fish-fighting-illini

If it is to be had then I'm positive that Barlow's would have it. The skirt material is what it is. Their are different ways of mounting it on the spinner. One way is just the skirt held together with a skirt collar (cheapest and easiest way). The other way is the umbrella skirt which adds more of a "poodle skirt " type "poofyness" to the outer part of the skirt. I built 100 of my own spinnerbaits and it was a lot of work and so so as far as cost effective ( not even counting labor). The shipping can kill your pricing and Barlows had the best pricing hands down in my opinion. I would e-mail Barlow's with what you are looking for and I bet they will set you straight. Note re skirt collars I highly recommend their skirt collor tool ( basicaly an aroow and field point). It makes life MUCH easier for 4 or $5. As far as special pliers for the collars you can use needle nose fine. In the future I will just buy Walmart $1 spinning lures and just replace the skirts with the colors that I want. I've done that quite a bit and it is much less hassle. Just my .02c

Pretty funny about predicting the other forum Hale. In this case they had several other choices to ski a course that weas not being used. I stand by the 3/4 oz Rattle-trap solution after an arm waving and a conversation or being ignored and on a 7th run!

I've got a Johnson See Horse 9.9hp 2 stroke late 70's (?) vintage motor that the pull start rope broke on while at the ramp ready to launch. I tried to fix by removing the rope pull assy and re-attaching the rope. To get the assy out I had to loosen the air intake(?) near where the lean rich control knob is to have room to swing out the rope pull assy. When I put it back together the spring in the rope mech broke. I put the air intake deal back on very carefuly (I thought). I took the motor into a marine dealer and had them fix the rope mech. When I took the motor back out for a run I noticed it seemed very sluggish. I wasn't 100% sure but after 3 times out it is was definitely way slow w very little power. Is their something that I did that is easy to fix? If I need to take the motor only back to the marina could they test something like this? Despite how it might look above I am reasonably mechanicaly inclined! LOL

This is a confusing one. As far a a few passes they either had a different version of a few or just got carried away. They did slow down each time when they got close albeit not as far away as they should have. This kind relates to what I said above about people not realizing just how far their wake makes an impact. After about the 5th run I would have been holding up my arms and waiving that there was a problem. If they didn't do anything about it then on the 7th run I would have been reeling in a skier on a 3/4oz Rattle Trap! In short they had a enough class to at least ask first but they just weren't too swift on their execution. With another option reasonbly close by they should have just gone elsewhere to start with.

Yea good point, I've got the wire angle covered just wanted to know a generic opinion of how many amps a small to mid size trolling motor draws. That link you gave will probably cover what I needed. Circuit breaker sounds good so I don't have to change fuses.

Sounds like maybe a big scratch and dent sale forthcoming? LOL Keep us posted Mike

I'm trying to build an electrical panel for my jon boat. I've got an old Minn Kota 12v trolling motor just guessing 35 to 40 lbs thrust that has no model# or ser# on it. I'm wanting to fuse everything, put switch for my lights. and make quick connects etc. I looked online for spec's and they didn't list amperages only thrust. Does anyone know of a god general amp spec for this generic trolling motor so I can spec the fusing? I want it to be somewhat versatile for the future in case this one craps or in case I upgrade. I was leaning toward 50amp slo-blow for the TM fuse. Thanks in advance.

Re Boat etiquette. I fished this year from my first boat ever, never owned one and rarely was ever in one. The first day we went out I knew I stunk at backing up so my buddy and I just waited for the coast to be clear before we attempted a launch. Learned some very good tips in that short 15 or 20 mins. For no more than I know about it I've watched several people pull out of ramps and mess with this and mess with that despite the fact that their is a huge landing area above the ramp to allow you to be out of the way. I always pul up if anyone is around and always get everything ready ( fishifinder, poles, tie downs etc ) before I pull down to the ramp. The canal thing aside wakes are kind of tough your wake can be a hassle from a long distance away and thus be a problem without knowing it or before you do. This doesn't include di*** heads flying by too close that is another story. I've been sititing fishing and all of a sudden start rocking because of a boat that was out in the main channel. I was in a fingerling and never even saw them go by and I'm sure they weren't driving like idiots. So far people have been pretty cool about wakes. We fish mainly in 40hp and under lakes so its not as much of an issue. Its like everything else in life, "class" ( IE do un to others ) is something some people have more of than others.

Hale your signature is a classic, very clever. I had to copy it to e-mail to some people it is that good!

I'd say for spinning the Pflueger president at $59 and the medalist @ $79 warrant merit. As well as the Shimano Symetre from what I've read. Just bought a Gander mountain guide series reel and IM7 rod for $39 jury is still out on it but have heard several people say for the money that some Guide series are decent. The Berkley lighning rods won't win any awards but I've had good luck and you can find them for $20

Probably paid a little high but it is still a Shimano and hopefully still decent quality. ok by me if it is a yr 2000 as long as it works well. Reel mech would you have schematics if I need it looked over? I figure I can always put it back on Ebay if need be.

I just won a bid on Ebay for a Shimano Symetre 2000 spinning reel. It was probably a dumb move as I didn't check it out real well. I won it for $35 + $9 shipping. It is used and most new symetre's were going for $79. I don't see the 2000 model#'s listed. In new I only see 1500 and 2500 models listed so it is probably an older version? I don't have it yet to check it out but for the price was it a decent move? It is my first winning bid ever on Ebay and have only tried on a couple of things.

When you go to Pfluegers website for reel parts here is what comes up for an e-mail address mailto:repairs@shakespeare-fishing.com Here is the web page where i got it http://www.pfluegerfishing.com/how/gen-parts.html

I hadn't hear much about it but I must have done a little better than I thought. I found my old receipts and my Quantum Mantra was around $80 just for the reel. Maybe that is why I have liked it so well as it is a fairly decent price range to get some quality. $80 isn't a $400 reel but it's not chump change either.

This says in general Pflueger reels. I can only comment a little on Pflueger spinning reels. I really have not had my reel long enough to judge adequately but preliminarily here is what I found. Right before the end of the season I bought a Pflueger President 6730 from Gander Mountain coupled with a ML 6' 6" Berkley Lightning rod. I almost took it back right away because I noticed that when I lightly spun the handle that it didn't keep revolving very long. I went ahead and used it a couple of times anyway. I noticed with same weight line, lure & identical rod I can outcast it with my Mitchell 308 ( by a long shot). There is a huge upside to the Pflueger when reeling in though. It is very smooth and comfortable. Thus I still like it maybe if nothing else because it is still tons better than cheap crap that I've bought over the years. The only other thing that I can think of is that the line seems to want to twist up quite a bit. I had Gander put line on when I bought it; maybe they didn't do such a hot job putting it on. Also i'm not 100% sure of what brands of line is on both but I think they are both Trilene XL. The lines do look different though. I have not fished the president enough to judge it yet. I did catch several decent fish on it and I battled a 4lber. The reel held up very well, made for a nice fight and felt sweet. I'll report again in the spring.

Great post Zimmy LOL I've got 1 Johnson Century SC on a 6' whatever rod 1 Johnson country Mile SC on a 6' whatever rod 2 Shakespere UL SC's on 5' UL for the kids 1 Quantum S3 spinning on a 7' Fuji cheap rod 1 Quantum S3 spinning on a 7' St Croix unidentifiable rod 1 Quantum Mantra BC on a 6'6" M Berkley Cherrywood 1 Mitchell 308x spinning on a 6' 6" Berkley ML 1 Pflueger President 6730 on a 6' 6" Berkley ML Probably shouldn't have admitted to owning so many junkie setups LOl

For the record Side note- Right before the end of the season I bought a Pflueger President 6730 from Gander Mountain coupled with a ML 6' 6" Berkley Lightning rod. I almost took it back right away because I noticed that when I lightly spun the handle that it didn't keep revolving very long. I went ahead and used it a couple of times anyway. I noticed with same weight line, lure & identical rod I can outcast it with my Mitchell 308 ( by a long shot). There is a huge upside to the Pflueger when reeling in though. It is very smooth and comfortable. Thus I still like it maybe if nothing else because it is still tons better than cheap crap that I've bought over the years. The only other thing that I can think of is that the line seems to want to twist up quite a bit. I had Gander put line on when I bought it; maybe they didn't do such a hot job putting it on. Also i'm not 100% sure of what brands of line is on both but I think they are both Trilene XL. The lines do look different though. I have not fished the president enough to judge it yet. I did catch several decent fish on it and I battled a 4lber. The reel held up very well, made for a nice fight and felt sweet.

Ok drum roll, I gave my buddies wife 2 choices. Here they are Here is what I suggest from Cabelas Symetre http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/horizontal-pod.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/pod-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20166-cat20287&rid=&indexId=cat20287&navAction=push&masterpathid=&navCount=1&parentType=index&parentId=cat20287&id=0030874 ReelSY2500FI 140/8 6.0:1 4BB, 1RB 9.5 Item: IG-119342 $99.98 Rod S663 6'6" 6-12 2 1/4-5/8 D M 2.5" 7.5" Fast 2nd choice also Cabelas http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0029728119154a&type=product&cmCat=search&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&QueryText=medalist&N=4887&Ntk=Products&Ntx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=medalist&noImage=0 PFLMED661 6'6" M 1 6035 5.2:1 9+1 145/8 Reg: $99.95 Sale: $89.95 * I'm hoping she goes witht the Shimano so I can compare it to my Pflueger.

I want to recommend a spinning reel for Christmas for my buddies wife to buy him. They don't have a lot of cash but I'd like it to be a step up from the stuff he normaly uses. Price range in the $60 to $80 for reel only or rod reel combo in same quality range. I'd like to know recommendations in the Shimano, Daiwa and maybe Okuma. Pflueger Pres's and Med's fit the bill and I might rec one of those as I have experience and advice on those. I kind of wanted him to try something different as kind of a comparison test while I'm at it. Please only recommend something you have used more than 1/2 a year. This will be his best reel so I want it to be something time proven. Ok Shimano posse do the Shimano's really take a step down in this range or do they still make a very nice reel?

I can hear the volcano's getting ready to erupt now LOL Just kidding mainly Vekol, Nice post. You added a very down to earth perspective. Sure not everyone is going to agree but that is what forums are about. I don't think I could handle it if I owned a $400 or $500 Stella or ( whatever they are ) and it slipped out of my hands into the water. What if my buddy knocked it in? Things might be a little tense or get all out of whack. My Pflueger Medalist is a pretty nice reel with my Berkley lightning rod. Soon I'm going to get a mid price Shimano of some sort and try it and eventualy an $80 to $100 rod (maybe). My budget just doesn't allow for more for some time to come.

Good luck getting them fixed and for $800 you couldn't throw it away if it brokethat's for sure. I'd hate to have to hassle with getting it sent out for repair. Then again if someone wants to donate one to me and it happens to break I'd be willing to sacrifice for the cause! lol Those had better catch min 10lb bass or I wouldn't own ( scratch that I mean pay for ) one. I love fishing but that would pay for a trip to vegas with air, hotel, food and pretty faced Luxuries! Ok cheap room and cheap pretty face but...? It would take a lot of fishing to equal the benefits of that trip! lol

Hey Dodgeguy I'm surprised that you didn't recommend the Pflueger President! Was it too low on the price scale? If it would work for Avid then he'd have a solid reel and could buy 2 to have easier lure options. What price range do you think the Supreme is going to end up in? Avid I recently bought a Pflueger Medalist it it is a very sweet reel for $60. I should have spent the extra $20 for the President to get the magnesium frame. My Medalist has performed well but I have not had it long enough to recommend personaly. Also keep in mind that if you have a particular service person or co that you use; Pfluegers are proprietary and not serviable by just anyone.

After looking a little closer the stable thing might be a good idea because of the unusual seat arrangement thing. It looks like they offset the seats for visibility when motoring and for max room when standing while fishing. If you were fishing while in the front seat and your buddy was standing in the middle in the back then moves unexpectedly to your side you or he might have an issue. I can't tell from the pictures if this boat is standard width or wide. I've got a 14' flat bottom extra wide. I know that it won't tip but if my buddy moves suddenly from the middle while I am standing it can throw you off balance. With this seating arrangement it could be magnified and even worse if a narrow boat. Even if narrow it might still be ok but you would want to at least make sure you are aware of it. Those seats wouldn't be that hard to change around anyway if need be. I'm no boat expert and have only owned just this one boat. So take my advice for what you make of it.

One heck of a job on this. You gave me some ideas but I'll have to phase them in over a couple of years probably

John boats seem to be all over the place. Some are so so with no motor and they want $1,300 - $1,800 other times you can get something decent for $800. I'd say the motor is a little small ( depends on where you fish) but if the motor runs good you can't go too far wrong. I'd say as a package the price is pretty good. I'm not sure everyone is giving enough credit for all the extras that most don't come with. I don't think most people know in advance what they are getting into ( me included). With a fishfinder, trolling motor, life vests & lights I'd say if you like it go for it. You'lll still need several ropes and an anchor but you are almost set up completelt.