1mainiac

11 years with a 2wd F250 only one time I ever had a Issue on a wet ramp and still got out but the guys did push a bit to get me rolling. I would say launching and pulling my 26ft close to 200 times that one bad time was acceptable. I will see how the F150 does next year but it is 4X4 with posi so I doubt I will ever need to use 4X4 but the boat is close to 8000 lbs on the trailer. I know i won't be making long trips towing the boat in it but I can always borrow a bigger truck from work for that if need be.

Personally I would get the fuel injection and modern computer and have the best. Heck If i keep my 26 and go with the fuel injection I will make him a great deal on my 4bbl and manifold.

most 4bbl and 2bbl use the same heads. The big advantage to a 4bbl would be in getting a spread bore carb then you can have economy at idle and part throttle and performance when cruising and getting up on plane. Biggest gains would be fuel injection and a cam. Affordable Fuel Injection has a Marine kit for SB Chevy that includes a electronic dist and GM computer which you can get hundreds of programs for. If it is a 350 and not a 305 putting 300 plus to the prop is not a problem just spend money LOL.

Champ is right all you get with a 350 over a 250 is a heavier truck and stiffer ride. Brakes drive line and towing is pretty much the same. In many applications you gain towing other than 5th wheel and Goose neck and the only gains there are if you get a dually you can bridge more weight on the rear axle. Unless you hauling construction equipment for a living you gain nothing with a 350.

Personally I would send it in without the missing tip odds are they will send you a new rod. they have replaced every rod I have ever had break. It however sounds to me like whoever changed the tip got it hot causing it to break. One reason I don't care for hot glue to put on tips.

That's why I got a F150 I can borrow a big truck from work if I need one. The other thing is the new electronics are cool built in brake control for towing and SYNC. Phone is on Bluetooth and Ipod is hooked to the USB push the button and tell it what I want. Now if it just would listen and get it right nothing better than asking for Judas Priest and getting Johnny Cash.

A lot of people wondered why I had a F 250 Diesel 2 wheel drive. The reason was simple much higher tow rating and much nicer ride. I lived in east TX when I bought it so 4X4 was not needed. From F 250 to F 550 the GCVW for a diesel with the tow package is the same. So for towing all I could get was a heavier truck which meant it would tow less. My truck was setup to haul cattle and spent the 1st 2 years of it's life with a 35ft goose neck cattle trailer hooked to it. I put 150k on it in 11 years of daily driving with no out of pocket repairs other than tires brakes and oil changes so I can't complain it never went below 15mpg no matter what I was towing. Towing Mark's old boat Just Hookin back from the Brown Blast Mark asked me to slow down as his boat had never been at 80 mph before LOL. For my truck it was a light load and a nice cruise with the 26ft boat behind us. Oops I just remembered I did replace the alternator 4 years ago and the belts and batteries but again for 11 years of use that is all pretty much normal maintenance.

I traded my F250 diesel in for a 09 F150 lost a bunch of towing power but gained a nice ride and better mileage. With the 5.4 I am avg 16 around town and have been at 19 on the highway. Mine is rated for 9600 towing I don't see me hooking to anything heavier than that in the near future. You will be better off selling the Expedition than trading it. Best offer I could get for my diesel was 2500 bucks. We have a 08 F350 Lariat for 29k at work 4X4 Diesel was boss's personal truck non smoker. I was down to a very low mileage 07 F150 and this 09 with more miles on it the 09 drives way better and gets better mileage. Now I need the front leveling kit installed so it sits level. Then a tuner and who knows from there it's a addiction LOL.

I could not decide on a final design so I made a arch out of schedule 40 PVC 2 years ago total cost was under 50 bucks took about 2 hours to build and has fished fine for 2 seasons. If I ever build the finished product it will have rod holders that I can reposition as needed. My current issue is if I keep the boat I want to build a hardtop for it but I may end up getting a different boat.

Here is what you will find in my pocket when I am fishing most days. http://www.gerberknives.co/product/Gerber/Knives/09841/Sharpener-Diamond-Knife

I have several of them and for a fishing sharpener they rock not because it does a perfect job but because it is small and provides a consistent result. It will sharpen anything you can think of most days and is the size of a pencil and costs 10 to 20 bucks depending on where you buy it. It puts a sharp chisel point on a hook in 3 or 4 pulls thru the V groove or use the rounded sides to touch up a knife while cleaning fish or the flat side to fix a bad edge. If I were stranded I would want this in my pocket.

I have a Edgemaker set like Dave shows in his blog but I don't even know where it is it might be with my other sharpeners. I also have a Steel I have used for 40 plus years and my grandmother used long before that. I have a 3 piece set of flat diamond hones that are in the kitchen drawer they work great with the steel. For general sharpening I use a Rada Quick Edge. I also have several other sharpeners that all work pretty good one that I carry when wading on the river is about the size of a pencil and has a round diamond hone with a v groove and a flat side it will touch up knives and hooks pretty good. However when I am serious about getting my knives sharp I have a 6in grinder with a medium and soft buffing wheel on it.

A moment of silence and thanks for our family and military who brought us here and gave us the chance to enjoy this.

Been a while so I don't remember what size I used to use I think it was 3oz Off Shore snap weights but you put a snap on it and hook it on the line. Hold the rod up high so it slides to the board the weight when you get the right size will lay the board on it's side and it will fall back behind the boat so you can reel it in. Zero hassle for outside boards. Inside boards just stick the rod tip in the water and reel Having the line in the water will tilt the board and it will reel right in fish on or not.

Cats have a great ride and fish very well You lose the cabin and some storage but you won't be upset with the ride. You can run that cat wide open in stuff that would shake your teeth out in your Lund. I saw a tri hull a couple years ago that was a regular boat with fold out hulls that went flat against the hull for trailering. So on the trailer it was 10ft wide but in the water it was about 16ft wide it looked pretty cool.

Yea it would be nice now to just have the GPS in your phone record the entire track then you could play it back at home and plan your next day.

Well at this point I'm going to start with Jon's advice as a couple of slickcraft 235's have popped up so I'm going to check them out. I just need to see if its reasonable to be able to fish a boat this size alone. Thanks for the input so far. The search is not over and all other options remain from aluminum to glass, from newer to older but as much as I don't like a gas hog there is good reasoning behind the much lower cost to buy. I have been spoiled using only 3-6 gallons per trip in my boat.

I used to agree with that but to be honest after fishing in my 26ft for 5 years I can't imagine going out in a smaller boat very often. Steve has a 17 that we fish in a lot and it is great to save some gas money but most days he would rather give me 20 or 30 bucks for gas to fish in mine than spend 15 to 20 and fish in his. There is a lot of comfort in a bigger boat not to mention storage space for all the gear. It is currently setup to fish 14 rods but I can slide in the other 8 rod holders in the tracks if need be. Everything can be put away so there are over 700 spoons 25 or more flashers 8 divers 20 boards. 26 rod and reel setups 5 tackle boxes 2 nets the list goes on and on. But the fact is everything can be stored and the boat can be used with it all put away. And I still have a large under deck storage I have never even used.

Well I personally would pass on a Slickcraft I just don't care for the overall ride in them plus the big doghouse. I would look for a center console with outboards. and a T top that can be folded down to fit in the barn.

http://www.boattrader.com/listing/2005-Albemarle-242-Center-Console-101829857

http://www.boattrader.com/listing/2002-Glacier-Bay-2260-Canyon-Runner-101885706

http://www.boattrader.com/listing/2006-Dynasty-2300cc-Polar-101048898

http://www.boattrader.com/listing/1985-Mako-236-Inboard-101856509

http://www.boattrader.com/listing/2006-Sea-Hunt-Triton-232-100736468

There is a few I would look at if I wanted something to fish solo in.

Very nice Mark

I never meant to sound like I was bashing charters many of my friends charter and I try and go out with one of them every year as a paying customer. However there are still many that that the captain or the mate do all the fishing and you get to reel them in and a few who will even yell at you if you don't reel em in the way they want you to. I can remember one time a few years ago telling the mate to put the rod back in the holder and I would just turn the handle or better yet he could just hand me the filets when the day was done. and I would just sit and complain about the fact he was not filling my cooler fast enough.

Ok Matt but you have to have the boat ready when and where I want to fish. I actually have no plans to start using charters but was making a point for the guys who only get out a few times a year it would be way cheaper to just do charters. If I had to start over and replace everything I would just do a bunch of charters and fish inland lakes in my own boat. Besides honestly fishing on most charters is not even fun sit there and wait till someone hands you a rod with a fish on it.

My boat budget for this year would have let me do 10 charters and I still would have had enough to fish on the 17ft on nice days pretty much any time.

As a example the 10m would cost 3000 a year to store with oil changes and clean up add in a cheap slip at 1700 a season and your at 4700 a year without even using it once that is 391 a month add in a 300 a month payment and insurance and your pushing 800 a month for a toy you can use maybe 5 months a year. Oh and you still have not put any gas in it. At least with a trailer boat you can park it in the back yard and save some money. There are a lot of people making that 800 a month payment that don't even use their boats and would love to part with them.

Matt unless it sells to someone else or I pass on it I will keep that a secret for now. It is a fresh water boat on the great lakes has radar auto pilot rocket launchers down riggers and a fish hawk with fairly recent electronics. It also is a long haul from here but I have a friend who can haul it for me cheap. It is not listed yet was passed on to me by a friend in New York. There are however 2 decent 10m boats online under 30 and either of them can be bought for closer to 20. I also know of several boats that can had for the storage bill. Lots of people walking away from older big boats. Esp the ones with big block chevy's. Not many willing to watch a boat drink 30 to 40 gph of gas nowadays I am one of them LOL. It is a early 80's 10m with twin 454's which is one reason I have not said yes to it yet. I also found a older Chris Craft 36ft Commander in great looking condition pretty cheap but again big blocks drink a lot of gas. That Trojan is a decent boat but will drink 40 gal of gas every time it leaves the dock. I also found a couple of F32 Trojans with small blocks under 10 grand there are tons of big boats for sale many people just want to rid themselves of the slip and storage fees. Storage and slip can avg out to 400 a month to not even use the boat. Most would be amazed at how many boats are darn near free just to get rid of the cost of maintaining it.

I guess one thing I have looked at hard is can I even use a boat enough to see the fuel savings yes it costs more to take my 26ft out every trip. But I have only been skunked 3 times in the 5 years I have owned it. 5 dollar a gal gas has driven it up to roughly 100 bucks a trip so if there are 4 of us on the boat it is 25 bucks ea for gas which is not bad. When I bought the boat 10 to 15 bucks ea was plenty. Most of my fuel is running in and out trolling does not cost much so when I can I try and troll back to port gives us more fishing time and cuts down on the run in. I may or may not keep mine another year it depends on what happens over the winter and what I decide in the spring. However if it were not for my wife's neck injuries I would fish it till I am too old to fish anymore. It is simple to upkeep and most parts are fairly cheap it is also something I can work on because it is a Chevy engine. My plan before my wife was hurt was to upgrade to fuel injection and electronic ignition which would cut down on the fuel used. The point to much of this is find 2 similar boats you like one with a older motor and one with a high efficiency motor and compare fuel burn rates you will see why mine has not already been upgraded. Because it takes about 260hp to push my boat 40mph on flat water at 24 gph of gas. The 3 thousand dollar upgrade might cut it to 22 gph of gas. At a 3000 rpm cruise my boat is about 14gph at 28mph the upgrade would cut it to about 12 gph or about a .3 mpg increase. which means if my math in my head is right about 9000 miles to break even I might put 300 miles a year on the boat in cruising which to me means 30 years to break even. There are however other advantages which come into play.

So when you look at it you really have to consider TCO because some times less really is more. To put it another way if I had my choice and it was just me I would be looking at a 26ft Hewes Craft with twin Honda's. To me it is nearly the perfect big water combo easy on gas great fishing platform. However the boat I will likely buy is a older 10m Trojan here is why the Hewes will be close to 90 grand by the time it is setup and my wife will never fish on it. The Trojan is 20 grand already setup the way I would like it so given the same budget I could blow 70 grand on gas fishing gear and repairs to the Trojan before I even took the Hewes out 1 trip.

The problem is eventually you run out of other peoples money. News flash Tom if your house was ruined every 3 to 5 years and you had to fix it yourself how long would it take you to find a better place to live? Lets face it many of those demanding the government to step in and help them in a emergency already expect the government to pay most of their daily living expenses. What happened in Utica IN in 97 was people were told to build flood proof homes or leave their houses were condemned. Some of them took the FEMA money and gave up their homes and left It sucked for several people I knew but life goes on. However they did not do the same things to people in Louisville or Jeffersonville they also did not hold the same standard in New Orleans. Which means simply they do not have a fair and balanced approach. I can assure you your town of Whitehall if flooded would not get the same response as Detroit you can guess as to why that is I already know.