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Looks good. If that isn't treated wood make sure you seal it. Is that a Sears Gamefisher boat by any chance? Looks identical to a friends.

Is Dave Zimmerlee on the list? Would it be OK if he showed up with his spinning pole and a Zebco mounted on it like that one time and waxed another 20lber? Just askin.

Sounds like a lot of fun Matt and you don't have to be a member of some elitist club to fish it. And an 11 year old won 100,000? That would sure shake up those CA boys! ;D I can see why they want to limit their field out there to the "chosen ones", wouldn't want the prima donna's shown up by a youngin! Heck, even that dink catching KVD could show up and win sumthin with a 3lber!

You can get into a Penn Captiva for around that price.

eh, new boats are over-rated anyway.

Congrats. What lake?

If you have a sporting goods store closeby that does rod and reel repair it's really no big deal to put a new tip on a rod.

I know exactly how this goes muddy and I pray for you and your friends. Letting go by disconnection is the hardest decision most can make. Find comfort in knowing her pain will be no more when it's over.

Seems I saw a do-it-yourself project recently in Bassmaster on building a rod transportation tube using PVC piping.

Before anyone ever made a soft plastic jig trailer there was Uncle Josh #11 frogs. Here are some tips. At the front end of the frog, cut a bevel from around 3/4" back towards the front end of the bait so the front end is about half the thickness that it originally was. This allows the frog to swing more freely on the hook gap and makes it easier to remove. (You'll find getting the Pork off the bait can be challenging) Slice the V in the tail sections all the way to the actual chunk body. Adds more action. You can further slice each tail section into two to make four legs. Braid blades work great for cutting. Pork chunks will dry out quickly if not in use and just laying on the deck. If you're not using the bait for awhile, allow the jig to dangle in the water over the side or get one of those lure wraps. Definitely get a lure wrap for when running down the lake. I've also let the lure sit in my livewell if I forgot the wrap. I will dump a little of the brine water out and put some baitmate or other fish formula in the bottle. Make sure the bottles are always full over the top of the baits or they will stiffen. Good luck. Pork adds more bouyancy than plastic and they're great in the spring or fall.

That's just the kind of rig I'm going to be looking for in the near future. I'm finding it senseless to continue to drag my Champion around to smaller lakes that I either can't run the big motor on at all or can only run at idle speed. The gas to and from the lake is killing me. Good luck, nice deal. 8-)

I was fishing a lake about 10 minutes from the house in the early 90's that belonged to the St Louis County parks department, managed by the Mo. Dept of Conservation. Great fishing. Many downed trees in the water due to beavers. Banks steep enough I had to wrap one arm around a tree just to cast with the other. I had a lot of that lake to myself most of the time. I regularly caught 3 - 6lb bass out of that lake. No boats allowed. 1/2 the lake wasn't fished by most because you had to slog through swamp and woods to get to it. Then the subdivisions moved in and the beautiful people wanted better access to the entire lake. The Conservation dept. caved in like they usually do in this state. Lake was lowered. Sunken timber drug out. Banks bulldozed and contoured. Paved jogging trails with bridges in the swampy areas constructed. The fishing there sucks now. I don't even waste my time. Sometimes the powers to be, ie: $$$. Could care less about fishing quality and are far more concerned about satisfying everyone involved who wants to use a body of water. Including those generating income from said water. Weed control is never a really good thing for any body of water unless it makes it completely unusable. In this case they're clearing it so the recreational users can enjoy themselves. Nothing wrong with that unless it ruins the fishing. I'd say you've got an issue with too many T's and a weed control policy that's really hurting the fishing. If you're going to try and do something about it good luck. I doubt though you'll be able to accomplish what you want, revenue dollars are involved. That puts the screws to many initiatives.

yep, with box and goodies, mint condition AND if the right buyer comes along that reel could go $200 + easy.

I just posted in his other thread. With all the goodies in mint condition this will be a good seller. I'd cross list in both baitcasting reels and the vintage fishing equipment sections. BTW, that reel was made back when Shakespeare was making fairly decent fishing equipment. Whatever you do, DON'T USE IT!! ;D

I remember when the first Japanese style baits started getting branded by and sold in this country by some of the major manufacturers. They were priced at around $7 - 10 bucks for a crankbait. About twice the price, maybe a little more, of of the top end name brands. I purchased a few. They never caught anymore fish than the regular priced ones. I purchased some Luckycraft pointers as well. Side by side they lose in fish catching comparisons as many times as they win. I just sold a few Mega Baits. Yep, they were real purty. Great paint finish on them. Nice hooks. Nice craftsmanship. I can just imagine my reaction the first time I banged one of those suckers on the rocks or a dock. Or got it hung up. I don't have an issue with anyone who wants to lob a $20 crankbait and bang it off the rocks all day. If they've got the guts to do it, more power to them. If they think that $20 bait will catch more fish than a $5 bait, well, more power to them again. I've yet to ever see with first hand knowledge that that was the case but it's the guys that believe it that keep that end of the market going. BTW Here's a question. If you're fishing in your $55,000 Ranger bassboat and hang that $25 bait up on the rocks real shallow with waves breaking in, do you take the chance of banging up the bottom of your boat getting the bait back or do you break off and re-tie another $25 crankbait on?

Senile, I just re-read your thread and you're saying you'll have $25-30k to spend on a boat and you're not limiting it to just new, but a good used one as well?? Uhh,, I'd forget that Stratos 186 and start looking. Your doors are open to PLENTY of great used rigs with that price range.

Find another lake.

Post some pictures. We can probably identify them by make or brand.

These are some reels you might be interested in. Used. Check ebay for these, here, Bass Fishing homepage or Bass Boat Centrals Rod and reel board. Shimano Curado's, the green ones, 3.8:1 or 5.0:1 can be had used for around $75-90. Daiwa Advantage 150P, It's a 5 ratio reel that you can find there for around $45 - 60 nearly new. Older BPS Extreme or Pro Qualifier reels in 5 ratio's. $30 - 45 depending on age and condition. BPS Rick Clunn reels model RCX1000. I've got a couple of these, nice. $35 - 50 on ebay. New reels Citica's for around $100, check the forums, you find some like news for less. BPS Extremes as you stated, 5.4:1. BPS Pro Qualifier reels at 5.4:1, $100, watch for sales. Daiwa Advantage 150P, a couple places on Ebay sell those new for around $80.

Darn! I was hoping it (Revo) would've dropped to $90 shipped! ;D

To be fair to the doubters Bassboy, the no-prop on the motor business is ridiculous. There's nothing stopping the owner from sticking an el-cheapo $50 - 70 comp prop on that thing so someone can take the boat for a test drive if they wish, that's really the only way you'll know how that engine performs. A static test in a tank at a dealership and a dynamic test on the water are two completely different things.

I would also suggest a Missouri built Charger boat. Unfortunately the closest dealer I see to the KC area is in Pittsburg Missouri.

Well, first night in around 2 1/2 weeks that I slept without an attack. Fingers crossed.

Back from the doc. I'm on Prednisone. We talked it over. I'm probably around 1/2 through this cluster event. Most of my attacks are happening at night, I'm up too late for O2. By the time I could get any pain reliever into me the worst of it has already passed. I'm sorta learning to deal with the pain as I'm going along. Hopefully this stuff will end the problem, I've got enough for a month. Thanks LBH for all the info. I'm going to explore on this some more in the future. I've probably been suffering through these cluster events on and off for around 20 years. I'm guessing the average time between events is 2 - 3 years. I never knew what it was. Always thought it was sinus related. Even had a CT scan and sinus cavity exploration (ouch!) about 4 or 5 years ago. and...... gotta give kudo's to the wife. she's been harping on me the last 2 times I've had these that they were probably cluster headaches...... she was right again.... :

Just watching that video on your link to the 176 it's a slug. It's also got a less aggressive V, that explains the lack of roll in the hull when he moved to the outside edge of the boat even with that narrower beam. Less aggressive V's mean a rough water ride. Couple that with sluggish speeds that boat exhibits in that video and you're in for a pounding in rough water. As long as you don't fish big waters and if you do, make sure you get off before things get rough those boats are fine. The realistic HP rating on those boats should be twice the upper end. Really, the hull weight on that 176 is 1200lbs, no lightweight. If you watch that 176 video with the 70hp the hull is barely half out of the water at top end. Tremendous drag means slower speeds and a bouncer in bigger chop. If that's not an issue than the boat seems like a pretty good deal but, if you want at least a little performance I'm afraid that thing will fall flat on it's face. It's a nice, simple boat for someone not the least bit interested in any type of real performance but wants a solid fishing platform. If you're like me though, occasionally I like to run my boat and have some fun with it. You'll have to scale back your definition of fun as far as the running aspects of that rig.