surfer

I bought my boat 1 week before christmas. The poor guy needed xmas money for kids toys. I suspect that situation plays out every year.

"Fish don't feel pain" You are joking right. They can't scream like you, me or that mouse, but they show it in their panicked frolic.

Thanks all. I will add the Texas Tackle Split Ring Pliers to my xmas list. I love this forum. Just under three hours and I now have the knowledge as if i had spent time and money and tried a few diferent pliers. I will also put on new rings. Thanks again.

I have switched out a few trebles and found it frustrating. So I quit and left some not sharp enough trebles in use. I want to buy some split ring pliers to remedy this situation. Can the guys / girls who have used split ring pliers recommend which ones work and which ones don't work? I have seen some basic cheapies for $5 and some name brands for $25. Do they all work the same?

A couple of things stand out to me in that add. Why is the motor not in the center of the transom? Why is the gas tank not in the back? Why is the ratchet tie down strap so tight as to bow the left side of the boat inward? My guess on the ratchet strap is that the trailer has no shocks or to strong of a shock and the boat and trailer bounce over pot holes and speed bumps. My guess on the motor, gas tank, and other random stuff in the boat is the person just isn't very organized or experienced with boats. None of this is a bad reflection on the boat. You may want to ask a bunch of questions to get more of a feel of the person's knowledge and commitment to price before driving. And if the motor runs, how many pulls it takes to start, stuff like that. If the trailer bounces a lot then the transome could be damaged from the weight of the motor bouncing on it. Good luck. That size Jon boat is great. Just what I was looking for a year ago. The 7.5 should just get you on plane as long as you don't have a large live well.

Yes that boat is a type of plastic. Drill the holes at the ends of the crack. That duct tape repair will hold for a longer than expected time. I have done extensive surfboard repairs with duct tape and some last for 2 years, but I am not dragging my board across rocks. The 3M 5200 marine stuff will last longer and flex with the hull. If your patching material doesn't flex it will crack.

1. a picture is worth a thousand words. 2. is it plastic or fiberglass? 3. unles its PVC i doubt PVC glue would work. even if it is PVC Idoubt PVC glue would work. 4. 3M product work realy good.

That made me laugh. I was a little bit south of you in Orlando and had a realy slow day that afternoon too. Cold fronts sure make for a tough day fishing.

I think we overloaded thier server. I cant get thier page up. Man I have been waiting for this sale.

Is this tourney still running or is it over for the winter.

Crest, Check deep in the camera menu's for a setting to not have your camera reset when off. I am not sure it will be there or what Cannon will cal it, but my Olympus Stylus 770sw has it. I can have it remember what the last setting was open start up or always start at the standard setting. But I don't get to choose the standard setting. Good thread. I am gona look into that bottle pod and or the mini tripod. Seams ideal.

From what I have witnessed in my home lake this past weekend the big schools of shad are the small shad. They are slow moving and a suspend type bait that looks like and is the same size works the best. In my case a small fluke about 2.5 inches. I have heard of lots of guys having luck with spoons, but I think that comes later in the season when the shad are bigger and faster. I have also heard lots about what Crestliner just said, but have yet to capitalize on it. Or I have been experimenting and having great success with a cast net and a bait bucket. Live bait is like cheating.

Thanks Avid, If I keep at it I hope to find that school of 5lbrs. I tried a small trap with no luck. The shad were pretty small and the bass seam to be keyed in on them. A 2 inch plastic jerk bait got swallowed fairly often, but I couldn't bury the hook for some reason. Even when I completely exposed the hook and saw my line run off the lure would come right out. I do have a few more ideas on what to try here. The fun part about the live shad was about three times as often a strike rate. And when the action was off for a few minutes you could soak em just like you would a shiner and pick up a fish or two that way also. Last year in Dec / Jan the schools of action seemed tighter and more organized. I was having a lot of luck with shad raps then. I am thinking this may be early season and as the bass become more practiced with this forage they will school them up tighter and have longer frenzied sessions. I hope.

I have used the Noknots you are asking about. They are tiny and very difficult to grasp without pliers. Once i got the hang of them with the needle nose pliers they are realy quick. I tested the large size for strength with 12 lb line and the line broke before the clips gap was wide enough to release the lurei was using. i like the NoKnots, but i am not currently using them due to having forgot my needle nose pliers and not being able to use the clips without them. One major downfall I figured out is the clip will interfere with the hook set on single hooks. I had a dramatic increase of fish that got off the hook after the hook set. I finally landed one only to see that the hook was not set and the tiny edge of the Noknot was stuck in his jaw. As soon as I swung him to the boat he shook and dropped right off. I will never use a NoKnot for single hook applications again. If you get them make sure to get the large ones as they are still tiny. And plan on using needle nose pliers to operate them.

I went out on Lake Conway the past to evenings. The bass were jumping and tearing up the shad. So on advice of some articles I read I netted some shad and put them in a bucket. This was challenging, but I got er done. Next I put a shad on an appropriate size hook and threw it into the action. Just as the articles said the hookup was within seconds. So I chased the action and caught five 1-lb. bas in 30 minutes last night and me and a partner caught 7 in 30 minutes tonight. Nothing big, but some exciting action.

no kidding! a red bucket! this Crystal stuff sounds interesting. i may have to give it a try. no further testing thanks. ;D

Thanks Travelin-Man Fishin-Psyantist, I agree with your concerns of the boat turning into a taco. In my case I used 3/4 ply wood witch is strong enough to distribute two adults weight load. Since I am electric only I don't have to worry about the added stress of hitting waves on plane. I would not take the bench seats out without addressing the boat taco concern.

Long, Can you repeat this experiment with a black plate in the bottom of the bucket? I am curious if you used a white bucket and white braid if it was just camouflage with its white background. I agree completly that braid would be even beter if I didn't have to tie a leader on.

I can always put the wheels back on the chair for a test run, but I would rather make it on U-tube for catching a big bass than swimming with them. ;D Yes the trailer has two wheels on one end and a toung, ball reciever, and the short posts in the picture on the other. It works good for hand toting around the yard or slow speed trailoring. I think if I hit a speed bump at 30 mph it would shatter. I think I read on here that PT wood and aluminum don't mix. Can someone remind me about that? I may have some more work to do.

You wish you were over thinking it. You can take it as far as you want to go. And you have come to the right place as some of these guys do. : Read this other thread for some in-depth about rods. http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1141187546 As for what to set (the drag on) your real to... that mostly depends on the strength of the line you are using. The whole point of the drag is so the line won't break when the fish exerts too much force. The drag will give way and let some line out. The fish will tire of pulling against the drag and you can recover the lost line. If you are technical a safe place to start is 30 to 50% of the line strength. This is due to knot strength is always less than line strength. So for 8 lb line set your drag to about 3 lbs.

1. I think alot of the guys on here have multiple rods set up with diferent lines among other qualities so they can quickly grab a diferent set up when the situation calls for it. 2. :-X 3. Visibility is believed by most to be a key factor in slow fishing. Braid is the most visible line. Tie on a leader or have a diferent set up for soft plastics. 4. My favorite is Suffix. 5. I use Florocarbon leader always

I think that bass was trying to tie your lines together and got caught. ;D

another view

I wanted to share with y'all what i did last night. Purchased old 10ft jon with homemade PVC trailer. No title on either. Removed the aluminum bench seats by grinding the rivit heads off. Filled with water to find leaky rivits and marked leaks. Used the two hammers technique to tighten the leaky rivits. Big thanks to whoever on this board mentioned it to me. Fast and easy. Did a quick camo paint with some green and white (what I had available) to break up the solid blue background. Cut and placed one 3/4 inch PT piece of ply wood on the floor. Used all thread in the oar locks to press the ply wood to the bottom of the boat. Allows easy removal in the future should a leak need some attention. Mounted a duel shelf on the back of the boat. made from floor leftovers Mounted a duel shelf with trolling motor board on the bow. made from floor leftovers tacked some 1/4 round to the waters edge of the shelves to prevent stuff from rolling into the water. Glued some small hooks to the inside wall to act as pole holders Took the wheels off of an office chair and made it a boat chair Costs split beteen me and a friend. john $100 trip to Lowes $60 Total 1/2 of $160 and 6 hours of labor. I now have an electric boat that will stay at an electric only lake and be used by either of us any time we want.

I use my handheld in conjunction with the depth finder to mark structure or trees and brush I drop out in the middle so no one can find them. I only use the waypoints. $80 Waterproof, Accurate to 30 ft, takes me about 45 seconds to mark and type the name of the point, accurate speedometer, no maps, no card slot. I read the specs on a few of them before buying. I wanted the more accurate one. Some were only accurate to within 50 ft. I borrowed an older one from pops and it took me 10 minutes to refind a tree in 17 ft of water. More accurate is better.