Muddpuppy

I have been useing a reg. good quality portable automatic charger with a maintain mode, but I don't leave it on for any long length of time. I usually try to check the batteries with a meter and take it off when they are fully charged. I might put it back on for brief periods before I go the next time if they have dropped. I have considered getting an onboard maintainer after I didn't use my boat as much as normal this year so I don't have to mess with them as much if it sits up or I don't need to charge them in a hurry. An onboard would be far more convienent but I have several other things that I could use anouther charger for too. As long as I get the life out of the batteries that I have in the past I have no complaints with the portable, but I don't have any like the Optima batteries on my boat, either.

You may be able to find something that could be made to work at an auto parts, tractor supply or a trailer dealer. Something that is used for saftey steps or even a mat in a tool box. I have seen utility trailers with mats and sideing in them that might be made to work and we have had some in horse trailers to protect the doors and walls about that thickness, that used on the floors would probably be way too thick. A company that sells safty equipment may have something also. I think mine on my boat is the grit type.

By learning, do you mean he has dobbed around a little on carbon steel plate or does he already have a tig rig and a little time with it? Boats aren't usually (depending on the problem and condition) too bad to weld if you have some aluminum experience and the right equipment. Remember Argon, bottle rental, tungsten, wire, cups and even a stainless steel brush can get pretty costly in a hurry, or were the last time I priced any of them, if he wants help footing the bill. There is also quite abit of time involved, so he isn't going to burn out after his boat is repaired or does he want to practice on yours first?

I would think that if you used one in the past, you will probably need one again. I use mine, and would want to have one, if for no other reason then when beaching, or in case of motor trouble, ect. We also fish for other species, but occassionaly anchor off when fishing for bass. Your old anchor may not hold your new boat.

I guess the only one I ever watched with any regularity was Honey Hole Mag. with Jerry Dean. He usually tried to have useful information without doing a infocommercial styled promo. He his wife and a few others probably did as much or more for the sport of bass fishing in this area durring the beginning years as anybody. Even though I guess it was generally a local show there were articles on here from their magazine which was how I found this site originally.

I thought you were buying a boat a while back that was bigger then your house, ;D well maybe it was just the garage. You were either going to have to cut a hole in the wall or put the dryer in the boat and do your laundry at the lake?

In Texas I think it depends mainly on the lake regulations as far as useing and construction. It can not be used to entrap fish by state law. As far as I know (without checking) averything that has been mentioned in this post can be used on most lakes in this area. I would definetly check the specifics though before doing anything. A couple of friends of mine recently spent 2 days cutting and packing ceder trees into their trucks and boats, and when they arrived at the lake they found the shoreline was covered with piles if them, The Ranger or who ever it was they talked to, told them that they were there for that specific purpose and they should have just used some of those and saved themselves a lot of work. :'( Due to the drought last year the water level had dropped below where they could load them onto barges and set them out.

I have a 16ft. aluminum Ranger, not a Traker and although we do fish in 15mph winds with 25mph. + gusts, I really would prefer not to, and that's about where I draw the line as far as comfort and handling and start to search for a quiter cove. You will bop around alot more compared to friends with larger fiberglass boats. You can hold it with an anchor or trolling motor alright for the most part, getting around in stumps or positioning to fish a boathouse is a pain sometimes and I do use a sea anchor alot when drifting, it has never been a saftey issue in that range. I would think it will depend on size and shape of the lake and how bad the water swells. Most of the lakes I fish are between 5,000 and 27,000 ac.

After doing a little investigation on the subject I have come pretty much to the same conclusion and will change it to "scrap lumber" instead. I entered that from memory so it may / maynot have been suggested originally. Creosolt has been band here for years for agricultural uses and never was an option, some types of treated wood do seem to be more toxic then others from what I found and the newer ones at least allowable for incendental contact for use in water ways like pilings on bridges, docks boat houses. Although no manufacture that I checked comes out and says it isn't safe, they do issue some cautions on it's use, so it's use might not be recomended for building a fish habitat. It also retards alge growth wich would attract smaller fish. With it's extensive use for piers and docks I never even thought about it when posting. Sorry Rolo for the misinformation :-[ I know other's that have used tires and say they work good, but I'll refrain from recomending anything, right now. It seems like Tyler Lake might have used them too, when there was a habitat problem.

Have you tried peening the rivets first? Flip the boat over on saw horses then one person taps them with a hammer while the other holds backup underneath. I have a friend in Atlanta that does aircraft repair he used to replace ours if we didn't weld them.

It used to be predicted that the next world record would be caught by some guy sitting on a bucket fishing with can of worms, I guess this is the modern day worst case senerio. He might as well thrown it back, not many companies are going to shell out major bucks for the right to say their products snags bigger fish better then any other on the market. He will still always be remembered for catching it and recieves his 15 minutes of fame, might as well do it in the best light as possible.

This is a design that I found a while back but haven't tried. It can be made from PVC, ceder, scrap lumber. If you build more then one they can be wired together then sunk with cinderblocks to form a reef. An old pallet also can be used for the bottoms. The uprights about 2' tall on 12" centers. Since there are no horizontal pieces you are supposed to be able to fish thru it and a little hard to see with electronics if you don't know it's there, unless it's loaded with fish.

Baiting and chumming are legal here, but I don't know anyone that focuses on bass. I always thought it was mainly to draw in baitfish and used mostly to attract catfish, we have done that. Most souring grains will work for that purpose sorgham, maze, wheat, corn or a mixture, even things like 30% Range Cubes for cattle can be set out in buckets or sacks, cut a bunch of 1/2 inch holes in them first, however the sweeter smelling the mix is the better it works on carp. I hear putting out a Magot or "Roadkill" feeder are also supposed to work really well and might work better for bass, if you can get that close.

One thing for sure, when you do decide it's time to go, there sure isn't much risk that you will be hit by the door on your way out. Welcome back

My boat is a 16' and I have an Anchor mate on the front of it. I believe I have a 14lb. three shoveled river type anchor (not a plain mushroom) that I had previously that I use on mine. It is a little bulky when raised up and sometimes takes a pretty good amount of effort to break free when it is directly under the boat and starting to pull up off the bed and I also don't leave it on when towing the boat since I have it on a snap and it doesn't really go far enough in the Anchormate hood and just don't risk it. For most situations it holds my boat in place with plenty of line let out on our mud and clay bottomed lakes. If you fish rough water and rivers I'm not so sure if it would. I haven't tried it in a river at all in swells it may skip and drag some. Also if you go from the recomended 1/4 line to even 5/16 it greatly reduces the spooling amount. I don't think I would use a larger anchor with the Anchormate and I have thought about dropping to a 12 for the front and use the other one for the back that I just throw by hand that way I can place it where I want. By useing two it will allow you to position your boat in the water better if you need to, especially if you fish for other species of fish and would think 2 would hold it if properly set. That might depend alot on your boat too.

There are some lakes around here that they were promoteing keeping smaller bass and it was a concern that by not doing so it may have an adverse effect on some of the overall populations in the future. On local private lakes and ponds the owners may insist on it. Charlie Pack a pro/spokesman for Wal Mart and the Tadpole Foundation occassionally fishes on some of these private lakes around here on a some of his weekly TV shows. He has had to keep fish under X inches several times and states that is why on the show. I believe there are really good management and stocking programs both private and state involved in this area and if they don't view it as a problem, I don't either. I often run into older gentleman that will offer their catch to boaters, they love to fish, but have what they need already and it doesn't even seem to dawn on them to just throw them back since they still view fish mainly as a food source first and a sport 2nd. and hate to see their time and energy and a little pride in catching them to go to waste if somebody can use them. In their day throwing back a legal edible fish was unheard of and are still a big resource in some of our rual areas. I became more heavily into the catch and release aspect myself when I wasn't able to bend over long enough to clean them. I do beieve that you do need to take the specific lake population and fishing presure into consideration first before decideing what to keep. There are certain lakes however, that being seen keeping a fish maybe most emphaticly frowned apon by other fisherman, no matter what the population.

I have Microsoft Picture It I think and I can't get it too do much at all, is that an upgrade?

I would watch out if the lake is real low and you back into the existing bed, the dry looking lake bed can feel a lot harder then it acturally is. As long as you are moveing you may not have a problem, but stopping and then starting again can break thru the crust.

Let us know what you decide to get and if it works. I know if I could find something that helps it would increase my time on the water.

I don't know for sure if this has anything to do with it or not but he said he was changeing dept.s where he works and would start working a lot of hours in the very near future.

I have an 800w AC 10amp DC Honda generator that I put in the boat when camping or going for a weekend. Normaly since I carry 3 batteries I just use it to charge the one battery I am not useing at the time and usually then only when off the water and really still prefer to run a reg. battery charger off of it to get a full charge. Mine only weighs around 25# and is relatively quiet especially at lower rpm's and about 12x8x12 and runs for hours on about pint of gas. I think you will have some problems with the lawn mower rig.

Have you seen the Denny Brauer seat? It's a little high but that's the one I am thinking about getting for my back. Cabellas has it on there site. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat21276&id=0018552015951a&navCount=2&podId=0018552&parentId=cat21336&navAction=push&catalogCode=IG&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat21336&hasJS=true

If you fill the tubeing up with gas first then while holding your finger over one end, stick the other in the tank, lower the capped off end into place below the tank and take off your finger. That works probably the best especially if the tank level is low or you have a fairly high rise to draw it out where gravity takes over. The other ways I mentioned work best when there isn't a lot of air volume or the fuel doesn't have to rise much.

To start a siphen you can try tying a string midway around a piece of cloth (to make a plunger) and then pull it through the tubeing quickly (simular to cleaning a gun barrel) so that you are able to create a suction in the tube. or if you are able to seal off the tank openning (with a rag and hand preasure) around the tube blow into it to get air preasure into the tank that will push the gas out thru the tube when you quit. I personally wounldn't use any electrical motor that isn't sealed since the brushes in them can create a spark. If you can measure the tank you should be able to figure the cubic inches it will hold or if you can measure the depth of fuel in the tank useing a stick ect. that should tell you how much gas is in the tank also. Here is the link to one convertion sites. I think volume inches to gal. will work. If you do try to suck the gas out give yourself enough tubeing length to form a dip in the line, then you are able to get it started without getting it in your mouth. Over the years I have had my fair share of the taste of gas and haven't had a major problem yet. http://www.math.com/students/converters/source/volume.htm

If I read your post correctly you will only be running off of one battery at a time useing an isolating A/B switch when set to either A or B. That allows you to keep one battery as a reserve. That's the way I would probably go, and I think it would give you the most over all trouble free results especially when chargeing. The Both setting, should still be 12 volts and I don't see why you couldn't use it like that. You can hook batteries parallel A+ to B+ and A= to B= and still get 12volts. If you hook them in series A+ to B- and A= to B+ that will give you 24volts and maybe way too much voltage for your trolling motor to handle. Two problems I have found when running batteries that are linked parallel "directly" to each other is that unless they are both in relatively in the same condition the weaker battery can eventurally drain bat. life from the stronger one also over chargeing can be a problem to one battery unless you use a switch or charge them independently.