Fishing

Went to the Bell rapids area to try it out and saw IdahoRon and his freind Ron had his new ride, Toon with a Motor. It looked awesome!

Well after some essential preparedness to be legal and then just throwe it in you may need it, I finally got going. Here the before shots









Hers some shot of the day with my friend Jeff and his friend Mac. You can figure out who's who







Then here's Ron on his new ride.



No fish today, marked alot and had some good hits, but none on the line. Fished all kinds of depth and the water temp was around 50 deg.

First time fishing here looks like fun and could even go for sturgen.
Michael
Twin Falls, Idaho

Keep looking to the East
He will be coming in the clouds.

Very nice Idahopanfish! Great boats, very well amde and I like that they are wider and very well balanced. We bought a 14'er last year and this year it is going to get a little face lift.





Some things are better left alone, Even though, some feel they know better.
http://www.utahflydrifters.com/guides/profiles.htm

Nice boat should be a great one those motors are great trollers

Very nice set up. You should have lots of fun with that for a long time to come. Congratulations!

Sweet ride Michael. I'm glad you were able to get the deal put together. I wish you a long and happy relation SHIP.



Keep your gun powder dry and your fishing hooks wet....

Is your Gregor a true 15'? Ours is 13'6" but goes by a 14'er. Max hp is 18 if I'm not mistaken. Good stable boat. I really like it being all welded and not riveted. It moves amazingly easy with a 40 lb. thrust Minnkota too.
We just need to put a floor in it.

Well I started my mods and upgrades. My first is a new MinnKota Power Drive 50# trolling motor, also had the digital maximizer for hopefully better battery life.



The boat came with a dedicated battery set up for the trolling motor which the previous owner had put in the front bench seat. Thankfully he had cut to opening large enough so that when I decided to add my battery up there as well I only had to remove a little more foam and so I then ran the 2 batteries in parralel and have the trolling motor on one and my fish finder on the other.





So then I decided to add a platform using the front bench seat and attaching a aluminum angle to the console to support the back part of the platform and then attach my pedistel seat ( I believe I will need to get the removable seat attachment so I can see to drive) .







I have also added so new side horizontal holder for rod storage and a Scotty fly rod holder.

Still trying to work on how to use my portable live well (made from a cooler) and have the bilge pump ready for dual purpose, adding water and circulating water in the live well and also ready for any water removal if needed in the boat.

I hope to put swivels under the boat seats that came with the boat and a swivel seat on the back bench.

Then I also got a bimi to place the mounts so when I may nee the bimi I can just mount it on.

It is ready to fish right now, but today I had a Funeral to go to for a young man, Sargent Dan Brown, who gave is life over seas and his parents are good friends. The support of the community was awesome as they lined the route to the cemetery saluting as the family went by. He knew Our Lord so we will meet again.

There will be a few more modifications and additions in time, but for now we are fishin
Michael
Twin Falls, Idaho

Keep looking to the East
He will be coming in the clouds.

Now that;s ridin in style! Did the boat come with the troling motor or did you add the bow mount one?

Looking good! Ron

I just put it on yesterday
Michael
Twin Falls, Idaho

Keep looking to the East
He will be coming in the clouds.

That looks great! Keep the reports coming.

Looks great Michael!

Keep your gun powder dry and your fishing hooks wet....

Congrats Mike! Those Gregors are good boats. I'm sure it will give you good service.

Looks like the mods are coming along nicely. Hope you get it all decked out like you want it!

Kevin

Not Perfect but Forgiven
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Well I have added seat swivels to both boat seats and am putting in a cig lighter plug for my bilge pump so I can use it for a water removal or to fill a portable live well.
Haven't decided if I will add a swivel seat on the back bench or not. What I would like to do is see if I could make it the live well. We'll see, something to ponder.
Michael
Twin Falls, Idaho

Keep looking to the East
He will be coming in the clouds.

That would be great if you could put the live well under the back seat. It would be one less thing to trip over in the bottom of your boat!

Not Perfect but Forgiven
_____________________
Want to be forgiven too?
http://theromanroad.org/

Aren't the seats in those where most of the foam floatation is, and don't the seats provide some of the structural integrity to the boat? You might want to be careful on how much of it you take out. I may be thinking of a different boat design though.

It sure looks good so far.

Yes there is floatation there which I would remove to accomidate a conatiner that might fit there. I was not going to remove any of the integrety other tahn the foam and put an access door in the plywood seat. Not even sure if I could find a container that would fit in there and it is just rambling thinking right now.
Michael
Twin Falls, Idaho

Keep looking to the East
He will be coming in the clouds.

Latest addition has been some guide ons for wind and current. Struggled a little loading at Oakley last weekend without a helper. The breeze was shifting the backend before I could get it in place to pullout, so after some research I came up with these.

3/4" galvenized pipe with an 90 deg elbow



put a 24" riser



and the a PVC cover which will turn and I will top off with reflective tape or a battery opperated light for backing and loading.



Now if I didn't have to work this Saturday I could try out the different fuel tank to see if my lack of fuel at fuel throttle was some air leak in the other tank.

Learned 3 important things about this setup. All the pipes need to be tight in their fitting, they will vibrate loose. The pipe in the U bolts need to have a Sheer bolt so it won't turn unless it has to and if the PVC extension are to high the rope is hard to get over them when you unloading, might even slip the PVC off on the unloading side. If your rope is long enough you can just make sure it on the out side before you back up.
Michael
Twin Falls, Idaho

Keep looking to the East
He will be coming in the clouds.

I have the same pipe/pvc cover set up on my boat trailer and they work great. Catch a big one

I went with one of those aluminum ladder stand offs.

http://www.google.com/...kBEPMCMAA#ps-sellers

cut it in half and bolted it to the boat frame, then like you, PVC pipe




The bracket kicks the PVC out at a slight angle perfect for the boat angle.




Some things are better left alone, Even though, some feel they know better.
http://www.utahflydrifters.com/guides/profiles.htm

Well since I last reported on my mods to the boat, many more mods have come about. I share this first cause I love tinkering and cause some of the things seem like good ideas, to me.

Anyways, I used a Cuda Clamp Universal Boat Seat Clamp on the back bench to put in another swivel seat that can be removable and my wife really appreciated it.

I was out in some rough water and on heading in I realised that having a mobil bilge pump (can be used for a portable live well) that it was not going to be very easy to take care of if I needed to pump out any water, so I installed an auto bilge pump and as suggested put the drain on the drivers side so you could look back and see it working, made sense to me. Also figured out that the spray whether your going into the wind or with the wind still comes over the side and get you WET. I put on my rain coats but not my pants, next time both are going on!

Found out during that install that you are not to use the boat as a ground but to ground all of your electrical back to the battery. I will cause a reaction in the aluminul joints or rivits.

I also changed my front seat to a removable pedistal set-up, with the fixed it was tight to get to the front storage area.

I got a wild idea to make my Fish finder mobil in the boat. I found when I was on the front deck seat I was always truning around to see the screen, so I got some tuff stuff velcro and made it so I can move the screen to the bow and put it on my dash if I want to. It will not stay in place when trailering the boat down the road so I just lay it down when I go.

I also have put on some scotty rod holders up by the front deck and have gotten extra holders(without the bases) for my fly rods or spinning rods depending on what I am using.

My lattest addition was 2 Cannon Easy Troll downriggers which I have mounted on the stern on both sides. Never thought I would get those as they run around $160 ea with out the weights or releases, but a fellow had the on a buy sell trade sight for $60 ea. Just had to buy them, still don't have the weights or releases but picked up an informitive book at Cabella's that is helping me decide what to get. Sounds like they can be a very effective tool.

Still would like to figure out how to do a portable live well, if I were to do tournaments you need one. I have 2 coolers I have made into live wells but the just seem to take up too much room. I have the portable bilge pump wired so it can be plugged into a auxillary port(cigarette lighter) so I wired in 2 "ports" one in the front and one in the back and am using corks to help keep water out of them. Also picked up one of those jumper cables that you plug into the cig lighters in case I need to boast the motors battery, not sure if they work or not, hope I don't need to find out.

The last time out was with my wife and was in July it was hot so we set up the bimi and it made a wonderfull difference in fact she laid down and took a nice nap in the shade. I had concerns if it being up would hinder my fly fishing but I had no problems casting when I was up on the deck seat, so that has worked out very well.

Haven't run the boat at night so haven't tried the night lites yet and still haven't anchored up yet.

well hope your not too bored but I am having fun and looking forward to my next time out!


Michael
Twin Falls, Idaho

Keep looking to the East
He will be coming in the clouds.

It took me 10 minutes to get this thread to come up. Anyway, it sounds like you got everything in there but a porta potty.

You keep adding stuff, you won't have room for your fishing poles.

Seriously, those mods sound great and convenient.

Now I have this bass boat that could use some new mods.............................

Thanks for the update Mike! Can't wait to see it when you get it all tricked out.

Not Perfect but Forgiven
_____________________
Want to be forgiven too?
http://theromanroad.org/

does tha ever happen
Michael
Twin Falls, Idaho

Keep looking to the East
He will be coming in the clouds.

Sound like your having fun with the BOAT. Course you know what BOAT means. Bring Over Another Thousand. I love my boat and would not give it up.