HPBB

Yes, You Do!!

It was really funny that nobody was there to see it, but when I tell the story everybody bust a gut laughing. I went fishing on one of my favorite lakes, Yough Dam, got there about 4:30 am and nobody there. "Great I. Think," later I would wish someone was there a little sooner. Got the boat ready and went to back it in the water, using the rope trick. Had the rope in my hand, backed down the ramp and the boat slid right off the trailer. Really nice and just kept going. Then I realized that I never hooked the rope to the boat. looked all around and nobody insight. So I stripped down, nobody at the ramp at 4:30am, so who would see. I swam out to the boat. grabbed on the bow and swam it back to shore. As I am walking up the ramp, Here come a club for their tournament. High beam right on me as 10 or so trucks pull in the parking lot. As George from Seinfield said " It was cold in the pool"

tilt it up, pull the plug and if it has stopped raining pull it outside and let the sun dry it out.

You said that you have the shoot thru? Right? Then how did you throw the transducer over board? The shoot thru transducer should be glued down to the hull. If you don't have it installed right it will not work.

The same thing happen this spring with my MG 109# 36volt TM, One battery went south and it would draw the others down. Only would hold a full charge for a little time. Check the water levels first. Then if that is ok put them on the charger and make sure they are charged and take them to any autozone, advanced auto, ect and they will check it. If they load test them and they are bad get two new ones, don't mix batteries. If they say that your batteries are not at full charge then that could point at your charger.

Might be the foot pedal. My old power drive would go through one pedal a year and that was on of the things it would do. The board in side of it get dirty and sratched, and it doesn't want to work right. One time it would only turn right, other only had high speed, other would only run at slow or fast no in the middle. You can get one from Minnkota they used to be around $70. I got rid of that motor, got tired of buying a new pedal each year,

fsihingpunk, how did you di in thet tournament out of the south side? I was down fishing the Yough river sat, just up from Boston, saw a few jet boats that ran up from Pittsburgh in that tournament. fishing was good, only fished about 3 hours, had things to get done so only had a few hours to fish. caught 3 nice small mouths, 2 about 13-14 on torpedos and one about 15 on a tube jig.

look for a small jon, semi V or V hull, 12 maybe 14 foot. what do you drive? most cars and small trrucks can tow small trailers and these small boat do not weigh much. Look on Craigs list, your local paper, boat trader, Pennysaver, green sheet, Ect.. You can pick up a 12 footer with a trailer, small outboard and some times a Trolling motor for under $1000. haveing a trailer make it so much easier to use, you can take it by yourself and have no troble launching it. I know im my local pennysaver there are 3 or 4 small boats with trailer, outboard and TM, for right around $1000, one 12 footer for $800. I bought my first boat in 1989, while I was in high school, it was a 12 foot starcraft Semi V with a trailer 6 HP johnson and a 28# MinKota TM, I paid $400. I still see older boats like that for under $1000 all the time. Ps I have no problem with small Merc motors. I have a 1989 15 HP merc and it has never given me any problem. still starts on one pull. That old johnson was a great motor and so is the merc.

Since the oil tas run low the float might be stuck. On my old Suzuki the oil tank is on the motor. one time the oil went a little lower than I would ussially let it, and the oil metter showed low and buzzer sounded. Put oil in the tank and the oil gauge would not show full, could not figure out why. Here the oil float that is in the tank got stuck. Stuck a long srew driver in the tank and tapped the float and it came right up to the surface and the gauge now showed full. This happen twice

Not sure about the 15HP, but one of the guys I go to canada with each year has a 130HP Honda on a 18 foot Alumacraft Deep V and its a great motor( I think its a 2002). its so quiet that you sometime do not even know its running. and it hardly uses gas.he fills the boat tank up at home and runs it all week and leaves with gas still in the tank. My dad has the same boat (17 footer though) with a 125HP Merc 2 stroke and he has to fill up once maybe twice in that week. The 130 Honda is a bit slower than the 125 Merc, I am sure that 15hp is a great motor. Honda make a good motor. I am looking for a new motor for my boat , have to buy used, but If I could afford a new one The Honda would be close to the top of the list.

There is still minerals and pollutant's in fresh water that the anode will attract so it doesn't hurt the motor. Being that your boat stays on the trailer its not that much of an issue. However I would still have them on the motor. Ex. I have had a boat motor for 12 years and the anodes look new, it stay on the trailer 95% of the time. My dad has a boat that stays in the water 6 months a year (fresh water) he has to change the anode every two years.

you should be fine. That tracker isn't that heavy and you don't have many hills down there. You will notice that you go through breaks faster, but that is with any small truck. I Live in Pittsburgh and its all hills, and some of my favorate lakes are in the mountains. I had a 1988 GMC S-15 ( same as a Chevy S-10) 2.5L 4 Banger with a 5speed, and towed a 14 foot starcraft, and a 16 foot tracker around with no problem, then I bought a 17'6 sea Nymph deep V( its a heavy boat). The truck wasn't fast with the bigger boat in tow ( rearly got into 5th grear and over 60mph on the highway) and didn't pull the hills that good, but it pulled it. I even took it on a 1400 mile round trip to cananda. I only towed with it for one year then moved up to v6 S-10 ( now V8 Tahoe) if it wasn't for the hills I would have used that 4banger longer a Freind used to pull a 17' Lowe ( very similer to the tracker) with a 2.2L S-10 and had no problems with it

do they work when the headlights are off? If so it sound like a ground issue. make sure your wire is hooked to a good ground under your truck.

You don't need BASS or FLW to have a club. I know of several clubs and tournament series that are not BASS or FLW. If its a fish for fun club then there is no need for and affiliation. Most BASS affiliated clubs are tournament clubs. Yes, getting the mag makes you a member of BASS. and yes you are able to fish their tournaments. Now what does it bring to a club? If you want to fish the federation side of BASS. You must be a member of a BASS club. This is mainly for fishing federation tournaments in your state. There is also some insurance things (tournament insurance) Its basically for fishing tournaments other than local buddy or pick up tournaments. In my club we fish 12 club tournaments a year and also our members fish the state run tournaments (region, Mr. Bass, State Classic). This way we fish/compete against others from all over the state. And try to make it up the ladder. most will not make it higher, but its a way My club does fallow the rules, but we are not overboard about them. No Politic, its laid back and we fish. Fish tournaments, that is what we love to do and that is why we joined the club. The guys and girl in my club are very competitive, we all want to win. But there is no stabbing in the back. we let our fishing talk for us. Tournaments are not made for everyone. some like them, some do not. If I didn't like to fish tournaments I would not be in an affiliated club. Clubs are a great learning experience you think you know how to fish when you first start, then it hits you and you find out you have a lot to learn. and in a club fishing with different people all the time you learn many different things. Infact you never stop learning and that is the great thing about my club is that everybody learns from everybody else

sorry bassbob07, if it is a BASS affiliated club it has to be 100% BASS members. that is stated in the BASS chapter by-laws. These by-laws are given to ever club that is a BASS affiliated club. And under article VI affiliation. letter D states (100% BASS membership). It doesn't matter if its a big boat club, small boat club, or float tube club, or a club of all non-boaters, 100% BASS members. either way, he should have been give time to join. The fact that they hurried up and made it 100% BASS members, kicking out non members, kinda shows that they found their mistake and tried to fix it fast, to cover their butts. they problabally wanted this guy to win, but they saw they were in volation of BASS rules also. and if they where sending any members to fish any federation tournaments or they did, all would have been dissqualified

Don't most motors have some sort of pin mechanism for adjusting a trim type effect buit into them? yes, most if not all I know of do, but sometimes that is not enough and the motor just need some lift and the hydro's do that. Like I said on my 14 footer with a 15merc it just wouldn't plane. set the motor all the way down and it would plow through the water set it a spot higher and it would stick the bow straight up. there was no good spot. However, after putting the hydros on it it would plane out very easy at different pin hights. Since the boat will plane out now I could set the motor at a higher trim spot so I could get some more speed out of it. Sometimes the trim angle of the motor is all it need sometimes its not. my 17'6" the hydros did nothing to it. It planed just the same

nice to hear they stand behind their product and want to fix the problem. If you end up getting a tour series, you will not be dissappointed. I have one and it is great.

HI I am a president of a local BASS club outside of Pittsburgh, several of my fellow club members are members of this site and our club is not run anything like you stated. yes some are, but some are not. bassbob07: was this club a BASS affilated club? if so, it should have 100% Members of BASS to start with. BASS mandates this. your brother should have been given time to join BASS, not just thrown out. that was wrong flyphisher: I know in my club also, one vote no, will stop one from joing, but we have never voted no. however: we always vote, never had a poss. member just not try because he heard someone was to vote no. I think someone played you. There are good clubs out there. when I joined my club we had some politcs. and some members not doing the right things. It took a few years, but other members started takeing leadership roles in the club and we weed out the bad seeds. Is my club perfect? no, but its pretty good. I have notice that when a club gets big is when the politcs start. we limit the club to 20 members this gets every member involved, everbody has a say.

Ok you r at BPs already. Pick a price range and look at all the different models in the range. each brand will have most of the same features as the rest, but one might have something different, or one is easier to use. they are all theforyou you to see and try, so try them out and pick the one that is best for you. That is what I did a few years ago. I had my heart set on a Lowrance 332C. Went to Cabela's and spent hours just looking and going through all the features each brand had. whne all was said and done I bought a Humminbird Matrix 87c. Both unit were the same price and almost had the same features. The humminbird had a few gps things I likes better and I thought it was easier to use. Well for me it seemed easier you said you don't need GPS. Ok its nice to have, but if you don't need it that's ok. I would however say, get a color unit. Once you use a color unit you will not want to use a black and white one again.

Motorguide or Minn Kota? well, that like ford or Chevy. One guys will say MG is the best MK sucks, the next Mk is the best MG sucks In TM's you only have two choices, and Both have great motors. Buy the biggest motor you can afford. with a 19 foot boat you will want a 24 volt or even a 36Volt ( if you have room for 3 batteries) My suggestion would be to go to a store ( BPS, Cabela's, ect..) that has both out so you can look at each and see which one you like better. whcih has the features you like. (I also give this advice when buying depthfinder/GPS) I have both brands, on my 2 boats one has MK one has MG. In my mind ( now some one will say I am wrong, but this is my 2 cents) The Motor guide Digital Tour series is hard to beat. I have a 109# 36 volt on my boat and its the best I have use. I had an older 70# 24 volt Mg on it and it sucked really bad, but the tour Digital are in another ball park from the older MGs. PS I like Humminbird

I have to agree with Cart7. If tere is no truck/trailer in line or backing down the ramp, and the ramp is open, and your boat is ready to launch. You back down to launch. if it was me , my wife holds the boat at the end of the dock so the ramp is open its open till I get there. I get my boat ready in the parking lot so when I pull to the ramp all I have to do is dump it. If there is no truck on the ramp I am backing down even if there is a boat on the dock. On the same type of thought. when a ramp is two lane and people only use it one at a time. I always back down the second lane. some get mad at me, but that is why there are two or more lanes.

my 14 foot starcraft with a 15 merc will not plane without them. I bought the dolefinns, best thing I bought. well worth the $30 or so $$$

I have delt with and had some merc motors and liked them. I have 15hp right now, and have use of two boats with a 125hp, and one with a 25Hp. And almost every body I know has one. However all of these motors are newer motors. I run a 1989 Suzuki 75Hp on my boat I have had for 11 years. Blew the power head up, and not sure if I want to spend the $3000+ to have it rebuilt. I was looking at some used motors, but don't want to buy someone else's problem. a new motor is out of the question. However, I might have found one, and wanted some info on it. I guy that has a camp by mine, has a early 80"s merc 115Hp Inline 6 ( he called it "the tower of Power") It was just rebuilt this winter. His kid hit a few rocks last week and put a few holes in the hull, motor was untouched. don't think he is going to fix the boat. I was thinking about asking him if he want to sell the motor. I don't really want a motor that old, but with it being just rebuilt & I know the shop that rebuilt it for him and they do great work. what would a motor like that be worth? are they good motors? Is there some problems they have to look out for?

Yes a SS prop will be better. You will get a better hole shot and better speed. since a SS prop does not flex like a Alum. prop. the SS is well worth it. The stabalizer. does your boat have a planning problem? If not they will not do you any good. they help to plane the boat out faster. On my small 14 footer with 15 Hp they help out greatly. without them the boat will not plane. on my 17'6" with a 75Hp they do nothing really. The boat planes the same with them or without. Infact I just gave those from my 75Hp to a friend who has 17 foot astro with a 115 Merc that would not plane. They work good for him. His boat planes out now.

At least the power steering went out at home not at the lake. Had a friend who's ranger got stuck in 4wheel low at the ramp 50 miles from home