RobDar

Do not blame fire line...blame who you bought it from. In my experience all of the braided lines have a "shelf life" as it were. The deteriorate with time and moisture... if I had to take a wild guess...I would say where ever you bought it from sold you last years or the year before line that was stored in too humid of conditions. I found a two year old roll of power pro in my shed that had fallen down behind a shelf...the stuff was just falling apart. I could break it between my fingers. The guy at our bait shop says that is common and it is why they do not stock braided in huge quantities ( so the stock is "fresh" he says) and why they throw away or d**n near give away the braided at the end of the season.

MeQuires products are just the best if you ask me! Them and Mothers wax products are all I ever use on my vehicles. MeQuires Scratch X work really well! I struggled and struggled trying to get the swirl marks out of my Black Ram Van after a bad detailing job by the dealership...MeQuires Scratch X did the trick! If you can feel the scratch with your finger nail...you will have to go the sanding route. If you cannot feel if with your finger nail it should buff out with rubbing compound and some polish.

you would have to have much larger load and voltage to have to worry about interferance. The EMF on 12 volt DC is virtually non existant

My Father in Law has his Javelin up for sale

my father in law would tell you line up at 45 degrees to the wave direction. I guess this is what the charter captians ( father in law was a charter captian for years) shoot for when moving slow or sitting still. It does not work in my little Tracker...but there is nearly nothing you can do in my little Tracker to stay dry. It seems to work good in his Javelin though.

hmmm... I think the normal drive up proceedure will still be problem for you... and I think what you are actually asking is how to avoid having to pull and tug the boat up the trailer right? first... I think I would buy the trailer runners bass pro sells. they are the white plastic runner you put on the buck boards on the trailer to make it the boat slide easier... and how about a 12volt wench? I saw a older gentleman a few years back with one of the wenches like you usually see on the front of off road vehicle mounted on the toungue of his trailer.

SEE NOW HERE IS A THINKING MAN!!!! what a great idea!!! much better than glue etc...which could leach toxins into the water... gonna keep this one in the mental file in the same file with about 90% of everything waytooslow suggests!

I would not take it out on lake erie or some other big water...but other than that it sounds fine to me. There is an old man in our tourney circut...been fishing since the dinosaurs I think...he always says... "the fish dont know whether it is a Triton or Tracker...they just know tasty!" My father in law was just beaten at an open tourney by a guy fishing from a canoe...

LOL!!! In ALL THIS TIME...traker STILL has not fixed this! I have an 1989 and it does the smae thing! drives me nuts! Okay...does not seem like a real big deal I guess but my divider is metal and I had a fish at a tournament get stuck and cut darn near in half...it died of course and guees what...the death of that fish put me out of the money. I would have got 2nd and about $625 bucks if that fish would have been alive! ...so I ripped the divider out

my father in law had his power head rebuilt and his boat did something very similar. It was the fuel filter. It seems like it was getting gas when he checked, but would not run. The filter "leaked" fuel into the motor but would not allow enough for operation.

Oh I knew ( well suspected)...the bass cats are fine boats...but, the are expensive as well. I wonder why JD Power tested so few manufacturers.

I will say as well Tracker has alot of complaints against them on the Better Business Bureau. MOST of that is because there are like 6 Tracker made boats for every boat of another manufactuer on the water..so simple statistics says they SHOULD HAVE the most complaints since they have the most boats on the water...so that does not really mean anything. ...but I look at what the complaints were about. After actually buying the boat nearly EVERYTHING concerning that boat is left to the dealer. The manufacturers kind of wash their hands of the responsibility. There are alot of "unsatisfactory completions" against Tracker Dealers. Tracker does not do enough to screen their dealers and really make no requirements of them. You could open a Tracker dealership tommorow. This is how they took over the market. If I were to buy a Tracker product it would be from somewhere like Bass Pro or other large corporate entity that takes their reputation and customer service seriously.

buy the boat that will do the job and fit your budget... go out and actually compare the boats. ( I notice a big difference in the fit anf finish between some brands) Choose the boat that fits your needs and offers the options you want in the package you can afford. People do not like Nitro because it is built by Tracker. I would choose by the dealer reputation. Boats are like cars...everyone has an opinion. Chevy guys hate Dodge...Dodge guys hate Ford...and so on and so on... My brother in law told me to NEVER buy a DODGE..especially if you plan to do any work with it... My Dodge has been my best investment of all time! His Chevy has had the motor replaced. Is Dodge better? I could say that...seems like I have the proof doesn't it?....but I know there are just too many variables...from personal preference to what day of the week the thing was built. It is all a bunch of malarkey if you ask me.

it does not really answer your specific question...but here is a basic info sheet on some boats... http://houndsong1.netfirms.com/robdar/boatstudypage.htm

these days price is not much of a consideration... the aluminum...the GOOD aluminums..can cost as much as a mid range fiber boat... The top quality aluminums..Triton Magnums, X press, Crestliner CMV series, also offer a fairly equivilant ride...though fibers will still edge out the alums in really bad water. The Fibers have better resale possiblities in the future. If you want to sell it it will be easier witha fiber than an aliminum. You can get lower operating costs with an alimunum..lighter with a smaller motor and they are lighter to tow as well. The smaller motors will also have somewhat cheaper repair and maintenance costs. The stump thing is not so true anymore...most of the alums are painted these days and will get scratched and mucked up like a fiber boat when stump bumping. If you are hitting stumps etc in any other way than being worried about scratches etc...if you are hitting them hard enough to be worried about holes and cracks...well then I would say you may want to examine you fishing habits...LOL! Fibers are generally more stable, solid platforms...they do not lean like many of the alums...though the upper end alums are equivilant these days. The heavier Fiber boats are less work and less hassle in current and windy weather than the alum's. They do not get pushed around as much. The fibers are more maintenance in my opinion. If you plan to take good care of your boat...the fibers have more care needed as far as waxing, cleaning etc. The fiber boats are pretty.

I fully believe there should be boat licensing...like there is for motorcycles etc. I have seen some down right dangerous people on the water. NOW...if you want to see a woman drive a boat...I will take you out with my wife! We got hassled at our first few tournaments. "You gonna let HER back that thing in?" "Does she know which way is forward?" and that kind of thing...most of it just innocent ribbings...some of it not, but anyway... No one teases her anymore. She grew up on lake michigan...her dad was a charter captian...she was backing in and driving a 32' sport craft by age 14.

...this is why I feel prefishing for a tournament is a waste of gas. EVEYTIME I have prefished...something has changed by tourney day and the time spent was wasted. ( other than knowing the physical details of the lake) If there are small fish in an area...they are there for a reason. If you are dropping a c-rig in 10 feet of 65 degree water on the sheltered side of a secondary point and getting smaller fish...you have learned something. There is a reason the fish are there that day at that moment...the reason the small fish are there are all the same reasons the larger fish will be there. The instincts are the same. It is just that the smaller fish are more aggressive. You may need to fish a little slower...with a different size bait...fish a little deeper...but the larger fish will be hanging in similar conditions. Maybe not right where you are fishing...maybe on the next point down the way...but they will be in similar conditions to the smaller fish. Most of the guys I know will fish like crazy until they find a pattern...and then fish that pattern slow and methodically.

I have had this discussion REPEATEDLY with quite a few folks. If you watch Bass Masters...even the guys on it have very different styles. Some are runners and gunners and some are slow and patient...and each style has different success rates at different times. ...at our last tournament first and second place was each of these styles. First place was the guy who sat over the same hole all day...second place was all over the lake...there was less than a pound between the two. I think that which ever style you are comfortable with and have confidence in is the style you will be most successful with. Fishing is as much a mental sport as it is anything else. I would say that if fishing slow and patient is where your confidence and comfort lie...then you are doing the right thing. I get tired of hearing guys calling other guys bank bashers, hole hawgs, etc etc...each style has its plus's and minus's and will pay off under the right conditions. How we fish is not really as important as how we FEEL about how we fish. I think that being able to fish both is a good thing though. I think the really successful guys...at least the guys in our tourney circut...know when to use each style. WHERE you fish matters as well. In Kentucky Lake...if you are fishing the bays and cut backs...I feel you are fishing the right way for that lake. We have never had much luck fishing Kentucky Lake any other way than slow and methodical. We have tried the run and gun on Kentucky Lake and all we ever do is burn alot of gas. We fish it the same way you do. We pick a place to fish and the fish the hell out of it. We have a few favorites on Kentucky Lake that we will run and check out everytime we go...but other than those trips to a few favorites we will usually stay put in an area and cover it really well. I love that lake.

I have never fished a Crucial...but love my Compre and my St Croix

...and now that I am thinking about it...Does this say something about Stratos? A bad tnedency to lean so lets mount the motor crooked? seems like a cheat to me...like the have a manufacturing problem that needs attention.

well I do not know this for sure but here is a bit of an extrapulation... yours is a 200 horse? I feel like you would definately FEEL a problem if there was one. We used to go to Canada to fish the ice off every year. The place we stayed had these little 1950's era steel boats with little 9 horse Nissan motors. We went early enough in the season that when we got there the guy who ran the place usually had to pull a boat out of storage for us and set it up. There was a year that he must have been side tracked or something cause when he put the motor on the boat...one of the bolts on the bracket was broken and would not tighten...so the motor kept moving around on the transom. When it came out of level and twisted to the up or down...you could definately feel it when driving...the boat would start pulling hard to one side or the other. and that was a little 9 horse... with a 200 I think the the boat would definately pull...maybe even go around in circles ! LOL!

actually a tough question... I like different lakes for different reasons and they are pretty in their own ways... a few of my favorites... Echo Lake, Ontario Dale Hollow, Tennessee TVA side of Kentucky Lake

there has not been any shooting that I know of... but apparently Michigan has enough problems with fisherman being harrassed that the Michigan DNR put a blurb about the law and that harrassment is an arrestable offense right on the front page of the fishing section of their website.

1. Senko's ( the real deal, not imitators) 2. ZOOM Flukes 3. Gulp

yep yep yep!!! have it checked head to toe.... and have the compression checked...AGAINST THE MANUAL FOR THAT MOTOR!!!! why is that in caps??? here is why... There are a handful of motors out there that are funny... I was told my powerhead needed to be rebuilt by 4 different mechanics. I have half as much compression on my center cylinder as I did on my outer two...so there was a problem...right? Well after 4 estimates for some simple work ( not the powerhead) that gave me chest pains, I got hooked up with an old man who fishes our tournament circut who was a mechanic "when the other guys were just a glimmer in their mama's eye" as it were. I told him about the compression. He looked at me confused and said... "yeah...so what." Apparently there were two versions of the 60 Horse johnson of my era ( the 1980's). One was a suped up 50 horse and the other was a "delimitied" or cut back 70 horse. The limited 70 horse...which is immediately recognizable by the oversized lower unit...had the center cylinder compression limited to reduce its horse power. I did not believe him. So I called Johnson. He was right. The other thing he fixed was my oil alarm. The other mechanics wanted between 500 and 700 hundred to change my VRO...yadda yadda yadda... turns out it was the float in my oil tank. Over time the float becomes satuarated with oil and gets sticky. He put a new float in it for $18 bucks and away I went... so my $500 dollar VRO fix...and $2000 dollar powerhead rebuild...cost me a total of $78 bucks. and BOTH these issues with my boat are listed in the troubleshooting guide of the manual for my boat. So ask to see the manual to reference what the compression etc etc really ought to be. do not simple trust your mechanic to be honest with you or to know every motor ever built.