Wayne P.

I can tell you the ones that I use. I use up around a pound of them each year. A size 3d steel finishing nail-Bright Finish. It is about 1 1/4" in length. The brand is Grip Rite and I get them at Lowes. I purchase a box of Tic Tac candy, throw away the candy and use the little box to carry as many nails as I can stuff in it. I refill it as necessary. I even carry an extra one, just in case. I also use the candy box to carry my Lunker City lead nails.

fishfordollars, what boats do you build?

The 17' 9" with a 150 OMC is a Javelin and the 68.4 MPH is GPS speed. My speedometer shows just over 70. Some guys I know run a 25" prop on that hull and get over 70 GPS- too slow of a hole shot for me.

Nice job bassassasin, what structural material is the deck made of?

All you guys should wear sunscreen anytime you are outdoors for extended periods of time. Wearing a hat is not enough in itself, sun reflecting off the water's surface can burn any exposed skin. If you don't, sometime in your future you will be home instead of fishing and have bandages from having some of you body parts removed for testing to see if it is cancer. That is why I am home instead of fishing today. Red you are already too late for your date with destiny. Keep a close check on any unusual bloches, pieces of dry flaky skin, and small bumps. Wear sunscreen for now on so it won't be worse. I used to be called Red when I was younger, does you handle resemble any particular thing?

It was on TV, huh? I saw a spaceship going faster than the speed of light on TV. There was a guy with a bumpy wrinkled up forehead and another with pointy ears too. The pointy eared guy said "live long and prosper".

skunked_again, yes it is stock. The boat is rated for 150 HP. I run a 24" Raker prop. The hull design and length allows for such permormance.

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That product has been in production for many years. The best way to find out how good it is, go to a local fishing tackle shop and see how many they have in stock. If you don't see any (assume they are sold out), ask when they are going to get some more in.

I'm not familiar with Nitros, but if the model number means 17 and 1/2 feet and the motor is a 150, you should have no problem going above 60 mph. My bass boat is 17' 9" and I have an OMC 150 and get 68.4 mph. PM sent

Around 5#---6#

Braid

The foam floatation is to hopefully keep your boat on the surface if it happens to capsize or fill with water. You remove the floation elements, what do you think would be the result?

Sean, if your engine alternator did not charge your starting battery over and over again, you wouldn't be doing any starting. For the longest life the battery needs to be completely charged immediately after any discharge. Most fishermen do not run their outboard long enough for the engine alternator to completely recharge the starting battery from the act of starting plus the other drain put on it from sonar, pumps, and lights. I top mine off after every fishing trip with a 10A automatic charger. Most outboard engine alternators are 10A or higher. A marine starting battery and an auto starting battery are the same except for the terminals. Your tow vehicle has an alternator of 50A-65A or larger. Some upgrade to 100A or larger if they run powerful steros or lights. Police vehicles have larger than 100A alternators. Each charging system has a regulator to control the charging rate to match the battery's need. Your portable charger should have the same. The 2A maintainer chargers some of you advocate are to keep a charged, unused vehicle battery topped off from voltage loss that naturally occurs and from the slight drain some vehicles have from clocks and security systems.

Your HM mount is not attached with a strong enough system to not fail if/when you hit the bottom or some underwater object. If you use a straight plate on the front to connect the board to the boat, MAYBE it will hold. If it was me with those materials; I would put another bracket on each side of the one you have plus more on the front. For intermittent operation, you should get a BIG FOOT switch to turn your motor on and off. That will save you a lot of reaching for the motor while trying to fish. Walmart has them. Another problem with reverse, most motor bearing surfaces are not designed for prolonged reverse operation.

Lightning: Do you fit in any of these catagories? In the United States, an average of 62 people are killed each year by lightning. In 2007, 45 people were struck and killed by lighting in the U.S.; hundreds of others were injured. Of the victims who were killed by lightning: 98% were outside 89% were male 30% were males between the ages of 20-25 25% were standing under a tree 25% occurred on or near the water

NDet-Fishing, for KVD, that was just one event during the year where a Trap was the best presentation for him on that body of water for that particular condition in a particular location. It wasn't a recent Bassmaster's Classic, it was the Elite Series Citrus Slam. You can bet if power fishing is not working, he is smart enough to use soft plastics or some other presentation. Spinnerbaits come to mind when his name is mentioned as well a tubes on smallmouth waters. His main presentation when he won the Classic in Pittsburg was an old Smithwick Rogue. This year at the Classic, his lure of choice was a medium running crankbait in Citrus Shad color- he didn't win. The devil made me post this-LOL

There are Type III inflatables available, but are not automatic. I use that one. It is not of another type with a Type III rating, it is a Type III which is the same CG rating as the vests. It does not have to be worn to be legal.

One of 5 pictures, send me an e-mail to purdum43@aol.com for the rest.

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Go to the Yahoo web site and click on the "groups" section, type in "side imaging" in the search block, sign up to the forums-no charge, you will find out everything you want or need to know about that technology from users and Humminbird.

NBR, I didn't find a neutral buoyancy to the evident in my test, all of the lines went to the bottom after being forced just under the surface. Their fall rate was slower than fluorocarbon line though.

Once again preception does not equal reality. Nylon mono in regular or co-polymer sinks. The only thing that keeps it on the surface is surface tension (the same action that keeps water spiders from sinking). I just tested 6 different mono lines in a sink filled with water. When I dropped the lines in, they floated, when I forced them under, they stayed under.

Has anyone actually weighed reel spools of both types when filled with the same line to see is there is a difference? The shallow spool reels have a larger arbor which may or may not be drilled with multiple holes to lighen it. Does the extra line to fill a high capacity spool weigh more than the larger arbor on the low capacity spool? Does the small capacity spool just save on the cost of line?

The heaviest lead nail weight that I have found is 3/32 oz. I use the 3/64 oz lead nails for depths down to 25' so far-haven't tried any deeper. Lunker City makes the nails I use. I would think a nail in 3/16 would be too large in size to fit within the worm. For that much weight, you may want to try the setup where a ball head jig is used for the weight-cut the hook into at the bend and stick the hook shank and spike on the jig head into the worm head.