Elegantly Wasted

100% acetone brake cleaner with a bearing blaster.

I would obviously never be able to install them on the ends of the deck with how far apart they are. At this point I have resigned to having some brackets bent up and then custom drilling the holes in the bracket obliquely so the racks sit squared up to each other. That's the only viable alternative to mounting directly to the deck.

I ended up getting them and the only way they're going to fit is with the u-adapter. I'm going to mock something up with some scrap aluminum to see if they'll fit securely. If it ends up working I'm thinking I'll be better off having someone fabricate some custom brackets because I anticipate having to attach the racks to the brackets on a slightly oblique angle (to account for the slight radius of the back deck lid) to ensure that the racks are squared up to each other. Ron, I'm up in Victoria, BC, Canada on Vancouver Island, just north of you. I'm assuming the free shipping option won't apply to Canadian shipping despite our close proximity, but for future reference (I'm going to contact you first when I need to order something from now on) how do you ship to Canada and what would the cost be roughly? Here's what my back deck looks like: 15f8f7fa-76de-43d4-9a30-c9fc20811147_zps84a91516.jpg

Does anyone have a Bac Rac Rod Storage System (seen here: Bac Rac co angler rod storage system) on an older model Skeeter? I have a '98 ZX 185c and I'm not sure if: A - The Bac Rac will fit with the additional U-Adapters between the lid and the slightly curved edges of the fiberglass and back compartment lid B - How much space the actual rack will take up on the back deck I emailed the manufacturer directly asking about the dimensions and after 4 emails all focussing on how to sell the product to me directly and without ever addressing my question about the fit and dimensions I've given up getting the answers from what should have been the most obvious source.

100% Acetone brake cleaner through a bearing blaster - fast and thorough.

Why don't you guys use the SDJ on braid as well? Based on Knot Wars testing the SDJ actually has higher break strength on braid than a palomar knot does. I now use the SDJ for everything other than snelling a flipping hook and tying a drop shot. The SDJ is super easy to tie and has exceptional break strength on fluoro, mono and braid.

Where are they on sale for that price? I know you can get them on the auction site for around $130-150 but I haven't seen a retailer with that price of late.

Biggest problem with that study: depth of the water in the test tank is 30". We know visible light spectrum decreases as a function of water depth. At around 10 feet the only discernible color would be blue (yes I'm assuming fish have similar color discrimination to humans).

Great book to read: http://www.amazon.com/Destroying-Bass-Fishing-Myths-Warren-ebook/dp/B00G10WDWQ

I bought some of these to try this year. http://www.mechanix.com/the-original-05mm It's basically a golf glove with quite thin leather. I still haven't tried to cast with them and obviously having leather on all the fingers will diminish some of the sensitivity but when it's really cold I would prefer to keep my finger tips warm. Exposed cold finger tips have pretty poor sensation as well

Thanks for the link. That's one of the things I mentioned considering above - hydro-dipping - but the problem is that doing this will cover the lettering around each knob obscuring it's function and available settings. In the video you linked to they dipped the exterior trim - nothing with lettering on it.

I had thought about doing this but the last time I tried to source a replacement knob for my aerator timer I contacted Tiny's, which is supposed to be the place to get Skeeter replacement parts for older models, and came away empty handed. So I've pretty much given up on trying to find replacement parts for this model / year.

I washed my 98 Skeeter ZX185c for the winter the same way I always have but this time, for some inexplicable reason, two of the faux carbon fiber instrument panels became splotchy and cloudy. I've given them a few weeks to dry just in case it was due to water trapped behind them but they still look the same. So now I'm considering having them re-finished. I'm up in the air between hydro-dipping and plasti-dip spray. The unfortunate part is that any re-finishing will necessitate re-doing the lettering around the knobs If you've had a similar experience with the clouding I mentioned above please let me know if it was something easily remedied. If you've re-finished your panels please share how you did it and any pictures you have.

Thanks Fishing Rhino, That's actually kind of how it's mounted right now. The square wooden base around the bilge I mentioned above, with the vertical metal bracket, is actually also mounted to a plywood block glued to the plastic tank. I would prefer to just have the filter mounted straight to the plywood block without all the other crap around the bilge space. Would the filter attached to the wood block glued to the tank be sufficiently stable and not risk stressing the tank too much in your opinion?

If you could post a pic Koofy Smacker that would be great. I don't have room to mount mine on the side wall of my battery compartment because I have 4 batteries taking up almost every ounce of space back there. But I still might get some mounting ideas from your picture. Thanks!

I'm short on space in the bilge compartment of my 98 Skeeter ZX 185c. At present I have the fuel water separator mounted to a square base that is screwed into the perimeter of the bilge access. The base has a vertical steel flat bar that the filter is mounted to. The boat came this way from the original owner. I'm not a fan of how it's mounted and am looking for alternatives. Here's a picture that kind of shows how it's mounted. The picture is from the original owner before I cleaned up the compartment, replaced the batteries and wiring and replaced the struts holding the lid up. 6-20-09camerapictures062.jpg So if you have some photos of how yours is mounted please post them to help me get some ideas for mounting. Thanks!

Oh man, what color is that? I NEED that color!

If you like that style and are looking for multiple species, take a look at this site: http://fishbumoutfitters.com/

That book is no longer in publication and used copies of it are going for an arm and a leg. Several months ago I tried to get it through Amazon and they no longer have it - they were the ones who informed me they cannot obtain the book because it is out of publication. The only option, with respect to Amazon, is to buy a used copy from a third party at a very inflated price: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0064XC6N6/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

Excellent! Thank you for the quick reply Brett! Just out of curiosity: where did you get those numbers? Do you have callipers that you used to measure them or were those dimensions available online somewhere? Thanks again.

Does anyone happen to know the exact sizes of the bearings for the spool (spool shaft, palming side plate, and cast control) in a Lew's Tournament Pro Speed Spool reel? I bought 2 of these reels last month and haven't fished them yet but after spooling them up with some line noticed one of the reels sounded a little rough. That same reel has a 2 second shorter free spool compared to the other one. At first I thought it was due to an ill-fitting palming side plate (it projected forward about 1/32") that actually made tightening the thumb screw difficult compared to the other reel. I contacted Lew's and they've sent me a new palming side plate (it's on it's way). But after taking the reel apart and thoroughly flushing the bearings and re-greasing and re-oiling everything I'm now more inclined to think it's one of the spool bearings. Lew's customer service has been great to deal with but at this point I thought I'd just order some new ABEC 5 stainless bearings from Boca to see if that fixes the issue.

I'm looking at purchasing 3 different *** *** Black casting rods (2 M and 1 MH in different lengths) and was wondering if anyone who has used their rods has some feedback on their power ratings? All the reviews I've read of the *** series have been very positive given it's price point. But I want to make sure I don't get something under or over-powered because I have to order them online and won't be able to get any hands-on time with them until they're purchased. Thanks!

Here you go. I've always found it odd that so many fisherman make the assumption that the bass stay close to where they are released when science pretty clearly shows this not to be the case. Of course, when they have a long distance to travel back to their territory some may not make it due to a multitude of reasons. http://www.worldfish...ased-51469.aspx

I researched this last year. The best study I found was a tracking study and it showed that, after a short period of up to about a week where the bass hunkered down close to where they were released, they moved back to the territory from which they were caught. If I recall correctly one bass travelled some ridiculous distance like 4 miles in a single day. I'll see if I can find the study and post it here.

Try Iguana Grafix: http://www.iguanagrafix.com/ I had Daryl do all my Skeeter boat decals and vessel number. He was great to deal with and very prompt. If you poke around on the site you'll see that he's done lots of windshields.