fishnkamp

My preference is the Reel snot also

Unfortunately you can not order your choice of electronics by custom ordering it from their factory, at least not on that boat. I checked the "Build a Boat" section on Tracker's website. They do not offer any electronics in their "Options" section. What they offer their is stuff that mounts to their accessory rails for the most part. That was my first thought so I checked. It is the main reason I suggested he put on paper exactly what he wants and then shop each Tracker dealer in his state. I live in Baltimore MD and there is a huge difference between the manager's policies in our MD Bass Pro/Tracker Marine and the manager's policies in the Bass Pro/Tracker Marine shop in Harrisburg PA. The man running that PA shop was willing to take used engine trades on engine repowers. All he did was have his guys check it out and give you a fair value towards another used or new engine. He charged you labor as well, but fairly. He also was happy to ad electronics, downriggers and other gear. His workers never worried about the economy and their employment, while I observed our MD shop had no work sometimes. In my case I traded in a perfectly working 9.9HP 4 stroke for a well kept 25 HP 2 stroke. I paid the difference and walked out happy. His employees had work, he made money because the 25 had been traded in on a 115 Hp Optimax ( so he sold them a new motor) and the customer outfitted "Dad's old boat" with a complete set of downriggers they purchased in the store. He made money selling me my engine and charging a fair price for that engine and to install it. He made money selling that motor of mine for a Susqy river jon boat no doubt. I say all that to say the manager of the department can make a difference in your sales deal. Go shop within your state. If you need service your local Tracker dealer will still supply that

Bill Dance said you might just want to trade that one in!

Their base price is the same no matter which store you buy from. However there are differences in freight and prep charges from store to store. These are set by Tracker itself. If it were me I would contact the other Tracker dealers in your state and compare the boat laid out the way you want it from each dealer. See how close each dealer is on price. My two closest Bass Pros are very different in the boat service departments.

My wife fishes only spinning rods so I have had to work hard to find just the right gear that will allow her to fish as efficiently as many of my baitcasters do for me.. We both fish a medium lite and medium G Loomis spinning rod. That takes care of most of our finesse plastics. She fishes one Berkley Lightning Shock rod for crankbaits and traps. SWhe fishes with one Irod Genesis II MH fr fishing all of her bigger baits like jigs and larger texas rigged plastics. Finally I found her a 7 foot heavy Dobyns rod that handles BIG jigs, carolina rigs and frogs. The action nearly matches my frog rod which is a Dobyns 7 foot baitcaster. Each of these rods do a pretty important set of jobs for her. No one rod line or brand has had the right tool for every job. If St Croix is your choice I would go with the 6'8MXF for all of my finesse baits. That rod is perfect for them, as for the XF rating ignore it, it is only XF as compared to other rods they offer, it is not really xf and will fish ned rigs, drop shots, tubes, grubs, lighter tx rigged or shakey head worms as well as smaller spinnerbaits and Sencos very well. My problem is choosing your second rod. I believe you would be better off going heavier rather than lighter. You need to think about the type of water you fish and what lures you need to fish but the only option in the Avid X line would be the 7 foot MH and I am not sure what that rod does best.

My friend was a regional rep for Kawasaki motorcycles and they used it all the time. I have other boating friend that have used it for decades without trouble. I am not sure I have ever heard any mechanic say a bad word. I am an engine builder by trade and have used it for at least 10 years myself. I am sure it can be misused, just the same as anything else. If you are using it while running the engine at a fast idle the engine should be fine.

Okay if the engine had revved up, but you did not accelerate the boat, then I would have been suspect of the prop. A mushy feeling engine response says several things to me. Either your cables are bad and stretching, thus not pulling the engine throttle to full throttle or you may have a clog in the fuel system. Since you did say the fuel lines have been replaced. I would try a few things. Have someone sit in the boat and watch as they put the throttle lever to full throttle ( engine not running) Visually verify the throttle linkage on the engine is reaching the stop. Next I would put the boat in the water with the engine being fed by an external fuel tank, like a 3 to 6 gallon tank. I would have new fuel mixed with the proper oil and I would add a can of SeaFoam to it. If the engine runs better after the smog clears then it may have been a clogged carburetor issue. There is one other thing to consider. I owned two of those engines and I loved them. However, they run several coil packs and when one goes then you loose a cylinder or two. You could be having one of those going bad. The pros can test them. If that turns out to be the issue then I suggest that if one is bad replace them all. If you do not they will haunt you over and over again.

If you are not really good at doing engine repairs take it to a qualified mechanic. You could make a bad situation much worse. Fuel leaks and hot engines mix very badly.

Build a drop in frame and make sure you do not use pressure treated wood. My friend Kris ( a member on here) made his entire floor/ storage frame out of the "plastic wood" He has a great rig now. Send him an e mail and he can point you towards a complete review of what he did. After he built the frame then he covered it in plywood with several coats of paint to seal it. Cut it out for your storage underneath, make your doors and if you want you could use marine carpet. He did not he added some sand and painted the decks instead.

Speedos mean nothing. The only way to correctly see speed is on a gps As for the speedo you may have a piece of debris in the pickup tube. I used to run on the Susqy river and often pick up debris like grass or wood and have to take a small drill bit to clean it out by hand. Since it is a new boat let the dealer figure out your issues. As for the fuel tank, might be a bad sender. Just because it is new makes no difference. My brand new Lowe that I purchased back in 2011 came from the factory with a bad primer ball and that was defective from Mercury directly. I replaced it with a new mercury one and it solved my problem from then till last summer when I replaced the entire fuel line package.

If I were to guess, I would bet on a problem with the wire inside the throttle cable and or the sheath that surrounds it. I have seen similar issues before. The other issue could be an issue with the internals of your fuel line degrading. The fuel line issue is a highly documented one. Lastly you may have a prop with a hub going bad. IF you are up on plane and going fine, then drop the throttle back, does the engine rev up but not jump on plane or is the engine just sorta dead?

Yes go to Tom's Custom Rods. Tom has been doing rod repair for decades. He is an artist. He is located up north in Bel Air MD. Fom you just run straight up 95 towards Aberdeen, MD. That is probably an hour or hour and a half but he has all the goodies you would need. He also does amazing rod mods and builds great custom rods. Go here. http://www.tomscustomrods.com/custom-rods-galley Tom does all of the repairs and custom work for Anglers Express. If you come up to Tom's you might want to take a detour on your way home. Instead of going straight back down 95 take 695 around the north side to Hunt Valley. Make a stop in Anglers Express, an awesome local tackle shop. You will find a ton of cool stuff there, much of which does not exist in BPS, Dicks, or Cabelas.

There is a nice lake north of you near Germantown. The area is called Black Hills Regional park. The lake is called Little Seneca Lake I believe. The park rents kayaks, canoes and row boats. Any of the three are available for $13.00 an hour or $45 for the day. That might be a good way to learn and enjoy fishing from a boat, kayak, or canoe. That might be lots of fun if you hook up with another angler and share expenses. I have a friend that loves to catch bass, perch and crappie from there.

Yes sorry for the confusion. I had suggested getting the Irod Genesis II Fred's Magic Stick and then the Dobyns 734C. I was comparing the 704C and the 734C.

The RPL II was a good rod, but I let a great rod go much like you did, I had another Orvis rod that I loved to bass fish with and it was an 8 1/2 for 7-8 wt. I used it a ton, then on a trip with Clouser I used his RPLII 9 for 8 wt in order to experiment with throwing some large deer hair bugs. I got to like the feel and sold off my Orvis. STUPID on my part! I like the RPl and with the 9wt it will throw bigger stuff for stripers. Since I live next to the Chesapeake Bay it works but I would love to have the Orvis, it was slower and handled the midsize stuff with such grace and joy. I had probably 100 hours throwing wooly buggers or crystal buggers, not to mention the hundreds of larger Clouser crayfish or lead eye flys. I am not a huge lover of really slow rods but I did have a 4 wt Winston for a while. Man you could make a back cast, eat a sandwich, smoke a pipe and then it was loaded and ready for a forward cast, but it did lay out that fly so dainty and sweet, mother nature could barely land it any more gently herself.

At least you have to give Dobyns credit that guide would never have fallen off!!

I was lucky when I was younger and became friends with both Lefty Kreh and Bob Clouser. I still have some great gear from back in the 80s. My 7'9" Orvis Far and Fine was rated for a 5 or 6 wt line. It always fished best with the 6 wt, but it specced that way. A five wt worked but only if you wanted to throw midges and small nymphs. I used it for bluegill and bass. The 6 wt worked best for small wooly buggers, nad of course the beloved foam and rubber spiders. No self respecting bluegill, sunfish or crappie could resist a good old foam spider with rubber legs. The same held true with my RPL3 9 ft for 8 wt. I always liked throwing a 9 wt line on it, but it specifically called for an 8 wt only. The 9 wt throws big striper flies so nicely.

I found these in just 10 minutes while searching craigslist. I live in MD, so I do not know where these places are in terms of distance from you. Take 30 minutes a day looking on different Craigslists within WI till you find what you want. It is out there! I like the kayak as your best answer. I do not think any boat your car could pull is going to help you fish any better or fish any bigger water. I have owned 11 bass boats, canoes and jon boats during 40 plus years of boating. I have had a chance to fish out of plenty of boats and learned quite a lot from each experience. If you have local streams, small rivers, larger ponds and even smaller lakes then the kayak will fish as good as any boat your car can pull and still fall in your budget. Your car's trailer towing capacity, as well as your budget, will restrict how big of a body of water you can SAFELY boat PERIOD!!!! Go enjoy the smaller bodies of water and forget big water till you can spend enough money to buy and tow a big boat. You will probably need a big deep vee aluminum or large fiberglass to fish the big waters, these cost more than $30,000, not $1000. Even my current Lowe Stinger 170, a 17 1/2 foot aluminum bass boat ( costing more than $15,000) can not safely run where my ProCraft 20 foot bass boat ski boat could go. It had a 200 hp outboard on a big wide hull and cost $30,000 back in 1998. It could handle water like Lake Erie and the Potomac River here in MD. I fished out of that boat on lakes and rivers in MD,PA, VA, NY, MO, NC and SC and KY.

The Tatula is a special reel. It is a hybrid containing both centrifugal and magnetic brakes, but the centrifugal portion is non adjustable Take a few minutes to watch this video that explains 3 types of Daiwa drag systems. Your Tatula has the third design called MagForce Z. I fish 8 Daiwa Tatula and Tatula CTs. You could not ask for a better reel, at least for me. No other reel has the automatic centrifugal system (or if they do I have not seen it yet) along with the magnetics system. The whole spool tension knob adjustment that you use on other reels is bogus for this reel. It does not work like other reels. So do this. Zero your magnetic brakes. Tighten the spool tension knob down till the spool has no side play within the frame of the reel. Loosen it up enough that the spool is not moving more than say 1/16 of an inch, not a lot but there is some side play of the spool. This is a good starting point. I have no idea what the lure rating of your rod is but I recommend picking say a cheap jig from Dicks that weighs close to the middle of the rods rating. Lets say the rod goes 1/4 to 1 1/4, then I would practice using a $3 jig from Dicks that weighed around 3/4 ounce and a grub for a trailer. Do not practice with a 1 ounce expensive top water lure. Set both the drag star so you have some tension but it the spool is not locked down. Next wet the mag brakes up high but you do not need to go full on. Find a nice open field and go practice, as you get mo time with the reel loosen up the brakes. When you get used to the reel like this you can fiddle with loosening up the spool just a little more. I run my spools much looser than I could ever run my Curados, Chronarchs or BPS extreme reels. I usually run my mag breaks down around 1/2 of the max ( 10 of 200 and have almost no backlashes. Make sure you have some good backing under the braid. I run 14 pound Stren mono and always take extra care to tighten the arbor knot down all the way so the line can not slip on the spool. If you did not do this then that may be giving you some issues. Spool up some mono, tighten your knot extra good and after tha,t fill the spool the rest of the way with braid. I have Tatulas running P Line 12 pound Floroclear, 30 pound Suffix 832, Power Pro Spectra in both 30 and 65 pound braid, 14 pound mono for topwaters, and Abrazx fluorocarbon. None of these lines give me any trouble except periodically I need to pull out the fluorocarbon and run a rag down it under pressure. This helps to remove memory in the line so it casts better. Try this I am confident this will help. I have read many others that have complained about these reels until they learned how these reels play. Most guys that actually fish these reels love them. One last thing is once I get my spool tension set, I have rarely needed to adjust it when I change lures. The most I might do is bump my mag breaks up a click or two. Good Luck

Yes you can easily run a line heavier on most rods but going lighter is usually not good

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Lets start with some simpler questions. Can you measure how much of the outboard is extending below the boat. What I am wondering is if this was a long or short shaft engine? Your boat should have a short shaft motor I am sure. I would check compression and also make sure you have the correct spark plug or plugs in it. Next, I might mix a can of Seafoam in your gas, in fact I hope that is new fuel and oil mixed properly. Add a can or part of a can of Seafoam in the fuel and continue to run the engine on your favorite lake. Warning it may smoke for a while it is normal, but afterword it may run cleaner and better. Balancing the weight distribution may help too.

I had a 15 foot stick steer Polar Kraft for several years. It came with a 9.9 hp 4 stroke Merc. I later upgraded it to 25 hp (decaled as a 20), also for a hp restricted lake. I will suggest going with that style boat, it fished well and you controlled both the gas engine and trolling motor from the front seat. Be aware you will sit to fish so things like flipping are out of the question, but I loved the boat. If you build or outfit a boat, consider the trim tilt plate, PT35, from T & H Marine. It is not cheap, but having tilt and trim on an undersized outboard is a very helpful addition to make the boat perform well. Most of your engines below 35 hp have only the manual pin that adjusts the running angle of the engine. If you are interested in more info let me know I can send you some pics

I think you have to answer some questions. What do you intend to throw for your stripers. Are you talking live lining bait like bluegill and shad? Are you going to troll or throw artificial baits and if artificial, then what lures will you throw? I live on the Chesapeake Bay and striper fishing takes on different equipment depending on the time of year. In the spring the fish are located on the Susquehanna Flats, here you can cast baits like Super Flukes on weighted jig heads. During the Summer a big boat with planer boards is needed. This time requires fishing with large planner boards,and big parachute lures. In the fall the stripers follow bait into the warmer waters of the tidal creeks and rivers. Now I get to chase them with my standard bass tackle. I throw 1/2 and 3/4 rattle traps and Reaction Innovation Skinny Dippers on swimbait jigheads. Hard bodied jerkbaits work as well. All of these baits are fished on typical bass rods, mostly 7 foot medium moderate action rods. You will need to match your rods to the techniques and lure weights you intend to fish.

Creativity just has to be admired!