mriversinco

agree with above. The 300 copper is the place to start. I have branched out with 250, 200, and 150 from there. I figure (hope) that's all I Will need a while.

Looks nice, what size spin and glow is that?

Hey Ben, I'd recommend you give Frank a call at Calumet. He's about as knowledgeable as they come with those things and he sees a bunch of older stuff in his shop so maybe he'd have a bracket that would work for you

I also like the looks of the fish on trees. Not sure they're as adjustable as the trax, or jons but they look pretty good for the price.

I'll give you a pm today as soon as I have time with some stuff to look at.

It'll all depends upon the weight of the boat. With those boats they don't draft much until you load them down with a big old motor and a whole bunch of stuff added on the boat. I'd say you'd be fine unless you like to fish with 3 or 4 other large dudes and include riggers, soft top, rod trees and all the fixings.

I just looked up an atv winch. They seem to be about the same price so what would be the benefit of using one of those instead of a marine winch?

Absolutely love the cv30's for downriggers. Not the best reel out there, but for the price they're darned hard to beat. I don't know where you are since you haven't filled out your local but northwoods outlet in Pinconning commonly has them for under 60 bucks a piece.

pm sent Mike

Anyone know if the gander on 28th street in grand rapids has it too?

Looking at their shape it certainly looks like it could be done. I do know a little curve here or there could make a huge difference in how the plug runs but I think it would be worth a shot. In fact, kind of wish you lived closer cause I'd like to see it and maybe help.

Wow, those look really nice!

Sounds like a good idea but to be honest, $30 a month seems like alot of stuff. I'd be scared of getting a bunch of stuff that I wouldn't use and only get a few things I would in each shipment. If it's really good then let us know cause it sure is interesting.

Got my truck to pull and thought I needed a 4wd. As it turns out, I've never had to use it on the ramp. Your boat is pretty light so I'd think you'll be fine. Keeping cat litter in the back is a great idea though.

Good advice above. I personally have a 23.5' Crestliner Eagle which is an aluminum walk around with an outboard. Love the boat but it does bob around some in the waves. Compared to my Lund I had though it seems much safer and I don't know any better about the bobbing, although I couldn't imagine trying to tow a glass boat around like I have to. Here's what I'd say about the gas usage. Make sure you get a good 4 stroke kicker and then you don't have to worry too much. I probably use less than 10 gallons of gas for an 8 hour trip. The main motor is on for maybe 30 minutes each way and the rest is on the kicker that just sips. When I was looking I thought I wanted the walk around. As I found out, I don't go up to the bow much and the extra room behind the console would be nice. In the cuddy it didn't matter because it only took up room at head level and not bed room. The one nice thing about the walkaround is that I can run my planner board rods farther up towards the front of the boat than I could if it didn't have that. I'm only talking a foot or two so they're easy to reach but it does leave a little more room for dipsey rods and such. Just to throw another opinion at you.

Are you looking for easy trailerability, or better ride in the waves? The aluminum boat will be much easier to pull at the expense of riding waves. As to sleeping in a cuddy, generally the Islanders have more head room than the Grady, or Pursuit. All three would work fine though as well as many other brands of boats. You'll get a ton of opinions on here from fellow members with the whole aluminum versus glass debate but ultimately it'll be whatever you choose and the reasoning why. All three boats are usually considered well made, but any used boat is only as good as it was taken care of.

Prices look great. Please let us know what you think if you buy one.

I just thought I'd share my experience from this past year fishing. I bought a new boat and got better riggers with it. At first I used some newer balls I had because of running more than 2 riggers my older balls were bent to run out a little and they didn't track very well with my new stuff I was running. So, the new balls were painted white and I couldn't buy a hit on the 3 riggers I was running. In fact, I started only running 1 or 2 because it became a pain for no gain. Thinking about it, I decided to spray paint 2 of the balls black and whammo, the fish started hitting right away. They weren't my hottest setups but I definitely caught way more fish than before and was kind of surprised how much the color changed the success. Thought I'd share.....

Wow, what a great mess of fish!

Please go back to the other site if you're 6 posts in and saying nasty things. That's what was so nice about this site when I found it a couple of years ago......

I had an eye break on one of mine, Okuma asked me to cut the tip off and send them the rod and they replaced it with a new rod for the cost of shipping. I think it was 5 bucks or something.

I had trouble with vanish also and went to vicious and have had great luck. I've used the various seaguar and that works well too but the vicious is much cheaper. You can easily pound up a little but for my spoons I found I didn't want to increase too much or it affected the motion of the bait.

Good point about the charter bill Jim. I know I could go out a ton of times over the year on a charter simply for the amount of money I drop into the boat, but it's that darn feeling of accomplishment when you get some good buddies into a mess of fish. Gotta love the feeling of going out with 4 guys and bringing home a dozen nice kings.

I love how every time (me included) people post looking for a boa, others put up those hewescrafts. Nice boats... yes, but they're way out of most weekend fisherman's price range. Don't get me wrong, they sure look awesome but starting at their prices and the sky is the limit for the additional stuff they are only in the picture for people looking for new boats. To help the op, I'd say there's a ton of boats from 5k on up that would work very well. When I was looking, I made the decision to get a 24' aluminum boat because I figured my truck could pull a 20-22' glass boat, or a 24' metal boat without taxing the truck too much. I thought the bigger boat was better at cost of ride in the waves. For you, it's entirely your decision on that but I'd start looking around and getting ideas. The more boats you can go see, the better you can make a decision. Start with craigslist in your area and go check them out to start getting informed. Feel free to pm me if you want actual ideas of brands and make/models since it's tough to post everything on a site.

On my dad's boat we had one and he used it every time. Kind of interesting to see him go to town on a fish, but nowadays I don't even have one on the boat.