Hale

Being that Avid lives down the road from Okeechobee Im gonna speak for him and say that he knows all about the lake....I think he wants to know where the Okee-Tantie ramps are.

Cabela; I believe there is stipulations on break downs and switch outs. I believe they cant switch when it was neglegience (sp?) For instance, Ike was able to switch when his motor just died and left him floating in the gulf, but another time he was forced to stay in a boat he tore the lower unit off of from runing the river. Then of course there is the gray area of sponsor/event boats on that last day or other events (which they would hate me using, I tear my boats up I could only imagine what I would do to theirs! ;D) Maybe its an extension of a small ummmm 'unit'...but if it were possible I would have a 22' boat that run 95+ mph. And as a man I could give you twenty logical reasons of why its necessary!

Pay for a host...the quality speaks for itself. Free hosts will plaster advertisements and/or limit functionality. Check out lunarpages.com they have the best service and prices (for what you get..there is cheaper, but much more limited). I take pics often when Im by myself and I put the front pedestal/bike seat on the back deck and just use the timer on the camera. My wife actually questions me about who was on the boat with some of the pics Ive taken this way. ;D

#5 Addendum: Unless she is REALLY Hot!

Yeah, the boat switches arenet illegal should it be because your boat is damaged or broke down. Naturally they have a particular proccess you must follow in order to do it but you can have your pit crew, another competitors crew, or even in some cases tournament officials bring a new boat to you and they will take care of towing the other in.

Exactly! You just need a gameplan. For some reason the clock becomes your enemy when your struggling. Dotn forget the clock, but push it out of your head. Treat it like any other day; fish your pace, cover your waters as normal. I see a lot of people start getting frantic and then scurry all over the place hoping to get a couple quick fish. They have no rhyme or reason to their madness...just wishing for luck I guess. Try to pre-fish the waters the days prior and get a pattern developed so you know your plan of attack before your boat even hits the water Sat morning. Do you know the lake pretty well?

Thats all it takes, your willingness, desire, and commitment. Your only going to get out of it what you put in. Spend the next year fishing the club tourneys (affiliated or not) and then start moving up to other semi-pro events as a non-boater. You will be amazed and not only how quick it will go by, but by how much you will learn.

cbfishalots post: its close to 40 miles one way for the run you were talking about. Dont forget the nasty north winds they were up against (very rough water). garnet: I cant understand the grammer in any of your posts! BillyBob: Thats a good point. Small waters, club tourneys and all that, nah its not necessary to run a 21' ranger with a 300hp envirude. Thats a bit overkill. Big waters, big tourneys, want to make a living, then yeah the big boat is critical.

HA...I love it!!!! 'But they make it look so easy on TV' Another point to make is the sacrifices in your personal life: If you have a wife or long term girlfriend and you jump right into this unprepared or unconditioned...kiss that goodbye. Its not about staying gone for a few days at a time to fish a tourney. Its all the other time commited to pre-fishing, boat prep, equipment, prep and the most dreaded...travel time. And of course your doing this without sponsors since you jumped in head first so be prepared to spend more money on expenses and entry fees than 80% of america make as an annual salary.

LOL....you beat me to the post RW! So there seems to be different opinions on the nessecity of having a bigger faster boat. Im sure we can all agree that a fish doesnt care what your in...but does that really win tournaments? I believe that if you want to be succesful on big water and big events you must have a boat that can handle it. I think the most important aspect is getting in on your holes before the other boats. Example: Your honey hole is most likely not a secret and others are headed for it. Likewise, your honey hole produces the best fish between 7am and 9am on a topwater. The launch point is 20 miles away across Okeechobee. Your 14' 25hp jon is not only going to fail in the journey if the winds are anything above 10knots, but you will waste a lot of that small window. Yesterday was a perfect example for me: I run a Nitro with a 90hp. Shes brand new and nice but not top of the line by any means. Two people and tourny rigged I can push here around the 50mph range. Not bad...but not good enough. Where we fished it was known that the fish are back in the flats and thats where the weight would come from. I was in the first flight for launching and was stoked as this gave me a shot to be get on the flats before others. Well I was getting blown in by some of these other bigger boats and when I arrived 18 miles later to the areas I wanted to cover...they were already taken. And Im not talking about counting on hitting one spot...I mean several areas. Could I have won if I got there first? Who knows. Did the winner and other top spots come out of those areas...yes!

Thats 100% correct! :'( :'( :'( But I wanted to talk about fast boats..... ;D

I do when Im by myself. For some reason I can get into a good pattern and the zone quicker when I got the ipod hooked up. I believe it makes me stop thinking about other elements and just fish.

Your right in the sense that fish dont care what your motor/boat is like. But...your in the first flight at morning launch (with your 50hp stroker). You have an 8 mile run to your honey hole (the bass are bedding here, you know its where your big fish are). 10 minutes and 6 miles later into your trip 3 boats blow your doors in...when you arrive to your honey the three boats are sitting on that hole and there is no room for you! No what? You still gonna win it? You gonna cry and cuss because they beat you to your spot? One the thing is for sure, you're about to loose so more time going to the next spot (and hoping someone else isnt on that already). So having the right equipment in the big tournaments absolutely does make a difference.

Yeah Ive been talking to the wife about making some.... The only time I take them off is when I stop somewhere and leave the boat unattended. But as far as being damaged, I want the covers to keep peebles and road debris off of it. I dont see how trailering them could have any other damaging effects.

I have the 640LX with the 90hp ELPTO ...the 640 is smaller than what you are looking and screams with 90 (different prop and I can get up in the mid 50s). Its also their cheapest model....

Fishing your local club tourney isnt about learning how to catch fish as much as its learning how to compete and deal with the things thats occur during a tourney. You need to understand the rigors of launching when 20 boats are waiting and your only running a few miles before you decide to launch with 200 boats waiting and your running many miles on big waters. The club level will teach you things like time management, boat maintenance skills (which is probably the most important factor on the water....you will never catch fish when your engine is not running right and your 7 miles from the ramp. You wont get it out fo your head), and boat positioning, and so forth. So you can catch 5 fish on any day...is that on the days you decide to go out becasue conditions are good or is on Sunday morning regardless of what the weather is doing? Thats the biggest difference between the local guys that are good and the tournament angler that is good....(understanding chaning conditions).

Alright lets clear some things up: That was nothing more than a typo. There wasnt anything hidden there. Being born and raised in Florida Im not really in a position to use the word southerner in a deragotory way.....it was just a typo, nothing more. But if Im not cool in your book...my loss. But perhaps the s stood for ' you sonsab***s'. Its all in how you look at it isnt it? IMHO = In My Honest Opinion (if you were really curious what that meant basschaser) We all know there are problems with this and that everywhere. To help put things in perspective for you BassChaser57. I as well travel the world very frequently. There are places where the unfamiliarity of a white or even black face causes alarm. But for the most part everything is okay. And Im sure you can agree with that 100%. How we are treated in a foreign country is a lot different than how we should or even do treat people here. I didnt want this to turn into some racial war. That was the point I was making from the get go...he has to catch fish to earn a living, he has to be good at it. At what point does it become harder for him to win tournaments because he is a minority? Does his boat run slower? Does fish not bit his lures because of his race? Can he not win because torunament rules say blacks arent allowed to win? And mostly does his fish get wieghed on different set of scales? We all know there a couple things in life that cant be discussed without argument: religion, politics, and race. I came off pretty strong as it did strike a nerve...not becuase Im here to get on a soap box and protect and ask that we all get along. And we arent going to argue that there are people out there that are a**holes and have no clue about anything....those are usually the same people that sit in the left lane doing 45 in a 70, cut you of in line at the bank and so forth! It rubbed me the wrong way that the subject of him being black required the responses of protecting him as a black or as a minority. The dude fishes for a living, he kills it, his fish weighs exactly the same as everyone elses on Sunday afternoon. Next you guys are going to think women should be allowed to vote...sheesh. ;D I-m j-u-s-t k-i-d-d-i-n-g!

Dude its 2007....aside from the occasional a**hole talking smack I bet he doesnt have it any harder than any other pro on that tour. What pressures/challenges would he or any other minority have to face? Would you think Takahiro has minority problems (asides from the obvious language barrier)? That was the second post in regards to color sympathy and no one on here made any negative remarks, comments or gestures towards him or color. Can we not refer to him as black? Can we not refer to reelady as a woman? Can we not refer to Takahiro as Asian? So please stop quoting MLK, or telling us to be open minded...IMHO you s guys are close minded because immediately your thoughts went completely the wrong direction....

He is the only black angler on the Elite tour. There are several black pros out there. And Ish kills it...that guy can put some big fish in the boat! You guys should check out his site. He has a forum on it and he will get on there and answer people questions. Its really cool that he reaches out to his fans like that!

Ineresting point. I don't see how such a scale could NOT be considered certified. to directly address the point. If you want to prove you have a record catch the scale must be certified. The IGFA will certify certain common fishing scales. The boga grip for example. But as Ronnie points out if go to a deli whose meat scale has a valid certification stamp, I don't see how anyone could deny that it is certifiably accurate to whatever standards are required in that particular state. Unless of course LBH weighs a Pom-Pa-No. then all bets are off. :-/ The state/federal program qualifies. IGFA performs the same steps as any commercial scales certification process would take. FWC doesnt typically carry IGFA certified scales but they do have state certified scales. This qualifies as an accurate measurement. IGFA governs the record books for large ctaches but they dont require that the scales be certified through them....just certified. It is cheaper to get fishing scales certified by them than it is by the state. And yes a witness is required. In the event there is one unavailable photos may be submitted. The photos have a lot of requirements and will be reviewd by their staff and biologists. Oh yeah a polygraph would be on order too.

Looks like a good show...

Conveniently located in the same parking lot as Bass Pro Shops!

Well you certainly have your pick of both there! What hotel you staying at?

Yeah rain is very likely and youll probably see the nights get down in the high 30's low 40's First time to Vegas?

Of course thats the edited version...I wish you guys could have seen him bending around trying to bite me! Small or not, that thing had a lot of teeth!