12poundbass

You didn't notice the asterisk that saus restrictions apply?

Thank you all for your sacrifices and service.

Thank you sir! I'm looking forward to the next chapter too! I can finally hit the bigger water and chase after those brown bass. After catching them in a tiny section of river and watching your brown bass adventures I'm hooked! The other nice thing is the boat is finally big enough that the three of us can fish together.

Your post and picture got me thinking....do we (sportsman) have screws loose? Thinks about it, we sit in trees to the extent of almost certain death from freezing to death HOPING a deer walks by. Then in the summer we sit in a boat on the middle of the lake and slowly cook ourselves HOPING a fish that we're going to let go bites.

After several setbacks over the course of a couple years I finally got to pull the trigger and upgrade boats! Originally the plan was a brand new boat this spring, but kind of counted my chickens before they hatched and didn't get the job that would have allowed me the extra income to get one. I've been searching for a couple months now and didn't find anything I liked or wanted in my price range. I found a Tracker in Kalamazoo at KVD's brother's store. The price was towards the top of my budget, it didn't have any graphs, and no cover, so there would only be money left over for a cover. So I debated for a week and as a Hail Mary I got on CL one last time and expanded my search radius a little further and said "if I don't find anything it's meant to be I get the Tracker". So I hit search scroll through and find the one! A nice G3 Eagle 175, 50 hp Yamaha, Helix 5 DI at the bow, and a Helix 7 SI G2N. The boat is in excellent condition with only a minor 3" tear in the seat. The price was below budget which is always nice, but it was in Indiana. I was able to talk him down $500 and he agreed to drive to the state line. I talked to my brother and he agreed to pick it up since he isn't too far away from the state line. He met the guy, checked the boat and outboard out (thankfully he works at a marina part time so I trust him) all was good. After waiting forever today I hear from him and he's able to meet up with me. It was getting dark so I left it covered for the night, I'll post more pics Sunday. Now begins the long 5 month wait before I can even get it in the water. Oh well, time will go by fast.

Not a moron.....a ticked off wife! ?

A good way to end the work week. Thankfully I'm not responsible for repairing them. @lo n slo I imagine you don't miss that one bit.

I'm easy going but I'm anal! My leaves ha e to be cleaned up! Mother nature say otherwise. She can be a cruel lady!

***" for us but it's not sticking. Overnight lows are going to be in the low to mid 20's for a while. Chance of snow the next 5 days for us. I'm guessing a chance of snow for the next 150 days for you?

I'm not quite ready for this! ?

Exactly.

Mine is a couple years newer, but I'm probably going to make my wife scratch her head a few times this winter obsessing over the boat. She already told me I needed to get a hobby the other night when I was playing with the Garmin I bought from @webertime. I was sitting in my chair with a huge battery on the floor, and I'm staring at the screen in demo mode, and I was scoping out the mapping too checking on lakes here in Michigan. @A-Jay I stalked your home lake. Looks fairly shallow and featureless to my untrained eye.

That's what it was....Italian. French, Italian I was close they're both salad dressings. Thanks!

G3 Eagle 175. Pictures and story to come Saturday after I get her in my possession.

It's French! Serious bummer! What else is a bummer is tomorrow there will be a tin boat making it's way tlfrom Indiana to it's new home (mine) and I can't even play with it this year. I'll get to say hi, welcome her to the family and put her to bed until April. ?

I thought I read it would be Live free on line. I might be wrong but maybe that what Boyd Duckett said the other day on BTL? I didn't listen so I could be wrong.

If I don't post here for a while there's a good chance "they" saw me tame the picture and 'took care' of me. ? My guess is GMC since I'm in GM country. It's a diesel that's for sure.

I live in Amish and Mennonite country. Pretty nice folks, I'm sometimes envious of their simple life.

I know the real location and my silence is expensive @A-Jay! *update* I quickly remembered you're originally from Boston, and after the Whitey Bulger deal this past week I'll keep my mouth shut! Quick question what's the origin of Lake Menderchuck? I honestly had never heard the name before you and I heard Zona and another angler say it too.

This is last years buck. That was the first buck I've shot in 13 years (work, marriage, kid, life) and the first my son has been witness to. I usually practice QDM but the look on his face when he came out told me I couldn't pass it up, plus I thought it was one my step dad wanted taken out of the herd. After I shot him was son was so happy gave me the biggest hug and thanked me a million times. Well worth it, but now back to QDM.

Since when did you start revealing the name of your secret northern lake? Never thought I'd see the day.

I'm not seeing anything different buddy.

I'll be completely honest and say I have no retirement plan set up yet and it scares the hell out of me. In my twenties I/we were irresponsible with our money and had the can't take it with you when you go mindset. Then pile on the credit cards (I got my first one ever at 30) and it became a deep hole. We weren't completely irresponsible all our bills were paid and we were paying down our house. We recently sold our house and made just over a six figure profit. With that we paid off all our debts, bought a much needed second vehicle (I have a company truck which is how we've made it with one forever) and still have a ton left for a nice down payment for a house. The down payment money could put us in the extremely nice house category, but we've been humbled by our poor decisions in our twenties so were not going huge and extravagant, but small and quaint. Our son is 8, he's our one and only, so we're looking long term after he's out of the house, kind of house. So at 35 I'm currently debt free (until we find a house) and it's a great feeling, and I'm glad we've been given a second chance. We're going to focus on retirement now. My company doesn't contribute squat so I can't count on that, but I'm going to enroll in it because it's something. My wife is soul searching for her career. We've been fortunate because my income basically pays for everything but a tiny bit so when she finds her new career that's extra money we can use to catch up on the retirement.