The Sportsman

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Slam dunk troll job if you post a pic of a table covered in 8-12" bass

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u jeally? my buddy has some pics on his phone. I'll have to get them from him and post later

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I'm sorry, but this strategy from a business perspective would be laughable considering that Ranger's bass boat market is markedly larger than their bay market would ever be.

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Bay boats outsell bass boats here 4-1, more so closer to the coast. - Pat Goff longtime salesman for Champion

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and yes I know all about Mountain Home to Genmar to Platnium Equity;

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Genmar Holdings Inc. purchased the assets of Champion Boats Inc. and moved them (equipment used in the manufacturing of bass and bay boats) from Mountain Home, Ark., to become part of Genmar's bass boat group in Murfreesboro, TN in March 2002. Genmar bought Champion's assets at auction for $2 million.The trade names Champion and Back Country Boats were included in the acquisition.

June 1, 2009 - Genmar Holdings, Inc. (Genmar) announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 reorganization protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

January 8, 2010 - California-based Platinum Equity has purchased "essentially all the assets" of Genmar Holdings for $70 million. Platinum purchased a total of 11 brands, including Ranger, Stratos, Champion, Wellcraft, Four Winns, Larson, Glastron and others.

Genmar ceases to exist 1/20/2010. Jan. 20 is marked as the closing date for the Genmar bankruptcy sale. Genmar Holdings, Inc. is officially dissolved.

May 26, 2010 - Platinum Eqiuty announced that 3 models of boats will be marketed as "Champion Elite series by Stratos." The models are the 210, 202, and 183. Same molds, hulls and striping, along with a Stratos sticker on the side. The new Stratos Champion Elite Series boats to be built in Flippin, Ark. with production to start in July 2010. Warranties of existing Champion boats in dealer inventories to be honored.

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Say brah, if I wanted to get one of them fancy Champions you talk about, where would I get one?

Oh yeah, they're out of business.

When I bought, all brands were in play...from Shearwater on down. I'm not an OT baller by any means, but can hold my own. I met Keith Craft who owns Blazer and he introduced me to the guys he stole from Century b/f Yamaha closed them. For the money, I firmly believe you cannot beat a Blazer.

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he mad


eta: btw, ranger bought out champion when the economy went down the shitter. it was rangers only competition as far a good heavy bay boat at a decent price. bay champs disappear. ranger bay price sky rockets. ranger win.

but im done with the dick measuring contest. its like arguing with someone saying xpress is the best bass boat on the water

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Yeah? 59.8 mph on the wet test when new. Runs a consistent 53-55 mph loaded.

I can tell you that you don't want to go faster than 60 in it- it starts to walk around a lot.

Money was no object when I rigged it- I actually wanted a 300 HDPI, but Yamaha quit building that engine in 2007. My idea was to go 70, but once I saw 60, I no longer wanted that.

Blazer reccomended the 200 HDPI for that boat.

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look man. I know you are proud of your blazer bay. you expecting $30k for it is evident. that boat will always be top tier of the bottom line of bay boats no matter how you try to justify it. I dont want to go 55 in a boat that is going to beat me to shite. I want to go 55 in a correctly powered heavy boat that is going to take waves good.

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2008 2220 Blazer Bay
200 Yamaha HDPI

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$30K would be my lowest number

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LINK

nice boat but underpowered as well as that blazer bay just posted

find something like this bay champ. that blazer bay. BUT with a 250 on it. if you plan to fish offshore, get 22-24'

21' = 225hp
22' = 250hp
24' = 300hp

whatever you buy... make sure the above is met. with that budget, worst thing you could do is buy an underpowered rig

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Thanks buddy. I just wish it would have paid out. I went there Friday and only caught 2 fish

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they had some good fish in that area in January. We had caught em right down the bayou from there in practice. just didnt work out for us on tourney day.. seems to be the trend


eta: I think sharing info is all relative to what the persons intentions are that will be fishing your spot. If they tourney fish, they wont be keeping "your" fish... they will fish it and move on. if they are fishing for meat, then they will be keeping your fish and there will be less fish for you to enjoy catching.

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Venice Saturday.

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LINK

speaking of... I have a two day tourney this weekend. I'm on some solid fish for Sunday but cant seem to put anything together for Saturday. anybody got any pointers? I can run anywhere from Doirons

thesportsman44@gmail.com

I think they should lower the creel down to 15 per person and no minimal size limit so i can catch a limit

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6'6" MH for weightless
7'0" MH for texas
7'6" H for carolina and heavy texas w/ big worms
8'0" H for jigs

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if you plan on fishing around cypress trees a lot, I would not go over 7'. it is really hard to cast/flip underhand from the deck of the boat without hitting the water mid-cast.. makes it impossible to get up under trees. just my $.02

had a guy recommend Phenix rods to me the other day.... specifically the Ultra MBX line. I have to say... I was quite impressed when I looked at them. im just not a fan of split grips

LINK


eta: also, if you purchase a $200 rod. be prepared to replace your entire lineup. they are a different breed of rod and it will spoil you quickly.
eta2: Med Heavy

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Here's my problem with this statement. Trout are losing habitat faster than bass are, fact. River is high making the spawning fish unavailable to the average joe. It's the guys in the glitter boats catching right now. I watch you guys hit grand isle and make two trips a day with limits of trout or run into my duck lease and throw 5# fish in your live well to go seed your hole and keep the small ones because the area is off limits to you on tournament day. Yet you'll scuff at me throwing my nephews first keeper bass at 14.25" and troll up accusing me of keeping illegal fish but you really just want to run me off my spot cause you're jelly we're catching fish nearly every throw. We've had a camp on Graveyard since 77, I laugh when I sign up as a co angler and one of you "pros" are going to take me to a secret spot. I've seen many changes on both sides of the levee, but I don't see this as crippling. BTW, LDWF is going off of license sales, they're like votes you only get one.

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IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII have NEVER done any of those things you just said.

and trout was just an example. if you cant fill your freezer with fish whether that is redfish, trout, bream, bass >14" from the basin, 12" all over the state excluding TB, sacalait, etc etc etc then maybe you should take up golf

you should reread my post. Im not against keeping fish. Im against throwing the MSL away and letting the meat packers haul off everything they catch

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I dont fish it so I dont know. All Ive heard the last few years though, is about how its over populated with the 10-12" fish, so this might help cut down on some of those that are competing for food with some of the larger fish. Just thinking out loud and by no means acting like I know the area or what it needs.

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Langston, I'll break down the reason it was over populated with small fish...

2008 Gustav smokes the basin
2009 babies born, nothing to eat em. they all survive = tons of babies
2010 babies are 6-8"
2011 babies are 10-12"
2012 babies are 13-14"
BOOM Issac smokes us again.
2013 babies born...
2014 babies eaten
2015 no babies

they need to protect some fish. go to a 12" min so they would at least have a chance to spawn before being harvested. If you do no size, every fair weather fisherman in the basin gonna be keepin 8" fish.

I fish this area pretty much every weekend and have done so for over 25 years... I know it like the back of my hand. I know how much pressure has increased over the last 20 years. We need some kind of MSL (min size limit) or a further reduction of the creel #. If people want to catch fish to stock up the freezer, then go speckled trout fishing. If you arent good enough to catch 14" fish, go speckled trout fishing. We are trying to please the minority of the people here... the guys who fish it all the time have no issues with the current regulations. we are catering to the meat packers who only want to go during the spawn and the fall in the summer when they are easy to catch so they can stock their freezers. that is NOT who supports the small towns and local tackle shops and generate the revenue. those guys dont fish enough. its the ones that are out there every weekend that they should be listening to. BTW, if they asked people like me to review their study, they would have found out that my experiences are completely different from what they published as "scientific facts"

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ftr, I am NOT against keeping fish. keep all of the 2lb fish you want. they have had a chance to spawn a few times. practice catch and release on the females and fish over 3lbs. there are enough good fish surviving these storms every few years to have a good fishery.
I cant really say that competition for food is an issue either... pretty much every fish I catch in the basin is a little football bc they just sit there and gorge themselves on crawfish. After a storm is a different story, storm kills baitfish then there is competition to survive. many people are also trying to justify these regulations on the fact that another hurricane is going to hit this area in a couple years... we really have no way to predict that. we could go a stretch of 10-15 years before having another fish kill... think about the fish you would catch then if it was regulated properly

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What is a bps card?

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bps= bass pro shops

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Learn something new everyday. Regardless, not a bad day on the water!

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i was joking. Bass will go into pre spawn mode with water temps in the mid-upper 50s. Males will move up when temps are consistently in the low 60s. And females will spawn mid 60s-mid 70s. Sometimes we achieve these temps in jan, sometimes in feb, and sometimes in march or April. They aren't there right now.. Bass with bloody fins can be caught year round. It's not always an indication of spawning fish.

Good catch though. Good to know a few were still there after the hurricane smoked that area and killed a lot of fish