12poundbass

It honestly wouldn't be bad if you had a power anger, flasher, shanty, heater, and beer. But all those things are expensive (except beer) especially to use only 2 months a year (in my neck of the woods anyways).

Winter Storm warning for my neck of the woods. We've had about 4-5" since 9 am. Supposed to go until 11 or so, only supposed to get 5-8" but at the rate it's going now I'd guess 10 inches? Visibility is about 1/8 mile. I'm kinda liking it!

You're not missing much! On a boat your spot isn't producing you hop on the big motor or TM and cruise to another spot. Ice fishing you have to drill about 20 holes drop the flasher down see if there's fish, no fish? Move to the next one. After about 18 holes of no fish you finally see some, so you have to pack all your gear into a sled and pull it half way across the lake to the hole, unpack everything set it up drop a line catch about 2 fish and repeat until you've caught your limit, it's dark, or you're on the verge of hypothermia! ??

And people wonder why the cost of college is out of this world! In stead of spending all that money and time researching this all they had to do was watch Finding Nemo and they could've saw that fish get scared and have different personalities.

He's getting the HDSI transducer.....it should be better, it's apples and oranges.

It's provided the day before take off.

I've caught too many DD's to remember. They were all caught here in Michigan will I was fast asleep in my warm cozy bed while outdoor temps were below freezing and a bunch of the white stuff blanketed the ground. ?

Smaller lakes are iced over, the bigger lakes are quickly closing. High of 15 today lows are in the singles tonight. With that said temps. almost 40 this weekend. If I had to guess I'd say after Christmas unless we get a deep freeze.

We're at about 3 right now, but the next two days we are supposed to get lake effect. As you probably know the lake effect can be hard to predict and can vary by just a few miles. Where I am we're always on the line because we're about 40 miles or so inland. It can say we're expecting 1-2 and wake up with 8. It's 17 here with 0-5 wind chill. I love working outside, but days like today's I question my sanity. Thankfully were slow so my time outside is limited then in the truck I go until I get to the next job, so it's not horrible. I could be in a cubicle. ?

On line they had 3-4 different TM options but they were all 12v. That's pretty encouraging that it's fairly accurate. How are you liking yours so far?

How much snow is on the ground? Watching my local news and all I've seen over A-Jay land recently was white, blue, or purple.

Under the build your boat section of the boat company's websites how accurate is the pricing? Is it 10% low, 20% low, 10% high? If it's fairly accurate (minus tax, rigging, ECT.) The Renegade is looking quite tempting. Another question I had was they didn't offer some of the options I was looking for, can or will they install them or is it up to the dealer? What I'm referring to is for the 17' Renegade they didn't offer a 24v TM. Thanks in advance!

If the opportunity ever arises I'd advise against it. I'm pretty sure for B.A.S.S. at least it's against the rules at least when the tournament is going. Double check me or maybe someone else with better knowledge will chime in, but it's something along those lines.

We get lake effect snow here in western central Michigan but man you guys in Buffalo take the cake when it comes to lake effect! What do you do when you get 9 feet of snow you ask? I did a quick Google search on 9' snow storm Buffalo, NY @Rick Howard mentioned and Wikipedia had good info including that there was a 25-30% increase in August births the next year! So you see you southern boys a ton of snow can be a good thing! ?

My snow puppy isn't quite ready yet.

I imagine there's a pack of happy pups staring out the window.

Heck even up here you see it all the time people with 4 wheel drive in the ditch or on their lid. It's not going to do anything on ice. The other thing that always cracks me up, up here, yesterday we had our first accumulating snowfall this year. One county along the lake there were over 120 accidents/ slide offs due to the snow.... Just before noon! They only had a couple inches at that time. Every year up here everyone forgets how to drive in the snow. After the first snowfall or two people remember this white stuff is slick and the accidents subside until we get 5" or more at a time or it's so cold the salt and chemicals don't work anymore and in the ditch they go again.

I agree.

I'm not going to lie when I was looking this spring and was asking the dealer about them, of course he said he could throw them into the loan, it would add about $7/month per $1k. That's pretty tempting when you see all the new electronics and everything they can do. My mind still isn't made up which route I'm going as far as the upgraded boat goes. I'm paying cash for the electronics though.

@slonezp posted a pic of a Ranger that I think was $104k. Granted it had a ton of add-ons but still.

Is that your place Catt? If it is you have more snow than me here in Michigan! Lol

I don't have any issue with how people are spending their money at all. It's your hard earned money you can spend it how you want. I think the higher end boats are ridiculously priced, but it's simple economics. Let the market dictate your price. I would be ok with buying a $40-50k tin boat such as a Lund. Tin boats will practically last you a lifetime, so divide that cost over say 20-30 years ($1800. Year +/-) that isn't too bad for entertainment and like you said quality family time. Money well spent in my eyes. As far as phones go.... I've had 3 smart phones and I've paid $15 for all 3. All were unused. I'd never pay that kinda money for a phone. I'm ok with people who do.

If the consumer doesn't buy a boat at $60-100k they wouldn't charge those prices. Prices these day are absolutely ridiculous, but people are buying them. The prices were sky high before and companies were sold. You and I and all the other little guys are his bread and butter and you know you can't bite the hand that feeds you. He has Ranger now for his higher end consumers. I would love to see the actual cost of these boats and the electronics that go on them. I know glass boats are very labor intensive but high enough to justify those prices? Garmin just slashed their prices $400-500 for black Friday. You know they still made money. Yet we still buy buy buy. ?

Agreed. You add things to these boats there are other boats that compete. When I was quoted a Tracker 175txw this spring I was quite disappointed to find out they're basically a cookie cutter boat. That being said the things I wanted to change I can live without except the "fish finders". So for me it isn't a deal breaker.

Good luck to you buddy. Your positivity and enthusiasm can alway be felt through our screens. That's a big plus in the work place, employers love that. Add in the faith you have and like @A-Jay "you've got this"! I too just apllied for a job that would be life changing if I got it. Maybe in a couple weeks we'll both be settling into a new job!