A few years ago I took my old fishing partner on a 16 ft Starcraft boat I had converted to a bass style boat . Every time we went out he commented on how impressed he was of the build
After the season and while enjoying a few adult beverages he asked what I would do if I had his boat. I assured him I’d put it back on the water.
Over the winter he got sick.
In April he called me and told me to come over and get the boat and we would take care of the title transfer
A month or so later he went into the hospital and didn’t come home. He passed the following January

Anyway come to find out , the boat . A 17 ft tracker tournament Vee had sat outside for 16 years
This thing was rough. Everything including transom was rotten

For the next couple of years between spending a lot of time out of the country with work, I gutted the hull and took it to bare metal.
I rebuilt transom , painted, did all the fab work , re wired , basically a complete makeover

Took it to the dealer to have the motor gone thru. 3 week wait turned into 22 weeks.
I finally ran out of patience and bought a new boat off the showroom

The tracker sat out in the lot over the winter and thru the summer
. My brother hit a stump in his boat and busted the transom . I ended up selling the tracker to him for a loss.

He’s getting ready to put it on the water next weekend.

Finally keeping my promise to my friend. It’s going back now the water

Agreed. I grew up watching Roland Martin, Bill Dance, Jimmy Houston and Hank Parker, but unless they traveled above the Mason-Dixon Line I could barely relate to what they were doing.
Doug Stange from Fishing Facts is a good teacher as well and he travels all over and will share those techniques and presentations on multiple species. Between us, we have over 25,000 lakes and 5,000 streams and rivers to fish, plus the Mississippi River and 2 Great Lakes...just don’t tell anybody or we’ll be up to our ears in FSers. 😂
With all of the knowledge that has been shared on this forum, those poor fish don’t stand a chance! I almost feel sorry for them. I might even have to purchase another freezer 😉

Couple things I need to share as I just saw them on Jason Mitchell Outdoors. He was fishing after a cold front with slip bobbers and leeches.
1. He advised to put 2 bobber stops on braided line to reduce slippage for maintaining consistent depth.
2. He hooks his leeches in the middle, for a more natural presentation. They will swim, rather than curl up around the hook as they tend to do when hooked through the sucker end (used when jigging).

Some of you may already know these, but these tips may help someone catch the fish of a lifetime. Hope these help, anyway!

I lived in East Orange the first 11 years of my life. The Ampere section which is now a ghetto I think. Last time by there, about 20 years ago the place I used to live ( which was nice at the time ), looked like it might have been an armed camp. There were row houses across the street ( same as the one I lived in ) which were all knocked down and it was a great ball park for us little kids. Well last there it looked like some sort of storage yard for just about anything with a fence and razor wire across the top. I was flabbergasted. Go by Centerway sometime and let me know what its like today. Its a one-way street that comes off Springdale Ave between 18th and 19th streets.