HPBB

had the same problem with my 14 footer. put those ant traps in the boat. don't skimp put a few in evey compartment. now the hard part the cord. the rain will wash this away some times, but it works very well. get a dixie cup. cut a hole in it and run the cord though it so if your holding the end of the cord the cup is upside down. find a spot on the cord where the cut is hangging in the air ( not touching the boat or ground) then tape the hole close ( I used duct tape) flip the cup over and spray the inside with spray glue, or rub elmers glue on the inside of the cup. then fill the cup with hot pepper ( I used cayenne pepper) dump out the extra pepper ( try to save it for future use) the pepper will stick to the sides of the cup. ants will not cross over the pepper so they can not come in that way anymore.

I had the same problems with a powerdrive I had. That is one of the reasons I got rid of my Minnkota. I had a 55 powerdrive and went through 3 pedals in 3 years. Where did you get that price? I know a local shop replaced the first one and charged me over $150 and when the second one went, I call Minnkota and they said they could sell me a whole new pedal (with board in it) for around $70, board alone was $60, when the third one went, I gave the TM it to a buddy who bought a new pedal from minkota for $70. he just replaced it again this year and it was around $70 again. I know the maxium is different from the powerdrive, but check with minnkota they might have a cheeper price for the board. Don't know how difficult it is to put in.

its a good motor. my dad runs one on a 17 foot Alumacraft Deep V and it runs abot 52mph One thing. when starting cold the motor has to be level or it will not start right. after it warms up then it will start tilted Its a strong runner

first what kind of TM? since you want to put casting decks in it, a transom mount is out, so it would be a bow mount TM. Next foot control or hand control? I prefer foot. what brand? That is a personal choice. I have had both, liked and hated both brands what volt and pound? 12 volt, 24 volt or 36 volt? ( as the power goes up the prices do also) what style of bow mount?, cable steer, or power steering? When you are ready to buy your new TM, get the biggest you can afford. If you only carry one battery then 12 volt, if you can carry 2 and can afford it get a 24 volt tm. Like I said buy the biggest one you can afford. And how to mount it? if your putting a deck on it have a raise front part that the motor can be bolted to.

Your doing a good job. Here are something to remember. don't trash his boat. I hate when guys leave their old power bar wrappers or emply bottles in my boat. a good note, take all your trash out and take his too, help clean up. also since its a smaller boat don't take every rod/reel and lure you have. try to limit the amont of stuff you bring. bring what you need, but don't over load it. and as stated before do not, DO NOT, cast foward of his cast, unless he tells you its ok. pretend there is a line down the middle of the boat ( useilly where the windshield is) do not cast past there. I don't front end guys, but there is nothing I hate more than a cast over my line or in where I am fishing. Lets say we are fishing laydowns and I slow down to fish one really good and put the boat so I have one side of it and he has another. for the first few cast its ok, but the here comes the cast to my side where I am still fishing slowly. >

I don't know if it matters. It might? Might not? I have two boats, one Grey/Blue and one Red seem to catch fish from both. One thing I figure in is that the fish are used to seeing boats. I mean most of the lake I fish see so much fishing pressure that after a while the fish might get used to seeing them. For example, you can almost always catch bass around docks with many different color boats on them, lots of times with people on the docks or boats, also fish seem to be around boat launches too. On the clothes. I don't wear bright colored clothes. why? I just don't anytime fishing or not. 99.99% of the time I am fishing I wear white, light blue, tan, and light green. Why to stay cool, also I like the colors and that is what colors my fishing clothes are

Look on Pa Federation nation (BASS) and PA Bass(flw) web sites there are a few in your area. I also knew of a local club that is not affiliated with either They used to fish a tournament at Prince Gatlitzin Park The first sunday of Bass season ( fathers day). I belong to a club by Pittsburgh, but thats a long drive to meetings from cambria

contact humminbird's website they can help you with all you need. I know you can get a transducer from BPS or Cabela's, but not sure they seel the bases. but humminbird is good and will help you get what you need

do you have insurance on the boat? if you do, and you should, call the insurance co. when you hid something it should be covered, and then take it to a shop, if you keep doing the guessing game its going to cost you lots of $$$

Everything stated above is a good starting point. Here are a few other things to think about. 1. What is your price range? 2. What king of boat do you like? Glass? Metal? Big boat? Small boat? 3. What type of water will you do most of your fishing on? If you fish HP limited Lakes that a big Bass Boat with a 250HP will not work, but a small one with a 25HP or 9.9HP might be the best. If you fish a lot of big water (ex great lakes) then maybe a deep V will be better, If you fish shallow rivers than a Jet boat will be better. 4. what will you be towing it with? make sure you don't buy a boat to Big for your rig 5. What brands do you want or want to stay away from? 6. What motor do you want? Brand? HP? 2 or 4 stroke? Carb/injected? What is the popular brand motor in your area? What do most of the dealer/shop sell and service? You don't want to get a motor that you have to drive 100+ miles to get fixed, when there are shops 10 miles away that service other motor. 7. Extras the boat has? Do you want a big TM or GPS? Or are you will to add them later? 8. Look at the trailer? A lot of guys over look this, but if your looking at 2 different boats that are similar in price look at the trailer, witch one is nicer or better shape you use the trailer just as much as the boat.

I would say that the boat "FLOATS" ;D after that I would say that the #1 must have in any boat I have, or get is a good TM I can live without all the elctronics, don't need to go fast, Don't need a big casting deck yes, I like all those things But if there is no TM or its not up to snuff I would rather fish from shore

the manual one is just fine. add a switch and your in good. you can just run the hose out over the transom. That is how i do it on my 14 footer. I didn't want any holes, so I run it over the transom and hold it in place with some wire ties. 500 gph seems to be the norm, that will do you fine.

That is what I did in my 14 footer. its a little high, but easy to use. Use SS screws.

What is the max HP for the boat? do you fish and HP restricted waters? after that buy close to the hp rating. If it is maxx at 25 hp and you don't have any HP limits, then somethig around 20-25 would be the best. Now, if you fish some 10hp limited lakes then a 9.9 would be good, or better a 15 with 9.9 stickers

you can, but the battery will not last long. Hope you have oars

Check the ground wires, on the car/truck & trailer. make sure they are tight and not corosion. the other the guy arcoss the street just bought a used boat, from a friend on mine and asked me if I could help him, because the lights would not work right. he compleatly rewired the trailer and nothing had changed. come to find thet the ground wire on his truck came undone. easy fix, always look at you grounds first 90% of the time they are the problem.

If you don't know who to fallow you can try something like what I did. When The Bass Masters Classic came here, I wanted to fallow everybody. It was too hard to decide. Do I fallow Him? or Him? what about Him?. Just could not decide. so i picked an area That I like to fish alot and waited to see who came in that area and watch how they fished it. How each had a different way of fishing it., different spots. styles. I ended up wathcing about 15 didferent guys and learned alot of stuff about that area. Infact I saw about 5 guys pull up to a underwater hump with debris on it, that I never knew about ( now I do, and fish it offten) I ended up seeing everybody from KVD, to Clunn, Ike, Skeet & Klein It worked out great I got to see many guys I wanted to, and I learned alot about water I thought I knew well.

$100 for a 30# tramsom mout 12 volt TM , $70 for a Wallmart Everstar 29MAXX battery, & $30 for a B&D 6 amp automatic Battery charger(also at Wallmart).so around $200 would get you going good. If you can aford a little more I would suggest buying the largest TM you can afford. Its not that you have to use all the power all the time, but when you need that extra power it is nice to have $225-$250 can get you a nice 50#-55# Transom mout 12 volt TM

Just fished a tournament out of a borrowed 17 foot tracker with a 25 hp on it and it was good. as long as it runs and the livewells work, and the TM works it is fine. Just check out the rules, there are HP mins, on some tournaments, but not all. Good luck and that boat is just fine.

The divider in this one is plastic. and with thousands of those boat sold you would think they could fix it right. That is why I hope someone might have a fix for it. The culling system is what I was using anyway that is why it was not a problem, but I still would like the divider to do its job and work right

in that case, all of us "nothern guys" should be replacing them each year after the winter time storage. come on... every 2-3 months? :

first off take it to a merc shop and have them look at it. If its a good shop they will fix it right. I would get all the seals changed on the lower unit, also get the impeller chaged while your at it. Changing the oil after each use is just a pain in the a@#!! Get it fixed right, it shouldn't cost that much. as for the water coming out of the extenton. I don't think that is a problem, but tell the shop and they can let you know. that leaking water has no impack on your lower unit. take it and get it fix right, the first time, don't let a "buddy" fix it, take it to a merc dealer/shop and let them fix it the right way, that will be cheeper and better in the long run.

I borrowed my father-inlaws 2005 tracker 175TX this weekend. Having trouble with my boat and need a boat for a club tournament. The 175 TX is a nice boat, great for small Limited Lake. His only has a 25HP on in since his home lake is limited to 20hp (it has 20 stickers on it) There are a few things I don't like about it, but in all its a good fishing boat. One problem I found and was wondering if anybody has had the same problem and/or figured a fix for it. The Live well, the divider is the issue. The fish kept knocking it out. Was not a problem this tournament, but might use it for some small lake draw tournaments. Is there a way to make the divider stay put, without making it permanent? I thought about gluing it, but he would like to be able to take it out. Any Ideas?

I was out at Donegal Lake ( off exit 91 on the pike, take rt 711 north lake is about 2-3 mile north) Its a TM only lake. Bass fishing was great today 30-35 fish Bass in 5 hours , only 2 under 12inches and most 14-15 inches, biggest 17 1/4 inches. Best day of fishing ( numbers) I have had in a long time. Lost about 10 fish too. And a bonus Muskie, about 25 inches , fun. That lake was realy good like that back in the early 90's then the fish seemed to disapear, the past few years the fish have seem always to be small, I guess they grew. caught them on Zoom finess worm, and Rat-L-trap. The best thing was there was about 13-15 boats out today and I was the only one fishing for Bass, everybody else was fishing for Trout.

On TM get the biggest you can afford, if you can handle 2 batteries then get a 24 volt. 12 volts are nice, but you can go father, fast, longer with a 24volt. And since you decking the boat you will have to run wires anyway so get good wires. I have 55# on my 14 footer and its OK, but if I fish tournaments out of it, the 55# will not last long enough. On Live wells, If you going to fish any tournaments, look to see what the rules for live wells are. I know in BASS federation rules, and most other tournament circuits fallow BASS rules, live wells must be a min, of 10 gal each or 20gal divided. I know 10 gal seem OK, but you put 5 fish, even 12 inches, in there its tight. One other hint. when you put your live well in put a recirculation pumps on it/them. Once I added them t my livewells I haven't lost a fish.