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Triton makes a fine boat. Look, most of the major brands make a solid, dependable boat anymore. It all comes down to things you can't determine on the sales floor. If you're going to drop that much money on a new boat and you've never owned one before I'd strongly suggest taking test rides in several brands before spending that much money and locking yourself into something you may or may not like either due to the way it handles in rough water or how it works just floating there as a fishing platform.

There was a time when the pro's swore by hand controls over foot controls. That's when all those bigfoot on/off switches came out and the handle extensions were all the rage. I used a hand control on one of my boats in the early 80's and could never figure out why anyone would prefer them over foot control.

Not sure exactly but it sounds like either a fuse or an inline choke that prevents TM noise from feeding into the DC battery line and interfering with electronics or a stereo. Either way it sounds like that thing is open and needs replacement;

I had a friend who had one of those Bottomline deals that clamped onto the transom (or anywhere you wanted). It worked OK. Not really good definition and the sidefinder feature was kinda worthless. It last about 3 years and then it broke.

I've never heard of the brand. What type of boat is it?

Make sure you ride before you decide. Hopefully you can get the boat out a day with rough water so you can really make a good judgement. I'm pretty prejudiced towards Champion. Best rough riding boat out there. Charger is another good one, not fast but a solid, predictable ride with incredible storage. Stratos also makes a very nice boat and I'd also give kudo's to BassCat. A fine boat made by a family owned business in Mountain Home, ARK. Good luck with your search.

A custom builder of very fast boats and as stated, in the vein of Bullet, Blazer and Allison. Unless you're into ultra high performance boat driving these type of boats can be dangerous in the hands of novices at WOT. As for fishing platforms, they're no better than any other assembly line BB. Here's there website http://www.strokerboats.com/

I'm heading to the lake for 5 days, some time will be spent crappie fishing. I've got an anchor with about 50 feet of rope on it but I think I'll just cut it down to about 10 feet. Who needs the extra 40 feet when I can just dangle the anchor over the side and the boat stays in place!!

To install you'll need a holesaw and wiring stuff to hook it up. Fairly simple. You'll have to find where the trim sensor wires are at in order to hook them up. Trim gauges are probably one of the most useless gauges on the dash. I can see if my motor is trimmed all the way down for take off and I'm watching the Tach, not the trim gauge when I honing in on maximum speed.

I'd still suggest Lake of the Ozarks. It's only an extra hour or 2 past MT and the fishing potential would be so much better. I'm leaving for the lake tomorrow and staying down till Sunday. The crappie bite is also hot right now as the fish are on the beds.

Just what kind of markers are you using? I've dropped mine in water as deep as 35' and I've always had enough line, if I didn't, I'd add more line. Another amazing feature of mine is the buoy actually stops unwinding when the weight hits bottom. Granted, I had to pay extra for that feature but it's worth it. Now, if there's a decent chop on the water it's not unheard of for the marker to unwind occasionally as it rides the waves but certainly not to the extent where they're traveling "unknown distances" away from my target I was marking in the first place. Since your markers are allowed to just float around with the weights dangling I'd suggest tieing a 2/0 treble on the end by the weight and bait it with a bluegill or some livers. Sounds like a perfect opportunity to double up on your catch with some catfish.

Just a couple things. Pull the prop on the trolling motor and make sure you don't have anything wrapped around the prop shaft. If that's not the case it sounds like the motor head is shot. Time for a new trolling motor. Same thing with the bilge pump. Make sure something has gotten jammed into the impeller impeding it's turning. If that's not the case then there's either a sort in the wiring to the pump motor or the motor itself is shot. and I'm still very confused on the boat nose skying on take off. I've only had that when I had too much water in the boat or the trim wasn't all the way down.

As I understand it, a crayfish has a blueish tint to it after freshly molting it's exoskeleton. This is also the time the little bugger is most vulnerable. I think that explains the blue.

Just 3 sounds, words actually... "Get the net!"

I don't know how much line comes on the bouy's. I'm thinking it's 50' but it could be less, either way I don't fish in any water any deeper than what's on the bouys anyway. If I was, I'd merely add more line to it. A bouy without the sinker hitting bottom is worthless. BTW, Dropping a buoy without the sinker hitting bottom is no different than dropping an anchor on a boat with it hitting bottom. It's a waste of time. Bodies of water aren't stagnant from top to bottom. There's actually current, however slight, at different depths. If your line with sinker is merely dangling it's very likely those currents will drag the bouy way off whatever it is you're trying to mark. Even if that doesn't happen, current or wind on the surface will move the bouy. As for whether the sinker is actually falling straight down and giving me a precise representation of the exact breakline I'm trying to mark, I only use the bouys as a referance. Once they're in location I'll go to my finder to see where the structure is exactly as compared to where the bouy ended up. It's usually pretty close. Besides, I don't want the buoy cord right on top of the structure anyway but off structure. I sure don't want to worry about a fish getting itself tangled up in the bouy cord.

Wind blows plankton up against shores or points baitfish follow the plankton bass follow the baitfish. Bass then hang at murky/clear breakline on said windy point/bank to ambush baitfish. I think you can figure out what to do from there.

I stick with greenish hues in the spring. I normally fish wiggle wart crankbaits which have a tremendous action and very closely mimick Crayfish in size. I'll start to change to a more brownish color as the season moves on.

Trolling motor shorting out when in the water? Bilge pumps blowing fuses? On top of all the other problems? Geebus! You got taken!! If the seller made claims that this boat was in good working order and ready to run on the water I think I'd go back to him first and see what he says. You might want to negotiate him giving some money back on this thing to help defray the repair costs that you must now shoulder. If that didn't work I'd then talk to a lawyer about sueing in small claims court if possible. This boat is 12 years old and while it's not unusual for one that age to have that many problems you need to know that you've gotten yourself into a money pit right off the bat. All these problems didn't just suddenly happen, the seller was well aware it had problems.

I don't have anywhere near the rods in the boat in the summer as spring or fall. 6' Allstar Med rod for topwaters 6' 9" Allstart Med rod for ratltraps and buzzbaits 6' 6" TS Med/HVY for worms 7' Shimano HVY for flippin. I'll toss a second 6'6" rod in the box in case the first one gets messed up somehow or I feel like c-riggin. I could also slim down some more by just eliminating the 6' allstar and just take the 6'9".

I've never heard of anything so crazy in my life. Let me ask you this. If you go to anchor your boat do you allow the anchor to touch bottom or does it just hang, dangling off the side?

Ya know, that's a good question. I found this place at Ebay that sells all kinds of Dessicant kits with different sizes of Gel packs in them. A kit is supposed to come with a chart to help you determine just how much you need. I can tell you I did a google search and the charts I found I'd need a chemist to decipher them. Here's the link http://stores.ebay.com/Desiccants-Silica-Gel-from-7177Judy

I fish alone most of the time but I certainly welcome taking my wife or son. Obviously the overall tone of the trip changes when they're along, not that I mind. My wife loves to bass fish and she often outfished me which she loves to rub in. My son OTOH isn't quite into fishing as much as me. I like to take him if I know the fish are biting good and he's likely to easily catch a fish. Otherwise, I wouldn't mind sharing a boat with someone of equal skill level or someone less skilled whose willing to learn. The only type I wouldn't want to take out is someone completely unskilled in angling including rod and reel skills. If I was guiding for money that would be OK but not for a day on the lake where I'd like to have a little enjoyment too.

Woah!! I hate to say this but you've got multiple issues going on with this boat. First, how much pad hull boating experience have you had and did you take this boat out for a shakedown run before buying? I see a few problems. When you're taking off from a dead stop or idle speed are you making sure you trim the motor all the way IN or all the way to the down position. If you're not, you're going to get that bow rise up like that. Second, if you are trimming all the way in, are you sure the trim is actually going all the way in. You may have some problems with the power trim not allowing it to completely drop to the full down position thus you'll have that bow high takeoff till you get that fixed. The motor warning is a completely different issue that needs immediate attention. As for how the boat is sitting. When you say left I assume you're reffering to the Port or passenger side of the boat? Check how you've got equipment laid out in the boat. It's not unusual for too much weight to be on one side and cause this problem. It's also not unusual for any boat to sit a little lower on one side although it's usually the starboard side.

The bench seat was acting as a bulkhead as far as lateral rigidity in that hull. You need to get something back in there to help with cross support across the beam. You're asking for trouble if you don't.

Regardless of the type of boat. Rigging with the manufacturers max. HP engine ensures you're going to get the most out of that hull as is possible. Prop type will obviously be the difference once you've made the switch but going up 100% in HP is a good thing. Look around on the net for a nice used 50. You should easlily find one for under $3k.