South FLA

I'll be there, headed to Lake Okeechobee this Saturday or Sunday. Dale if you are in shoot me a P.M. Mike, hope all is fine with you and your family.

Dale, What happen to the boat? Run too shallow or something :-)

I guess, I am old fashion in that I would have notified the gas station owner that the pumps aren't function correctly and that I just pumped X amount of gas for $XX.xx amount. If I were the business owner I would greatly appreciate it or even the employee responsible for the mistake. Food for thought.

Friday of next week works best for me.

Which ramp? If it was the Boca or Boyton ramp it was not me. I was on the Southern Blvd/PBSO Sheriff's firing range ramp (Northern most ramp). I basically just fished all the water control structures South and the canal right at the Eastward bend. Should have I explored the flats? I was there from 3 to 7:30 PM last Tuesday and this past Sunday.

I am in, went to the Refuge on Sunday and last Tuesday, for every bass landed I had a pickerel or a couple of bowfin in the boat. Also, lost two frogs to GATORS and a Kopper's Live Target lipless crankbait! Water level is LOWEST I have seen in years, most of my better bass fishing came from around water control structures. I would rather launch from twenty-mile bend ramp. Anybody else experience the JUNK bite at the Refuge lately? Seems like as water drops every species is more concentrated and the Gar, Bowfin, and Muddies rule the roost! Big "O" is on fire though, tons of fish to catch around King's Bar, Horse Island, and outside edges of Dyess Ditch. If you can't catch 20-50 keepers in a couple of hours you should not be considered a bass fisherman. Bigger fish can be found, but you need to search.

Bang for buck Walmart Everstart Marine. Top of the line Sears/Kmart Platinum Marine Series. Don't mail order batteries unless have a Kmart, Sears, or Wal-Mart, never no if you battery has a dead cell or other issue. Shipping gets expensive especially with HEAVY batteries.

I own a 2003 Ranger 185 Intracoastal model and so far so good, its a great boat. Very satisfied with their factory support on issues ranging from gel coat repair, to bad chargers, and instructions on lid hatch seal replacement. If money were no object I would most likely by a Allison XB-21 BasSport Pro with all the options and a Yamaha SHO 250. If money were a consideration then I would most likely end up in a Bass Cat Puma FTD, followed closely by Ranger Z521. I would actually have to drive and fish out of them for a day to see what I prefer. Although, for how and what I fish for the best fit would be a Ranger Z21 Intracoastal. The original poster is from Central Florida and may want to consider a "saltwater" bass boat option and the only ones with that option currently I believe are Ranger, Bullet, and Sterling. Also, for arguments sake there is a point of diminishing returns on price paid per boat versus actual usability and function of a boat. I would rather fish out of someones well kept Brand X boat than someone's ill-maintained Brand Y, I would also rather fish out of a boat that allows me to fish where the fish are and sometimes that means fishing out of a canoe, jon boat, or off land. So its all relative. The most important part of boating is USING the darn thing be it fishing, family, or sport.

You are going to love it, have a canal/lake system in my backyard and its awesome to able to get out and catch ol'buckemouth!

Don't know what's bigger that fat sow's belly or your SMILE

Nice very NICE ;D

1. Turned around to check motor tilt while going full speed 60+ and lost a pair of brand new Costa's with 580 lenses! 2. Forgot to put the plug in Jon boat after throwing it over a levee in gator infested water. Did not have a choice so had to floor my 9.9 hp engine to get the water out, put out a wake the size of a sport fisherman while going down the canal AT NIGHT! 3. Tied on a new spinner-bait and proceeded to throw it in the water, problem is I cut the tag end of the knot and when I threw it in it was not attached to my line. Then to did it again! (420 moment in college)

Thanks everyone, went to the Palm Beach boat show this weekend and picked up a catalog from Boat Owner's Warehouse, flipped through it and found the exact 30 Amp. breaker that corroded on my boat and was causing issues. Cool thing is that in the catalog the had a $10 boat show purchase coupon that I used to by that and some weather strip adhesive for my latches ;D Problem is now I am stuck with (2) 50 Amp breakers that I don't need. I will keep one for my trolling motor breaker which is same size as OEM. By the way after I found this cool web page after reading your posts and surfing some more http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

Get the Bird it has better resolution 320 x 320 vs. 128 x 128 for the Garmin.

When launching I usually unhook my boat and safety chain prior to backing down ramp. Most if not all the ramps I use have decent approach angles so my boat's weight provides enough friction that it has not slipped. If it were a steeper ramp, or I had new bunks installed, had wet bunks, had a roller trailer, or a lighter aluminum boat, and/or applied silicon spray to make bunks slick I would leave the safety chain on while backing down and unhook when the boat floated. When pulling out of the ramp no matter what I pull up to the front bumper and secure the strap and safety chain. I too have heard of a strap failing while pulling the boat up the ramp. Prior to the safety chain pictured I had a 2nd strap secured to the safety chain anchor point. I have since replaced it with a 7/16" SS quick link and S hook with enough links to give me some slack, as pictured. I will most likely replace the S hook with a more secure clamping hook or get a rubber S hook stop. This way you have a fail safe if the strap or winch mechanism fails.

Ardent is copying KVD and others. KVD is great though.

Exactly what I thought when I read the post!

How'd that work for you ;D. Would have been nice to see the Noles D crush the Gator B-ball team though.

My condolences to you and your family Larry.

What size circuit breaker are you guys running on your boat's house battery? My breaker was corroded and I would lose power intermittently so I ordered one. When speaking to the Ranger boat part rep. she said that the breaker size was a 50 AMP model, but the actual size of breaker in the starboard breaker switch was a 30 AMP Carling Technologies breaker. I asked if she was sure and that I though it was weird that they would spec a 50 AMP on the house battery side since the original was a 30 AMP. Anyway, I ordered two and now I am thinking I should have pressed the issue more since 50 AMP seems too high for my house battery breaker, by the way the trolling motor breaker is 50 AMPs, so I am thinking she might have been confused. Should I go ahead and send one back and keeping the other for my trolling motor side replacement or should I just put the new 50 AMP breaker in the housing?

^^^^^^^^^^ What CWB said

Maybe sometime next week. Good luck and give us a report back

Nice ride Dwight, I thought I saw that truck somewhere before

I dig adrenaline junkies ;D

I second that T Mobile will suffer in quality from this, I had Cingular before it was acquired by ATT and after I dropped calls and had horrible issues with reception, especially when traveling SW of Atlanta, GA.