Fontana Finesse Man

My ugly self and that is my son in the avatar.

Nice boat and congrats on your purchase!

Always use a trailer, never use a trailer hook.

Not a huge fan of the new cowling, but guess since it was my own fault, I shouldn't be complaining. Has a sticker right on top of the cowling and not sure what purpose it serves. Hopefully, I can repair the old one. Oh well, now it looks like I have a 2013 Pro XS!

I have a terrible agent, myself, and unfortnately it is a $1,000. So really not any help. Oh well, gonna try and repair old one as well and then, maybe I can sell one of them and recoup some, but at worst, got a spare! LOL

$1250 with decals. Ordered it today. What really stinks is that have to get new decal set as they say last years are no longer available. That stinks!

With a lot of rain in the forecast, decided to put my boat inside for a couple days. Since my wife thinks our garage is for cars (not sure why) had to put it at my office garage. Put 4 different boats in that garage over the years thousands of times. Started back in this time and heard a can crushing, didn't think anything of it. Went to unhook and noticed motor cover was pulled back, checked it out and the can crushing sound was the top of my motor cowling hitting a cross beam and busting! Who knew that this one stood taller than the others! Happy New Year and open the checkbook! Anyone know about how much a 2012 Merc 250 pro xs cowling with decals runs? Good thing, my boat and cover are dry! Guess my resolution is to build another boat garage.

Definitely research the jackplate and see what works best on that boat, 10 inches is a lot of setback, but could be perfect for it? Agree with others, if you have the opportunity, hydraulic steering and a hotfoot are the best and most useful additions you can make. Makes boat operating so much easier and safer. Super sharp looking boat and as said before, the electronics and power pole are big pluses!

What makes a good jig trailer? Action and rate of fall. Summer time, I like a crawdad trailer with craws that really flap. Until it is really cold in winter, I like a double tail twister. After water gets "colder" I will switch to a big craw without as much action or pork chunk. How do you keep worms from melting? I leave bags of zoom worms in the sun to fade them a lot of times. I am sure some types melt, but I haven't had a problem with that. As far as scent, never really noticed it making a huge difference, but I go thru a lot of soft plastics so mine don't sit in the box along time.

I have a stradic CI4 that I use on my shaky head rod and love it! Took a little bit to get used to it, but once I did it is an awesome reel. I have never tried the patriarch so in all fairness I can't compare, but I would be hard pressed to give up my CI4 for any other reel to shaky head fish.

My 2 favorites are: 1. Rage Toad in green pumpkin/pearl belly 2. Reaction Innovations Trixie Shark in black

My present was the new boat I bought this year, but the wife was still good to me and got me 2 UA guidewear shirts. My lovely daughter bought me a BPS gift card. My son found me some zoom swamp crawlers in a discontinued color that I love and bought me everyone the store had. So my christmas was excellent. And Addicted, that is a good looking combo! I like the clean look of the white on white! Very sharp! Enjoy!

Not my best, weighed 5.2 lbs, but may have been the funnest. Hit a buzzbait like a freight train and didn't want to come in the boat.

X2 on this and the amen. Into the wind, downwind, these reels don't care, they just let fly!

I bought one about 2 weeks ago and installed it on my minn kota fortrex and I love it! Installs in about 2 minutes. I just undid my rope at the bottom of my trolling motor and taped the top of the new one to it and simply pulled the cable thru as I was pulling out the old. Noticeable difference in how easy the trolling motor deploys now, l left my cable long and it gives better leverage I guess. The only thing I wished was different is that the cable was black instead of red. I can't speak for longevity of it, hope it is a long time, but so far, I love it and would recommend it!

Closest to you would be Glenville Lake and it has some excellent smallmouth in it as well as good largemouth. Not too big a lake that you can't learn it in a day and just about fish the entire lake in a day. Gets really busy during the day in the summer time so I would suggest early morning or late afternoon trips. Since it isn't a big lake, it gets crowded. Down the mountain towards Cullowhee there is Bear Lake and while it isn't a smallmouth mecca, it is a small lake without a lot of pressure and has good largemouth fishing. Bear Lake can be a lot of fun and has some big largemouth! On down the road in Bryson City, you have Fontana Lake. While you won't catch trophy smallmouths (my best there is 5 lbs) you can catch a lot of numbers there and average size run from 1.5 lbs to 2.5 lbs. It also has a ton of spots now and largemouth. Fairly big lake for these parts but not hard to navigate around and learn. As far as fly fishing, not much help there. I know there are alot of trout streams and alot of fly fisherman, but I never got into it. Anytime you would like to go out, shoot me an IM here and I would be glad to take you out to any of the above lakes and show you around.

X2! Have this setup and is light and sensitive. Use it mostly for shaky head fishing. Congrats and you will enjoy it!