Fishing Rhino

Here's a suggestion for mounting. When you have everything in place, and it's ready to be fastened down, put a quarter to three eighths inch bead of silicone where it will be mounted. Set the flange on the silicone, and compress it slightly, leaving a gap of an eighth inch between the flange and the mounting surface, then let the assembly sit overnight, if it's in a warm place, or twenty four hours, to let the silicone set up. Then you can tighten it down. Will make a nice watertight gasket which will prevent gunk from accumulating beneath, and will reduce any vibrations that reach your sounder. I was shown this trick years ago when I was replacing the lexan windows on my lobsterboat. No matter how much water I took over the bow, they never leaked a drop.

The "one way bearing" is not a bearing at all, though it is commonly called that. It is a sprag clutch. "A sprag clutch is a one-way freewheel clutch. It resembles a roller bearing, but instead of cylindrical rollers, non-revolving asymmetric figure-of-eight shaped sprags are used. When the unit rotates in one direction the rollers slip or free-wheel, but when a torque is applied in the opposite direction, the rollers tilt slightly, producing a wedging action and binding because of friction. The sprags are spring-loaded so that they lock without backlash." It definitely should be lubricated because the race slides by the "rollers" and is in contact with them. http://www.alibaba.com/productshowimg/tesilun-10694279-10447157/One_Way_Bearings_Sprag_Clutch_CSK_Series.html

Very nice creativity.

I agree. Just blown up, period. It wasn't enlarged. Just right clicked on your avatar, clicked on properties, copied the URL code, and placed it between the img brackets for posting pictures.

I'm the oddball here. I have no desire for the high dollar stuff. I'm perfectly happy with my good entry level Extreme baitcasting combos which cost 129.00, my extremed rod/Shimano Saros spinning combos, the two Nitro combos, and a finesse baitcasting combo, the two Johnny Morris spinning combos, and I'll let you know about the two CarbonLite/Shimano Saros spinning combos I recently acquired. But, my perspective is different from the average fisherman on here. I had gotten away from recreational fishing in fresh water around 1970 - 71. The stuff I had was archaic to what is on the market today. Spinning reels were unaffectionately known as coffee grinders because they sounded like a coffee grinder. I won't even go into the fishing rod I had. But if you go to the road trip, I hope to remember to bring it with the guides held on by bandaids or adhesive tape. My current arsenal is light years ahead of the fishing tools of yore. I'm perfectly happy with it. Different strokes for different folks.

I don't want to throw cold water on your project, or your tests, but eight inches of freeboard is not very much. Load ratings take into account several things. Here's what concerns me. The more weight you place in a boat, the slower it responds to conditions. In other words, when loaded to specs, a jon boat will bob around on the top of the water like a cork. As the load is increased, it does not react to the lifting force of waves as quickly, particularly in a chop. At some point the waves will begin splashing over the rails or bow, and into the boat, adding more weight, which causes water to enter faster, increasing the load in the boat faster. I'm not trying to be a killjoy. I have enough experience on the water to know how suddenly things can go badly wrong, even on a small pond.

Is this a test? The answer is maybe

You can reduce getting blown around by using a five gallon bucket, or a drift anchor. You will need to experiment with tying it in different places. With my canoe, I tie it off the stern. That lines up the canoe with the wind, and slows the drift considerably. You can buy various size drift anchors which take up less space than a five gallon bucket. http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_90906____SearchResults

Let's go guys/gals. As an added attraction, I'm planning to bring my fifty year old Shakespeare Wonderod for your amusement. It will give you youngsters an appreciation for the technology that is taken for granted today. The old rod, with some eyes held in place by bandaids and others with tape had its part in making many pleasant memories. It has caught a 7-14 largemouth bass, a 6+ pound smallmouth, a 36 inch chain pickerel, a 16 1/2" calico bass/crappie, and striped bass up to 15 pounds. It has cast everything from a tiny #1 Mepps Aglia spinner, to a 2 1/8 ounce Creek Chub Striper Strike, to the even larger Atom plug. Too bad, I cannot find the old Pfleuger Freespeed that made up the "combo" which was obtaind by my mom from the S&H Green Stamp store. I'll bet many if not most here don't remember them, and perhaps, never heard of them. In 1968 or 69 my wife, mom and dad visited my uncle in Huntsville, Alabama. He took my dad and I fishing on either Wheeler or Huntersville. Too many years ago. My uncle had all the latest and greatest gear. He worked at the Redstone Arsenal as an engineer, and fishing was his hobby. He and my dad got shut out, while I filled the cooler with Kentucky bass caught on that ancient rig using a small gold Rebel. It deserves to be restored, but its battle scars and patches give it character.

I'd find a hard case, perhaps luggage, that is large enough for both units. Then, get some eggcrate foam to line it. be sure to allow room for foam separator to keep the two units from making contact. You can buy hard shelled electronics cases of plastic or metal, but they cost mucho dinero. The foam will also absorb the shocks and vibration of travel, or, shudder, being dropped.

I paid 3500. It's a 95 and is in pretty decent shape. Rhino, just let me know man. And I know about the pics. I was gonna just use the ones from the ad and he took it down before I got back...I may have stopped by the lake on the way. Once I catch my first fish out of it I'll try to get a picture. 8-) Maybe in Sept/Oct, or around Thanksgiving. You live near Allatoona Lake if I'm not mistaken. That's another place I want to try, but too large for a canoe. Tough to explore unfamiliar water with a canoe. Takes too long to get around. A battery is only good for five or six hours when a lot of time is spent moving from one place to another at max speed.

Gluvit http://www.marinetex.com/gluvit.html You can buy it here, or search the web. It's readily available at most marine outlets. http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=2091&familyName=Gluvit+Epoxy+Water+Sealer#MyReviewHeader

That canoe probably won't come with a rod rack. Here's a fairly simple, inexpensive rod rack that you can copy for your canoe.

\ Please tell me the Saros 2500 is in the list of perfect reels for that rod. If it isn't don't tell me what reel is perfect. I don't need an excuse to spend more money on reels, only to have to look for a couple of rods for the "imperfect" Saros reels I just got.

X2 It's flexible, adheres extremely well, and is impervious to just about everything. The only known way to remove it is to grind/sandpaper it off. Be sure to allow plenty of time for it to set/cure/dry. Can take a few days, depending.....

I checked out the images. Looks to me like the humminbird image was not as light, but the contrast level was higher. I don't know what adjustments are available, but I do know that I can produce images that look that different on the same television whether it be a CRT, LCD, or plasma. It's also possible to edit any photo and make it look over developed or underdeveloped. The background on the Lowrance is much lighter than that on the Humminbird which is nearly black. The contrasting bright areas on the Humminbird look like neon compared to those on the Lowrance. The image on the Lowrance is definitely better as posted, but is that the result of differences in adjustment?

Hmmmmm, am I a pro since I am sponsored by..............................myself? edit: I could put a Social Security decal on the side of my canoe.

Don't tell me Tennessee Ern, your last name isn't Ford by any chance? Pass through Bristol along I-81 a couple of times a year when we go to visit our daughter in GA. I-95 to I-85 is a bit shorter, but nowhere near as nice a ride. A lot more traffic and a lot more tolls.

I just may take you up on that. Our younger daughter lives not far from you in Temple. When we take the route which includes I-75 we get off at Cartersville and take the shortcut along 61 to the Buchanan Highway. Don't look for me in the summer. Too hot and humid in your neck of the woods. A buddy and I are going down in late March for a week's fishing from a canoe. Plan to hit Varner, and maybe Stone Mountain. The remaining days will be closer to her home.

OK, so I made an executive decision to replace a couple of Johnny Morris spinning reels with Shimano Saros reels. There are a couple of things about them that are annoying to me, but they are still in excellent condition. The Saros were purchased, and put on the rods. As I thought about it, it seemed a shame for the two reels to just sit on the shelf. Might be a good idea to get a couple of cheap rods, and I could use them as loaners. After poking around a bit, the rods I settled on were a couple of medium Carbon Lite rods, at 70 bucks each. They were certainly light, they looked okay, so why not? All my other rods are BPS extremes, nitros, JM signature and one finesse rod. I put the Johnny Morris reels on them, and they just felt awkward. So, I tried a Saros on one, and it felt much better, to me anyway. Another executive decision was made. Put the JM reels back on the rods from which they came. After all, I had caught a lot of fish with them, and put the new Saros reels on the Carbon Lite rods. Maybe down the road, I'll make another attempt to replace those JM reels, then buy two more rods for those reels, and the cycle begins anew.

Good luck with your boat. May you make many great memories with it.

Only hooked my self once. Last year. My canoe was parked in the weeds in the shallows. In front was a ridge of stones that ran out into about five feet of water. On three casts, I had caught three nice bass, the third was between four and five pounds, maybe a tad more. My scale was beneath the rods in the rack in front of me. As I reached for the scale, I felt a sting, and knew I had snagged myself. Yep, the forward treble had hooked me in the base of my thumb. The heck with the scale. Put the bass back in the water, then tried to get the hook out. If someone had been with me, the string technique would have worked fine, but alas, I was fishing alone. I tried to do the same action by gripping the hook with needle nose pliers, but, it would not budge. OK, maybe I can force the point trough the skin and either cut it below the barb, or press the barb closed. Try as I might, the best I could do was to raise what looked like a white pimple where the point was trying to exit. Funny, it did not hurt much. No sense no feeling, perhaps. The fish were being extremely cooperative, and leaving was my last resort. My only resort as things turned out. Could not move the hook one way or the other. So, with the Rapala, dangling from my hand, I paddled back to where the canoe gets launched, loaded all the gear into the back of my pickup, but could not go directly to the hospital. I dared not leave my truck parked with all the gear visible and vulnerable. So, home to unload. When I got home, I positioned the lure in a neutral position so the hook was not exerting any force against the tissue around the wound. Then I put some tape around the tail hook lest I snag something, or someone else. Off to the ER. My daughter works in the ER, and my wife is the Chief Nursing Officer, and connections do expedite things. As I was walking in one of the ER docs was just ahead of me. I followed him and when he paused, I caught up and asked if this was a good place to get "this" removed as I showed him the lure affixed to my hand. He told me I was in luck since he was the only doc that knew how to remove the hook. Told him I did, and had done it when someone fishing with me had snagged himself in a similar way with a Rebel. He asked how I would do it. Told him the string technique. Kinda deflated him to realize that a non medical guy knew his technique. Took him a couple of minutes to gather the heavy suture material, and with a couple of other ER docs watching, to see how it was done, bingo, the hook was extracted. Didn't even put a bandage on it. Went home, loaded the canoe, went back to the pond and to the spot where I hooked the biggest catch of the day, me, and caught a few more. With the hook removed, I was pain free. What amazed me is that the area wasn't in the least tender.

Don't take out any of the seats, They provide structural stiffness across the hull of the boat. Remove them, and it won't take much to collapse the sides of the boat. Clean it up, and as was suggested, fill the seats with styrofoam to provide flotation. You can make a light removable deck to give you a flat platform between the seats. As it is, cleaned up and a bit of work to refurbish the seat, you'll have a fine vessel for the water you plan to fish. Plus it will still be fairly light and easy to manage even when you fish solo.

All my baitcasters are high speed. I can go as slow as necessary for presentation, but when it comes to speed, I need all the help I can get. I still have enough strength to turn the handle beyond the capacity of the drag. Since most large fish are fought with a pump and take up the slack method, why is the extra "leverage" of the standard reel needed. I suppose it works if the fish is retrieved like a surfboard, but other than that,..........?

Color matters to me. I use it to tell what test is on the reels. I like the Power Pro braid and use red for ten pound test, yellow for fifteen, and green for twenty. Comes in handy when changing spools. I do something similar with mono and fluoro. I use Trilene blue fluorescent mono, and Invis X clear fluorocarbon. I only use six pound test for those. If I need something with more snot than that, I use braid with a fluorocarbon leader. Leader is a must with braid. Most of the places I fish have rocky areas. Rocks and braid are a bad combination.