Fishing Rhino

One of last years winter projects. Tear out the old wall to wall carpet, padding, etc., and install pre-finished hard wood flooring. Three rooms down the past two years. One to go this winter.

I bought my first Nitro in 2010, it was a leftover 2009. It had a slight hook in the starboard side, just ahead of the stern. I bought it for 19,500 dollars with a few options, the trailer brake package being the most important, and a Nitro ratchet boat cover. It did struggle to get on plane, but a prop change cured that. Someone had put the wrong prop on the motor. Not enough pitch. In the heat of the summer, that "hook" disappeared. And yes, the fit and finish left something to be desired. Open the hatches and the center forward storage area was fiberglass covered plywood, painted a battleship gray. That was more cosmetic than structural. Two years later I traded it in for a new leftover Z-8. The original bottom line price was 34,000 dollars. Options were trailer brakes on all four wheels, a Nitro boat cover, and retractable tie downs for the stern. The boat was reduced by 5,000 dollars. And I got a thousand dollar BPS gift certificate which brought the price down to 28,000 dollars. It has the standard 200 hp Pro XS. It has the, then new, rapid planning system. It jumps right up onto plane fully loaded with two big guys (about 500 pounds total). The fastest I've seen on the GPS is 62.8 mph with just me in the boat. Plenty fast since I generally rarely cruise faster than forty mph. Massachusetts has a speed limit of 45 mph on all state ponds and lakes. The ride is much better than the Z-7. The center forward compartment is now a "tub" molded into the one piece deck and cockpit. The "rigging area is huge, easily accessible and can handle five batteries with room to spare. I have no illusions that it is as good as a Ranger, or Bass Cat, or fill in the blank when it comes to quality or goodies. But I would not catch one more fish out of a nicer boat, and I liked having that extra twenty or thirty thousand dollars in my pocket. My two lobster boats were "slabs" compared to most of the boats that fished out of the same port, but I caught more lobsters than those with their nicer, better, bigger and faster lobster boats. I subscribe to the theory that the man in the boat is more important than the boat the man is in when it comes to catching fish, either recreationally or commercially. 1971 Cape Cod Bay out of a 15' wood work skiff, fishing alone. Stripers and bluefish. Caught on a 6" Rebel, mackerel finish. A typical day out of my 38' old Novi lobster boat. Circa 1978

But, but, but, but,...but....................four backups? That's redundancy in nature. But ooops, that's six, what I want to know do they all "work" simultaneously, or in sequence?

The angles of a triangle will always add up to 180 degrees. Add another side making a square and it will contain 360 degrees. (keep that in mind) An octagon contains 1080 degrees. So, you can see that as you increase the number of sides, the degrees increase exponentially. Add enough sides, and the geometric figure begins to resemble a circle but contain many more degrees that a square. Eventually with enough sides the geometric figure will contain tens of thousands of degrees, and be barely if at all distinguishable from a circle. The closer it gets to a circle, the more degrees it will contain.. Yet, when you transform it into a circle it will contain 360 degrees. Does this mean a square is a circle? See what you started?

Last year I fished with a friend on Lake Pickwick. We alternated boats. One day we fished out of his new Ranger and the next out of my piece of crap, garbage. The fish did not seem to care which boat we were in. I cannot imagine why such vitriol about an inanimate object.

Humpf, but I second the first humpf.

Those outriggers are fine for safety. But, they are one more thing to grab your line, actually two more things to grab your line. It depends on how old and responsible he is, and only you can make that judgement. I've fallen out of my canoes twice in the past eight years. Both times due to stupidity on my part. The first time, I tried to stop it from rolling and the canoe got swamped. Luckily, none of the rods were lost and the two tackle boxes stayed afloat. The second time, when it became apparent that it was inevitable, I just flopped into the water. The canoe did not swamp. I was wearing my pfd and wearing hip boots. I was about fifty yards offshore pondering how I was going to get me and the boat to shore with those hip boots on. Then it occurred to me to hang on to the side of the boat with one hand and operate the trolling motor with the other. That got me to shore, where I laid down on my back and raised my legs to drain the hip boots. Getting them off was a major struggle, but I managed it. It was a nice day. Once I got my boots off, I went back to fishing. About a half hour later I was dry. Outriggers would have prevented both dips in the water, but I still don't want them on the boat. But, they might be advisable when water temps are low enough to cause hypothermia.

Since the pump was removed, I'm assuming that the wiring had to be disconnected. Check and recheck every wire that was disconnected to remove the pump. Make sure the wiring at the terminals is sound. A poor connection, usually, but not necessarily in the ground, somewhere in the wiring, or a poor switch. How many tilt switches do you have? It's usually three, one on the motor, one on the throttle/shift control and one at the bow. If none of those will activate the pump, you can rule out the switches as being the problem. Make sure every connection in the wiring for the tilt is clean and tight. It could also be a break in the wiring. It's a bit harder to trouble shoot the tilt mechanism because the pump motor turns in both directions so it has to switch the polarity to the motor when going from up to down, and vice versa.

Congratulations. But I would have expected that your wife had the baby.

We haven't been taught anything. We just imagine it. In fact, you are a figment of my imagination, and I alone exist. I imagined the forum too, just so I'd have something to imagine that I do. One of my imaginary teachers told me I have a very vivid imagination. Imagine that. http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=imagination+is+funny&FORM=VIRE3#view=detail&mid=EB429AC4EC3DAF006035EB429AC4EC3DAF006035

The solution is simple, unfriend them.

Winter is the time to get caught up on all the odds and ends around the house. Every hour spent on them over the winter is one more hour I can spend on the water when the weather is much warmer. Come next season the only stuff I do around the house is mow the lawn, and tend to the gardens. It takes me a couple of hours to trim and mow the lawn per week, and less than that to putter around in the gardens. I can fish seven days per week, weather permitting when the warm weather arrives. There are two excellent small ponds no more than five minutes from my door. One is a quarter mile across and a half mile long. The other is a half mile across and about a mile long. Both produce numbers and size. I fish those two ponds from my canoe with a trolling motor. One has a public ramp, the other is surrounded by private property.

Yep, that's it. The lower house is built on a slab at the water's edge. Maybe we can hit it up next spring in my Nitro. From the ramp to the far end in less than two minutes if I run it wide open. Most of the time I run between 35 and 40 mph, so it might take three minutes. I fished it from a canoe with a trolling motor for a few years before I got a bass boat. When I got the bass boat I caught a lot more fish because I spent a lot less time moving around on the pond. I don't burn more than a couple of gallons per day, if that much, on GH.

Is that red beach house the one that's right on the water on the east shore about two thirds of the way up the pond? If so there is a fair sized point that runs directly out from the house. At times you can do pretty well fishing in seven to eight feet of water around that point. On occasion, even deeper. GH does have some fine yellow perch. You need to be there when the white suckers are spawning. There are times you can see dozens of them in five or six feet of water. They also make spawning beds right in front of that red beach house. They are odd beds. They are big, and dug out in the back edge, which is usually toward the shore. They start fanning and get deeper as they work toward the shore. The bed is probably five or six inches deep with a vertical wall at the back. The bed is like a ramp getting deeper 'til it finishes at the wall. They can be three feet across and a couple of feet from front to back. The bottom looks like a moonscape. We've dangled baits in front of their noses. The fish totally ignore the bait. I have caught one white sucker, but that was in another pond.

For a brief moment I thought you brother in law had built a replica of Daisy Duke. Then I saw......... 's car. Rats!

I'm curious. Is 45 the max pressure on the sidewall? Most, if not all trailer tires are rated for 65 mph max. If you are going to drive at highway speeds the tires should be inflated to the max. Dwight mentioned heat being one of the major enemies of tires. That heat is generated by the flex of the tires. The lower the air pressure, the more a tire will flex. The faster you travel, the more a tire will flex. When I'm on a long haul, and the speed limit is 70 in some places, I inflate my tires to five psi above the max to reduce heat buildup. But that presents another problem. Over inflated tires are subject to cord breakage if you hit a pot hole or something similar, especially at high speeds.. They just will not flex enough to disperse the energy at the point of contact and the tire can be damaged. There is an inherent problem with dual axles, and that is the scrubbing of the contact patches whenever you steer the vehicle. A single axle will not scrub. If you've moved both by hand, you know that a single axle trailer is easy to "steer" where by hand it is nearly impossible to swing the trailer around. I ran the single axle trailer on my Z-7 for three years. The tires looked like new when I traded it for the Z-8 I now own. In three years the tires on the tandem axle trailer were about shot. Same brand of tires on both rigs. The tires on the single axle trailer had to carry more weight than those on the dual axle, yet they wore a lot better.

Did you have your grits for breakfast?

The real reason Mayberry was a place that was happy all the time... No one was married. List of Single people in Mayberry: Andy Aunt Bea Barney Floyd Howard Goober Gomer Sam Ernest T Bass The Darlin Family Helen Thelma Lou Clara The only married person in Mayberry was Otis, and he stayed drunk.

You're quite welcome. Glad I could help. Maybe we can get together next year.

You better be careful. If I recall correctly, the last time you mocked someone you ran for your life. You better hope that no one ever gives that gorilla a ladle.

Do what the folks with mobile homes do. Jack up your trailer (you have to do it to remove the wheels) and put blocks or stands beneath the axle to prevent flat spotting. Then drape a tarp over the wheels. The ultraviolet rays from the sun is what does the most damage to the rubber compound.

You can use an eight ounce jig head on the Rage Tail craw, and still fish it at or near the surface. You'll need to hold the rod tip higher and/or retrieve a bit faster. I use the Keitech 1/8 ounce super round jig head with a 2/0 hook. The end of the tail should be buttoned up against the weight. I use a drop of Loctite Super Glue. The baits last a lot longer since it is all but impossible for a bass to pull it away from the weight. You can also use a Gamakatsu 1/8 ounce wacky jig head to cast further. The bobber will keep the bait above the gunk. The wacky jig head hook is my favorite for wacky worming. It is as weedless as you can get, but even it will grab the gunk more than you'd like when it does get into the stuff. They are lead, so they are not legal in Mass. But when I'm out of the state it's all I use for wacky rigging. And when I'm in vegetation, I'll use it rather than the Keitech I mentioned earlier. The Keitech has a tungsten weight so I can use it on my home waters.

Are you sure it's "moss"? What most call moss is actually filamentous algae. I hate fishing in that stuff, and avoid it if at all possible. Try fishing something that you can keep suspended above the bottom. I'd try flukes, Rage Tail Craws, and similar baits fished weightless. You can also fish the craw as a topwater bait. Cast it, then lift it to the surface. Retrieve a foot or more making a commotion on the surface, then let it settle below the surface. Retrieve with some twitches, then lift it to the surface again. Give them something different to look at. Vary the speed of the retrieve. Fish it like a buzz bait. Slow it down. If it comes back clean, try a little slower, again, vary the retrieve with twitches, and/or jerks. When the bait comes back gunked up, you'll know you went too slow. You can also use a wacky rig and a bobber. The bobber should suspend the bait just above the gunk. If there are ripples or waves on the surface, they will give the bait some action. Retrieve it as slow as your patience will allow. Experiment with the retrieve. You never know when you might stumble onto just what the fish want. Don't just beat the water to a froth doing the same thing over and over again.

Hey, he posted that around the witching hour of midnight. Cut a guy some slack, will ya?