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A small Islander won't ride any better than what you have, in some conditions it will ride worse. The only way you get a better big water ride is a heavier bigger boat no replacement for displacement. While my fishing partner loves the fuel economy of his 17ft Alumacraft he would rather chip in on gas to fish mine most days than his. I am looking to go up to a 32 to 36ft this year if the money is right Which will mean less days on the water in the bigger boat but we still can take Steve's 17 on calm days. With my wife's neck injury she can't take the ride in the 26 any more so I am hoping a bigger boat will let her come back out fishing a few times a year. A avg fishing trip in my 26ft is about 20 gal of gas that is about a 7 mile run in and out and 3 to 4 hours of trolling. I can run on plane at 26 to 28 mph in 1 to 3ft chop all day long and have made a 26 mile run in 4 to 6ft waves at close to 30mph.

As much as I grew up loving Islanders I would never own another one. The rivets will leak and fail usually in a spot that is a PITA to access. They will kill you to run hard in anything beyond 1ft waves. The Grady and Pursuit will run wide open in stuff that will jar your teeth out in a Islander. Like it or not if you fish the Great lakes the day will come you need to make a run from hell to get back in. A slow moving cork would not be my choice for that.

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.

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.