Wayne P.

moloch16, that is pretty much the whole point of glueing it down. If it is easy to remove, then it won't stay attached after it gets wet or sun baked. I use indoor/outdoor carpet glue and do attach the carpet directly to the hull of my jon boats.

A good thing about lures that produce for many years and still do is that they don't need to be promoted or advertized. They get their reputation from the successful anglers that use them and from anglers that get outfished by others using them when they don't use them.

Bobby, I agree with you about the baitholder hook style and have tried it. When I was trying them, I mashed down the shank barbs to save my fingers from getting cut up. I prefer the Octopus hook for the same reasons plus the bend where the hook eye is just works better for weedless wacky rigging.

I see your dilema and your best solution is to take your new reel to a tackle shop that sells line by the yard, pick your line size and have them spool it on for you. Then you will know how much to purchase for respooling it yourself the next time. That is the most absolute way to know.

One of the advantages of a receiver hitch is that the height of the ball can be matched with the height of the trailer frame so it is level when towing. On some boat trailers and others it is most important.

senko77, no I didn't think you were rebutting me personally, no offence taken. I was just qualifying my opinion of the hooks and their lack of performance based on every case I am familiar with and not knowing your degree of experience in their use. Lots of people must use them because Walmart sells them and they are constantly out of stock. Thanks for the reply.

You have another alternative. Since Winter has arrived in your part of the country, just have yours repaired. You can use it again if it is the best for your application or have it as a spare if you get another one.

Muddy, I just take a pair on needle nose pliers and hold it perpendicular to the hook, grab it where the barb is and squeeze. Most of the time it snaps off and if it doesn't, I rotate the plies a couple of times around the hook shank so it will fall off. I don't want that little piece of hard sharp metal coming off and sticking into my finger at some random point (been there done that and it hurts) senko77, my critizism of the finesse wide gap hook comes from my experiences and from several fishing partners missing fish and then catching them after using the Octopus hook that I gave them. The weedless finesse wide gap hook is even worse for missed fish. If you are hooking them in the roof of the mouth every time, that means you are missing a lot of fish when the hook is turned in another direction in the fish's mouth. I have tried the 1/0, 2/0, 3/0 and 4/0 in the finesse wide gap and the 1/0 and 2/0 in the weedless finesse wide gap. I've given them every chance to perform and they have failed too many times for me and others. I'm glad they work for you.

I don't use the Cocoons, but a similar type called FitOvers. I have the amber lense and gray lense models. I do have the Cocoon brand clip-on though. Due to my perscription, I cannot use any of the wrap around type frames. All of my prescription polarized sunglasses are about the same shape as the fitover type sunglasses. The fish don't care what you look like with them on.

I use the uni-uni connection with 6 turns on both lines. Most of my setups utilize 30# Stren Super Braid and 20# XPS Fluorocarbon. After I complete the knot (I don't double the braid), I trim both tag ends flush with the knots. My rods have 6mm tips and I have no problems with knot failure, casting or retrieving. I retie after about 75-100 bass caught. The longer knot length passes thru the guides better especially when casing than the shorter 3 turn version as pgersumky suggests and that is due to the tapered shape of the knot as the lines butt against each other.

Muddy, yes I tried the circle hooks when I was going thru the process of developing the ideal weedless wacky rig. The only time I would recommend that hook is when tournament practicing and my goal was to not catch bass or for using live bait (which I don't do). A gullet hooked fish with a circle hook (it happens) is almost impossible to remove without a lot of damage to the fish. In function, the finesse wide gap hook has to be used kind of like a circle hook and let the fish swim directly away or at least perpendicular to the rod to get consistant hookups. Thanks for that question. edited: more than 3/4 of the bass I catch wacky rigging are hooked in the throat because they just take it in so deliberately. With a de-barbed Octopus hook and a pair of curved jaw hemostats, once the hook is gripped, a gentle twist is all it takes to remove it. I've done it thousands of times.

Finding the legality of the lights for Florida was too tedious so I gave up. Alabama was easy to find: http://www.legislature.state.al.us/CodeOfAlabama/1975/32-5-241.htm in part C, paragraph 3 It looks like it is not legal to have extra backup lights on a vehicle there. When I was in Alabama a month ago fishing at Guntersville, I saw several trucks with extra backup lights installed and they also had driving lights on their boats but I didn't notice which state they were from. I'm sure any operating auxiliary driving lights on the Jeeps mentioned would be wired with heavy duty components including relays. I already have the components for the magnetic mounted ones, so I will be utilizing mine for at-the-ramp use only.

If you are a bass fisherman having a whole reel spool of new line is a waste. Just use some old line as backing and only put about 50 yards or less of new line on your reel. When you break off or retie a few times, then just replace the new part as necessary. That goes for all types of fishing line.

The boat trailers with surge brakes/brake lockout solenoid and backup lights just use the existing backup light circuit for power. I agree that a larger size wire from the battery and fused at the battery is a better source of power for the halogen lights because of voltage loss due to the existing wire size, but if I did that, I would locate the relay near the rear of the vehicle and use the backup light circuit in an existing 7-way plug to operate it and not use any other switching as Gator suggested in his first posting. It may be unlawful to have an independant switched circuit for lighting like that just as it is for fog light additions which can be operated only when the headlights are on low beam.

Grub Man, all you need to do is hook them up to the backup light circuit. That way if others are at the ramp, the lights will only be on when you are in reverse. A remote on/off switch will work but the backup light circuit is a better hookup.

Those same size lights will work better if they are on the ends of the bumper instead of at the hitch location. Make a set yourself and wire it to a 7way plug just like the whitenight version. Use magnetic CB antenna bases for removal or just mount the lights to the underside of the bumper. The boat and trailer block too much of the light for seeing the ramp edges next to the trailer wheels. You can see that in the whitenight advertizement.

Don't buy them, get the Octopus hooks instead. Been there done that, threw them all away.

There is a foaming spray oil called fogging oil that is used to treat the cylinder/s so they won't rust during storage. After you run the motor for a while with the fuel preserver, you spray the oil in the carb until it chokes out. Then remove the spark plug and fill the cylinder with the foaming oil while rotating the flywheel and replace the spark plug. Then change the lower unit oil. When you start it next year, there will be no mosquitos bothering you for a while and you may think the motor is on fire with all the smoke you will see. ;D That is the proper way to winterize your motor.

Here is the manual pages for an OMC 12/24 motor. I imagine the wring is the same. Section 38 gives the color and connection.

Under on circumstances accept criminal activity. When you do, you just invite more.

I don't fish with live bait anymore and haven't for at least 30 years. Why, you ask? Cause you got to keep it alive--too much trouble.

I suggest that you don't use the helment chin strap. The reason for that is a couple of guys I know had a boating accident in the winter when wearing heavy clothing and helments and were thrown out of the boat. The story they told about how heavy their wet cloths got and the almost impossible removal of the helments with cold wet hands and wet strap made the possibility of drowning a very real.

allst8rnnr, the whole lake is a hot spot. I have the most success fishing in or close to the upper end creek channels. From the 701 ramp, I go under the powerline (South) and navigate the East side of the lake where there are no standing trees until the open water ends and then stay against the shore for about 100 yards where the lake widens some and start fishing the creek channel on up to the very end of the lake. During the warmer months, I fish out from the ramp along the main lake tree line where the water is around 20'-25' deep with subtle depth changes that hold the bass and shad. When I fish near the dam, I am always getting hung up on the small trees between the island and the dam as I fish the gradual dept change out from the island. I don't fish near the shore anytime but during the late prespawn and spawn except when the lake is mostly frozen and a warm South wind has the water melted against the dam.

IPMY03, I was going thru some of my picture files and found this one of the low water level last year and on the right side of the picture showing no stumps is the mostly straight part of the main creek channel as viewed from the intersection of Briery Creek and Little Briery Creek looking towards the dam end of the lake. I was fishing in the creek channel as I often do. There is really some safe places to run once you learn them.

Mike, this is a list of Zoom Trick and Finesse worm colors I have used this year (I started keeping up with them because of questions like yours). Most were used on the same body of water and several on the same day. I have some other colors that I have used in past years. Occasionally for bed fish, I'll dip 1/2 of a bubble gum Trick worm in Chart soft bait dye and end up with bubble gum/orange-that presents two small worms of different colors especially when rigged wacky style and aids in seeing it in some levels of stained water. Baby Bass, Mardi Gras, Green Pumpkin, Watermelon Purple, Watermelon Red, Watermelon, Watermelon Candy, Red Shad, Cotton Candy, Pumpkin, June Bug, Limeaid, Bubble Gum, Smokin Blue, Green Pumpkin Green, Green Pumpkin Red, Bait Fish, Moccasin Blue, White, Seedless Watermelon, Seedless Pumpkin, Junebug Red, Red Bug, Yellow, Lemon, Lemon Shad, Red/ Black Core, Natural Blue, Cherry Seed, Icicle, Green Pumpkin Blue, Watermelon/ Chart. Tail, Cinnamon Purple