salmicropterus

Boat is a TR-21 with separate livewells. Pumps and recirc worked in both. Water temp 82. Within a 30 minute period of checking there were 4 dead fish in the port livewell and 5 alive in driver side. Any thoughts on what could have caused this? Contamination of some kind? If contamination, what is best way to decontaminate? I never ever have had a livewell issue like this.

When the water is low, fish the canals. When the water is high, fish the flats off the marsh cuts. Right now, the water is high and water management is moving a lot of water so it's the flats until Fall/Early Winter. There is a lot more water on the way so it will be this way for the forseeable future.

Tom Mann posted a pretty good video of it on Facebook

That is my recollection also. I was just off East Wall and had foolishly decided to hang there because I thought the storm had weakened. Then flash and bang enough to shake my insides. I didn't see it hit the boat but it was very close. I ran east to Bare Beach and out to the Rim Ditch. Very sorry for this loss of a fellow angler.

Rob, did he have a Big O boat? If so, I think I met him one time down at the ramp at Clewiston. Seemed like a nice man who had the Lake in his blood

It's Steve Daniels BTW but heck, Captain Shane's been whacking them pretty good up there.

Definitely agree with last post but if you can't do that, then do this: Best bet is to put in at Belle Glade ramp which is west of the City of Belle Glade at the bottom of Kraemer Island. It leads out to the Rim Ditch. Think of the Rim Ditch as a ring road around a mall and make it be your friend and don't get too far removed from it on your first couple of trips. One idea might be to run up left on the Ditch to an area called Pelican Bay. If its windy, the fish the Rim Ditch which is a perfectly acceptable practice with a lot of good quality fish caught year around. Also, to the right in the Rim Ditch out of Belle Glade are cuts and holes accessible from the Rim Ditch. These are the dynamite holes and again it is a time-tested way to catch fish year around. You can easily spend a day in Pelican and it will give you good exposure to what fishing the Lake is like. Get a map and don;t be too ambitious. As mentioned, the Lake can get ugly fast

I don't own one but my dealership sells and services them. They are excellent reliable motors and if you service them properly per Yamaha's standards, then it will serve you well. If you are buying the motor used or the motor on a boat used, I would strongly urge you to have a Yamaha certified dealership run downloads for existent fault codes and fault code history. Also, they should run the engine history and warranty claim history to see what has been done or if there are any outstanding service bulletins that have or have not been complied with.

It sounds to me like a reappearance of the infamous Landshark that enticed young women with offers of "Flowers" or "Candygrams"

George, you are so right. I'm always drawn to that area like a moth to a lightbulb and have never really caught much if anything there.

I was up there last year when some of that show was being done. The Lake was in great condition-good water levels, scattered grass and hydrilla and clean. This past weekend, one of my clubs had its two day and it was a far different picture. Water is down about a foot limiting access to some good areas, water was stained to dirty and the grass and mats just seemed to disappear. I know there have been some great T's up there recently despite all this. I am looking forward to seeing the show.

What Glades said is spot on. It all begins with the RPMs and you dial in performance characteristics from there. My company is a Mercury Demo Prop dealer. Let me know if we can help you out.

BassnFools is still around and is doing well. Meet's in Davie at BJ's Bait and Tackle. I'm in that as well as SFBP?. It's now a team club so any newbies would have to have a partner

Also check out South Florida Bass Pros? www.southfloridabasspros.com Saturday draw club We meet in Pompano Beach but fish all the usual areas. Very friendly, fun club with lots of camaraderie and some pretty good anglers. have a cookout after every tournament.

Generally speaking "finesse" refers to light line and smaller lures. The smaller lures like flukes, trick worms etc can work but because of the vegetation you fish, braid or very strong floro (15-20#) is recommended for down here. Popular baits are your skinny dipper type baits, senkos, 10" worms, other types of swimbaits like hollow body, Toads or frogs fished over grass and mats. Natural colors.

Agree with the post about the underpower concern. That boat was likely sold with the 115 at a teaser price with the view of the purchaser upgrading the motor to at least a 130 if not 150, which the first buyer didn't do. A bass boat should be powered to at least 90% of the rated max. With your budget, you should be able to find a boat with an injected motor (therefore being able to be downloaded for engine history and current and historical fault codes). A history of overheats means look elsewhere. Also, on Opti's compressor failure is a common problem so get an invoice for a replacement because if it hasn't been done, it will need to be done after approx 175-200 hrs. Replacing that compressor is a $1000+ job. If you are fishing T's this is important: adequate livewells, adequate storage and adequate TM thrust and wire system. Electronics are nice but my experience is that 90% of the anglers don't know 20% about the use of all the capabilities of what they have and I unhappily put myself into that group.

If you want to go new, most of the manufacturers are offering an 18-6 with a 150 motor priced in the high $20s. These boats fish bigger than their same sized counterparts of years gone by. Wider beams and optimized storage give the boat a tournament-size (20- 21') feel The bargains are in the used market where a very good 20-21' with a relatively new (maybe a bit of warranty) motor can be had for the same price or less.I have seen asking prices for really good boats go down from mid-30s to a sale price of mid-20s. Have the boat and motor checked out by someone.ou A good dealer with a certified tech can quickly tell you if a motor has had regular service where manufacturer requirments have been addressed. A boat in this price range will have a motor capable of producing downloads from the ECU which will a tell a lot (hrs, engine fault history, current faults etc etc). Have a dealer for the brand of motor run a registration history of the motor which will detail all warranty claims, any outstanding and non-addressed recalls and service bulletins. If a Mercury, Evinrude and Yamaha, PM me the S/N and I can do that for you

Drain the fuel, change the fuel line out with 2009 compliant line, and change the filter-do all of it or you might as well not do any of it. Also the advice to change the lower unit oil is always good. All pretty cheap fixes whether you do it or have a shop do it. You didn;t mention whether the motor was an injection type or carb. If carb, be prepared to rebuild the carb(s) or least replace the bowl(s).

Offhand it sounds like your TM battery upfront is weak. Run a load test on it to see amps. The fact that you are losing power as the day goes on indicates a battery issue. Even though new as it sounds, a battery can be bad. I would guess the reason for that battery to be upfront is weight and balance issue as three in the back would be stern heavy for a 17' Tracker. Not sure why the 2 Batts in the back. Usually in a bass boat situation, a single starter or house battery is sufficient to crank the motor, run live wells and electronics. A solution might be to add a charger-isolater type system to charge your TM battery off the big engine alternator when it runs. Stayncharge and Stealth are two good systems with me being partial to StaynCharge

Always hard to predict weather but a combination of inexperience, a rental and 10-15 wind out of the north is not a great thing on that Lake. You didn't say where you would be putting in at but if at Clewiston and you go I would confine to Rim Ditch or the Dynamite Holes along the Rim Ditch between Clewiston and South Bay. Postponing to a better day isn't a bad idea.

We sell both Interstate and Optima here at my shop. We don't see a marked difference in longevity between the two. There is a substantial weight and price difference so I have no problem recommending the Interstate or another quality brand wet cell. My boat carries 3 deep cycle TM batts and one Starter. As to the charger, I personally like a charger with the same number of banks as batteries because it can be useful to put a starter batt occasionally on a charger, particularly if you are fishing tournaments with all day long livewells running. I also have a StaynCharge isolator system which charges the TM batteries when I run the big motor.

Same experience here..we were catching multiple 3-4s and then when the sun came out, our bite dried up and we couldn't finish off a decent bag. Our winner though did have 25+ with multiple 8s so they were out there

If pre-fish=tournament results I'd be KVD. It's gotten to the point where I almost want to have a bad pre-fish

South Florida, particularly Dade, is an intensely multi-cultural region. My experience is that you either embrace it or race away from it asap. You'll have more fun and enjoy it if you embrace it but if your make up is to be uncomfortable in diverse and different situations, and there's nothing wrong with that, then you'll want to avoid it. The issue with housing in Dade is that it is too expensive to live where you'll want to live or too iffy where you can afford to live. It's a split market and it's hard for the average income person to find a niche. As said by others, Broward has more average neighborhoods combining affordability with stability. South Broward area like Pembroke Pines, Hollywood, Cooper City, Davie are good to look at. Commuting distances into Dade, requires access to highways. There are no viable surface roads to commute long distances. Being military my guess is you'll be leaving early so if you are on the road by 6:30-6:45, you should be ok with your commute in. The fishing speaks for itself. We just had a USCG guy move into the area. Works in Dade lives in Davie. He just joined one of my clubs so now he has a base to fish from and some new friends.

Your experience pretty much mirrored mine. Pre-fished on Friday when it was calm and did decently. Saturday, when it counted, couldn't run the Lake due to wind so I was pretty much locked into the same places everyone else goes to when it blows. One of my larger areas had 12-15 boats in it. If you have to fish inside you are pretty much screwed. This is what I think: when the big storm occurred in the Fall and the water came up 3-4', there was an usual amount of agricultural waste water back-pumped into the Lake. We can only imagine what was in that water but we know it wasn't good. This may account for the unusually dirty water we are seeing. When the water went up the last time, no such problem as the wind this time around didn't just start to blow. There may be reduced dissolved oxygen in the back water due to contamination etc which is keeping the fish from moving up. I know this sounds "out there" but we had a nearly identical water rise the year before and the fishing was extraordinary. Most of that water came from the north and while there is cowcrap in that water as well, not as much as what is specifically back bumped from Palm Beach and Martin counties where this water came from