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I've got old Garcia Ultra Mag XL plus reels on all my crank sticks. They cast a country mile, have a 4.7:1 gear ratio and can be had in like new condition on Ebay for $60-80.

I've really never understood the allure of centrifugal braking systems that require you to disassemble the side plate in order to adjust them and I don't care what the brand. You'd think in this day when they're capable of of building a reel with a gazillion bearings made of spaceage materials that they'd realize that when you're on the water it's often necessary to make braking adjustments in the course of a fishing day. Yesterday was a perfect example. The day started out calm, by 10am the wind kicked up and it was necessary to kick out an extra brake. Doing that on the lake is a pain.

Basscat is one of the last of the family owned boat companies out there. They are very well made.

I don't hate something I've never tried. I use Allstars and some BPS Extremes.

Tracker/Nitro is the only boat company I know of that had a standalone website for people to voice their gripes on whether due to service after the sale or workmanship/design problems.

Wish I could do that with all the joints in my body. ;D

If you're talking about a advertised price boat like a Nitro or the Stratos 176, not usually. Normally those are "what you see is what you get" prices. Where you can dicker is on non-package boat deals. Of course, that all goes out the door if you've got a motivated dealer who needs to move a boat. Try checking local dealerships for any last years models that are sitting around or boats sitting around that were ordered but the deal fell through at the last minute. I've known of a couple dealers who special ordered boats, then rigged them and the buyer couldn't follow through on the deal. The dealer was basically stuck with the boat and was offering a good deal to sell it. Granted, you probably won't get the color you want and the options are pre-selected but the dollars saved make up for it.

With a budget of $400 I'd go with a pair of Fishmark 480's. They're about $200 each. Yes, they're black and white units but frankly, color units don't do anything other than add color to the screen, they're no better than the B & W units. If you want a GPS, you could get yourself a Garmin Etrex later for a little over $100.

At what point are you suffering the porpoising? I had a 16 1/2 Champion that did that but only in the 3200-3800 rpm cruising range. Beyond that it ran fine. The hulls were known for doing that due to the Extreme weight in the back end of the boat. I just trimmed in and dealt with it that way. It added more steering torque while cruising but it wasn't objectionable.

I joined 24hr fitness gym. Lost 20lbs, stopped going for around 2 months, gained it back. ;D Seriously, I'm still paying so I'm back at it soon. At 50, the first thing I noticed as well as others noticed about me was more stamina, especially lifting and climbing hills or stairs. 2nd, far less joint pain. It was unbelievable how much more limber my joints feel. No aching and cracking when getting out of a chair.

and what are they, exactly? A boat i should stay away from? A decent boat with a good price? Since both my brother and i have never owned a boat before, would it be a better idea to buy a used boat instead of a new one? Since it's your first boat, I'd suggest used. There are tons of really nice boats out there at really great prices on the used market right now. Since you really don't know exactly what you're wanting you're better off spending less money on used and if you don't like it, sell it in a few years and get something more in line with what your fishing needs dictate. New boats really depreciate fast, you'll take a big hit if you try and sell within the first few years and that big financial hit will probably force you to hold onto the boat longer than you might want to.

They are what they are.

Made here in St Louis. A guy posted on a Florida fishing forum I frequent that he had bought one and loved it. I seem to recall that there may be some connection between this company and the Ardent reel folks, also made in Missouri.

Most public ramps here in Missouri are posted no fishing, that goes for the courtesy docks as well. As for the boaters in question. The husband did the right thing by not losing control. The last thing you would want to do would be to verbally reprimand your wife in public. Everyone has to learn at some point, accidents happen. My wife once convinced me to let her load a Ranger Bass boat I used to have on the trailer. I figured what the heck. There was a tail wind with a little wave action which caused me concern but I though she could handle it. She lined up on the trailer alright but a when she went to drive it up and on a small tail wave lifted the boat and the bow eye went over the top of the bow stop. Thankfully the bow stop swiveled when she drove the doggone thing about 2 feet past the bow stop. I had to wade in and push her back. She was pretty embarrassed but at least she had the thing centered straight on the trailer. No damage other than to her pride. I didn't say anything other than to tell here that loading the boat in that kind of wind and waves would be tough even for me.

I've owned a few 150's over the years and I've never had any problems hitting max RPM's running any 21p prop on one. You've either got a tack problem or that 21p prop isn't what you're thinking it is.

I was over at Mom and Dads today for mothers day and picked up the front section of the St Louis post dispatch. Top of front page was a picture of a guy caught cheating at a tournament down at Lake Wappapello, I believe this year or last fall. Anyway, conservation agents were cruising the lake day before the T when they saw this guy in a bassboat hanging around a duck blind looking a little suspicious. They watched him, they waited till he left and then went over to check it out. Found 2 nice bass stringered to the blind. They marked both fish by punching small holes in their dorsal fin. Then waited for the weigh in the next day. They caught the guy red handed with the fish. Oddly, it still wasnt' enough to win, he wound up in second. Authorities handcuffed him and drug him off in front of an applauding audience. The guy was a local in poplar bluff. He's now ostracized in that community. Basically blackballed from just about any retailer or business. He's getting ready to move out of town. Anybody know about this guy. I think his first name was Jack.

Ding, Ding, Ding! I've said it in other threads and I'll say it again here. Why isn't the press looking more closely at the home lifestyle these kids are coming from? Probably because too many couples who think they're "good" parents would be able to relate I'm sure.

Try and find the older Pre-buyout rods or go with the TAS or Platinum series. Good rods, I have several.

Why don't you fish with this guy and try and modify his behavior towards keeping these big bass? Even if he's float tubing, the fact someone else is along to be able to take a photo of the thing while you're still on the water certainly couldn't hurt. BTW, those meat shows do nothing to me. I'd be embarrassed to post shots like that on any bass fishing forum.

LOL. Set the bar low enough and your expectations will always be exceeded! That's my approach as well. ;D

I think the problem with this statement is that people can AFFORD these high priced boats (monthly payment wise) if they take out these l-o-o-o-n-g term loans. When you stop and think about the hurdles life can throw into your life over the course of 5,7,10,12 or especially 15 years, it's not hard to realize that making a financial commitment to a bank for something other than a house, especially something that depreciates as badly as boats do, is really putting yourself in a finacially dangerous position.

By John W. Schoen Senior Producer MSNBC Updated: 7:12 a.m. CT July 21, 2005 John W. Schoen Senior Producer Profile E-mail When major oil companies report their quarterly profits next week, they're once again expected to post record numbers. With crude trading around $60 a barrel, the oil industry is enjoying one of the biggest windfalls in its history. But as the industry looks for places to put that cash, it's finding it harder and harder to put funds to work finding new deposits of oil and natural gas. By just about any measure, the past three years have produced one of the biggest cash gushers in the oil industry's history. Since January of 2002, the price of crude has tripled, leaving oil producers awash in profits. During that period, the top 10 major public oil companies have sold some $1.5 trillion worth of crude, pocketing profits of more than $125 billion. This is the mother of all booms, said Oppenheimer & Co. oil analyst Fadel Gheit. They have so much profit, it's almost an embarrassment of riches. They don't know what to do with it. The reason for the boom is simple. Much of the investment in finding that oil -- and developing the wells and pipelines needed to produce it -- has already been made. So an oil field that was profitable with oil selling for $20 a barrel is much more profitable with oil trading around $60. That's left the industry with a happy problem -- what to do with enough cash to fill a supertanker. Many publicly traded oil companies have been busy buying back their own stock, which helps drive up the price of the rest of the shares left on the open market. Since January 2002, stocks of major oil companies have gained 88 percent; during that period the Standard and Poor's 500 index has gained less than half as much. Oil producers have also given investors a raise by gradually increasing the dividends paid out to shareholders. And they've paid down their debts to record low levels. ExxonMobil, for example, is virtually debt-free - with a cash pile of more than $25 billion. All of this industry good fortune has not escaped the notice of consumers, whose anger at higher gasoline prices has been rising in lock step with the price of crude. The energy bill recently enacted by both houses of Congress provides little relief for U.S. energy consumers. But a continued rise in prices could bring increased political pressure to find ways to lower the cost of energy, according to Tom Kloka at the Oil Price Information Service. "This is something that Americans regard as their birth right," he said. "If gasoline prices are still north of $2.25 (a gallon) when we reach the midterm election, there's going to be an awful lot of outrage." Thanks big oil. If you're having such a hard time figuring out what to do with all this money how about stopping for a moment and thinking about what this windfall is doing to this great country that makes it possible for you to enjoy it. How about giving up some of this by cutting back prices and taking less of a profit? You're putting a serious hurt on the this economy and putting people out of jobs needlessly.

I think I'd call that the best d**n pair of headphones I ever had on.

If you're running along and the motor goes BANG, clankity, clank, clank you might need to rebuild the motor. Seriously, before you buy, take the boat to a qualified marine mechanic and let him do a thorough test on the motor to let you know. It's one of those cost exceeds value kinda deals. Unless you can do it yourself the cost of parts and especially labor makes only the larger outboards economical to rebuild and even those it really depends on how old the motor is.