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My previous boat had been clear coated by the previous owner. It didn't last and honestly, for the work involved the short time span that the stuff adheres isn't worth the time or effort. I don't think it went 3 years before it started flaking everywhere.

Tomorrow, BassResource.com member tartus, smacks down Hank Parker on spinnerbait fishing. :

I've fought it before, here's the best tip I have. Pull the ottoman up to the best chair in the house and watch fishing shows on TV. Fishing in the snow? ;D

Find the shad, you should be able to find shad balls roaming in the upper end of the lake. I'd definitely be looking up that little creek/river. I'd then target cover like wood on any sort of point that extends out and intersects where those shad are located at. Look for any timber break lines or high spots that hold cover. Crankbaits, spinnerbaits and jig fishing around that cover. With those water temps the bass will still be fattening themselves up for winter. Your starting depth will be dependant on clarity. The clearer the water the deeper you should start fishing.

1. First, why is this employee even talking about his pay raise to begin with. It's just not the norm and in some companies, against policy. 2. Are the current employees on a pay scale? New hires are often hired in at the lowest scale and the furthest from the top cap of a given pay scale. Many companies have a non-linear pay raise plan in place. The closer you are to the top cap of your total, potential pay scale the less money you're capable of receiving come raise time. If this employee was at the bottom of said pay scale, his potential to receive a higher raise is more than other employees who are currently being paid a salary or hourly wage closer to the top cap. Overall the tenured employees are still making more than the new hire. 3. Some companies have an arbitrary pay raise system that allows only a percentage of total employees at a location the ability to receive more than the standard raise the company is giving to 90% of the employees. In other words, in a given work place with the company only giving 2% raises this year, only 1 employee can be deemed worthy of a 6% raise and one of a 4%. Then it comes down to how management wants to make that arbitrary decision as to who gets the better raise. That could be based on merit or as trivial as favoritism. 4. Before dropping his raise, find out all the facts first. The best cure to turning a motivated employee into a non-motivated one is to take away a pay raise after he's already received it.

I've had it in the past. There are several good stretching exercises that will stretch out those tendons in the foot that stretch across the heel.

I've had as many bad rod experiences with UPS as I have the USPS. I've gotten 2 rods in the past week. Both USPS. The first one came in a really cheap cardboard tube that was split but miraculously, the rod survived. The second one today arrived fine. Neither rod was well packed, in fact both rods had no packing inside at all. :

25 fish between 3 and 5 pounds in 2 nites isn't fun? 3-5lb fish are dinks? Say what?

Also remember, waypoints created on one GPS graph will not transfer to another by removing the chip and putting it into another graph. The waypoints are stored within the graph they were created on and do not transfer onto the mapping chip.

The Extreme's and Pro qualifiers are both great reels for the money especially when on sale. As are the Clunn reels. Don't bother with anything cheaper than an Extreme.

The S reel is more enjoyable to use than a Pre-dual brake SX or STX. Enjoy.

Larger fish become prey to otters during colder winter months when they become lethargic and less able to make fast escapes in order to evade an otter or worse, a family of otters. http://www.extension.org/pages/River_Otter_Damage_Assessment The state of Missouri re-introduced Otters into the states waterways around 10 years or so ago. They seem like such fun, loveable creatures don't they? The State has now realized it's mistake. What they didn't take into account is the otters main predators, the bear, mountain lion and bobcat are all in such low numbers as to be completely ineffective in keeping the otter population in check. Their population exploded and it began wrecking havoc on rivers and then, into ponds and fish farms. The state now has an aggressive trapping program in place to reduce their numbers.

IIRC, most of the pro's were against the deal. Brauer very much so. Some of the manufacturers made a big deal of it going so far as to build aero fairings for the boats to streamline them. What's so humorous is that area the course was set up in is the State park cove. Those buildings along the bank are the States Boatel, condo type buildings. You can dock right in front of your room. That whole cove is NO WAKE! ;D

I just left a negative for a seller. I purchased a used All Star classic rod in "Like new" condition. The rod arrived in a pathetically flimsy cardboard tube that was bent and torn in the middle. The UPS affixed a "I'm sorry we damaged the packaging on your package" sticker. That's amazing in itself. I removed the rod and lo and behold, the rod was undamaged despite the fact the tube was torn in half and bent over AND without the aid of ANY packing at all inside the tube. That's not why I left the negative rating. After removing the rod I found 3" had been cut off the rod butt and the end cap re-affixed. I immediately contacted the seller who has yet to respond. I left the negative primarily for the item not matching description. I probably would've left a Neutral due to the lousy packaging.

That was at Rend lake in Illinois. I think they tried that fishing/boat race thing 3 times that season.

Less than a $1000. Think about the potential sales market. Teens wanting a first vehicle, somebody interested in restoring the thing or somebody who has property and wants a truck for farm type chores. It certainly isn't a vehicle you'd want as an everyday driver.

I imagine it's much the same reason why Professional golfers don't have a bag of mismatched golf clubs.

Ha! Fiance is the easy part. Wait till you have get used to saying: "Yes dear" "Whatever you say dear" "I'm sorry dear" "You're right dear, I don't need that _______ (insert any rod, reel, lure the baitmonkey is begging you to buy here)"

I haven't had the day off after Thanksgiving in over 30 years. I'm used to it.

Congrats Mike.

It's all about him so who cares?

http://sites.mercurymarine.com/portal/page?_pageid=126,53050,126_53052&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL That's a link to Merc's prop selection guide. It's a pretty basic guide that doesn't take into account engine height nor current performance of the boat other than top speed. Just using the sketchy info you've provided, the guide says you should be running a 21-22p prop. That doesn't take into account that your boat is under HP'd, we don't know the true RPM at WOT since you're way over-revving before you even get to WOT and you have a jack plate on it which you apparently don't know the exact distance from the bottom of the pad to the prop shaft. BTW, that 115 Opti can be run all the way up to 5750 RPM's per Merc. 5200 is on the low end of that max rev scale.

If you were an experienced boater you'd know you're just wizzing in the wind here without some numbers. We don't know about your prop other than it's a cheap 17". We don't know your motor height in relation to the bottom of the pad. You're not translating any tach readings to let us know what RPM's you're spinning. Any advice you'll get at this point is **** slung at the wall.

Here's hoping more of this kind of news keeps happening into the new year!! Congrats!!

My wife spends around $20-25 dollars and usually gets them for me at Christmas. She normally gets them from JC Penney. I don't know the brand of this one but it's gone around 4 years and probably has a couple years left.