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Extra set of clothes (old frog toggs, in my case, guaranteed to cover just about anyone in the boat at need), emergency solar blanket. Neither take up any significant space, both will save a life in a pinch.

Lew's makes a 7' "ultralight" in the laser speed stick. It's really more of a light, bordering on mag light. We fish the tar out of two of them throwing Neds at summer fish, and at TR, too. Runs about $50. Great stick.

Good lord. The grocery stores still have ketchup, and hot water is essentially free. Make yourself some ersatz tomato soup instead.

We saw your boat for sale about the same time we bought ours. Ours is a bare bones 16' Lowe, Merc 25 with a stainless on the back. Lot of room to play with mods. And it's our #2 ride, so nothing is urgent. It's completely fishable now. But you know how it starts...

😂

I've had a bow trim switch giving me fits in the Ranger for a solid 10 years. Hit the don't care point with it, after spelunking around after it. Love the lights, btw. I'd full on slap an alien sticker on it.

It does, especially if we're talking about a full on bow mount. Thought perhaps we could work around it between the flexibility of the transom mount clamp bracket, and the fabricated mount. Plus a ton of shims 😉.

If I didn't have a 521 in the garage, I might, lol. This is just our summer puddle jumper.

Getting back to working on our tin boat. Overall very fishable, but the boy wants a removable floor (easy). Also looking at putting a bow plate up front, maybe putting a TM up there. Looking at two options for the plate. Roughed out a couple templates last night. Option 1: full plate of 3/4" plywood (resin coated, painted, carpeted) mounted on top the gunnels and bow handle. Planning to rivet angle aluminum to the gunnels or hull, bolt the plate to those. Option 2: a smaller plate, flush fit. First option provides a lot more space for cleats, light, perhaps a bow mount TM. Does have a gap because of the height of the bow handle (welded on). Second looks a lot cleaner. Still provides mounting space. Putting a bow mount on will require drilling and bolting through the bow handle either way. We have two transom mount TMs. Looking at putting the longer one up front on a fabricated mount for now. That would also be easier with the first version. Overall length of the plate is negotiable. Both have space for a 25" TM mount, which would hang my 36v on it 😂🤣😂🤣. Input welcomed.

Actually warmed up this afternoon. He must have gone across the river to KC.

If it's at all like the jika, it will fold up on itself on the drop, and be a nice option for pole timber and deep trees. Interesting stuff.

Seems like a reworked jika rig.

Say, about that...

That is a fact. And why it's worth every cent.

And winter drawdowns

Yep.

Should have ended this with "Vern", I guess. 😂

Big rods and big line are just around the corner.

It gets a weird look as it's backing up. Hard to explain to anyone who hasn't seen it.

Some of us are made of sterner stuff 😉

All you had to do was talk about coming home and the skies cut loose up here.

It's creepy when it does that. Could see it a little on Monday. Nothing beats that day in 2017 when they cancelled the Tyson derby.

I understand this completely.

It explains why all the bad weather goes south of us up here.

I use a ball style shakey head. We pour them without the screw lock, and with an EWG style Mustad hook, specifically for the stupid tube. Might not work with a Tender Tube. We run them with flip tubes, generally. Easiest way to rig it is to just make a slit on what will be the bottom of the tube, put the head in and through, and super glue it in and shut. Then TX rig the hook. We also use wire guard heads on our tubes. Those hook up a little better than the stupids. Fish will eat a tube all the way to their tail, especially as you get into post spawn in May and June. Maybe the worst of all baits about that. Only thing close is a split shot with a doctor or fry.