clipper

I'm not feeling too adventuresome right now so I think I'll wait and see how they hold up for other people. The sale was tempting.

Has anyone tried or heard anything about the new baitcaster US Reel is now offering at a special price through BASS PRO. The design is revolutionary with a totally new levelwind device and the spool spins backwards. I have been using one of their spinning reels for several years and it has given me good service. I've been thinking about a new baitcaster but I usually don't try new products until they have established a proven track record.

Great post Spanky, and please accept my condolences on the loss of your dad. Like many of us on this site, my Dad took me fishing when I was a boy as well. My fondest memories are of fishing and hunting trips with him. I think for Father's day, we should all post picutures of our Dads, with fish if we have them, without if we don't. Kind of like a Father's Day memorial to them.

Glad to see the jigs paid off for you. I have not gotten to fish since the road trip but plan to try the jigs when I do (as soon as the garden is planted). I enjoyed getting to spend a windy Wednesday with you on the road trip. My confidence level with cranks baits is definetly greater now.

When I was 15 my dad bought a boat too. It was really his, but I put 95% of the hours on it and took care of it too. Treat it like it's yours and someday it may be.

Done.

Well, the boat is washed, vacuumed, and put away , and the BTS I used before I left made it easy to clean. The life jackets, seats, tackle bags, and gear are finally dried as well as the tent I rode out the Thursday night deluge in. This was a memorable trip in more than one way. I stopped in Kentucky for a Wendy's and Frosty and ended up being about that far behind the tornado that crossed I-24 in Murphreesboro,NC. Had I not stopped I would have come real close to being there when it hit. I sat on I-24 for 45 minutes while they cleared the roadway. When I passed the area it hit I saw a tractor trailer rig on it's side and the pine trees beside the road looked like the tops had been mowed with a bush hog. I followed the bad weather all the way from Kentucky to Cartersville, GA. Long Mike, thanks for letting me fish with Simp on Wednesday and bassinsergeant and BassinSoldier on Thursday. I also fished with BassinSoldier on Friday morning. Simp and I had a blast throwing crankbaits all day on Wednesday. Bryan and Joe gave me a jig education on Thursday. I had three firsts on this trip - lost my first fish on a jig, caught my first fish on a jig, and CAUGHT MY FIRST SMALLMOUTH, 13.5 inches of bad attitude 8-). That is why I really came to Kentucky Lake, so thanks Bryan and Joe. I have a picture which I will post later after I get it reduced to the proper size. I will definitely be trying a jig and Rage Tail crawfish trailer dipped in JJ's Magic on the spots in Allatoona the next chance I get. Like most other folks, we caught mostly 10-12 inch largemouth with a few larger fish thrown in occassionaly. Thanks to Glenn and Keri, the mods, the cooks, and all the sponsors. My son has already confiscated my Shimano hat and has his eye on the reel I won as well. I told him to keep his sticky fingers off my shaky heads. I will be saving vacation for next year. Kyle, Joe, and Bryan - it was a pleasure fishing with you. I learned something from all of you. See you all next year.

Most everyone had to leave before the weather got bad. Glenn and Keri were sight seeing. It looked like Uncle Leo/Simple Joe, Roadwarrior and myself were the only ones that went out. RW got a 2-12, I got one a smidge smaller. We heard thunder, pulled up stakes and got into the marina restaurant just as the rain and lightning started coming down. Leo the same. We never went back out, loaded up instead and left for home. I'll post later when the others start posting. Some probably still aren't home yet. Joe from Fort Cambell and I went out too. Found a 100 yd stretch of bank loaded with small fish. We stayed until the second clap of thunder and should have left after the first. Had a great week. Will post later.

It is great to see so many of you guys taking your kids fishing at an early age. My son had to beg me when he was 6 or 7 and that's only because he watched fishing shows on TV every Saturday morning. I quit working so much, bought a boat and took him fishing. He won his first tournament fishing the back of the boat today. He has turned out to be a good, hard working, honest man and I attribute the time we spent fishing for a good part of that. Thank you Bill Dance and Roland Martin .

I put a wood deck in the front end my 13' fiberglass (late 50's) Orlando Clipper after reworking the transom. I built a frame made from treated 2x2 lumber and fastened it to the livewell/middle seat and the small front deck already in the boat. I did not fasten it to the sides. I then screwed 3/4 exterior plywood to the top of the frame and made a hatch lid as well. I should have used 3/4" plywood only under the pedestal seat and 1/2" or 3/8" everywhere else because it made the boat very heavy. I did not fiberglass it to the sides or bottom of the hull because I wanted to be able to remove it in the future. As a result of that it is not water tight.

The hole in the middle with the plug is the bilge drain. Take the plug out and make sure the rubber is still pliable. If not, replace it. If it is, buy a spare the same size and put it in the boat. Take the plug out when the boat is not in the water so it doesn't hold rain water in the bilge. Make sure the plug is in before you launch the boat, always! If the wires behind the trolling motor plug come off the plug itself then they are from the trolling motor batteries. Your depth finder should be powered from the cranking battery to avoid interference from the trolling motor. There should be a set of wires for the fishfinder on the opposite side of the boat from the trolling motor wires. One should be red, the other black and they should not be hooked to anything up front. If you find them, trace them to the rear of the boat and make sure they come off the cranking battery and have an inline fuse in them. If you don't find them buy some 18 guage wire from an auto parts store, an inline fuse(fish finder manual should tell you what amp fuse, buy spares) and two ring terminals that will fit your battery terminals. Install the wires yourself and run them on the oppposite side from the trolling motor wires. It makes a neater job if you buy some small tywraps and put them around the wires every 3 feet or so to keep them bundled together. Last of all, affix some kind of permanent tag to the wires at the battery so you can label them for future reference. Black goes to the negative terminal, red to the positive. Same at the fish finder. If you buy a new fish finder it will have specific instructions for wiring, follow them. My Lowrance manual also says to put a switch in the power feed to the fish finder and turn it off when the unit is not on the boat to keep the connector terminals from corroding. If you will trace those other two hoses on the back of the boat, you will find they lead to the live wells. You should also have one or two pumps in the bilge. Put a little water in it and make sure they work. Good luck with the boat, you will have fun figuring everything out. I bet you could go online and download the owners manual for the boat. That will save you a lot of time. Also, make sure you know if you have an oil injection system or not. Always keep oil in the reservoir if you do and keep some spare oil in the boat. Since this is your first boat, I would take it to a mechanic, have him check it out, and show you how to properly operate and maintain it. Then take a boating safety course. Take an experienced bass boater to the lake the first time you go. Sorry for the long post, hope it wasn't TMI.

There have been posts on here before that say the chemicals in treated wood will corrode aluminum. Most folks doing john boat decks use exterior grade plywood and either seal it with Thompsons water seal or resin only thinned with acetone. I personally would use Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer from the Rot Doctor because I have had good success with it in the past. The above suggestions may work just as well. DO NOT totally enclose the wood in fiberglass. It will get water in it somewhere, will not dry out, and it will rot. Covering the top of the transom with fiberglass may be a good idea, as it should shed most of the water so it doesn't get between the two layers of wood.

Thanks for the help, Jig Man. I finally (today) got a response from Lowrance to my question and they too said to "stop chart" and the transponder would quit pinging. I also figured the ethernet cable between the two might work. It is good to know it will. I will go ahead and mount the 510c at the bow now.

Both units operate on 200 khz so I suspect I will get interference. I appreciate you mentioning ping speed because I can change it on either unit. That may work. I could turn the back unit off when fishing but I don't want to lose my gps. I may also try switching the back unit to 50 khz operation as well. I just don't know what will happen because the transducer is not dual frequency, just the display unit.

I have a Lowrance X27C on my console with the transducer mounted in the bilge. I just bought a 510c for the front of the boat and will mount the transducer on the trolling motor. How is the best way to keep the two units from reading each other's signal without turning off the console unit which has my GPS system on it. I emailed Lowrance but they never replied. Will connecting them with an ethernet cable and switching the console unit to read the front transducer do the job?

I sealed the deck on my Orlando Clipper with Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer. It soaks in better than thinned resin and dries faster. It is also more expensive. It is still in good shape after 7 or 8 ? years. You do need to treat exterior plywood with something. I have also torn rotted marine plywood out of a ski boat, and seen several other boats where it rotted.

We have both kentucky spotted bass and suwanee bass in Georgia, but they are two different species. We also have shoal bass and redeye bass in addition to our largemouth and smallmouth bass. All are different species.

As kids, we played Cops-N-Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, Army, climbed trees, dammed up the creek and floated boats, made rubber band guns and had battles, had sweet gum ball battles, rock battles, caught snakes and turtles, shot birds with B-B guns, cooked and ate them, got plenty of spankings, played football in the front yard, baseball across the street, made forts in the woods, made bows and arrows, rode bikes all over the place without fear and watched Howdy Doody and the Mickey Mouse Club on TV. I forgot Hide-N-Seek, Hopscotch, Mother May I, Jump Rope, and Red Rover. My grandsons dig holes in the backyard and build things out of rocks and sticks, love to go to deer camp, and love to go fishing. It's all how you raise them and what you do with them. They also like electronic games and the 4 year old is a computer whiz. Kids who don't have parents who will take them outdoors need someone who will. Scouting is a good way to get kids outdoors and instill good values in them as well. So are the kids fishing activities sponsored by some members of this website.

I saw a post on the smallmouth forum a few weeks ago about this techniqe (it may have been yours) and wanted to try it for spots instead of using a float-n-fly with a 9' rod. I appreciate your post and the details and I will give it a try the next time I get out. I had already purchased the slip float and bobber stop. I will need to make sure I have a line that will float good as I think the copolymer I currently use will tend to sink. After reading Charlie Brewer's book on Slider fishing, I have come to the conclusion that if you can catch inactive suspended fish you have a much better chance of catching fish in all kinds of weather and conditions. Thanks again for the post.

Maybe using the light tackle and a sidearm cast using just your wrist would give you more time on the water. Maybe one of the newer lightweight rods would help as well. Then again, live bait does catch fish. Good luck. PS Don't know what kind of back trouble you have but my lower back and legs were giving me fits from walking on concrete floors at work. I went to a podiatrist, he made some inserts for my shoes, and it is 200% better.

I don't know why cats love boats so much, but they do. My wife's cat had kittens in my bass boat one winter and some died >. I had to pull the carpet out of a storage locker to get the smell out. She had it spayed and then it got run over . I still haven't figured out how to keep them out. I may try the orange cleaner stuff if the tomcat she has now ever comes home.

Give yourself plenty of stopping room, especially on wet pavement. My 17' Stratos would push the F150 I used to have on wet pavement if I hit the brakes too hard.

I didn't fish Saturday but my son did and only caught one little dink. A friend from work fished Saturday in his private pond that has a good population of fish and got skunked. His wife got skunked too. Some days they don't bite as good as others and those are the days that separate us amateurs from the pros. If we could fish long enough we could probably figure out where they are, how deep they are, and how slow or fast they want the bait. The pros just don't waste as much time doin' it as we do. Somewhere, somebody caught fish last weekend even though the bite was off.

I am putting it on my boat a little at at time due to the necessity of wet sanding/compounding my gelcoat, and it sure does make it slick. I think it might add speed to your rig if you put it on the bottom. I don't think it hurts paint and should improve the looks and protect it from UV rays and pollution. I sure hope it stops the oxidation of my gelcoat becuase I am tired of working on it. I keep the boat under a shed with a boat cover on it too and it still oxidizes.

If you advertise your gun, don't sell it to a private individual out of state. It is against the law. You can sell it to a licensed gun dealer from out of state, but not a private individual. It is OK to sell it to a legal resident of your state, but I would get a copy of his drivers license for proof. This is important. The ATF has a website where they list the rules on gun sales.