Todd Copeland wrote:
Alright... I boat a boat! Yeah.....

1994 Bass Tracker 175 TX with 60hp engine. Just what I wanted!
(http://www.tampawebpages.com/Photo1.jpg)

2 Questions:

Fish Finder- I will need to buy 2, one for the dash and one for the
bow.
Everyone here has always said they would not buy hummbirds but I
(Like
Shawn) have been looking at the Matrix 37 and 27's. I also really
like the
Eagle FishMark 480. For the dash I want a finder that will give me a
real
time display of the area under the boat. I need to hunt out those
ledges and
drop offs. Is resolution very important (i.e. difference between 480
and 320
pixels)? I want to spend about $250-$300 on the dash finder. The bow
finder
is not as important so I want to stay under $200 on that one. It
would be
nice to stay with the same brand in case I later want to explore
using one
transducer for both finders but this is not a big concern. (BTW- I
have a
$100 gift certificate from Cabalas but can look elsewhere). Also, the
boat
has a mount and transducer to a Humminbird installed, just no
fishfinder
unit. I fish in Florida and lakes are mainly 5'-10' deep but I do
fish some
phosphate mines which can be 30' deep. So power is not a big deal.

Trolling Motor - has a Motorguide Four 43lbs, hand operated motor. I
was
really looking forward to getting back to foot operation but it's
what was
on the boat. For those that use (and for some reason, like) hand
operated
trolling motors, does anyone use the BigFoot arm that connects to the
shaft
of the motor? Like it? I was looking at those aluminum rods that
clamp on...
but for $50-$60? Ouch. I plan on mounting two BigFoot momentary foot
switches, one on either side of the deck, to turn it on and off. I
have one
on my present boat and like it very much. So it's just a question of
how
best/easiest to turn the direction of the motor. Later I might work
on
swapping it out for a foot controlled motor.

Oh, I pick the boat up on Saturday. Take a look at the picture... is
that
really a cup holder built into the cover of the engine? Some of the
carpeting on the front deck is ripped and the prior owner installed
some
newer carpeting on top of old carpet. They did a good job but it's
just not
"right". I plan on removing the deck and recarpeting it. Later, I'll
be
recarpeting the rest of the boat. Anyone do this on a Tracker? how
had is it
to move the deck in order to do this? If possible, I also want to
seal the
wood on the deck with lacquer.

I would go for the Eagle over the other brands. Verticle pixels are
more important than horizontal. I would get as many verticle pixels as
I could afford.