dickenscpa

Thanks for the heads up! Will do. Brad

Actually both of mine are Eagles, which I think is under the same corp as Lowrance. You wouldn't happen to know if they make a cord to just tap off the console unit? I don't mind using one transducer to run two sonars. It's a pain to be fishing off the front deck and have to get up and walk to the back to see your sonar in the console. Both Eagles do use the exact same plug in the back.

You are correct. I have a coupla thousand feet of 14g from wiring houses. Would I be able to just pull the bare ground out of the romex covering and use that covering as extra protection while pulling it thru the boat? That's also assuming I can use house wiring. I would think 14g copper wire is just 14g copper wire?

I'd love to fish tourneys as well but can't really get hooked up to a club due to my schedule. I might get to do one or two tourneys that are more like industry/promotional things thru work, but didn't make any of them this year. My son has gotten active in martial arts and I teach at his school 2 nights a week and throw in I became a Tiger Scout leader in his troop. Tiger Scouts are 2 Tuesdays and 1 Thursday a month, plus weekend activities. Throw in the old work monkey and I'm full up. Last year I had an old beater boat and fished at least 2 times a week, sometimes more. Bought a shiny new boat this Spring and bet I've been out 6 times in it. :'(

Been hesitating asking this for a bit now. I bought a new to me boat a coupla months ago, a little over 20 years newer than my previous boat. I could take the old boat apart and put it back, but I've had a learning curve on the new one. Anyways, the boat has a F/F in the console. I kept one of the F/F's off my old boat and it uses the same plug, tranducer and so forth as the one in the console. I want to use my other F/F on the front deck. I thought about buying some type of contraption to make both work off the same transducer, if such a thing exists. My other option was to mount the other transducer on my TM. This seemed harder but more advantageous. I started fiddling with it and ran into this problem. My batteries are in the back. I installed the transducer onto the TM but only had maybe 2.5-3' of lead to a power source. Are they all like this and you have to buy some type of extension to run to the back? TIA Brad

Great news! Great news! Thank you so much for the heads up on this. I assume, unlike cable, that it's channel 396 for all Dish customers. I really miss channel 218. I like Versus, but they have a lot of additional shows I don't care about. Other than fishing and hunting, I do love the Tour de France, I could do without the other shows. I do of course realize I'm not the only customer so I take what I can get with a smile. The Outdoor Channel OTOH, if nothing's on TV I can watch just about whatever they put on. For me Versus is 151 and Outdoor Channel is 153. I do REALLY miss the other outdoor channel we used to have that went out of business. It was channel 218 for me and they had some really good programs on there. I wish they would have had some kind of PBT telethon for donations. I would have donated to keep them.

Like a dumb butt I floored it with 2X4's and 2X6's and then used 3/4" plywood for the decking more like you would the floor joists in a house. I thought since I was about 230 I'd need the support. My Dad enlightened me and told me the floors in a house were built that way to support your weight and a couch and other heavy furniture. I just had one of those brain freezes during the planning stages. With all my gear and TM battery stored in my newly created storage area it was way too much weight up front and the boat wouldn't plane and porpoised a bit too under speed. Another drawback was when I was sitting up front fishing, other boats wakes would cause a little slosh to come over the sides. The boat sat noticeably lower in the front, so I ripped it all out and went back all naturale.

I got a 14' 1973 glass boat that I put a casting deck up front. It was right at 50" wide. I actually replaced that boat last night, but haven't sold the old one yet, but I'll start a new thread about my excitement there. One thing I would suggest. I'm an accountant but have an extensive construction background and I weigh 230#'s. A big mistake I made that wasted time and money was I built the deck as if I was framing a floor in a house. Way too heavy, boat wouldn't plane and made it porpoise bad. A casting deck must support your weight, not your weight sitting on a couch or playing a grand piano. After you build your deck, take it to familiar water, stay close to the dock (read shallow water) and be in a strict mindset of test mode/safety first. Walk around and test it and go past the point you probably would in reality. Do EVERYTHING you can to make sure that it will be safe. When you get out in deeper water reeling in a biggun, your mind won't be on that.

Remember when we had that cold snap hit us all of the sudden the first week of April this year? When that was gone and traditional Spring temps returned, I was catching a lot of LM, SM, stripe/hybrid with a bit of blue gill mixed in. Not much in the way of size, but decent quanity. I continued fishing throughout the summer even though the drought and low water levels were horrendous and had very little success. The last month at Davis Corner (Near LaGuardo) were good to me and I nabbed quite a few LM. That would be about one month before Oct 12, I had some minor surgery and have had to recover. Unlike the Spring, not as much on quantity, but better size. I say all that to make a comment about what you said about smallies. I haven't caught a smallie since April and I haven't caught a stripe since May.

I wonder if you could get an inexpensive multimeter and if anything would show up by touching the probe to the water. I would assume it would all be DC current since everything's run off a battery. You could maybe tape the probe where it just touches the water and periodically check if it spikes some voltage. Just attach the black probe (ground) to something metal and the red one just the tip in the water. If you left the multimeter on all day, it just runs off a 9V battery.

I bought a 40amp circuit breaker at a local boat dealer for $7.80. I wouldn't write off checking out a local first.

He's right there. I recently switched from a foot controlled bow mount to a tiller style with the head flipped around. I have a 14" fiberglass tri-hull and a 30# pulls me along just fine. It has 5 speeds and I rarely go 3 or higher. BUT, not only will you have trouble loading the boat with a stern mount up front, but just getting close to the dock to tie off. I use to take my foot controlled and troll right up next to the dock and pull the rope at the last minute. I had my engine go haywire on me when I first got the boat and had to troll onto the trailer. At the time I had the traditional bow mount and I got up speed, lined her up and pulled the rope at the last second. This will be more difficult with a stern mount up front. A normal bow mount retracts all the way up and rests completely on top of the boat, i.e. none of it over hangs. A stern mount up front will hang out a bit when retracted. It took me once to realize this when trolling into the courtesy dock. When your coming in, with no brakes, you have to get that TM retracted before it bangs against the dock. It's not as quick getting it up as a normal bow mount. Where I learned my lesson was forgetting about it hanging over the front of the bow. It was resting about 3-4" above the dock. I stepped to the front to get out and BANG, it hit the dock hard. Another thing to remember is unclamp it before you launch and reclamp it when you get into the water. I launch alone and tap my brakes to get it to slide off. The overhanging portion will bang the foremost roller. Luckily I thought about that before it happened.LOL! For my personal preference, the pros outweigh the cons and I like the stern mount up front better. I seem to control the boat better without thinking while actually fishing. Doing all the above with a stern mount up front is not impossible, but it's definitely more difficult and more to think about.

Well think of it this way. The 5# fish would have dug into Luke's lead by 5#'s. Luke giving Brent a 3.5# fish would have been a 7# swing. Brent already had the best fish of the day in the well. Just to give it a weight I'll say 4#. Luke only wound up with 11.61? I may be wrong on that total, but that's what I was thinking it was. Take away 3.5 and he's around 8#. Add 3.5 to Brent and he's at 7.5. Luke could have felt like he had to fish the 4th. Of course if Luke did actually know for sure he had the lead, even after giving up a fish, I completely agree with your 2nd assessment. He'd have been in less than optimal fishing conditions. Luke fishing the 4th and actually giving Brent a chance would have went a good ways for me, i.e. not sitting him in the middle of the lake. Last year they kept a running tally as each caught a fish. They don't do that this year. I never knew whether that was an estimate or an after the fact add on to the TV screen. I also don't know if the anglers are privy to that info. I don't even know if they have scales on the boat or they just go by feel. I've never seen them weigh one on TV. If it's only by feel and that's all they know, I'm sure Luke couldn't go "feel" Brents fish in the live well. He could have been unsure and forced to fish the 4th. I have seen some matches, either this or last year, where it looks like they try to get it in the well ASAP so the other guy has no feel for his total weight.

I ventured over to UMF's site on a whim, didn't even know they had a site. I read UMF's response to yesterdays match. Apparently there were some things we didn't see. The producers, ref, Joe, Luke and Ehrler met for almost an hour. Luke apologized and said he thought Justin had the fish in his hand and he was trying to be funny not malicious. The site also said that Luke offered Justin any fish of his in the livewell and Justin declined. I feel a tad better about Luke after hearing that. Should it have happened, no. I do think UMF was definitely going for the tabloid style ratings 'cause they certainly sensationalized it. The site said new rules would be enforced due to this outcry. I'm sure this season has been taped in advance and the rule change came into effect because of the huge amounts of e-mail, so it could be next season before we see this change. Even if they didn't show parts of the meeting on TV, they should have at least alluded to the fact that an amiable resolution was achieved.

I have an old 14' FB tri-hull and I ripped out the old weathered deck that a previous owner built and built a new one. Mine has a weight limit of 600#'s. I weigh about 230 + or - . I'm a fairly good framer/carpenter even though I'm an accountant and I went about it like framing the floor in a house thinking stability. The joists the previous owner used was 1X1, I used 2X4 and 3/4" ply. It would barely plane with me by myself with a 40HP. Add my wife and son, 115# and 48# respectively or even worse, my brother who tips in at 245# and it wouldn't plane at all. Gotta find that happy medium between structural soundness and weight savings. Had to rip mine back out. Glad I didn't carpet it before a few test runs!

You may have a point there. I usually enjoy Luke's subtle sarcastic humor, I can be that way at times. It rubs some people the wrong way. They could have very well edited out Luke being a rear knowing Swindle has the rep of a hot head and played it up.

Clausen was close to the top of my favorites list. I liked his sense of humor and how he seemed to be all business. With the exception of Swindle last year, he seemed to be well liked by his competitors and got along with them well. Who can get along with Swindle in the same boat that day? If that wasn't scripted, it was pathetic. If it was scripted, say it really happened way after the match was ultimately over and the edit monster jumped in, I still wouldn't want to be painted with that brush if I was Clausen. Either way my respect level took a little dive. I'll keep watching the show and I do enjoy it, but there's a lot of things I don't care for rules wise. Turning the boat around to defend is one thing, but when a guy in the back has a fish on, twisting his line around a pole, jerking the boat around causing a guy to run up to the front and underneath you isn't gamesmanship. Not to mention you break a man's line with a fish on the hook and the line is wrapped around something, that's detrimental to the fish. How's that being a good steward of what God has given us? I also think it should be a mandatory fish in the fourth quarter. Although it would possibly make for boring TV if they just sat in the middle of the lake. I'll admit I don't know how to enforce that fairly. Like someone above said, two buddies fishing for fun is one thing, the way I make my living is another. I think about how my 5 yr old son would view that. I'm not an advocate of voilence, most scenarios can be resolved peacefully. However, there are times when you must either defend yourself or just flat stand up for what you think is right. If I was Ehrler, I think I would have busted him in the mouth. Maybe Ehrler's reaction makes him a better man than me, that's quite possible! But I think I would have slept better that night.

True. My boat has the 6 gal portable type tank and I didn't realize when I first got my boat to unscrew that little vent in the cap. It collapsed my tank and cracked it.

If the spark plugs look good or new ones are no help, you may want to see what kind of spark you're getting. Could be a bad coil. A spark tester is very cheap at just about any auto parts store. If you go for new plugs, it wouldn't hurt to pick one up, you'll probably use it at some point. They're very simple, just make sure you run a little ground. You should get a good blue spark at about 7/16".

I'm usually by myself, but this is the way I do it too. I park my boat completely on the far side of the courtesy dock and leave the "boat lane" open. There's a lot of experienced people who can get in and out and be out of my way before I can even get to my truck. If I see two people together and ready to launch, you can usually tell by looking if both know what they're doing, I'll verbally give them the heads up to go ahead and launch while I get my truck. If I don't say anything and they go ahead and it keeps the flow going, I'm happy. I did get to the dock at the same time as two guys and a lady the other evening. Give them the go ahead to load up first. I thought I made a wise decision since 1 guy stayed in the boat idling and the other went to get the trailer. Thought to myself this would go smooth. Guy #1 backs down, guy #2 drives boat onto trailer. #2 tells #1 to pull up to get out of the way. I was thinking alright this worked out good. He pulled up just far enough to get the boat out of the water and they started buttoning every thing up right there on the ramp pad. There's a space in this particular parking lot just for that, no need to block ramp. I politely notified them of this spot and after being nice enough to let them go first, this is the response I got, "Hold your horses! You shoulda went ahead if ya didn't want to wait!" Well, he was right I guess. I shoulda just bulldozed ahead of him. I got him back though. He got in the truck and got back out 3 separate times, reached into his cooler in the back of the truck and got a beer for each one. I watched them open them up and start drinking and take off. First off, I'm not even sure they were all 21, but drinking and driving is illegal no matter what age. I called their tags and description of the vehicle in. Wasn't too long down the road I passed them and the nice officer who responded. ;D

Wow, I'm impressed. I'm sure you had to really work at getting those sponsors and a lot of work went into developing your skills and keeping those sponsors. I wish you and about 50 of your clones were the teenagers that lived around me.LOL! Seriously congrats, I bet your parents are proud. My son just turned 5, but I would be BEAMING if he displayed sound Christian values and a good work ethic when he's 16.

Do you mean Hendersonville, TN? If so, I'll go check it out for ya this weekend. Hendersonville is right on Cumberland River/Old Hickory lake and they have a lot of boat sales places. If Henderson without the "ville" is what you really meant, I'm not familiar with that. As a point of reference, I live about 25 miles East of Nashville and Hendersonville is about 20 miles NE of Nashville. My mother-in-law lives on the lake in Hendersonville and we're helping her move this weekend anyway, so no prob if you need me.

What made it worse to me is I stumbled onto a mess of fish and landed a good size one, only to have to run for cover. If not for my brain freeze, I could have spent some time in the area and maybe caught a few of them. Here lately I've either caught a few dinks or got absolutely blanked. We've had a pretty bad drought here, so we needed that rain, but the fishing has been bad. So, to me, to catch that big one and then have to leave was depressing. :'(

Like everyone else says, don't be embarrassed. My first launch of my boat, with my wife and son in it as it was going down the ramp, I forgot my plug. No big deal, everybody does it once or twice. I rigged a deal where I'd never forget anymore. Wrong! I go to a new ramp for the first time June 23rd and it's crowded, one parking spot left, people coming in and out and I'm in a hurry. I rigged a deal on my transom saver so I'd never forget to put the plug in. Doesn't work real well when you rush and back the boat in with the plug dangling on the transom saver that still holding your motor up. Be a while before I go back there!LOL! Just this past Sunday after Church I wanted to get some fishing in before this BIG storm blew in. The previous Thursday I replaced my gas tank, hoses, bulb, etc. Disposed of the old gas and was gonna start fresh. Drove all the way out to my favorite ramp and the boat won't start. Fiddle with it for about 10-15 minutes and then it hit me. I never replaced that old gas I disposed of! I got a brand new tank so fresh I could safely drink water out of it. By the time I got out of the water, drove back to town, got gas and got back I wound up fishing for about 45 minutes before the lightening show started. To make matters worse on my 4th cast I caught a LM bass just under 6 lbs. May not be big to some of you, but that was a monster for me personally. I found a mess of big fish but the weather was TOO rough and I had to go home. Started not to post that second part but when any of you feel kinda dumb about anything pertaining to a boat, just think about my dumb move and it should set your mind at ease.

While not a boat, a still tear jerking trailering moment. I like the Avalanche, have had three of them and like all Chevys they have a "Tow/Haul" mode on the column. I'm about to have shoulder surgery the next day. We built a new house and I'm fooling around with dirt and a wheel barrow leveling my yard 'cause I know I won't be doing it for a while. My Dad calls and tells me he just bought a brand new HUGE lawn tractor to mow these 7 rental properties he has. They're 5 acres each. He asks me if I will bring my trailer and haul 'em up there and watch him mow. He's had a stroke and heart attack or two and can't load like he used to. I'm tired of shoveling so I say OK. As I pull into his driveway he's putting oil in it for the first time. I let my ramp down and his deck won't clear it. I get the bright idea to lower the dump bed and drive it up in it and let it slam down. I pull the pin and he drives it up and it slams down. I go to put the pin back in and he starts hollering at me to hurry up and help him get the ramps back up, "We gotta go! It's gettin' dark!" I hit the hwy and we're doin about 50 mph and I jokingly said, "Should I put it in Tow/Haul?" I clicked the button before he could answer and it downshifted and the whole trailer rares up. I hit the brakes and his new lawn tractor goes head over tail flippin past me in oncoming traffic. I come to a stop and notice part of the trailer is fixin' to slam into the side of my truck. I stepped on the gas. I didn't realize my Dad was in the process of getting out to assess the damage. I come to a stop again and turn to look at my Dad, he wasn't there. I get out and see two legs sticking up out of the ditch. The aftermath was a brand new lawn tractor that was separated from the rear end and front end. A trailer tongue still hooked to my hitch. An axle in someone's lawn. The trailer bed skidded thru someone's lawn taking out a swath of grass and two freshly planted sapplings. We get everything back to his house and I'm shaking, I could have hurt someone. Dad's in disbelief and can't figure out how this happened, he's truly puzzled. I put my hands in my pockets and feel that pin for the dump bed. I literally felt nauseus. Sorry so long. To this day, and this happened Feb '04, anybody that knows me buys a new mower, they call to make fun and ask if I can load it and take it home for them. I had to buy my Dad a new John Deere, didn't have to according to him, but definitely felt OBLIGATED!