Forum | One week after Nationals...

Not any better here either,may change due to three chances at rain this week.

In the mean time figgured out how to catch edible fish,either take fathead minnows or use small imitations there of-pins minnow very small slender crankbaits tossed with a spin cast or spinning outfit takes 12-13 in bass,bluegill,yellow perch ,white bass and an occasional keeper if you can keep them on.Lake is tunring yet colored,no topwater biteeven those chasing arnt actually ontop one sees the minnows up and jumping.

Bluegill 18 ft,catfish 55 now oxy down below.Topwater useless other than main lake point early light smallies like 1 per day and lucky if it measures.

Got my used starter solenoid today,sticjk it on then get the starter rebuilt back in business.

meanwhile been going over past 4 on the troller alone.

Yup give them enough time ,several attempts to repair and shucks it might just hold,what can one say Lifes a Gamble sometimes more so than others.

Ordered a used starter solenoid ($8 ebay)today next week going for a starter as drive is going,but repairable locally as well in Paris.

If going out Steve other than main lake jumps,those in the bays are busting fathead minnows,so shad immitations are almost useless,2 in long slender and brownish,yup have something that works,just have to use a spincast or spinning outfit.

When it was worked on last time(started to say repaired…) they reenforced the topcap at the transom. Where it cracked was at the point they stopped the reenforcement. Basically it found the next weakest point and failed there. But yeah if you could see all the pictures I have and see what I've seen tearing it out. I firmly believe it can be repaired – by someone qualified to do it.

Yeah, that crack in the topcap looked bad(heck, it was bad). I thought it was cracked all the way through but once I got things out of the way and started tearing out the old repairs I looked at the underside of the top cap and it wasn't cracked all the way through.

When I got back I called Gambler, Bob Ackerbloom, about my boat. He in turn contacted Scott Smith at S&A Leisure about fixing my boat. Scott flat refused to have anything more to do with it. After some discussion Bob has agreed to fix my boat the way it should'a been fixed to begin with. When I told him how it was fixed the first time he said, and I'm paraphrasing here…"That will never work…" Well duh… I know that! Anyway… he's either not going to charge anything to make the repairs or a nominal fee – I'm not sure but I think he's gonna fix it for free. But… I gotta get it to Orlando. Additionally he asked me to strip out all the old repair work and cut the innerliner and remove it well under the fuel tank – which I've done. So now…. Gotta little clean up to do then will be heading to Orlando in the next week or two. The kicker??? He said they could fix it in one day… When I questioned him on this he said "OK, plan on two days!" But then he hasn't seen the boat yet. I'll allow two days but really plan on leaving it and going back in a week or two.

Here's what it looks like one week after Nationals…