VolFan

30 lb sandbag from Lowe’s or Home Depot works great, put it all the way up in the nose on the slant. With a wood deck up there I didn’t need it but without it, by myself, it helps a ton.

It’s super stable with the matts in the floor.

I get mid-20s out of it. It’s not fast, but it’s fast enough and super maneuverable.

I started with a clamp-on seat but now have a set of cushions from Oceansouth for the split and the full benches. Having no seats makes it much easier to move around and no seat backs make it much easier to fish around. I sit to starboard and drive lefty, but that’ll be a personal choice. I have a 6 gallon fuel tank that I keep thinking I’ll change to a 3 but haven’t gotten that motivated yet.

With the deck across the seats there really weren’t any stability issues. I put a 30 lb sandbag in the nose to balance the boat some since you sit in the back with the tiller. I take my son and occasionally my wife along and it was hard to fish three with the deck in. With the deck out and the mats down, everybody gets their own well.

@Skunked again and I both have the same Lowe boat. It fishes great. I put a small aluminum plate deck up front for a Powedrive. I also had a deck on mine across the seats, but I took it out and just use stall mats over the floor. There’s more space that way. It tows super easy, drafts shallow and is low maintenance with a 20 hp on the back.

I have the grinder attachment for my KitchenAid mixer, and it does great for the volume that I do, usually a couple butts or 4-5 pounds of beef at a time. I grind beef a little coarser for burgers and I really makes a difference. I haven’t gotten into cased sausages yet more out of laziness than anything.

I am in the same boat…

Winter. Is. Inevitable.

Rage Tail Space Monkey. IYKYK!

I bought a new 100 amp one just after Christmas based on the same concerns.

Yeah agreeing with @A-Jayand @MediumMouthBass- that skirt is going to create a ton of drag and slow anything’s movement, much less erratic darting like a jerk bait. Your best bet is a skirt on some sort of narrow fish head-style jig head with a tall slender buoyant trailer on the back like a jerk shad. Still isn’t going to be perfect but it might work. Now fishing a lightly-weighted tube like a jerk bait? That’s the money right there.

TW seems to have them on clearance.

I concede - you guys that think you’ll get every rod broken are right and you really shouldn’t order from there. I however, will continue to…Que sera sera…