senile1

I use Strike King Flippin' Tubes in watermelon chartreuse, pearl pepper, and black with blue tail. I won't use anything less than a 4/0 EWG hook on a fat tube. There are a lot of good tube brands out there.

Ronnie, Directors and their technical teams will not know where the hatchet will fall until after March 1st. I'll be cutting it really close on the time, but we'll see.

;D I'm not old. I"m just demented. :

I've been away awhile so I was looking at the threads from the last couple of weeks and I saw this. I have to say that you guys made a hell of a choice in Alpster. What a guy! Belated congratulations, Alpster!

Thanks, Dominick. Yes, Sam we've had quite a few instances of snow but nothing greater than 4 inches so far. It's just been so cold that the snow cover sticks around. We haven't had many days that the ground has been bare since early December.

No new PBs for me Matt Fly. :'(

Once again, I will not be attending the BassResource.com roadtrip. The writing has been on the wall since late November - Early December when the rumors started flying where I work. My wife and I work for the same company which is now laying off 4000 workers and ridding itself of 1500 or so contractors. I think my wife and I will be OK (knock on wood) but we don't want to take any chances with expenses until we know for sure. Have fun, guys. I wish I could be there.

I believe the phrase for me is "There we go."

. . . and another fish 4 fun a lot.

I have participated very little in the forums over the past couple of months, so I decided I need to get it in gear and make a post. I've had a number of things going on from helping my two oldest daughters to move into new homes to buying a boat among other things. Initially, I decided I needed a break from the forums and then I became busy with other things. The company I work for is laying off 4000 people so my wife and I have backed out on the Guntersville trip. We both work for the same company and we both think our chances are good that we will dodge the bullet but we don't want to take any chances with extra expenses until we know for certain. Anyway, hello to everyone. To Dominick (Muddy Man), thanks for the call last week. I was on-call so I didn't have much time to talk either, but I appreciated the call. To Carp7, thanks for the advise on the boat. I purchased the Stratos 295 Pro Elite and she is sweet. I'll post some pictures soon.

No one is retarded. Both pronunciations of Missouri are correct. See link below. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/missouri

Sociopaths.com Release_your_inner_psychopath.net. These two forums have helped me impact the former lives of many people.

They're both fine reels. I have a Symetre and it is a quality reel. Go to the store and hold them in your hands and check them both out. Pick the one that feels the best to you.

The BASS Federation Nation Championship is coming to Milford Lake in Kansas in November, 2008. http://www.kansascity.com/sports/outdoors/story/360050.html That's pretty cool for the people in the Junction City area and surrounding the lake. Did any of you KS people catch this?

Unless one fishes a number of tournaments each year, I don't find the cost of owning a bass boat that prohibitive. You spend your money up front for a good boat and you spend a few hundred dollars for maintenance every year. Since I'm not racing to beat someone to a honey hole 30 miles away I don't use that much fuel. Many of my fishing trips involve 8 miles or less of running my outboard. Occasionally I'll run over 15 miles but it's not that often. Then mix in the lakes where I can only use my trolling motor, and the occasional pond adventure, and I don't put that many miles on my outboard. On large lakes like Lake of the Ozarks or Truman Lake, I'll drive to the ramp that is closest to the area I want to fish, rather than driving my boat 40 miles up a Lake arm to get there. If I pre-fished and fished a tournament every weekend I can see how that could become expensive.

Catt, thanks for the info. I've been checking out some websites and, after reading what you and another poster said about the Xpress boats I am looking closely at them. I also found what appear to be some good used values on some Champions and Procrafts within an hours drive of here. I still have a lot of shopping to do.

I am looking at used rigs, but I always keep my mind open. I don't spend 25 grand when I can get something that will meet my needs for 20. I don't buy what I can afford. I buy what I need. It seems to be a good way to put more money in the retirement funds, at least for me. So I don't close my mind to anything until I've checked it out. Since the 186 XT is new and very little info exists for it, I thought it was worth a look-see. If what I need requires 30 grand to acquire it so be it. If 20 or 15 grand will suffice, then why spend more just because I have it available.

He doesn't sound like a very informed boater. Just from looking at the weight specs he should have known that the 176 XT couldn't keep up with an aluminum boat of comparable length. Of course, his beam of 84 inches gives him more room than your beam of 75 inches. Different strokes for different folks.

That's fine work, CJ. Big congratulations! How do you and your partner plan to split the prize? :

Depth and structure are obviously key as mentioned by others in this thread, but depending on the season, sometimes one factor can be big. In the fall on the lakes I fish, if you can't find shad you stand a big chance of catching very little. Watching for birds feeding and shad movements is a big part of my fall fishing.

I did notice that the hull was only half out of the water. As mentioned by a couple of people in this thread, I am also looking at the Stratos 285XL, as well as Triton, Skeeter, and Nitro boats which have dealers in my area. I haven't ruled out a good used boat either, but I definitely need to replace my 15 and a half foot with its 70 horse Johnson. Talk about a rough ride on big lakes . . . . I take it out on Truman and Smithville Lakes here in Missouri and it can be downright scary when the winds reach 25 - 35 mph.

Last year I was thinking about purchasing another boat, but I decided to keep my old boat and spend my money on siding for my home this year. Now I'm back in the market and I wanted to discuss the 186 XT as well as any other boats in this size range that are considered to be good values. I'm not looking for a smoking hot boat on the hole shot or in top speed, but I'm not looking for a total dog either. I have the funds to purchase a boat in the 20 - 30k range but if I find a boat that will do what I want for less, I'm all for it. Does anyone know much about the 186 XT, other than the information given on the press release? Can anyone else confirm what powerman970 stated about the skiff design of the hull? I found some testing information on the 176 XT: http://www.boattest.com/boats/1228/test_results.aspx. It isn't fast by any means but it would suffice to get you where you want to go and the fuel economy is decent. It isn't the size I want but I was thinking it might give some insight into the 186 XT. I would definitely upgrade the graph at the console, add a fish finder on the bow, and upgrade the trolling motor on this boat. I'm fine with 40 mph and 4 second hole shots as I don't compete in tournaments. Cart7, what is your take on the design of this hull?

Don't get me wrong. Money makes a huge difference. Matsuzaka, J.D. Drew, Ramirez, Schilling, Beckett, and the rest of the veterans on the Red Sox are raking in big bucks. However, here's what the difference-makers in the World Series are making this year: Dustin Pedroia $380,000 Kevin Youkilis $424,500 Jon Lester $384,000 Jonathan Papelbon $425,500 Then there's Jacoby Ellsbury, who did not appear in enough games during the regular season to officially be classified even as a rookie. He's making less than all of them. Ironic, isn't it?? Ironic, yes, but this doesn't tell the whole story. The low-paid difference makers wouldn't have had a chance in the series to do their stuff without the high-paid performers who made the regular season and the rest of the playoffs so successful for the Red Sox. Place this group of people on a team with less talent and they wouldn't have made it to the World Series. Either way, you can't fault the Red Sox for spending the money if they have it. It would be nice if it were different. Congratulations to the Red Sox and Red Sox fans on a fine season.

I've never had any issues with Sufix Performance Braid breaking. I recommend it for braid users. Having said that I was interested in seeing the results of dodgeguy's "experiment" and his conclusions.

nboucher stated: No apology necessary. If you go back and read the posts from last season you'll see that none of us thought the Cardinals were the best team last year. The best team for the season isn't always the team that wins the Championship. The team that wins the World Series is the team that is playing the best baseball at that particular time.