james 14

Saturday my TM started to die at around 9:30...not good when weigh-in is at 2:00. Charger - XPS i-series 5/5/5 No idea how old it is. Batteries are Optima Blue tops a little over a year old. Plugged charger in Friday night and it said "Go Fish" and was in float mode. I did replace cranking batt. a couple weeks ago. Not sure if a new fully charged battery would confuse the charger. I charged both TM batts with an external charger so I know they're full and I'm going to have them tested I suppose. Should I get a voltmeter to check batteries and charger leads? Want to make sure charger is bad before I buy a new one. BPS has their 5/5/5 chargers on sale and not sure when it's over.

He's good no doubt but I'll reserve my judgement until I see how he handles himself on different bodies of water. Ultimately we'll see what he does in the AOY standings in both trails and if he can win (or come close to winning) any tourneys in a place like FL, Red River, etc. KVD has not only won tournaments but has won the classic on different bodies of water...and then there's his AOY titles.

You can never have too much trolling motor. My tourney partner runs a 55# 12v TM on his 14' jon boat and even that seems underpowered at times. I ran a 50# 12v on my 12' jon before I sold it. I don't ever remember feeling like I needed more TM in that boat and I was certainly glad for it on many occasions...just about everytime I used it. Right now I have a 71lb 24v on my 21' bass boat. It gets me through most situations but when the wind kicks up I'm limited on what direction I can go...especially if there's also vegetation to deal with. It would probably be perfect for your boat. When the time comes I'll be going with a 109# Motorguide.

Robert and I went Sunday as well but the rain ran us off. We got there around 2pm. I lost the prop on my TM right off the bat and while trying to find something to work as a prop nut for my spare Robert hooked into a 2-3 lber that got off at the boat. After getting a spare nut from a generous guy at the dock we went back out and managed one more dink before the storm. May have some kind of a pattern but nothing big unless we can get lucky. All this rain will make it interesting as will the cloud cover or lack thereof. Robert may hit it again Friday (ain't retirement grand!?) to check a couple of leads.

I don't have a ton of experience with a bass boat at this point but I do have a LOT of experience traveling at the speeds it takes to plane out a bass boat in the jon boats I've used. 20-25 is rather quick to be driving a boat through the size creek I'm picturing. Ultimately it comes down to experience in the water you're driving to know where the shallow areas are and how your boat fits through it all. Until you get enough experience to make you comfortable you'll either have to take it slow, take your friend's boat or risk running aground. One big problem you'll have is coming off plane the stern tends to dig down so if you come around the corner, see a shallow spot and drop out of the gas you could do damage to your lower end or transom with the motor digging bottom at 20mph. My biggest fear would be logs or rocks, however, if it's just sand bars I'd be inclined to take a little more risk. A hydraulic jack plate and a low water pickup will help if you get into areas you know are shallow.

With alum I wouldn't go the route of using the razor blade or the acetone. Any potential scratches in the alum finish or the paint are not easy to cover up compared to gelcoat. You can't tell where I used the razor on my boat but that wouldn't be the case with alum. And then with acetone you'll likely damage or remove any paint on the surface. If you have no paint you should be able to proceed with acetone, heat gun, oven cleaner, etc. If it's painted you can still lift a corner with the razor, peel the sticker and rub with alchohol. It may take a while but you won't screw up the paint.

You're right. For his application the angle may be better. In my case with the jon I had the 2x4 was the better option, however, the angle would've been used in spots as well. HD sells angle as well so either is something cheap and accessible.

Went today and it's still shallow and water temps are near 90. My advice for now and really for anytime is to go someplace else. As Lee said there are big fish in the lake but it's not the same after the hurricanes killed the hydrilla so IMO if you don't have to fish it as we do for a tournament my advice is, again, to go someplace else.

It's no easy task that's for sure. Each lake in the chain is a little different and each will have their own time when they're the hot lake to be on. In the summer hydrilla is the ticket if you can find it deeper than 3ft or you could plant your own brush piles out in the 10-15ft range.

I fished a jon boat trail called "Pond Jumpers" and the first time I pulled and backed my truck down into the water the club pres. and a few others gasped thinking I had screwed up BIG TIME. When he saw what I was doing he freaked out "Now that's a mother -------- Pond Jumper! I hope he wins the d--- tournament!" I almost did.

I hung a 14'er out the back of my Ranger and I even had a toolbox that took up about 2' of my bed. I installed two eye bolts to the bed and strapped it down in the back. I would also lay a big 3x8 piece of plywood in the bed first and use it as a ramp to help get the boat in and out and keep from scraping the bottom of the boat on the top edge of my tailgate. This also served to take some stress off the bottom of the boat at edge of the tailgate. To take it one step further I would even back my truck down into the water and float the boat out of the bed. This was much easier than unloading the boat, pulling it out and then reloading it. Before I got a trailer I was almost to the point of loading the boat forward and power loading it into the bed of the truck. Thankfully I didn't get that far because it probably would've been disastrous.

In short, yes. The formula was changed somewhere around 04-06. Also just because it's ply doesn't mean it's PT. Not an expert on those boats so I can't say for sure what exactly they used. If you want to use PT you can but you have to make sure there is a something keeping the wood from touching the alum...and really the problem is when it gets wet as that's when the electrolysis takes place. You can also use alum 2x4s used in screen rooms instead of PT 2x4s. HD sells them. If it were me I'd go with the alum 2x4s with regular ply that was water sealed well. If the boat isn't sitting outside uncovered you shouldn't have a lot of problems with the water and the wood.

I got mine from a guy that ran a tourney trail for 8 years and he had the name of it on both sides of the boat with stickers. I started by pulling up a corner with a small razor blade scraper and quickly realized I could scrape the entire thing off with the razor much quicker without harming the gelcoat. If the surface is relatively flat and you keep the blade flat you should be able to do it this way. I won't lie that I didn't scrape the gelcoat at all but it was very minor and with mine being white it was completely unnoticeable...especially after I sanded and waxed it. There was some residue left after removing the decals and a good wiping with acetone took it off. The sanding and waxing also fixed the discoloration problem that allowed me to see where the stickers were.

Decided today I was going to have my local guy get me the bracket and I got a call from BP this morning. The guy actually called me on his personal cell cause it was his day off to let me know they already had the bracket. I was able to get off work just in time to get out there before the service center closed. Should have it in place tomorrow and might hit the lake Sunday afternoon to try it out in this stiff wind we've been having.

Let's assume there is no wiring. I'm not too worried about stress on the transom since it seems to handle the 600# 200hp outboard fairly well. I'm afraid I'm going to have to go with the plate. I'm trying to go through BassPro even though they have to special order it because I've got about $450 in rewards I'd like to use. However, I'm about sick of waiting for a call back (already called them twice) and considering I could have it tomorrow if I bought it from where I bought the PP I may just save the points for an SI unit at some point. Even if BP were to get back with me, and I'm sure they will eventually, I wouldn't have it by next Saturday's tournament where I imagine the PP will be used about 95% of the day. With the wind and how I'm fishing it could very well be the difference between winning and not even placing.

How damaged is "damaged"?

That would work. The head unit on most DF's can unplug and be pulled from the mount in about 10 seconds. You can even leave the wiring loose if you want and pull the whole deal off when you get home. The only thing to consider is that the head unit and the transducer need to be mounted somewhere in a fixed position while in use on the boat. Both have their own mounts that screw into the boat and this is a standard setup. I know some guys have created special mounts for their transducers so they could be pulled from the boat. On mine I screwed it to the back of the transom in the traditional manner so I don't have any experience there. That would be something to look at if you really wanted to be able to pull the transducer off at the end of the day since removing it from the mount isn't as easy as removing the head unit.

It depends on your definition of portable. You can pull the head unit and move it to another boat with the same wiring pretty easily. However, it's just like any other DF with a power cable and a transducer cable that go with it to make it work. If it HAS to be portable you could figure something out but exactly what would depend on your specific situation and what you're trying to do with it.

As far as I know the axle just bolts on and doesn't have to be a specific one so long as it's heavy enough to carry the load. It's to say exactly without seeing your trailer and the axle that's on it now, however, if the axle is straight (not a custom bend to fit the boat) and doesn't have brakes it should be easy to replace.

Not sure...but most likely not.

X2 and the simpler the boat the more this rings true. There's more that can go wrong on something like a Tracker or even a bass boat compared to a regular jon boat with no wiring, pumps, etc. Apart from that the age of the motor is the most important thing but even that is completely dependant upon who owned it. I've owned two motors in my life that were over 30 years old and they both ran near perfectly when I parted with them. You need to spend about 3-4 months looking at used boats. Craigslist will show you more boats than most other places and this will give you an idea of what's out there and what price you can expect to pay. You'll run across some boats that'll make you want to buy it right away but resist the urge and keep looking unless it's someone you know. After that amount of time you'll be fairly well educated as to what's a good deal and what's not. Then when you make a purchase you'll have confidence you made the right one. I was on CL for over a year looking at boats before I was even ready to buy. When I finally had the $$$ and my wife's blessing I knew exactly what I wanted, what I could get and what it was going to cost. As a result I knew what to look for and now I have a boat I'm very happy with and no second guesses.

X2 on the HB PirhannaMax 170. My partner and I each had one on our jon boats. WM carries them now for about $100 (or maybe less by now) and returns there are super easy if anything ever screws up.

First of all - I JUST GOT A POWER POLE!!! Second - My preference (for a couple reasons) would be to mount it on the transom rather than using an adapter plate. My problem is the 12" thick floatation foam in the back corners up against the transom. Is there any way to get around it or am I stuck with getting an adapter plate???

I'm a music teacher and even I don't want music while in the boat. I'd get distracted by it and would miss stuff going on around me like fish hitting the surface or any number of other things. I also don't want any excess noise in the boat to spook the fish.