Functional

This is entirely the reason I will either restore a car or go with a full kit like Factory Five instead of the donor chassis way. You basically only get the looks of a fancy car and the performance of its base car, often Fiero or G37 type performance.

@Captain Phil that's a beautiful 350! My holy grail of project would be a 67/68 fastback with an Eleanor kit (I know sacrilege to some) or a 1970 Mach 1. The cost of what they go for in not great shape is a killer though. Just to buy the car and then fix rust damage would price me out of building one I believe. Dynacorn makes a full body but I've been seeing quite a few fitment issues needing some fairly heavy work. I have no illusions of making any money off of this nor even recouping money if I ever sold anything I end up with. I know intents can change but its something I want to build with the intent to be able to pass down to my kids when its my time to go. @12poundbass 🤣 that is something I can completely see my father driving around in! I'm going to have to show him those, hes retired with far too much time on his hands. @KSanford33 I've seen those kits, long ago my father wanted to do one with me when I was in my early teens but a big move and starting his company kind of put a big back seat to it. This would kind of serve as a late project together I'm sure hed love to help me on. He used to mod and drag race cars back in his younger days. I've completely torn apart quads, dirbikes, etc. for complete rebuilds and reconditioning but a kit car would be taking it up quite a few notches. Either way I can use a mill/lathe and have fabricated things and living in NC there is an abundance of shops for any specialty thats way out of my league.

Having a project car or joy car has been on my list for a long time. Truck is paid off mid next year and I've started saving to finally take the dive into something in the next 2 maybe 3 years. I've been looking pretty heavily into a Factory Five 65Coupe or their 35 Truck. I'd love to be able to fully build something like that and have it be "my own". My father in law has a Fastback Cobra that I've been able to drive recently and its really kicked this into a new gear for me. Curious if anyone else here has done something similar or has a "pleasure car" of their own.

Thank you for all of the info, it honestly helps. I think I'm leaning pretty heavily towards going with 360. Some of the arguments here actually made me consider livescope stronger than I thought I would have. Really comes down to not wanting to hamstring my TM control for sonar and really not looking to dump nearly 4-5K into mounting it with its own control. I move along the bank for the most part, but not fast enough where 360 would be useless. I'm fairly certain I'll land on a Helix 10 and if I can swing it come purchase time go with a Helix 12 for the screen size and resolution bump. However, is it even worth doing if it was on a 9"? Really more curious than anything.

When I hammer my head against the boat wondering where I went wrong.

Been toying with the idea of wanting Mega 360 on my boat. I'm not personally really on board with livescope, but having a "map" of the ground around me and casting to specific targets is very appealing instead of my usual approach of making educated guesses. When I outfitted my boat 2 years ago I went with a Garmin Force TM and Echomap UHD at the console with the intent to get another 9" at the bow later on. From images, I feel like the Mega 360 would give me what I'm looking for, however I havent really seen anyone use panoptics in the perspective mode, always the forward (livescope) view. Can anyone comment on a Mega 360 vs Panoptics perspective view and their experiences with them? Panotpics: For panoptics it seems like you need to mount the transducer in the orientation you want to use it in and cant just use any of the 3 with a screen selection, is this correct? Also I'm assuming it works as a "cone" and you have to point the TM towards the ground area you are trying to get an image of...basically making spotlock and the panoptics non compatible? Mega 360: What difference will there be using 360 from say 10FOW to 30FOW?

-Dedicate days to "jig only". 2024 is year of the jig -Get out to Jordan and/or Falls lake -Hunt down a DD (ever years goal) I'd really like to get down to FL, GA or SC for some of their famous lakes but Mrs. Functional and I will have a 2nd kid arriving in March. That will make a 3 year old and <1yr old to deal with.

I've been using Bitsy Bugs and whatever Seiberts compact 5/16oz is with the smaller rage craws. It's usually those 2 or if I'm feeling froggy a 3/8 seibert archy. At least with my spinners and chatterbaits I've had better luck on the smaller side so I try the same with jigs.

Based on what you all say I'm throwing it in the right areas (rocks, docks, stumps, laydowns) but I'm guessing its my retrieve. I grew up fishing nothing but a 10" purple worm with a split shot so I'm very up to speed on the slow bottom bite. Either way I'm convinced youll see a few posts from me this year with 1 or 2 rods on deck with nothing but a jig. EDIT: @Catt you just summed up years of what I've learned fishing that purple worm. The inhale and sit are tough, I'll usually get a smidge of tension back in my line but not enough to move the lure if its just sitting there, a lot of times I can feel the wiggle of the tail and I'll set, others you get nothing but that little tick in your head goes off and yous et the hook. Sometimes you pop over a branch, other times you get a good fight started.

You and me Crickety...2024 will be the year of the Jig for us!

Like quite a few, my boat is packed and I still only bring out a few tried and true. Typically I'll start the day with a variety until I start catching them or until nothing works and I re-rig. -1/4 to 3/8 oz jig w/ rage craw -1/4 to 1/2oz Trig creature bait of the days flavor -5/16oz Trig ribbon tail in purple or GP w. red flake -Minimax chatterbait -3/8oz swimjig last rod on deck is either a crank, popper or frog depending on the conditions and where I plan to start my day. A bunch of other situational stuff but nothing deserving of being tied on all the time. I still havent learned the jig...but it stays on because I'm convinced if I throw it enough I'll learn. Really need to just tie on a few different size/profile jigs and just use them all day and force it.

@Pat Brown @ol'crickety Typically during every season but winter I'm more like both of you and working cover, shade, wind, etc. Winter time on my smaller home lake(actually more river than lake) it becomes a grind and with all the veg died out its tough to find them. My best luck has been graphing large schools of bait with some type of cover below them (a stump, a depression, a few rocks). 9/10 they are middle of the lake channel and the bass relate to the cover and feed up. Spoons, rattle traps, cranks, spinners and swim jigs Typically do it here. I'll have to try Pat's techniques but it's painful for me to fish that slow lol. Yesterday was in 15-20fow and a 18' crank did it. Mind you I'm not a crankbait type person but we do what we have to.

He isn't much at all and honestly not worth posting, BUT I am pretty thrilled I was able to get on the water, read the conditions, take a guess where the bait/fish would be, select the right bait and then actually have that all play out and have him in the boat in less than 30min. Despite catching really nice fish this year I'd be lying if I said it all comes together as easily as it did this time. All clones of him but putting together the pieces yesterday felt good. Question... why do fish sometimes bleed when all the hooks are in the jaw?

This year was a different ball game for me. My 2 best producing lures are lures I couldn't catch water on in any seasons past. 1) Z-Man Mini Max in spot remover with a Zoom split tail trailer in white. (my PB on this lure this year) 2) Dirty Jigs Swim Jig in white (or Pearl Ghost Shiner? been a minute since i fished) with a Keitech FAT Impact in Tennessee Shad or Smokin White honorable mention was a Z-Man Bang Stix and ZinkerZ Ironically my best producing the last 2 years, frogs and spinnerbaits, were my worst producing lures this year.

Should have thrown in a reel with that purchase...you would have never known 😂

Not the fishing monkey but the gun monkey got me this year. I needed a new barrel and before I knew it I have enough parts for 2 complete uppers on their way. Stay strong my friends.

There isnt much I miss about snow and winter in middle NY but I have never experienced the peace and the dead quiet like there is when you hike into the woods with snow on the ground while its snowing. If I didnt freeze to death I could set up a chair in the middle of the woods and sit for hours in conditions like that.

Great to hear Ajay! Even though the standard is to get together with family these intimate ones between you two and your pups can be something special to enjoy all in their own. Hope you both enjoy your Thanksgiving with the news you got.

But saying it out loud helps me verbalize where I should be fishing! "Out along the edges Always where I burn to be The further on the edge The hotter the intensity" Ole Kenny throwing out the juice and no one knew it.

Guess I need to stop singing "highway to the danger zone" as I scoot into my spots?

Its been tough in NC lately. Both my lakes have drawn down where I'm not sure I can launch on my home lake and the other is sketchy at best. Unless I drive out to Raleigh I've got nothing worth going to!

" @kingmotorboat always lit up the forum when he came on. Everyone had a smile on their face when we saw him log on and post. His influence was infectious here and none of us will ever be the same with his absence. He had a bright future and it was taken from him...from us." that's what I'll be hearing when my wife watches this episode of snapped and we get interviewed. Honestly though I've learned that people who fish alone either do it purposely or unintentionally. Ie. they don't want to deal with people...or people don't want to deal with them. Your best bet is to start saving up a little couch money and pick up a kayak or john boat...depending on how big your couch is. The freedom that comes with dictating when/where you fish is worth the price of admission.

Please Glen....stop tearing me apart more than I already am when I have to decide where my body is going to be on the weekends!

I have 2 (really 3) boxes of Jigs. Box labels "Standard Jigs" "Small Jigs" "Deep Jigs" on the inside I run tape on the lid from left to right to correspond with the rows and mark with a marker where the dividers are. In each box of tape I write the make, style and color. Too many times I've had a good lure and ran out and couldnt remember what it was. This is my standard practice with all my lures with the exception of hard swimbaits....those stay in the boxes they came in for now.

Tennessee Shad