lmoore

Oh that's right, one of my batteries has to come out too. I imagine yours is the same, op.

Underneath the oil tank of its like mine. There should be a white "grip" on each side of the oil tank. Pull up then out on those and the oil tank will be free. Set it aside and the piece it was sitting on will come out, revealing the bilge area and the pumps.

I assume you mean soft plastic toad style? Or are you looking for a hollow body frog mold?

If it won't hold a base pin in the mold, pour it without and then drill (carefully) the hole afterwards. Put the base pin in while painting, cute, and epoxy the weed guard in. I've done that before when I forgot to put base pins in and it worked just fine.

I doubt you'll be able to cure them with the weed guard in. You won't be able to get them high enough in temp without the weed guard deforming. They do make a weed guard "cover" which is just a piece of plastic that covers the weed guard, allowing you to use a heatgun on the jig without heating up the weed guard. They work ok, but still not as good as a base hole pin setup. What's stopping it from using a base hole pin?

Would really like to see AMart get one.

30# braid with short flouro leader.

I was down there this past July with some family. We went out with Mark King and Tom Mann Jr (both out of Roland Martin's Marina) and had a great time. Would definitely recommend either of those 2. My dad, brother, and 2 cousins all went with, which is why we had 2 boats. Neither of my cousins are big fishermen, especially bass, and they both caught fish.

Maybe we can meet up this time! I'll be fishing so I can't give away much for spots, but they should be late prespawn by that point. Depends how the spring goes, but we should be seeing water temps approaching 60 degrees and may even have some fish on beds. Start with the backs of the backwaters. Flipping jigs, tubes, or craed will be big. There will be some smallmouth weighed in, but at that time of year it's mostly just from a couple well known spots. A couple community holes for you, the power plant at Lansing (pool 9) is good due to warm water, Cold Springs (pool 9) is a big spawning area, and bussey lake (s end of 10) holds a great population of 3-5 pounders. All those spots will get some pressure for the tournament, but there's always fish there if your struggling.

Any bass boat you buy will have power trim, since those motors weigh in the hundreds of pounds. On some smaller outboards, you may not have it (I think the biggest I've seen without it was 50HP). Those without it will lock into place but can be raised/lowered by hand by releasing a locking lever.

It doesn't bother me one bit, fo the same reason I don't mind knowing which football or basketball team is winning as the game goes. Plus the weights are unofficial, so it won't always be 100% correct if a couple of them are close.

Fun thread to read. I personally have been on both sides of the good/bad experiences and on both sides of the boat/coangler etiquette question. As a general rule, I always offer money as a coangler. There were 2 times when I first started fishing and I didn't offer money. Both times were because I was so mad at my boaters I couldn't wait to get out of the boat and I certaintly wasn't going back to give them cash. Since then, I've been fortunate to join a club with great boaters and have never had a problem (plus I've calmed a bit and realized the struggles those guys may have been going through as a boater). One thing I always keep in mind when offering gas money is that the boater didn't usually just show up that day and go find those fish. If we have a good day and it's obvious he spent lots of time on the water prefishing, I always throw in extra to help with those costs. I think the best thing I started doing was just simply asking the boater what his expectation is. I usualy do that towards the end of the day. If we have a good day, I throw in extra. If we have a bad day, I give what they think is fair. My attitude as a boater is quite a bit different. If I tank a tournament and keep my coangler from having a good day by not being around fish, I won't accept money for gas unless they absolutely insist and I can't convince them to keep it. Secondly, if my coangler is a young kid, I don't take any money. I'm not that old myself, so I remember what it was like trying to fund a tournament budget and go to college. The only time I really don't argue is if I'm really on fish and I'm fishing with another of the guys who is usually a boater. They know the work that goes into it and the costs associated, plus they know I'll give it right back to them if I ever go in as a non.

Hard to give a definite answer since it's iced over here, so I'm going to assume the fish are relating to shad right now down there. Personally, in that situation I would throw a crankbait until I found them. Finding shad is great, but those weren't the only 2 schools of shad on the lake. Keep looking around until you get some activity, then slow down and see what you can work. Just my $.02. I also happen to suffer from RFS (Restless Fisherman Syndrome), so I can't help but move around until I get a few bites.

Overfilling won't directly cause performance issues, but it will make a mess. Losing battery acid from a cell will lower the capacity. I'm on a phone so I can't see where you're from, but if you won't be out anytime soon I'd charge it up, clean up any spill, and leave it sit while some of the water evaporates.

Exactly the kind of help I was looking for with colors. I'll give it a try, thanks!

I've had them come out and continued to throw for a while. The actual action of the legs isn't important in heavy cover, but I didn't like the way it fished without that extra weight in the back. If I were to take legs out on purpose, I'd glue small weights in the holes the legs came out of.

Couple new crankbait colors I painted up after work today. The pink one is one the GF asked for, the other one was going for a "Mad Bluegill" type color. Forgot to paint the gill on that one, but it was basically a test run to see how I liked it anyways. Any suggestions for the BG one? I wanted to keep it similar to a BG, but a little bit more colorfully darker, if that makes sense. Any suggestions on different color tones for that one?

Saltwater rots wood more slowly because rot is caused by a fungus, and the salt kills the fungus. that doesn't mean it won't rot when exposed to saltwater, but it takes much longer as the rot spores won't spread as quickly. There are other problems that saltwater can cause to wood, but rot is typically not one of them.

Did your friend store the boat outside? Saltwater will rot a boat more slowly than fresh, so I would assume 1) he got a boat which didn't have the deck properly sealed and it became waterlogged or 2) he kept it outside and rainwater was allowed to soak in over time. I'm sure there are reasons not to use a freshwater boat in saltwater, but wood rot isn't one of them.

Personal opinion, but i agree with the guys that said pay cash. I wanted a boat about 5 years ago, but decided to use an old john boat my dad had until I could save enough to pay cash. 2 years ago I moved to the Midsissippi river and decided it was time, I paid cash for a 97 191 Champion with a 200 on it. Even had enough left over to upgrade the electronics and some other odds and ends. I've had to do some work on it, but it's reliable and gets me to the fish. Well worth the wait for 3 years to buy it.

Good search tool. I like it when you find deeper structure and don't want to get all set up positioning the boat and trying to make a perfect cast. Throw a diver out the back and make a few passes over the area to see if there are active fish around. Great time saver.

How'd the tournament go? As a morale-supoort sponsor, we expect updates after big tournaments like this one! (I'm also being selfish, I was fortunate enough to make the state-team for Iowa this year and you MN fishermen left enough bread crumbs to make me think Divisionals will be on Vermilion next fall.)

Not familiar with Eufala, but a litte first tournament advice: just fish. You have no control over what everyone else is doing, so focus on putting together the best limit of bass you can and let the rest fall into place. Good luck, hope you have a great experience!

They had some of the same/similiar stuff going on at Grand Lake for the Classic a couple years ago, if I remember right. The Rogue is just too good of a bait

Perhaps I'm just spoiled. But I've never had to use a mechanic that couldn't tell me exactly why something needed to be done. My current boat mechanic has always asked me if I would drop by so he could show me exactly what he was seeing. At the very least, I would expect him to tell you why he thought the VRO pump should be replaced.