RyneB

i recently purchased a 2000 R81 and i love it. This is my first glass boat so i dont have anything to compare it to. I love my storage space,smooth ride, and its still small enough to fit in my garage. Although i only have about 3 inches to spare. The down side is definately towing. I have a 2500 HD, so the vehicle tows it fine. It just comes down to less MPG with the heavier boat. Good luck on your search, and hopefully youll become a member of the Ranger family.

done, good luck

i have 2 that i bought when they first came out. They are currently in my pile of baits i dont use anymore. Mainly because they were my white bass bait when i fish the Illinois River. Now that the asian carp have all but demolished the white bass fishing, i can say i havent used them in 4 years.

Brent Chapman uses it and he won AOY, so it must work, right?

I was on a family vacationhis past week in the Outer Banks in N.C. I was following everyones advice and using live bait from monday to wednesday, occasionally throwing a spoon and other baits. I tried finger mullet,shrimp, blood worms, squid and every other live bait the bait shop sold. I had bought a Koppers mullet wake bait before i left Illinois and my wife kept telling me to try it. I tied it on and on the 5th cast i finally caught my 1st blue fish. I didnt get a weight or length on it as i wanted to get it back in the water asap after a picture. I had 2 more on but got off and landed a smaller 1. I will post a pic in the next few days hopefully. Also caught a few spanish mackeral on a Pop A Dog, 100+ flounder on a Gulp minnow and small swimbaits, a lot of spots and croakers on live bait. I have caught a lot of different species of freshwater fish, including large catfish and bass. But this bluefish will remain my most memorable. I can honestly say i love surf fishing now.

should have got a Zebco 33. Better track record than your Shimano and its a proven budget reel. It will last longer and out cast your Shimano as well.

Nice pic of the snow. Gets me all excited for ice fishing season.

biggest one i have ever caught was 15" inches on a Redeye. That crappie is now mounted in my basement. You caught a nice crappie. To me, anything over 12 inches is a nice crappie, anything over 14 is trophy. Some guys who fish kentucky lake might laugh at me for those comments, but thats my opinion.

Get the Abu, Shimano is all hype. And Shimano fanboys are annoying. You want nothing to do with them people.

one bit of advice, practice casting with mono for a little bit to get used to baitcasting. It took me a couple seasons to get good, then i switched to braid and fluoro and it changed the game. It took some getting used to. Practice, practice, and practice more. I found that a 3/8 oz practice casting plug, a tree, and a yard will do wonders. I stand close to the tree and cast at it as a reference point, then back off gradually until i feel like im going to backlash. Then i would practice until i felt comfortable at that distance. Then i got to a point where i would try to hit the tree, it taught me how to stop the spool with my thumb to keep it from backlashing. Learn how to use your brake system and it will help you out tremendously.

Im not questioning you, but if i had that many break offs, i would HAVE to change my line. What do you like about the line that makes you use it? If i had that many break offs, i could not fish with that line.

i also caught my pb crappie on a 1/2 oz redeye. It went 17 inches and a tad over 2.5 lbs. It is now hanging on the wall in my basement.

Over bearing is an understatement. Whenever theres a thread about an Abu having a problem, they come in and tell everyone to buy a shimano. When a Shimano has a problem they have a bunch of excuses, and if a Abu guy goes into the thread and tells them to buy an Abu, the thread gets shut down.

Very similar to #6. A lot deeper though. The wierdest thing was it was fall, and i didnt hear any leaves being kicked or walked on. That part always kind of freaked me out. I always tell myself it was kids playing a joke. But the fact those kids would have to had thrown a boulder a little over 30+ yards makes me skeptical. I dont believe in big foot for the simple fact we have no physical evidence. Not a dead one, alive one, good picture, video. Nothing. Just some foot prints and some fuzzy pictures and videos. You would think that by now one of them would be stupid enough to get hit by a car or something. Or a hunter would spot one. There is just no good evidence.

i cant tell you what it is, other than disgusting.

I want to start by saying that i do not believe in bigfoot. But one afternoon while fishing, for a moment I thought one was in my presence. I was fishing a small river bank that is in Starved Rock State park. I have grown up in this area, so i know the trails and the whole park pretty well. The best stretch of river is wayyyyy off the trail. No tourist or hiker would be that far off the trail. One afternoon i was making my last few casts, as it was starting to get dark. I had that wierd feeling when you can sense that someone is looking at you. All of a sudden a BIG rock flew over my head and landed in the river about 25 feet in front of me. It scared the you know what out of me. I start getting my gear together and start putting my shoes back on (i was standing in knee deep water and didnt want to get my shoes wet). As i was starting to head back into the timber, another rock was thrown at me. This time it was a lot closer and it was more like a 100+ lb boulder. I started to jog at a decent clip to get the hell out of the area. I got about 3/4 of my way back to the vehicle and i hear a roar sound like nothing i have ever ever heard before. I have been in the outdoors since i could walk, and i have never heard a sound like that. I carry a concealed pistol with me when im out in the middle of nowhere, so that kinda of made me feel better. Im not saying it was bigfoot, but i definately have no idea what it was, and it scared me enough that i havent been back in the 2+ years that it happened.

If you look at the first 2 games of the season, the Packers were the benefit of most of the horrible calls. Especially the 49ers game. Now the call was against them and theyre crying and complaining. But theyre fine when the calls go there way. Everyone said the Packers were going to be great this year. There offense isnt playing well at all. If theyre so good, why did they keep the game close enough for the refs to screw them?

i have caught catfish on flutter spoons, spinnerbaits, redeyes, crankbaits and jigs. But i have caught A LOT on swimbaits. I also caught a musky on a wax worm and ice jig and a 15 inch crappie on a 6 inch swimbait. Nothing surprises me anymore.

Exactly.They have the best equipment and knowledge and they are fishing a tough fishery that is extremely low. I wish they had more tourneys like this. I hope ESPN airs Ike catching that muskie. That had to be a site.

sounds like none of the fisherman have anything good to say about Shelbyville. Evers shouldnt have anything negative to say, hes hammering them. Ike got a 50+ inch muskie too, thats awesome.

the bluegill color is my go to. Followed by sexy shad, Ayu, orange craw, and gizzard shad. One of my fishing buddies fishes the Oyster color. He has a whole tackle box full of that color. He will fish that all day everyday. Its ugly, but he catches them.

a weedless hudd will work, also a strike king shadalicious or similar hollow bodies. Try a 1/2 ounce swim jig in your color choice, and use a swimbait as a trailer. I like to use grass pigs as trailers because they are cheap. A small hard bodied swimbait in baby bass for bluegill slow rolled above the deeper vegetation might be deadly. I recently bought a Castaic Rock Hard swimbait and have been pretty impressed.

Nice Ranger, i believe i have the same color. Check the 2nd to last page in the "show your ride" topic at the top of the Bass boats forum and let me know if its the same color, or if you have a better picture so i can see. Having said that, try the Float an Fly rig. I have caught a lot of smallies on this rig in the dead of winter.

I have been fishing smallies on a small river (20 yds across on average) since for about 17 years. I have 5 favorite baits - X Rap in clown color - grub with a 1/4 oz jig head. I like black, but have caught them on any color you can think of. - tube, i like a chartreuse tail with a brown body - finesse jig - Yum Crawbug. This is my favorite smallie bait. Rig it naked or as a jig trailer, either way, it flat out catches fish.

I ordered it from tackle warehouse when they had there 15% off sale. I ordered a swimbait and 2 packs of Paca craws, that put the total price of the Revo at $101.