Ben

In that size boat, personnaly I would go with the Stratos. Just remember, that's about 3,200 lbs of towing weight so you realy need a full size truck with a V-8 to tow it. A mid size with a V-8 will do ok but anything less and it's very tough on the vehicle. If you live or tow through hills (even small ones), you'd better have a full size.

That's a tough one. Age has a lot to do with it but how well it has been maintained, where it has been kept and what shape the transome is in. They are asking a premium price for a boat that age. Go to NADA and see what they say the value is. I've seen 20 year old boats in better shape than five year old ones. It really needs to be check out good by someone that knows their stuff

If you're 57, 6'1" and weigh 210 like me, I wouldn't recommend it. I stand and move around in my Lowe 1436 pond boat. It's not something I do comfortably like in my bass boat but it's not that unstable either. I have an old 12' boat also (1232), and would highly recommend you go with a 1436 over a 1236 if you have a trailer to haul it on. The 1236 is easier to haul around in the back of a pickup but the 1436 gives you so much more room when two people are in the boat. Without a trailer the 14' gets to be a bit much sticking out the back of a shortbed pickup. In the average jon like you buy at Wally World, you will also find the 12 is usaully on rated for about 5hp where the 14 is usaully rated for about 10. With a little extra bracing I run a 25 Merc on the back of mine unless in lakes/rivers with 10 hp max, then I run 9.9 which will still move it along pretty good. Electric TM will also move the 14 about as well as the 12.

Sounds like the problem is inside the sonar, not the base mount. Sounds like the display drivers are not working. Maybe all the blue ink leaked out (just kidding). You've got nothing to loose opening it up and just giving everything a little wiggle, tap, shake, unplug and plug. Too bad you didn't post two weeks ago. I just dumped a number of old units, a good 300TX and a 400TX off my sons boat was among them, they both needed transducers. Gave several complete, working Lowrance and Eagle units to Salvation Army.

If you're talking about in a bass boat. I wouldn't have an I/O. Whole rear of the boat is just about useless. Better buy it very cheap, because you'll have one hellava time finding someone else to sell/trade it to when you decide you wish you had gotten an OB.

If it doesn't show you anything when you turn it on, probably terminal. It it goes through it's normal display junk and then goes blank it may be the transducer. Either case, unless you could find a used transducer cheap, it's not really worth fixing. There are several better units for less than $200. Some that actually have some resolution. Take all the Torx crews from around the outside edge, open it up, unplug and plug all the connectors on the board just to make sure you're not getting a bad connection and look for anything obvious. If that don't work, s***can it.

Two blade props give more speed but don't work pads and hydrilla well, three blade pulls harder and works in weeds better but not as fast. Four blade works in weeds best but is the slowest of three.

Hull design has as much to do with ride as the weight. A flat glass boat is going to beat up on you almost as much as a tin can. The extra weight does help it ride a little better. Personally, in a small boat (12' - 16'), I prefer the heavy guage aluminum jon, flat bottom, square nose and tail. They are light, easy to tow, can get in and out of many more places and work in shallow water best. When it comes to fishing big lakes where you may have to go several miles, I like my V-hull, fiberglass barge of a bass boat that rides a smooth as silk. Pretty much takes a full size truck to tow 3,200 lbs of boat/trailer down the road, a tanker truck to keep both supplied with gas to feed all them ponies and ain't no way you're gonna drag it anywhere. For economics and a much more versitle boat, go with the aluminum. For comfort and more storage room go with the glass, unless you speeking similar style small boats, the go tin can all the way.

Most waxes are short term. They will usually make it shine but in a few weeks, it's back to looking like it did when you started. There are some polymers that will last longer but nothing I know of that's going to last all summer

I just realized I said urathane paint, I guess since that's what I'm spraying on my wifes 74 VW convertable I had it on the brain. I meant to say a good grade epoxy paint. Not any of them are really going to bond to that gel coat real well though. Being an 84 model boat and if it's a solid color, with no metal flake, most likely you only have gel coat with no clear coat. It that is the case, get your hands on a varialbe speed buffer with a thick wool buffing pad, one that you can get down to 1,500 - 1,800 rpm. Don't try it with a high speed one. Wet sand it good with 1,500 or 2,000 grit wet/dry paper to take all the old dull gel off the surface. Get a bottle of 3M Perfect-it II Fine cut Rubbing compound and buff it back to a nice glassy shine. If you've never used a buffer, keep it moving, don't let the outer edge hit very hard and use very light pressure around edges. This is all to keep from burning/blistering the gel. Keeping the pad slightly damp helps a bunch also. Once you get if buffed out to a nice shine, use 3M Imperial Hand Glaze for the final finish. That sucker will be so shiney, you'll need sunglasses just to look at it. You can do this even if it has metal flake and clear coat, provided the clear has not worn away and down to the metal flake. If you sand metal flake, it turns silver, it's nothing but a colored foil, and you have all these little silver specs showing. Sand it too much and you have a silver boat. If there is still a good coat of clear even it there are some thin spots, just be careful in those areas, it will buff out and polish up to look like new moneyl

If you're talking color and clear coat, you're talking a large chunk of change, probably 2 - 3 K$ The problem is the amount of manual labor involved. When applied as a top coat, there is no way to apply it smooth. It takes many hours of hand sanding and buffing to get it back to a glassy finish. The other problem is gel does not cure when exposed to air and has to have a sealer. There's always the risk that it may not cure and have to be stripped off and done again. Even at that, color coat is usually not going to look as good as when it's sprayed in a mold the way it's intended to be used. A much cheaper alternative is to spray it with a high quality urathane. The draw back to that is when it gets a chip, it may come off in large chunks.

TOO HOT!!!! Never. I also live down here in GA, just a couple of miles from the geographical center and I fish topwater year round. That's the nice thing about bass, they can't read so they haven't read all that stuff about what and when they are suppose to bite. Clark Hill is above pool level and last weekend caught three nice bass on a buzz bait, two on a devil horse and four keepers ripping a Yo-Zuri. Surface temps was 85 - 87 degrees

Mighty old outfit, I would have it checked out very closely before buying. Also I would recommend you take it to the lake for at least one test trip. A pointed V and rounded bottom is going to let limit your casting ability. You're going to pretty much be confined to sitting down because they have a tendency to want to rock pretty badly if you try standing. One of the main problems with that motor is the lower units are prone to leak. I would check the lube. If it's black, it should be ok. If milkey, or water comes out when you remove the bottom plug it has water, if fresh and clear gold color, I would be leary also, someone changed it for some reason and most people don't change their LU oil when they are selling a boat unless they're wanting to hide something.

I run three, one on TM for the bow mounted unit. One shoothing through the hull for the console mounted flasher and on on the transom for the console mounted LCD. Both the TM and transome mounted unit have temp senders also. I think you will find most people run the bow mounted sonar's transducer on the TM. The one in the back of the boat's approx 20 ft from where you're at so it doesn't do you much good for trying to see what structure is below you.

It's all about how much room and storage you want, how comfortable you want to be and what kind of ride you want. Bigger is better all the way around when it comes to a fishing platform. You've just got to factor in how big you want the cost. I use a 18.5' Stratos 285 Pro and it gets mighty dang small with two people in it. You still have to work around the guy in the back seat if you're casting anywhere toward the front of the boat with a 7' rod. I'm giving serious consideration of stepping up to a 201.

Much shorter than 19 and it's not going to be rated for a 200, you're getting down to the 150 - 175's Most 19 footers are only rated for a 200 Don't know of any 20's rated for a 250, many will run an HO or Optimax where rules will let them You pretty much have to go 21 or better to run 250's. Tourny rules do not allow boats that exceed max hull rated hp and they do not allow any modifications to the motor. You've also got to remember, most of those guys (higher ranked) run what their sponsor's furnish. Many of Those at the bottom of the rankings don't have the financing to use those bigger boats. When you almost live in a boat like those guys do, you want the biggest, most comfortable boat with the most storage room you can get. As for speed, the 19's are usually going to be the slowest by several mph. The 20's and 21's are going to be similar, depending on load and setup with the 21/250 rig usually being a couple mph faster. However, there are some of the 20's w/225's that will outrun them. As for what's best, that's totally individual preference, what you can afford and how much you want each trip to cost you. The bigger the floater, the more it cost to own, tow and operate it. Then you have to figure, do you want speed or comfort and fishability. For outright speed, the Allison or Bullet or Stoker is the way to go, but you give up a lot of room/comfort. The next step down is the Gambler, they give a little more room/comfort and still have above average speed. The step down speed wise would probably be the Triton. If speed is not you driving force, the Ranger's, Stratos's and Champion's are hard to beat. They are fast, just normally not quit as fast those built for more speed, but they offer the most comfort.

The overheating of the wire is probably a dirty plug/rectical or loose connections on either. If the boat is several years old, it may even be too small to handle the amp load of the TM. Check the batteries and see if they have the small circuit breakers. The will be connected to the battery and the TM cables connected to them. The motor cutting off was probably the circuit breaker is too small for the amp draw for the TM to run long periods on high. If they are there, they are probably 25 or 30 amp. You need to change them out for 40 - 45 amp. You also need to check the size cable going from the battery to the TM connector. Anything smaller than #6 battery/welding cable (fine stranded wire) is too small. If it is too small, that will also add to the overheating you get at the connector. You gotta remember, it's only been in the last several years we had these big TM's and boat builders started setting boats up for them. We didn't run TM's that had the power they have now the boats were not set up for that much current. Even with newer boats, you go way over what the boat builder felt is needed, chances are, it's not going to have the connectors, circuit breakers or wiring to handle it.

I have always felt a direct, concentrated light will spook shallow bass. Years back, before the invention of the 12V black lights, we night fished for bass with no light at all. Kept a red filtered light in boat to see how to tie knots and untangle lines etc. We always caught way more fish with no light than when we tried to use lights. Black lights are great with florecent line. I run four, both sides of the boat, front and back. Two years ago, we started experimenting using a florescent white lite with the black light and seemed to get just a many bites with that setup as with just the black lights. The white light I reflect upwards slightly to minimize the light on the water itself but makes seeing the bank cover much easier.

Never got the ph meter. Bought the temp quage and my first flasher back then. I've never used the temp guage enough to warrent trying to upgrade it and that one works fine for what I do with it. In the spring I like to know what the 5' depth temp is . Surface temps change too fast. I did buy the Color C-lector they pitched so hard when it came out, what a waste, still have that thing too. A high quality flasher is all you really need, and a high quality LCD helps when you're not wanting to concentrate on looking at the flasher. Add a surface temp guage and that's all the high tech you really need.

You can probably pick up a very good used 25 tiller merc or OMC for $500 or so. Last summer I bought a 14ft boat, excellent 83, 25 merc and nice galvanized trailer for $325. Boat was rotted out junk but all I was wanting was the motor.

Back in the 60's there used to be an electronics company called Heath Kit. They had a thermometer kit that had small cable about 60 ft in length with a temp sensor on the end. It had a large spool built into a handle so you could drop it down, reading the temps as you go and the cable was marked every five ft and wind it up when done. Bought one of those and been using that thing since 1967. I replace the battery and calibrate it every year and it still works great. As for thermoclines, a good depth finder will show those.

Make you some traps, bait them with cat food, stick them out several areas late one one evening and go back early the next moring to check them. I most cases, rip rap and rocky areas are but some mud banks will have them as well. Place you traps at various depths, to find what depht they are staying. Find them and their depth and you will find bass visiting those locations. You have to place them very late and check them early or someone else may have gotten them. I anchor the line to the trap on something just below the water line

I made this post before I realized you said "trickle" battery charger. Is this one of those little back things approx 3" X 4") you see around for $30 or this a two/three bank onboard. Those little trickle chargers are not designed to charge a battery, they only put out several hundred mA's, they are only for keeping the battery charged (after having been charged on regular charger) while the battery is not in use. How old are your batteries? A bad battery will heat up, never reach a full charge and make the charger run constantly, causing it to heat up also. Of the more affordable chargers, I like the ProMariner's. I think the ProTourney 300 is the best thing going for an affordable charger. They also make the BPS line of chargers. Once you understand how they really work, you will understand how they will charge a battery almost twice as fast as a similar size rated charger. Also, you're not carrying around the weight of an anchor, like the old transformer based chargers like Dual Pro and most others. Are you by chanced stationed at Langley. I was there from 1984 - 1990 at HQ TAC.

Actually, that was not a day, that was just a couple of hours. We had been night fishing for white bass under Raysville Bridge, an hour or so before daylight we headed back to the car to get some sleep. On the way I cast a Waterdog to the riprap and caught a big fish. They were stacked in their like cordwood and up until a little after daylight we were pulling two at a time a lot. No telling how many missed strikes and a number slung the bait. Just a couple of weeks ago we got into 2 - 3 pounders like that on rattle traps, boated (and released) over 30 but can only look at the pictures and dream of a day like 73 again. In Jan/Feb we do get into the 10 - 15 lb strippers like that at times but they don't count.

14.3 largemouth caught in 1969 below Columbus GA. Largest stringer was 1973, me and a friend caught 28 bass, smallest was 6.9, largest was 9.3, nine were over 8 lbs caught in Clark's Hill (Ga side) cranking Waterdogs. The sad part, that was back before we had enough since to release big fish and cared less about catch limits. Old saying goes, wisdom comes with age. Might catch one a year like that now in that lake.