fishnkamp

It would look almost the same if it were mono, copoly or fluoro. Dump it and get fresh.

I am willing to bet I know the problem. The older fuel lines do not hold up to the ethanol fuels we suffer with today. The inside of the lines break down into a powder that clogs stuff up. The answer is to replace the fuel lines from the tank all the way to the motor. Then there is a fuel "box" on the side of the motor. It includes the fuel filter as well as a float and needle valve similar to a carburetor has. This keeps the tank in there full. It also includes at least one electric fuel lift pump. All of these can get disturbed with the junk. It requires taking it apart, cleaning everything out, replacing the filter etc. My local bass boat dealer was doing it so often his mechanic kept a set of supplies ready to go. Once the issue is taken care of I would suggest running a product called Star Tron with every drop of fuel you add. I have a 2010 boat that I have used Star Tron since I purchased it new.

Here is my advice and I learned it during 40 + years and have owned 11 bass boats, canoes, and jon boats. Size is best determined by the waters you intend to fish and personal preference. I live in MD, so the boat I needed to safely fish an electric only reservoir is very different than the boat I use to fish the big waters of the Chesapeake Bay, the Susquehanna River and the Potomac River. I also travel and have boated on Old Hickory and regularly come out there to fish on Dale Hollow and Center Hill. I am in love with your area. I intend tpo retire somewhere near Cookeville. Here is the boat I currently use. It is a wide bodied aluminum Lowe Bass boat powered by a 75 Merc. It has all the same goodies my 20 foot ProCraft had on it. By the way, I test ran that ProCraft on Old Hickory back in the 90's. I spent the day touring ProCraft's factory, then the customer rep took my wife and I out for the boat test. That last picture is the same boat after it was repowered. That was done to safely fish the bigger tidal water. That is a 171/2 foot rig. It is wide enough to be very stable BUT it would not be a good choice for real estate when fishing 3 anglers. I would make a couple of decisions first. What is my budget and do I intend to go with a big aluminum or with a wider fiberglass. If this was my choice I would go with a boat somewhere near 19 foot. Let's assume for the minute you are looking for a new rig and can afford it. Please take a couple of rod trips for research purposes. First you have a Bass Cat dealer in Old Hickory TN, just north and west of Nashville. It is called Riverside. Go sit in a Panterra II. It is one of their best selling models. It is 19'1" and of the older narrower body styles. There is a Triton dealer in Cookeville. Go take a look a Triton 189 TRX and the 19 TRX. The 189 TRX will be 18'8" inches and will feel like an aircraft carrier because of the wide bodied hull. Next on your little trip would be a stop in Livingston Tn at Sportsman Center. Bob is a great guy (the owner) and he carries Phoenix Boats. Go sit in a 618 and some of their 19 foot models. Lastly, go to Bunch Marine in Harriman TN. They stock lots of Rangers, Tritons, Nitros, and Trackers. They carry those brands in both fiberglass and aluminum. In addition, I would look for dealers that carry Xpress and Chrestliner boats. Xpress is probably the top of the line aluminum bass boat as far as that goes. Now if you are going to purchase a used boat all of this research will cement in your mind what you prefer and what used models to look for. Many good used boats show up at these same dealers. A 20 to 21 footer with a 225 or 250 will be a lot more expensive to operate than a 18'9"-19'6" with a 150 to 200. Since you live where you live I highly recommend you spend some time fishing Center Hill Lake as well. When you get a boat let's talk fishing in your neck of the woods for sure. Yo are blessed where you live and the waters you have to fish.

You will need to do several things. Adjust his trailer so that it is level ( I usually measure the distance between the frame and the ground, near the tongue, and that same measurement between the frame and the rear of the frame. If you do this on level ground you will be pretty close. You can even help by using a small 5 or 6 inch bubble level. Mount it somewhere around the winch stand. Now that we have the trailer basically level do two things. One is measure from the center of the ball socket on the trailer coupler to the ground. Next look at the top of the coupler. As lo n slo said it will list a 1 7/8 inch or a 2 inch ball required. If your truck has a receiver style hitch then you want a draw bar that fits your hitch, but also provides the same distance from the ground to the center of the ball. We are trying to pull the trailer almost perfectly level for safety reasons. Now I will tell you I had one boat that made launching impossible without the nose of the trailer being elevated 1 1/2 high. It was safe no big deal. Once you decide if you need a draw bar that is level, adds a certain amount of inches of raise, or your setup will need so many inches of drop, you install the correct size ball. It is really easier than it may appear. Watch this video it will help show how to do it better than I explained it maybe. Both of those boats would be very lightweight, so you would not need a 2x2 class 5 type hitch. If your truck has a hitch great, if it does not, all you would need to tow a boat like that would be a class 1 or 2 frame hitch. Draw Tight makes several class one and class 2 frame hitches and they use a 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 draw bar. Others like Reese make similar ones as well. Even U Haul sells some and they do installs too. This would save you money, as well as provide all you would need for safety. Sometimes a ball on the bumper will work okay, if the trailer is level enough. My first two boats I towed I used one of the Draw Tight class 1 hitches and I pulled it with a Mazda pickup truck with a 4 cylinder engine. It worked great. Make sure what the trailer has on it to connect the lights. It should be a flat 4 pin connector but often guys choose a round connector and so you need to be able to match your truck up with whatever it has on it.

That is a very good riding boat. There were issues with the early OptiMax engines blowing up, but if your dad has been using it that worry is eliminated. It seemed they either exploded like a handgrenade early in life or not at all. The Panterra lineup ( they used the same hull and had several floor plans) has always been well loved. In fact several times they changed the floorplan to make it fresh and were told by their customers we want the original lineup and they listened. They currently make the Pantera II and the Pantera Classic. Enjoy the new ride.

Lots of bass have been caught in a boat like that. It is a good starter setup, or for some it is all they need. To see if it is the right boat for you requires some information. So help us by answering some simple questions. What type of water will you be boating in? Is it small local ponds, slightly larger lakes or reservoirs, small slow moving rivers or real big lakes and faster moving rivers? How good are the ramps you can use? Sometimes a body of water has a really spiffy ramp you can launch a mega sized bass boat and sometimes you will find an unimproved ramp you need a smaller boat and trailer to launch. What is your tow vehicle and how much can it handle? What is your real budget? Each of those answers can dictate your best choice or a compromise between 2. For instance I ran a similar boat to that Alumacraft, it was a 2 seater 15 1/2 foot long with a 48 inch bottom. It was a very stable boat when I fished on some reservoirs and one larger lake we liked. That lake had a lot of boat traffic but had a 20 hp limit, so no big waves. The reservoir was electric only. The boat was fine on some MD Eastern Shore ponds and small rivers too. At the time I purchased a second bass boat. The other was a 17 1/2 foot long Lowe Stinger bass boat. I set it up with the 20 hp outboard and turned the 15 footer into an electric only rig. The Lowe was used on the 20 hp lake but was perfectly safe in the big TN and KY lakes we travelled to. I now live next to the Chesapeake Bay and so I fish rough tidal water. I still use my Lowe but had to replace the engine with a 75 HP Merc in order to be safe. The first boat I ever owned was a 12 foot long 30 or 36 inch aluminum jon and we fished 3 teenagers out of it, but we were only fishing in a reservoir and had little trouble with waves. I hope these examples help. Here is another option. It is a 16 foot Lowe with lots of goodies for $4500. It includes a a gps/fish finder, already has seats, a floor, wide open layout new batteries and even rod holders. https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/boa/d/16-lowe-roughneck-welded/6527731448.html

My absolute favorite color of the XRK50 and XRK75s was the Telopea. My stripers ate it like it was a live alewife.

I sent you a pm

That is a tough call. If you still intend to use it primarily as a spinnerbait, buzzbait, topwater, rod than I probably would stay with the DC 734. Those are reaction baits and and do not require "THE MOST" sensitive rod. I fish with some XP series rods and am very happy with their sensitivity for what techniques they are used for. I consider them to be as sensitive as my G Loomis GL3 or IMX rods, and I do use those for bottom baits like jigs. If I was going to use this rod more for bottom contact "feel" type baits than I would consider the upgrade more. Just my two cents. When you call Dobyns ask about the difference in the rod's tapers. I believe they will tell you the 744 is a bit quicker with a bit more backbone. That DC 734C is just such a good all purpose rod.

Hey Brian I use an Irod Genesis II IRG703CC for these type of baits as well as all my square bills, small to mid depth cranks and even rattle trap type baits up to 3/4 ounce. If you want to handle one check out Angler Express (in Timonium MD), they usually stock them. I would call before running over there of course. I would be happy to let you cast mine if that helps any as well. The Irod Genesis II rods run around $150.

Most good local tackle shops either have a guy that does that type of work, or know who to send you to. I had a BR member in Tennessee that asked this same question last year. I live in MD, but know a good bit of Tennessee. It took me only 3 calls to find a shop near him. He said they charged about $20 for parts and labor if I remember correctly.

Something that helps the loading with just a trolling motor is to cover your bunks with the white slick bunk material. I had the kit from CE I believe any way two sections covered my entire 8 foot long bunk and the kit comes with 4 pieces which covered both. The called them self centering bunk glides. Check oue Eastern Marine (in Delaware) online. They sell them. Those bunks were so slick I had to leave the front strap hooked up till my 15 1/2 foot Polar Kraft bass boat was in the water. That boat was used to fish several electric only reservoirs around here. I had moved the two standard bunk boards out a bit then added a new cross member which allowed me to add two more shorter bunks inboard closer to the center keel on that mod v hull. This allowed the entire hull to be supported on bunks. That helped since I had a heavy group 30 battery up under my front seat. It was a stick steer boat originally.

Foot control would be my response. Which one should be determined by your budget. It is easy for us to tell you go buy a $2000 or $3000 trolling motor. We are not paying for it. Please tell us a bit about the boat and current trolling motor. What size is your boat, and what size gas engine is on it? Is it a Fiberglass or a lightweight aluminum boat? Are you running a 12 volt or a 24 volt trolling motor? What amount of thrust is your current one? I know I ask a lot of questions, but the answers help to determine the models that would fit your boat best. If you are running a 12 volt system is there enough room somewhere that you can mount a second deep cycle battery? If not you are best staying with a 12 volt model although the modern ones will have much power than your old one. In a Minn Kota ( and that would be my suggestion) any of the following units are good. For a 12 volt model the Maxxums are nice and an Edge will work too. These can be found with about 55 pounds of thrust. If you are considering a 24 volt unit then the Maxxums are fine( like 70 or 80 pounds of thrust) and the higher quality model is a Fortrex. You can find many of these Fortrex units in very good shape available used because the hot ticket is the Ultrex and Ulterras. Guys are selling their Fortrex models reasonably because there are a lot in the used market all of a sudden. Anyway I have asked a ton of questions but forgot to ask what your budget might be?

If you look for a Ford Ranger with a V6 it will pull that boat and stop that boat much safer. I agree with the others you will probably be overloading the trans and brakes with your current truck. You could swap out to another Ranger or a Toyota Tacoma, Chevy Colorado or even an older Dodge Dakota. Any of these with a V6 and a trailer package will handle that new boat more safely. A 4x4 is not reqired but does help on the wet ramps. I personally pulled a heavily loaded 17 1/2 foot Lowe Aluminum boat with a 75 Merc, 3 batteries, a ton of tackle and equipment for about 7 years with a Chevy S-10 ZR2 truck, it had the entire towing package which included special remote oil filter adapter feeding an external oil cooler as well as a heavy duty radiator with a larger than standard trans cooler as well as an auxiliary trans cooler. It had larger than standard breaks as well. I recently replaced that truck with a 2013 Toyota Tacoma TRD Sport 4X4 which has an even more elaborate towing package, basically all that my last truck had but also a power steering cooler and even better breaking. This truck is rated for 5 or 6000 pounds of towing weight ( I forget exactly), but it is more than I would need even if I was pulling a 18 foot fiberglass rig.

If you look at that rock wall you can see the layers or ledges in the picture. The wall continued down like steps all the way to the bottom at 60 feet. You cast up on to the first step. Then swim the bait out some(using the rod) controlling the line on the reel with your finger.( I never closed the bail) As the lure comes off the ledge you allow the line to peel of the spool. Once the bait fall straight down to the next level you do it again until you feel a bite, close the bail and do a sweeping hookset. Using a baitcaster the line would have enough resistance that the bait would pendulum away from the rock wall and out of the strike zone.

Times change, but you still can not get the same vertical drop with any baitcaster that you can with a spinning reel. It will not perform the same. Here is a picture of the exact structure I fished years ago on Center Hill lake in TN. That wall stair stepped down over 60 feet. Very large Kentucky spotted bass were holding on the rocky stairs. We would throw up on the ledge, slowly swim the bait out a bit, then open the bail and let it drop straight down, fish the ledge and repeat.If you try that with your baitcaster, you will not be able to walk down the ledge. We caught some world record spots off that wall that day using a 1/4 ounce shaky head and a Elastec straight tail worm. My PB was just over 7 pounds. I believe in learning to use all the tools in the tool box and applying them to the situation. There is no way you are going to be successful throwing certain baits on ANY baitcaster. Go try throwing a 1/10 ounce Ned Rig on your UL baitcasting rig!LOL The second picture is one of many bass my wife and I caught on Dale Hollow fishing for smallies on Dale Hollow last year. We arrived two days after the big females left thew beds. they were hunkered down in grass beds in about 20 to 25 foot deep on main lake flats. They would eat nothing except Ned Rigs. My largest during that trip was weighed at 7# 3. This bass was 5#2

The Sierras are nice and so is a Powell Inferno which would run around $100. Another good rod to look at is a IRG712S Fred's Power Finesse from Irod.

The main reasons to use spinning gear is to throw light weight baits more efficiently. One specific reason to use them with a shakeyhead is to get a very straight vertical drop. Many times a shakey head is used on structure like stair stepped walls or bluffs. A baitcaster is not as efficient at doing that job. I am seriously amazed that with today's quality gear an angler would choose not to become proficient with both spinning and baitcasting rigs. The are tools. A good mechanic would never try to rebuild an engine without ever using a screwdriver, a wrench or a hammer. These are the tools of the trade and they would be handicapping themselves. I fish with 12 to 14 baitcasters in my rod locker, but I also have 3 spinning rods that are great at their intended purpose as well. Things like shakey heads, real light texas rigs, Ned Rigs, and light jerkbaits in cold water all fish well on a spinning rod.

Justin if you ever want to meet up I would be happy to try and help you. I rigged that boat for Pretty Boy and Piney Run. Both are fun to fish.

I would run 2 for the rear motor and one or the front. I ran a 15 1/2 foot Polar Kraft as a reservoir rig. I had two of the Endura 55s on the rear with 4 batteries (2 banks of 2 each per motor) and 1 located under the front drivers seat just for the front trolling motor. Each one of the 4 rear batteries was a group 30 high capacity lead acid battery. The front was a high capacity Group 30 Cabelas AGM battery. That allowed me to run all over the reservoirs when I fished them. I had two batteries in the rear area of the boat and they were hooked up with two more batteries located just in front to of the rear bench and finally the front one was under the seat. Hre are a few pics I hope that helps a little. remember your batteries ARE your gasoline, without enough of them you are paddling!

I will give you another nice option I fish a lot of expensive baitcasting rods that run well over $200 each but I fish 2 Berkley Lightning Shock rods and two Dick special rods. Take a look at Dicks Sporting Goods. They carry a line called a Quantum Escalade, I own a 6'6" medium spinning rod and a 7 foot mh baitcaster. the baitcaster is perfect for what you are looking for. It fishes a lot like my Falcon Buccoo Micro rod which cost almost 3 times the Escalade. The Escalade is an IM8 rod that retails for $99 but is on sale for $49.99 most of the year. It lists 1/4 to 1 1/2 ounce baits and 10 to 25 pound line. It makes a terrific bottom contact rod. As I say, I fish it as well as the spinning rod and am happy with both.

You already have what I believe you need. I would take your LTB 619 MLTXF and throw small lightweight baits such as drop shots, small baits like Ned rigs, a light 1/8 jig head and twin tail bait like a beetle spin body for smallies, even small tubes. The Avid X 6'8" mxf would get my 5 inch Kalin grubs on a BPS perfect finesse worm hook ( look that up- they account for a lot of bass for me and my wife) regular tubes with heavier jigs heads, even like a stupid tube. I would throw things like Keitech and Reaction Innovation Skinny Dippers on light weigh ( 1/16, 1/8, 1/4) belly weighted swimbait hooks. This would be my all around spinning rod. I use my medium action spinning rod for fishing those baits as well as things like shakey head jigs with either a straight tailed worm or a creature bait like a Megabug. I happen to like the Megastrike Shake2 jig heads for both baits. Sencos would be fished on this rod as well.

PatrickNight suggested the Dobyns 702 or 703. They are both 7 foot rods. The last number dictates the power. For an all around versatile rod I would go with the Fury FR 703SF. That will handle most of all your small plastic needs from sencos, to drop shotting to shakey heads, and texas rigs. Now the 702 might be a better drop shot rod but it will not be as versatile with all the other baits. Other good options would be a Powell Inferno 6103 That is a 6 foot 10 inch 3 power rod. It will handle light baits like a drop shot all the way to a 1/2 ounce bait like say 1/4 ounce jig head and a tube or crawfish imitation. Again very versatile like the FR 703SF. This rod runs $100. I will make another suggestion Powell had a batch of Inferno rods made and the color of the blanks came in "off color" That is the only defect with the rod. Functionally it is fine. SO Powell is selling them as factory mistakes and at a discount. If you buy one it costs $79. If you buy a second, third etc each extra one costs $33 each. If you decide to go this way consider getting a 683CEF baitcasting rod. I own an original Max series 683 CEF and that rod is the most versatile baitcasting rod I own ( I carry 14 baitcasters normally in my rod box). For right around $112 you could add both rods to your arsenal.

WRB has the specs well listed for you. The question is does the rod have a reel on it so all you need to do is get it respooled with new line? Are you in need of purchasing a new reel and getting it filled with line? If you have a working reel any tackle shop can spool new line for you. Go to Dicks Sporting Goods, Bass Pro, Cabelas, or any quality local tackle shop. If you do not have a good reel with it then consider a reel like a Pflueger President model 20, a Lews Mach Speed Spin in a MS100 or better yet get a Bass Pro Shops Formula FML10, those are on sale regular price $49.99 no on sale for $29.99. They could put some 4 or 6 pound test and your dad would enjoy it a bunch. Even if it does have an old reel on it the Bass pro reel would make a nice combo and give him something to enjoy.

Someone has their head up their ass! No way "8-12 mph is a gentle breeze. Also no way I would call 13 to 18 mph "moderate". I have fished in winds like that often but here on the Chesapeake Bay we would not call them what they call them.