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One other idea. Have you thought about approaching various Bass boat builders with your ideas? Often, a boat will roll off the line that isn't built to sellable, retail specifications but is perfectly acceptable, safety wise, to fish out of. You might try contacting the various builders with your idea and see what they can come up with if anything? I'm just afraid that getting into an old, cheap bass boat isn't going to work real well for you. Most older boats in the price range you're looking at will be in bad condition, fairly narrow thus not the best stable fishing platform and a whole lotta work overall to get into a condition that would be considered safe for taking handicap fishermen out in.

I've caught both White bass and crappie on WW's by accident of course.

I don't have a problem with finishes on Rapala's, just the bills. I break several bills off glass shad raps each season and at $6 each, seems the material should be a little more forgiving.

Around here they are a transitional bait that bridges from when the rogue/shad rap bite ends (marking the end of the shad die off period) and when the crawfish begin emerging. This will happen somewhere around the 50 - 52 degree mark though that isn't set in stone. Typically the bait works best in water depths ranging from literally 6" deep to around 6foot. Those are traditionally the best depth zones at that time of year. Chunk rock banks and secondary points back in main spawning coves are ideal places to throw them. Depth wise, depending on lb test. WW's will run down to 10-12ft if tuned properly. Magnum WW's will go much deeper.

Cheating? : Good grief. If the Dept of natural resources in your state plants brush piles as part of a plan to improve the fish enviroment, is it cheating if you fish those during a tournament? If I plant brush the same way is it also cheating to fish it during a tournament? Of course not. You guys better read the rules of a typical tournament series before you go start making accusations on a public forum like this..

I used to go to the local city christmas tree recycling location and pick up a bunch, drag them down to Lake of the Ozarks and drop them with blocks in selected locations. Christmas trees aren't exactly the best for cover but the supply was rather unlimited at the end of December.

Before the pizzing contest begins, I'd suggest finding an angler or two that has one of each and try them out for yourself. $200 bucks is a lot of money to spend on a reel and the track record around here for advice is largely based on brand loyalty vs real pro and con comparisons. Any reel these days made by one of the major manufacturers at that price point is going to be a good reel.

$2180.00

I haven't. I've never fished with a split grip before, not really sure if it's for me but those are nice looking rods. I'm guessing they're using the TAS blanks to build on.... maybe.

Scan through the buyers previous purchases and it's clear he's a collector. Not sure if this was a steal or not. Given it's an un-cataloged color, NIB it's certainly worth alot to a vintage Bagleys collector but that's a lot of money!!

It doesn't take much rod action to impart a lot of lure action from a wiggle wart. Great lure that mimics a crawfish in everyway. Prior to the Rapala buyout of Storm, Storm was known for producing the WW in hundreds and hundreds of color combo's. Some were completely off the wall, some were directed at Steelhead salmon fishermen. Storms best were a series of match the hatch crawfish colors that came under the SV-SP color number system. All of these were crawfish matte finish painted with various color combo's that allowed you to fine tune the color of the lure to the actual color of the crawfish in your local waters. There were probably 8 - 10 total of these combo's. You can still get the standard V-62 and V-63 green and brown crawfish colors, both excellant choices. If I'm not mistaken they may still be making the other popular Phantom green craw and brown craws (excellant choice in clear waters for smallies). The difference between Pre-Rapala WW's and the newer ones is to look at the ridge down the back. The old Storm baits will have a rather rough ridge (sorta cheap looking), the Rapala baits are smooth. You can find many of the older Storm WW's (these are the best) on Ebay. Usually NIB. They can become pricey. I've paid upwards of $22 for some of the really hard to find SP-SV colors. You're not only competing against other WW fishermen but also collectors. Keep your eye out at flea markets and the forums. You'll find them occasionally and when you do, jump on them quick.

I agree with surfer on this one. A pontoon boat would offer a lot of opportunities for handicap fishermen, especially wheel chair bound ones. You can find used pontoon boats fairly cheap and the fixup costs would be minimal as long as the toons are sound. The railing around the boat is the thing I'd be worried about. A bass boat, johnboat that's been decked just doesn't sound like a stable enough platform not with sufficient railing support. Good luck. Kudo's to wanting to take on such a noble project! 8-)

The Garcia's round reels are excellant reels to learn to baitcast with. The C4 versions are quite nice and will last you a long time. Skip the 6500 version, too big.

He took it back, bought a Steez and then noticed a cheesy whirring noise when he reeled it in. ;D

Where have you been hiding Val? ;D

The Tigers haven't had this kind of success since the late 70's when Al Onofrio was coach. Nice to see the home state team doing well. Very exciting offense.

I hadn't really bought any new rods or reels since the late 90's. I went back to college from 2000 - 2004 and fishing equipment upgrades sorta took a back burner. Went back fishing in full time in 2005 and I was having trouble using all my round reel Garcia's (that's all I owned besides some XLT XL plus types). I was in hand and wrist pain after just a couple hours. I realized I was going to have to convert to LP reels..... gulp. I never owned one before, considered them too wimpy. The past couple years I've been zeroing in on finding the most comfortable LP reel along with rod upgrades. I'm pretty set on all my soft plastic rods, still need a few more rods and reels. I'm pretty confident when I'm done next year upgrading I'll be set for quite a awhile to come.

My Dad with the basics. Virgil Ward and Bill Dance probably taught me the most along with assorted anglers I fished with when I joined a club at 18.

Daiwa Advantage 150 series reels regularly sell for only around $40 - 50 in nearly new condition on Ebay. These are currently selling for $100 new at Cabela's. Either the H series (high speed) or the P version (lower speed 5:1).

For $20 you can buy a cover support strapping system from BPS that should adequately do what you want it to do. I bought on years ago and it served me well.

More good info Ronnie. I guess I never figured on the overall cook time damaging the outer meat on a larger bird, makes sense though. So on a 40qt (10 gal) SS pot, you'll want to fill it with 5 gal of oil on average?

8-) Cool. That's what I wanted to hear. Ronnie, I noticed Walmart has a 30qt turkey cooker. Wondering if that's large enough for say a typical 14-18lb bird.

I've thought about doing the deep fry deal with turkeys. I never thought I'd like it until I tried it. The cost of the cooker isn't a problem so much as the cost of the oil to cook it in. Question? Can oil you've cooked in be recycled to reuse again or does it need to be disposed of? If it can be reused, is there some sort of time limit that the oil must be reused again or it goes bad after so many months?

I'm afraid it's a matter of physics. A 35hp motor will be incapable of lifting that hull out of the water for it to ever run like you're thinking it should. My advice would be to install the motor and then begin making test runs. You didn't say if your 35 has trim or tilt, I'm assuming it doesn't so if that's the case you'll need to find the best preset engine angle to keep the engine at that gives the boat the best performance. In other words, have the motor tucked flush up against the transom and the nose will probably plow too much, move the motor up a notch on the presets and see how the boat runs. At some point you should be able to get enough bow lift where the boat sorta runs along without the nose plowing to bad. That's going to be about the best you can do.

Yes. Not a good thing either since some of my closer lakes are running low on water do to the drought. I haven't had the big motor beyond idle speed since spring. That's not a good thing either.