surfer

I used to have a similar 18 hp motor and never found that the knob made any diferance.

If you are happy with the Power Pro then stick with it and tie on a Floro leader for your test. 10 ft of leader should take away any doubt weather the fish saw the Power Pro or not.

Do they have any money back guaranties? That sounds a little rich unless they have some good action. But then again I pay $9 for shiners and gas to go get skunked sometimes. >

Acar555, In central Florida our lakes are rarely more than 30 ft deep. Are the vertical pixels still important in these shallow lakes? ThomasL, Where can I read these reviews at? If I take the Cabelas and Bass Proshop reviews combined there are only 6 reviews on the Lowrance x96. There are close to 30 reviews with both Huminbird 535 and Eagle 480. I see the three complaints for eagle, but it looks like they got taken care of. Humingbird looks like the champ when relying on the reviews. Sorry I am full of so many questions. I just don't have the experience to understand this stuff yet. Thanks again. Tanner

But wasn't it nice and quiet between those moments of excitement. ;D

X2 X3 x4 x4 X6

Long battery life and not charging them for two or three days while runing them down is mostly contradictory from what I understand. I can appreciate you not wanting to add to noise pollution. I am the same way. There is probably a way to get a quiet generator by the addition of a big muffler and a simple housing. I have seen both techniques used individually before with good results. Think how quiet your truck is compared to a generator. That is accomplished through mufflers. And your truck engine is much bigger than a generator. I am not familiar enough with desulfators to say if that would be the better route. But everything I have read says it couldn't hurt. You may want to try it on your current batteries and see if it revives them. Here is a chart to illustrate how deep discharges shorten battery life. http://www.usbattery.com/pdfFiles/Avg%20Life%20Cycles.pdf Here is an enormous amount of info. http://www.batteryfaq.org/ Good luck.

Pixel resolution comparison Eagle fish mark 480 has 480x480 = 230,400 pixels Hummingbird 565 or 575 both have 640x320 = 204,800 pixels. 11% less Matrix 17 and Lowrance x96 both have 320x320 = 102400 pixels. 55% less Unless Vertical pixels are more important than horizontal ones than the Eagle 480 is the clear winner in this department. They all have the same 5 inch screen so that is not an issue. Eagle fishmark 480 vs. Humingbird 575 The 575 has a simulated 90* cone. This would allow me to sea further to each side, but since its horizontal Pixels are only 320 it would seam to have less resolution side to side. Now in this screen shot (http://www.humminbird.com/gallery.asp?ID=1070#) it shows three screens. The top half behalves like a traditional depth finder and has aprox 320x320 pixels. The bottom half is split into left and right giving the left and right views 320x 160 resolution each. This seams like horrible detail in comparison to the 480, but could be very useful as a search mode to locate structure. The 575 also has a regular mode (http://www.humminbird.com/gallery.asp?ID=1070#) with a 60* cone that uses the full 640x320 screen. So after locating the structure you could switch modes and see the cover more clearly. It would still be 11% less clear than the 480. The 480 has more buttons for easier menu navigation (http://www.eaglesonar.com/images/Products/FishMark480_large.jpg) . I think the 480 is probably the better product, but the 575 has the better search mode. Anyone have some thoughts about this comparison?

Are you looking for a system you can intentionally not charge for the weekend or longer? And do you plan on repeatedly drawing it down to less than 30% capacity?

I sat in bass pro for 15 minutes stabbing my finger with different hooks to do a sharp comparison. Not very scientific, but Owner won. I might have been swayed thinking that the Owner name was more a more American name than Gamagatsu, but I later found out it's not. I still use almost exclusively Owner and have confidence in them. Many stores don't carry a full line of Owner so I have to supplement with Gamagatsu EWG. Tanner

Matt, How good of a graph do you recomend for being able to study the bait? If I had $200 should I get one that will show me cover and structure, but maybee not bait or should I keep saving?

I want to upgrade my fish finder and am looking around the $200 mark (flexible). I see a few threads down where someone mentioned the Eagle Fishmark 480 and i have also looked at that. Three others i am looking at are the Hummingbird 565, 575, and Matrix 17. How do I go about comparing these? The web site http://www.fishfinder-store.com/ gives good breakdowns (and prices) for each, but I don't know how to read between the lines of what they are saying. Eagle 480, Hummingbird 565, and Matrix 17 all look the same to me and the Hummingbird 575 has some sort of quad beam for side imaging or simulated 90% cone. Can someone tell me which is better or if one brand has bad customer service that might narrow it down right there. Is the 575 using new unproven technology? Is there another one I need to consider? Thanks in advance. Tanner

Yes that will work. Don't forget to charge your batteries ASAP after each outing. This will increase lifespan. Uncharged batteries left to rest will greatly decrease lifespan.

That's funny.... but you should feel bad. So you pushed his boat out to sea then spent an extra hour at the ramp just to see the look on his face. That's vindictive . But I hope you got a picture.

I am with Jig Man. 2 batteries paralleled is one big 12 v battery and should reduce wear and tear on the batteries. Ann-Marie, can you elaborate.

I don't think any of the prior answers were being smart *****. Mine wasn't I had no idea you were an experienced braid user with a fool proof knot. With the added info of your second post you pretty much answered your own question. Especially with the hand brake test. As for a club with 12 lb test limit, it makes me want to echo the words of Roar Warrior. Yo-Zuri Hybrid Ultrasoft. He quotes the break strength as being much higher than its rating.

It's not so much jet skiers specifically, but novice boaters who are also weekend warriors. They are in to big a hurry to consider their action affecting other people. It is just what they want to do. They think as long as you don't collide then no harm done. The best one I have from this weekend was a jet skier coming around a corner to find me sitting directly in his path. He panics, let's go of the throttle, then tries to turn. For those of you not familiar with jet drive water craft, no throttle no turn. So he is coasting right at me with his handle bars full right. His eyes and mine are getting bigger and I am motioning to him to get back on the throttle. d**n language barrier. he finaly slowed and the panic went away enough to throttle a turn. Boating safety courses should be mandatory.

You must wear brindfoed and ear prugs young grasshopper. Every time I see or hear a strike I assume he missed until I feel it.

You should have let the other guy go first Tow vehicle position in line determines who is next not boat position. The fact that he got his trailer into the water without you two bumping into each other in the parking lot shows he was in a better position to make use of the ramp. Never tie up a boat in the way of the ramp. In a less crowded situation it probably wouldn't have mattered. In crowded situations every body needs to do everything possible to speed up there launch time. Within safe limits of coarse. A boat occupying a ramp and waiting for a tow vehicle is a time waster. There are not two sides to this argument. You say that you had to wait for him to park then get his boat out of the way? Sounds like he was blocking the ramp when he shouldn't have also.

I am making a few assumptions about the $75 boats. Those $75 boats sound like a big headache to me. The price + the rust on the trailer (to the point of no paint remaining) shows complete lack of maintenance and it has most likely been sitting outside uncovered and I wouldn't be surprised if it collected water inside the hull from rain. Every piece of wood in the boat would be suspect for rot. This boat will never be brought back up to a respectable sales value. Any money you use to repair or upgrade one of those boats will be lost when you get rid of the boat. The trailer sounds like it would need $400 just to make road worthy or replacement with a better trailer. If you were able to buy this boat, make it safe, and get it to the lake for $600 it might be an ok deal and you might get your money back. That $600 doesn't include a trolling motor batteries or motor. You will probably want to take those things with you when you are done because they will hold there value better. It will be less work and similar money to get a john, plastic pond prowler type, or what kybass just said.. PS. a 100# trolling motor is a big expensive one. From the way you are approaching this I think you will probably want something closer to 45#. No offence intended these are just my frugal and lazy thoughts of how I approached boat buying.

Can a brush pile be over fished? Yes. Dose less fishing pressure on a brush pile make it easier to catch fish? Yes. Is it fair game for whoever stumbles across it? Yes. Did I do a good job of hiding my orange tree with 10 cinder blocks tied to it in 18 ft of water? I think so. Do I have the gps coordinates? Yes. Will I be disappointed when I find someone else fishing my tree? Yes, but it is bound to happen and I wont get angry. Theses sentiments directly reflect the same problem with over crowded surf. I avoid crowds and don't share my secret surf spots with anyone who isn't in the car with me.

Well said Roger. But my lucky hat makes a difference and I know they can't see it.

http://www.ownerhooks.com/index.htm I use Owner hooks and I wouldn't know were to begin sharpening the point in this photo. The tip looks more like a bayonet cutting point as apposed to a round needle.

Thanks for these in-depth articles. I have saved all five in hopes that more of the details will make sense later. For now I am happy to have learned what I can from them.

There are now cows were I live anymore. All the land is developed. Anyone have a internet link to a camera showing cows. Preferably standing up.