YodaMage

Sold today, to a nice guy from Vermont. Boat was surveyed and came out great. Hope it catches him some big ones and and both he and the boat have a long and happy life together.

bump

I'll get back up and get some more pics this week. Sorry, I was out of town and just got back. Definitely a dog house, though there is a ton of room in the corners as the boat is wide. PD, I'm going to get a deck boat or open bow most likely for now. The kid wants to tube and ski, the wife wants to lounge and bake. I'll just grab a charter when the bug gets me.

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I am selling my Grady Sailfish 254. It is an awesome fishing machine but I do not have time to use it (kid is now playing travel hockey an travel lacrosse so my weekends are blown up).I purchased this boat a few years ago from an old guy who had barely used it. In fact, 12 years of warehouse storage preceded my buying it. Boat came from Lake Erie and has had a freshwater life. Included in sale: -1993 Grady 254 with UNDER 400 HOURS on it -Mercury 7.4 I/O -Eagle Trailer -2014 Mercury Bigfoot 9.9 kicker with less than 10 running hours -Humminbird 958c with Great Lakes maps (2013) -Fishhawk X4 (2013) -Trollmaster throttle (2014) -Goetz hydraulic kicker steering (2014) -Uniden radio (2013) -Stereo and speakers (2013) -Slip paid out til October Boat has had all maintenance done on it including replacing impellers, bilge pumps, carburetor, distributor, thermostat, filters in last two years. The boat needs nothing and is ready to fish today. Asking $24,900 including all above. This is a serious big water boat that handles 4-6 like a champ while also providing the comfort or a small galley and and enclosed head. Boat is in the water in Wilson currently. Pics to follow as I figure out how to post them below. Chris ("Line Change") 716-570-0491 [email protected] So after a few weeks, a few lookers and some questions here is some additional info to questions that seem recurring: -I am going to go into something in the 19-22' open bow, deck boat or cuddy category for a few years and tool around the river towing the kid on a tube while the wife bakes. Its what they want right now. -The Grady is a 9'6" beam, nice for fishing. Legally towing it requires a permit. Annual or monthly is not a big deal. That said, I've never gotten one and yes I have pulled it. -Boat and trailer are ~8000 dry, ~10,000 fully gassed up and loaded. No you can't tow it with a Tacoma. -There are a pair of Digitrolls I had professionally rebuilt that stay with the boat. Also a planner mast currently not on it. I'll probably leave a couple of copper rigs on board as well. -No you're family can't meet me at the boat and go for a ride. It isn't leaving the slip again unless you have money in hand. -No I won't take a lowball offer "cash". Of course it will be cash, not accepting pesos, twinkies, peppermints...would accept bouillon though, lol (this is my fault, as is above for putting it on Craigslist...) New price, $22,900. Boat will either sell by September 30 or I'll haul it home and mothball it (Full shrink, pump it dry, grease and fog everything, strip off electronics, etc..) behind the house for a few years.

As of today...it is theoretically in working order. I say theoretical because I have not seen or heard most of it work...because it is still not in the water...but it made its way to the lift. The lift of course is broken so it sits stranded worse than if it were on the trailer. I also noticed upon inspection that the marina shrink wrap guy snapped off my antenna. I have yet to get a great look at it to see what else might be broken, as it is trapped in a lift which I may have mentioned. Bad joke. I am 90% on looking to trade it at year end on something like a 26 Sundancer or Larson 265 that I'll move to the Inner Harbor or Upper Niagara and have the option the pull out as needed and drag it home or to a dealer of my choice. I think I'm giving up on Lake O and fishing unfortunately. MyTurn hit it dead on, it isn't the money, it is the frustration.

So I find myself for the third year in a row not in the water in May. Why not in the water? Same old story...and to me the biggest problem with boating around Lake O, especially on the west end. You see, down here we have very limited ports and as such docking prices are fairly high. Additionally, our marinas seem to have a few things in common which is they are owned by crooks and staffed by the incompetent. Should you not have a towable boat, you are at the mercy of a handful of 'boatyards' which are complete shams taking months to do little and most of that wrong. That is where I am again this year...months behind with a boat still in pieces and parts they were going to order in March still not even ordered and calls unanswered. So a lesson to many..DO NOT CROSS INTO AN UNTOWABLE RIG unless you: 1. have the time to do all your own work on it..which is to some degree a paradox as you probably work a decent amount to pay for said rig 2. have no desire to actual be on the water 3. are willing to dock it hours away from home So my options now are three fold...either keep paying thousands for a boat in a parking lot (which I spent 5K on this spring to 'upgrade it' ... upgrade as in sit in a parking lot it seems eating 2K in dockage fees that it isn't using..). Second, take the financial hit to dump it and go back small which my family does not enjoy bouncing around in or lastly just selling the gear and going to a cruiser somewhere in Lake E or the Upper River. I'm leaning toward the last right now, giving up fishing and passing the hobby onto my kid and instead going tubing. Sad, but what other options are there...

Mine is right in front of kicker and it reads fine.

Elk have been determined to have a conservative leaning...as a result, Cuomo has told them that there is no place for them in New York.

On a more serious note, IMHO, the deeper the better. While a 20 will work, how low do you want to hang it (swamp potential) vs how far back (porpoising and cavitating) ... etc There is no penalty to having a 25" and being able to have some fudge room especially in the 3-5's

That's what she said... Sorry, had to do it,

So in case anyone is interested... I also looked into IntelliSteer which isn't a bad system. It minimizes some of the negatives of Panther design hanging out in the elements..but still has an electric motor dependency I don't love. I got an email back from Marine Tech Products and they can't extend the controls anyway for a Panther I'm told. I spoke a couple of times via phone and email to Chuck Goetz at Goetz engineering and he was very knowledgeable and helpful. This week they'll be shipping me a Trol-Eze setup with extended controls. It does sound like Marine Tech can handle the throttle extension so I'm ordering a TrollMaster Pro2 with extended length.

So the tub is getting pulled out this weekend and the projects to get done on it pre 5/1 launch are: -New Temp Gauge (old one fried) -New Bilge Pumps (just because...maintenance) -New Carburetor on Main (Some stalling and hesitation last year I believe related to gummy jets and floats) -New Kicker Motor -Kicker Steering to Helm -Kicker Throttle to Helm Next year I'm pulling all hoses and fuel lines and replacing. Always something...bust out another... Anyway, I ordered a Mercury Bigfoot 9.9 and already have an OMC bracket on the stern. What I'm working through now are steering and throttle options. The main is an I/O so steering is limited by my research right now to Trol-Eze, Panther and Powrtran. The first issue there is that the control length for all of them is 20 or 25 feet which is not long enough to get from kicker to helm on my boat. 40' is required. I have emails out to Trol-Eze and Panther/Trollmaster about that now. Anybody else run into this? Any of those three have a throttle solution but I've heard that Trollmaster does not hold/resume speed correctly. I've also heard that the Panther t4 and t5 units like to self destruct. Anyone have any input, advise or experience to share? Right now, I'm thinking that I might try the Trol-Eze 2 with throttle first if I can get the cords long enough and see what happens but I'm working semi-blind.

I've found the best fishing is found with a blank screen.

I averaged about 1 fish per hour. I only had one brown and one laker last year and they were accidental catches in places they should not have been. I run a 6 to 8 rod spread and tend to run 1/2 down low for large kings and the other half high for bows, atlantics and cohos to keep things interesting. I probably had my best year for Kings over 20 with about 15 over 20 lbs and 2 or 3 over 30 lbs, 34 biggest. I usually have issues with those 12 to 16 pounders pulling up my lines for me and getting in the way. I still had more 4 pounders than I would like. (Amazing the size of prey a little guy will take on!)