TommyBass

Yes insurance is going to cover it, but here in good ol' indiana its considered no body's fault. Basicaly the deer was the "at fault party", same as if a car would have hit her then bounced off and hit me. And since the deer dosn't carry insurance, each party is responsible for their own vehicle. Lucky I listed some things seperate to get more money out of them, or I would be losing alot. I still have the deductibles though. Still a rip off, I was the responsible one that stopped and tried to warn her and Im the one that paid. The van suffered some damage but not as bad as my boat. The boat is a G3 1860 CCT with a 90 hp Four stroke Yamaha. Luckily the motor is still good... I even got it to start : )

Just a little reminder to be safe while driving aruond with your boat and trailer. So I was driving to the local lake with a friend this morning when I had a line of deer run out in front of me on the main road of our town. After the first one I slowed to a stop for 3 more to run across. I flashed the car comming at me knowing there were probably more comming... and there were. The young lady in the other vehicle decided that it wasn't a scenario to slow or stop for and drilled the 170lb fifth and final deer to cross our paths. The deer hit her minivan that she was driving way too fast (60mph in a 45). With much the same action as a 9 iron, the deer flew WAY up in the air, probably around 20 ft high and headed right toward me. I was for certain it was comming right into my windshield, but with the insane hangtime it had I realized it was going to clear me, or so I thought. After completey clearing my truck the deer landed on the front of my boat,,absolutely wiping out the better part of the center 1/3. Starting from the front, the deer took off the head of my digital trolling motor, broke my hydraulic front seat and post, DESTROYED my center console, snapping it and the electical connections mostly in half, broke my driving seat along with the new custom livewell I just installed underneath it, my lowrance depth finder and gps. Included in the destruction of my center console is all of my gauges (including a brand new tach/hour meter), my throttle, steering wheel, and main switch panel. Talk about a bad morning. After plowing through my boat the deer finally came to rest on the side of the road about 65 yards from the initial impact point with the minivan! Its amazing how much destructive power it had. Although it completely ruined the next few weeks or month of fishing for me, I am thankful for our health because it could have been much worse. Here are a few pictures from the crime scene. P.S.... I forgot to mention I bought this boat and motor new last fall. I also had about 30+ hours in customized wiring and accessories etc put into it. Not sure on the total of damages yet... but I am estimating around 4K.

Id say you should probably spray some pretreating rust preventative or at least a lubricating oil in there to keep that kind of stuff from ever happening.... but now that is has you need to try something good that actually penetrates.. not the normal OTC WD40 or anything. There are acouple of industrial products I have used called FREE and PENTROL that work very well. You might also try hitting it and vibrating it to break any seals it has formed. Not sure that heating would even help. Just spray it, let it soak, turn it 1/4 with wrench, spray some more and let it soak and it should come out if a good oil is used.

Used to be that internal antennas had worse reception... therefor hindering your ability to recieve signals in certain areas as well as effecting your overall accuracy. Some newer more sensitive antennas I hear work better but I dont have first had experience with internals on depth finders. Personally I would still go with the external, it gives you an advantage of being able to place it directly over your transducer or wherever else you may like in your boat. Most likely will still get better reception being as its out in the open whereas built into your unit may have interference from consoles or other electronics. My external states it needs to be placed at least a few feet from the screen, not sure how they get by with that on internals.

yes this happens to quite a few people. Most likely the problem is when you get on plane the transducer comes out of the water, or has enough turbulance to mess it up. The only thing you can do to help this is lower the mount so it stays submerged or make it a thru-hull type transducer. You may also try increasing your ping speed and chart speed... I find it more usefull for faster driving.

Most GPS units are very lucky to obatin an accuracy to within 3 meters or... 9 feet. Extra sensitive recievers can get a little better, but usually no more than 3 ft, more like 5 or so. Some units will actually show you this accuracy on the navigation pages. GPS capabilites are much greater, actually becomming to less than a foot, but those are mostly military capabilites and are not programmed into civilian units. That being said... think of your gps in terms of the exact location of your antenna at the time you hit waypoint. If you mark a weed clump and do it right, by putting it right under your antenna when you mark the waypoint, than the accuracy of your unit is within a 9foot radius around that exact point. (Assuming the 9foot as the example I gave earlier) Now, assuming the next time you are on the lake you approach this waypont with the same 9 foot accuracy as before. It is possible the ring of accuracy for your initial reading was the furthest, most least accurate point 9 ft from your position. When you come to this you could read with the same 9 ft erroring and be a total of 18 ft away from the original mark. Some units give the option of "averaging" a waypoint. Doing this, the unit takes several position readings and averages them to make one final reading, in attempt to get less error. Although it does help some, its not very plausible to attempt this in anything but extreme calm water where you can hold your position for a few seconds. Now, if you marked the point the wrong way, which would be to mark the waypoint according to what the transducer said and not the location of your antenna, then more comes into play. If your antenna is on the front of your boat and the transducer in the very back, you would have another radial arm of error the length of your boat to factor in. Most people give way too much credit to their waypoints... it will undoubtedly get you closer than guessing, but its important to remember there is still error involoved. I guess to answer your exact question, something like a 10ft hump or weed clump is rather easy to return to within casting distance, especially if you were to attempt your marking in the center of it... its the smaller stumps and brush piles that become the problem. I tried to attach a picture to illustrate my point better but its not accepting it, although below the size requirement... I'll put it up when I can. Hope this helps.

whoops... meant to do that in the original post.... thx. Here it is, second item down on the page. http://sites.mercurymarine.com/portal/page?_pageid=125,61293&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

Anyone used one? Goods or Bads? I have some bounce on my trolling motor's head region and was looking for a good way to stabilize, this seems like it would be simple and out of the way.

Palomar is definately one of the best all around knots (especially for braid)... hands down. Although if this pond is very scummy / slimely, the knot is rather bulky and can gather that type of moss. You may try something more streamline if thats the case, but be careful, that braid likes to slip out of alot of knots.

yea.... I dont think its worth all that hublub... the reel and rod together were only $30... would just like to have it maybe as a back up. Guess I can just tear into and see what I can find Thanks for the input guys.

I have a small ultralight spinning reel I use to crappie fish with and the bail clicks over when casting, stopping my cast dead in its tracks. Basically it is too loose and wants to shut very easily. Is there a spring in there somewhere that could be adjusted to tighten that up? Or any other quick fix? The reel is a cheap gander mountain brand but I thought I would try something before I throw it in the trash. thanks!

Man that things eyeball looks like a golfball! Great catch man, I may have to start trying some of the larger swimbaits in a few of my holes!

Never first hand happened to me but I found two bass stuck like that one time..... fishing a pond when I was probably 9, I came across a 2.5lbr with a 1.5lber wedged in his mouth. Both fish had floated to the surface and were dying from the incident. After several unsucessful attempts to pull them apart I finally pulled out my pocket knife and slit the mouth of the larger fish to get the smaller one out. The smal one ended up dying but the the large one swam off alright, although dazed. Weirdest thing ever. Bass can be crazy aggressive, sometimes I think they just close their eyes and swim as fast as they can with their mouths open.

Personally I have not had much luck with many brands on their handhelds. Never have taken one on the water though. I bought a Garmin GPS map60csx though and havn't looked back. It has a highly sensitive receiever that allows you to get almost perfect signal pickup under the thickest of tree tops or even around tall objects. What most people dont tell you is that most brands basic GPS units barely work underneath the thick tree tops of the midwest, especially when you get into valleys. If they do pick up their accuracy is greatly decreased and can cut in and out. If mostly using for water activities you may be alright on that part though. I hunt alot in the winter though and use mine for that as well. Just my 0.02

I have a pair of natives with amber, grey, and yellow. The amber worked well on the water but didn't "tint" the world around me enough to consider them sunglasses, things still appeared bright, especially if looking toward the sun. Ive sinced switch to using the grey lenses (interchangable) and like them much bettter. The colors make more sense, the sun is less bright (which is better for driving and any other nonfishin activities) but they still cut through the water and allow you to see well. Unless your doing alot of lowlight fishing conditions, in which case I'll switch to my yellow lenses which dont shade hardly at all, but still poloarize your vision.

Shouldn't matter that much unless it is severely rounded. The cleat will run length wise front to back of the boat and they are usually only about 1/2" - 1" wide. I just mounted one on a gunwal that has slight ribbing to it and it does just fine. If you are planning on using it for an anchor alot and you will ever be in current or high winds I would actually recommend putting it very far up front, so when the front of your boat swings inline in the current the rope isnt rubbing up and down your wall or getting into things like your trolling motor. I have two (port and starboard) way up front that are dedicated to anchoring, then two more down each side (one in middle and one in back) for mooring. Just my 0.02 PS... if you find that your gunwal is too rounded, I have seen people mount them just inside of it on the floor/deck. Not the best option because of the rubbing issue again but its better than nothing I suppose.

Physical is some, you have to be able to stand on the front of the boat controlling it in the wind etc for 8+ hrs. Being able to lean over to get stuff constantly or crouch to pitch under dock all help. I have known alot of people with natural talent for things and fishing is one of them. That is not something to be underestimated. If you fish against them and all they use is a purple worm along banks, you better have a good pattern figured out because they always are guarenteed to have a few good keepers. If you take somebody like that and give them the will and knowledge that many of the unnaturals have, thats when they become dangerous in the fishing world. Knowledge will win in the end in most cases, but if your natural at it its just a huge start ahead. Someone mentioned this and I think it is one of the most important aspects of fishing. If you can make good, VERY accurate casts with silent entries your already a step ahead of the crowd as well. So to answer your question... No.. not everyone. People with alot of time to practice and natural talent are the ones you'll see at the top. And sorry I have to disagree about the cash thing... it is somewhat important. Many of the bigger tournaments you have to fish to get a name for yourself require huge entry fees that many americans simply cannot afford to take a risk on responsibly.

Just installed two of these on my boat... they work great and have a pretty high variance in off time. I believe they run the pump for 30 seconds with a variable off time of 5sec-5min. No need for a switch, you control the whole thing from there. It states it has a continuous mode for filling up, which I think I am too dumb to figure out evidently, but I still fill mine fine with the 30sec on and 5 sec off. Very easy installation and fairly cheap. http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_37908____SearchResults

Yea people are crazy sometimes... I wouldn't worry about it too much unless hes carrying a shotgun. As long as your not decorating his pontoon cover with brightly covered crankbaits he dosnt have much to stand on. Actually, many lakes "own" a few feet within the water line. Around here its usually like 20 ft or so of the current water level. So he may not even be on his property while telling you that.

I have been very partial to Lowrance when it comes to sonar/gps combos. I have an older LMS332 I believe as well as a new HDS on the same boat. Honestly there isnt much difference for now anyways. There are supposedly supposed to be some big upgrades comming for the HDS series but right now its not much different. If I were you with the budget of $500 I would look on ebay or find a lightly used one, either way you should be able to stay under $500. I think Lowrance got up to a 520 series before switching to HDS so I would look for something like that. I also seen garmin has a new combo for like $569 or something on BPS but I have no experience with those units. Ive always felt like Lowrance has better sonar / chartplotter technology and they always seem alot clearer and more defined IMO.

Something you can also do if the trailer tires are pricey is to price a very basic set of car tires in a similar size. Many times trailer tires are more expensive than car tires due to their load capacities. Since all your hauling around is a 12' john boat you wouldn't have any load issue what so ever with car tires. Heck you might be able to find a reasonably used set of those as well.

I like to quite a bit, but it takes every bit of my patience. I really can't stand to not see perfectly where I am casting but it does add somewhat of a surprise element, especially to topwater. I have a buddy that goes quite a bit and says he likes to use blacklights to see his line better. I have never tried it but would like to see how it works.

assuming all that has been said is true I would say its a good deal. As they said I would replace with bearing buddies. You should be able to find used parts readily to replace anything thats too bad without much cost.

Ok.... thanks for the input guys... much appreciated. I really just want to get this thing right this time so I can concentrate on my fishing! cart do you know the size of your overflow off hand?

So does anyone have an overflow that flows out below the waterline??? I still havn't got a definative answer as to if that is an OK way to go in the first place. It WOULD be possible for me to change it and run an overflow out where the tubing is, then through the back deck and out the transom, but it is very very difficult because I have to have a bit / whole saw that is 15" long and big enough I can thread an overflow hose through. Not to mention the whole deck / hull is filled with floatation foam. It was hard enough to do with the 3/4 " intake hose.