square stern canoe lashed down on top of it. Some of the places I plan to fish are Carter's Lake, Alatoona and the East and West Antioch Lakes. Anybody interested in hooking up can either post a reply or send a pm along. I'd like to get to meet some of the guys from Georgia. In an hour or so, the wife and I are heading to Martinsville, VA for the races this weekend. I won't be able to respond to any replies until next Tuesday. I'm also up for any other places for those of you who may know of a hot spot or two. Recommendations also welcome. Thanks.

That is great. Showed it to my wife who recently retired from her nursing career. She thought it was very funny, and when she found out that these guys were nurse aenesthetists, that made it even better. She is going to forward the link to some of her former co-workers. There are several on that page. they have a couple of albums, and three videos.

They should not be buried beneath the floor, but batteries, oil reservoirs, etc., may need to be removed before you can get a good view of and access to the plumbing. Some of the connections will be right at the stern, at the through hull fittings. The others will be at the pump and the tank. Now you've got me thinking. I've never bothered to see where the bilge pump is located, nor have I looked at the live well plumbing setup. Going to do that today. Can't be to familiar with the working innards of your boat.

Good deal. Now we all know. Thanks for the update.

You obviously do not understand what a pyramid scheme is. It is not a business structure that looks like a pyramid. Pyramid Schemes In the classic "pyramid" scheme, participants attempt to make money solely by recruiting new participants into the program. The hallmark of these schemes is the promise of sky-high returns in a short period of time for doing nothing other than handing over your money and getting others to do the same. The fraudsters behind a pyramid scheme may go to great lengths to make the program look like a legitimate multi-level marketing program. But despite their claims to have legitimate products or services to sell, these fraudsters simply use money coming in from new recruits to pay off early stage investors. But eventually the pyramid will collapse. At some point the schemes get too big, the promoter cannot raise enough money from new investors to pay earlier investors, and many people lose their money. The chart below shows how pyramid schemes can become impossible to sustain: From the SEC. To see the pyramid click on the link below. http://www.sec.gov/answers/pyramid.htm

Yes, it can save your life. Yes, it can keep you afloat without strain. But here's one I've never heard but I have seriously given this some thought. Should you die for any cause and end up in the water, having the pfd on will make it easier for your body to be found. I'll admit that I never used to wear mine. The pond I fish frequently is small, and fished mainly in the shallows around the shore in depths of five feet or less. Heck if I fall out or get capsized, I can make it to shore which is rarely more than fifty feet away. But, if I drop dead, fall in the water, and the canoe is blown to the opposite shore by the wind, where do they begin looking for the body? Hey, dead is dead. It wouldn't matter to me at that point. But, what about my loved ones? Bad enough, or maybe good enough, depending, that I'm gone. Do I really want to put my family through those anxious hours or days without really knowing what happened. Do I really want to put the town's rescue services through the expense of dragging the pond, looking for my body? Am I really that selfish? Maybe it has been mentioned before in the reasons to wear a PFD, but I do not recall seeing it.

I have the Navionics gold in my 898. On the lakes they have charted in one foot increments, they are very accurate. But on the ponds and lakes that aren't charted, but are in the system, they are way off. I've been a hundred yards from the beach and the icon of the boat shows as being a hundred yards on dry land. The moral of this story is, do not depend on them solely for navigation purposes. But, if you mark a honey hole on either of the maps, it will get you back to that spot with great accuracy, even if it appears to be on dry land. The reason the charted maps are accurate is that they are based on recorded data from satellites, and depth readings, and are so plotted. The others are apparently taken from generic maps from whatever source. Plus, the charted waters in the gold version also show roadbeds, creekbeds, tell you where there is submerged vegetation, standing timber, etc., on waters formed by dams such as those along the TVA.

I agree. Mountain biking has help me more than fishing. It's hard to have negative thoughts when you are ripping through the mountain and dodging trees. I guess more endorphins are released through biking than fishing. The other day I went hiking at the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and I stood at top of the mountain and felt happiest I felt in quite some time. The cool mountain air, the walking, and just sitting on top of a rock overlooking the valley and the lake I fish in the far distance really made me feel great. And you have struck upon something that is very important. It is not necessarily money or success that bring joy (as opposed to happiness) into life. It is the ability to appreciate those things we can have at little or no cost. Looking out over the majesty of nature, or God's creation, if you will, and being overwhelmed by its splendor. That's something no amount of money or success can bring. And, it's nothing that can be taken away from you. There are days when I will lie on my back, beneath a canopy of tree branches, and be mesmerized by them stretching toward the sky. It can be watching a school of bluegills swimming in shallow water near the dock where I put in. Priceless and precious. It's there for all. Sad that so few learn to appreciate the treasures that cost nothing.

First, let me state that I am a cynical person, but better that than a sucker. So, here's my take on multi level marketing. It appears that the manufacturer who charges a person for the right to sell their product is actually selling franchises, though they may not be called that. If only one or two percent actually make decent money with their franchises through selling and recruiting, they need to thank their lucky stars that not everyone is equal, or they'd all fail. Take it to the extreme. We all (everyone, not just forum members) join the program. None of us give up, and we all have equal results. That leaves no one to purchase since we are all salesmen. But, the company who franchises us still gets rich without selling a single product. I cannot cite any documentation, but I'd hazard guess that many of these MLMs make as much from selling the rights to market their product as they do the actual sales. Nobody, I repeat, nobody in their right mind will buy a legitimate franchise without being granted a "protected" area, meaning that you have the exclusive franchise to that area. Can you day McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, etc. This assures the franchise purcaser that they will not have competition from someone being able to open another franchise of that company within their territory. If you get in on the ground floor, and are a good salesman, and get to be a "distributor" who gets a share not only from those they recruit, but subsequently a share of the sales from those their recruits recruit you can do fantastically well. It is easy to see that there cannot be many "distributors", simply because it is a pyramid. Those joining the party, once it has reached a certain level have no one left to recruit. These things cannot multiply indefinitely. I can recruit a hundred people. Each of them can recruit a hundred people. At this point, with me at the top. there are 10,101 people. If each of those recruit a hundred people, the pyramid now has over one million people in it with just four levels. The fifth level alone will need more than 100,000.000 people, or one third the population of the U.S. A hundred per member is probably very high. I used it because the math is easy to understand. I doubt anyone who understands this would sign on to the plan. The company would be in fat city, just from selling the right to sell their product, without having sold a single one of their products. It's a great game for those at the top. For the rest, not good at all. Saw a documentary which followed a few folks who signed onto the "plan" and would not give up. They met with people, bought them lunch, while they gave their sales pitch. Others had cookouts and invited several friends and acquaintances in a recruiting attempt. One poor guy had been grinding away for over a year, was still hopeful and optimistic, but was still in the red. Seems they spent much more time "recruiting" than they did selling. I say this as a sincere compliment. If you can sell this idea to others, you could sell ice to an Eskimo. As for me, just looking at the numbers, I could not do it.

Thanks. Hope it may be helpful to some.

Try this first. If the nuts are turning with the bolts, carefully pry up on the motor mount so it puts tension at a bolt. Then try the screwdriver. Prying up will put friction on the nut and washer, maybe enough to keep them from turning with the bolt. The fact that you loosened them shows the pressure exerted before it became loose was enough to keep the nut from turning. If it works, loosen one a few turns, then move to another. If you're lucky, it will work. Hopefully, you'll get them loose enough to where they can be cut with a hacksaw. For the new install, I'd suggest T nuts. Locate the bolt locations for your new install, then drill the appropriate size for the T nut sleeve to fit snugly. Should be available at most hardware stores in their fasteners section. If you cannot find stainless steel, put a bead of silicone in the corner of the cylinder and head, then install. That will prevent water from getting trapped in the assembly. Put Never Seez or similar product on the threads of the bolts. Apply carefully. A drop of the stuff will coat the world, and it's all but impossible to clean up. But it works. I used it on the ferrous steel fasteners on my lobsterboat. Though they rusted on the outside, the stuff kept the threads from rusting, even though some got frequent salt water baths. Here's one source for stainless. http://www.greenboatstuff.com/ststteenut18.html?productid=ststteenut18&channelid=LSCAS Chances are you won't be able to hammer them in. No problem. Use a C clamp, and squeeze them into place. If your deck is fiberglass or aluminum, get nutserts, and press them into place. Also available in stainless steel. These require a tool to install properly. Most metal fabricating shops would likely have one. So, if you know somebody........................ http://www.prifast.co.uk/nutserts.htm

SUV or pickup? Which is more practical for what you want to do. If you only want to tow a boat, and have no other need for a pickup truck, then go with the SUV. But if you want to be able to haul the boat, and have a place to carry plenty of other gear, you cannot beat the pickup truck. If you want to carry a "boatload" of gear as well as the boat, with a measure of security, get a pickup and put a cap on it. Some think caps are dorky, but I've had them on all but one of my trucks. They are great. Can haul a bunch of stuff out of the weather, and with the dark tinted windows that came standard with my latest cap, you cannot see what is in the bed of the truck. When I travel with my boat, I put all my gear from the boat in the bed of the truck, and leave all the compartments unlocked. A thief can open all the compartments w/o tearing the boat apart, and won't find a thing to steal. Maybe they'd break into the back of the truck, but better they break the glass on the cap than to rip up the boat.

And, if they'd outscored all their opponents they'd be undefeated. The reality is they killed themselves with penalties. The mark of an undisciplined loser. Nothing like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Don't use model airplane glue. It will soften the plastic decal. I used it once to glue down the edge of a registration number. It worked, but it attacked the plastic. No big deal on that, but I wouldn't recommend it for your Stratos decal.

Nice rig. Hope she brings you a lot of fond memories. One suggestion. It may be just the perspective in the photo, but it doesn't look like you have a transom saver. If you don't, they only cost a few bucks and take most, if not all of the strain off the transom when trailering with the motor tipped up.