Triton_Mike

Darold, I'm a mutt I'm from all over. I currently reside in suburban Atlanta, GA Mike

Hamby's beaching bumper is probably the most mandatory thing you need on a boat but isn't mandatory. Go here for an edumacation (misspelled on purpose LOL) on beaching bumpers. www.hambys.com Look at the very short video on the left hand side. I can pull my fiberglass boat up onto the concrete ramp with no scratches Great product!! T Mike

Here is my custom spinning rod that I made up. I absolutely love this design

Thomas, If you really want to do well. Make some custom Lead casting molds and you'll pretty much have the market all to yourself!! T Mike

In addition to what Earthworm said you don't go blindly asking for sponsorships on a public message forum. I personally WILL NOT post a thread on a msg board blindly asking for sponsorhip especially from a company that I have never used their products. If I use their baits/products and have confidence I will approach that sponsor and submit my resume' to them for their review and let them know what I can do for them to help their sales. By blindly asking for sponsors it makes it seem like your only objective is to get free baits and from a company you probably have never even used thier products before. Having said that I make it a policy NEVER to accept sponsorship from a company that I have not actually used their products. Your credibility is shot if you take on every and any company that offers you a sponsorship deal. My advice is to take a look at what fishing equipment you have confidence in and that you use on almost every trip and then approach those companies. But before I did that I'd reread what Earthworm said in his post above as he is SPOT ON in what he said in his post. What seperates you from the other 100's of thousands of other anglers and ask yourself why should any company put you on thier prostaff?? I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes here but trying to let everyone know how things tend to work. Mike Bucca Here is a list of my sponsors. I use their products everyday that I am out on the water and I have 1000% confidence in their products as being the best of the best IMHO. Lucky Craft Gary Yamamoto's Custom Baits Motor Guide Powell Rods Ardent Reels Quickdrop Dropshot Sinkers Hamby's Beaching Bumper Super Target Stores Bass Stalker Jigs Uncle Josh Triplefish International Fishing Lines Dual Pro Chargers

Here is a visual. Spot on left, largie on right Even though Spots hit the very same baits as largemouth their habits are quite different. SPots first off are 10 x's more aggresive than heads especially the smaller fish which is a problem in itself. You will typically find spots at deeper depths than heads. Spots are the only fish that can nail a jerkbait full of treble hooks and still escape my livewell #($(#$# bastages!!. Spots vs heads in a tug o war is like putting up a pinto against Big FOOT monster truck LOL. Having said that spots are alot more like smallies than largemouth. Largemouth are lazy fish. One of the tougher things about spots is they spend half their life suspended. I actually think they are born suspended LOL. T Mike

I'm going to disagree with Cart here. Get the same thickness carpet that is currently in the boat. Reason being if you use a thicker carpet you probably won't be able to shut the compartment lids. been there and ate the bubble gum!!! Having said that I'd get that motor checked out by a mechanic and I would also get on my back and look under the boat for stress cracks/matting showing under the hull. How do you know the boat only has 60 hrs on it? 60hp motors don't have an hourmeter if I am not mistaken. Lots of things to look at here. T Mike

Shellback, I'm gonna give you some sage advice. I would STRONGLY suggest a used boat for the sake of depreciation. A boat purchase is far from a good investment. I bought my first boat brand new (18ft 150efi) and I ate my shorts selling it to buy a bigger boat. I bought my used bigger boat (Tr-20 225) for the same price as my brand new boat. There are Some KILLER deals out there on used boats. The BEST way to find out what a good price is on a used boat is to compare and contrast asking prices. Best places to find comparisions are Boat Trader in your area. THese are found at most gas stations. ON line the best places are another site http://www.bassboatc.../boats4sale.htm I take all the models and how old of a boat they are that I am interested in and start taking notes. If you do this for a good week or 2 you can get a very good idea of what's cheap, whats fair and whats high. If you still want to go the new route the best way to do it is beat the pavement and go from dealer to dealer and tell them specifically what you want and have them give you a quote. Then go to another dealer and do the same. Tell them upfront you are a serious buyer and you are not there to kick tires and they will treat you serious. Once you get all your quotes nows the time to deal. Do it the same way you do a car. Like I said used boats you'll save ALOT of money upfront. There are tons of 1-4 year old boats that don't get used very much and are like new. HOwever there are dangers of buying used boats but you need to know what to look for when buying used. T Mike

bassbum, What I do is lay out all of my monthly expenses on paper. I mean everything from Rent/Mortgage, Groceries, fun money, girl money, car payment, gas and see what I end up left as leftover (savings). Then figure in the monthly boat payment and after subrtracting the boat payment and your still happy with the leftover (savings) amount then YOU are the only one that can determine that amount. For a first boat I would STRONGLY reccomend a used boat. Too much depreciation on a new boat off the lot. There are TONS of 1-6 year old boats on the market and in good condition. Not sure if your looking for a glass or aluminum boat but the same applies. I have owned 4 boats. All but one was new and after buying the new boat thats how I learned about the buy used boat trick T Mike

Pete, I don't have time to look up the GPS coords. Are you in Florida or California or is that South SOUTH texas. Thats the only 3 places I know with Palm trees in the yard. Mike

Chris, You have 2 options. Do what Peter and I did and fix up a jon or find an old basstracker with a blown motor and fix it up. Those are the 2 cheapest alternatives. The old basstracker ain't a bad idea. It's already got the wiring and livewells in place. You could probably just change out the carpet and be looking slick in no time. T Mike

Peter, Just so you know with my 3 82lb thrust T Motors I get a solid 5.5mph by myself. 5.0 with 2 folks thats no wind nor chop. I really think I could get another .3mph if I could somehow find a way to run my foot control without my heavy arse sitting up front. My boat is plowing big time with me big butt up on the front pro pole. Mike

Very cool Peter!! I have to ask what size boat is it? Ie lenght and bottom width? I like what you did with it. Some great ideas. Sinking that cooler in the deck is a good idea. Mike

YOu need to use the right tool for the job. In grass you need a good grass jig. Go here http://www.unclejosh.com/bassstalker/modules/cart/navigate.php/nav_id/72'>http://www.unclejosh.com/bassstalker/modules/cart/navigate.php/nav_id/72 They also have a swim jig as well http://www.unclejosh.com/bassstalker/modules/cart/ T Mike

Just Trying. I'm not a big fan of winding checks.. What I use in place of it is this. I do about 20 wraps of a colorful thread in front of the cork. Then I do an epoxy winding check. What this does is makes a smooth slide from the top of the cork to the blank. All you do is gob it on there and your rod turner will smooth it out for you. I use the thread colors to differentiate rods from each other. For example. Blade rods I use metallic green, Jerkbait rods I use metallic red, Crank rods silver metallic etc etc. T Mike

Very nice start!! keep us posted Mike

Dang Matt and JB, You guys lived in the middle of freakin nowhere!!! I lived in Amarillo for about 3 months too long one year . Man I now know why all the cowboys came from those areas. Nothing much to do other than drink, women and rodeo T Mike

Beancounter, The instructions said to use the negative side with the big foot switches BTW I fixed my problem. Apparently in makes a difference which positive and negative leads you attach to which battery that you have rigged in a series. So I swapped them to what it says in the diagram above. If you swap those leads (which is the way I actually had it). you will only get 12 volts and not 24. Thanks for reminding me why I didn't go to electrician school T Mike

Well here is my .02, I had a wide 12foot jon that was rated for a 15hp. I had a 30hp on it LOL. I didn't have insurance on it and not sure I needed insurance on it. I used it on alot of public rivers and lakes and got checked quite often with zero problems. I missed hauling arse in that rig through the cypress swamp! It's the closest I got to Indy Pole racing . T Mike

I noticed some of the swimbaits out west are made out of some composite wood. is composite wood lingo for foam?? Anyone have experience with this? T Mike

Ben, I will get a volt meter tommorrow. If there isn't 25 volts coming out what do you figure my problem is??? I am using 6 gauge marine wire FYI.... Mike

I have the following diagram for my all electric boat. I have 2 24 volt 82lb thrust t motors and 4 batteries and 2 big foot switches at the front of the boat. I have the batteries rigged in a series. Not sure if this matters but my series cable has a normal loop that you put around the threaded bolt on the battery and fastened with a wingnut. The other end has a car type end that goes around the lead post and fasten with a bolt/nut. The purpose of the 2 big foot switches are to prevent myself from going to the back of the boat to turn on the 2 trolling motors. BTW I have the foot control trolling motor on the front deck working 100% hence it's not included in the picture. But anyway. I have the trolling motors working but I think it's only getting 12 volts worth of power. Tell me what I am doing wrong or I ain't gonna get to go hawg huntin on Varner this week!!! argghhh Can someone redraw my diagram the way it's supposed to be rigged?? If you need to look at the big foot switches and not sure what they are here is a link. http://www.outdoorexperts.com/bigfoot21tro.html The big foot switches have 2 black wires coming out of the back just as it is shown in my wiring diagram I have drawn. Anyone gots a clue?? Thanks in advance T Mike Clueless in Gawgia

Matt, I saw your post on the calfishing site as well . Beautiful fish I must say!! Mike

Beleive it or not a 21.5 was caught a few weeks ago ~. Just nobody knows about it "yet" . It's being kept underwraps T mike

If any of you need any ideas for a resume' let me know and I'll send you the link to my online resume' if you prefer. My email is mbucca AT comcast DOT net. I prefer not to list the website url here. As for websites I use geocities.com. I'm not sure it's the best but I pay like $8-10 a month for mine. www.tritonmike.com However I did had to design all the HTML code from scratch by myself. THere are some HTML editors out now that are very good. Dreamweaver is really good and easy to use. I bought the HTML for dummies book and learned how to do it from scratch. T Mike