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Say, I bought a shaker type siphon thingy, I hope it works, lol. You stick one end into the gas tank and shake the other end, I assume. It has some type of vacuum-creating gizmo on the other end. I hope it works, lol. If nothing else, I am going to test that gasoline, I do have a little test bottle that measure the amount of water in gasoline.

Crazyjoe, that makes sense. You are dead on, my boat ran fine at high rpms. BTW, has anyone else found this to be true with their boat... not running well at all on E10 gas?

Dang, if that E10 gas is my problem, I need a siphon hose to get it out and just put it in my truck! I haven't siphoned gas in about 45 years, lol.

I am very aware of the controversy about E10 fuel for outboards and small 2 cycle engines. My question about this problem I am having is that the boat did not sit up for a period of time, which is often where people see problems with ethanol gas. I filled the boat up with the gas and Sea Foam and immediately went fishing. I am wondering if E10 gas can cause a motor to be very difficult to start and keep running.

To add chain... do vendors sell small sections of chain, will they cut what you need?

As soon as I bragged to my gf about how good my Bass Tracker 40hp motor was running, it started acting up! Here's the story. After I bought the used boat (1997 model), I had fits starting it and keeping it running. After months of use, I stumbled upon a solution; with the gear in neutral, just give it quite a bit of throttle when cranking and it would crank right up! Worked like a champ for months. About two months ago, I found a source for ethanol free gas (87 octane) nearby a river and I started fishing that river, catfishing at night with limb lines, and I needed to keep the motor continuously running, but it did not idle good. I bought some Sea Foam just to see what it would do... maybe clean up the motor and Voila!.. instant solution. It has been cranking and idling great. Yesterday, my source for non-ethanol gas was out of gas, so, I filled with E10 gas (87 octane), and I added a half can of Sea Foam and filled the tank with gas. I felt okay about doing this because an excellent mechanic around here recommended to just use E10 and put Sea Foam in it and there wouldn't be any ethanol problems. Lo and behold, after changing to the E10, the boat ran like crap yesterday. Very hard to crank and tended to die at idle. It was very frustrating, just like before when it was hard to crank. Do you think switching off the E-free gas to E10 could be the problem? That is the only thing that has changed. Ugh, I still got 3/4 tank of E10 gas!

I hope you will clarify; you first mentioned 12 lb anchor for me but you have mentioned 20 lb. Which one do you recommend for me? Secondly, what does the 1/2 inch chain accomplish? Thanks.

The problem with that one (I think) is getting off a snag... if I happen to hook into a submerged log. That is like the one I posted a pic of. Do you think a 12lb one is enough? I have no idea.

Can anyone recommend an anchor for fishing a sandy bottom river? Not a swift river, flows about 2mph. Water depth of 4-25 feet. I have a 17 ft Bass Tracker aluminum boat. A friend has a 16 ft jon boat and he uses one of those 3-pronged anchors that kinda looks like the one shown below and it works okay. He just throws it out and it finally grabs (no mechanical crank, just a rope). Wondering how big an anchor I need. They make 12-20 lb anchors like this below. I can't use anything that has real hooky appendages due to snags and logs in the river. He had a grabby one previously and got it hung one time on a snag and had a heckuva time getting it pulled up. Actually broke off one of the prongs and that allowed him to get it to the surface. One of the simpler designs that is kinda mushroom shape, I don't know if that would hold well enough. I hate having an anchor with a loose rope in my boat but for now, it will have to do. Maybe later I can install some kind of crank.

I have a Rapala electric knife. I found a web page pdf for the knife that said do not put the blades in the dishwasher. What could hurt steel and a bit of plastic? If rinsing and scrubbing them off at the sink after cleaning fish is ok, so be it, but just curious what that recommendation could be about.

This is regarding a Bass Pro Shop baitcasting reel. Sorry I don't have it here, gave it to a friend and he has a question. He is having trouble with it backlashing suddenly and suspected the braid line going bad but that doesn't seem like a line issue. He is asking if the line guide is supposed to move back and forth with a cast. It does move back and forth upon retrieve. I never noticed but I would think it disengages with a cast. He is on a fishing trip and it suddenly gives him fits; was casting fine two days ago. But it hasn't been cleaned in years, might just need cleaning? This BPS reel was not expensive, just mid-price reel, has one adjustment knob on side, not two. It's several years old and the line is several years old. I don't recall what line is on it but it's pretty heavy braid.

If money is a concern, Pelican Bass Raider 10e is recommended by me. And they usually go on sale from Academy or Dick's this month (May). Also, you can sometimes pick up a good used one (or similar style) cheap on CL. Light enough to launch from a pickup truck bed (with no trailer) if you are reasonably strong. You can stand okay to stretch your legs. If you want to stand all the time, probably not for you.

You guys sure find some good deals! I think it will work fine, it is what I use on my old Bass Tracker that is 9.5' long.

Look into 'buddy bearings.' That is what we always called them but I guess it should be 'bearing buddies,' lol. http://www.bearingbuddy.com/

Do you think the Minn Kota one is the better unit? It would have one 12v female for whatever, and another 12v female you could stick in a male 12v thingy that has 2 USB ports?

Well, the unbelievable deal just got more unbelievable. You can actually skip the part about having another rope if your winch line is supple enough to use for both purposes.

Buy some rubber boots/waders. If it's warm, no concern. Beach the boat next to the trailer. Get out. Attach your winch line to the front of the boat. Then push the boat out, but hold a rope also attached to the front. When you push it out, aim it so that it will be going out into the lake but with the bow/stern axis generally lined up with your trailer. When it is as close to the trailer axis as possible, pull it onto the trailer straight as you can. Then winch it up. Your purchase is amazingly good. Why can't I ever find boat deals that good!

I posted the above three weeks ago but I don't recall seeing anyone answer. Anyone got any comments on the questions asked above about the Bulldog motor? Lastly, a friend recently bought a Bass Raider 10e and bought a 30lb thrust motor along with it. I told him I would strongly recommend a 40-50lb thrust motor. The 30lb thrust motor he has is a Motor Guide, and it does have a nice exendable handle, but it has a 30" shaft... that worries me (versus 36") and also, the 30lb thrust worries me. If I were going to spend on a new boat and all that it requires to rig it up, I would rather have more thrust. Seems to me that when you are ready to head to a new area on the lake or back to the dock, the extra thrust equates to speed, and that's important. What do you guys think? However, I told him it will work, just not ideal IMO. Also, I understand keeping costs down but one could buy a digital 50-55lb thrust motor for not a whole lot much more ($150 more?), and the battery life might be longer on a charge? Please let me know if you think it's a big mistake to buy a 30lb thrust, he might still be able to take it back?

Say, I have a trailer like that. Did you have to do anything with the wheel hubs, or change them out to Buddy bearings or such? Do you submerge the wheels and not worry? Can you post a pic of the rope/hook or did it not work?

His position is exactly mine. I don't keep large bass! I know of people who routinely keep bass over 5 lbs. Oh my! I would release every one of those. Like Bob said... every 10 lb bass was once 5 lbs but not if he met the skillet. Where I fish, we catch enough, if we want fish for dinner, I don't see the need for anything culled over about, say, 2 lbs. The 1-2 lb bass, eatin' size.

BTW, I don't know what it is now, but back in its heyday, on Toledo Bend, there was no limit on bream and we would catch HUNDREDS per day of large ones during the spawn. And many a boat would do that. Maybe even crappie had no limit there for a while. I think bass was 15/day. Lakes can surely become overpopulated or out of balance with little fish.

You just rewrote the book on fisheries health. If nobody ever kept bass, there would be an overpopulation of them. In the south, anyway. As for me, however, I prefer to keep only smaller ones, let the others grow bigger.

I think we had this same thread last year, lol. Where some say that LM bass are nasty, etc. I could not disagree more. In the south, it is common to eat LMB. 99% of the time this means deep fried with corn meal and hot grease (oil). Which is how crappie and bream are also cooked here. They taste fine even if you don't do anything special to the meat. I am sure there are better tasting fish but to say that bass are nasty seems unfair to the fish, because they taste fine to a bazillion fish-eating fishermen.

Those of you who have a high end sonar unit, how do you use it? I have a Humminbird 1199ci Hd Si Combo, not installed yet. Please describe how you use it to increase your catch rate. Could you describe a day's use, what, exactly, you do with sonar? The technology is awesome. For instance, do you scout for fish? Thanks.

Congrats to thinking outside the box. I wish you well with your research, it sounds interesting, no telling what you might discover.