Syppy

Wow,that is so bizarre. My brother just bought that exact same boat not too long ago, and we had it out this last weekend running around the little lake near his house. Heat Expansion: no good tips, take your hand pump with you in the boat and do releases/pump ups on the fly to keep it at comfortable "stiffness". Trolling motor: http://www.amazon.com/Intex-68624E-Motor-Mount-Kit/dp/B00177BQF8/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1278949450&sr=8-6 I dunno, there are alternatives out there for it, just remember, you'll have to sit pretty far up front to run the motor and battery in the back, so it'll make it more cramped. Anchor options: $30 or so bucks at walmart for a simple little mushroom anchor and maybe 150' (cut off what you don't need) of rope. Or do what my brother did... cement in the bottom of a bucket, tie off to the handle. Have Fun!

So I bought a cheap little Eagle Cuda 300 just to get the hang of depth and fish finders, and now I'm more confused then ever. It worked well for finding depth, but that seems to be about it. It was alarming for fish all over, and I can't really tell structure on the bottom. When I turned off it's fish ID, what I'm getting is a ton of "blobs" rather than "arches" that are supposed to indicate fish. Anyone have any suggestions as to why this thing is showing weird blobs rather than fish? Or anything I can tweak to make it more "understandable"?

I've got a few Spinnerbaits that the skirts have been torn to pieces. I'm debating whether to start trying to order skirts and whatever else I'd need to reskirt them, but then again I'm looking at how cheap I can generally get them. Is it worth it to redo the skirts myself? Or would it just be worth the time-saver to go and buy a whole new spinnerbait?

I've only ever hooked one at a Boy Scout camp long long ago. My wife reiterates to me each time I go out that if I catch one to hold onto it. She wants to do the turtle soup bit, or keep some smaller Red ear sliders as pets. I dunno I just fish =P

What kind of jig?

Actually haven't had a lot of injuries to my self, but I've seen my share of them. My Grandpa got the end of his tongue bitten off when he absent mindedly stuck a small barracuda in his mouth head first to free up his hands to work on something. And a friend of mine got a hook stuck in the center of his foot while we were fishing barefoot at the top of a cliff at a scout camp. My only really bad injury was that I threaded a hook through the side of my hand. Was easy enough to cut the barb and back it up, but wow it was hard to think straight enough to move the hook around to cut the barb off.

We could have sunk that day will how big the waves were (we were using a little rowboat with a trolling motor). If I didn't keep the front into the waves, it would almost flip us... I think the banana superstition is a fact... NO BANANA'S PEOPLE! How interesting... No wonder my son was hollering about floating bananas the other day on the boat. I had no idea what he was talking about. Thought he was just being silly. Must be something he picked up in school. I know I have a bunch of superstitions, but the only one I can think of at the moment is having a woman on-board means good luck (well... depending on the woman and whether she fishes or not).

And as a side note, this whole place is fairly shallow and muddy beyond belief. Can't hardly see more than a foot or so into the water. *sigh* any suggestions on fishing really shallow muddy water?

I've been looking all over the place, and i can't seem to find "how much" line to put on a reel typically. I'm getting a load of backlashes too, but I'm also finding that a half decent cast is running me almost out of line on the spool. How much should one put on most reels?

Yeah, having a problem with this lately too. Never caught anything on jigs before, and so far haven't been able to get this to work. The only fat Ika's I could find anywhere around here were green/pumpkin and so far I haven't any sort of bites on them and I'm fishing SLLLOOOWWW. Starting to almost get discouraged. I'm going to spots where I've caught before, got it rigged skirt up, no weight. What on earth could I be doing wrong?

Right at the moment while I'm trying things out, I'd be happy to catch A fish, any fish, I don't care what breed at this point...

I remember being thoroughly disgusted on year when my pop and I took the boat out to Lake Meade along the Colorado one year during Memorial day weekend, and there was a HUGE line of oily mucky blackness all long the bottom of the boat because of all the crap going into the water off all the boats. And not just oil and run-off, but also just plain exhaust. Go green will probably apply to boats one day too... Toyota Prius Auqian anyone?

She drank like a.... she drank a lot.

K, the scariest part, is that the people that DO get bites and fish would almost be in the same "insane" boat. They spend days at a time doing the same things expecting different results every time. Does that make all fisherman insane?

Don't remember the exact size, but this carp weighed more than my brother did and was almost as tall as he was. Keep in mind this was way back when we were "little". I think he was 7 in this picture (we're in our 30's now) =) Edit: Dad, upon retelling of the story filled in the details: It was 40 inches and 30 pounds.

Ahhh yeah yeah. I just wrapped them into a bundle next to the battery box for now, but taping them to the side wouldn't be a bad idea either.

There must be something about this site that's getting pounded lately on Virginia people cause there's suddenly a TON of us. Welcome, hopefully you're learning as much as I have, and will continue to.

yeah, I've been fighting with that one myself. Just bought one too last week. The two adjustments are the brakes on the left-hand side, and the spool tension on the right hand side. been working on tweaking the two of those while I learn.

Nah, the white rope on the front is just a kind of "mooring" rope, for "tying up" and keeping control of it. I haven't quite worked out the anchor as of yet, but haven't needed one thus far. For now the rear wires just run down one of the deck on the floor, I'm going to floor conduit them into the back when I get a chance. Do you mean for the trolling motor? or for the transducer/fish finder? the trolling motor is rear-mounted. I sometimes sit on the cushion, mostly it's just to satisfy VA's regulation for a throwing rescue device on board all boats.

It, and everything on/inside it =P

O.K. Andy, told ya I'd have pics up when I got it all setup. It's now mostly setup, I'm just missing the rod holder, but it's made by the same guy who does the fish finder/transponder bracket.Good stuff.

How much anchor line do you usually carry? I understand it might be different from lake to lake, but in general how much line to have to anchor down with? Or do you anchor at all? =) Sippi

LOL, mebbe I got it wrong =/ what kind of hp/whatever would you say it is? http://www.minnkotamotors.com/products/trolling_motors/freshwater_transom_mount/endura.aspx Sippi

Well, with my tiny little boat I'm able to launch from pretty much near my house so it works out pretty good. I figure with taking the kids out any kind of fish will be decent for them, and I can take my Bass weekends to go to more productive waters =) Do you happen to remember how deep most of the areas you fished were? Sippi

I think "small" is pretty relative term, but I can definitely recommend my little Bass Raider by Pelican with a 40-55hp electric trolling motor. My whole setup (minus attachments and fun stuff) only cost me like $850, and it gets around our little lakes very well. It's not a big boat at all, so most everything is in reach from where I'm sitting, but I like it that way. Sippi