SlowPoke

Another reason for leaders is to protect the fish when they roll themselves up in 'em. I use 80lb fluoro for muskie because of the diamater. If you're going to use steel leaders, have an eye out for the nylon coated ones. The coating also helps prevent them kinking. There is no good reason not to use a leader for pike. As mentioned before, they're not line-shy.

I have no idea what "the point" of this thread is but I thought I'd give it a bump incase someone else knows!

If you were only to run riggers, probably not a problem. Trolling setups usually work like this to avoid tangles: Deepest lines, shortest leads close to the boat. Shallowest lines, longest leads furthest away from the boat. You typically run riggers to get deep. If they're mounted towards the front, when you retrieve it will tangle with any other line behind it. Not to mention the cable scars in the side of your boat from turning. I think you should stick with conventional mounting methods to avoid heartache.

It's a 42" shaft, not likely long enough for a bowrider.... more for a bass boat.

Cable or electric steer should be the first question, then determine shaft length, then find out if you have room for three batteries. If it were my boat (providing it had room for the batts), I'd pick a 36v 101 lb Terrova with iPilot and 60" shaft.

Indeed, I paid less than the current CTC sale price about 4 years ago when it was still fresh on the market.

The 600LC is great but a fair way outside of the prices you quoted. Penn 209LC for $69 - This is a lifetime reel but certainly lacks the polish of the Tekota. Small investment; you get what you pay for and then some more! Bullet proof and great drag. http://www.cabelas.com/p-0052600122686a.shtml

The 76 is a good unit. My gripe is the computer interface and CD software installation routine. If you don't intend buying lake maps and just want it for waypoints and speed, it's terrific. When you bring maps into the equation, there are better units out there that will accept chips instead of downloading off a CD. I sold mine when it became redundant after buying a Lowrance sonar/gps combo. Sometimes I wish I still had it for the portability.

It came with a gunwale mount bimini and I can count on one hand how many times I've used it. There have been times on those hot days where I wished I had brought it however! I really like the T-Top's and leaning posts but I don't think it would look proportional on my 18'er. Here's an 18'er with one... It looks much better on a bigger boat.

I'll admit, you had me stumped for a while there. I can't mention what I thought you were talking about which led me to wonder 'how did he find out about that?' Funny you should mention that. If you look really close at the hatch latches, they say Lund. Percher gave them to me when he swapped his for locking latches. As for the console; multiple choice response, pick one I have to keep it; A ) it's the only thing holding up the steering wheel. B ) it keeps it from looking like a rental boat. C ) it buys me some time when a rod goes off and the person at the front has to go around it.

Thanks for all the great compliments; they really are appreciated! I'm happy with the outcome and will enjoy the extra real estate and storage! Would I do it again? Not with aluminium. It was costly and really time consuming with the extra bracing and all that drilling and tapping. I didn't tally the cost of aluminium rivits, stainless steel truss screws and ny-lock nuts but it would be in the neighbourhood of $250. I'm glad I did it but I won't realize the benefit of never having to do it again, I won't live long enough! When I ran the motor in the driveway this June it was slow to start peeing so I did just that. I think the impeller is shot and I was able to coax it with the assistance of hose pressure. I'm going to replace the impeller this week. If that solves the problem, great! If not, it was overdue for replacing anyway. It's a special order from Home Depot and takes 7-10 days to get in. It's made by Ducan and the style is Dek-Master. The colour is West Coast Grey. The material and colour are 100% match to the original vinyl. How lucky is that?? I don't remember the price off hand but somewhere in the neighbourhood of $10-$12/ per running foot at 72" wide. It's very easy to work with; cuts nice, stretches for curves etc. I used 3M Super77 spray glue. In hindsite, using the Ducan adhesive may have been cheaper. I used 4 cans at $12+ each. There are several colours, patterns and thicknesses available: http://www.ducan.com/vinyl-sundeck/color-samples.php Did you call? email? text? send a smoke signal? Nooooooooooo! You remind of those guys that say "You should have told me you were buying a widget, I know a guy giving one away!" Just a little late there pal!

Great report and some really cool pictures! You guys should have maxxed out your motor, it seems the fish are outrunning you!

Scarry stuff! I think nothing of getting bit, just a flinch or swat it away. I'll pay more attention next time; knowing what bit you may have saved you.

First off I'd like to thank everybody that kept me fishing while my boat was under reconstruction. MrEh, percher, icefisherman, jjcanoe, memart, the guy that picked me up hitchhiking at the end of the pier and I'm probably forgetting a few more. It's been a while. That leads me to my second point. If you guys weren't so generous with your fishing invitations, maybe I would have been finished long ago! You bunch of ! On with the reno... I had the boat for a few years telling people where is was okay to seat and safe to stand. It was time to do something about it. Some 'before' pictures The helm patch Clutter Wasted space between the Tsunami seat and casting deck Ummm, a biopsy? "Doc, is it serious?" "Im sorry sir, we'll have to remove it." My interns Casting deck removed Vinyl removed, plywood soaked Plywood removed Floatation foam soaked At this point I thought there was no point in putting a new floor over soaked foam. It added a substantial amount of work and cost to the job but I feel a lot better for having done it properly. I bumped into Goran wearing his forklift suit. Thanks again for the aluminium bud, you were able to save me a few bucks and right around the corner from where I got the marine plywood. It was a productive trip! New 1/4"x2" aluminium bracing for the floor support Preping the floor. Yes that's a circular saw. Horrendous noise when cutting but it does the job The easy part is done. 3/16" sheet aluminium over the 1/4" braces. Necessary for two reasons; just the sheet over stringers would have been too flimbsy and I needed to make up some thickness for the 5/8" factory plywood where it met the rear/sides/casting deck. Measure once, cut it properly the first time Cutout and bracing for the new built in 19 gallon gas tank Gas tank fitting Incorporating the orignal hardware was tough but I didn't want to go without the original structure. The front wall of the original casting deck was installed crooked and riveted through the hull on the each side. I wasn't about to make new holes in the hull to fix it so I had to compensate with every single measurement to create the new casting deck. The photo above and this one below shows the opening for the gas tank and how much I extend the casting deck. About 30". It doesn't leave much room for feet at the Tsunami seat! Bracing the orignal front wall and creating the new front wall with 2x2x1/4" aluminium angle. Plenty strong! Fitting the last hatch. Hatch handles courtasy of percher, thanks again bud! The finished product on the maiden voyage. You can see the front of the gas tank exposed. That will have a removeable panel as soon as I hook up the fuel guage. In the mean time, I marked the tank at 25L incraments. The view from the helm On to the maiden voyage. I tried hard to find someone to help me bail or paddle of needed but strangely, no takers; I went solo. Putzed around the house almost noon and left for LSC. The truck needed gas and so did the boat. I went 8km out of my way to cash in on $.94/l. It was $1.03 in London. Okay, nine cents doesn't seem like a lot but when the truck needs 160L and the new tank in the boat needs 75L... it was worth the 8km detour! Launched at 1:30ish,, tied up and parked the truck. I came back to see the boat was still floating. That's a good sign! The motor fired right up after sitting all of last year and a short test run in the driveway in June. Everything worked well with the hose run but in the water, it wouldn't pee for me! I took a couple of short blasts waiting for it to warm up but it never got warm enough to pee. Oh well, kicker time. It ran great all day. I spent about 4 hours sun tanning. I tried all my 'expert' muskie tactics; lighting a smoke, eating lunch, making phone calls... nothing would entice a hit. Then I employed the secret weapon, making up leaders... it never fails! Until now. Around 6:10PM I was feeling dejected and pondering picking up the lines and do a short blast on the main motor towards shore. At 6:11PM zzziiinnnngggggg, what a rip! It peeled off 60' in an instant with the kicker still running. I killed the motor and reached for the net. I didn't get my hand quite on the net and zzziiinnnggg another 40' rip followed by some acrobatics. The net can wait. I could see from the jumps this fish ate the 10" bait sideways, looking like a hammerhead shark but instead, a face full of hooks! I don't have a lot of solo muskie handling experience so being extremely well hooked was a good thing! It felt what I think a 50 would feel like but I knew it was well short. This fish was a maniac all the way into the net. I had to cut two barbs, one on each of the front two hooks. I didn't want to mess around trying to save a hook after that battle. Even cutting it free, it still took probably 10 minutes to revive this one and it never came out the water! I wasn't sure this one was going to make it but eventually it righted itself and swam out of the net. My favourite lure (MrEh and anybody else that has seen my musky box will know which one) was bent and tattered and missing two barbs. I threw it back in anyway because the missing barbs were the top ones so it looked like a two barb frog hook. Having drifted off significantly, I regained my route and within yards of the first hit came the second! Hit like a freight train but settled down fairly quick. Until it got to the boat and submarined under! Not just a little bit, it caught the line on the starboard side! Fortunately I was able to untangle and net 'er without too much trouble. I didn't bother with pictures, I just held it to the side of the boat for a reference and measure after release. This one was a quick revival but I had to remove the front two hooks completely from my favourite bait. I thought about sending it back out with just the tail hook but I didn't. I regret it now, that would have made a good story if I hooked into another! I put it away for the night and floated around for a few more minutes before picking up the lines and heading in. A couple short blasts on the main motor and kicker the rest of the way. It could have been a bummer day but those two 43"-45"ers turnied it around for me. Next on the "to-do" list for the boat is installing new switches, gauges, VHF, AM/FM, interior and compartment lighting, removeable rear casting deck. At least all these jobs won't keep me off the water, just doing a little bit at a time. Oh, and fix the main motor!

Maybe I should have said something to Kevin 4 years ago about the screen door? He probably saw what I wrote and sent the maintenance crew out to fix it! How's your holiday Joey? I hope the fish are finding you okay!

I've spent a few weeks in cabin 9 over the course of two years but I haven't stayed there recently. My only gripe was the screen on the door and its probably been fixed. Or maybe not. LOL!! It's a nice cabin and a great location. I really enjoyed having my dock at my doorstep but with the water so low this year, it may not useable. It's a small cabin, fine for two people that plan on fishing. Cover the north shore to the west in the 'yak and hold on tight!

Spoke to my neighbour. He said you might be looking for a urathane rather than an epoxy. With that said, we don't know if you're looking to create a mold or use it as a sealer/adhesive (part A stuck to part B ). He also added that something more pliable would be more resistent to the conditions you might be faced with. Stainless can be a challenge but they have a product that will stick to teflon so it's not insurmountable. He'll enquire at work next week and I'll get back to you.

LOL! It seems like every post I see from you is about the handle being on the wrong side. Have you ever thought to yourself 'gee, maybe I'm reeling with the wrong hand?' Just pulling your leg here. Grab that combo for $100 $80 and get out and fish. You might put yourself inline for some future heartache, $80 won't break you. On the other hand, you might find muskie fishing isn't for you. Is it the best combo out there? No. Can you beat it for $80? No. Does it have the potential to leave you with a life long memory? Yes. The fish in my avatar was caught on a beat up Shimano Corsair 400 and a St. Croix Triumph rod and to this day, it's still my PB muskie. Since then I've significantly upgraded my trolling and casting setups. I like using the better gear but that first fish will never leave my memory.

Do walruses really need XM/Sirius satellite radios? I'll enquire with my next door neighbour; he's an engineer with 3M. Wouldn't other marine tags (whales?) tags be adaptable?

Nicely done

Looks like Dave priced himself out of the running for the 2011 campaign I like the average Joe approach but I'm even skeptical about most of those. The best advertising is to be the best and have everybody talking about you. If you can't be the best, sponser a Formula 1 car!

No, a 7' to 8' Medium/Fast is fine and fun... For upping your landing percentage? If I could choose a rod off the rack I'd pick a 7' Med-Heavy with an extra fast tip. The key is; if they want to come up, keep 'em down and if they want to go right, turn 'em to the left etc. Keeping the rod tip down also means of they spit the hook it hits the boat, not your eyeball.

With your rod tip high, you're inviting them to the surface. It makes for a good show and lots of fun but there is a reason why bass pro's fight thier fish with the rod low and constant pressure/retrieve. They don't want them to jump and shake loose. When they want to come up, try a side arm retrieve with the rod tip low and heavy pressure at all times. You'll need a rod that can handle this abuse.

The stringers end long before the bow slopes; I don't think that could have caused it. I'd steer clear of it unless you can leak test for starters. Something tells me that this boat has been stressed right out.

I just had my 18' Starcraft torn apart. If you wanted to, you could remove the stringer completely by drilling out the rivets and make/install a new one or repair it. The big question is; what on earth kind of impact would it take to cause such a thing and what else are you going to need to repair? I can't for the life of me imagine breaking one of those!