Haris122

Can you elaborate on which level you're talking about slanting it down past?

The tires apparently can carry about 2400 lbs/ per tire max (granted that's with the tires at higher pressure too). With the curb-weight at 4120 lbs or so, divided by the 4 tires, makes it 1030 lbs per tire already (if weight were equally distributed, which is most likely not quite the case), I feel like another 1000 lbs/(~500lbs per rear tire) should still be doable (especially since the rear tires should even have less weight on them at curb weight with the bed being lighter than the front) with almost another 900 lbs to spare per tire. At least that's how it seems to me. That being said, I still don't know the weight on the rear axle at curb weight, and I don't know how much of an effect that has. Which is why I feel it's really dumb to list the max payload only, IF the GAWR for the rear axle is the more important consideration in this.

So this is not so much a fishing related question, as much as a general use question, but I've been having a heck of a time finding out anything really clearly explained about this, so I figured I ask you guys about it as well since you guys seem to know your trucks well. About a month ago I finally bought me a new car, a 2017 2WD GMC Canyon with the 3.6L V6 and automatic locking rear differentials. So far been very happy with it. However, even after reading through the manual I am still not really sure of how much weight I can actually put in the truck bed, and yet still be within the "safe" limits listed on the door. The GVWR for this truck is 5700 lbs.Curb weight seems to be somewhere in the 4100-4200 lbs range (I found the figure of 4158 lbs mentioned but doing the math with the payload max it would make more sense if it's something like 4120 lbs actually, in either case I'm not splitting hairs over less than 50lbs). Front Axle GAWR is 3200 lbs. Rear Axle GAWR is 3500 lbs. Max Payload capacity is listed as 1581 lbs. So far so good I guess. Subtract my weight, the weight of my stuff in the cab, and any passengers from the 1581 lbs, and that should ideally tell me how much else I can have in the confines of the entire truck. But here's the thing that throws me off, how does the location of the truck bed as far as axles are concerned, factor into this. the 1581 lbs is from what I understand across the entire body of the truck, is it not? The truck bed though seems to pretty much be centered over the rear tires, and hence mainly the rear axle, correct? It sounds like I couldn't just subtract the weight of the "contents" of the cab from those 1581 lbs and assume that's the weight that I can load into the bed. Would I actually need a close approximation of just how much weight of the empty truck is sitting on the rear axle, and then subtract that from the rear axle GAWR, in order to find how much more I can put in the bed? And if so, why wouldn't the GVWR be higher since the two axle ratings combined add up to more than the listed GVWR? Where is my understanding of this flawed? Could I actually just subtract the cab contents weight from max payload weight and be within safe operating loads if I let's say load up enough bags of concrete in the bed, that I then hover around that max payload, even if 70-80% of that max weight is just in the truck bed? I would assume if the axle weight distribution idea is the right way to get a good maximum safe payload in the bed portion alone, that it would actually be listed somewhere in the manual cause there's no way I know how much weight sits on that axle as is, if they don't actually tell me that. Yet at the same time it seems to make more sense to me than just assuming I can put 75% of the max payload, in the truck bed and be good to go. Thanks in advance for any help in making this more clear to me.

What's the furthest upstream you've caught them regularly Smalliebigs? And what depth diving cranks would you suggest for them, or do you get them all over the spectrum of depth?

What have you guys caught them on the most in the lower Meramec?

Oh ok. Well, I think that's still probably a record on here as far as remote places. How long was the flying?

Anyone been there recently. I didn't make it up there at all last year, but am hoping to this year at some point.

By Christmas Island, you mean the one where a ton of crabs go on a migration across the island? Or is this one somewhere else?

Thanks guys. I like the open bed too, I just feel like it'd be nice to have the camper shell just so I can put stuff in the bed, and not worry about it getting wet, or someone just grabbing stuff out of it. My dad has one of those folding bed covers, I think that would be my 2nd choice. Not as much stuff you could put in, but it's cheaper too. So then I guess as far as the red flag goes when you load the kayak, it doesn't have to be 5 feet from where the tailgate is when it's up, just 5 feet from wherever the tailgate ends if down, before you need the red flag?

I ended up getting me an extended cab truck with the 6 foot bed. To my surprise, with the tailgate down, I'd have almost 8 feet of supporting surface to work with, which i think is going to be plenty for even the 12 foot kayak, once I strap it down good. Still will need a red flag or something, but that's no big deal. This one also has the rectangular tow hitch thing anyways, so if I would need the extender at some point, I wouldn't need to get anything special done to the car before I buy it, but i doubt I will really need it. Now it's just a matter of finding enough room in the back of the cab for all my stuff. Hopefully I won't miss the crew cab option for that aspect too much. I had even found a good deal on a lone crew cab one with the longer 6 foot bed (I don't get why they're so rare compared to the 5 foot crew cab ones but whatever), but opted for the extended cab one instead, cause the monthly payment with that one would've approaching the top of my "ceiling". Maybe at some point I'll get a camper shell for it too, and then I'd be really set.

That's a good point with the dragging up a slope. I guess I just wouldn't extend it far out. Btw how does that work for your kayak, do you put it diagonally across the bed or something? I'm assuming if you strapped it straight back it'd be 5 1/2 of bed, maybe 1 1/2 of tailgate, so would it not stick out about another 4 1/2 feet if straight back? The problem with the track rack is weight. My heavy kayak weighs like 100 pounds and is kind of cumbersome to get leverage on. A big reason I wanted a truck is so I don't have to bother with lifting it all the way up on the roof any more. How far is the canoe sticking out of the back? I figure with my smaller one it won't be an issue, but my bigger kayak is like 12' long, and if the truck I get is 5 foot bed, or even 6 foot bed, there's still going to be like 6-5 foot of kayak sticking out of the back. Seems kind of like more sticking out than is really safe, even if it's well secured. How far would you guys be comfortable with a kayak sticking out of the bed without the extender? Also, would it be feasible to use one of those combo ball hitch/rectangular piece extensions to instead of attaching it to the main tow thing, just use it the reversed way, to where the hitch attaches to near the license plate, and the metal piece sticks out away from the car, so the extender can attach to it? Btw, what i consider the extension might be the hitch receivers you guys mention. I don't know the proper terms for it.

I had a question on truck hitches and kayak/load extenders. I was looking at some light trucks, and one of the better deals I've come across, doesn't have the traditional rectangular tow package hitch thing going. There's basically just a cutout section to install a ball-hitch, near the license plate, as opposed to that. Now granted I know that means it can't haul as much, which is not as much of an issue for me since I don't think I will be hauling much. But I do have one long kayak, and it would stick out quite a bit out of the bed. So to remedy that, the extender bars would help and make things still pretty nice and affordable. However, my question is, if I can only attach the hitch through that cutout by the license plate, are there truck bed extenders that I can actually use, or am I SOL with that style.

I've been meaning to get back out there lately.

Met up with Mike H on Tuesday to fish lake 35. We fished it from mid afternoon to near closing time. It was way too windy. I got 4 bass, but only 1 was of any decent size. Mike H was throwing flies for Musky and towards the evening saw one follow too, but it didn't commit.

Ok, I just found the rankings on midstate illinois bass anglers facebook page, and you're right. Is it normal there's that many boats that don't catch anything either though? I saw 48 teams listed, only 18 of which had any weights listed. Does that mean the rest of them didn't bring anything to the weigh-ins aka didn't catch any?

Cool, thanks.

The technique itself is a tried and true crappie tactic, how I applied that might be a different story, but it worked for me on a good number of occasions in the past. Not that crappie was all I was targeting. Do jighead and tube under slip bobber in the 8-15 feet or more range work a lot less effectively than they do shallower in general or something? As far as it being on fire, that's hard to buy. All day Saturday, there was only 1 time we saw anybody catch something. And I can't say we saw anyone slaying any crappie either. Where do they have the weights and rankings for that tournament posted? I'd like to look that over.

Not all that far. Feel like it was a little over an hour and a half from where my buddy with the boat lives, from Festus it would be even closer if you go the way we went. We crossed the Mississippi near Chester Illinois, so it was pretty much straight down south on 55 for a little under an hour, then get off around St. Mary's, take some smaller roads to the bridge, and then drive down south along route 3 for another half hour, basically.

I went to Kinkaid along with two of my fishing buddies this past weekend and it sucked. It's been getting more and more difficult for us to find days when all 3 of us can go, so despite the poor forecast weather-wise, we decided to follow through with it that weekend. I think both days we started out from the main boat ramp (the one by the Marina). First day we went a little bit all over, the 2nd day we mainly stuck east (wrote west at first) of that ramp. Neither day was any good to be honest. First day I finally got an average sized green sunfish well into the afternoon on a crappie tube and jighead, and then my one buddy that owns the boat later on got a 12" crappie on a minnow. The next day the wind was much calmer which made things a little easier. The same buddy that got the crappie the day before, got another, small one on minnows by some docks, and then my other buddy that didn't catch anything the day before, got 2 nice ones, one a 11", and the other a 14", on minnows, and lost a black-nose one by the boat. I completely struck out that day. Given the reputation of the lake, I was expecting somewhat better fishing despite the weather, but that didn't happen.

Anyone know if the boats are out yet at Busch?

I stopped at Unger Park yesterday evening, and fished the lake for 2 or so hours. I decided to try out the lake first for a little while, even though I wasn't holding my breath as I rarely catch anything there. If nothing came of it, I was going to go over to the river after an hour or so. Water was too murky to give me much hope fishing lures, but I was fine with bait fishing anyhow, so in I tossed some shrimp, and hoped for the best. Maybe half an hour in, something hit the shrimp and briefly took off, then stopped, and took off again. By the second time it took off, I was by the rod, and set the hook, and got to reeling. I knew whatever it was, it was a strong fish. After a couple of minutes of it dogging against the medium heavy action rod, I got it to shore and saw a nice chunky Channel or Blue Cat on the other end of my line. It wasn't a monster by most standards, being only maybe 2 foot long, but with a very wide fat head and body, it was definitely one of my bigger catfish and fish in general. It was my best quality fish that I got out of that lake.

Just jigs with tubes on it, under a slip bobber.

Not much of a report, but I fished Lake 35 a couple times over the past few weeks and have found some crappie from the "dam". Not a motherload of them but got into 3 or 4 both times in a relatively short amount of time.

Nice. How long were you down there Seth? I was looking to see if I would recognize you but I must have overlooked you as I headed further downstream to find a fairly roomy spot to position myself in. It took me all day to squeeze out a limit’s worth of trout, and I let the first and last of those go at that.

Even though it's nearing 2am, I'm still hoping to make it down there in the morning sometime.