Ski213

SCUBA has been on my to do list for awhile now. Planning on taking the first class next spring. Was curious if anybody here is or has been into it, and if so, how do you like it?

Only time fish see my wells is in tournaments so I clean them before each one. I've been using bleach. I vac all the crap out first. I fill both wells from a hose and dump the bleach as I'm filling. Once full, I run the recirc for about five minutes. I drain them, shop vac the residual water, refill them with just water, run the recirc again for 2-3 minutes, then drain, hose out, shop vac again, wipe dry, then leave lids open open for a day or two. It sounds a lot more time consuming than it actually is. It's a real light bleach mix. I have to look up the mix every time, but I believe it's 1/3 cup of bleach for each well. They're 16 gallons each. Im not a biologist or anything but it does seem like the fish are more rambunctious coming out at weigh in since I started really trying to sterilize the wells versus just hosing them out.

March of '98. Shy of 7. 6-11 if I remember right. Hasn't been my biggest fish but she has been the heaviest. Glass Team daiwa - s spinnerbait rod, daiwa pro caster z reel, 14# Excalibur line and a 1/2 oz Excalibur spinnerbait. Silver and gold willow leaf blades with a white black and red skirt. To this day it's my spinnerbait rod and reel setup. I'll be heartbroken when it finally gives up.

That particular picture is from a Ranger and the cover came from Ranger. Id imagine Stratos gets the same request from time to time. I really like that strap. I'm assuming that the pedal is not screwed down allowing you to move it around the deck when in use but secure it when running.

Is this something like you're looking for?

I would check with Stratos. I'm assuming it is a factory recess rather than something aftermarket that was cut in. I think Triton offered something to accomplish that. Stratos may also.

You said you lubricated it. Was it stiff before that or did you lube it out of the box? I had an issue with what I believe is called the friction ring on a Sahara once after annual maintenance. My assumption was that I either used a lubricant or cleaner that wasn't compatible with it, or I over tightened something causing the ring to swell or over-compress which created the drag. Ultimately the ring came out from under the rotor in 2 pieces and the reel performs no differently than before it was an issue. I don't know enough about spinning reels to know what that ring actually is supposed to do but it not being there hasn't created an issue over the last five years. If it came out of the box dragging I'd definitely bring it back. If not you could probably still exchange it I suppose.

I was wrong. The starting battery is a little over 3 yrs old. I had it checked and all was good with it.

3 batteries. 2 dedicated for 24v and one for everything else. They've been well maintained but they are close to 6 yrs old if I remember correctly. Good point I've seen bad batts do some crazy things on things other than boats in the past. I'll prob pull the starting battery and get it checked in the morning. That would eliminate that and be an easy check.

Wanted to get some thoughts on an electrical issue I started having today on the water. Not sure if this is the place or it should have gone in the boat forum. I'm gonna dive into it more tomorrow. Probably should have done so before I started asking questions but hoping maybe somebody has had a similar issue and has some advice on a good place to start the search. Everything was fine last time the boat was out. Two things changed since then. One was pulling the outboard to access the hyd jack plate. Nothing disconnected (other than from battery terminals). Two was re soldering a connection at headphone type jack for black lights. Everything was good this morning as well until I turned on the aerator for one of the wells. At that point the front graph decided it was done for day. It turned itself off. I could turn it back on, it would go through startup then off like you pulled the plug. I could turn it right back on and same thing. I assumed it was the connection at the mount but after some messing around I determined that not to be the case. Also when I flipped the second aerator on, my partner said the graph at the console would go crazy for a sec. I don't know what crazy meant but it was enough that he recommended not doing whatever I had just done again. The nav lights were still on from the early morning. When I turned them off the deal with the console unit cleared up. The bow unit issue remained. Was in a tournament so I didn't get to mess with it much on the water. Got home, tried to recreate the problem and couldn't do it. Front unit was fine no matter what I did. Typical. I have no knowledge of what the front unit (797 ci2) will or will not do to protect itself from system electrical issues but I kind of felt like it was more the unit turning itself off than it losing 12vdc supply. Any thoughts on a starting point are much appreciated.

I'm certainly no pro but there's only one way to find out if they're in there. I have caught some good fish very shallow in pretty hot water that were right on the bank. There have never been numbers there for me but usually if I can catch one like that they're a heavy fish.

You're using the word pain and not sore. That sounds like injury. There's a lot of good advice above. Start with giving your shoulders a break. See what happens. A little rest may do it a lot of good. There is no substitute for a professional opinion. In person. Preferably an ortho and even better one that is known for dealing with shoulders. What you need to do, as previously stated, depends completely on what the actual problem is. Ive had problems with my shoulders from baseball and motocross for years. Think of it like fishing. What therapy, what stretches, what strength training, and meds or even surgery are like lures, setups, and techniques. Situation specific. You gotta start by knowing what water/fishing conditions you're actually dealing with. I hope that you're just feeling a slight repetitive use issue. May well be the case. If you get a professional opinion and have a similar problem to mine I'm more than happy to share what I've had luck with over the years.

Sounds similar to what I'm dealing with on one of the ponds at the house. There's heavy vegetation matted out at the top with algae and some duckweed on top. I do have some open water, but the bass don't seem to be active outside of the vegetation. They'll bust a frog and take it but like you I think they're getting more crap than lure. You might try punching. I found that although there are a ton of weeds if I can get a lure through the top clean the water opens up quite a bit below the surface.

I feel your pain. I live in the country and they're just a reality here. I've won a battle or two but the war wages on and I'm pretty sure I'm losing. I've tried a lot. By a lot I mean everything the net and every old school country boy I know has to offer. Some stuff helps a little but those little dudes are hard to deal with. They like cover. The one thing that I did that made a big difference was to create a buffer of grass kept really short 20' outside the fence into the field. That helped more than anything I've done. There was a cat that helped but he graduated to eating rabbits and is no longer of any assistance.

I would definately leave it running.

You have to know what brand/type of gauge you have. Many different brands of boats use the same brand gauges.

That's a much newer stratos than mine but mine are available at any auto parts store. What type of gauges? Faria? They would be able to tell you the specific bulb. If it is a wiring issue it would likely be a simple one like the loose wire mentioned above. If you do much night fishing you may be finding yourself trying to disable the rest of the dash lights. That is of course just personal preference though.

I have progressive. I like the coverage on paper. Fortunately I can't speak to how they handle claims. This is outside your question but make sure you ask a lot of questions when you're shopping. There are many options. What if kind of things. What if this happens? kind of questions. Make sure the trailer is covered as well. A good agent is probably going to be at least as important as the actual insurance. That's obviously going to be a local thing.

I would say 17-18'.

I'll ask around here. A lot of older boats can be found around the river that I'm pretty close to. Also, if you find one in your searches within reasonable distance of central KY, it wouldn't be a problem for me to get it from there to somewhere between here and Macon.

I keep mine plugged up all the time. What you should do is gonna depend on your charger though. If yours just throws the coal to the batteries as long as it's plugged up, then yeah, you're not going to want to leave it plugged up 24/7. Consult your charger's operating manual to see how it functions. If you find your charger works in stages, the last of which is gonna be called maintenance or float then there is no reason to ever unplug it. In that maintenance mode it is most likely going to turn itself off and wait for the batteries to drop below 12.6 ish volts then go back to charging. It's essentially unplugging itself until it needs to get back to work. If your onboard doesn't do that then it would be money well spent to upgrade to one that does.

As mentioned above. That may well be the cheapest and easiest option for a small quantity. You might also try stewartsurestep online.

Not where I'm running a fastener back in, holes left from abandoned transducer mountings, etc. I realize that maybe 5200 with the fastener back in is probably a permanent solution but I'm just curious what others do if the fastener is to be left out. I'm talking 1/8" or so hole, not a hole you'd be left with after removing a thru hull transducer or anything. What do you guys like for the job?

2.6 ounces per gallon for 50:1 ratio

Are you pretty confident that he did in fact pay the loan off?