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I have been in the automotive and marine industry for 40 years myself lol !! Fix only what needs fix'n, or don't fix it if it ain't broke, I hear that a lot, I was looking at the tires specifically, different brands and they don't look to be in the best of shape, but the 150 GT is a monster and will move that tank down the water pretty good. One question, if he has the cover why has it not been used?

Depends on how one defines "rich". If it's only material things, and money, then he's rich. If it's honor, integrity, scruples, respect, etc., then he's a pauper.

Nitro summed it up pretty well. Just remember the bigger the boat generally the more stable it will be and if you putting a chair on the deck I would mount it kind of low so it's more stable. Also the deck is usually more stable if out in the back of the boat verses the front especially on a V hull.

For me a 14" is a big crappie. They always get the blood flowing

1. Bill Norman 2. Bill Normab 3. Bill Norman

Got out to enjoy the nice weather today with my buddy Jon. We went to Coffey County Lake in search of pretty much anything that would bite and we weren't disappointed. There was hundreds of gulls diving in the warm water of the outlet and we started catching sturdy white bass and wipers as fast as we could get a bait in the water. Traps, cranks, swimbaits, and a flutter spoon all got pounded again and again. I had one nice, fat wiper on a Luck E Strike Smoothie crank. Jon got busted off by a really big fish and then came back and caught his new PB wiper, 4.87 pounds on a Series 5. Of course like normal the whites and wipers worked towards the cables and eventually out of reach and we switched to bass. We caught lots of largemouth and one smallmouth with some pretty solid ones up to 3lbs on flukes, swimbaits, and spoons. The lake has some monster crappie thanks to a 12" length limit so we decided to try for them a little bit. I'd been getting hit on a Havoc Sick Fish and not hooking up, turns out they were crappie trying to eat that bait. We started tossing 3" power minnows and smacking big crappie and then I got surprised by this gal, our biggest of the day. We managed to fill out both of our 5 fish limits of with 10 12.5-14.25 inch crappie which made the trip back home with us We ended up with 94 fish by the fish counter but I know I missed several clicks early in the morning when the whites and wipers where in a frenzy because I was in such a hurry to get my bait back in the water. I wouldn't be surprised if we caught over 100 fish but even if I remember to click the counter for every fish 94 fish isn't too bad for a days work

Being able to put my head down at night and know I'm not a fraud and cheat is worth a lot of money.

Frog Toggs in the boat for emergencies, but when I know I'll be in the rain, I have a Marmot waterproof shell, and a pair of old Guidewear bibs.

If you can track down a used or be lucky enough to find one brand new, the previous shimano cumara spinning rod in whatever length you prefer. They have a 7'2 and. 6'8 medium xf actions rods that would be great choices and look excellent with your new stradic. While I don't own either of the two mentioned above rods I do have the cumara 7'2 ML spinning rod with a stradic CI4 that I use for a dedicated drop shot rod. I would not suggest this particular rod for shakeyheads though. The two mentioned above rods may be found at the tackle center. They had a few left last I looked...

All his medals and awards, gone. He's still rich.

Insiders say Lance Armstrong would give his left nut if all this bad publicity would go away. I think he actually meant to say, "the nut that's left..."

How much did Oprah pay him? The ratings for her network are in the dumpster. She cashed in on Whitney Huston's death, and now she's cashing in on Lance's "confession".

I've never heard the term bait monkey before coming here but man do I have a serious case of it. I've got an order in transit and I'm looking to buy more stuff before it even gets here. This could be going from bad to worse.

It annoys me to no end I worked in a bait shop over summer and people would come in with their catches of baby bluegill and catfish and I am just like get that off of my counter. Whenever the DNR releases fish it is like open season , they take beyond the limit. Most of the time they come in complaining that they have to buy a license .

If you look at the rods that Iaconelli and one of the big FLW guys (I think it's Dudley) are using there's a ton of bend. Before I saw them using those rods, I tended to lean in that direction to give fish more time to take it in. I would sometimes recommend the 7'6" crankbait rod, but most of time I would recommend a composite to still get enough backbone to punch-pull those awful (z-man) hooks into the mouth. Either way I would say always 7'6" or bigger. You should also check out major league fishing's current season for some good tips. Ike pulls out a great technique which he calls "feathering" the bait and mentions why he prefers fluorocarbon over mono for those type baits. Bladed jig trailers is another really interesting topic to get into. I'm still searching for a clear number one. Alot of the FLW guys seem to prefer the swimming senko which is a solid choice. Dudley says he has done really well on the berkley rocket craw.

What about the bucketheads who have no problem eating a 8lb bass. Gonna pay them to throw it back?

yes he has done lots of good things for cancer research ect. but 1 right doesn't turn a crap ton of wrongs

he ruined peoples lives by suing them for telling the truth. and now what? O sorry just trying to cover up my lie. your screwed but my apology should fix everything.

If the motor, lower unit, prop, gages and livewells are in good working order. Id say go for it, buti would offer 2500. Because if you plan to "clean it up" with new carpet, seats and a used boat cover would be a good idea, you are going to spend 500 quickly to do that. I agree that those old rangers are tanks and cant stand alot. But if he is firm on 3000, then it really isnt a bad deal either. Dont pay me any mind i am a hagglar and bargainer by nature...lol if nothing else he can have it serviced and detailed for you

Im planning to use some to sow the crotch in my hunting bibs, regular thread just doesnt hold up. Great for tying jigs too.

Went to Bass pro and tried to buy gun powder and bullets. When I went to check out, the cashier said. "Strip, facing me." I just figured the laws went into rule already, so I obliged and stripped down. After the hysterical screaming and laughing subsided, the cashier calmly stated............."I was referring to your credit card."

I like to throw my large topwaters, frogs, half oz buzz baits, big spooks, lunker plunkers, and big wake baits on my frog rod. So im using at least 50lb braid. On my most used topwaters like sammys, gunfish, poprs, prop lures, ill useto 8-12 mono I say as low as eight, because i like to throw the lighter ones on a spinning rod.

$8 for 300yds, whats the problem with that? Still cheap.

Let be honest here, Lance Armstrong didn't have competitive advantage in the Tour De France. It was still a level cycling field and he is the best cyclist on PED.

Any size jon boat can get a deck. Where the deck is placed is more relivent to size and shape. Example: if you have a 14' V hull and you place the deck on top of the boat, the boat itself becomes top heavy and easy to roll over, if you were to lower the deck to where it comes just above the bottom support arches, just enough to give a flat bottom to the boat, it's much more stable. The best boats to put a deck on are flat bottom boats, when you are considering a Jon boat with doing this as an option, the most important thing to think about is the beam, how wide is it? The wider the better, the wider the beam the more stability you will have for fishing from a platform. The smaller the boat, the smaller the deck, the narrower the boat is the deeper it should be in the hull, the wider the boat the higher it can be. There are a lot of options you have to the boat configuration you are choosing, I would suggest finding one as wide as possible if you are planning on fishing from a platform.

KISS - tackle trays in your home or garage separated by type of lure, presenation type, color......whatever you choose. Then have 1-2 trays that are empty. On the day of your outing, pick 3-5 techniques and build your trays. One tray for clear/translucent water and one tray for stained/murky water. Take one gallon-sized ziploc freezer bag and put several color of 2-3 soft plastic varieties. Last piece needed is a spinnerbait wallet. For the rods, pick 3-4 action and power combo rods not technique specific think varying techniques, so: 1 - MH/XF rod loaded with braid and use it for jig-n-craws, frogs, larger soft plastics. 1 - M/Mod rod loaded with 10-15lb flouro or mono (personal pref) and use it for spinnerbaits, treble hook baits and some topwaters 1 - M/XF spinning rod loaded with 10lb. flouro and use it for lightweight to weightless soft plastics like flukes, shakey, wacky, etc and jerkbaits. 1 - ML/XF spinning rod loaded with 6lb flouro for drop shot or inline spinners With that setup, you can cover most of your bases and have a good chance at catching some fish all other variables constant.

Most of my fishing is saltwater and the max size braid I use is 30# for offshore, my inshore gear gets 15 & 20# braid, my reels go from 2000-8000 size. For me 30# is as heavy as I care to use. That said, there are no rules in fishing, use what you like. Freshwater I use 10 & 15 braid, nothing but spinning gear. I use 65# braid to tie up my buganvilla plants in moss green, blends in perfectly with the leaves.

Either way - you can't go wrong. They are easy to work on as far as cleaning and they are built like a tank. I have a Record 60 HC that I love and use it for everything from big stipers, tautogs, sheepsheads to bull reds, black drum and large catfish. I can easily remove the current 65lb PP and switch it over to 17lb mono or 15lb flouro and use it as a swimbait or cranking reel. Rule of thumb for me is like FishWhittler said - if it is a species that can make long runs, opt for the larger spool capacity especially if you troll. If you are only casting in a small window with no real chance of a long run, then the smaller 4000 series will do nicely. Either way, you can't lose.

I've avoided the Bait Monkey by not going to fishing stores. The problem is that he's found me through the internets and PayPal (curses!). What I personally do to stave him off is this: I buy 1 lure at a time (ok, sometimes 2 if I want another color). I use the lure until I catch a fish with it. If I don't, then that means I don't know how to use it yet or it isn't working for me. I only buy more of the same lure if I snagged and lost it or it got beat up/tore so much from fish bites. It's how I still have one tackle bag though it is filling up.

Thanks Sam. I really like your avatar pic.

For me it is a Paca chunk, Zoom swimming chunk,5in. grub,baby brush hog,half of a ribbon tail worm.

Slider grub for small profile/shallow running, Swing impact for larger profile/mid depths, Chigger craw for bottom buzzing and muddy water.

The differences are in the width, line capacity, and the clutch lever location. The 4600 has a thumb bar similar to low-profile reels, but the 5500 has a lever on the handle-side cover that takes the place of the thumb bar. It's a little less convenient than the thumb bar, that's all. Other than that, the 4600 weighs .6oz less than the 5500 due to the smaller size. The 4600 holds 160 yards of 30# braid as opposed to 205 yards of 30# braid for the 5500. I've got a 5501C3, which is the LH version of the 5500, and the spool is huge. You'll probably never need all of the line on your reel if you are fishing for bass, though if you were fishing for carp, stripers, or other large fish that make long, hard runs, I can see where the extra line capacity would be useful.

I've had both, the difference is size, and ultimately come down to which one you like the feel of the best. Personally I would go with the 4600 lighter, narrower and fits my hand. Treat it well and it will last a lifetime.

Worst part for me is still having to go into work, even when they have shut down the plant. It seems that I am critical personnel, whatever that is.

We need rain too. Falcon and Amistad are almost 40' low. But you guys can keep the snow. I moved to Texas to get away from cold and snow.

A rod under forty? Up until I found this forum and was infected with the bait monkey virus, I was blissfully ignorant of expensive equipment, I got by with Walmart specials, lol. My first "expensive" reel was a pinnacle platinum plus, my how things have changed! Growing up reel maintenance consisted of dunking my reel in the river when it got gritty. I knew nothing, I caught allot of smallies 14" was a giant and redeyes. I also lost allot of fish, I didn't have the equipment to handle anything above a panfish. When I started taking fishing seriously and stated spending more my eyes were opened. I could feel the bottom, tell the difference between wood rock mud vegetation. I started catching bigger fish, I had the equipment to handle it. My point is I was ignorant, to have a quality rod you will have to spend more. Anyway back to your question, if you are near a academy, you can get a rod all graphite for as little as 10 bucks on sale. If Walmart is what you have to deal with the Shakespeare Durango is all graphite exposed reel seat for around 20, these are cheap rods that have rod blanks that go all the way to the butt of the rod. Dick's has the Berkley Amp, they all have the Berkley Shock I think these will run around 40. I wouldn't classify any as a good rod but they'll do. What you want to look for is all graphite, blanks that are exposed at the reel seat. Typically on cheap rods, if the blank isn't exposed at the seat, the blank doesn't extend to the butt of the rod. If you can spend 60 then you can start getting decent rods, the Convergence line from Shimano comes to mind. Decent sensitivity and life time warranty. Sellus are less expensive around 50, Walmart carries some Abu's around 50 Vendetta maybe. Good luck

7'2 H with 50 or 65 lb braid with a 7.1:1 reel. Buzzbaits, Frogs, jigs, flipping, etc.

Have you considered placing you're own fish holding structures in the lake? Give the Bass an alternative...if you build it fish will come.

6'6" med spinning ,8-10 lb test or ten lb braid with a flouro leader.

HAIR JIG, cold water screams hair jig, 2-3' visibility is not that bad, hair jig, blade bait, and suspending jerk bait.

Al, you sound like your a little bit bored, you gonna be ok there bud? lol!

I moved from PA to Virginia and it is nuts. This year they have already cancelled school the night before a storm is supposed to hit and it never dropped one flake. I made the mistake of doing my normal food shopping the night before a storm and it was crazy. Funny thing is people's carts were filled with two things, frozen pizza and cheap beer. One positive is that the night of a snowstorm the bars were always fun and full of people no matter what night of the week

the teenage girls pooping underwater is the winner, no need for more replies.

Last fall, my two year old was on the boat with me and was playing my storage while I was fishing. He found a 1/4 oz PopR and begged me to put it on his Snoopy rod. I casted it out for him. He started to reel and a fish came up and knock the devil out of it. I got the rod from him and put the fish in the boat. 13" bass for a child that had just turned two isn't bad for a first fish. Yes, we got him a replica mount. Snoopy rods are a beast. Lol

Sounds pretty good to me. You also have to consider that different regions will require different styles of fishing. The only thing is the 20# fluoro for deep cranks, you want a thinner line to get deeper.

Nice boat, good electronics and a power pole. Just have to make sure you can live with a shorter boat??? Jeff

You sure can catch fish on just about anything, but its a more enjoyable process using nice equipment that casts and handles fish with great performance. That being said, you dont need to spend $600+, but a hood $300 will get you just what you need to be big pimpin, lol.