-badhabit-

The price of gas and oil is NUTS! But I got the habit so I gotta have it................. To fill up my truck and boat today it cost $135 (only 46 gallons because both still had some fuel in them) Anyone want to buy a kid or woman? Or trade for gas? May be time to dig out the jonboat and paddle soon. >

GMAN - Thanks The ones at delmart are too thin, but bobstackleshack had the ones I was looking for http://www.bobstackleshack.com//index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=21&zenid=e23a4ccee5d66c043ff3c3d3b4a90d4e

Please let me know if you have a multi 6" senko mold for sale or info on where to find one. With the price Yamamoto charges for baits his logo should be a man with a mask & a gun. Thanks for looking

If you are seeing bass beds then the females are not far away. If it is shallow they are most likely on them @ night. When it gets closer to the full moon they will stay on them longer. Try moving away to the closest deeper water and fishing slow moving baits. Just an observation from my experience.

I caught a 6 lb chain pickerel and 0 bass on the baby bass 8-) I have the female bluegill also but haven't tried it yet...... Lightninrod - Have you got any change for this handy?

I have been using the snag-proof since they come out eons ago and never had one split. Once in a while a hook will poke a hole in the body and I just silicone it up I drag them through the toughest cover in the US (FL Swamps) & have caught plenty of monster bass on them and still have one rigged on one of my rods all of the time. The other frogs I have tried work to some degree but are way too heavy for most situations I fish. Go retrieve your bait and practice using it a little. You won't regret it.

"Revo H20" (nothing to do with the reels). They don't make any better than Italian titanium framed polorized glasses anywhere. Expensive on the wallet, but cheap to protect your most valuable asset = your vision. I have never understood people that will spend thou$and$ on boats & tackle then want to get cheap on their eye protection

He did an A+ job and should be proud of it!

I'm not sure about fixing that problem, but if it comes down to needing a new axle this is the best place for trailer parts I've found: http://www2.northerntool.com/cat-1/166839%2B166843.htm (you can get a new axle cheaper than a good set of tires) I hope you get it worked out

I also found out if your boat is 20 yrs old or older it's hard to find any insurance company that will talk to you

They found a guy here yesterday in Lake Monroe (Sanford, FL) with no life jacket after a several day search. The search started after they found his boat run up on shore with the throttle wide open and out of gas. Everytime I've been in the boat for the last few days I've paid more attention to a couple things I caught myself slacking on safety wise. I used to be pretty strict years ago after a family friend (Rodney Dann owner of Culprit Worms) died on Toho when his airboat flipped. Hale - Good Thread and we all could use a reminder once in a while

That is a pretty cool little setup.

Lizards, worms, or other slow moving baits that you can drag onto the bed will sometimes work well. But to draw strikes from stubron females I use a plastic bait that floats with a 1/2 oz weight attached 12"- 18" before the lure. I drag the weight onto the bed so that the lure is suspended right above the bed. This makes the female have to work to remove the bait and most of the time they will hit it pretty hard (I also do the same thing with wild shiners using a 1 oz weight). A couple years ago I got 3 fish in 45 minutes on West Lake Toho that weighed 36.5 lbs total doing this (all were released alive).

I finally took this boat out for a test run yesterday and was very surprised how smooth it rides and how stable it is. The gps showed it topping out at 37-38 knots and cruises along at 30 knots like a fine car. It will also run at idle in 2' of water without the prop touching bottom. Not a drop of water when the plug was pulled and everything else worked fine. I'm very happy with it so far. 8-)

I agree that you would lose money doing boats like this one. It would be a poor business choice. All I wanted was the shallowest running fiberglass hull I could get to hunt and fish out of on smaller lakes. But if you want a boat rigged exactly as you want and have tons of time it can be fun I wish everyone well and a 10+ lb'er on every cast.

LBH and catt Thanks Does anyone know a company that sells liability insurance at a reasonable price for older boats? All of the companies I have looked into so far stop insuring boats @ 20 years of age. Thanks, FL Dave

I used Krylon Fusion camo paint (blk, brn, grn, and tan). Painted the green base first. Then the designs in blk, brn, and tan (in that order). The patterns are just randomly drawn on posterboard and cut out with an exacto. Then it was sprayed with 3 coats of matte finish clear enamel. Today it got buffed with a mix of Carnuba wax & rubbing compound twice. Mixing the wax with rubbing compound will keep the shine to a minimum and still allow the protection of wax.

TD - Thanks Clipper - I didn't keep track of man hours. I just worked on it when I felt like it since December. There are still minor things left to do (wax, mount acc., and a couple items on the trailer). On the minor stress cracks on the upper part of the hull (edges and top rails) I cleaned out the cracks with a razor knife to get a good clean edge then filled them with "EVERCOAT Formula 27 Filler". The filler was not very expensive and can be found about anywhere. Very easy to work with A++. On the stress cracks anywhere below the water line I ground the fiberglass out with 40 grit sandpaper on a Dewalt 5" orbital sander. Then I re-fiberglassed the area. I used 120 grit sandpaper on a 4 1/2" palm sander to sand close to smooth, then 220 grit wet/dry to finish sand. I wish you all the best with your boat and I will be glad to answer any question that I am able to.

Thank You all for the kind remarks! Re-doing this boat compared to the aluminum boats I've done in the past has taught me a lot and gave me more appreciation for the work that others do or have done to their boats. Bassn Blvd - If the weather holds out like it is I hope to atleast catch a few........ if not I may have to settle for a shiner out of the livewell. Off to my home lake as usual Friday = West Lake Toho

It's done except for the side rails and fenders on the trailer. A true Florida Cracker boat now Every part, piece, wire, and screw on the whole boat and trailer is either new or rebuilt to new. Runs like a top and looks better than any 2 year old boat I've seen in person. Fun to do but I wouldn't try to do a complete restore again if I had a budget........... over $2K in parts and pieces in it not counting the trolling motor or gas motor work. But they can be done and I wish all who do the very best! (camera date was messed up, these were taken 2/24/07)

Beginning with the 10pm show of day 1 & 85% of days 2/3 were made up of repeated clips. All but the the last 30 min of each show lost out to re-runs of Andy Griffith here @ Green Acres (that's sad). Even on BASS Insider it was poor.............

edited: ABA called and fixed problems +

I have a Garmin GPSMAP 178c Chart Plotter/Sounder and the Fishing Hot Spots cards. I like it so much I just ordered another one. I looked at all of the different makes and models at the local BPS that were in the same price range and none of them came close in features/display quality. Also the transducer mount is made for both transom and trolling motor installation. Just my .02

Kind of cold here also. 9:35 am 56F and only going to 73F today (water temps in mid 60's)

I agree and that's one of the reasons people try to compare Shimano with Diawa. Diawa set the mark that all others are shooting at. No sense of chest beating when you know you have the best. I have a few Shimanos that sit mostly because I keep my fleet of TD-X 103HSDF reels busy. and the saga of Ford vs. Chevy continues........................................