Hot Rod

I cut a piece of rubber matting from an old truck bed mat to fit inside the floor of my tackle storage compartment in the bow. I stack the boxes on their side and label each with a sharp as to it's contents. The rubber mat keeps the boxes from sliding around and helps keep the noise down when taking them in and out. You could also buy tool box draw liner matting at Sears that would do the same thing. Though it still isn't as nice as the tackle organizing systems that are optional on most boats it helps a little.

I don't have that particular GPS, though I too have been looking at that model for the same reason as you. I have a Cheap eTrex and use it for navigation while on big water and for marking structure and fishing spots. It works well for that. Like if you are fishing a hump, creek channel, drop off, etc. out in the middle of the lake you can mark the edges of it on the GPS while you idle around watcing your depth finder then go back and fish it. It is so much easier to stay positioned on open water structure with the GPS for me than with the sonar alone. The downside is that mine does not have the back ground map. It also is a pain sometimes because it is not mounted it can slide around (I lay it right next to my fish finder when I'm fishing from the bow). Been thinking of bying one of those suction cup mounts in BP to remedy that though.

The differnce in the reaction from Ranger and Triton was strictly due to how the two anglers reacted to being DQed. It has nothing to do with which is the better boat or better company. G man, though upset and even mad, accepted responsiblity for his actions. He didn't really blame anyone but himself even though he disagreed with the ruling. You could tell by his attitude and expressions that he was sorry. Ike on the other hand called out B.A.S.S and Trip for being DQ'd, took no responsiblity for his actions and looked like a whiner. It was not until all the critisism came his way did he finally apologize. Everyone falls down, the important thing is whether you get back up. No honest company would want to employ a spokesperson that tarnished their industry leading image. Ike's reaction via interview to his outburst and subsequent DQ didn't really leave Ranger with much of a choice. When Gman apologized for it at the press conference many of the other pros voiced their support. That didn't happen with Ike because he didn't act professionally and alienated a lot of people, even his supporters including me. P.S. Oh by the way, I don't own nor do I plan to own a Ranger or a Triton any time soon, though they are both great rigs.

I fish a few tournaments each year at varying levels, but it's not my complete focus. However, I still really enjoy the tournament shows and find that I learn alot by watching the pros. Just to watch these guys give's you a chance to get in their heads, what their psyche is about finding and catching fish in different situations. It has really helped me in my approach to catching fish for fun and in tournaments. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the "how too" shows also but something you have to keep in mind is that a lot of those shows are trying to sell you a product from their sponsors. And some of the times I think they come off as one big 30 minute long commercial for XYZ bait company. That is really annoying and tedious to me. Especially when you can tell they are fishing in some 5 acre man made lake that has been stocked full of fish just for such commercialization. Some times they even make it sound like the product they are using is universal and it will help you catch fish in all places at all times. I was born at night but it wan't last night. Now I know the pros are pushing their spronsors products too but when their is $500K on the line they aren't going to use a product/technique that won't catch fish. It drives me crazy though that ESPN/FSN cover more poker than fishing. Talk about watching paint dry. How is that even close to a sport? :

Without any electronics I would focus on the visbile cover whether it is grass, wood docks or other. Fish shallow in low light and deeper as the sun brightens. You don't have to fish super deep to find summer time bass if you have good vegetation. Bass will be attracted to it because it puts out oxygen as it respirates and attracts tons of bait fish as well. Look for the greenest grass you can find as it will most likely be creating the most oxygen. In places like this bass have it all cover, food and O2. If the water is clear I like to fish shallower weeds in the morning (up to 5ft or so). Later in the day I do well in vegetation in water around 10 to 12'. IN this situation I like to pitch trigs or jigs into the openings of the vegetation and let them fall straight down on a somewhat slack line. Another option is to hit the docks or mats/lilly pads if any exist as the sun gets higher. The brighter the better as some bass will seek refuge in the shade. Good Luck!

Lowrance X51 at the console and Lowrance X52 at bow. Though I'd like to upgrade the console unit to something with GPS/Maps or just ad a stand alone GPS unit (wish I'd have done that when I bought the boat).

Mine is about 120 lbs. She holds the boat real still, usually by saying something like "if you go fishing today, you'll be sleeping in that boat tonight!" ;D Just kidding. I agree with the other posts. I made an anchor with a coffee can, eye lag, and cement. It worked O.k. on still days but a small breeze would send me drifting along. Plus it was loud and clanky getting it in and out of the boat. Finally broke down and got a mushroom anchor at Wally world. I think it was like 10 or 12 lbs. It held my 14ft aluminum in place well on all but the must blustery of days.

I've never tried different props on my MK but one tip I learned that does help, especially with the weeds, is to keep the blades sharp. If your props get small nicks in along the cutting edge or if the edge just rounds over and dulls you can restore them by lightly sanding them with find grit sand paper. You can put a real nice edge back on them with 220 grit or finers sandpaper or emory cloth. They'll slice threw weeds better than new. Of course, if you have a big chunk out of a blade this won't work.

Hey congrats on the boat! Sounds like a good deal to me. I'd vote for hunter green for the hull and tan for the carpet. But I'm partial since that is the color of my boat. Let us know when you catch your first fish from her. That first catch from your first rig is such a cool feeling! ;D Good luck with it!

When the fishing is tough one of my favorite techniques is a soft jerkbait on a M spinning outfit with 6 or 8lbs line in weed beds. When the fish are finicky sometimes they'll take this better than anything else IMHO. You just have to deal with the fact that you may loose a fish or two with this method, but getting bit and catching fish while loosing a couple is better than not catching any at all. I agree with some of what was said before. Sure I'd rather throw braid and jigs/trigs in there but sometimes you have to use finesse. What I do is when I get a fish on get him up and on top as soon as you can. I know this goes against what you usually do, which is you want the fish to stay down so it doesnt' jump and throw the hook. But with light line in weeds I'd rather take the chance of them trowing the hook than burrowing down into the slop. Besides with a weightless soft plastic jerkbait I rarely have a fish throw it. I notice too that the fish seem more reluctant to jump in weeds. If you hook up with a real monster your chances of landing her are probably slim but I've landed 4lbs using this technique.

FR OUCH! Glad to here you are O.K. That is a little scarey. I can empapthisize with you because the same thing happened to me a couple of months ago when I was loading my boat by myself on an "electric only lake". I had used the electric to move the boat towards the trailer but a wind kept pushing the boat sideways and off-line from the bunks. When I got close I quickly stowed the motor and dived on to the bow of the boat so I could reach down and grab the bunks to guide the boat on. I inadvertently hit the go button and of course the motor was still on. Almost got a real close shave. I have since come up with a safer way to load it myself when I can't run the big motor

Just thought I'd throw in my .02 since I recently researched and purchase a new boat about that size. I've fished from a Nitro before but it was one of the big fancy 9 series. It fished great and the guy that owned it loved it but of course he did because he just happened to be a Nitro Sales rep Anyway... I seriously considered a Nitro against the boat I ended up buying after narrowing the two down from the other brands (Skeeter, Ranger, Triton, Stratos, Nitro, Champion and more) mostly based on price, function and options. I didn't see any major problems with the Nitro. The only thing that made me leary was that just about every other boat sales rep (champion, triton, and stratos specifically) told me to avoid the Nitro brand in particular out of all the other brands. Now it could be that is just because the Nitro is a good value that they knew they couldn't match. I think if you are going to use it on weekends and vacations with an occasional tournament like most of us do the Nitro is good. I think if you are going to get really serious and fish a lot of tournaments in big water you might do better with a different brand or move up to the Nitro 9 series (Heck KVD, Clun and Evers run 9's and it is their livelyhood). IMHO it all comes down to being happy with what you spend your hard earned $ on. I mostly went with my boat, Stratos, because it was a good deal and had all the options I wanted and a layout I liked but most importantly it would do what I wanted it to do the best of anything I looked at and stayed within my budget. The people I talked with that owned them were all pleased with them for the most part too. Good luck and enjoy the journey to ownership!

This sounds similar to the lake I fish mostly except for the docks. I've had most of may luck pitching and flipping shallow cover maintly tree tops. In the lower end of the lake where the water is clear I look for tree tops that extend out into deeper water and make long casts to the very tops of the trees. Give your line enough slack so that it can fall straight to the bottom and is not pulled away from the tree tops. Stump fields are good too if you can find them, especially close to deeper water. Run a crank or a spinner bait through em. I've gotten into them in the backs of creek channels too throwin flukes and small cranks in shallower water but that was earlier in the year. Look for places where other people might not be willing to take their boat like skinny water in the back of coves/tributaries. These can be overlooked honey holes.

Here in PA all boats have to have a Max Load/HP plate. I had an older boat without the plate I wanted to register and put a motor on. There is a form on the PA Fish and Boat Commissioner Web site i had to download, fill out with measurements and send in. They sent back a plate for a fee. So there must be a formula they use. Maybe you could check with your own state's boating regulatory agency.

If none of the lights on your trailer work at all I'd look at two things first. If your vehicle requires a converter box like mine I'd start there because it is the easiest to look at and is a source of problems for me occassionally (vehicles that have separate rear turn/break signals lights require them for trailer light hook up). Where mine plugs in to the vehicle's wiring harness would often get corroded (under the back near the frame/body). Unplug it and spray the connection with WD40. Plug it in and un plug it a few times to help the WD work, cover with dialectric grease (vasaline works too) and plug it back in. The second thing is it could be an intermittent ground which can be more difficult to pinpoint. But I aways start where it is connected to the frame of the vehicle to see if it is corrodded/rusted. A voltmeter makes diagnosing this a little easier so if you know someone that knows how to use one and has one they could be a big help. With a voltmeter you can tell exactly wich wire is causing the problem and whether it is in the hitch wiring or the trailer wiring. I agree with C7 if your trailer wiring is more than a few years old it may be time to replace it. You may have to repalce the trailer lights too or at least the lenses. If water gets into your lights when you dunk them into launch/load your boat it could short out not only the trailer lights but also the lights on your vehicle too. Hope this helps. I know wiring can drive you crazy (don't ask me how I know that).

I have a MK Maxxum bow mount trolling motor. I constatnly have to tighten the tension adjustment. It will last one day of fishing maybe then I'll have to tighten it again because the pedal control is too loose and sloppy making it hard to control especially at the higher speeds. The motor is only a couple of months old. Is there another adjustment I'm missing or is it just the cables stretching and breaking in? I don't have an owner's manual for it or I'd refer to that. Planning on having the dealer check it out when I take it in for regular maintenance but that probably won't be until the end of the season. Thanks.

It all really depends on where you'll be fishing and how you are going to use it. Are you fishing tournaments? Are you using it for anything else like family recreation? How big are the lakes you are fishing? etc. My best advice is to fish from as many boats as you can or at least fish from the boat you intend to buy before you do if at all possible or one very similar to it. I got a lot of first hand knowledge on boats by fishing a few tournaments as a coangler. Like you said everyone tells you their boat is the greatest whether they are selling it or own it. The old cleche is true: expereince is the best teacher. I have a mid size dual console fiberglass rig. There are a lot of faster higher priced rigs but I'm very pleased with mine and it has just about everything I need though perhaps not everything I want. One of the biggest reasons I bought it was It was too good of a deal to pass up! As far as outboard choice goes, get something that is close to the max HP rating for the boat, you don't want an underpowered boat especially if you are going to own if for a long time.

Ditto to what C7 said about the rot. I had a friend with a Javelin of that age that had to replace the stringers because of rot. Which was an expensive proposition. I have a an '04 285XL DC not sure how it differs from the model you are considering. It runs well and handles rough water decent Though I haven't had it in any 5 footers the traffic on the lake (Raystown, PA) I fished this holiday weekend was insane and it did well in all the wake put out by the minion of cabin cruisers. I too got it to start fishing tournies though I haven't entered any yet. Still trying to figure out how to afford boat payments and tourney fees It runs mid 50's with a stock 150 Johnson. I may be able to get it up to 60 mph with a stanless prop and jackplate. Not going to win any races to the fish from launch against the big boys but I am very happy with it and think it will serve its purpose. Good luck!

My least favorite thing is deep structure fishing with any lure. I get impatient in 20+ ft of water. I catch 'em in deeper water but I'd rather be fishing shallow. Not necesarily pounding the bank though

Welcome new guys! This is a great site. I'm fairly new too but I 've picked up a lot already from this site. I know I am a better angler since I started visiting here. Of course the new boat I got since I started might have something to do with it too. But then again, some of the info I gleaned from here helped me pick out a good rig and accesories for my style of fishing = more fish in the boat! ;D That's what I'm talkin' about! Plus I haven't seen all the negative bickering that goes on at some other sites. Family friendly a big +! Tight lines all!

Hey RLin, You'll get over it with time. I can rember being worried sick right after I bought my boat, which was in late winter. I thought "man, what if it snows? I'll have to tow it through all that salt spray". Like anything else, once you have it for awhile and get used to it then you won't over worry about it. I always think of this quote to put things in perspective when I'm overly concerned about my gear: "Do you own your stuff, or does your stuff ownt you?" Of course, this is coming from a guy who had to cut three big trees down in his yard just so he could make the swing with his truck/trailer to get his boat in the garage. Yes, I'm a little anal retentive about my boat too, just ask my wife. :

It might have something to do with keeping the pilot closer to the shallow side of the boat. For example when you are navigating a chanel the appropriate color buoy is suppose to be on your right. You know the old 3 R's. So the right side of the boat would more often than not be closest to the bank. Therefore, the pilot would always be on the shallowest side where he could see any obsticles/skinny water which would more likely be on that side of the boat. Quote: "Boat propellers turn clockwise, sez Leon, and hulls used to be designed in such a way that when there was torque on the prop, the right side of the boat would rise up. So the wheel was put on the right, so the weight of these "healthy sized" fishermen would counteract that. As long as they didn't put the beer cooler on the left, which would throw everything off. This is not a problem with modern hulls, but the design stuck. " Maybe it was just to give them old "healthy size" sailors some extra PT. I know I get plenty of extra excercise running circles around my boat/trailer at the ramp before I launch it, which is usually by myself. If the controls where on the same side as my truck I'd just have to walk straight back to put the keys in the boat ignition and flip the main power switch so she was ready to launch. Whatever the reason, it is a pain. I think the most important part of the boat should be in the center where it is best protected, that's why I got one with the cooler right in the middle between the consoles!!! ;D

Any professional two-stroke mechanics out there? They'd be the ones that would know as they deal with it everyday. I took a lawn mower in for repair a couple years back because it wouldn't start no matter what I did. It was a four stroke so this is apples to oranges but I'm just using it as an example. Turns out the valves wouldn't close properly because they were covered in deposits. The mechanic says "let me guess, you always use XYZ brand gasoline in it". I said "yes, how did you know". He said he's seen hundreds of motors that were otherwise well taken care off with the same problem because they use XYZ brand gasoline. It has too many additives for small motors while it is fine for automotive motors. I use another brand now and the motor starts 1st pull everytime and has for the last 3 years since I had it repaired. Needless to say, I don't ever run XYZ brand of gas in my V6 outboard either just to be safe. It is a smaller regional company so I know they get their fuel from a major petroleum company. Just wish wish I know which one b/c I'd stay away from that fuel too. Could be a diffent blend though. Anyway... I'm sure well versed outboard mechanics could tell you whether the higher priced oil is worth it or not. They see it all first hand and most aren't trying to sell you on the higher priced item like the guy at the parts counter.

For what it is worth, I recently bought a Johnson 150. The dealer said "You don't have to use the Johnson brand, use any oil you want as long as it is TCW 3/NMMA certified except the Wal Mart oil." He didn't say why not to use it though. I've ran the Penzoil too with no problems yet.

If you can rig one up (this could be difficult to bow mount on a v hull without a deck, don't know what type of boat we are talking about) I'd go with the foot control especially if you are fishing artificial bait. I had a hand control on mine. You spend 50% of your time with one hand on your rod so you can be adjusting the motor with the other, worse if it is windy. Really cuts down on your effiecincy covering water. You spend more time adjusting than you do fishing. So go with the foot control if $ and rigging aren't too much of an obsticle.