Christian M

One hole is for water, the other is a vent, all 2 stroke mercury outboards have these holes. If you ever have questions about your outboard, you can just call Mercury Marine. I recently tuned up my Merc & they were really helpful

Definitely, I wouldnt go for a Tracker, or for that matter a Ranger, if it was beat into the ground. Take your time & find a boat that suites your needs amd wants. Dont get pressured or rushed into a sale & make sure you really love the boat you end up with. You cant go wrong that way.

With a 3.7 Liberty, you're gonna wanna stay in the 2500lb range. I have an 07 Xterra with a 4.0 with a 5000 lb tow rating & my father has a 2011 Wrangler Sport. I've towed my Tracker, which weighs in at around 2000lbs & both pull the boat with no problem. My Xterra has more towing power, but the Wrangler has more stopping power. You Should be ok, my mechanic says that you shouldn't exceed 50% of the max tow rating, but I think 75% is more realistic.

Definitely go used. A Tracker is a great starter boat, as are many other brands out there. If you find a boat for the right price that doesn't have the trolling motor that you want, installing a new one is pretty easy if you're handy. I was in the same position as you two years ago. I was fishing tournaments out of an old, all electric tri-hull, and it was time to set up to a Bass Boat. I wanted a tin boat for many of the same reasons. After doing a good amount of research and scouring Craigslist for about 4 months, I found a 96 Tracker PT17 sitting on a matching 06 Tracker Trailstar. The guy that I bought it from had just finished paying it off and needed the money. The boat had been kept it in a heated garage, and it was obvious that it was rarely used. Three of my buddies had the same model Trackers, (late 80's up to 2010), which I had fished out of dozens of times and fell in love with. I knew that the trolling motor was underpowered, and that the rod storage was way too short. The boat originally had a 40hp Mercury Tracker on it, but due to HP restrictions in NJ, he had it swapped out for a 9.9 Mercury Tracker with maybe 5-10 hours on it, which was fine by me. I ended up talking him down to $2500 and buying the boat. From there I spent the leftover money on a 55lb MK trolling motor in front, a kicker bracket for my 55lb transom mount MK, two new Humminbird FishFinder/GPS combos, and 3 new Optima batteries. It took a while to swap everything out, but for what amounted to about $1200 extra, I set the boat up exactly how I wanted, and learned a lot about tin Bass Boats in the process. Personally I really enjoy working on my boat, and I get a sense of pride when I make an upgrade. Anyway, all turned out well for me & I hope it does for you too, good luck! P.S- What are you going to be towing the boat with? Thats definitely something you want to put some thought into.

Welcome from Ocean County! Theres some pretty great fresh & salt water fishing around here

Trokar has superb wacky hooks, the Gamas are my second favorite. If you wanna add weight you can do several things, the easiest being a split shot. You can also use a drop shot weight, or peg a bullet weight to your line. I think its Owner that makes weighted wacky hooks. Good luck.

5" Senko in Junebug is my all time favorite, close seconds are Havoc Juice Worm Jr. in California, and Zoom Shakey Head in Watermelon

I just ordered a service manual from Mercury for my 1996 outboard. It was $50, but its the same service manual that a marina would use. I would say call the manufacturer and order the service manual.

Seriously...this really sucks, do the marinas in NJ have pure gas?

The Jitterbug was pretty revolutionary classic that hasn't changed much & is still catching BIG fish

I tried Nano on a couple of my spinning and casting rigs. It was smooth & quiet, but man, it frayed like a piece of yarn after one day of use and broke above the knot on me as well. I went back to PP after about a week. I have a full spool of 8lb nano thats been sitting since the beginning of last season. All the stores around me took it off the racks.

My 97 Tracker Pro Team 17- Mercury Marine Tracker 9.9 Two Stroke, 55# Bow Mount MK PD, 55# MK Endura on transom (not shown), Humminbird fishfinder in console & Humminbird Fishfinder/GPS on deck. Not fast or flashy, but I keep it clean, plus it floats!! I'm looking to upgrade my outboard to a 60HP Merc soon.

It really is the PERFECT Kayak, I was just drooling over one last week. It would be on top of my truck if it wasn't so expensive.

I found a Wright McGill Insight drop shot rod on sale from $60 to $39.99. After buying the rod and the protection plan, and a $3 jig, I was able to use a $10 off a $50 or more purchase coupon, so I basically got the protection plan for free. I took the rod out the next day and hooked into a 3lb bass on my first cast!

Congrats!

I'd keep it to myself, the place would be trashed within a year if not.

NICE!!

Honestly, I fish alone most of the time, both from the bank or off my boat. I enjoy it because I can spend time practicing different techniques on my own time, thereby making me a better angler. On the other hand, I find that I will fish for longer periods of time when I'm with a friend, and my competitive side comes out. I think its important to do both if you want to be a better angler.

Me and a good friend were fishing a lake deep in the Pine Barrens around 2am when we saw a light in the sky. It kept changing from red, to a blueish white. The strange part was that the light kept darting from one spot in the sky to another, closer then further, pausing for up to 10 minutes at a time. We watched it for about an hour, then it was gone. I have no clue what it was, but we never saw it again.

The majority of my 4-5's were caught between 9-3, (when I'm usually on the water) I've heard this theory from many other anglers before. Another theory I've heard a lot is that the fish will feed for about 40 minutes, then turn off for about 3 hours throughout the day. As far as PB's, my biggest (6.8) was caught around 7:30pm in August, second (6.0) was caught at 2am in June with a storm just starting. I think its a lot more fun during the day when you can see the whole fight, but from my experience, and what I've seem with my own 2 eyes, the big bass do feed at night. Just MHO

I would definitely go for it. I hit 3 golf course ponds with my buddy Sunday morning, when we got there we saw a bunch of beds in the 2 small ponds, but no bass on them. I caught 3 fish right away but then the bite died. We decided to wait because we figured once the sun got up the males would move up onto the beds. around 11:30 we moved back to the 2 smaller ponds and there were all the males guarding the beds. By noon I caught about 10 bass. They were all males guarding & fanning out beds, but with the full moon coming I'm sure those big girls will be moving up to lay their eggs

This weekend a friend and I hit a local pond that we used to frequent. Its a small, narrow, shallow run off pond, maybe 6 acres. As small as it is, it holds some very respectable Bass. The biggest I've caught there was a little over 6#, but I've heard a few guys say they've gotten some females over 8#. As we were fishing, we saw a bunch of Bluegill & Sunny beds right along the bank, with a few bass beds being formed further out. While we fished a point that we used to have some success on, we saw a guy wading the entire pond just walking all over the the beds we saw. It made me so mad, but I kept my cool and asked the guy if he realized what he was doing, dude was clueless. What do you guys think about wading the banks during spawn when beds have fish guarding them?

You're golden with the 1500. Most mechanics I've spoken with about this just warn not to exceed half of the trucks tow rating if you're going to be towing a lot. Either way, a 1500 has plenty of power

Hey Nick, First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, and congrats on your new kayak! I'm all too familiar with central and southern NJ lakes, seeing as how I live in Toms River. There are a few things that you're gonna wanna keep in mind fishing from a kayak in lakes like Round Valley. The first thing I would say is BE SAFE. Round Valley is a world of difference from places like Union, Assunpink, Salem Canal, all the other South/Central NJ lakes that have a "deep" section thats around 10'. When the wind gets blowing on the shallow lakes, you have to deal with a strong current and dirty water. But when fishing a larger, round body of water like Round Valley, that stong current is coupled with 3'-4' white caps. So, if the wind is anywhere over 10-15mph, think about whether you want to be out in the middle of that water on a yak. That brings me to my next point, if you have a SOT yak, think twice, if its a sit in kayak (SINK), don't even think about it. Even the wake from a 9.9 on an average day can catch you off guard and capsize you. Honestly, that goes for most of the NJ Skyland lakes. I have a Tracker tx17, and sometimes I dont feel safe with the chop and wind on those lakes. That being said, if you plan on fishing the lakes in north jersey, start practicing bottom contact and finesse techniques like dropshot, shakey head, wacky rig, and jig fishing. Dont forget crank baits, medium & deep divers work great for pretty much all types of fish there. Round Valley recieves a tremendous amount of pressure, so you're going to want to downsize your bait size on the finesse techniques. Trolling is a great way to catch fish on cranks, especially off a kayak. the best investment you can make right now is on a fishfinder. Being on a kayak, you dont want to spend time and energy fishing water that doesnt have fish! Manasquan reservior is an awesome fishery that sees a lot of yak traffic. Its a bigger, deeper body of water that gets those big white caps too. Depending on where you live, you may want to practice there.