Chance_Taker4

Yes I am not familiar with aluminum boats except for Trackers. I am afraid I have to travel to get it. I live on Lake Erie most boats are Nitro and Rangers or Boston Whaler type.

It WA a It was a typo I meant 2012. Boat Trader and local marinas have no bass tracker for sale older than 2010.

I'm finally ready to buy my first boat. I want a 17' aluminum, basically a bad tracker. I have about $6K to spend. My problem is Trackers hold their value way to much here in Ohio (2012 still selling for $11K) what other aluminum boat is out there that I could find around the $6K mark I'm willing to go down to mid 90s on the year.

I ended up getting a Curado K. So far just handling it I really enjoy it.

I believe my job gives me a mentality that hates low balls. I'm a lender and investment broker so my entire life revolves around bleeding people of every last spare penny they have. And I take that approach when buying and selling in the used market.

The K was on my short list but the info I got from my local shop told me there wasn't much improvements between the Citica and Curado K.

I'm looking at buying a new reel. I have it narrowed down to 3 reels. I'm wanting pros and cons of these three not recommendations for other brands. The reels I'm interested in is the Revo4 SX, Quantum Smoke S3, or Citica I. It will be used as a squarebill crankbait reel.

A rumor has been circulating in my area that Bass Pro is phasing out Ranger Boats as a whole and will incorporate some of their features into new upcoming Nitro boats. I have not seen anything online as for an official announcement but I did ask the marina near me that is an authorized Ranger dealer that confirmed that their Ranger rep as told them the same thing and that there are quit a few people from Ranger leaving to help with Vexus. This rep also said that BPS is also in talks with putting Stratos on the chopping block as well. Could you imagine a day where launching for a tournament and not seeing a shiny new Ranger. I personally prefer and use Bass Cat but Ranger seems to be a staple in bass fishing and it looks like it may be gone in a few years.

I came back with a counter and he countered back with $50 take it or leave it I am getting a lot of these as well. That's the way I felt when the person said he wanted me to drive the 90 minutes to his house to deliver them because he didn't want to make the drive. As well as the guy that basically demanded me add reels to make them all combos because "Its useless to buy just rods." All in all this will be my first and last time putting something on Craigslist.

I am selling 3 rods who MSRP equal $320 for $100 locally because I don't wanna deal with the shipping. But the "offers" I have received are down right offensive. My first offer was $50 for all three. My next offer was a guy saying he would pay the $100 but I needed to drive to his house 90 minutes from my house to deliver to his doorstep. Then the last offer was for my asking price but only if I added reels and sold them to him as a combo. A little background, these rods are new, I bought them but never bought reels for them so they are just sitting on a shelf in my garage. I just needed to vent a little to the fishing community about this. I swear when i sell off other stuff I never get the outlandish offers that I get when trying to sell fishing gear.

I used to watch Jon B and Flair a lot, I don't like Lunkers or Peric so when they all teamed up I quit watching. There are plenty more informative channels out there that are more entertaining still. If I want to watch pure entertaining fishing I watch OneRod and he left Googans over the Favorite Contract in which I applaud hime for standing his ground.

I handled a Big Sexy. When I seen Roland Martin jumped on the hype train I thought I'd give them a try. From what I handled they are overpriced and the shipping charge they add makes them more over priced. They found a good niche with the YouTube community but I also have seen a steady decline in views on the Googans videos and if you pay close attention to LFG, he uses Shimano Rods and "markets" Favorite brand.

I used P-Line Fluoroclear and it was utter junk. I don't mind CX or CXX if it was the only thing available but their Fluoro is trash.

Right to left. I am left hand dominant and it is easier to control the trolling motor with my left foot. Also easier for me to cast holding the rod in my left hand when moving right to left.

This is me to a tee. My reel arsenal was 7:1, 8:1 and 9:1. Now I regret it more than anything and sold of a majority of my reels at major losses to purchase 5:1 and 6:1 reels. We may like to reel fast but the majority of the time the fish like it slow, IMO. The new BPS reels are defiantly DOYO.

I had a NIIGHTMARE of a time with USPS Insurance claim. I shipped a couple rods that were delivered broken. I filed my insurance claim and was denied at first because the "proof of value" they wanted was the purchase agreement between me and the buyer not the actual msrp of the product. Then it was denied on the grounds that a PVC tube is not an "applicable way to ship objects." I ended up filing a complaint with a deputy postmaster general where I said even though PVC is an "approved" method of shipping it is much safer than putting the rods in cardboard. Also that is a rod is broken in a PVC tube it would break in a cardboard tube. I finally had the claim approved and refunded shipping and MSRP value of the rods. I refunded the buyer back his money since the post office told me that was between me and him and settled everything.

Tell Dan to put blades on the Deposit. He did it for me about three years ago. I will admit that when I fish an even on Erie I will only target smallmouth and when I see the weigh ins for the Great Lakes Largemouth Series the bags are not very big. If I had to stay in St Claire I would probably only target Smallies but since I'm allowed to run into the river systems in my events that favor Largemouth I can tend to cull the majority of the smallmouth out of my boat.

St. Claire was the exact water I was thinking when I wrote my post. During events I normally get my limit of smallies on the lake and then run to the Detroit River to cull largies. BTW 2K Jigs are top notch.

I would try rods out before buying them. I prefer the Kistler KLX and Helium reel seats and sensitivity vs the Champion series. Which is a good thing since they are cheaper and lighter. As for reels you can't go wrong with Daiwa my only opinion is I don't like the SV Spool for long casting techniques.

Granted they were all "cheap" reels but I had a Lews Laser MG break, Lews Mach 1 flex and Shimano Caius flex under heavy load. the Mach 1 flex was at the reel foot under heavy load punching slop. The Laser Mg gear broke fighting a 20 lb freshwater drum while targeting bass and the Caius, not sure if it was the gears or the frame that flexed out of alignment but as I was fighting a channel catfish reel just quick reeling would not turn and when it finally would turn it would just grind. I way not targeting the drum or catfish when I caught them but I catch different species ever trip and need reels that will hold up to every fish I catch. Why spend money on gear that has a higher chance of failing when you don't need to take the unnecessary risk? My rod locker now consists of 4 casting reel models and 2 spinning; Revo SX, Revo STX, Tatula CT, Zillion SV, Ballistic LT, Stradic FK If I'm paying $150+ for a reel it will be metal or its not for me.

If I am fishing for fun I would just enjoy the smallies. If I am fishing for money I would try to get a limit of smallies than target the largemouth the rest of the day since they are bigger fish. I would do that the same way bluebasser said to shallow cover or another way is off shore vegetation.

https://omegacustomtackle.com/products/rapture-vibrating-jig?variant=7118322466844 I absolutely love the Omega Rapture Vibrating Jig. It gives off a different action than the Z-Man and to me they have the best paint jobs I have ever seen.

kistler's website www.kistlerrods.com

I went to Janns Netcraft last night to look at one in person and talk to the salesman. What he told me was the HTS is the strongest and least flexible graphite on the market. It is suppose to have the exact characteristics of aluminum but light as graphite. They didn't have one to hold but the salesman said he has had people come in asking about them.

Graphite isn't plastic but the "Graphite" used to make reel frames are carbon fiber infused plastic. Although it may be tougher than your everyday plastic it still plastic and still has a better chance to fail than over aluminum.