fishinwrench

I have faith that you'll be happy with it. I would be.

April Vokey had a video right below yours ..... what was yours about again?

Make sure you get a good trailer with it (that will be tricky at the price range you are talking). Pontoons are no fun to tow, even on the best fitted trailers. 24ft. is a comfortable and capable size, powered by a 70 - 115 hp. Try to stay with Lowe or Landau if possible. There will be alot of Trackers in your price range and they are good boats if they've been taken care of but there's a noticeable quality difference (under the deck). U-shaped toons are preferable to round "pill shaped" toons. Check the water line stain on the toons, the higher and more level it floats the better, and you can tell at a glance by the stain line.

How much ocean floor do folks with coastal property own?

As glorious as it might be in your dreams, no amount of money should be capable of buying a river, and no one "family" should be allowed to own one. Not even a short stretch of one. The rivers and the sky are not on the market. If they were then a landowner could survey and sell just his/her stretch of riverbed....Has that ever been done, or even tried?

It IS a fact that there'd be darn few (like None) loud, drunk & rowdy river partys if the participants had to use and shuttle their own boats. And it appears that it is the partying on gravel bars that upsets landowners the most. No?

Moss/gold, never lawn casted or stepped on, fished 4 times in cold water last Winter, looks and feels as good as new. Have original box/spool. No prob if you wanna buy something else, it was just a thought since I wished I had gotten the Grand instead when it wouldn't load the rod worth a crap when shortlining.

Wanna trade even-up for a RIO Gold wf-6-F (moss/gold) in the same condition? It's just a tad light for my St.Croix LU906

Beautiful man! Love the stippling, it gives a really cool effect. Gimme a white belly with 3 shades of yellow and my confidence is "with it" bigtime.

Yeah..... I dunno 'bout all that "Best" chest beating going on up there ^^^, but "busiest" is probably still true. From what I know the guiding business out of the two "lodges" is more like a babysitting gig. (Send dad and junior out fishing for a couple hours while Mom's at her meeting). Not that there's anything wrong with that if the guide has the patience for it. Helping someone catch fish that doesn't really even want to is a friggin drag! And anyone that can keep doing that crap all year just to stay busy deserves to showboat their number of deposits.

I did it for a long time but I don't anymore, not when I'm out fishing anyway. I just figure that I've done more than my share over the years and I'm not as energetic as I used to be.....so it's all up to you young studs now I have to give credit either to the general public in my area, the floods, or the ones still diligently doing the picking up....but I don't see near the amount of trash on the rivers that I frequent than I used to. Even on our local Stream Team stretch it was hard to fill a single bag recently. Bravo!

That pattern appears to be statewide right now. Sounds like it! Well done.

2 men are in a truck going down a Missouri country road. The driver of the truck is from Missouri, the passenger is from Texas. A deer goes across the road 200 feet in front of them, and the Texan asks what it is. The Missouri man says "It's a deer, of course". The Texan says, "I didn't recognize it because in Texas, the deer are the size of a buffalo, everything is bigger in Texas". Later, they pass a turkey,and the Texan again asks what it is, and the Missouri man again states what the animal is. The Texan says "That puny thing is a turkey?" A few miles later there's a 2-ft. wide snapping turtle in the road, and the Texan says "Woah, what the hell is THAT"? Missouri man says....."it's a tick"

I hope that you're right. If that's the case then the fishermen and the river party'ers together far outnumber river front land owners and as a whole pay more in taxes annually. Therefore we (the river users) will have it our way when it's all said and done. The party-float crowd is not as passionate about the rivers as the fishermen are though, or they'd make it to the river more than once/twice a year....NOBODY is THAT busy. I'm still betting that they'd cry harder over a closed mall or a favorite restaurant than they would a closed river.

The FICHT engines really are awesome, as are all the 2.4-2.5 Mercs in both carb and EFI configuration. If there wasn't this assumption that they all need to be rigged on a jackplate, with a hotfoot, and propped to turn 62-6500 rpm max, and operated by mid 20 to mid 30 year old wannabe hotrodders then the reputation those pieces of machinery have would be way WAY better. The Trans am was an awesome CAR too, but look at where they all ended up..... (Wrapped around trees).

The part about river rights that chaps my @$$ is that fishermen who drift the river quietly and do not alter the atmosphere of it much... are forced to take the same side as loud, splashing, screaming and shouting party crowds. The MDC will escort you off one of their (our) accesses if you are involved in a bigtime PAR'TAY! on a MDC access gravel bar, will they not? Having the right to be there shouldn't mean having the right to create as much noise and disturbance as you possibly can. If and when anything goes before the courts that involves river/stream access there needs to be some separation between those seeking to maintain legal access to them. You shouldn't have to allow free-roaming partys in order to allow fishing. And you can bet your hind end that there won't be a single party floater doing any legwork to secure river access rights.

For the most part all 2 cylinder/2stroke outboards are fairly bulletproof, the reason being because a problem with ONE cylinder results in a very noticeable problem and has to be dealt with immediately if the motor is to be used. A 4+ cylinder powerhead can have one cylinder failing yet the engine will still produce enough power to continue using it...... and that's what pays my bills

You are "encouraged" to have a wearable PFD in a canoe, but it isn't "required". Same for motorboats under 16ft. And a big THANK YOU to Lowe for making their 16' jons actually measure 15'10"

Yeah, the 90-115 4 cylinder-4 carb Mercs are plagued with repeated hole shot and ignition/charging system problems. The design was centered around fuel economy and smooth idle (which it accomplished) but they are definitely one of Mercury's "dogs". I would own one, but only because I understand them well and know how to recognize and rectify problems early. If you keep pushing them when something just "isn't quite right" it'll cost you. The most dependable earlier model ('80's-mid 90's) outboards in that HP class are the V4 Johnson/Evinrudes...with exception to the 140 which is basically a factory hotrodded 115 (stay away from that one).

There ya have it. It's all fun & games until the "weapons" come out. I'm sure he'll claim self defense cuz the guy threw a rock at him.

It's a grass carp

I think you might have tossed away a world record Chub. Naw, that's a Grassie.

Might as well it seems. LOL

Yeah not long after this thread was started. I know I know......Phil doesn't have a problem with what Adley is doing. Ok.

More times than not I've had the bite go from "slow" to "worse" when a big cloud blows over. I can't say whether it's the loss of direct sunlight or just because something changed. In my mind I see river Smallmouth as mid-day pretty weather fish more often than not. And that goes for all 4 seasons. They are the true "sunfish" IMO.