Jig Man

Mercury has the lion's share of the market. You will find more dealers and more techs who are Merc trained than any other brand. Example; A tech friend of mine has been turning wrenches of 8 years. He just got Evinrude training this past winter. He has been Merc cert. for 8 years.

Some things to consider before you buy: you don't need a DF like the 527 or 525 unless you fish really deep water, the 527 like the 522 has an internal antenna and can cause a lot of trouble unless it is mounted someplace (not in dash) where it won't be tilted a lot. Another thing you need to know is what the different cone angles are for the DF units. I had an LMS 480 and the cone angles were 34° and 12°. One was so wide it was unuseable. The other was so narrow I couldn't find my bait in any kind of wind. Otherwise go for a unit with external antenna like the 520. You can network 2 520s with one antenna.

Here in MO if you have it after July 4th you expect to winter it. Most dealerships are on a floor plan with a bank or boat mfg. They are paying interest on new and used boats. By the first of August many are willing to make units go away. By the first of October fall fishing is picking up and boats have more value so deals are a bit harder. Things taper off again in late Nov but dealers are getting ready for boat shows so deals aren't quite as good. If I were looking for a buy from a dealership, it would be late July to mid August. That is when my sales people were lean and the owner wanted rid of anything.

Merc oil injection I trust. The old OMC JohnRudes not for a minute.

I make my own jigs so I trim all the skirts but I trim them long as I want a slow falling big profile bait. I use 3 kinds of weedguard: stainless wire, fg 12 and fg 30. The stainless gets trimmed to just touching the hook point when bent back. The fg 12 never gets cut. The fg 30 gets cut at an angle just above the bend of the hook.

Storage and deck space are most important to me. I am a junk hauler and need all the space I can get. I also want extra space for the guest's stuff so I won't be underfoot.

DO NOT HOOK SERIES!!! That will make for 24V and kill your tmotor. You can get longer life by hooking up another 12V battery PARALLEL. That is + to + and _ to _. Then you will get the benefit of both batteries. You can also hook up a 12v charger and charge both at the same time.

The trailers I make with salt impregnated I take off so they won't rust the hooks. The non salt ones I leave on because they won't do any damage.

I use a hole punch and punch out plastic disks. They are free and the hook makes the hole so nothing slips.

The main thing to look for in tmotor batteries is reserve amps. That is the number one factor in how long a battery will last. You will probably have to go to a marine dealer to get high reserve amps. You should get at least 185 and 200 if possible. Don't settle for 140s or 160s if you don't want to paddle.

That all depends on your unit, water clarity and wind. I always run my units with upper and lower limits set to get rid of surface clutter. I run the sens as far as I can and still see good images. If the water has a lot of gunk in it from rains, etc I back it down a bit. It is uaually 80-100 %. I also get rid of a bunch of stuff like amplitude scope and zoom bar. I don't need them and have a wider screen.

http://www.ibsa.com/www/faqs/tech_talk/maintenance/charging.htm

I think with your baits listed you would be better served to go for a MH instead of M. I have some M St. Croix and Gloomis IMX spinning rods and I wouldn't use any of them with a spinnerbait. I only use plastics and jigs up to 1/4 oz on those rods anything else seems too heavy. The rod RW recommended is a MH and will do most of what you want. I had one and it was a bit too heavy for my purposes so I traded it off.

I used a candle flame for years to do that plastic repair job. You can even weld different ones together. They hold pretty good. I finally bought a Power Zap so I could use it in the boat.

NO you do not have to take the jumper wire off before charging the batteries. The plug will work just fine if it fits the male unit.

I fish at least 100 days each year. I get 3-4 years out of a set of batteries. The key is to get 185-200 reserve amp batteries so that they will last all day long. Charge them up as soon as you get off the water and keep the terminals clean and the water level over the plates.

Deep is a relative term. In TX they say anything over 5' is deep. For me deep is 40' and deeper. For that type of fishing I use jigs, grubs, drop shot, and jigging spoons. 71' is the deepest I have personally caught fish and that was on grubs.

Congrats. Best wishes with the fishes.

My wife pulled my 21' 1400 miles on a fishing trip to TX. Just make sure that you use tow/haul.

10v is a dead duck. See if it will take a charge.

If I were buying an aluminum boat there would only be 2 that I would consider Xpress and Lund. A bud has an Xpress. It lifts and rides like a glass boat. It has the general wind issues of any alum. so you need a strong trolling motor.

Let's start with the fish and ski boats. The best advice I can give you there is to take a 7' rod and go get in one at a dealership. Try to put it in a rod box. Try to lay it down some place. Now imagine you had 6 of them and 2 other guys in there. Nitro boats now are better than they used to be. They used to have all kinds of things come loose in a short time. I haven't checked them lately but for many years they were the fastest depreciating boat on the market. They are notoriously under powered. Stratos is a pretty good boat made my Genmar. Previous to about 2001 it was an OMC product. Champion is a good boat made by Genmar. Previous to 2002 it was a privately owned company in Arkansas.

Rick while you are at it check to see what version of the software is in the unit. Mine had 1.2 and was 2 updates behind. The newest version is 2.3 and will accomodate the Nav. 3D card.

Your dual purpose battery is a compromise between cranking and deep cycle. It would probably be ok for a starting battery since you already own it. It is designed for cranking and/or light deep cycle duty.

Fireline is crap. I had some and cut it off and threw it away 6 or 7 years ago and switched to Power Pro.