Hale

Snook!

I went from laughing with tears in my eyes from the TM escapade to jumping out of my chair when the snake fell in his lap.... Such a good clip!

And the Boat Monkey rears its ugly head! Wait till you see how LBH did his boat (which is very similiar to yours, just a good bit older). Youll want to paint after seeing his, thats for sure.

I do better at dusk but its because of whats in my head... In the morning I feel like time is on my side for me to get my head about me and find a pattern. I end up screwing around with ten different things that dont work and I blow the morning away. In the evening I develop a pattern quick so I can catch fish before the state bird (mosquito) carries me off. As avid said....It's all very psychological

Thats funny, I actually just ran in there and told her that. Of course, she rolled her eyes as an indication that her shoes and bags carry a higher purpose than the boat!

Funny you would say that...that has been a topic in house for quite sometime. She really likes it when I refer to fishing as an escape! Oh the joys of marriage....im lifeless with it and lost without it. ;D

Alright, so the maiden voyage went very good. It rode like a dream. Still breaking it in and hit 51 at 5600 (Full tank of gas, 2 people). Not too shabby for a 90. The fishing was another story. I was so excited about getting the boat out I didnt even pay attention to why we had the big blue 'bluebird' skies. Cool front came in last night, barometer rose fast and the fish had no interest in anything Skipping the water tomorrow, weather is suppose to be the same. So myabe Sat she'll get her cherry popped. My wife did name the boat and bought lettering for it: 'Unnecessary'

After all the questions and opinion requests and anxiety for the past week I finally got the new boat: Maiden voyage tomorrow at day break!

Its on the Outdoor Channel. And thats his big sponsor so even without placing if he keeps the TV show going they should be happy enough.

I just watched a Bill Dance show last night where he was in one of these with his wife (out is some liitle farm pond). He was scooting around in it catching fish jsut fine.

I had that same boat (Sears 69 10'). We threw a 15 on it and use to pull buddies around on a wakeboard with it. It was a lot of fun until.....well no need finishing this story of irresponsibility! Needless to say the boat is gone! Kids, dont Drink & Drive!!!! But youll love the boat, its pretty easy to fish out of buy yourself.

I have a lifelong friend that was the chief electrical engineer for Sea Ray for the luxury line models (500k + boats). He worked there for almost 6 years and to this day has never been on one of their boats (in the water).

RSBreth I couldnt agree more. This guy has even made good for himslef already too. They should do a show on someone just starting out (finding sponsors, financial support, get away from family, work, etc) and then tyring to catch a fish to pay the bills. But as some of the unexperienced youth may say: "Whats the big deal, I can catch fish like that all day long"

I will have the LCX-26c tomorrow and hot maps/fishing maps is supposed to be with it. Ill let you know how the first run with it is.

Yeah resend that to me, that would be great who knows I may find myslef up there one day!

FWC will list ramps that are either public maintained (City / County) or maintained by FWC. Even then directiosn are vague and difficult to find if you havent been to them. But there is a lot of sites here in Florida that list random ramps, epeciallly local clubs giving directions to the next tourney. The map that I maintain for myself has ramps listed that I have visited (there is a couple that I havent but friends have and Ive seen pics). Nothing like traveling three hours to pull into a ramp that is best suited for an ATV or yor in fear all day that someone is going to steal/vandalize your truck.

alwayslearning, I dont know if you use this program already but if you dont you should look into getting the one with GPS (it will come with a USB GPS). Its so nice to have for any type of mapping (driving, fishing, exploring, etc). Their maps are up there at being the most complete and detailed outside of specialty mapping (fishing, topos, etc).

Yeah its a little late now. Wed morning Ill be in the new boat (dealership called today and the engine is on and will be ran today).

Ill shoot that over this afternoon. I think youll be pleased and very busy should you ever try to hit em all. George, Ive been to that link and many others. It drives me crazy that there is not one resource for all the ramps in a particular area. But its impossible thinking to belive I would ever find a site that had all the ramps in a particular area. Check out this link: http://www.saj.usace.army.mil/sfoo/rec/boatfish.htm It seems to be the best I have found yet as this guy has taken paictures and given GPS coords to exactly where it is.

I use Microsoft Streets & Trips (2005) for mapping out boat ramps and fishing spots. Anyone else on here use it? If so, I can shoot over a saved map file of boat ramps for South & Central Florida. Of course its not all of them, but it continually grows. I would love to see someone else have something like these so I can add to the collection.

The post awhile back about that was in regards to getting one, this was part of that shopping time trying to find a dual purpose boat that would allow me to do tourney and hit bay waters.

Lifes dilemnas..... Im actually taking delivery of this new boat on Wed, and last week I was shopping flats and bay boats but the biggest hang up I ran into was the rule compliances for bass tournaments... most of these boats didnt meet them. (rear decking, removable pole decks, etc). Now of course if money werent an issue I could either buy one that was suited for both applications (Ranger has the best selection of these and would run about 50k OTD). Or I could just buy two boats, which may actually be affordable since my wife would leave me! ;D. She did buy lettering for my new boat today (from the above mentioned show) as she named the boat 'unnecessary'. I dont think Im going to run the risk of running this boat down. I am gonnna keep my eyes peeled for guys around here running bass boats in the bacwaters and see what their opinions (or nightmares) are.

Its a Nitro and definitely a freshwater boat. I did talk with several reps today including Mercury at the FL Sportsman show and they gave me some good pointers on upkeep and preventive maintenance: Fortunately all the saltwater running I will be doing will be backwater flats where its only brackish. So overspray, splashing, etc will be minimal to none. Flushing the engine is the most important, but as the Mercury rep pointed out, alot of guys run flush water that is more corrsoive and harmful than brackish water is (well water, high iron content, etc). He did tell me to go ahead and invest in a saltwater series TM now as that will be the most affected part on the boat. The bilge and livewell system will uphold according to Tracker Marine. My trailer is a Galvashield and until I start getting it all beat up rust wont be an issue. And the bottom line is: keep the boat clean, even after every saltwater type run. The best armor from stains and corrsoin on the hull: wax (including on the hardware apparently, but Im not sure if I want to cram wax down into molding, screws, etc. I can barely get it out of nooks and crannies on my truck. I coudnt imagine getting out of a screw). --Another note, about cleaning the boat or fishing: Im less than a mile form the Indian River and about 45 mintues to the nearest mentionable lake (Okeechobee or Stick Marsh) so fishing after work or after 'honey dos' at times will be limited to a quick trip down the street. Besides its world class Snook fishing around here and the season has just opened back up!

Thanks, Im going to give him a call tomorrow.

I plan on running my new boat in intercoastal waters in addition to the freshwater lakes. Ive never done this before (run in two types of waters with MY boat). Anyone know of certain maintenance items I need to pay attention to after I run in saltwater? Naturally, I want to keep boat hardware free of salt residue, Im just concerned with internals such as the motor, bilge, etc. Thanks