gamblerOH

If your johnson is one of the ficht then I would replace it with something else. The earlier fichts had a lot of problems, Thye have it corrected so if a newer powerhead will fit I would take them up on their offer to put on a new powerhead since you will get a warranty with a new one.If you buy anothe rboat most likely the powerhead will not be new so you may be up against the same thing soon after getting it home. Remember, they all break down.

If you must use a crankbait this time of year then tie it on a carolina rig and fish it off of those drop-offs and points.I'm sure that the thermocline matters but I have had better luck trying to pinpoint places that will hold fish, thermoclines will cover almost the whole lake, the fish wont.I have no problem seeing thermoclines on my color fish finder but still dont think I catch more fish in that zone.

Never thought of adding a blower, Im ordering one today ;D

Good idea, the tach will tell you all you need to know. I hope you went ahead and got some hydraulic trim tabs to go along with your jack plate and performance prop, you could also think of adding nitrous ;D. Really though if your rpms check out good I would leave it alone. I just talked to a buddy of mine whose 40 hp on a 17 ft. aluminum does well with light loads but gets really slow with heavy loads,like I said earlier you were most likely hauling more weight than the boat was designed to handle. I hope the shop will take back the stuff you went out and bought, its gonna be tough if you have to loose a couple grand on performance parts ;D

It sounds to me like you are already propped good. If your boat will come out of the hole with that heavy load then I wouldnt mess with it. 13.5 is not a bad speed for a already heavy boat hauling a heavy load.I'm sure you were way over the coast guard weight limits for that boat. Mine is a 20 footer and is only rated for 4 people or 600 lbs. I had a 40 merc a long time ago and it would not run over 20 with just 2 people (we were kids about 135lbs each) so I think you are in good shape already.I dont think you'll be needing a performance prop and a jackplate though

Largemouth dont seem to school like a striper will,but since their favorite meals ofter school(shad) I guess you could say the largemouth will feed in large groups occasionally

As far as gas goes as small boat does no better than a big boat. My boat uses 20 gallons per hour, but goes 70+ miles per hour. A small boat 9.9 for example uses 3 gallons per hour and on an aluminum boat would average about 10 miles per hour. so.... 20 gallons takes me 70 miles and in order to go 70 miles with a 9.9 on an aluminum you would use 21 gallons . It just sounds like the big boats use more gas but keep in mind they cover a lot more water

Rodknocker, did you fall and bump your head? I'm only kidding, if I were to buy a new boat today it would be a skeeter just because they are the best mix of speed, handling and storage. Great boats ;D

Well, unless you bought a Gambler I'll still be sittin in your spot But since you said your boat was fast and had good storage I would have to say you bought a Stratos, they are one of the faster hulls that still have lots of space.I will give you the fact that a Gambler sucks when it comes to storage. I know since you said its fast it cant be a tritoon.

Keith you're absolutely right. I cant afford a $40,000 boat either, but I bought one that was a couple years old so I paid a lot less than that. If I did not fish tourney theres no way I would have the boat I have, I wouldnt need it. I would have a boat very similar to yours(love the evinrudes) and like you said could go anywhere I wanted. My only point is that most lakes have HOT SPOTS and it cant hurt to be the first one there. A guy in our bass club has won several of our tourneys from a 17 foot tracker with a merc , however in this river tourney he blanked because the creeks were so far away from the launch point he had to fish the main body.Smaller boats dont have the fuel capacity or speed to make 40-50 mile (one way) runs. I dont think I would consider your boat a poor mans boat, my first boat was 15 foot fiberglass with 40 hp. merc. I bought it for 600$ and it ran was a poor mans boat, and the longer I owned it the poorer I got ;D By the way nice boat,is yours a jet drive??

To be honest If your fishing a big lake or river and have a long run to make which is often, 60 mph wont even get you there. I ran 40 miles one way in a tourney this weekend. My boat happens to be fast enough that even after drawing 19 I still managed to be the third boat there. The spot i'm talking about is without a doubt the best creek in this particular pool of the river so it is very important that you get there fast. I was behind a couple of others who drew low starting #'s. I finished 5th place, no money. The tourney was won out of the creek I was fishing, so i think if you are serious about winning then a fast boat is a must.In my opinion I think 65 is the minimum to look for when buying a tourney boat(75 is better ) so thats why they cost $40,000.

I think its the 12 year financing, thats why after hes owned it 5 years he still owes 30,000 on it. I had no clue that you could get a boat financed for that long. I always buy my stuff used and the banks will only finance a used boat for 5 years(i've heard some go for 6) so at least I get it paid off in a reasonable time. we had a thread on here a while back similar to this and some pointed out that the boat manufactures were raising prices since they new the banks would stretch the payments out so long. I think this is exactly whats going on, they know if someone can just pay the payment then they will buy the boat.

Mac, you did the right thing! Roadwarrior is a great guy. I have gotten carried away on here before trying to prove my point of view. I was going to go fishing with Roadwarrior since his ratio was 10:1 but now I think I'm going to go with you since yours is 1:1 --- just kidding ;D

When I went to get insurance on my Gambler my agent said it was one of those brands they dont insure. If I remember the brands were Gambler, Bullet, Allison, Norris craft and Swift. He said its because they fell under High performance category. I had no problem getting it insured through Progressive insurance though.

Most outboards are measured gallons per hour. I have tried to check my merc.200 outboard miles per gallon and i'm guessing it gets about 3 mpg.I read somewhere that it burns 20 gallons per hour at wide open throttle

Jagrrich, you are not one of those people. The people we are talking about dont realize or care that they are holding others up, you on the other hand realize that others are waiting and try to do better.I have launched alone a lot and its not easy,but if i'm not fishing a tourney and its a weekend then I try to go to a ramp that gets less use. The main ramps seem to get all of the tourney traffic.

Ben, when you connect a 24v system you are making it truly 24 volts, it is no longer just a 12 volt battery. You connect the pos of one to the neg of the other with a jumper wire. The only way to charge them like youre saying is to unhook the batterys. Bassin101, you should be able to leave everything hooked up all of the time. Just plug in the unit and thats it. I use Interstate batteries so they are refillable, but i've never had to add anything.

Roadwarrior, like I said in my earlier post I usually get to the ramp early, so when my boats in the water and docked I always find any single boaters and ask them if they would like for me to back them in, they almost always accept the help and it makes a huge difference for everyone. A lot of earlybirds in our club do the same thing, this helps to insure all of outr guys make it to the water in time for blast off. We have had guys in our club in the past that wait as much as 45 min. to launch, we inspected their livewells and started without them so they lost thier starting #'s. Our main ramps usually have room for 4 but some people feel the need to take up at least 2 of them. That is the biggest reason I go so early, so that I dont have to worry about missing my start #.I think that there should be a required course to operate a boat and ramp etiquette should be a major part of it.

They will usually turn on the tonight show and go to sleep ;D

My fishing partner and I get the boat unhooked and totally ready while were in line( I am usually so early theres no line) and can unload and be out of the way in a matter of seconds, really. We can load just about as fast because he knows exactly where to put the trailer and I dont even get out of the boat, I just pull it up until it hits the stop and hook it and lock it down then he pulls out of the way. Hydragorrilla, your the kind of guy I like to follow to the launch. It makes for a bad day if you get all worked up before the tourney even starts. The other day I saw a couple guys loading and the trailer was in the water waiting and the guy in the boat was out in the middle of the marina idling around in circles organizing his tackle. >:(i cant stand selfish people.

Nick_Barr, where do you live? Remind me not to fish any of your lakes . You could always sit and let you partner make the first 287 cast then cast yours on the 288, your catch to cast ratio would skyrocket ;D---just a thought

Did you measure with the motor all the way down. To fit my gambler in my garage I have to lower the front of the trailer as far as it goes and then put the motor down as far as it goes and turn the motor all the way left, this is not as hard as it sounds and like you said its nice to have it in there on rainy days so we can still piddle!I just though i would mention this since you said you only needed a few inches.

Sounds kind of high to me, But I am not there looking at it. I would say if its very low hours and PRISTINE condition it may be a good buy.

Dfisherman, sorry about the reference to the skeeters. A friend of mine has one and I guess I was thinking of the ZX series. We all know you cant go wrong with a Ranger. I didnt have any way to weigh the smallie but think she was around 5lbs.

If you can find a well cared for $5000 boat I would go for it. A newer $10,000 boat is going to be small and underpowered. You could get a $5000 boat that is much bigger and more horespower but a few years older. A guy in our bass club just sold a 1993 19ft vision in excellent condition with a 1996 johnson 150 which was like new and all for $5500. I would prefer that to a $10,000 16 footer w/ 25 hp anytime.