HPBB

bassin1887, thank you I'll try that. If it wasn't raining (or should I say Monsooning). I would go out and try it right now.

sounds like a deal to me. I fish from a 17'6" v hull with a 75hp on it and its a good all around boat. At that boat will last you for years and years. the only question I have is what typr of Merc 75Hp is it. 4 stroke, 2 stroke carb, optimax? reason I ask, I don't live in Ca, but I hear the emmission laws out there are tough. and that a old 2 stroke are not aloud on some water. I would check the laws on the water you fish and see if the motor is able to be used on those waters. It is I say buy it. But get the motors check out to make sure they are in good working order.

on one Flippin stck I use a Team Daiwa -S 103HSDL have had it for 4 years and its is as smooth & quite as the day i bought it. looking to get another soon. This year my other flippin stick has a Team Daiwa Veinto. Used it at two tournaments this year and it has worked great. both run 40# spiderwire stealth

Today on the radio in Pittsburgh, I heard that select Gander Mountain stores will start to sell The Tracker Line of Boats. Tracker, Nitro, Sun Tracker, & Tahoe Boats. I know the only store around Pittsburgh that will carry boat is the Washington Store. Anybody else hear this.

I would say yes to turn off your head lights, but like my truck and many others, you can not turn them off if its dark. they are auto. If there is way to over ride them on a chevy Tahoe. please let me know. I would love to be able to turn them off

27's, they should be fine. I have a 36volt 109# Motorguide tour and motorguide stated that groupe 24 are just fine for it. I ran 24's for 3 years on it and never had any problems. never lost power , even fishing a two day tournament in heavy river current when I could not charge the night between. still had a lot of power left at the end of both days. Needed new batteries this year and bought 29's Wally world ones. they were on sale and were only $5 more then the 24's. the 29's have 200 reserve amps. The boat should fly with that 82. My 109 is on a 17'6" and it will fly. The tour series are great motors you will love it.

If its only when you tow, its most likely coming from the trailer. Check your trailer tires. Have someone drive your truck/trailer and fallow behind it and see if your tires are running true, also they may need balance. Also check to make sure your bearing are tight I had a vibration a few years back that would only happen under 30mph. here a belt broke on one of my trailer tire as slow speed the tire would wobble, but when the speed increases it would run true. Thought I would live with it till I bought new tires, well on a long trip to Canada the wobbling ended up pulling the bearing apart and had to change a hub in a parking lot, not fun.

Pledge, the spray wax your wife uses, works well to

no, just hook each up to each bank and thats it. not need to disconnect the 24volt jumper cable. they can stay in 24volt ,the charger will figure it out and charge it with no propblem

the way you have will not work. In 24volt set up there must be pos and neg line on each battery term from the charger. you can't charge a 24 volt sysytem the way you have it drawn up. The easiest and cheep way to dit it is. use your 2 bank charger to charge your TM batteries. go to walmart and buy a small Black & decker auto 6 amp charger for $30. and use that to charge your starting battery. In the future get a 3 bank and it will solve eveything. I have 3 bank in my boat, but I run a 36 volt TM, so I have my charger on my 3 tm batteries and I have that cheep B&D charger to charge my starting battery. have had no propblems at all.

If your are thinking Motorguide buy the digital motor, its a little more $$ but worth it. If your spending that much $$ I would look at a 24volt as long as you have room for 2 batteries. a 24volt is alot better than a 12 volt. The 54# Digital 12 volt is $629.99 in BPS & the 71# digital 24 volt is $639.99. If you can fit the extra battery that $10 extra is well worth it I have a 36 volt 109# Motorguide Tour digital series and I love it. the best motor i have evey used. Now with TM your going to hear 'Motorguide is bad, minnkota is better", the next post will say "Minnkota is bad motorguide is better". its a matter of tast, like chevy VS ford. They are both good. In the past MG have had a quality problem, but with their new digital motors they have overcome the problems. That is why I say buy the digital over the other motors. The minnkotas are also good motors. I have had both and like both and hated both, but like I said my MG Tour motor is the best I have used re-reading you post I missed something, Your asking about the DS ( digital Steer) this is the same sterring style stering the minnkota auto Pitol/power steer uses. The cable steer is the better style of bow mount foot steer motor. the cable steer is faster amd more responsive.. Motor example of cable steer is the MG Freshwater Bow mount Foot Control, MG Tour Series Digital Bow mount foot control. MK Maxxum Bow mount, MK Edge bowmount

never had a auto pilot, have a power drive 55#, which is the same motor just not with autopilot. The motor reacts to slow. if you fish in tight heavy cover you will not like how slow it turns always feel like your a step behind where you want to be.

in my book the Heddon Baby Torpedo in Nat. Frog is the best

the minijacker is good for 35hp max I just put a 6 in jack plate on a v hull with a 75hp and it was a big improvment. I got it on ebay for $75

I fish up in Canada every year. Over in eastern Onterio mainly for bass, but pike are always fun. Get some big yellow spinnerbaits, that is what we use when every we want to catch some pike up there. Burn them fast over weed beds. We also catch alot on Big O's, smokey Joe color, but they are hard to get out of their mouth and lose alot of them. The spinnerbaits are easy to get out. They punish them. after a few pike the baits will start to staighten out. I stopped buying good expensive ones, because of how many I lose up there. I just buy the cheep $1.99 at Dicks and they work good for a few fish. and if you lose one, its only $1.99 not $6 or $7. Get your self a good set of long pliars and if you can get a cradle net, it make netting them so much easier. Or make one, I did and it easy.

For $25 I would get it. It will give you more area to look at. instead of just down you can look out to the sides I don't have the quadrabeam. I have the Martix 87c & 787c2 , but Only the dual beam, but am thinking about getting it. It will cost alot more now than $25 since I all ready have the units. I would buy it now for only the $25 extra. You don't have to run the quad all the time, but It is nice to have . I would go for the 787c2i over the 777c2. for the extra $150 you get GPS and mapping the 787c2i has a unimap built in and is compatible with navionics cards, the 777c2 is not. the 777c2 will recieve GPS ( with extra GPS receiver) but not any mapping, and you will have to buy a GPS receiver for it if you want GPS, I think that is over $100. If GPS is not a big thing with you then The 777c2 is good, but if you would like GPS and mapping then The 787c2i is a way better unit.

My father in law has the 175 and its a great boat to fish from. get the bigger motor, as long as the lake you fish can handle it. He has a 25hp on his, just because the lake he likes is 25hp limited, but he still wishes he would have gotten a bigger motor. You don't always need to run fast, but its always better to have more power than not enough. the 50hp will make that boat run better. If its in your price range look to see what it would cost with the 75hp. its better to power a boat at or need its hp limit than under power it, and the 175 limit is 75hp. just cause you have all the hp you don't need to use all of it, but when you need it, its nice to have. I would get the 175 over the 170 and the new 175w, wider ones is even more roomier. the bigger platform makes it nicer to fish from. they are easy to run, tow with a smaller truck/SUV and are easy to mantain. a glass boat is nice to, but I like the metal ones better. the difference between the 25 and 50 is easy, twice the power. don't get the 25 unless you fish limited lake. the 50 will run nice and make it a better boat when or if you decide to sell it. I would say most people get rid of their boat is because they don't get enough motor for it. they buy the cheep package that has the lowHP. its nice at first then they find out they need or want the extra HP and they get rid of it. Most of them would not get rid of their boat if they bought the bigger motor in the first place.

I'm a big guy too. Not 350 , but 290 and I fish from a 17 1/2 footer with a 75hp. It leans, but It can get on plane fast so that is not a problem. One thing I did was try to put some of the weight on the other side of the boat. I have 4 batteries in my boat. 2 sit in the middle, but 2 sit on the opposite side as me. in the back, It helps alot. also if you have two live wells and can fill one not the other. fill the one on the opposite side as you this might help also. The planing might be the boat, not sure, but I know 3 guys with 16 foot bass boats with 115hp, all 3 different boats and motors, and all 3 have planing problems

I would say do NOT! buy it. It looks like its about 20 years old. And power? look at how small the prop is, not much power there. What is your price range? they have a few nice ones up at walmart, dick's and Gander Mountain. I would stay away from that one. Just a hint get the biggest TM you can afford. If your going to fish any of the TM only lake around here a 30 will not cut it for all day. You can pick up a minnkota 50# for about $225. well worth it. On my 14 footer I have a 55# on the bow and a 50# on the back and on my 17 1/2 footer I have a 109# . The 109# is overkill, but I say "go big or go home" I will look in the shed. I might have an old 36# Minnkota motor, just the motor on the shaft. I'll look maybe you can make it work. Also if you want to learn more about bass fishing. Well as always time on the water will help, but you might want to look at joining a bass club. I am the president on one, we don't have any opening this year left, but next year maybe. You don't even have to use your boat you could join a club as a rider. Its a great leaning experiance in a club. I started fishing a bass club in 2001. I bet I have learned more in te past 6 years than I did all my life before that.

That is what my wife calls it. "fishing store"

thanks Cravin. The Dog? with that half , you catch a lot of brown trout, he leaves them in the yard all the time. ;D ;D He was wrestling with a cardboard box when I took that picture.

This is where I have everthing, pick what I need to take depending on what boat and where I am going. I finially got organized.

Instead of buying a full sized jack plate. They sell one called a "minijacker" for small outboards. Its only in $70 in BPS, or if you want a big jackplate. look on ebay. I picked up a 6 inch setback adjustable a few months ago for $75. The minijacker raises the motor a few inches and sets it back a few. I have one on my small boat and it helped out with some more speed also. If it seem hard to steer. The motor might need some grease there are grease fitting on it pump some in there. also you might want to trim the motor up some, it sounds like its to deep. As for flushing the motor. I would after every time in brackish or salt water, just flush it with fresh water. flushing after fresh water? No need. also if the prop is chewed up. Get it fixed or get a new prop.

The motor law depends on where in the country you are. here in Pa there are only HP limits. not epa limits. The 50 sounds good. If you fish lake that have a 50 hp limit, then you get a 60 it would put you out on those lake. normaly I say put the max hp on a boat, but 10hp differenace and lets you fish the lakes you want. Get the 50HP

Smizener, welcome, I am from right up the road in North Versailles. As for Beaver run. Its not open for fishing. Its a reservoir for drinking water. wish it was open hear there are some big fish up there. As for where I get lures at. Mostly local at Dick's & Gander Mountain. I do get a lot form BPS/Cabela's and some from some smaller places. hard to find stuff. What I do in the off season? Well, the off season for me is when the water is hard. I do not ice fish, but I will fish up till the water freezes and will be back out as soon as it melts. so in the winter I do a lot to get ready for next season. First: fix or replace anything that the boats need (I have 2, a 17'6" with a 75hp & a 14' with a 9.9hp) then I clean all reel/rods, fix any that need it, or send out to be fixed. Replace any hooks that need it, and replenish my supply of tackle. I do respool every reel before the season, but they also get respooled several times a year. I moved it to a new house last year and finally got some room to myself. So I made a "fishing Gear Zone" where I stock everything I need and can get stuff ready for the next trip. And know where everything is. I am trying to get organized. so I have bins labeled for everything. My wife and father call it "Jim's Fishing store." Here is a look at it.