Tpayneful

I ONLY fish BPS XPS Fluorocarbon line. Do NOT buy this line because if you do the shelves will be empty when I NEED it! I fish 17lb on my baitcasters and 8lb on my spinning reels. I have used Pline and Seagar and the XPS casts better and seems stronger than it's test rating. My fishing partner tried Berkley 100% and that was the worst line. Last year I fished over 35 days (20 small tournaments) and my line will last me up to two years on a spool.

FYI. If you have a swing away tongue and the ground wire to the vehicle is on the tongue you will eventually have ground problems. The hinge is the only thing connecting the the tongue to the trailer and eventually they rust which electrically disconnects the tongue from the trailer. I had to add a ground from the tongue to the trailer to eliminate the problem. Make sure you have a volt - ohm- amp meter to troubleshoot electrical problems. You can buy a cheap digital one at walmart or harbor freight. Turn the dial on the meter to ohms / continuity and the meter will beep when you have a short between the black lead and the red lead. Starting at the plug, measure from the ground pin to clean metal on the trailer and it will beep. The beep means that you have a good ground connection. Go to the first light and do the same thing on the mounting bolt (which is ground for the light). Do the same thing for all of the lights. Most likely you need to unbolt the light, wire brush the mounting hole to remove rust and reassemble. One thing that would help is to buy a tube of dielectric grease and apply it to the hole and mounting bolt before you remount the light. This would ensure that the light would maintain a good ground for a long time. I would also remove each light bulb in each housing and coat the metal connection points with dielectric grease as well. This will ensure that the light bulb connections will not corrode. I bought a $10 trailer light set from walmart, used the grease when I installed the lights on my boat trailer and had 5 trouble free years of use out of them. Good luck

Call Brian at BBG. If you are an authorized dealer you can only advertise a specific price. Over the phone he can give you a lower price. http://www.bbgmarine.com/ I met him fishing in Florida. He takes calls anytime.

I have a 2009 200HP HO Etec and I love it. It starts on the first try, is quiet, purrs like a kitten, has a quick hole shot, is really fast and gets good gas mileage. I ended up picking the motor first then finding a boat that I liked that offered the engine. I would not hesitate to get another one.

In 1994 I looked forever and couldn't find an aluminum boat under $4000. So I purchased a 1980 Skeeter for $2,500. Over the course of the 13 years I owned it I replaced almost everything on the boat. Four things were costly and only three could actually be repaired. 1 Trolling Motor 2 Tilt and Trim 3 Outboard 4 The boat had open cell flotation foam in the bottom of it and the fiberglass was laid over wood. The open cell foam acted like a huge sponge and soaked up water. So the boat had many extra pounds of water weight all of the time which made it hard to get on plane and slow on plane. It came with at 115 which was over powered. When the motor cracked a ring, I replaced it with a 70 which could barely get it on plane. The other side effect was that all of the wood in the boat was rotten. I found this when I ripped out the entire decking of the boat. I spent a ton of time and money repairing and upgrading my boat. When I sold my boat and trailer, they both were a million times better than when I bought it but I would not recommend this path. My guess is that both of those Skeeters have open cell foam, it is water logged and the wood in the bottom is rotten. Wait, be patient and buy an aluminum boat. One thing that you have to understand is that the bottom end aluminum boats sell for $3000 to $4000 because they are worth it.

I am fishing in the Maryland Division of the Weekend Bassmasters series this year as a Co-angler. All you have to do to fish in the Bassmasters Weekend series is pay all of the membership fees and entry fees. You can be a co-angler or boater. Here is the link to the website: http://www.americanbassanglers.com/BWS/ If you are in Northern Virginia you would probably want to fish the Maryland division because all of the tournaments are on the Potomac. The Virginia division is better suited to people that live in the southern or western part of the state. The Virginia tournaments are on Kerr, Anna, James and Smith Mountain. Memberships: Join Bass $25 Join ABA $25 Tournament fees: Boater $200 (Must have $300,000 liability insurance that allows fishing in tournaments) Coangler $100 (Should expect to pay 1/2 gas and oil) Linking is where you find a boater that has registered in the tournament and link with them. That guarantees that you will both fish in the tournament. ABA is trying to ensure that they have exactly the same number of boaters and coanglers. If they have too many coanglers, the ones that do not have a link don't get to fish. If they have too many boaters the last ones to sign up without a link will be forced to share one of their boats and each have half a day to control the boat. Winning tournAments can help but isn't necessary to be sponsored. I know of multiple people that have not won so much as a club tournament and are sponsored. These people are called "Patch Collectors" in our area. What companies want is someone that can sell their product. You need to find small companies and volunteer your time to try and sell their products at fishing shows or even drive around to tackleshops and get them to sell your sponsors products. One guy I know pimps his sponsors products on a Facebook page. If you can demonstrate that you can sell their product, they may give you a sponsor shirt, free baits to use or give away or maybe just a discounted price on their products.

George, Thank you for the update! Tim

I checked stickmarsh.com and george's site. George does not even have 2012 posted in his fishing report section.

Anyone fish Stick Marsh / Farm 13 lately? I have not seen many fishing reports anywhere. I am heading down for my annual week fishing Stick Marsh on March 3rd. Starting to get focused on what the Lake will be like.

The only approved cleaner for the screen is Windex with Vinegar. I would try that first incase you have overspray and something hits the screen.

I will put stickers on my boat when someone pays me 8-)

See the black hose running out of the motor up to the boat. That is the water line that runs to your water pressure gauge. It looks like you have a hole in the line or the plastic fitting that it connects to. Find the hole and fix the leak. The only down side with running it as is, your gauge will not work correctly.

On my 1980 Skeeter SS-1 15' 6" boat it would do 50 MPH with the 115 HP Evinrude. With a 70 HP Evinrude the max speed was 36 MPH. That was a small fiberglass boat. With an aluminum boat you will probably see a simular result. My partners 17' hydra-sport did 54 MPH with an Evinrude 115HP. I would expect high 40s to low 50s.

I only run Evinrude XD100 in my Evinrude 200 HO Etec. I spent too much on the engine to take a chance with it. If you have a carburated outboard it probably doesn't matter as long as it meets the manufacturers minimum standards. I ran the cheap Walmart oil in my 1977 70HP Evinrude and it was fine.

At least Ford didn't take any tax payer money.....Sorry couldn't help myself :

Last year I towed my Stratos 294XLE (19.5' 200HP outboard) from Virginia to Florida and back in my 2004 F150 2 wheel drive with a 4.6L V8 and got 13 MPG. I towed the same boat from Virginia to Florida and back in my 2003 Ford Explorer 4L V6 4x4 and got 10-11 MPG. My buddy towed his ZX19 Skeeter (18.5' 150HP outboard) with a 2 wheel drive 2010 Ford Explorer Sport Trac 4L V6 and he got 10-11 MPG. This was the first year that I took the Explorer and the gas mileage was always 20 to 30% worse than my F150. I have made this trip six times with both aluminum and fiberglass boats and always got 13 MPG with my F150. The only way that I could see an Explorer getting better gas mileage than an F150 would be if it had a V8. The F150 weighs 1000lbs more but the engine does not work as hard as the V6. If you are only going to be towing short distances, a midsize SUV or Truck are both fine. If you are going to be towing long distances, I would suggest a Truck or full size SUV with a V8. Stay safe and hope this information helps!

I had Allstate for Auto, Home and Life Insurance. I added liability boat insurance for my old boat in 2001. They had to issue a waiver to add my new Stratos 294XLE with 200 HO Etec. The boat is faster than they would normally insure. It is insured for $30,000 and costs about $350 a year. I really like my agent and he provides good customer service.

Looking at the AS PC2 cable I would suspect that the 728 and lower models have an RS232 (db9 pin) port on them. They would have to add an RS232 to USB converter to the AS PC2 for it to talk to most computers that only have a USB port. Depeding on Humminbirds design philosophy they may be moving to SD cards and ethernet to replace the RS232 port. I don't know but it is things like this that ensure I will have a job in the future

I have a 798c SI at the console. I have a transducer switch to change from the SI transducer when using SI then to a thru hull transducer while on plane. I also have a 788ci at the bow that is connected to the 798 via an interlink module so they can share waypoints. It works well but I still have SI withdrawl on the front of the boat. I can mark something on SI and find it with the 788ci up front. I want to buy a 998c SI for the console and move the 798c to the bow. Just need $1000 to do it. Overall the whole Humminbird (Ford) vs Lowrance (Chevy) is up to the individual. They both have good technology and their advantages and disadvantages can be spun one way or another. I have always been on the Humminbird bandwagon so it was an easy pick for me. My partner has a Lowrance and Eagle on his boat and both have had to be returned because then leaked and water got inside. He just bought an 898c SI will be selling both of the Lowrance products for Bird on the bow. Do your research and buy what you like.

That is fantastic! I will send you a note in two and a half weeks! I am jealous!

Steve, Thank you for the information! We usually end up fishing the south end until the wind gets over 10 MPH. Are the hydrilla areas clearly marked? I started fishing Stick Marsh long after the grass was gone. Sounds like you are having great days and things are going well! I can't wait to get down there!

Anyone fished Stick Marsh lately?

In 25 days I am going to hook up the Stratos to the truck and drive to Fellsmere and fish Stick Marsh for a week. I have not seen a fishing report in a while. How are the conditions? Is the wind blowing and water temperatures down or is everything normal? Any signs of the spawn yet? Any information would be appreciated!

DO NOT USE A ZOOM FINESE WORM!!!!

My fishing partner has a 70lb Edge on an 18.5' and I have 70lb Maxxum with Maximizer on a 19.5' boat. We both have Deka batteries. I have never run the batteries dead on any day fishing. We fish several tournaments a month. His batteries have been run dead on multiple tournaments. If it is windy we have to take my boat because his boat batteries will be dead before weigh in. Get the maximizer.