Brent Bartman

Anyone ever fished one of these. The weekend me and buddy will be in Clewiston they are having one. no entry fee? figured why not. whats anyones experience with this?

I have a : Gloomis GLX missing about 3 eyes. Gloomis IMX Broken Tip Gloomis NRX Broken in half about 1st eye How is Gloomis with there replacement/Repair program anyone tell me there experiences with it?

I appreciate it. I'm headed there tommorow and I'll check it out. I appreciate the help!!

So this is my first boat with a hydraulic jack plate. its a 6" atlas. My first boat with a 250 and first boat fast enough to chinewalk. As far and starting off and trimming the boat to pad whats the best way to do this. I have basically found my sweet spot of about 2.5" on my skeeter FX-20 and trim the using motor trim and leave the jackplate alone from there. Once on plane I have played with it a little but it seems to want to chine walk any way I move from 2.5" How do you guys operate your boats with yours? Trimmed out and WOT and a decent load turning about 5500 RPM on a 250 SHO with a 3 blade 25P prop I can run about 72MPH but she seems to want to chine walk anything past this. Any thoughts?

when you check the ground go ahead and remove the ground wire and wire brush the attached metal and bolt and expose some good bare metal. I like to use Dielectric grease on every connection I make on my boat or trailer. I just use a little bit to prevent corrosion. You can pick up a little packet at any autoparts store for like a dollar or so. its cheap. so cheap I never remember the price when i pick it up. I actually keep about 10 extra packets in my tool box in the boat for just in case. also make sure the lug is attached tightly to the wire. and then tighten the wire back to the trailer.

also i lied about the wire being black. I just looked at mine after seeing this diagram and its white

is it the truck or the boat? can you use another trailer and see if its the truck. or use another truck to the trailer. As far as checking the ground. the ground wire should be attached to a bolt straight to the trailer. it should be the only wire not going to a light.

I think it depends on how deep your trailer is. My dad has a 25FT center console that because of the bow pulpit has to be power loaded with the trailer pretty far out of the water. when the boat is seated in the trailer so much of the boat is out of the water you never have to hook up the boat. My 20FT skeeter once power loaded cant be powered off with out swamping the entire boat with prop wash. I think with a smaller boat this would be an issue. but with large heavier glass boats on carpeted bunks its not a problem provided the trailer isnt all the way in the water. with a john boat sure. Im not a weak guy at all and tried this with a tracker 175 trailer and couldn't move it a bit.

it seems like when every all my lights go out its a ground issue, check the trailer ground wire. should be black and make sure its properly grounded. Every light has its own power wire but they share a ground to the trailer.

GUYS IF YOU ARE GETTING MAD AT SOMEONE STRUGGLING AT THE RAMP. LEND THEM A HELPING HAND AND TEACH THEM. WE ALL REMEMBER HOW STRESSFUL OUR FIRST TIME WAS. DONT SIT BACK AND LAUGH. I unload my boat by myself my prepping everything. i take about a foot of slack in the bow hook and leave the winch in lock. that way the boat wont pull out the strap. I slowley back down as normal untill i wet the boat. then I slowely back down untill the boat starts to float. When I say slow i mean SLOWWWWLEY. I put the truck in park. engage the parking brake. then let of the brakes. i get out and start the motor. no point of launching untill the motor is running. especially because my boat is almost impossible not to power load. IT WILL TAKE MORE TIME TO RELOAD YOUR BOAT WITH NO MOTOR THAN IT WILL TO TRY AND GET IT STARTED FOR A MINUTE OR SO. with newer motors its not a big deal. how ever older 2 strokes can take some time. I think this is important I then unhook the boat and back it off the trailer. Pull up to the dock and tie off the boat. then hop in the truck and park. I can do this is about 3 minutes. Things I have learned. Its 2016 and everyone has smart phones. download a checklist app and use it. Always check everything. Everytime. double check triple check. at first I was so stoked to get it into the water. Now i do my list. then check it again. it takes 2 mintues to walk around the boat and make sure everything is ready. Im better off with the trailer further out of the water than in the water. Meaning if i swamp my fenders the boat wont load. I have found this true for most boats that are power loaded. before you trailer double check your lights,Hitch pin, hubs,brakes what ever you have. I learned at the ramp my reverse lights we shorted and my surge brakes would keep locking up and i couldnt back the boat down the ramp I learned to stage my mooring lines on the side of the boat i expect to tie up. nothing is worse that launching and realizing you have to dig thru your boat to pull out the lines.

I really appreciate the offer. I'm active duty Navy so my schedule doesn't give me much time for travel. Im looking for something more local. I would struggle making the events that weren't in the Charleston area.

Yeah I just moved here in February. Every time i think im starting to unlock the cooper river it skunks me again. this tidal fishing is tough. and I would really appreciate that!

I would like to think it probably catches more fish.

Yeah. being from Florida I have never really worried about gators. But I have been in VA for the last 6 years so i forgot about them. I just moved to SC and last weekend I hooked a 5 foot gator that decided he wanted my pitboss in the grass and it about scared me to death.

Yeah i was thinking the same thing. I might get a heavy XF spinning rod for the woman so she can actually fish with me when im fishing heavy grass. and before you guys say anything its easier to stay on the water untill after dark when I dont hear nagging from the back of the boat.