Talked to the Alumacraft factory. Rod tubes can be removed will take out the front speaker and push the top 3 back and then see what I have to work with for room.

If I have to I can cut an access hole but if I can work within the speaker hole I may go that route. This might be one of the times my long arms pay off.

My boat is old enough it doesn’t have alumatrack.

I was just about to say the same thing about my time at Bemidji

Eric,

The fuse looked OK but once I swapped it the tilt and trim and starter worked. Thanks for the Help!

Good question and I did confirm it is fully charged.

My son wrecked a trip to Devils Lake ND pining away for his girlfriend. When he got back she played mind games for the rest of the summer. He finally woke up lost a whole summer of fishing.

You are 16 there are lots of young ladies out there so enjoy the fishing, spend some time sorting through the ladies but keep in mind that you have a lot of time to find the right one.

With all the young ladies hunting and fishing these days I think you are going to have a lot of fun.

Randy,

thanks I will have to try that email. I used the email link of their website and it bounced back with an invalid email address. I also had an old one for Wade which bounced back I will compare what you gave me to what I used.

chris

Fished the pool 4 FLW event in April. I learned a ton from the pro the first day. The second day my pro didn’t have much experience river fishing. Definitely worth the experience just to see pool 4 for the first time.

My plan is pretty much what Mike West posted, see what the schedule looks like and consider signing up as a co on the water that interests you.

One thing to keep in mind is that there is a limited number of co angler slots. I was number 11 singed up for Red Wing and didn’t know for sure that I was going to fish until the week before.

I’m going to have self image problems if you keep adding to my weight.

I have a 185 TS with the Yamaha F150 on it. To me the difference in the Navigator/Trophy/Tournament Sport is how the storage/room is used. Trophy higher sides and a little bit narrower gunwale storage. Navigator much more overall room in the cockpit but give up a little depth in storage. The TS has wider gunwale storage and isn’t quite as high sided as the Trophy and doesn’t have the jump seats or Bimini top.

Got mine at Lacannes great deal service OK. They crushed the price of any of the Alumacraft dealers who had the boat I wanted here in WI.

I have mine loaded to the gills with gear and a T8 kicker and I get about 44mph wide open with it trimmed for max speed. I can pick up a couple more MPH running a stainless prop but that is plenty fast for me.

Having the extra horsepower is nice because that motor doesn’t have to work so hard to get decent speed. If you keep the RPM in the right range you can get decent cruise speed and economy.

Does Gander even carry trolling rods in the retail locations anymore or is it just the online/catalog channel where you can get them?

The Madison WI store had maybe 3 trolling rods in stock period when I was looking a few weeks ago. The guy in fishing said they had no control over inventory so he was pretty skeptical that they would be restocked this year.

I’m pretty happy with my 4′ Shakespeare “little giant”. I’m sure its not as good as an 8′ but its size is more manageable on my 18’5′ boat.

Kev,
Some how I figured you would chime in. Good suggestion, we’ll see what Frabill has to say.

My son caught one a little better than 43″ out on Devils Lake ND this summer and it went 17.4 pounds though it wasn’t nearly as girthy as the one you are holding.

I wouldn’t be afraid to say 17 or 18 pounds on that fish its a beauty.

Gotta love those big pike.

Hope you guys never run into a hog nose snake. If they don’t run they usually do one of two things. Flatten out, puff up and their heads rear up hiss like you can’t believe and strike. Reminds you of a cobra. The thing is I don’t know that I have ever seen one actually open its mouth when it strikes. Its just a show. If that doesn’t work they usually roll over on their back let off an awful smell and dislocate their jaws playing dead. Roll it back right side up and it and flips over on its back again.

I won’t even go into what my mother did when one I caught as a kid got loose in the house ended up in the kitchen and it used tactic number one on her.

Thanks for the heads up. I will give Justin a call and see what he has to say.

Chris

Careful just because you work at DOC doesn’t mean you get to harass those of us who actually hit puberty.

I went ahead and called MinnKota again right before I was going to send the IPilot to MN and they said to just send the I Pilot in. I used USPS priority had it to them on a Friday and had a new I Pilot sitting on my doorstep the following Wednesday.

Thanks Minnkota

Most of the time with a newly set up tank it is ammonia and nitrates that kill the fish. THe ammonia works on the gills. Others have written about getting that positive bacteria cycle going. That bacteria actually works on the ammonia and converts it to something less toxic for the fish (memory problem this morning).

If you absolutely have to put fish in immediately then its best to make sure you have as large a volume of water as possible and do regular water changes of 10-20% every couple of days, adding conditioner to avoid all the goodies that can be added to the water like flouride and chlorine.

If you have the fish somewhere with lots of light sometimes throwing in some live plants helps but goldfish love to eat plants which means more waste in the water. If you can get them past the first couple months and establish the bacteria cycle to deal with the waste from the fish then you are usually in good shape.

Remember when you rinse that gravel and clean the bowl you are killing all that bacteria which converts the waste to something the fish can handle easier. So save a few cups of that gravel with the bacteria in it when ever you clean the tank. It will help restart that bacteria cycle quicker.

If you are actually running a fiter then this gets easier because you probably aren’t going to tear the tank down and clean it as much. Remember you want to keep that bacteria cycle going. So don’t clean the filter and rinse out all the gravel.

I will give the motor clinic a call thanks for the heads up on that outfit.

I have one normal child and three daughters. They are closing in on the age where this stuff is becoming more common. Great stuff!

If you are looking to get certified in project management I would suggest you look at PMI certification. I work in IT and the technology changes so quickly that I would be real leary of learning a process/methodology that was tightly coupled to a specific technology.

In the last five years where I work we have dabbled in RUP, Agile with scrum and an in house flavor of SDLC.

I sent you a message with my phone number so we can talk.

Fished out of Rainbow Park on the 21st and we caught all we cared to clean. We fished up toward Winnebago and caught most on flies.

They are remodeling the local Gander here in Madison. Per the guys I have gotten to know in the fishing section they are cutting down on the retail area for fishing and guns making way for their academy and moving the indoor archery. The balance of the retail area lost is being taken up by the back room/storage lost making room for the academy. Before the remodeling they severely discounted a bunch of products to get them out of the way.

I don’t know if their merchandising practices will change but what I have seen in the last year is that the local store has cut way back on selection and appears to be focusing on specific brands with the Gander house brand featuring very prominently. If you want a reel right now the selection of anything that isn’t Gander is fairly limited. Yes they have some Shimano, a few Abu, an Ardent or Lews, maybe a quantum but it’s very limited. The rod selection is pretty anemic as well. When I questioned what was going on I was told that most of the ordering is being done at the corporate level with certain percentages of the total order allocated out to the various stores. When those items sold it is very difficult to get new stock from corporate.

I am not making excuses or complaining just passing along what I learned from the guys behind the counter. Right now the local Gander’s inventory leaves a bit to be desired but knowing they planned to do all this remodeling I bet they limited their buying to save on the cost of inventory sitting around or that they might have had to discount to get out of the way of remodeling.

Maybe it will get better maybe not. In the Madison area we have a few other places like D&S and Dorn to shop that do a lot for the fishing community and I usually try to give them a long hard look and shot at my business too plus when need bait I know it will be there and in good shape.

No big ones last night. My son and I took my twin girls out. One of the girls has never caught a channel cat and the sibling rivalry is strong in those two. Four hours of running around but finally found a hot spot. She can cross keeping up with sis on Cats off the list. Biggest one was 11 pounds. Mission accomplished both girls caught a couple. We boated 9 wiffed on 4 or 5 more. Had one break 15 pound power pro, must have been nicked or something.

Kev,

Cut sucker. Tried crawlers and stink bait but no action on either. I thought I saw a boat like yours but the motor didn’t look quite right so I didn’t want to crowd them to say hi. Have you been out yet?

If the weather cooperates I am going to take my twin girls out this weekend and see if we can get a couple more to cooperate.

Yep that is a glove. I have a bunch of stitches in my hand so that explains the sissy gear. One of us didn’t get the net in the boat so we were grabbing them by hand.

Size 15 pumps are hard to find, even in Madison

first two of the year for us. 13.25 pounds and 16 pounds

Please count me in.

Does lakemaster plan to fix the map in pool 9 where the area below the dam is covered by a “polygon” their term? Will there be any sort of discount or upgrade program for trading in chips with the problem?