stinger

I used a plastic wire tie to snub it up. Works good,...no rattle

...and a Happy Easter to you & yours Capt. Vince.

I have a merc. 9.9 and the thumb screws that clamp the engine to the mount has holes for a lock to go threw. I used one of these master locks on it but also threw bolted the engine on the mount to slow the theft down. The thumb screws are some sort of cast material and a hammer could break them pretty easy. http://www.amazon.com/Master-Lock-1523D-Set-Your-Own-Combination/dp/B0009V1WMU

Ditto what Lineman says.

No beating Matt. We all have our limits and can justify just about anything. Our wifes can attest to that . Spoon asked about the 585 so that's the info he is getting. Not sure whats happening with the Lowrance units. I use the 620 because of space limits. It's a good unit, and so are a lot of others out there.

Spoondraggin The new Furuno technology is now in the model 587. Same unit but on steroids and the price is the same if you do a little shopping. Go to Furuno's web site and check it out. http://www.furuno.com/special/en/fcv627/index.html

I see you launch from Long Point on Cayuga Lake. Well this past year the fleas were so bad that the 30lb Big Game was useless up there and some guys were talking about going to 50LB. I use the 20lb Flea Flicker and even had a bit of trouble with it but at least it was manageable. My recommendation is to use the 20lb Flea Flicker when the fleas start showing up. Leaders for spoons and direct to a swivel for spinies. I have two reels for each of my main rods so that each rod has one plain 12 lb mono reel and one 20lb flea flick setup. I use the plain mono as long as the fleas are minimal and then switch to the FF when it gets bad and back to the mono in the fall when those little buggers are gone which didn’t happen till late October this year.

Congradulations. Seems like the next generation fisherman can't wait to get started. My son also was 2 1/2 months premature. Spent one month in ICU and I called him my little buddy. Well, he hit 6'3 by 18 years old but I still call him that and my boat bears his nick name.

I replaced my radio last summer with this because of size and it also has DSC. I thought that the DSC feature would be good to have especially during the off season when few if any boats are on the lake. http://www.thegpsstore.com/Standard-Hor ... P2583.aspx

I have the Furono FCV-620 and am happy with it. Since I bought mine a few years ago Furono cam out with the FCV-627 (& larger FCV-587) which has inhanced bottom display feature. They seem to be the same price as the older model so I would buy the newer model if I were in the market today. Generally these units do not come with a transducer so you'll have to add the cost of one. http://www.furuno.com/special/en/fcv627/index.html

When someone is intent on causing harm a gun isn't needed. As skipper said," need more MENTAL DETECTORS". This happened yesterday also, http://www.courant.com/sns-rt-us-china- ... 2318.story

...and now everyone will know their name, where they live and have pictures to ID them.

I've been using BigJon's for 20 years and never had a boom break and I'm using 12lb'ers. You must of had the sections threaded near the end of the rods with only a couple threads holding for that to happen. To bad.

Big Jon makes quik-slide mounts that work great for your application. Compare the prices of the ginble mount ( $50.00) plus upgrade the rod holder vs quik-slide mounts ($80.00). Nice thing about the quik-slide mounts is that you can put them in several locations on the boat for different uses and you won't have a big long gimble sticking out the bottom for trailoring/storage.

There is something to be said about taking your best friend out for a day of fishing. My Wheaten loves the boat ride as well as the fishing part. The worst thing she'll do is lick the fish, but mostly just looks at it trying to figure out what it's doing. After a few hours she had enough...

I usually have a full tank or nearly full. I use Sta-Bil Marine formula year-round and kick it up for the winter storage. I have one of those 48 Gal. Translucent Plastic Gas tanks and have never had any water in my fuel-water filter so I just keep doing it the same way every year. I store my boat in a large unheated garage with a concrete floor so the temps are slow to move in either direction. I think that rapid temp changes are the bigger issue with condensation in fuel tanks.

I think it's called "Wishful Thinking"

You sure it's not electrolysis from running all that copper?

How effective would eel traps be when they run the creeks to spawn? It would have to be a every year event to trap as opposed to lampricide every now & then.