Madhouse27

I'm with Skwerl too. They should put a new motor on the back of that boat. If someone has to wait for Mercury to go good on the deal it should be the dealer not you. If he starts talking about you waiting for six weeks I'd just say I'm returning the boat and motor for a full refund now give me back my d**n money. Tell him you will file a complaint under the California Lemon Law (or some other nonsense). If this was a new car with ten miles on it would you be expected to walk everywhere until the middle of August. Give me a break. Make it real clear that if he's in the mood to jerk someone around then he's chosen the wrong guy to do it to. He sold you defective merchandise so as far as I'm concerned it's time to fix it pronto, replace it or give back the money. The only other solution I would consider would be the use of a "loaner" boat of similar value until mine was fixed. Keep us posted.

I've been happy with my Minn Kota All Terrain. I've got the first generation Weedless Wedge prop on mine and have never had weed problems. Of course, something tells me that fishing in the weeds up here in Maine might be a little different than weed fishing down in Florida. You might need to rig up a gas powered weedwacker with a big steel saw blade prop for the thick stuff down there.

Boat, motor, gas tank, trailer, trolling motor. If that thing is ready to go in the water I gotta think $900 is a good deal. Grab it and go fishing brother.

Chris you did an awesome job customizing your rig. That's a sweet looking ride. I've got a buddy who is undertaking a similar project. I am going to send him a link to this post to help him out. Well done!

Man, how could you possibly choose between this great group of guys (and ladies). I'd gladly share a boat with any one of you. Because Largemouth fishing is the weak part of my game I'd definately have to head south and then maybe work my way out west. What an awesome reality show it would make travelling around the country playing connect the dots with BassResource.com members. Fishing each one's home waters, having some fun and teaching the viewers a thing or two about bass fishing and sportsmanship. Someone get ESPN on the phone....I've got to pitch a new show to them.

Congratulations, looks like you guys made an awesome deal. You must be pumped!!!

I decided not to fish this morning. Instead I decided to change the trolling motor wires in my Skeeter from 8 guage to 6 gauge. This will probably go down in history as one of the most miserable projects I have ever undertaken. I attached the ends of my installed 8 guage to the ends of my new 6 guage. I taped them and then covered the"splice" with rubber shrink tubing. I was going to work from the rear battery/fuel compartment to the front. I removed my front right compartment and a section around the console that would at least give me some limited access to the underworkings of the boat. I figured this might take around a half an hour. I mean, how hard can it be to simply pull the wires from the back of the boat up to the plug in the bow. Hey, maybe I'll finish up early and go catch a few smallmouth this afternoon. Five frustrating hours later the new 6 guage wires were connected to the plug > At the absolute most inopportune spot one of my "splices" pulled out. It was a tight squeeze and I was having to apply a little muscle. So here I am with an unconnected piece of 8 guage in my hand and the 6 guage is down in the guts of the boat...somewhere. There was no way to push through from either side. I couldn't get the 8 guage back to where I could see it, or the 6 guage through the obstacle. There was about a foot of space that I couldn't reach or even see into and this is where it disconnected. The project had ground to a halt..talk about misery. At this point I decided that things would have gone smoother had I worked from the plug back down to the rear compartment but it was a little late for that revelation. I ended up removing my console and a few other pieces and was finally able to make contact with the wire and actually managed to push it through that spot. It was a tough S turn where the wire needed to exit through the carpeted section and out into the aluminum body of the boat. Long story short this is not an easy job. If you are planning on doing it yourself have a helper available. I think someone pushing while your pulling would certainly make life easier. Keep in mind that your stock wires may be anchored at points along their path. There may be other wires that were taped or strapped to them during the manufacturing process to neaten up the work. They may run through small diameter tubes along with about ten other wires. You may just want to live with what's already on your boat. Anyway, all I have left is to solder my connections to the end of the wires and hook them up. I just couldn't deal with anymore of it today.

Abel, I'd call the dealer first thing monday morning. I'm afraid this might be a bad one. You may want to dig out all your paperwork from when you bought the boat. Get your warranty stuff in order etc. What a bummer.

Does my Humminbird 535 have an "arches" mode? I think all that is available is the fish icon type display. I'd definately like to learn the whole arch deal. I'll have to dig out the manual and see if this one does both.

In the quiet of the early morning I guess I'm not much for chit chat. I'll give depth, water temp, direction a ridge is running but it's pretty much kept to information related to the water we're working. As the day progresses and some lake activity starts I like having some conversation and a bit of banter. Part of the fun is getting to hang out with your friends while doing something you love. Around 10 am I like to partake in an ice cold beer. Usually by the afternoon we're yukking it up pretty good. When I'm by myself I definately talk. I'm coaching myself some and filling in the non existant tv audience that's watching my show. Sometimes I empart my fake southern accent since this seems to be a prerequisite for having a bass fishing television show. "Now there's a big ole bass", "Man is he ever strowwwnge", "Dang, lost my whole game".

I thought I saw a small rectangular battery operated airator (sp) for sale at Walmart. I think it was about 8 inches long and about 4 inches wide. I'm assuming you just turn it on and drop it in the livewell. You guys might be able to still use the livewell even if the pumps aren't operational. You may need to bring some kind of a jug to help fill it all the way. I know on mine when you pull the plug it only seems to fill it about half way then I use the sprayer to top it off. You may waste a little fishing time tending to the livewell and changing water but at least your fish would be ok.

I have a Humminbird 535 that uses the fish symbols and don't feel that I'm getting false signals. Usually when I'm seeing fish I'm getting into them. I do have the setting tweaked so that it supposedly eliminates the smaller fish (there are three sizes available). In this mode it still shows baitfish which are represented as a cloudlike reading. I know the fish symbol finders are kind of looked down upon by the graph purists but for $150 this thing has great resolution and I really like the way it reads the bottom structure and composition. Like most of you guys I am more looking for the structure I like more than relying on actual fish symbols. That said, I do like it when I'm seeing a few big boys two feet off the bottom in about 20 feet of water.

Boat Trader is good advice. There are actually some other great sites as well. Type in used bass boat and see where it leads you. Another good place to learn and shop is right on ebay. Every night when I got home I would type in "bass boat" on ebay and then just click on newly listed. Not only was it fun checking out all the boats, I was also developing a pretty good feel for what various makes, models and years were bringing on the secondary market. You've determined your price, now it's time to narrow your search down further. Material, length, horsepower, boat brand(s), outboard brand(s). Because I was looking at aluminums I narrowed it to G3 (Skeeter), Polarkraft, Lund, Lowe, Fisher, Tracker. I wanted a Yamaha outboard so that narrowed the field even further unless I found a fluke where someone had put one on a Tracker or something. For ten grand you should be able to get a cool pre-owned fiberglass boat with a 150 on it. For ten grand you should be able to get an unbelievable aluminum pre owned boat and have some money left over for Loomis rods and Lucky Craft baits. Decide what you want, and then be patient about finding it for the price you want to pay.

There's a ton of great boats out there in both fiberglass and aluminum. I guess to start the decision making process I would determine your budget. Next I would assess your tow vehicle to determine if it is capable of towing a heavier fiberglass boat. I'd keep current gas prices in mind as I was thinking about towing and also what size outboard you are going to be running. I'd think about where you are going to be storing the boat. Are you thinking about a pre owned boat or buying a new one. Aluminum bass boats have come a long way in recent history. In many ways they have closed some of the gaps in looks and layout between themselves and their fiberglass counterparts. One area that I feel will always separate the two is in the actual ride of the boat. Based on my own answers to some of the questions I've listed I ended up with a used aluminum bass boat. For now the boat has to live it's life outside. I wouldn't be too thrilled with a $35,000 investment sitting out in the elements. I have a mid sized suv for towing, and wanted to pay cash for the boat. I fish mostly small to mid sized lakes and some rivers as well. The aluminum thing worked for me at this point in my life. When the day comes for the big fiberglass pro rig, this one will be kept for rivers and smaller waters. FIrst up, how much we spending here?

It just doesn't get any better than bronzebacks on topwater! Sounds like a great trip.

For me it's the crankbait. I don't know why I even keep buying them. Maybe I need to hook up with one of you guys that are good with them so I can at least witness someone actually catching a fish on one of the d**n things.

I agree with Skwerl and Cart. I think you'd end up paying more fixing this one up than just going out and buying a cheap fishing boat. The costs on projects like this one escalate quickly and even if you see if through to completion you end up with a boat that is worth far less than you have in it. I like Cart's idea about ebay. There seems to be a good secondary market for older outboards and individual outboard parts. If the serial numbers are still on the outboards you'll be able to find out exactly what year they are and maybe make some cash selling them or parting them out.

The actual searching process can take some time. Like I posted before I like to work off both sides of a point. Often times there are some nice pieces of deepwater structure that kind of spider web off a major point. Another thing I'll do is put my boat in 25-30 feet of water. I'll be throwing toward the shallower water but watching my electronics with marker buoy ready. This way I am kind of searching but also fishing at the same time. On a lake I fish alot I try to take a slightly different route to my favorite spots while under big motor power. That way I can learn a little more of the deeper bottom contours each trip out. If you are in a tournament situation on a lake you don't know then unfortunately you need to kind of abandon the deep water game because you can simply end up spending too much time searching and not enough time catching. I have a handful of favorite lakes that over the years I have unlocked some of their deep water honey holes. Some discoveries were made my mistake, others were from just putting around watching the finder at the end of the day or during a breather. Of course a good depth map of the lake will certainly help if you can find one that is fairly accurate. Not only do I feel the big fish potential is greater when working the deeper stuff, I feel that the fish are less pressured. Even in clear water the visibility is reduced down deep which I think is an advantage to the fisherman.

There's alot of great techniques for taking deep water bass. Drop shotting, bouncing or sliding a grub, tubes, deep running cranks you name it. They're all fun and they all work. It's a little different feeling when you're keeping in touch with your baits when they're 20-40 feet down. Things become a little more subtle and taps a bit more vague but you adapt as you do it more. The true key to the whole equation is being able to locate quality deep water structure. All the great gear and skill isn't going to help much if you aren't fishing over fish. Lakes within a certain region share similar qualities. As you spend more time out away from the shore these similarities become more obvious and it helps you in determining at least a good starting point. Sometimes looking for good deep structure can seem like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Use your electronics and your marker buoys. Start out working 200 yards in either direction of a major point or work point to point looking for the sweetness in the middle. When it all comes together you are going to be amazed at the numbers of fish you are catching. Smallmouth bass like to school up. Often times they group together by size. I've dropshotted over a massive pack of 2-4 lb bronzebacks that were feasting on a large school of baitfish. The scene on my fishfinder can only be described as something seen on National Geographic and the fishing was nothing short of absolute mayhem. It takes some time to gain confidence but as the mystery unfolds you may just find it's better than anything you've experienced throwing at the shore.

First of all let me thank everyone who has contributed to this thread. I certainly appreciate all the words of advice. For the record, I received my new wires today from Cabelas. The quality is excellent! It is certainly superior to the stock wires that Skeeter built into my boat and appears to be the same stuff West Marine had for over three times the Cabelas price. When the rain stops, the project starts.

What model welder's helmet should I get for the job? ;D

I'm wondering if there is a problem with a cell in one of the batteries? How old are the batteries? Is Ben in the house? Hopefully he'll show up and sort this thing out.

Avid, I've been right where you are and it just passed on its own after a couple of days. In this 24/7 world that we live in, it's easy to get burned out on something. We fish after work and on the weekends, shop, post, chat and research fishing on the internet, watch the fishing shows we TIVO'd, work on our equiptment and boats....it's almost insanity. You almost need to take a break if nothing else to simply recharge your battery. I think take a step or two back. Do a project around the house thats going to take a few days. You'll be back as good as new in no time.

Prediction: Anglerintraining and his son will be shopping for a used boat by the end of 2006 One great thing about having a fishing partner is the ability to work together to figure out what is working. Each of you can start your outing with a different presentation. You throw a Senko or a jig and the boy goes to work with a spinnerbait or a crank. This will help you rule things in or out more efficiently. When one of you finds something that's clicking both can switch to that pattern and mop up. As you go along you may find that each of you ends up with different confidence baits. I'm sure you and your son are going to make some incredible memories on your bass fishing journey.

Ben I ordered the wire through Cabelas. There wasn't a strand count or anything but it was certainly the multi strand style. It was shown in their TM battery accessories section of the website. I'm hoping the quality is as good as the 8 guage stuff I have now. I did find some 6 guage at another Marine store down here that is going for $1.79 ft if the Cabelas stuff is sub par. Hey can you just swing over Monday night and do this for me ;D