Tpayneful

My 2004 F150 bumper is rated for 5000lbs and 500lb tongue weight. It can tow any bass boat imaginable. There are only two drawbacks. The ride height is too high and your turning radius is reduced because the trailer will hit the bumper on tight turns. If you only tow short distances to your favorite fishing hole, the bumper is a good option. I added a drop hitch when I got my new boat because it had a dual axle trailer and I need the ride height to be corrrect so I don't wear out one set of tires faster than the others.

My partner kills them on a 7', 2" MH Carrot stick drop shot rod. I prefer to catch them on a 6', 6" Johnny Morris M action rod. I didn't like the 7' M carbon lite. I should sell that sucker.

I have fished a bunch of fluorocarbon and a search will turn up the threads. P-line was my favorite until I found XPS. In my book, P-line is the closests your going to find to XPS in the sensitivity category. For me I pick XPS every time though it is a pain to have to order the bulk spool.

I have Deka 31's in my Stratos 294XLE. My Partner has Deka 31's in his Skeeter Z190. I have a Minnkota Maxxum 70lb trolling motor and he has a Minnkota Edge 70lb trolling motor. I can run my trolling motor all day on a windy day with my Deka batteries. I can even go2.6 MPH max speed. He can only get 6 hours of continuous use on switch setting 3 and then the batteries are flat dead. His top speed is 2.0 MPH. His problem isn't his batteries, it is his old technology trolling motor. I am sure that he would get more run time if he had a Maxxum. Something to think about.

Texas rig, 3/16oz bullet weight and 4/0 Hook.

It has the Rappahannock River and the Shenandoa too.

NBR, Fluorocarbon is stiffer than many mono lines. If you open the bail without your finger holding the line it can spring off like a slinky. I personally find it equivalent to Standard Stren mono. I really don't have anymore line twist issues with fluorocarbon. Always close the bail with your hand and always reel the line under tension.

Rubba Bubba made a very important point...... I personally don't go any bigger than 8lbs on fluorocarbon on a spinning reel. If I needed more strength I would go with braid. I have caught lots of 4- 6lb fish on 8lb line. Look at your reel and only spool up the line test recommended by the reel.

Those new GM series reels at Gander Moutain have what look like ACS cast controls that are on Quantum reels.

Mono absorbs water. Fluorocarbon does NOT. Soaking it in water does not affect it. Using KVD line conditioner will help. Line twist is going to happen on a spinning reel. Coil up a lawn hose and you can see the end spins on the way in. If the lure doesn't spin on the way back, the line is loading up with twist. Eventually you willl have to get the twist out. Take the advice above. Always close the bail by hand. Always put the line under tension before reeling. Not all Fluorocarbon is the same. XPS and Pline are excellent line. Invisx is more manageable but has less sensitivity and seems to stretch more. It is a sacrifice that I do not choose to make. Berkley 100% is aweful for spinning reels.

I just weighed a 6" straight tail Roboworm and it weighs almost NOTHING at .1oz. A 5" Yamamoto Senko weighs .4oz which is why it casts so well weightless. .1oz is not equal to .4oz Since the Roboworm is so light take Road Warrior's advice and use a 3/8oz. Look at the specs on your rod and see what the lightest weight you can throw on it. You might get by with a 1/4 oz.

The Skinny Dipper and Swim Senko come in colors that the hollow body swim baits do not come in like Watermellon or Junebug. So my advice is to keep using those hollow body baits while I will continue to "not" catch fish on the Dipper or Swim Senko

I wish they made them in Junebug. Looks like you would fish it just like a swim senko or a skinny dipper. Texas rig a 4/O EWG Hook and a 3/16oz bullet weight. Cast it out and reel it back. Skinny Dipper 7pk, $4.79, $.68 each Swim Senko 10pk $5.99, $.60 each Swimmin Fluke 5pk $3.79, $.76 each Swimmin Fluke is a little more expensive than the competition.

I use 3/8" Heat Shrink. Slide it on and shrink it with a lighter. You can get it at Lowes, Home Depot and Radio Shack. Online you can get it at digikey.com, mcmaster.com or newark.com. I found that I had to pierce the heat shrink for the best longevity. I can fish this one wacky worm all day. It beats the rubber band by a mile. I get so many fish out of them that I don't mind buying Yamamoto Senkos!

I did a lot of research regarding fuel mileage before I purchased my new boat. If you go to the the engine manufacturer's website you can see top speed and MPG for the boat you are interested in. I was concidering a Stratos 285XL (18'6") with a 150 HO Etec. It gets its best MPG at 2500 RPM, 27.5 MPH, 4.1 MPG. It gets 3.8 MPG at 56.2 MPH. The Stratos 294XLE (19' 6") with a 200HO Etec gets 4.5 MPG at 4500 RPM and 55.4 MPH. The 2OO HO on the 294XLE gets better gas mileage than the 285XL even at 62MPH. It seems kind of crazy but the larger boat with the larger engine gets better gas mileage. If you translate this into the same boat, you will get better gas mileage with the bigger engine most of the time as well. It will get on plane faster and get better gas mileage at top speed.

Sealed light fixtures with bulbs will destroy bulbs if they leak. If the hole is in the top, the light will fill with water but the water will not have a way to drain out. The bulb is immersed in water for a longer time. They will corrode quickly and burn up quicker. Unplugging them will not solve the problem. The cheap solution is to buy the cheep lights that are not sealed. They have a drain hole in the bottom. Take out the bulbs and coat the light sockets with dielectric grease or silicone grease. I did this on my last boat trailer and the lights worked fine for 5 years. The costlier solution is to buy LED lights. They will not leak and will last for a long time. They will continue to get cheeper over time.

Trailer problems are not unique to Nitro/Tracker. My brand new 2009 had a ton of quality issues that I had to address. You would think that the dealer would check over the trailer and solve these problems before they sell the boat.

You can use a coleman cooler and a portable livewell aerator. The aerator has suction cups that stick to the bottom of the cooler and it runs on 12V. It has alligator clips that you attach to your battery. Here is a link to the aerator: http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_1283____SearchResults

The black and white LCD units have an air gap between the glass and the display. The inside of the glass fogs up on cold mornings. There isn't anything that can be done to prevent it. I used to keep my depthfinder in the house at night and that helped. The color units do not have the air gap and will not have the problem.

c = external gps antenna ci = internal gps antenna Most people use a ci on the front because the distance between the unit and trolling motor transducer is short. Smart people use a c on the console and mount the gps antenna over the transducer in the back to increase waypoint accuracy.

The wire size and condition will seriously affect the voltage that is available at the front of the boat. If the wire size is 22 AWG and if is copper it will oxidize over time. The result will be high resistance in the wire which causes a significant voltage drop. I would look at the possibility of replacing the wire and lowering the Humminbird alarm threshold.

Were you doing the following: Spraying carburator cleaner in the intake when it was running? Were you reving the motor? The shop manual for that engine specifically states that you should never rev the outboard with the Muffs on. Only when the lower unit is submerged in the lake or dunk tank. The other thing is carburator cleaner doesn't have any two cycle oil mixed in with it and will destroy pistons and cylinder walls lickidy split. Guess how I figured that one out!

I got the Bass Pro Sopspenders auto-inflatable PFD for Christmas. I wore it almost the entire time that I fished in Florida last week. I always wore it with the kill switch lanyard attached while we were running. It doesn't get i the way. I had to get something so my children would stop calling me a hipocrite for making them wear their PFD's. It is the law for them. Now I will not be a hipocrite.

MG shaft is metal and can get bent. The MK shaft is composite and will bound right back after impact. I just ran my 70 Maxxim through two miles of eal grass on Okeechobee in the wind. I got 1.5 to 1 MPH cutting grass!

Refractive index Water 1.33 FLuorocarbon 1.37-1.42 Mono 1.52-1.62 Eventhough we may perceive that there isn't much visual difference, Berkley tests of line in a fish tank have shown that fish bump into Mono lines twice as often as Fluorocarbon. I love the increased sensitivity, lower stretch and lower visability. Where I fish, it makes a difference and I feel it is worth the extra cost.