My build from then 'til now - Motor swap completed!

[bulldog]

Just a few pics from early spring that a buddy of mine just sent me. Upper Meramec in Cuba, MO.

Right in my home town!

Minus all the darn floaters, that is my favorite place in the world to fish. I love it out there. It is so beautiful and pristine. I love smallies and this is one of the only great smallmouth fisheries that I know of. I heard from someone about another spot I'm trying on Sunday so we'll see. Hopefully I'll see you at the Poker run August 13. I have to see what is going but I'd love to make it.

About the Whales tail, I don't think it made the biggest difference on my jet. I'm going to take it off and see if it makes any difference some time soon. I had a trim tab/splash gaurd welded on the back and that made a WORLD of difference.

 

[bulldog]

Hit a nice boulder today in the river and put a nickle sized hole in the back of the boat. Gotta get it welded. Ran a new part of the Meramec and got in to some boulders. I did not even hit it that hard but it was enough. Leaked bad all day.

 

[red450r]

been there don that x2 man

 

[fender66]

Hit a nice boulder today in the river and put a nickle sized hole in the back of the boat. Gotta get it welded. Ran a new part of the Meramec and got in to some boulders. I did not even hit it that hard but it was enough. Leaked bad all day.

Wow...that sucks. And we talked about that very thing yesterday afternoon. Did you at least find any fish?

 

[bulldog]

Not a bite. My buddy lost what seemed to be a big fish. Never saw it but it was puting on a big fight. We hit the Big River in Byrnes Mill also and did not catch anything. Mid Summer fishing is tough.

 

[user 6672]

Battle scar's give these rigs charater..

I ripped my last rig open 3 times last year, glad i had a portable bilge.

 

[bulldog]

My bildge is a 500 gph unit and I will be upgrading to an 800 or better very shortly. The one I have works well but it is just a little too slow if there was a real emergency. Also, when I was screwing it in place I broke the plastic holder that holds it upright so I have to hold it down and flat in order for it to work propperly. It will be fixed and upgraded like everything else that breaks or goes wrong. :wink:

 

[Ranchero50]

That's just a two worm hole, I had about twenty in mine last year so I could make it home.

Love tap...
Jamie

 

[bulldog]

That's just a two worm hole, I had about twenty in mine last year so I could make it home.

Love tap...
Jamie

It is so funny to me that you judge the size of the holes by how many plastic worms it takes to make them stop leaking enough to get the boat home. Good stuff there!! =D>

 

[silver99gt]

Just a few pics from early spring that a buddy of mine just sent me. Upper Meramec in Cuba, MO.

Right in my home town!

Minus all the darn floaters, that is my favorite place in the world to fish. I love it out there. It is so beautiful and pristine. I love smallies and this is one of the only great smallmouth fisheries that I know of. I heard from someone about another spot I'm trying on Sunday so we'll see. Hopefully I'll see you at the Poker run August 13. I have to see what is going but I'd love to make it.

About the Whales tail, I don't think it made the biggest difference on my jet. I'm going to take it off and see if it makes any difference some time soon. I had a trim tab/splash gaurd welded on the back and that made a WORLD of difference.

Yes the floaters around here are insane. And if you dont give them the rideaway then you're looking at a nice fat fine from water patrol. If you can zip up the Huzzah creek from the meremac its some pretty nice smallie fishing in there. Water is clear as day. i love fishing that area. Seems like the farther you get to stanton on the river, the bigger the fish get for some reason. Just about all the BIG bags from the Rafting company Open invitational either come from hwy 30 or stanton. That tourney is a pretty large one, last one was around 60 boats and you could put in at any major launch from stanton to hwy O in cuba

 

[bulldog]

Picked my boat up from Valley Park Welding today and could not be more pissed off. I took it there out of convenience knowing that Contractors Welding does the best job I have ever seen. Now I am no professional welder but the welds they put on my boat are huge and clumpy and look like crap. Also while I was there I saw them load a Bobcat bucket on to a man's trailer and put a 10" wide dent about 2" deep in the fender of his nice Cronkite Trailer. AND did not even tell the owner of the trailer and he drove away with a huge dent in his trailer and did not even know it. I'm pissed, plain and simple and I will never take anything I need welded to any company besides Contractors Welding in Rock Hill, MO. Lesson learned. I'll post a pic tonight when I get home.

 

[fender66]

That really sucks. Did you tell them how dissatisfied you were? Wish I could offer some words to make you feel better...but I know what it's like to have your boat hurt.

Hang in there.

 

[red450r]

That is a really bad place to have weld clumped up. My first hole was in the same place. A piece of aluminum stock was put in the hole and i got charged $75. Im starting on my tunnel soon so ill get the crap work out of there then. Hope you can spread the word so they dont do that to anyone else.

 

[Brine]

Sorry to hear bd :evil:

Maybe an angle grinder/flapper disc will clean it up the way you want it?

 

[bulldog]

I did tell them what I thought and they told me it took them an hour to move the boat around and there was two welds that they did and they would not budge on the price. I showed him the welds that Contractors Welding did then showed him his weld and he did not say much after that. It is a night and day difference. I have welded aluminum 2 times in my life and if I knew it was going to turn out like this I would have went to my buddies shop and done it myself. I probably would not have done any better but atleast I would have had an excuse. I'm a porfessional sticker sticker not a welder. I'm not too sure why it bothers me so much because it is on the bottom of the boat and no one will see it but I am disgusted.

I'm going to take a grinder wheel to it and pretty it up. It is just a matter of time before I put another hole in it and when I do, I'll have Contractors Welding fix the old one as well.

Other than that I had a great day and put a train horn on my brothers truck after work. It is so flippin loud. My ears are still ringing. I gotta post a video. :LOL2:

 

[Brine]

Oh Man, I'd love to have the train horn on the boat.

Now that would be funny!

 

[Ranchero50]

Wow, how did they manage to put that much aluminum on that ugly? I could have mig'd them in a heartbeat and I'm just a dumb printing press mechanic.

Jamie

 

[linehand]

There is no prep on that weld. Paint needed to be removed around it. Definitely got polluted. Careful grinding it down. Probably porous.

 

[fender66]

Careful grinding it down. Probably porous.

I was thinking the same thing. At this point, I'm betting you don't even know if it's water tight. Be careful with it. Worst case scenario is you leave it until you can get it fixed.


But seriously....it took them an hour to move the boat around?

Too **** bad. That has nothing to do with quality.

 

[bulldog]

Careful grinding it down. Probably porous.

I was thinking the same thing. At this point, I'm betting you don't even know if it's water tight. Be careful with it. Worst case scenario is you leave it until you can get it fixed.


But seriously....it took them an hour to move the boat around?

Too **** bad. That has nothing to do with quality.

Yeah, I'm just going to leave it alone until I need soomething else done and then get it fixed. All in all, lesson learned. When you find a good welder, stick with them.

I'm going to go on the Mississippi Saturday night to go cat fishing in front of the Arch. I'm planning on fishing about 2 miles up river from the Arch and drift fishing down or maybe find some rock dikes or something if the drifting does not work. There are some huge fish out there and I'm going to do my best to catch them. I'll post some pics of how it goes.