cart7t

Power drives are OK if you fish a lot of open water. I can see Walleye fisherman and crappie fishermen using them. They ARE NOT very good for bass fishing if you're in typical shallow water with cover. I owned one for 6 years and would never own another. The head turning speed is too slow, the stow and deploy system sucks, the foot pedal, while nice and flat, had a tendency to get dirty controls and had to be cleaned often. I replaced it once. The motor is noisy when the head turns and they tend to eat battery power more than a cable motor because power is used to turn the motor. If you're looking to save money, look at Minn Kota's Edge series cable controlled TM's. You can get the 55lb model for around $350-375.

I have one of the originals, I never intended to fish with it. They were a novelty item.

It's your noobness. There are spool brakes inside the reel on that model but unless they're worn down it's probably not a problem. With the practice plug at the tip, click the spool release, if necessary jiggle the rod tip a bit to get the plug falling. When the plug hits the ground the spool should stop. That's a correctly setup spool tension adjustment. As for the cast, first you need to turn your wrist sideways so the reel handles are pointed up. A proper cast with a baitcaster involves more wrist and forearm action than whole arm action. It also sounds like you're thumbing the spool a tad too long. Keep practicing. If your lure heads straight to the ground you've held down on the spool too long, if it shoots way up into the air you let up too fast. Practice, practice. BTW, that's a great reel to learn to Baitcast on. If you can master that reel the other new reels out there now will be a snap.

I've had 2 on mine for years without a problem.

Chris, I made my comments about Tournament angling primarily for this reason. I was dismayed when BASS was sold to ESPN. Not because I thought for a minute that ESPN wouldn't try and elevate the sport to the masses via media coverage, nope, it's because of all the other things BASS has stood for over the years that I knew would get shoved under the table as non-essential by a media giant running an organization for profit and cutting costs where necessary. Ray Scott was smart enough to realize that when you raise attention to a Bass fishing tournament to the general public, you start to create a public relations problem because all that public sees is guys hauling bags of bass out of the water for profit. All they see is a for profit tournament organization using publicly paid for lakes and recreational areas for their own gain without putting anything back. Ray began his own "Don't kill your catch programs, initiated his Federation to become active in legislature within their own states and at the federal level and became a pro-active watchdog when it came to the natural backlash to T fishing that this new exposure would bring. He led them to become pro-active with their own states fish and game departments to put back into the fisheries and leave them better than before they came. Just what has ESPN done? It's basically pizzed off its constituents who made up that voting block that made BASS a viable "voice to be heard". There are probably more large, for profit tournament organizations out there now than they're have ever been. They recieve far more press than they ever have. This for both SW and Freshwater fishing. Just what are these for profit companies doing to put back into the sport? What are they doing to justify their usage of public waters for profit? What are they doing on the conservation side of the equation that brings attention to themselves for helping our fisheries vs. just using them for gain? Not a lot. It's the same perception, a major tournament comes to a local publicly owned lake, rapes the waters as the high powered bass boats run all over the place rudely running local sportsman off the lake, haul in sacks of bass, give out some prize money and then move onto the next public lake. We as anglers have become pretty darn good over the years at fishing. We've got a multitude of tools available to us that weren't available even 10 years ago. If the numbers of fisherman had actually increased dramatically, all of them armed with these tools and knowledge, I'd hate to think what are fish populations would look like on average lakes and streams. Now more than ever anglers need to become pro-active in protecting what's been created for us over the years. Someone needs to lead us. Who's going to lead? The tourney organizations don't do alot. They're more interested in TV deals, wrapped boats and promoting guys who brake dance on the front deck of the boat after they've caught a fish all the while lining their pockets with money. This is the perception the general populace sees of bass fishing. It's not pretty. This is why I fear for fishing. This is why it's so vulnerable to attack from groups that could shutout fisherman in areas across the country. BTW, I frequent a particular Florida SW fishing forum and am quite aware of the current juggling game going on between SW commercial fishermans rights and the average anglers. There are plenty of Charter Captains down there in the Gulf that are nervous about their future as the limits on Grouper and Snapper get batted around like a badminton bird, all the while the commercial long-liners seem to be on the positive end of the limits. Regular old SW anglers now are faced with spending gobs of money to drive a boat offshore to fishing grounds only to be able to keep 1 whole fish. Whoopie! It's a mess down there but a lot of it has to do with better skilled anglers having better equipment that allows them to take more of the catch than in days gone by. I have no answer, the anglers down there are fighting tooth and nail. I hope they win and I've signed my share of on-line petitions for those guys so they can keep their rights.

If you're going to buy a balancing kit from BPS, skip the XPS one and get the other one they sell for around half the price.

Michigan Wheel has been around a long time. The rapture is a standard of theirs that's sold by places like Cabela's and Overtons. As a basic SS prop they'll work fine. I don't know what boat you're running but if you were looking for better performance overall there are other props out there that would be better, they'd also cost you more as well.

I'm installing a complete front deck insert along with carpeting at some point this year. I'll have lighted compartments, the works. I've got most of the parts except the carpeting. I've also got a livewell light to install as well.

Obviously, the Nixon pardon is what Ford is most known for but when you consider we also retreated from Saigon at almost the same time it's not hard to believe how bad times were back then. In retrospect, people were angry and wanted a scapegoat. Nixon was the guy. Ford saw it was time end the turmoil and threw a bucket of cold water on the whole country. We needed it and him. He will be missed and was one of the great ones.

There are lots of IM6 constructed rods out there right now. Some that cost $30 and others run up twice that much or more. They ALL fish differently. You can't tell how well a rod will fish until you get it on the water and try it out. Just holding the rods isn't enough.

I've got both but I've never really seen any distinct advantage of one over the other. The mag's are easier to adjust.

Nice thing about those ETECs vs other new motors is you can take your new rig to the water, drop it in and drop the hammer now. None of that break-in junk.

I agree with you Hale and if I was wanting to further a career in fishing, as a T angler or a sales rep or some other job within the field that that would probably be a course of action I'd take but the original poster was talking about someone who was only wanting to fish on a very local, club type level. Personally, I really can't see anyone wanting to sponsor someone at that level. There's little if any return unless it's a really big club or it's affiliated with a larger sanctioning body AND you actually are good enough to fish the sanctioning body state or national championships.

Exactly what the wife said. I'm going to look into those.

I'd say college ball is bigger in Texas but I'm not so certain that Florida is almost as equally in vibe with the sport. One of the Florida fishing forums I visit has almost as many college football posts in the fall as they do fishing posts.

i believe those conolon rods are on the lower end of the scale. If I was to compare them to ....uh oh.... a BPS rod, I'd say they're somewhere between a Graphite series IM6 and a Tourney Special at an IM7. Like reelmech posted in his thread, all rods are made differently. Manufacturers use the modulus designation as a means of providing a refereance point. Not all IM7's or IM6's are made alike. I've got an original Allstar classic is an IM6 rod and it's an outstanding rod nor would I get rid of it just to move up in modulus rating. OTOH, I had a couple of Tourney special worm rods that were IM7's a few years ago and those rods were absolute slugs. It's all in what they do with the fibers in the construction as to whether a rod is any good or not.

When on sale at $50, one of the best bargains out there. The Extremes, on sale now for $70 are even better.

Depending on what the sponsor is wanting in return for whatever monetary value you're recieving would be my guide to whether I'd take it. Way back when, when I used to fish tourneys I had a couple nibbles from interested local companies. I never got far because all they wanted was someone to hang around the boat shows and hawk stuff in return for freebies. When I started thinking about the time involved in attending the local boat show for a week but all the shows in surrounding areas that they would be participating in I started adding up my time in a dollar per hour figure and started realizing they were getting alot more than I would be. Personally, unless you're a great salesman or extremely successful as a fishermen in tournaments or both, I doubt you'll ever get anyone interested in giving you anything that you'll actually make out on in a positive way.

Nope, right in front of the house. There's a new subdivision built adjacent to ours. I've noticed more teenagers wandering around our streets than before, they seem to be coming from there. I'm hoping this isn't the beginning of a problem. What's odd is the subdivision is more upscale, I guess I'm expecting too much from the kids of those of better means. The tire place told me to hold onto the old tire in the event this happens again and they catch the perpetrator. The tire can be used as evidence.

There's an easier fix. Download Firefox for free.

For better or for worse it's definitely been increasing in popularity in my 35 years of bass fishing. That's not necessarily a good thing though, we have limited waterways to fish on. The days of CoE dams popping up and creating new fishing grounds are all but over. I worry about the overuse of the limited waters we have now. The growth I've seen has been biggest in the tournament side of the sport and I'm not sure that's good either. I've nearly wrote off most of the major reservoirs in my state because the constant pounding they recieve every weekend from March - Sept by tournaments. If you love T fishing, than that's a good thing I suppose, if you're in it for the enjoyment end of the sport than you'll find yourself getting pushed to smaller lakes. The pressure there is increasing as well as other like minded anglers head there to get away from the larger lakes. I'm looking forward to my retirement years when I can get on the water more often during the middle of the week and leave the lake on the weekends for the weekend warriors.

Congrats JT. Love the T-shirt.

Someone stuck a knife into one of my brand new (less than 400 miles on them) trailer tires a few weeks ago. I just got a new tire Saturday. Needless to say I haven't had the opportunity.

Floating on top of the water? If you mean on it's side, I doubt that fish is in any mood to eat anything. It's more than likely reflecting on days gone by and preparing itself to go to the big fish pond in the sky.

I've used them, they're supposed to be preventative maintenance but I've yet to see where they do much more that cause dust and dirt to accumulate on the steering rods when in storage or going down the road. Many OB's already have a greasing system built into the steering cable pass through, I know mine does. The end knut caps on those have bushings that are supposed to keep the grease in and the water out. As for your stiff steering, the problem probably lies in the cable itself. Those cable lube deals only lube the last foot or so of the cable, you've got 11-12 feet more of cable inside the boat. The problem is the factory grease they installed is stiffening and drying up. I don't know how old your boat is but it sounds like it's new cable time. If you've got a teleflex R & P system the cables are available on the web for around $80 - 100 a piece. I have known guys to pull the engine and try and get lube into the cable systems. It helped the stiffness only a little bit and was a stop gap measure at best. He wound up changing them out a couple years later. Changing out cables is not that big of a job. I strongly suggest having a partner to help. I've pulled cables before by myself and it was a chore without a helper. And yes, the engine will have to come off the boat.