stratos 375

in response to who relies on an older boat, I most certainly do. I've got an 84 stratos 18 footer. Went from Pa to Tenn. to pick it up at the factory. It still looks pretty sharp! As any of the older stratos guys will tell you, those older boats have a timeless shape to them. I still get excited when I see her & I know this one is approaching 3000 trips, and it's my second Stratos. I'm on my third tr. motor, 3d outboard, second axle, third floor rebuild, fourth set of bunks, and more trailer tires than I remember. I've dragged it from Thousand Isalnds to the Big O and everywhere in between.Also been in 3 accidents with it ( highway, not water). Whilst a flyin down the highway one morning, my truck spare came off from underneath the bed & one side of the trailer hit it & went about 5' in the air. When it returned to earth, the result wasn't good. Sad to say, her old transom is finally going, & if the transom's gone, I'm sure the stringers ain't too healthy either. I wished I was handy enough to rebuild/ restore her, but the only thing I have ever been handy with is my checkbook. 2 months ago, I pulled the engine off & stuck a couple electrics on back. There are 5 electric motor lakes within minutes of the house, so I can still fish. It's strange , but the fact that I can go out & buy a new boat any day I please makes me hang on to it even more.

if you're out in the middle of a Florida lake & you are lookin to see arches, good luck. You need to adjust your mindset. A 19' bass boat makes a lot of prop noise & casts a good shadow, generally no sane fish will stay put, you'll spook 'em long before you get over them at those depths, especially if it's a somewhat pressured lake. They won't sprint for the hills, but will just kinda motor away at their own pace. The exception can be around marinas & other areas where fish are used to the boat traffic. Learn your cone angle & how it relates to what you're seein on the screen. Don't think of that electronic box to see fish, ( In Fla. anyway) you're lookin for ditches, shell mounds, old sinkholes. find them, mark' em then have a sandwich and go back & fish them. Flashers are really better in that respect ( for me anyway). When you get into the 15-30' range is when you may want to be lookin for fish or groups of fish. The deeper they are, the less likely you are to bother them. If'n I'm in deeper water, once I found my structure & can put a few markers out, I turn my graph off anyway. No sense constantly pinging them. Some people don't think the pinging bothers them, but I'm not takin any chances. Hope that helps, what's your home lake down there? I'm in Pa. but I also have a place down close to Orange & Lochloosa, I grew up fishin those kind of lakes. This may sound really stupid, but I catch more & bigger fish up here.

aside from all the obvious visual checks you can make, have a good tech ( in my area labor rate is 95.00 hr) go over the engine. I'd be a lot more worried about the engine than the boat. If something has crapped out on it, you could be in for a major chunk of change to get her ship shape again. maybe not. Pull the plugs & get the cyl. walls lubed. I'm no mechanic, but I think the fuel delivery system would be OK, I'd be worried about a stuck ring, especially if you are in a climate that has a lot of temp. swings. Check all your livewell hoses for dry rot. Gauges seem to have a way of petering out if the're not used on a regular basis also. Used boats are always a crap shoot, good luck with it.

here's my suggestion for spinning gear. don't buy any. spinny gear 'mos definately has it's applications, as you may well learn as your journey thru this hobby continues. if you want to learn the basics of this sport, I'd suggets to stick to your casting reels, painful as they may be to someone starting out. But in the long run, they will give you the accuracy & power you need for lure placement. Something which eludes a lot of guys when they pick up a spinny rig. The casting reels made today are much user friendly than they used to be. I had to start out with a pair of Pflueger "knuckle busters" with braided line on all steel rods. As your getting your feet wet, you're gonna want to throw the full array of modern powerbaits, SB's JB's , crankbaits, jigs, traps, most of which don't lend themselves to spinnin gear. And if by some amazing stroke of luck, you hooked a big toad on spinnin gear, unless you've been boning up on your back reelin technique & are in open water, you're probably toast. When you want to get to the level of skippin under docks, fly & rind, drop shotting and other types of light line techniques, that'd be the time to learn on that type of reel. Although I own many of them, They really don't have a place on my boat, if the fish are being that finicky that I have to scale down to lite line, I'll just find a different batch of fish, or go home and come back when they feel like having something substantial to eat. Not trying to elicit any scathing rebuttals from the spinnin gear afficianados, it's just my personal preference.

I live up north, and down south. this past summer when my mom passed, we had to take her back down Fla. to bury her. While talking to the minister who laid her to rest, he told me his mom had recently passed. She was 103, and drove herself fishing twice a week 30 miles each way, somewhere near Cedar Key I suspect. She came home & was frying a sheepshead, dropped dead with the stove still on & almost burnt the house down. My jaw dropped.

Todd Morgan @ C & O has a nice little Stratos Vindicator w/ a 150 for 8500. Looks like a decent rig at a dealers price. In my worthless opinion, it'd be better than the Nitro. NOT that there's anything wrong with Nitros.

i didn't want it to come off as an "argument" but rather a friendly point of view. We are however in agreement. The shallows are an immeadiate & usually productive fix for most. Did I mention Line???? Invest in some decent line on all your gear.

hello mr brushoggin, disagreement noted. From reading between the lines on this gentlemens post, I see he has depthfinders he doesn't know how to use, a boat and some basic tackle. This would lead me to believe that maybe he's not quite at the pro level just yet. From the sounds of it, it doesn't seem like he's ready for hard core structure & submerged brushpile tactics just yet either. And if that's not enough, locating subtle contours and other structure doesn't always mean there will be fish on them, and even if there are fish clearly on the structure, they ain't always gonna bite. I'm sure as his fishing hobby develops, he can master depthfinder interpretation & the science of deep structure fishing. But I say, ditch the depthfinders, tie on a spinnerbait, fish where there will be active fish & have fun. If you want to spend quality time & learn your depthfinder, pick a nice post frontal day when there ain't nothin bitin & distractin ya. Just my most humble opinion.

Here's how to jump start yourself in the spring. Don't worry about the depthfinders. Just turn them off, unless you have a water temp. display. (much more important to me.) If your rods & reels are in good shape, spend the 300 on some quality line & a new selection of lures, or perhaps some lures that you've always wanted to try. Like I said, you don't even have to look at the depth or structure, just work the banks, & pay attention to the water temp. that's where most of the catchable fish will be anyway. Train your eyes to see what's on the shore, & eventually you can pretty well guess what's going on underneath you. Only fish deep when you have to. You'll have plenty of time to figure out how to interpret your depth finder. In my opinion, the're way overrated. I've got a decent one on my boat, and know how to read it, but most of the time, it's a 500.00 temperature gauge. Not sure from your post of your experience or level of skill, but if you're not sure about the tackle , keep it simple. Jerkbaits, traps & jigs

hey n8casCT, if you're just learnin, 7'4 just a tad too long. I've been pitchin since it first began to be the "next new thing" circa 1985 1/2. I fish 140 days a year and spend a lot of that time pitchin & swimmin a jig. So I can actually speak with some intelligence on this matter. Try a 6'6. any smaller & It'll work your wrist too hard. Any longer & It'll wear you out after a few hours. Pitchin ain't done out in the open all the time, sometimes you can be under trees and what not. A 7 footer gets tight in those situations. You'd be surprised what trouble the extra length can get you into. Practice all you can, make sure to elevate yourself to mirror the actual vertical difference of boat deck/ water. Don't use a hula hoop or a plate for a target, use a tea cup. I stand on my back deck & surround myself with several targets & just pitch for what seems like hours. Even after all these years of doing it, I'm just an average pitcher. When I see pros do it, I'm in awe. There's no magic bullet, it just takes time. My two favorite baits are a jerkbait, & pitchin & swimmin a jig. When I can get the boat set up on long weedline & I get going, I can pitch effectively 7 to 8 times a minute, depending on how fast I really want to fish. That's about 420 pitches per hour, times 3 or 4 hours, you can see where a 7 footer would give you carpal tunnel in no time, unless you're a big guy with Popeye kneel & reel forearms. Oh yea, iffin for some reason after practicing it just don't come to ya, forget pitchin & throw crankbaits.

after I posted, I looked at your profile. That's a great boat for a guy in his early 20's. Congrats. But unless you've had some serious wheel time ( and maybe you have), high 60's should be enough. Please forgive me if you've been driving these type of boats for many years. I just guessed from the content of your post that you haven't. You still have plenty of time in your life to get a really fast boat if you want. Whatever you decide, just be careful. When you venture into the land over 70, things can happen.strange things in the blink of an eye.

I'm thinkin that set up should be expected to hit mid to upper 60's. Maybe an honest 68? How does she handle for you now? I don't know if I'd want much more than 70 from that hull. And The difference between what you got now & 70 ain't that much, and I doubt it will put anymore fish in the livewell. If she handles good now and you go messin with setback/ height & prop parameters you take a slight chance of creating a handling probelm at those increased speeds. Not that is insurmountable or can't be corrected, but it could be annoying & time consuming. I'd enjoy that sucker just the way she is, she's a well made stable fishing platform with decent speed. There's always mods that can be made to the fuel delivery system, air intake & lower unit configuration, but who would want to dump that kind of money into a 13 year old engine. BTW, how has that Vindicator treated you so far?

I could only narrow it down to three. I've never been to these places before, but I'd like to try the Cal. Delta, Guntersville and Falcon In reality, when I'm living in PA, the lake of my dreams is small and about 10 minutes away. I do incredibly well there. It was impounded in 72, I started fishing it soon after they closed the gate valve. Not saying I do well because I'm an expert or anything, I just spend 60-70 days a year at this particular lake. I never fish weekends, just thru the week. I'm able to fish it "with the weather" I've got a place in Levy County Fla, down the road is a wet prarie lake. It's Ultra private & belongs to my aunt & uncle When I was growing up & it was at full pool it was about a hundred acres. Now it's just several small ponds.It is and always will be my dream lake. It's where I cast my first plastic worm, one of those long black things pre rigged w/ the double hooks with weedguards that looked like a tire tread.That and a snagless sally. I still do actually dream about it.

Greetings Mr. Fishbone. My haunts are Marsh Creek/ Chambers/ Strubble/ Hopewell/ Blue Marsh/ Octoraro/ the Flats. I lived within sight of M.C for many years, have well over a thousand trips on there. Sorry, the Nock's slightly further than I need to drive. Been there a few times, there's better fishing in Chester Cty. Logged about 650-700 trips to B.M as well. There's a few guys up Reading way that do consistently well there, but it's a tough lake any way you look at it. I do Ok there, have many pics to back up my babbling. As for Kayaks, I love 'em. Paddled from Miami to Key west, the entire perimeter of the Penobscot Bay, Lake Marion & up into the swamp, and all thru the 'Glades. My partner has an authentic seal skin 18 footer that he and an eskimo built. Love Kayaks, as long as the're not made out of tin. I've been looking for a new model that is geriatric compatable. It's hard to get in & out of them anymore. Pm me if you need any specifics on the lakes mentioned. I'd be glad to help. Sorry for getting off track on the originals poster's thread about opinions on trackers, really I am.

my humble apologies, I'll have to go back & re-read the original post. I could have swore it said he was looking for opinions on a tracker. I did offer an opinion of them and other tin boats as well. I'm sure there a lots of fishermen who could outfish me in their tin boats. Never said I was a great fisherman, I,ve just been doing it a long time. And maybe along the way, I may make a friend or two here. My old 375 has almost 3,000 trips on her, and she's my second stratos. I don't fish tournaments ( anymore) and have been pounding the lakes is SE PA for decades and know them all extremely well. Anybody who needs advice on them can ask me anytime. If you ever see me out fishing, please don't come near me if you have a pike boat 8-)

Hey Long Mike, thank you for the welcome! I probably come off as a tool sometimes, but I'll tell you exactly what I think. Somewhere along the line I'll have some good info to pass along, I've been Bass fishing like a maniac since 1965

go on BFHP & pull up Edie Bussards posts for the last couple years. Should give you something . Be careful, you kinda have to read between the lines, he is a guide and they sometimes paint a prettier picture than there really is. Fished with him four days last year on Monroe & the river in March on the full moon. Got into some nice schoolies, when I say schoolies, I mean 5/6 & 7 lb fish bustin on top. Never seen anything like it. He's a great guy. BTW, Sanford Fla is a disgusting place.

no doubt about it, he's a master of the sight fishin game and a good all around fisherman, but the squealin high pitched fake TV voice gets on my nerves after a few minutes. I'd rather watch a Sanford & Son re-run. He reminds me a little bit of Michael Jackson with the gloves & face wrap. Maybe he's getting weird in his old age like Clunn did. That's the effect of the sun beatin down on your cranium for 30 years.

well you asked for it, I think they are junk. It's a tin boat no matter how you slice it. I fit squarely into the category of "those who sneer 'cause the're ig'nernt." and make no bones about it. wait , it gets better: there are obvious reasons that most serious bass fishermen fish from glass boats. I'm a little biased, I've owned a glass boat since I was in my early 20's, now I'm AARP. There aren't many places that a tin boat can go where I can't follow. Just looking at the bottom of my boat would make that evident. There's probably 2 lbs. of marine-tex stuck in cracks, gouges and holes. I can hop logs with it like a kid on a mountain bike. I probably won't make a lot of friends here, especially guys in tin boats. there's only one type of boat I despise more than a "tracker"type of boat. I call 'em pike boats. We've all seen them. Aluminum "Lunds" with high sides, downriggers and the huge 5' net hangin off the back that the've only used in their dreams. Usually seen stirring up my fish. Oh yeah, the guy behind the wheel has his license hangin off his hat. That completes the picture. Hey, some night when there's nothing going on, ask me to tell you my opinion of bank fishermen.

thinking back on all the good times I had around Salisbury, I looked at my old haunts on Google Earth. Looks like Leonards is all grown in except for a stretch by rt. 13. Can anybody local tell me what happened? That lake had some good fish in it.

you'll always wish it was 12" longer. :-[

Bass will be in the same places in the Pocomoke as they will be in any other tidal river. The bass aren't actually aware that it's tannic First rule of fishing the Pocomoke: Turn your rig around & head for Salisbury & fish the river, Johnsons & Leonards. A blind man can catch fish in Johnsons in mid May. I've fished the Wicomico since the late 70's. You wouldn't believe the stringers that came out of there from crankin the channel ledges. And an occaisonal moster as well. Just be careful during the week with the barge traffic. Same time period, Johnsons was giving up days with 20-30 keepers with usually a 5 lber each trip. I haven't fished it in a few years, but it's probably still giving up 20-30 fish days.