Lures'n'Liberty

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My buddy picked up a pack of these things somewhere cheap and stuck them on his boat to see where he wanted to mount LED's and wound up keeping them for a year. They were nice, you could tap them with your toe to turn them off and on and stuck to the carpet with velcro. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Light-It-Luna-Tap-Light-30302-308/207169793?cm_mmc=Shopping|THD|DigitalDecor|google|D27L+Interior+Lighting|_pkw__pmt__product_207169793&mid=sirFzxEqw|dc_mtid_8903yuu57254_pcrid_142160173350_pkw__pmt__product_207169793_slid_&gclid=Cj0KEQjwxbDIBRCL99Wls-nLicoBEiQAWroh6ja3PlqtyF_3m27cdPC9HMV-oBgy3vYACBZ2fjTxbJ8aAiCT8P8HAQ

Must haves - 2 live wells (I can deal with coolers and aerators), room for 2 to fish. Low maintenance, or at least as little maintenance as possible for a hole in the water that you throw money into. Trolling motor. Enough fuel capacity to fish all day without refueling on the water or rowing home. EX FIL's boat required carrying a gas can as tank was on the motor. Would prefer not to do that again. Ability to troll with 6 lines.

Yes, I know, boats aren't cheap, but I'm looking for something small and affordable, probably a 9.9 ish tiller jon boat. My ex father in law had a 10' with a '50s 5 HP Evinrude that got the job done well, but was just a wee bit small for the river. I've found a few early '70s bass boats that look like bathtubs in my price range, particularly a '73 Quachita with an '80s 75 hp Evinrude that supposedly ran 2 years ago. I'm looking to keep it under $2,000 and pull it all over god's green acres with my extended cab S-10 4x4 4.3, which is rated to tow 4500 lbs, but will probably get stuck on a steep launch ramp if I do, plus I live in PA where hills are a factor, so I'd like to keep it under 3,000. My other vehicle is an '86 Honda Gold Wing that will supposedly tow up to 600 lbs, and if you can think of a decent boat/motor/trailer that's less than that, I'd consider it as a first boat to eventually become my second, especially if I can put it upside down on a ladder rack.

I have a great tackle shop in my area that does great work. I've bought many a broken $5 reel on ebay and had them rebuilt and repaired, resulting in a great deal for me and more profit for the brick and mortar store that I love. Win-win for everyone, especially when I leave with $50 worth of tackle every time I walk through the door.

I'm an alcoholic and haven't had a drink in over a year. It turns out I'm allergic to alcohol, when I drink it I break out in handcuffs. I do, however, still enjoy having a beer, so I drink NA, and I prefer Kaliber. It's best described as guinness light, and it is exceptionally tasty and far more beer like than the others. Buckler by Heineken and St Pauli Girl NA's are 2 other better quality non alcoholic brews, my go tos if I can't get Kaliber. Clausthauler is not my favorite and I think O'Doul's tastes like crap, but fully agree that yes, the brown bottles are better than the green, as the green ones get skunky fast. Of the cheaper canned NA's, Busch NA is probably best and Old Milwaukee NA is in a close second. As for the O'Douls, Busch, and Old Milwaukee NA's, they are 1000 times better served over ice if you can pack some. To add to the shandy conversation, before I quit I have sampled many and I never had a shock top that I didn't like, their raspberry wheat was one of my favorites.

I was once on a week long trout fishing trip where we realized on the last day that we forgot to buy bait every single time that we went back to town for beer. My buddy caught one fish that day, and we all took a couple pictures with it, in different places, so that our wives and girlfriends would believe that we actually fished all week and didn't just get drunk and tell stories. Totally different situation, I'm sure, but in this case it was totally OK.

4:1-1 goldcast. Remember though, the ratio means little, it's the line per turn ratio that's the final and most important to consider number and that varies by many factors.

You may find more happiness with 2 $150 combos or 3 $100 combos, just a bit of food for thought.

Thanks for the welcome! The big issue that I'm running into with retiring equipment is that I don't fish one rod. I am by no means a pro, but the guys that I tend to fish with are, and when we go off to hit a lake, nobody has much time to switch lures. I'll go in with 6 baits on 6 rods. If I can't keep up, I can't keep going. Collecting quality spincast reels and rods from ebay and pawn shops has proved to be quite the affordable method for an average joe to hang with the big dogs when they're exploring before a tournament. Some of these used silvercast reels can be had on ebay for less than ten bucks and there's at least 10 at every flea market. It takes some digging, bargain shopping, and a few repairs but you can have an extremely multi functional rod locker for under $200 if you wind up in my situation. On top of that, if I want to take my girlfriend and/or her sons to the river, they can use my spincast bass rods with ease. Here in PA, we can have 3 lines in the water at a time, so 4 fishermen can easily use a dozen rods in the water with a couple extras when the kids (or the grownups) get snags and bird nests, so having a bunch of spincast combos lying around is almost a no brainer.

Sorry for re opening an old thread, but I've been looking at some of these threads and I think I might be one of the few people left who primarily uses a variety of spincast combos. I use nearly all Daiwa, and have a mix of GC's, SC's, and a couple of vintage 210's. I love them all but notice people complaining about the reel locking up mid cast. This happens the first trip or 2 new out of the box, and it's an easy fix/operator error/know your gear sort of issue that turns a lot of people off to the Daiwa. When it does this, crank the drag down low until the knob stops, then it should cast normally. Go ahead and re set your drag where you want it while the line is out there and you'll be good to go. In my experience, baitcast backlash adds too much stress and cuts too many casts from what precious little time that I have to fish, therefore I use spincasts for the short game when I'm bass fishing and all of my bait casters have been sold on ebay. I use a spinning reel on my long top water rod and on my broom handle.