Long Mike

Until my guide put me on the fish, I would not at all expect him to be fishing himself. It happened to me once at Lake Fork. At about 10:00 A.M. I told him to take me back to the launch. It became obvious that he wanted me to pay for his fishing trip. I should have known better. I asked the guy at the front desk of the motel I was was staying in for a guide recommendation.

Welcome, Steve!

It's no wonder that the Lund took on so much water. The guy forgot to put the plug in!

Looks like Denver is hitting its stride, and Carrie Underwood would look hot in a NASA spacesuit.

My preference is for Tuf-Line Hevicore. It sinks, unlike other braids.

I'm not gonna touch this one!

Of the three lakes in Oklahoma that you mentioned, I would recommend Lake Tenkiller. I have never fished Arbuckle but it is only 2800 acres. On the other hand Grand Lake is huge, at about 47,000 acres. Although the bass fishing can be pretty good, it is always rough because of all of the yachts and cigarette boats screaming up and down the lake. Tenkiller is a smaller lake, but it is still about 13,000 acres. It is one of the prettiest lakes in Oklahoma and has some of the clearest water. Other good bass lakes in Eastern Oklahoma you may want to consider are Ft. Gibson and Eufaula (the largest lake in Oklahoma at well over 100,000 acres.)

I would prefer to lick a toilet.

Those are just decorative caps that you can pop off with a screwdriver. The hardware that you need to get to is underneath.

Here's a technique I learned in the oil patch. Assuming that you will be replacing the pedestal, have a colleague take a strong bind on the pedestal with a pipe wrench, and then take a large hammer and beat the crap out of the pedestal at its base, all the way around it. I learned the technique with a 36" pipe wrench and a 12 pound sledge hammer, but the pipe was of a significantly larger diameter. Works when all else fails except heating with a blow-torch, but I don't think your carpet would appreciate a torch.

Sirs, I would much prefer to have a transom saver without a spring. Under a severe shock, the downward inertia of the lower unit could potentially compress the spring to the point that the lower unit 'slaps' into the transom saver. Further, a spring could allow the unit to bounce, which would obviously induce stress into the hydraulics and mounting bolts. On the other hand, a rigid transom saver, installed near the bottom of the lower unit, and with the motor trimmed down firmly into it, forms a rigid triangle, with the vertical component of the triangle being the transom. Since, at least with my boat, I have ruled out horizontal loading, (as discussed in my above post,) any inertial loading will be in the vertical axis. Because I have formed a rigid triangle, no undue stress is placed upon the lower unit, except ... there is a mass that is protruding outside of my triangle, which would of course be any part of the lower unit protruding below the transom saver. THAT is the potential problem area. From an inertial loading standpoint, the higher up the lower unit that the transom saver is installed, the more loading is induced into the lower unit, because it wants to flex. That's why my transom saver is installed as close to my prop as I can get it. Having said all of the above, I have never heard of any instance where a lower unit has failed because it got bounced too hard while on the trailer with a transom saver of any type installed. A person may have to have their tilt hydraulics serviced every ten years or so, but I figure that's about all anyone needs to worry about.

Do a Google search for an Eagle Cuda power plug and you will find a drawing on which pin is which.

I'm afraid I have to disagree. When I put the boat on the trailer the bow is hard up against the roller and my winch strap is tight, as are my stern tie-down straps. My winch strap goes below the roller, so there is no way the boat can shift upward or forward. Therefore, the transom saver is doing the job it was designed for.

Now here's a used car salesman if I ever saw one!

I fish with braid and about a 6' flouro leader, and I am a patient guy. If I have a severe backlash, I will park the rod and pick up another. When I get home I put the offending reel under a magnifier and slowly remove the backlash. My worst one took me over an hour to remove. One of the great things about braid is that it's almost impossible to damage it while picking out the knots. Now that I have finished patting myself on the back, there was one occasion when I inadvertently threaded my line through the foot of the guide on the tip of the rod, instead of through the eye. I made what was to be a long cast and the knot on the leader hung up in the foot. The line on my reel exploded into the worst backlash I had ever seen. It actually looked like a real bird's nest. I never even considered taking that one home for a rescue. I cut it off the reel.

July 3, 1956 22 lb 3 oz Chopped up, frozen, and sent to Alaska for the crab fishermen to use as bait.

Pfleuger makes good reels. Period. Their spinning reels are second to none. As for the baitcasters, I can comment only on the Presidents and Patriarchs. I have two Presidents and four Patriarchs. Let's just say that they are not for sale. I love them.

Sloanzp, my Terrova has the US2, but I wanted down imaging capability, so installed the Raymarine Dragonfly. The problem with installing any other external transducer is that the transducer cable must be run up the shaft groove and held there with a marine adhesive. If the cable has a diameter any larger than the depth of the shaft groove, then at the very least the shaft will 'bind' on deploy and retrieve, and at worst, damage the cable. Luckily, my cable was on the smaller side, but still caused significant binding. I tolerated this for a couple of months, then reluctantly had to remove the unit. It's bad enough that the Terrova doesn't have a handle on it, but when the binding makes retrieval twice as difficult, something has to go. If anyone wants instructions on how to install the external cable, please PM me and I will walk you through it. It's not difficult, but it would help if you were mechanically inclined.

I confess that when I bought my first boat about eight years ago, I could never get used to a cable steer TM. Whenever I was distracted, like when having to re-tie, I would invariably end up going in circles, or running the boat into the bank. As I have stated in previous posts, for many long-time anglers, the cable-steer foot pedal is almost like an extension of their bodies, and the pedal is operated almost subconsciously. Not so for me. The Terrova, along with it's spot-lock feature, was a godsend for me when it became time to re-tie. I no longer looked, or felt like a duffus to my co-angler. That feature alone was enough to prod me into buying the Terrova. The more I use the iPilot feature of the motor, the more I like it. As with anything else, it takes some getting used to, but it's not a very steep learning curve. In all honesty I have never used the foot pedal, preferring instead to use the hand-held remote. I generally set the motor to auto-pilot and then forget about the remote unless I need to make an occasional course or speed correction. I no longer need to look at the remote to do so. Casual observers will normally see me sitting on a high pedestal seat, fishing with one leg crossed over the other. As for navigating around stumps, I have never had a problem, but there is a lag time from going from the straight ahead position to a full 90 deg left or right of about a second. That's never been a problem for me, because 99% of the time there is plenty of time to get around the stump. For that last 1% I rely on the composite shaft of the motor. Works like a charm. Now for the downside. On several occasions I have allowed others, who use cable-steer, to use my boat, and they have preferred to use the foot pedal instead of the remote. None of them cared for it, but loved the spot-lock feature. Another drawback is that it is very difficult to install any transducer other than the built-in one that comes with the motor. With regards to that aspect, the Terrova is definitely not user-friendly. Finally, the Terrova has no handle or strap to assist with deploy and retrieve. Luckily, I found a strap-on handle that very much eases this old man's burden in that area. All in all I consider the Terrova to be one of the best inventions since sliced bread. Given a week or so of using it, I think a great many cable-steer guys would be willing to convert.

A ticket to the movies.

What Scott said. There are potential liability issues at work here.

I've fished both Lake Fork and the Housen Bay area of Toledo Bend with my Terrova equipped aluminum boat and have had no problems whatsoever.

Welcome!

As a younger man, I would have loved to have had a job like that. Having worked at heights before, I know that you focus on the task at hand and ignore the surroundings.

A beard makes my face itch. Being retired, I will go three or four days without a shave, but then it starts to itch and has to come off.