HPBB

Ok. I am not new to bass fishing at all, but new to swimbaits, that is for bass. I have been using them ( I guess you can call them swim baits) for Muskie for years and have caught some really nice bass when Muskie fishing. Lures like the Swim Wiz, Beleiver, and Creek Cub Pikie. they all have a side to side swimming action. Ok I started to get some newer swim baits for bass. One is call a charlie and it has that side to side action, the other are the Basstrix which have a paddle tail. which style is better for bass, side to side, or the paddle tail? what style do you guys like?

40qt will work. for one 5 fish limit. 10 gal is about the smallest you want to go. alittle small but will work. I just saw a 48qt at doller Gerneral for $19 that would make a great livewell.

I take it your 15 is a 4 stroke, since a 9.9 and a 15 are the same motor and wieght. as for leaving it on the boat out side. there is nothing wrong with that at all. on the bigger boats you can't take the motor off and how many do you see outside all year. as long as you winterize it before the long nap each year it will be fine. I have two boats and 3 outboards and all sit out 24/7/365 never have any problems with them sitting outside.one has a 75Hp and 6hp kicker and the other is a 15hp merc. make sure you keep the motor trimmed down so water doesn't lay in it and it can drain compleatly.

worth the $$, I always use them. rock solid

rat-l-traps infront of the many many coves. also flippin tubes in shallow brush

you can only tighten so much... then something will break. are the botls backing off? if so use some kind of locking nut or washers. when is moves, dose the motor and the place where its mounted move or just the tm?

Its a minkota power drive. with a quick release bracket. I have one on my 14 footer. mine is 52#. its ok. I like a cable steer motor over a power steer. The mk is a power steer. lots of guys like it. I am not in that group. the power steer is just slower than the cable steer.

I know when I istalled my TM there are rubber isolators between the tm and the boat so it will move when the motor is turned on and off. that could be it or just the place where its mounted is just weak and it will move nomatter what.

yes connect both leads of the charger one to battery and the other to battery two. even thought it sayes motor start you need to hook it up to one of the batteries. 2 bank charger means one bank to one battery the other bank to the other that is just telling you that if you had a starting battery you hook it to that lead, but since you don't it dosen't matter which battery you hook it to as long as each battery has its own leads hook up tm battery 1 battery 2 charger +___________+_____________+ ______________________________+bank 1 ________________+ bank 2 -_____________-______________- ____________________________- bank 1 ______________- bank 2 i know its not the best but hope you get it

nope just hook up your leads and plug her in. ;D

I see you in Pa. yes you are going to need a tital. he can call the pa fosh and boat comminsion and they can send him a new one. you need it to be registered, and if its not registered you can not use it on any state body of water powered or non powered, TM or gas.. does he still have the owners card. back in the late 90 is when Pa started issuing tital for boats. he might have had his befor ethat and only have a owners card. I bought both of my boat before then and asked ti state tio issue me tital a few years ago. like I said you need one or you can not use it in pa. have him call the Pa boat fish commision. its not that hard.

even try a drop shot. just make sure your distance between the weight and bait will let the bait be above the weeds

Ok you said the lake is muddy, and most don't fish the upper part of the lake this time of year. I guess because of muddy water? I would look at the upper end then. Those fish are used to muddy water, and untouched, so they should be easier to catch. also if there is a very sunny day or two, the muddy water will warm faster. I would work jigs around wood and also looking for where stream come in and there is some current and maybe using rat-l-traps or shallow CB or spinner baits. Up here in Pa one of my clubs early tournament is on a small lake that can rais feet in a day and drop the next ( flood control) sometime the lake is very very muddy, sometime clear. When its muddy I always fish the upper end where the main creek comes in and there is current. The water temp is ussily round 50 degree give or take a few. I use jigs around wood in the current. one year I was fishing a small tournament there, 20 +- boats. and it was a very early hot sunny day. temps in the 70-80 range. normal temp in the 50's the water was still around 50. everybody fished the main lake in the clear water. the current was realy rippin. they were dropping the lake after a big rain. couldn't catch one in the clear water so I went up in the upper end to a flat where the main creek came in. no body, I mean nobody else even came close to that area all day. the water was mud, fast and cold. I ended up using a Baby 1- in red and casting itt into the current and reeling it back into the slack water. the fish ended up sitting on the current break. it was a 3 fish limit. I had 3 for 10-11 pounds( think I caught 6 or 7 keepers) and only one other guy caught a keeper that day.

Just flush the motor out with fresh water as soon as you get off the water and wash the hull off, and you should not have any problems. Keep a eye on your zink anode they will be needing change more offten now.

you still need to conect the two batteries together. Your running in 12 volt, right? just run a big gauge wire from the pos term on one battery to the other. and the do the same thing with another wire for the neg term. The hook the TM up to one of the batteries TM Battery 1 Battery 2 +__________+__________________+ -__________-____________________-

I run a 109# MG on my 17'6" boat and there is never to much power. I know that the 109# 36 volt & 82# 24volt Tm are the same weigh the same only wieght differance is the extra battery. If you have room for it I would say get the bigger motor. The weight of a 3 bank charger is only a pound or two more than a 2 bank. When I was buying mine the 109 was only about $50-$100 more than the 82 and I thought that if I didn't get the 109 I would be always wanting it. Just remember you are not only getting 15 more pounds of power, but your getting more running time with the 36 volt TM. I know If can't charge my batteries, I can go two days in a tournament with out chargeing the batteries and still have a lot of power left. and that is using the TM all day both days. I always say " Buy the biggest TM you can afford" if you can afford the 36volt and you have the room for the extra battery. I would say yes get. If you don't you might always be wanting more

I would say 75% of the time, but in a tournament 100% of the time I have lost to many fish trying to swing them in the boat

just keep fishing. It will come to you it takes time. read up on stuff. here is something to ask yourself. If your buddies are using the same things you are. and they are catching the bass. what are they doing different? maybe weight, line size. maybe they are fishing faster or slower. maybe its the action of the rod. maybe you just haven't gotten that "feel" yet. ask them and watch them. keep fishing it will come. The reason I say ask you buddies, maybe your doing something different. a few years ago me and 2 buddies went fishing. my one buddy is a long time fisherman, but the other on just got into bass fishing. well, that day my one buddy and I caught 20-25 fish each and my other buddy only caught a few. he just didn't feel the fish. he wasn't sure what was a fish or bottom. there were time we would see his rod bounce, but he never felt them or he was reacting to late. a few year have past and he is doing alot better abd catching more. I have been in a boat with guys and one is catching everything and the other isn't. some time it is a little as line size, or speed.

if your looking for small boat. I have a 14 foot stracraft V hull. It will hold up to a 35 HP and its weight cap is something in 600-700# range with a 35hp. I run a 15 Hp merc, 2 Tm's, 2 batteries and 6 gal gas. I am 300lbs and it hadles me very easily, 2 people with no problems. This boat will get shallow with no problem

they help when trailering to. they keep the motor from bouncing. I like RAM mounts, have them for my DFs, but didn't like that set up on the TM. the straps seemed better to me. see the way I see it is that ball you mount to the shaft will get caught in the wire when turning and if you need all the lenth of the shaft you lose a few inches with it on. the strap sysytem from Rod saver has two straps. one mounts at the base and holds the hole motor from deploying and the other strap goes around the head and holds it from bouncing. put that on a when I bought the TM, Losing a $1000 TM is not what I want to do. It take 2 seconds to hook the straps up and they hold great. I have been in really bad water up to 10 footer one time when a storm blew in and the motor stay put really nice

ok I see what your talking about. If you going to be fishing big water I would say they are a must. I have the straps from rodsaver to hold the TM down when running. I lost a TM up at Erie once in 4-6 footer so they are a must on my boat. was running at a good pace in the 4 to 6 footers and hit one wave motor went to deploy and it got ripped right off the boat. That was a Mk power drive. I now rum a MG cable steer, but its strapped down when I run

not sure what the stabilizer is, but the quick release bracket has its good and bad points. I have them on both boats. the reasons are. 1. my boat covers are made to fit without the tm on. 2. so I can switch the same tm from boat to boat. I'll tell you one thing when I get a new cover or new boat the TM will not have a QR bracket. they are nice, but that TM ( I have a MG Tour series 109#) is one heavy son of a $#%&@. The 52# mk on the small boat is lighter, but still heavy. Its also a pain to keep taking if off and on. also one moring before a tournament I pulled my back out picking the TM up to mount it. That made for one long, painfull day.

hard jerk baits have many, rarely used them, and rarely catch anything on them

Ok. Once again I say, money Pit, but its your $$ so if you want to go ahead its up to you. First off you don't even know what or how and out drive works or is. It's not just a drive shaft. There are gears, hydraulics, and lost of other stuff. The out drive turns the prop, steers the boat, you have power trim, exhaust and water intake for the motor. It's a lot of stuff, then the motor itself. Ask your self something. If this guy pulled the running gear out of this boat, and is giving you it free. Is it really worth anything? I bet its junk and he is just trying to get it out of his yard. Lets say you put all this time and money into this and then you find out the hull is junk. Either you have b#@ls to try this or you just have too much time and money. If I were you, and most, if not all here would agree with me. I would tell the guy to keep it and go out and buy yourself a running boat, or a different project boat, maybe with a motor. Like I said this is going to be lots of time and money. Get something else and spend your time and money fishing. NBR I think that migkt be a swim platform

First off can you say "Money pit"? OK on the transom. This was an inboard/outboard boat to begin with? right? From what I can see under the snow. It looks like the (atleast lower part) of the transom is there, but it has no outdrive. I am not putting you down so don't think that. I have a few questions because I am confused here. are you sure you are calling the transom, the transom or are you mistaken? also If a boat has a bad transom its junk, so I really don't know how you are going to "build " a new one, and buying on is, well, not posable and when you build one, there is a lot of engineering in it, since it has to hold the weight and power of the motor and hold the boat together. If you going to spend that much $$ just go out and buy a running boat.