cart7t

If the boat is relatively narrow, say under 70" in beam, then they called those cathedral hulls. Virtually all bassboats in the early to mid-70's were made this way. Very stable fishing platforms but they made for a wet and brutal ride when running down the lake.

Without knowing anything else about the lake, I'd concentrate on those points on the lower lake with C-rigged lizards, deeper cranks, slo-rolling a rat-l-trap and a T-rigged worm in a 10" size if I catch a fish using one of the search baits. If the lake has vegetation and or one of those arms on the lake has an active creek dumping water in my strategy changes considerably.

18 1/2 foot Champion Dual console, 150hp PRoV Yamaha.

The carpeted boards a boat sits on. The side boards or rails are normally called guides or bunk guides. Yep, you can buy pre-cut carpet pieces from either BPS or cabelas. I usually use leftover interior carpet scraps.

As stated. I find the best bite right up until just a little past dusk and then you might as well pack it in and catch some zzzzz's until around 2:30 to 3am.

You're definition of super fast isn't as fast as what a standard cable control motor can do. By pushing down hard I can change TM direction 180 degrees in a second, a power drive can't do that. I remember seeing a power drive type Motorguide at the boat show a number of years ago. It was about a year or so after I had bought my MK power drive. They had it set up in a test tank and I was shocked at how fast the head unit could turn. The thing is I don't recall the motor ever going into production. That may have been a prototype and had so many problems they scraped it I don't know but I do know it is possible to build a power drive head capable of very fast speed.

First, you said your kids are in their 20's, I wouldn't spend my money on a Fish n ski unless I absolutely had to do to due budget constraints of the family. Since yours are already grown I don't see where that's an issue. I own a dual console. I think it provides a little more comfort for the passenger when running down the lake at higher speeds. There are some issues with rod removal that a single console would take care of but my wifes comfort running down a chilly lake takes precedence. You can ski out of a DC bassboat just as easy as a fish and ski and when you're done skiing, a true bass boat is a far superior fishing platform than a fish and ski. As for trolling motors, this is being discussed in another thread. I owned one of the power drives for 6 or 7 years. The plusses, fairly flat foot control, they make multiple styles of removable mounts for them and The long cord allows you to operate it anywhere in the boat. Now the minus. The turning time is way too slow. If you're moving in close to shore to retrieve a hung bait, working rocky banks and need to make an emergency turn, coming in close to docks to fish or retrieve a hung bait the turning response time is just too slow. I would never own one again. Until they can get the turning speeds at least double what they are now, they're more hassle than they're worth.

I agree with sodak. The power drives are great if you're always fishing open water and never have to worry about making fast, emergency turns. The flat foot pedal is great too. I had one for around 6 or 7 years, the nice thing was all the removable TM mounts they had available for them. That came in handy when I converted the boat over to family skiing and tubing fun. Other than that I'd never own one again. Turning response time was way too slow. I often found myself reaching down and having to manually turn the thing in emergency situations.

Make sure your engine has the lifting ring on it, if not you'll have to purchase one. First undo all cabling, gas lines and battery lines, undo steering mechanism, attach hoist to lifting ring on top of motor and jack it up untill there's just tension on it. Now undo the 4 engine transom bolts. You may have to pop them back throught the transom with a mallet or hammer. Now jack the engine slightly pulling it away from the transom and shifting it to the left side of the boat so the steering mech slides out of the tubes. You may or may not have to pop the steering cables with the mallet to get them through the engine if they're bound up. Then you're done.

That's a great deal there. Everything run alright? Boat solid? If it is you got that for a steal.

I suppose if the fishing stinks you could always head to the local marina's and sell the balloons to the kiddies. ;D

If you really want to see something amazing, google up new orleans on the maps and take a look. They've added new photo's of the north part of town showing all the destruction plus they kept a couple old sections in for comparison. Wow! Sort of depressing really. Go up the gulf coast towards mississippi and alabama. Look closely at the towns along the coast. Notice all the blue roof tops (tarps). The destruction by Kartrina was amazing.

If I was gonna get me an all around boat this is it! I have heard nothing but good reviews of the Baychamp 22 footer.

I personally don't think the girls have a leg to stand on. Yes, Fish and Ski's are compromise boats. Not to offend any fish and ski boaters but those things suck to fish out of. They lack serious storage space because so much floor space is wasted with dual swivel bucket seats and the 3 across seating in the rear. There's no room to fish on the front deck and the back deck is basically an afterthought. Half the time the rod lockers in those things, if they even have one, can barely get a half a dozen rods in them easily. Unfortunately, due to the cost of a boat these days a compromise usually has to be made when you're spending that much money. You have to factor in complete family fun when so much of the budget is going towards a boat. As for these guys that's not the case. They've been saving and working extra hours and will essentially be spending their cash. This is a john boat you guys are talking about not a new ZX Ranger for Gods sakes. If the girls are that interested in the boating than explain to them it'll cost at least $40,000 for a decent boat you can fish and ski out of safely. This will then mean no more shopping trips for foo-foo for the house, no flowers on the anniversary or dinners out plus any and all future vacations will have to be taken with the boat to the lake. Then see how interested they are.

Hmmm.. that was almost a good story till you brought the 13 year old kid into it ... if ya know what I mean.

You've got 3 seperate bidders and who knows how many watchers. You'll usually see the following. A bidder punches in a decent bid with about 2 days left hoping it holds, or the thing will rise quickly the last few minutes it's up. I wouldn't worry about it.

;D I'm picturing some guy in the front of the boat with a scorched and smoking rod and reel in his hand after his balloon drifted into a set of power lines. I'm sorry but this just isn't going to work. 1. Helium balloons will rise straight up without wind, with a wind, there's no way to control the direction. 2. Just where are you trying to place your lure with this balloon idea that isn't possible using normal casting routines? 3. If you somehow get your lure into some out of the way spot using this balloon method, how in the h-e- double hockey sticks are you going to reel it back in with a fish on the other end? 4. Do you carry the balloons onboard deflated and keep a tank of helium with you or do you stop at the local party place and pickup some. Just where in the boat are you going to store these things AND I've got to carry a BB gun around as well? 5. As for the BB gun. An average BBgun isn't very accurate beyond 25-30 yds. Most people can easily cast that far. If you allow the balloon to travel beyond normal casting distance I can't for the life of me see how you'll ever hit the thing. SaltWater anglers fishing off piers or jettys are known to use kites to take their baits out further. It's done occasionally offshore as well. Balloons? Sorry, I just don't see it.

If this is the newspaper type magazine Bass puts out on top of Bassmaster I say don't waste your money. I subscribed the day the thing became available many years ago. It certainly had more indepth coverage of the tourney trail plus gobs of political stuff that BASS was involved in across the country along with pretty good coverage of federation goings on but as far as getting any real insider info I'd have to say no. The magazine now covers the tournaments as good as the Insider used to and considering ESPN has taken over the organization, I'd say any info on conservation issues will be ignored since ESPN basically cares about the tournaments and little else that BASS used to be known for.

Do you have a link to the ebay page?

Most any bassboat with a 50hp motor or better can easily pull a tuber or boarder.

My favorite is anywhere there are large bass.

Ouch! ;D Orlando, Bill Dance, Hank and my all time favorite is Larry Nixon.

Ahh yes, the Jasper river run clips. Life beyond 90 mph in a bass boat. Those are some extreme outboard motors. They probably cost as much as my truck, my wifes car and my boat put together!

Take it into a shop. You shouldn't have to pay anymore that $100 for the repair. Prop repair isn't just a matter of pounding on the blades to straighten them out, you have to have prop blocks and the proper tools to ever get that thing back to manufacturer spec. with the proper pitch and cup.

All boats will take a wall of water over the back end if you just shut the thing down coming off plane. Gradually reduce speed and be prepared to burp the throttle to push the boat just ahead of the oncoming backwash.