Ski213

Thanks! I'll check that out as well. I wasn't really in the market for a smaller smoker but you can really never have too many backyard accessories. My pit is more of a log burner. Old school concrete block. It produces good food but it's pretty inefficient. I learned the oversmoking lesson the hard way myself several years back. Now I typically run a little heavy smoke early then clean the rest of the day. That works well on my pit, you can taste it but it's not too much. I bet y'all have some good stuff out there. One of these days I hope to get out that way and try it out.

I agree with you on the oversmoking. Too much and the meat gets acrid (I think that's the right word). I certainly appreciate the info and advice @slonezp. I love the big pit but I think I'm going to look at the charbroil to complement it. Looks like a cool setup. Reasonably priced too.

Pretty slick. Are you able to pretty much set it and forget it when cooking? Do you get a good smoke flavor out of it? I wouldn't mind to have something smaller than my pit that I could do smaller portions on and not have to babysit so much.

Looking good!

Any of y'all like to BBQ? Just wondering. If so what do you like to cook? What do you cook on? We try to cook about once a month for a group of 20-60 friends. I get a couple shorter rib cooks in between the monthly Q. Above ground block pit using mostly hickory.

I had something similar a year ago. I got similar advice here. I'd say it's the battery. Process of elimination though. Have the battery tested. It's quick and it's free. Mine tested good. I don't know how your unit is wired but mine was out of the factory harness. That factory harness was fine for '98 electronics but not '16 electronics. I had pretty significant voltage drop from the battery to the bow unit. Ran what I'm going to call a dedicated circuit off the starting battery to the bow unit and h tapped the console unit into that. Problem solved. If it is a bad battery and your electronics aren't on a dedicated circuit I would advise fixing that as well. It's advice that is often given here and elsewhere by experienced folks and it's worth doing. I wish I would have followed that advice sooner myself.

Sorry to hear that. I hate a thief, especially one that takes fishing equipment. I've thought about a boat alarm myself but I couldn't ever get a good feel about how well it might actually work for my application. If you haven't already, file a police report. It likely won't get your stuff back. LE simply can't dedicate a ton of manpower to all isolated thefts but if there are some folks targeting your area and there is a concentration of theft they may be able to do a little more. Law enforcement can't know it's happening if it's not reported. I live in the country and it's usually no issues. Every so often somebody decides that they're going to target this area though. Two years ago a couple guys went on a spree out here. I lost a weed eater and a chainsaw. A lot of other ppl lost more. Most folks reported it. That allowed the police to justify a little more presence and we had an awesome detective. What info he got from various thefts he would pass along to some of us. Vehicle description, etc. That led to people watching for certain stuff. That in turn led to a guy several miles down the road having a pretty good idea of when he was being cased and that led to an arrest, conviction, and a lot of folks getting a lot of their stuff back. Including my chainsaw. Sorry for going on but one more thing, if you go with plan b, go with thermal imaging.

Has any line off the spool of seaguar been on any other reels or is it just on the Curado? I have had almost 0 problems with Seaguar. Invizx is one of my favorite FC lines. That said, I have had two 15# spools of it that I've had problems with. I have used a lot more than 2 spools with zero issues though. Definitely not trying to bash the line. One of them presented like what you're describing. Switch lines and see what happens.

It's my understanding that it helps paint a better picture of bottom structure than 2d sonar would alone while still using traditional sonar. I haven't played with it much but I think you can adjust the transparency of the down scan. That might help with the covering up you're talking about. Someone else could do a do a much better job explaining the finer points.

Like everybody is saying, just fish. It is easy to overthink and try to do too much. I've been there, I still struggle with it at times. Fish the way you fish. Try to ignore the dock talk.

If you are dead set on coating the inside of the boat consult the manufacturer of the coating you bought. They'll be able to tell you what it can and can't bond to and whether or not a primer is required. You may have to use a combination of mechanical and chemical stripping to get it properly prepped. Be careful with the chemicals.

I'm not going to recommend this because I may have just gotten lucky. I have an old 797ci2 that had a film on the screen. It drove me crazy. Nothing would even touch the film cleaner wise. I don't know if it was buildup of water spots from years of the previous owner never cleaning the screen or if there's some kind of factory applied something or another that oxidized. I got bored one day and tried a real mild automotive polish. It worked. I've never tried it on another unit. You could well ruin a screen with it I would think. I just put a real small amount on a microfiber cloth rubbed lightly then lightly buffed it off. If yours are getting to the point where it's driving you nuts you could try a real small sample spot down in a corner or something. Again I'm not saying it's a good idea, just sharing something that worked for me once.

You might be able to fasten a Velcro strap to the deck to hold the pedal when running in rougher water. If you find that you like moving it you stick with that setup, if you don't you can remove the strap and bolt the pedal permanently.

I assume your talking club type tournaments. Many clubs have websites or some kind of social media page. You could google for clubs or search on social media. A lot of it is word of mouth though. Call around to the closest boat dealers as they often sponsor tournaments. Call the local tackle shops as well.

I really appreciate the advice. I ended up tapping around on it with mallet and a piece of hardwood backing it up. It's what I had immediately available. It came back pretty easy. Maybe too easy. It almost looks like the tip of the skeg is a different composition than the rest. Maybe fixed before. If so they did a dang good job of blending it though. Boat originally came out of east TN and there's a rock or two in some of the lakes where it probably spent a lot of time. It's definitely possible that it has had some skeg damage and repair in the past. I think I'll add a skeg guard, as suggested, now that I have it mostly straight and feel like structurally the skeg is okay. Probably would have not been an issue if I had it in place to begin with. I appreciate everybody's everybody's help.

I think Cabelas has a couple models on sale right now. I've read on here, and always been told, that the best pfd is the one that you're actually going to wear. That being said you should try several different ones on before you buy. Make sure you do your homework on them as well. There are different ways the auto inflate is triggered. There are different levels of bouyancy available. The conditions you intend to use it in are going to dictate what exactly you need. Sometimes the cheapest option isn't going to be the best for your needs.

Thanks guys I'll give it a shot.

Guys I wanted some opinions on this. Pics below I've done some searching around and have heard/read a wide variety of advice that range from do nothing to replace the lu housing. I dont know for sure how it happened. There was no impressive impact. Yesterday I hit a submerged stump at low speed (trolling motor on high) and I also may have bumped the ramp when loading on the trailer. The prop appears untouched. There is a touch of end play but that was there before. I don't think there has been any increase. Outboard is a 225. Boat is typically run mid 60s. I've heard what you can/can't do to fix it depends a lot on operating speeds. Thanks.

This is my second year using a culling system. I really like it. It takes very little time to put the tag on a fish and, at least for me, it saves a lot of time when I go to cull. Honestly my favorite part is how easy it makes getting the fish out for weigh in. I can grab the float, follow the cable right down to the fish, lip them, and pull them straight out. No chasing them around the livewell.

I think what often happens is folks get over comfortable in the water. Water is unforgiving. When people know they're going in for a swim they're in control of a lot of the variables. When it's going in at 65mph or even just tripping over the trolling motor it changes things. It's easy to crack your head on the way in and no matter how good a swimmer is they can't swim if theyre unconscious. I'm not being critical cause I'm as guilty as anyone else.

I appreciate the replies guys. I shouldn't have said the spool went bad. Might've been just the outer little bit. I just jerked on the first several yards to check strength then stripped the rest into the trash like an idiot. Didn't even think of reversing it or checking strength deeper in. This particular outfit stays rigged pretty well the same year round and I probably haven't retied enough to get much line off of it the last two seasons. Maybe thats the deal.

I've not been a huge fan of braid in the past. The last 3-4 yrs though it's grown on me and has made its way on to several of my reels. Im basically a braid newbie and I'm trying to shorten the learning curve here. How do you guys determine when to replace your braid? I had a spool of it check out on me today. The only thing that "looked" off was the color. It had faded. It faded long before it failed though so I assume that's not the best way to check its condition. I appreciate any input.

I only wear mine when the outboard is running. I really need to change that.

I asked about guidewear on here a cpl months back and was given favorable reviews by several folks. They definitely did not mislead me. So far I'm pretty impressed. It it goes on sale pretty frequently online. Based on my experience thus far it would've been money well spent at retail price and a great buy when on sale. The gear seems to be pretty well thought out and although I've not subjected it to hurricane conditions, so far so good.

Looks like you're right. I appreciate the info.