geofraz61

I love my Chamberlains! With the amount of preload I can put in that rod It's got as good a chance of hooking up as any and the dink lakers can still set them off so I don't drag them around the lake

I have a hard time getting my boat to troll near 2mph so I usually try to avoid trolling against the current which is very noticeable somedays. Hoping to fix that this year but, going with or across it works for me and have really not noticed much difference in hook up rate? I'll be paying more attention this year since that's one thing I've never thought of. Good point!

I've mangled 2 of those so far! Doesn't someone make one now that has a spring loaded hinge in the center of the trolling plate? I'll try one of those next. Some days there's a pretty good current down at the ball and 2mph is still to fast for speed at the ball up here. http://www.overtons.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?pdesc=EasyTroller-Hinged-Metal-Trolling-Plate-Standard&i=98685&r=view&aID=605Q&cID=SHOPZLLA_98685

I've only had the boat for 3 seasons but, its been a really great reliable boat. Other than routine maintenance I've only replaced the water pump in the lower unit. Mine has the smaller 3 liter and is great on gas. I can troll on weekend on just over 1/2 of a tank which equals about $25. Getting it to troll down to 2mph can be a challenge but there's a few options for that. I do fish mostly north of Frankfort and only run about 5 miles out so weather isn't much of a concern for getting back in when the weather turns. It's not like down south where they make 10+ mile runs out to fish. I've pushed the weather and had to fight 6 footers to get in which it handles fine.

I happen to fish out of the 19.5 Century. It works well for both fishing the big lake and small ones. I have everything mounted on the track system and takes about 15 minutes to take it all off for family time. Handles more weather than I care to fish in like most boats. My only complaint is deck room for fighting fish. My next boat, I'll be looking for more room in the back area. Gets interesting with 3 guys and fighting a fish stumbling around seats and the motor cover especially on a wire diver set up and landing fish. I was thinking about removing the big seats and installing 2 captains chairs just to gain space.