by Don McDowell

During a recent ABA Aluminum series event, I had the opportunity to fish from the new Tracker, Silver Anniversary Edition of the Pro Team 185 aluminum fishing boat equipped with a 90 HP Mercury Outboard. The single console came factory equipped with instrumentation, bucket seats and center "buddy seat" for three across seating.  Trolling power come from the 43-lbs thrust by Motor guide with power to spare for maneuvering the aluminum hull into my favorite fishing spots. The XP2000 fish finder by Hummingbird with surface temperature sensor provided an accurate view of below surface conditions.

My concerns rose as the sun peaked over the horizon and the heavy than normal wind blew across the lake.  As the 90 HP brought the Pro Team 185 to plane in about 3 seconds, my concerns were replaced with the terrific handling characteristics of the sleek all-welded Revolution hull in 100 gauge marine-grade aluminum alloy. The hull broke heavy water at full throttle, throwing water away from the gunwales, keeping out of the cockpit and away from my team partner.

The oversized front deck offers two locking rod boxes that accept my favorite 7'6" stick and molded dry storage box. Moving to the rear deck, it also has aerated livewells with a timer and drain controls.  Two dry storage boxes with rotormolded liner that holds Plano 3700 Stowaway boxes located behind the bucket seat was a nice touch for storage and keeping the deck clear of tackle. The battery power for cranking and trolling came from Interstate batteries, fuel tank is built in and has a 21 gallon capacity was plenty for a full day of tournament fishing. One nice extra touch is the non-skid bow mat for stepping in and out of the boat.  For out the way storage the non-boater and center seat provide dry storage underneath for PDF's, tools and just stuff that we all carry.

I rate the overall performance of the boat, design and layout, seating arrangement and storage very Highly, as well, as the fishabilty of the boat. It's important to me as an angler to be able to fish with my partner from the front deck taking advantage of the cleanest water available for both anglers.

The Tracker Pro Team 185 is a great way to maximize your fishing budget, tournament ready, well built, low maintenance, high levels of performance for many years of great fishing.

by Kip Pollay

As an angler who enjoys the competitive end of the sport of bass fishing, it is important to me to have quality gear.  In most cases, the dollar amount paid for gear will be a good indicator of its quality.  I did say in most.  There are always exceptions in the industry.

When it comes to fishing lines, I have tried numerous brands from the inexpensive brands to the top end stuff.  I eventually settled with P-Line for most of my rigs, and was happy with this brand for sometime.  In fact, I probably would still be using P-Line if not for Rusty Hooks.  (No this is not a misprint; the guy’s real name is Rusty Hooks.)

While at Bill Lukes Big Bass Days, earlier this year, I met Rusty at the Sufix booth.  He asked me what I was using and offered to spool my reels with Suffix.  I wasn’t crazy about the idea, as I was not looking for new line.  He then asked me what it is I used.  After telling him about my confidence in P-Line, he proceeded to ask me if I had time to watch some abrasion tests.  He matched P-Line and Sufix DNA into a head-to-head test and, to my surprise DNA was much stronger pound for pound.  When P-Line broke, the DNA did not look or feel damaged at all.  Rusty gave me a few boxes to try, and that was all it took.

To this day, I have not changed the initial spool of DNA that I put on my cranking rod.  It simply doesn’t need to be changed and looks as it did on day one.  DNA is exceptionally soft and smooth.  This, combined with its limpness, allows for long, trouble free casts.  I have found that its tensile and knot strength is virtually unmatched as well.  Besides the above qualities, throw in the fact that it has very little memory, virtually no line twist, and very low stretch factor, you have one awesome product.  And last but not least, it is non-expensive.

After contacting Rusty and sharing my new love for DNA, he went on to tell me of the Tritanium Plus Series.  He began describing it as the new generation of castability, strength, and sheer toughness.  Before long, I had a few boxes of Tritanium and was out for a test.  Sufix does it again, as this line is as good as advertised.  Put it this way, Sufix lines are now on all of my rods.

Sufix is no stranger to the fishing line industry though most of you have never probably heard of them.  They are in their 29 th year of line production, but spent most of that time producing line for over 170 companies worldwide.  Sufix has taken everything they have learned in those 29 years, and produced the elite of elites when it comes to fishing lines.  The best thing about it is, it won’t cost you an arm and a leg to spool your reels and you will definitely get a lot of usage for your money.

The ideal situation would be pulling into the drive with your batteries already charged, right?  Well don’t laugh, you actually can.  The Stay-N-Charge battery system is all that you need to put your battery charging woes to rest.  Stay-N-Charge simply uses your tow vehicle’s charging system to re-charge your recreational crafts batteries as you are driving home. 

Most of the lakes that I fish on are at least a 1-1 ½ hour drive, which is perfect for this system.  The Stay-N-Charge system can charge one to three 12-volt batteries, wired in parallel, to a 98% full-charge in 1-2 hours.  (Parallel meaning positive post to positive post and negative post to negative post.)  The rare case of three totally drained batteries will need at least two hours, but how often do you drain three?  With normal use, you will arrive home 98% charged in an hour drive.  And better yet, you are topping out your charge as you drive to the lake on your next outing.

This truly sounded too good to be true, so I spoke in depth with Stay-N-Charge founder, Jim Payne, about some concerns I had for this system.

It sounded to me like I would be pushing my alternator too hard.  He informed me of the 30-amp shortstop circuit breaker that limits the draw to less than 30 amps.  Since your tow vehicle doesn’t need the alternator that much, and your typical alternator in modern trucks is at least 100 amps or better, there should not be a problem.  Also, you are now charging your DC batteries with a DC charger.

Another question I had was about the charge time on a two-day tournament.  I worried about getting the same charge in the same time with an engine at idle.  Did the RPM’s help the alternator charge faster?  The answer is no.  Your alternator will charge the same if it is parked or rolling down the road.  This is good to know as no one wants to start the second day of a tournament with a low charge.  I wasn’t crazy about idling my truck for an hour and a half, but what is the alternative?  There are few campgrounds with AC power, and not everyone wants to buy a generator.  Anyway, I have found that my truck idles for a long period just fine.

How about the install?  I believe that anyone with basic skills can install the wire loom in about an hour.  I actually had mine neatly installed in 30 minutes.  The kit had everything I possibly needed and simple instructions as well.

The concept of Stay-N-Charge is rather simple but extremely effective.  Now that I have used one for the past two months, I wouldn’t want to charge any other way.  I definitely have one less thing to worry about when preparing for a tournament or family outing.

Stay-N-Charge is making its way across the country and Jim is talking with some potential distributors in Arizona at this time.  Anyone interested in buying a Stay-N-Charge system can email Factory Representative Ray Buckingham at info@raystackle.com or call him at (206) 243-2361.