08-28-2019, 04:37 PM
So my wife and I were trying to find a yard sale in the hinterlands of Mapleton when I spied a boat for sale in a field beside a nice home. I don't know about you all but I often stop to look at things like jeeps and boats I see along the way, even if I'm not really currently in the market. After she got over me jamming on the brakes my wife was okay about me checking it out. I called the guy and he said it was listed on KSL so I looked at it there and then later took ice_sled to check it out in person. My wife surprised me when she was enthusiastic about me thinking of buying it. It is a 1999 Tracker Pro Deep V17 with a 90 hp Mercury, a 6 hp Nissan four stroke and a 65 pound Minn Kota, two manual down riggers, two sonars, etc. Everything I could use for fishing except some rod holders. It's practically identical to BLK's and is in exceptional condition; the guy has really taken care of it. It's way nicer than I ever expected to get in a fishing boat. After a lot of financing rigamarole and other finagling I finally bought it. Then I had to wait a week while we were on a funeral trip to pick it up.
Ben and I got together yesterday and took her out. We caught a couple of cookie cutters each and missed a few more.
He showed me the ropes and it was a bit of a learning curve. Talking about ropes, we couldn't even find a single one to tie up at the dock. Ben had some small cord in his pickup so we got it secured long enough to get our gear aboard. The boat has all kinds of places to store stuff and eventually we found the mooring ropes.
I have a few questions for you experienced boat people, but I'll post those on the Boats forum. What I need now is a bit more hands-on practice. My wife insists, and she's right, that I have someone along so I'll be safe until I get the hang of it all. I'm not sure that I can launch and load well if at all. So if anyone would like to join me for a fishing trip or just a shakedown I would greatly appreciate it. You could PM me if that is something you could do. BLK is going to go over everything with me, but I could use a few more lessons.
Sorry to ramble on so, but I'm pretty excited about it [
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Ben and I got together yesterday and took her out. We caught a couple of cookie cutters each and missed a few more.
He showed me the ropes and it was a bit of a learning curve. Talking about ropes, we couldn't even find a single one to tie up at the dock. Ben had some small cord in his pickup so we got it secured long enough to get our gear aboard. The boat has all kinds of places to store stuff and eventually we found the mooring ropes.
I have a few questions for you experienced boat people, but I'll post those on the Boats forum. What I need now is a bit more hands-on practice. My wife insists, and she's right, that I have someone along so I'll be safe until I get the hang of it all. I'm not sure that I can launch and load well if at all. So if anyone would like to join me for a fishing trip or just a shakedown I would greatly appreciate it. You could PM me if that is something you could do. BLK is going to go over everything with me, but I could use a few more lessons.
Sorry to ramble on so, but I'm pretty excited about it [
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The older I get the more I would rather be considered a good man than a good fisherman.