zachb34

I regularly throw toads on a H Expride with a 1/2-1-1/2 oz rating and sometimes a XH 5/8-2 oz. It can be tricky without perfect conditions, would downsize for bass

They’re local to me, always have good sales on braid and costas.

When I say action, I’m talking about what you physically feel when fishing with a rod. Not what the specs on paper say. The difference in action comes from a different blank being built with a different taper. There’s a big difference between these two rods.

I’m no expert, but I believe the mojo and avid use the same graphite, not the same blank as they have different actions.

I'm somewhat new to surf casting as well, but do have some experience. Keep in mind, all of my fishing is done in south Florida. In the summers I use a 7' MF Star rod and a 2500 Stradic and 20# braid fishing smaller artificials for Snook. I imagine this setup has its place up north as well. When I'm not doing that, I fish a St.Croix Avid Inshore 8' rated to throw between 1/2-2 oz paired with a 6000 Shimano Saragosa. The Saragosa is a tank and weighs more than a Stradic, but its sealed and can take some sand and salt. I use 30# Powerpro and a fluoro leader from 30-50lb. This setup can really chuck a 2oz spoon far out there. Not as far as the guys fishing 10-12' rods, but most days its far enough in my area. As far as lures go, Gator spoons are my favorite so far, quality hardware and hooks come stock on these. You can't beat the bang for your buck with a Tsunami popper, add in some flair hawks / bucktail jigs from 1/2 - 2 oz. Daiwa SP minnows are popular, as well as yo-zuri and X-rap jerk baits. Bomber plugs are common everywhere on the east coast but I've never fished them. Buy a few of these and you're ready to fish the whole water column. I usually start with the spoon and use it as a search bait. I fish a spoon similar to the way I'd fish a lipless crankbait for bass just covering water and testing different depths. I also focus on fan casting to locate fish. Sometimes they're hanging out near the sand bar, and other times in the trough. Watch some videos and learn how to "read the surf". Lastly, the most important part IMO. Tides. Slack tides (the highest and lowest points with little to no current) are generally unproductive for me. Some spots are better during high tide and others during low tide. I either way I have the most success in the first and last two hours of a high/low tide until it goes slack and then changes again. I'd suggest doing a lot of your learning during a low tide as you can sometimes see structure on the beach you wouldn't on a high tide. I also use Google Maps to find some structure on whatever beach I'm going to fish, this seems like an overlooked tool a lot of times.

I used to own the basstender 11.3 and have shared my experiences with it a few times on this forum. Do a search for "basstender". Here's one example I've made a reply to. In summary, it's a very nice boat and fishes well for its size. It's pretty stable as well and has some nice storage and wiring. It does have some hull slap but just about every boat in this size does.

I've been on boats with seadek and the stuff is awesome. You can get some thick sheets that I think feel better and look better than carpet.

While a lot of the previous responses are great, I thought I'd chime in a little bit on the price aspect. I joined this forum when I was 14 years old ( I turn 20 in a few weeks). I never realized how expensive the sport can be until I saw some of these tackle junkies and the stuff they bought. Since I was 14 I've, worked 3 different jobs (never unemployed) owned 4 boats, owned two vehicles, and have started college. The only thing that's stayed consistent is I've bought quality gear, and only had to buy it once. Besides for the stuff that's been stolen, or the stuff that fell off my boat while on the trailer, my quality gear has given me service all these years. My advice, look for good deals on quality gear and later on when life gets more hectic, you take on more responsibilities, and pay bills, you'll atleast not have to replace worn out and broken rods and reels.

Why can't you trim up? Is the poling platform that low, or is it something wrong with the motor?

Or you could use it to pole from instead. I'm not sure what motor you have, but my 25 HP weighs 172 pounds and I can lift it out of the water pretty easily if done correctly. In my case, I put it on forward and move the lever to the up position I turn my motor so it's all the way to one side and use the leverage from the jack plate/ transom and it comes up pretty easy. I'd bet I could do it with a piling platform too. If you have zero use for the poling platform, you might as well ditch it but you may regret it if you decide to change up the areas you fish in the future. If you can find a technique to pulling the motor up, I'd try that first.

Keep in mind, that those beautifully laid out boats with seadek that are routered around each contour of the boat are exponentially more expensive than the "sheet" prices.

It's not a typical thing to do but it happens. The inlet is only a 1/4 mile long maybe less

I have a J14, which is a flat bottom. The JV and DLV series are much heavier and have a v bottom. I appreciate the info about your sons boat though, it'll help in my decision making. I fish freshwater 80% of the time anyway and don't need to get too shallow with it unless I'm on Lake Okeechobee, which is only a few times a year. Have you ever had any issues with them when in reverse or dragging in shallow water?

Definitely what I'm leaning towards more but I still need to find some deffinant answers as far as reversing and getting them stuck in the ground on sand bars and stuff. I also heard they drive the bow down into rough water. When I go out palm beach inlet the seas can be 2-4 feet through the inlet on any given day until I'm through it and don't want more issues with that than I already would have.

Smart tabs are trim tabs but they're not really adjustable. They're supposed to adjust based on the load of the boat and the water automatically. They're actuallly pretty affordable at around $120. Either way I don't care about the price difference I rather just by them once and be done with it. I really can't find any solid research on them since everyone has their own opinions and a lot of people talking about them don't even own them. As far as looking for similar boats, the Carolina Skiff is a kit boat and there's two different front deck designs and you can set up the back decks in about 4 different ways, plus a lot of have center consoles 2 stroke motors, or it seems pretty common to exceed that 25 HP capacity plate in my area lol. I've seen one with a 50 HP 2 stroke

I'm just wondering if the hydrofoil is the way to go over something like smart tabs. I know both are common on just about every model of Carolina Skiff with a heavy 4 stroke. Carolina skiff even offers them as a factory option now.

I'm obviously not the expert here since this is only my second outboard powered boat and I'm the one seeking help, but I have the motor trimmed in one hole away from being parallel with the bottom of the boat. So basically the cavitation plate has a slight angle upwards. Wouldn't it be better if I got it level with the hull? I have it like that since it was the only way to stop the porpoising problem. FWIW the boat porpoises at the same speed that I get WOT but trimmed differently.

This may be a stupid question, but wouldn't the alarm on the motor tell me if I'm overhearing it anyway? I don't really have anything to mount any gauges to on the boat in the first place.

The prop is a OEM Black Max 9.25" 12.5 pitch aluminum prop. I didn't take the prop to pad measurement yet, but the jack plate is a manual one with 3" of vertical movement and 5" of setback. Carolina skiff recommends to have the cavitation plate .75-1" below the bottom of the boat with no setback. With the 5" of setback that would change, wouldn't it? I have it set about 1/2" above the bottom of the boat. I could go higher, but I'd need to mount the motor up another notch on the jack plate. This is the type of tach I'm talking about.

I know this isn't really the typical boat for this forum, but I live in Florida and this really lets me fish everything I have near me. I have a 2003 J14 with a 2016 Mercury 25 HP electric start. I just added a jack plate which helped a lot as far as the lower unit causing some extra spray, but I really didn't gain any speed (26 MPH) I think trimming one tab out would help me get some more speed, but it porpoises when I do so. I had a 15 HP 4 stroke on the boat before and it did 20 so I honestly expected more out of the extra power. I've also heard of other J14s getting into the 30 MPH range pretty easily and J16s doing the same 25-26 mph speed with the same power. I had the dealer prop it for me and I don't know how well he did with that since I don't have a tach. Any cheap recommendations for a tach? I see some hour meters on ebay that have them. Currently I have a 46# thrust Minn Kota powered by a group 29 battery which is stored under the front deck (still need to secure it better) and a 35 quart yeti I keep on the front deck. I have to move the gas tank as far forward as possible in order to prevent porpoising as well which is annoying since it gets in the way and I rather keep it under the rear deck. I also still need to buy a starting battery and would like to keep it as light as possible (looking into the odyssey PC625) I'd also have a Powerpole micro connected to that battery but it doesn't use much power at all. Would smart tabs solve my porpoising issue? Or am I forced to stick with weight distribution? What are the cons to smart tabs? I heard they can break off in shallow water or in reverse, as well as they make it difficult to handle rough water. I considered a hydrofoil, but it seems like those are just a band aid to the problem. I could always buy a tiller extension to distribute the weight instead of the smart tabs wouldn't help me out much. I realize there was a lot of questions and a lot of them are going to be more opinionated than anything but I'd appreciate as much help as I can get before I start buying parts and drilling holes. I've included a picture of the boat and the cavitation plate at full throttle to see if anyone has any opinions on how it's set up so far.

Watching the weather channel now, looks like we may be getting sustained winds around 75+ and gusts near 100. Being both florida born and raised, I know the forecast can and will change all day every day lol.

You have a few options but no matter what, make sure your boat is strapped to the trailer. Take off any electronics or your battery. Take your prop off too. You can jack up the trailer a couple of inches and put some blocks under it to keep the weight off of the springs, keep the drain plug in, and fill it with water. You could also hook it up to your tow vehicle if you have the space for that and try and keep it protected by something like a building.

Depends on your state laws, but you'll eventually need to register it in your state. Here in Florida we can use a boat for 30 days before registering.

Well, I made my decision and ordered the 25 Mercury with electric start. I thought I'd update this post for the strange chance that someone else in the future wants to compare these two motors. My main factors were, Mercury's 5 year extended warranty was only an extra $60 (no brainer), Mercury has a non declining warranty where Yamaha's seemed a little limited, Mercury offers EFI where Yamaha is only carbureted in this size. The gear ratios between the two motors differ, and from reviews and talking to F25 owners, the Yamaha tends to feel sluggish. Another thing I thought was important since I was looking for a tiller motor, and may use an extension in the future, is the Mercury can go from forward to neutral and reverse all by rotating the handle where Yamaha has a lever mounted at the base of the tiller handle. For what is worth, the general word is the Yamaha will out last the Mercury in the long run, but I'll probably upgrade to a new boat before my warranty is up anyway. Thanks for all the help you guys have given me and hopefully this helps someone else in the future.

Another piece of solid advice, thank you.