K1500

I was out fishing and hooked onto a beaver wrapped up in a long length of braid with a toad at the end. What some people leave behind, there oughta be a law. 😉

Wear your A/M in auto mode and don’t store it in a boat locker. As has been mentioned, manual mode doesn’t help if you are too incapacitated to activate it, which is a very likely scenario. I’ve got 4 Onyx A/M jackets that have never accidentally inflated, but I don’t store them in damp boat lockers.

Park on top of them and vertical jig with a jigging spoon. A very underrated technique.

Nope, not from Iowa. I think the best thing to do is just make yourself (myself?) go and learn to fish alone.

I am about the same age/stage of life and I feel the same way. I have a 20’ bass boat and to be honest, it’s a fair bit of work to go alone. I do it sometime but would rather go with my kids. One is in college and the other is in high school and not interested fishing (plus school activities take up a lot of time). I guess I’m gonna have to learn to go alone if I want to go, as none of my friends fish.

They sure seem to be a boon to trout fishing.

I switched from the Trilene knot to the Uni and have had much better luck with it. The uni works better for me on heavier line without causing an issue with lighter line. Palomar for braid.

If you can’t hit redline when at WOT with your current prop, going up pitch won’t help. I have two props for my 20’ aluminum bay boat with a 115 pro XS ct, a 4 blade 17 pitch and the same prop in a 19 pitch. The 19 pitch is what I use in the spring and fall for fishing. It takes a bit longer to get on plane but has a higher top speed and (more importantly) a lower rpm at the speed I want to cruise. This is with 1-3 people on the boat. As I add people/weight it is a noticeable difference in getting on plane. I put the 17 pitch on in the summer, when I am pulling a tube and tend to have more passengers in the boat. I’ve never even tried to pull the tube with the 19 pitch. Aluminum props can help save your lower if you do something boneheaded like strike a submerged rock jetty on plane. I’ve seen it save a boat lower once.

I use only ethanol free and use stabilizer with every fill up, but it’s easily available at most gas stations and it’s all the marinas carry. I figure it’s pretty cheap insurance, especially after having the FI system in a motorcycle gum up over winter with E10 ethanol fuel. As long as you are treating it and running fuel through it on a regular basis, it probably doesn’t much matter what you use.

If it’s ‘very cheap’ then I wouldn’t worry about it. I mean, if you wear a groove in the guides in 3 or 4 years you’ve probably used the rod enough that it’s worth upgrading to something better. Are you going to use a closed face push button reel on it? I would more concerned about how that handles the braid than the rod.

I used the Trilene knot for years and started having issues with it when used with Yozuri Hybrid line. I switched to the uni and it fixed all the issues.

The spike it pens work and add scent to the plastics, but I don’t think they are available in black. The spike it that you dip the bait I. Works even better. I believe spike it uses acetone or something similar as the solvent, whereas a sharpie is alcohol based. Give the sharpie a try and see.

It appears they don’t make them in 13” sizes. I’ve used them on a camper and boat and had excellent service. In any event, I vote for balancing them. It is usually included in the price of mounting and I don’t see a reason to give your tires a chance to shake the boat to pieces while under tow.

Goodyear endurance and have them balanced.

Clear ATV type goggles are the way to go on a cold day for sure. Changes an eye watering run into something pleasant.

Another thing about hard baits. They are typically more expensive in absolute terms than soft baits like a Senko, but they are dirt cheap when compared to a soft bait for durability. I’ve caught 100’s of fish on a single crankbait before destroying or losing it. Try that with a worm and see how much you spend in plastic and hooks. Amortizing the cost of a hard bait over its life really brings the cost/fish down. At least that’s what I tell myself as I’m topping off the boat and putting another 30 gallons of gas in the tow rig…

All I know is I have cheap baits and expensive baits. I ALWAYS fish the more expensive ones in the box. The cheap ones don’t seem to run as true or work as well, but it may be all in my head. After I bought my boat I quit worrying about saving a few bucks on a hard bait.

Update, I finally got around to the job I was dreading. I replaced the bunks with Douglas Fir and recovered with my Gatorbak. The hardest part was finding a place to launch that had power and space to do the work (running an air compressor). The existing Gatorbak was in excellent condition and was surprisingly easy to remove and reuse. The factory bunk wood was garbage and falling apart. The boat loads better now on the new bunks. It probably helps that they are rigid and properly canted to align with the hull. If the Gatorbak was trashed, I would have gone with the ultimate bunks. I have a grand total of about $25 in materials in the job.

I’ve got a Lowe Bay20 which is similar to the Xpress mentioned above. I would say no matter what you do I would look close at the spec sheets. For example, the Lowe bay 20 has thicker aluminum and a lot more foam that similar sized Lowe Stinger bass boats do. That sounds like something that would make a difference in your application.

Good job for sure. I pulled a kid in distress out of the drink with a flipped kayak once. I think he would have been ok as he was close ‘enough’ to the shore, but it’s hard to say as he was far more exhausted than he looked in the water. I saw him out of the corner of my eye as I was on plane and circled around to get him.

^ I agree. That’s why you really have to compare lines of equal diameter. Just pointing out that if someone wants to use it that the pound test rating is very conservative and to go lighter than you would relative to other lines.

I really like Yozuri hybrid for almost everything. It’s stronger than the average line for its rated test, so keep that in mind. 12 is a good choice for my casting reels and 8 for spinning.

Thanks to all who have contributed so far. In doing a bit more research, I believe that what I have in the bunks now is gatorbak (or something that looks just like it). If I go wood I was concerned that PT could interact with and corrode the aluminum, especially when water is added to the mix. I assume this is a valid concern? I need to go fishing so I can assess if the gatorbak is in good enough if condition to reuse. I’m leaning toward two options based on the feedback I’ve gotten. 1. Use non-pt wood and reuse the gatorbak. This would be the budget option for sure. 2. Use ultimate bunk boards. Based on the pricing, it looks like ultimate supreme boards would be roughly $600. Gatorbak replacement strips would be $300. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me to buy new gatorbak when I still have to use failure prone wood. I would just go ultimate in that case. Reusing my existing gatorbak would make the job super inexpensive (but I’d probably be redoing it once again in 5 or 6 years).

It’s time for me to replace the 4 bunks on the trailer of my 20’ aluminum bass/bay boat. The factory boards are sagging and cracked, and look to be made of low quality lumber. The bunks have a ribbed plastic cover as opposed to the usual carpet. The covers on the factory bunks are definitely not the hdpe sliders, as there is some friction between the boat and the boards. The factory bunk covers look to be in good shape (5 years old). I could: 1. Replace the 2x4 bunks with new wood and recover with the original covers (cheapest option). 2. Replace the 2x4 bunks with now wood and cover with something new. Looking for advice on what covers to use. 3. Replace the bunks with some non-wood alternative. Haven’t done a lot of research but this looks to be the most expensive option. I am looking for advice on a) what material to cover the new bunks with, b) what wood to use, and c) any other alternatives I should consider. I am leaning toward using 2x4 non-pressure treated for the replacement bunks. I don’t know what to cover them with. I would also consider non-wood recommendations, especially if they were a permanent solution. Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

That doesn’t sound funny even now. Glad you are ok.