lew

Thanks for that link doubleheader, it's some interesting stuff. I'm always extremely cautious whenever I'm breaking in a new motor of any kind and follow the instructions very carefully.

Thanks again folks !! Yup, Diane packed her job in permanentely last month Moe, so we'll be able to stay at the lake full time now. I told her the boat was her retirement present

Thanks boyz, I'm lookin forward to hitting the water with it. Ziki, the old boat has been sold brifishrgy, I only toll for muskies so I won't need the small motor and will stick with the 150

Nuthin worse than buying a new boat in February and not getting it till May, but the happy day finally arrived and I picked it up yesterday from Hastings Marine. They did an excellent job of rigging everything exactly the way I wanted it and the covers I ordered turned out fantastic. I kept my Globalmap 7200 GPS and one color Lowrance sonar from my old boat for the consol, plus bought another identical sonar for the bow. There's also a factory installed flasher in the dash board but I doubt if I'll ever use it. It was nice too cause the boat comes pre-rigged with a shoot thru hull transducer so I didn't have to worry about installing any skimmers on the back of the boat. Theres a couple temp sensors factory installed on the transom so that'll give me my temp readings I also ordered the new 62" Fortrex bowmount, a MinnKota onboard charger and went with a 13 3/4 X 19 Yamaha stainless prop. This is the mooring / travel cover And the full stand-up top The Fortrex And the SS I'm really happy with the new ride and hopefully everything works out as well as I hope. Diane and I are heading to the lake next Friday and we'll be gone till November so I'm gonna get lots of time to put it thru it's paces

VERY nice Fishnwire, unbelievably generous offer That's what it's all about !!

Can't say fer sure how deep they are right now Stoty, but in 2 weeks we'll be getting them anywhere freom 8-12', so that should be a good depth for you to try. Blue/clear/orange Long "A"s trolled about 100' back from the boat have always proved to work best for me after dark. The pickeral usually stay active till around 11 or 12 at night then shut right down.

VERY well said Dave

Stoty, long line 6" minnow baits close to shore after dark......then go collect your prizes

I actually kinda like the show for the fact that it's not all flash & spam like so many of the other fishing shows that are on to tube these days. Always seems to me to be sorta slow paced & easy going and more like a normal fishing trip than an infomercial.

Best of luck sonny and hopefully you have an excellent trip. Just be sure to leave a few in the Bay for those of us who won't be there for another 2 weeks yet.

Being as this will also be a long weekend, it could be a very tough drive with all the traffic for anybody trying to get up there on the Friday.

Make sure the wheel wrench for your car wheels will fit the lug nuts on your boat trailer wheels, because very often they don't, and you don't want to find that out when your sitting on the side of the hiway somewhere.

Gerry, it's a low angle ramp with cement patio stones leading into the water, then it's a firm dirt bottom once you get in the water, but you shouldn't have any problems. You might want to call Lakair early though.....like now..... and see if you can reserve a dock for your boat. If you read the start of this thread, you'll see where our mods have changed the normal date for this trip and now were gonna have to share the facilities with another large group of people, so docking space could be at a premium, if available at all. Our normal weekend was wide open, but now that we'll be there with the other group, things could be VERY crowded, unfortunately.

The Odyssee was excellent Brian, infact it gets better every year. A bunch of us met for breakfast at 7, then most of us stayed right thru until the show ended at 6 and then we closed the day out with supper and headed home about 8PM There were some excellent speakers, including Larry Ramsell, Bob Mehsikomer and Arron Shirley who all put on some really interesting seminars. There were many retailers there too and they had an incredible assortment of musky tackle, infact if you couldn't find a bait you were looking for, you probably didn't need it. Dale McNair was also there with the replica mount of the monster musky he got on the Larry last November and I hafta tell ya, the pictures of that brute don't even come close to showing just how big that fish really was. I spent a fair bit of time talking to Dale and we've made tentative plans to hook up this season and see if we can put a couple muskies in the boat together. If anybody has any interest in musky fishing at all, they should definetely take in the Odyssee when it comes back again in 2 years.

Get yourself some square vinyl eavestrough and cut it to the lengths you need and put them inside your bag. It makes for a decent tackle box for big lures.

That motor will work great for your boat Mike and this will show you how to hook up the 2 deep cycles for your 24 volt set-up. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/template...requestid=49312

Is that because you like old cheddar, or do you just wanna get fat ??

Might make it easier for folks to recommend an installer if you told us where you live Ontario's a pretty BIG place

Always a thermos of coffee for the morning trips and like Radnine, there's always a couple boxes of cereal bars in the boat too. I never leave the dock without a gallon jug of water and if it's gonna be a long day, there'll be a few cans of COKE on ice, along with a bag of samiches and usually some cheeze too. I normally come back to the dock weighing about 3 pounds more than when I left it

Happy Anniversay to you and your lovely bride, Brian !!

Good stuff Meely, didn't know if you were gonna make it or not.

This post brings back lotsa great memories. Back in the 50's & 60's my grandparents had a waterfront home on the west side of Simcoe about 1 mile south of the Narrows and my bro & I had a little 6' wooden punt with a 3HP motor (Evinrude I think) and we'd putt putt putt up to the Narrows every weekend in the spring for those perch and then bring em back for a huge feast. Course we spent 1/2 the day just travelling up & back with that little 3HP

Terry, POLLIWOG & express 168, great ideas from all of you and something I never even considered before today. Yes I do have rails, so I could go for the fixed mount radio for the better service, and then possibly just store the antenna for when it's needed. There's a panel just below the guages on the right hand side of the steering wheel that may be for a VHF as the AM/FM is located in another spot and I'll have a look in there when I pick up the boat next week. This may work out well after all.

Thanks Emile, if I do decide to go with a fixed mount unit, Lowrance will definetely be one I'll be looking at . I've already got 2 Lowrance sonars plus a GPS and am very satisfied with their products. I was hoping to go with a portable because I just don't want to drill any holes in the new glass boat for an antenna, but I'll see what I come up with.

Couple interesting links there fellas, thanks. I'm heading up towards Radioworld in the next week or so and will drop in and have a look at everything that's available.