RobDar

you know what...the internet is great for some things...but I am old school. I like to have a print copy in my hand. I like magazines, newspapers... I even still go to the library ( thats the big building your taxes pay for with all the books ;D I actually talked to a kid the other day...a high school junior...who had no freakin idea what the Dewey Decimal system was. That is sad.) I use the internet for alot of things...but if you ask me...there is no substitute for the "real deal".

I think this is real hard to judge...there are alot of variables...but I have seen some OLD OLD OLD trolling motors that are still running.

yeah I already have done that...at least some of them. Got a minilla folder in the file cabinet right behind the boat receipts ( that way when the boat folder is bulging and looking expensive I can read an article or two to remind why it is worth it! ;D ) I suscribed to Bassin'. I worry that BassMaster would be to "pro sponsors" and "pro" oriented. Bassmaster is BIG business and I feel that that sometimes hurts objectivity.

What does everyone think is a good bass/fishing magazine?

I had a bearing blow on me. trust me when I tell you it is ALOT better to go buy what you need, and ask around and get it done...at home, in your driveway...than on the side of the expressway with semi's whipping by at 70 miles an hour...which is somewhere just this side of scary.

I cannot say I know anything about your specific graph....but with the affordable prices on decent graphs these days....I would opt for something more modern.

went to to a lake near us today. ( good day ) and caught several fish. The first few we caught on the east side of the lake had this weird marks all over them. Their lips were all black and necrotic looking and they had these black..fungal/moldy looking spots on them. anyone ever seen this before? I wish I had my camera with me. There was a dead something...muskrat maybe, maybe a oppossum, floating in the water that we did not see till we were leaving...could this be the cause of some kind of baterial problem in the lake? the fish on the other side of the lake were in better shape but still a little black staining around the mouth.

;D ;D ;D ;D " i dont care who you are...thats funny right 'der!"

you dont get the big bite??? your handle is fivepoundbluegill for god's sake! ;D ;D that is a big bluegill!!!! Catt is right AGAIN... this is difficult for me as well. knowing when, where, and how to catch fish by size is the "finesse" of bass fishing. It is a major skill refinement that takes a while to learn I think. It was once explained to me like this... "to catch big fish you gotta hit the fish where he lives, you gota toss into his living room...so always be thinking real estate...location, location, location." Good luck with this by the way. I really think that this is one of those things that just plain takes time and experience to learn. Start keeping a log, if do not already, it is a big help.

you guys are right there are good guys and bad guys...good and bad in all things. I guess I just have a little bit of a soft spot for the young guys who are struggling. Hey I still struggle and do not have NEAR the experience or skill alot of the guys in club have...so maybe I am just a little sensitive to these guys behavior. The frustration is fresher in my mind maybe than alot of the guys who have some consistant success. I also feel though, as a director, that if you come and pay your entry fee, you have the right to fish and be treated like everyone else. AND I DO NOT UNDERSTAND...they paid their money and added it to the purse, so I would think the guys with the best chance of winning would be SMILING about that. This newbie just took his money and put it in their pocket. I mean if the guy really is not the threat than what is the point in even worrying about it then??? I talked to their director yesterday and he said he has had alot of problems with that team. He says they ruin the whole day when they show up for a tourney. I do not know about you guys, but that does not sound like competition if you ask me.

FOR AVID: first...I know the different between competition and sport. I also have a good deal of fun harrassing some of the guys and they me. There is a difference between a little hazing and uptalk...even a little intimidation...a being downright rude. First of all...the tourney season is OVER for us, which was mentions in the post, so there is no competition factor in what these guys said. Second...they do not fish the same division so this kid is not even their competition....until the end of the year tournament, if the kid even qualifies, which he did not this year...so no competition at all. Third...it is not competition when you are harrassing guys while they are shopping at Bass Pro...that is just being a jerk. If this would have happened at a tourney, during the season, or between teams that fish against each other; I would, like many of you, chalked it up to a little pre-game hazing. ...as always the devil is in the details...read more carefully.

NO. But you are confusing tournament bass fishing with sport bass fishing. The minute you enter a tournament you are gambling. You ante up your entry fee and expenses and bet that you will BEAT others for the payout. This is not sport fishing. This is business. To many it is very serious business. It would be nice to say that these guys are just "hazing" newbies, but that is not the case. They are trying to intimidate and deflate their competitors so they can gain an advantage, while pumping themselves up for the big event. It's a comptetition, not a sport (look it up) WOW!!!! you should change your handle from Avid to "easy made livid". There is valum in the cabinet I can mail a few.

I just got an email from one of the guys in my tournament division who had an upsetting run in with a few other guys from another division at Bass Pro. I do not understand some of the chest beaters in this sport. The more tourney fisherman I meet the fewer of them I like or can tolerate. Our club covers every skill level...we have some newbies all the way up to guys who fish the FLW and BassMasters. What I do not understand is some of these guys need to stroke their own ego's and to harrass guys who have less experience than they. ( they told this kid to come back in 10 years when he had enough skill to actually compete..they are lucky they do not fish my division and their division director has already been left a voice mail) ...and it seems to me that the more popular the "sport" gets the more guys who do not belong in it there are. If some of these guys are not harrrassing other because they do not have a big shiny boat...they are harrassing them for some other reason. ( I got teased about my boat at our year end tourney...but I just giggle when I drive on by the gas station that they have stopped at 8 times) I feel like I am witnessing my apprenticeship again. I had a real hard time being an apprentice. The journeyman who went out of their way to harrass and pester the apprentices really got under my skin. I took it cause I had to, but i had ALL KINDS of trouble when I was a done and would not allow other guys to pick on the apprentices. Apprentice or not they are people...skilled fisherman or not...they are people who deserve respect. I actually have more respect for the young guy who goes out and tries every tourney and keeps coming back, wanting to learn, wanting to improve. I have a boat load more respect for him/her than I do the guy who only shows up when he knows he has the tourney all locked up. The longer I am in this the more common this ego stroking seems to get. How insecure do you need to be to brow beat an newbie? or pick on someone cause you have a nicer boat? Is sportsmanship dying?

you can mess around with all that if you want...but I think I would strip, prime, and paint the inside with truck bed liner.

My float is part of the tank cap assembly...so that was all the needed replacing. I do not know if my father in law had his whole tank replaced or not.

sounds like an oil alarm to me as well. I have an older 175...my father in law has a 2001 185...we have both had to replace our oil level sensors in the tanks.

1964 Texas LoneStar Vee Hull. My father in law traded it for a shotgun...2 weeks later we found out it was a collectors item and since mine was all original and still had working cable steering with all the original pulleys, the original motor, original seats etc it was worth a small fortune.

ummm...wow...that greatly depends on the boat you are towing. If you are talking a little Jon or small aluminum, like OleBiker. then sure... ...keep in mind though...buying the best gas mileage vehicle is not always the best thing to do depending on your driving habits and you what you are towing. Around town/ city driving you will find very few vehicles that will beat a four banger on mileage. On the highway...my 6 gets virtually the same mileage as the wifes four banger. In towing....many times you will get better mileage with an 8 cylinder than with a 6...and better with a 6 than a 4...depending on what you are towing. You will get junk mileage running empty, but better under load because the vehicle does not work as hard. My brothers new 2008 Expedition EL ( Extra Long)...it is one big truck...gets the same mileage as my 2000 6 cylinder. The car companies are constantly improving mileage and a good portion of the push for better mileage has been in the 6 cylinders and 8 clinders. We have a friend with a new 6 cylinder gets BETTER mileage than my wifes 2000 4 cylinder. If you undersize your vehicle for the sake of mileage, you run the risk of actually doing worse for the environment by overstressing your vehicle and having increased maintenance and upkeep costs and the waste that this incurs. Things like air filters, tune up parts, PCV valves, sensors, transmission parts burned out by overworking a lightweight vehicles, suspension parts, are rarely recycled by your mechanic and end up in land fills. Environmentally you may be better served by a 6 cylinder able to do the work you want it to do easily over a 4 cylinder that has to work HARD to the same work.

Lake Muskegon is a better fishery than I expected from the information I had gotten before going to this tournament. The fish are strong and healthy. It is a somewhat odd lake as far as its general structure and not my kind of fishing preference...( alot of open water drops and shelf fishing)...but all in all a good lake. I was very pleased with the big healthy bellies on the fish there. Even the 14" fish weighed in at about 1/2 again as much as any fish of the same length would have here near Chicago. We did okay all things considered. We did not win but we did catch some fish...and more importantly we made a plan on a lake we had never seen, we stuck to it, and we did okay. We spent half of one day without a trolling motor until I got it fixed...and had a hard time fighting the wind in our little aluminum boat...but at any rate I think the wife FINALLY agrees we need a better boat!!!!!! ...if that is all that comes from this tournament it was WORTH IT!

This would be my first choice as well

well...congrats... maybe now you can talk her into a few more family outings. My wife is my tourney partner and I love it. I would go as far as to say that fishing together is a major strength in our relationship... ...except when she outfishes me...and then I just hate her! ;D ;D ;D

personally...and I am sure there are those that will disagree...but it kinda depends on the body of water. I fish two places that always seem to be dirty and stirred up.. The Calumet River The Kankakee River On the Calumet I will almost always toos a solid black bandit or a dark bait. On the Kankakee...which usually has the same "hot chocolate" clarity...a dark color never seems to avail much success at all. I almost always will throw a bright colored bait. ...so I guess my point is...try both.

good luck at Toledo Bend.

...and I will bet that you just cannot get enough of Home Improvement reruns huh Catt! ;D more power...grunt! grunt! grunt! ;D A guy we fish with has the 640 with a 90 and even though Trackers site says approx 46 MPH with a 90...he gets about 40 at best. Maybe 42 with the wind at his back. ( and the 640 is 300 lbs lighter) All of Trackers performance estimates are a bit generous. I think they hired horse jockeys to drive them when they tested them! ;D The 750 runs okay with the 90 once it gets up and going, but is a bit slow getting there. ( the 750 with a 90 is exactly what my father in law used to run) This is another boat where I may opt for the 115 for wee bit more power at the same weight and a fuel comsumption in the same physical displacement class. I am told that swapping out for a four blade prop improves the hole shot but I do not know anyone who uses a four so I cannot really say.

Let's say we both buy a boat that is rated for a maximum 115 hp and I put a 90 on mine while you put the 115 on yours. I can run maybe 50 mph while you can run 60 mph. Just because my boat does not have the maximum size engine it is approved for does not make it underpowered. It may be underpowered if I am trying to run 60 mph. How would my boat be any less safe than yours? by under powered I do not think they mean if you do not have the max HP you are underpowered. It is more that many of the package boat deals...the Tracker 175 with a 50 Horse as an example is underpowered. Many of the package boats come with too small of a motor in the package. Lowe, Tracker, Polar Kraft, several of the manufacuers do this. You do not always need the MAX HP...but you want to make sure the motor is enough to give you a comfortable and efficient ride. perhaps you should go and take a few test rides. If you take out the same boat with a small motor and one with a well sized motor...it will quickly become clear which you prefer and which you need for your usage. I agree with guys who says that you will hear guys complain about too little power, but never about too much power...that is true...but it seems like you are a little like me....looking for a good compromise. A good compromise is possible and very do-able.