adrenalnjunky

Looking at your gear, I'm going to echo @fishnkamp - you seem down a dedicated cranking setup. I own 2 of the step up from the Pro Max - the Orra SX - and right now you can find it for the $79 price point that the Pro Max normally sells for. I think the main difference is that the Orra has an alloy frame.

I saw that you've been given the order to belay the boat shopping, but we all know that one simply doesn't stop wanting to look at boats, regardless of if you have the green light to pull the trigger or not. Just throwing this out there, but you mentioned that you'd be looking at a standard layout in aluminum hull, but a fish & ski in glass. Kinda curious why? When you mention that she wants a deck to lay out on, I think you'd be able to offer her more real estate with a standard front and rear decked bass boat than in a Fish & Ski. Look at that Nitro F&S you mentioned vs. a Z19, or even a Z18 - there's more rear deck, since the cockpit isn't trying to squeeze in seating for 4, and dual consoles, and windshields. Plus you get a larger fishing deck up front. Same goes for the aluminum models. Unless you'd just have to have the extra seating - I'd stay in the bass boat styles all day long and better meet her laying out criteria. At least that's how I'd sell it.

I'll try to keep this short, but no promises. Dad bought a never-sold '79 Hydrasport in '81. Put his '74 Johnson 115 on the back and fished it for a lot of years. Somewhere in there around the mid/late 90's the boat got put up and never went back to the water. He kept up with the batteries and covering for a lot of years, but eventually that slipped too. The floor needed replacing a while back, and wasn't the first time it had to be done over the life of the boat. And a year or so ago, he thinks termites got into the structure. I'm guessing the hull probably just needs to be cut up and hauled away. I'm curious how much the old 115 is worth - or if it is worth rebuilding the carbs and going through the rest of it. I bet the trolling motor would probably still run if power were put to it. Maybe I just need to bolt it to a jon-boat. I wish I would have offered to take it off his hands 15ish years ago when a little TLC might have kept it from going completely to nothing.

That craigslist link isn't working. I thought about this thread the other day when a '02 Nitro 700lx popped up locally on facebook for $6k. Looks decently clean. Seller just dropped price to $5800. Merc 90 on it.

Technically, Scott is from south Florida. Most "southerners" don't consider those folks "southerners", they're just from Florida. :-)

starting from near scratch myself under very similar circumstances. I fish pretty stained water here in the south - I first filled out 3/8 oz spinners in the traditional 3 colors: black/blue, white/chartreuse, and something like a bluegill or green pumpkin type of color. I didn't focus much on willow or colorado blades - mostly I picked lures with one of each on it. I also added a couple of chatterbaits in similar colors and weight for cloudier days. I'm always either shore fishing, or in someone else's boat, so I don't have much space. As I feel the need to adjust from what I have, I'll probably weed out what I'm not having luck with.

Have you checked your trim/torque tab on the lower unit, possibly it has rotated and is causing you more torque steer than before. Do you find that the boat has become harder to steer in one direction at speed? That is also an indicator that the trim tab there needs to be adjusted.

Well, what they didn't make super clear is that you can mix and match brands for the buy 3, get one deal. I just ordered 2 of the Lunkerhunt frogs, 4 bags of keitech swing impacts, 4 of the z-man chatterbaits, and a few different jigheads for $57 before tax. Should have been right at $80 before the deals kicked in.

I don't have a Gander MTN anywhere near me, but I'm reading that they've started liquidation sales from the recent bankruptcy auction. Out of about 160 stores, looks like only a few dozen will remain open. Looks like CampingWorld is the new parent company. https://www.dallasnews.com/business/retail/2017/05/04/gander-mountains-new-owner-camping-world-keep-17-stores

Sorry - I got the OrraSX in 6.4. I actually picked up the rod/reel combos for about $100 each. I like that the Orra series has the mag brake setup insted of the centrifugal setup the Revo S has.

I picked up 2 of the 6.4:1 combos this spring, I think the reels are pretty decent performers, esp at the $80 price point.

You talking baitcaster, right? The Orra Winch is $56 on abugarcia.com right now. (If you're right handed)

Man it gets easier. I used to wakeboard every day, and with a tournament-style inboard you have basically no rudder authority without the boat in drive. Putting on the trailer even with years of experience could turn into a pinball-machine on the bunk boards due to last second drift. for the backing up thing - just go to the ramp at night and back up and down til you feel better about it. You'll get it dialed in. Regardless of technique you decide to use (mirrors or not, hand on top or bottom) building up some muscle memory of what works for you, gets you to that level of confidence of knowing what "normal" feels like. From there you only have to deal with the outliers like ramps that aren't familiar.

I bought 2 of the OrraSX combos in 6.4:1 recently - no they don't cast as nice as my Tatula, but they're not bad at all. bought my most recent one at Sam's club - $104 for the reel w/ a 7' MH/F micro-guide rod. I'm guessing this was more of a "flash sale" scenario where they wanted to blow out some extra stock, without putting their normal sales channels/partners in too much of a bad spot. I was on the fence about picking up a reel, then I saw it pop up on Slickdeals' front page, and I knew it was done for. Some of those folks will buy a "deal" even if they have no use for the item.

I just set up a Tatula CT-R on a Dobyn's fury 703C. Value shopped a website's 20% off sale for the rod, and ebay for the CT-R - total rig ran about $208. Compared to my Abu MH/F rods, the Dobyns feels like it has a bit more give in the tip, but it still has the backbone a MH should have. I was torn between the Lew's Tourney MB, the Tatula, and the Abu Revo SX. So far, I'm liking the Tatula a lot. One thing that sold me on the Dobyn's is lifetime warranty, and their $50 over-the-counter replacement program through a local dealer. By the time you ship a rod back to a manufacturer for warranty, and possibly had to cover the postage back, you've spent near that $50 anyway.

Crankbaits: Berkley Wild Thang 8.5 (1/2oz stated) = .55oz Berkley Wild Thang 6.5 (3/8 stated) = .40oz Livingston Tournament Primetyme 2.0 (1/2 stated) = .55oz Strike King Redeye Shad(1/2 stated) = .55oz

I think my crankbaits were pretty close. It was mostly the jigs and spinnerbaits that were messing with my head. I just got an order of a few random crank baits in - I can throw them all on the scale to see how true they are.

May have been addressed in other threads, but I can't find much that starts off discussing how far off lure weights can be. I've been getting back into fishing, and for shiggles, threw one of my crankbaits on a little scale that may not be the best in the world, but it seems to be relatively capable of registering differences into the .01 oz range. I've been buying swim jigs this week, and to start off, I've been buying everything in 3/8oz size (.375oz), figuring it is a good middle ground weight, since I plan to be adding trailers like a paca chunk, rage craw, or 3.5" grub here and there. Picked up a Pair of Strike King 3/8 Tour Grade swim jigs - both weigh .45oz out of the box. I also got a BooYah swim-n-jig that weighed in at .6oz. At that point you're getting almost double what the 3/8oz "advertised" weight is. Throw on a 3.7" Lil dipper as a trailer, and that overall combo could be a lot heavier than what you thought you were throwing. Similar result from a 3/8oz KVD series spinnerbait I recently bought - .60oz on the scale. Are the manufacturers starting off with the weight of the jig head, and not adding in the weight of skirts, or rattle or whatever? So is this really a concern? All of my MH/F rods are manufacturer rated up the 3/4oz, and I know those aren't based on any true standard, but I'm guessing moving up to 1/2oz jigs might start getting closer to the 1oz range, if I see the same variation.

Is the 4 for $10 deal available in store as well, or online only?

Had that happen 2 weekends ago on the water with a different reel. After 10 minutes I started cutting, and ended up having to tie on another 60yds of fresh line.

I got my CT-R last week, and did have one baaaad birds-nest - but I was sidearming in the driveway and somehow my dummy weight bounced off my truck just as I released the spool. Took me an hour to untangle that brand new spool of line, lol.

Yep - hit mine up tonight - only found some random things like Gamakatsu offset EWG 4/0 and 5/0 5pk hooks marked down to $1.97, but they were all gone - the 2/0 and 3/0 were reg price. Didn't really see anything worth looking at. And man I'm needing to buy some new crankbaits - that was a heck of a deal. I was walking thru Samsclub earlier today and they had a rack of Abu Garcia Orra SX rod n reel combos - all 7' MH/F rods with the 6.4:1 version of the reel for $104. I bought the same combo from Academy 2 weeks ago, and It is a really solid little setup.

Little update - I got that Tatula CT-R today. Threw it on the Loomis rod and had it dialed in rock solid with about a half dozen casts with a .5oz weight. This thing is amazing feeling, and the XF action rod felt nice, but.... Bad News - when I sat the 6' 8" Loomis rod next to the new 7' Abu rod I picked up - I realized the Loomis is about 4" shorter than it should be. Yep - apparently part of the reason I picked it up so cheap, is that 4" of the tip was snapped off clean at guide #8. I did a little research, and it appears I'm missing one guide and the tip.

Completely understand - thanks for the input. As my dad used to be fond of saying: "All the pretty tackle in the stores is guaranteed to catch...a fisherman."

Yeah - I've been giving a spinner a thought, never really fished one before. Good news is my father in law keeps one parked in the boat, so I'll give it a try.