Johnbt

"Model 9510" - Me too. Very happy with it.

fwiw - "Mercury outboards 30 hp and below are manufactured by Tohatsu in Japan."

"what are all these forks and spoons for?" Start on the outside and work your way in. They bring the first course, use the outside fork or spoon as appropriate. They'll take it away with the dirty dish. Same for the next course. When in doubt which side to use for any given course, take a sip of water and look around the table. It's not difficult. I learned most of it and I grew up in a rowhouse in downtown Baltimore back before it got quite so murderous. Fwiw, Einstein used to read Emily Post's big etiquette book because he found it amusing.

"There's high level pros fishing their sponsors' $100 rods and winning the biggest tournaments so you could say those rods and reels are "good enough" them even if they are getting paid to use the stuff." I wonder. How many more big tournaments would they win if they had better equipment? I also wonder. Why don't they use cheap boats. And an old flasher. More seriously, I'd be more likely to use free or lower-cost rods too if I'd designed them to my liking.

Urban Dictionary definition Part 2 on the same page. Or maybe Part 1A... Boo = bull if you say it fast enough I had to look it up, too. ______________ I have a 6' SC Premier MHF that's still great for up close fishing in the trees with anything from spinnerbaits to shiners. I have 4 Conquests that fish like a dream. I even used the 844 one day to throw a DT-10 in 9 feet of water and caught 3 bass on 4 casts before the school of two- to four-pounders moved off. And that was with a Metanium MGL XG - the 8.5 ratio had that lure and the rod vibrating hard at full speed. My two favorite cranking rods are a GLoomis IMX Pro and Dobyns. Everybody has their favorites. I started off with one casting rod and reel in the '50s and used it on through the '60s. I had a used tackle box, too.

I carry inch and metric socket sets, small sets, on my 1648. And adjustable wrenches. They mostly get used on the trailer, but you never know.

"If I opened up my tool box for a job which required a set of sockets, and I had two sockets at the ready. I might be able to do the job perfectly. However if I opened up that same tools box and I"... ...only had one adjustable Crescent wrench you'd be there all day.

"superfluous" That's a lot of letters for a minimalist.

The places we fish are stained and sometimes muddy. Last Friday the water was so clear in the lake near my buddy's house that we could see a chartreuse spinnerbait stuck on a log one foot down. Never seen it that clear. Clear water makes it a lot easier to fish the numerous laydowns.

I've had too many fish bite right at the boat either on the surface or straight down underneath. I don't care where a cast goes, as long as it ends up in the water I'm fishing it all the way back to the boat.

"I see spinnerbait mentioned as power.....what if I'm using micro spinnerbait? " My idea of finesse fishing is not using a 3-, 4-, 5- or 6-inch trailer on my 3/8 oz spinnerbait.

I love posting and seeing pics of big bass, but it's raining today so I didn't go out. I did see this post though. The day before yesterday, caught in the surf just south of Cape Hatteras North Carolina in the village of Frisco... 11 feet long. A grown one can go 20. They very rarely bite people if left alone.

Two of the three I caught Wednesday mid-morning. The 3rd one was maybe 14" or so. 6.24# and 21.25" Caught on a double willow chartreuse spinnerbait with a 4" chartreuse grub. 5.27 and 21" Caught on a DT-6 Demon in 8 feet or so of water.

Going to Bass Pro is the vacation for a lot of people. And I still miss Cabela's.

I love Tatsu. I bought the first one using the $100 credit for joining Amazon Prime and liked it so much I bought two more. Now I have 3 of the 1000-yard spools.

The beach/pier carts I've seen near the ocean are made to hold a cooler, a white bucket and maybe a tackle box or a folding chair. They never seen to have a floor. One more thing to catch sand I suppose.

From 2018 - they got their cells from China and assemble in Utah. Things may have changed of course. www.amazon.com/LiFePO4-Volt-Deep-Cycle-Battery/dp/B06XX197GJ "Question: If it's assembled in Nevada, are the components imported from overseas (China, Thailand, etc.)? Answer: Our parts come from all over the world. Our cells come from China as that is the only place making lithium iron phosphate cells right now. We only use UL listed cells and our pack is listed UL2054 by a US battery test lab. By Battle Born Batteries SELLER on July 3, 2018" _____________________________________________________________________ I looked into the temp range of BBorn batteries some time ago. The FAQ is still on their site. They sell a heating wrap that turns on at 24*F and runs up to 40 iirc. "Battle Born Batteries protect themselves from charging in cold temperatures and won’t accept a charge once the internal cell temperature drops to 24°F. At this point they will continue to discharge even down to -4°F. At this temperature we recommend no longer pulling power to avoid damaging the batteries. Insulated battery boxes, heating blankets, and placing your battery bank inside your RV will help keep the temperature stable. On the high end of temperature range, the batteries will shut down once 135°F is reached. "

Really high inflation makes for interesting times. I remember January 1980. I got a conventional 30-year mortgage with 26% down. I was so happy that I got my first house before the rates went up. My mortgage was only 12.75%. Then they shot up to 17%-18%. Our Medicare premiums went up so far this year that the 5.9% COL increase resulted in a monthly loss for each of us. Oh well. We'll have to do our part to keep the economy running anyway. My wife started today. Third grandchild on the way.

The clamp swivels. I have one on each seat pole in my 1648. Holds a 12 oz. or 16 oz. bottle, or a one liter bottle. I used to keep one on my old riding mower and it never came loose or lost a drink. I don't need it now on my 50" Toro zero turn. www.drink2go.com/products/boat-cup-holder And they have a 2 for $28.99 option. "Fits Motorcycles, Walkers, Bicycles, Strollers, Boats - Flex-Fits Cup Sizes - 360 Swivel Head & Non-Slip Clamp for Heavy Drinks – Bike Motorcycle Drink Holder Digging for water bottles at stop lights can be stressful & unsuccessful. Our powerful holders clamp anywhere keep drinks safely accessible. WHAT CAN THIS CLAMP ONTO? The non-slip clamp fits any tubing from 5/8” to 1 ¾”. The adjustable “screw then clamp” design makes versatile while still locking in strong."

The first time I did an install using the Minn Kota chart I measured from the battery in the stern to the motor on the bow. The second time I did an install the Minn Kota repair shop in this area pointed out to me that there is small print under the chart... "Wire Extension Length refers to the distance from the batteries to the trolling motor leads."

Okay, this week's bogus text message deal is BOOYAH Boo Rig for only $0.50. Retail price: $6.99. That's right, only 50 cents. $4.95 flat rate shipping. How many should I get? No mention of weight or color or anything, just how many do I want.

I wore progressives for many, many years - until I had cataract surgery and now I can drive without glasses. But I use $9 reading glasses from Dollar General. Fwiw, I was approximately 20/1200 and could only focus out to 8 inches or so. Progressives worked for me. Progressives frequently drive new users crazy until they learn to use them. For instance, when driving you will probably have to lift your head slightly up and to the right to use the rearview mirror. If you don't you'll be looking through the wrong part of the lens - the right edge. You will quickly learn that the useful part of the lens is a narrow part running vertically in the center of the lens. Look through the top for distance and near the bottom for up close. The medium distances are seen by slightly lowering or raising your head a mere fraction of an inch. Think in terms of thousandths. Be careful on stairs at first. If you get to the top of stairs and glance down you'll be looking through the near-vision part of the lens. Just little things to be aware of and learn about. It becomes second nature if you stick with it for a week or a month. Quite a few people try progressives for 30 minutes or an hour and toss them in a drawer while cursing. Give them a chance.

I remember back in the '50s when businessmen would visit the barber every week or two. Of course their haircuts were pretty much left over from their WWII service and got shaggy fast. Haircuts and shoe shines. Those were the days. Vitalis and Brylcreem. And Wildroot. It was a big deal when I got big enough to graduate from mom taking me to the kids' barbershop to my father taking me to the real barbershop. The straight razors and bloody nicks took some getting used to.

"A barber charging $40, much less $50 to cut a man's hair?" I go to one of those places once a month. A sign in her window says, "WE FIX $15 HAIRCUTS." ?

I have a plastic Garmin screen cover for my 9" Vivid. It easily fits in an old padded laptop case (the 5' or 6" wide kind) with the RAM ball mount base still attached. The medium double socket arm fits in the other side of the bag. The shoulder strap is handy for the trip from the truck into the house.