After 13 years I finally upgraded my fishing ride. Part of the reason was that my family is pretty much grown now and my old boat just wouldn't plane anymore with all of us in it. Plus my wife is not as young as she once was and she will be more comfortable in the newer boat with more room and less chance of falling.

The newer boat is a 2013 Xpress 20 foot center console with a 150hp Yamaha on the back. This is a big step up from the 25hp tiller and 16 footer that we had previously. I picked it up last Friday and of course there are a lot of things I need to do to it before it will be setup the way I want it. Oddly enough, this CC boat has a hotfoot installed in it. I think I'm going to want to have that replaced with a standard throttle, but I'm going to check into how much that will cost before making a final decision. The electric trolling motor's got to go, it is a 70lb 24 volt Minn Kota Maxxum model and just can't compare with an iPilot for trolling the way we like to. I ordered a 70lb 24 volt Minn Kota iPilot from BBG Marine electronics and it should be here tomorrow.

There weren't any rod holders on the boat either. I pulled 4 of my rod holders off of my old boat and installed them yesterday. I have 4 more rod holders on the way, plus a couple of HiTek rod holders in case we indulge in some spider rigging later on. The problem is I'm going to have to change how the running lights are stored so we can install rod holders where we want them. And then there is the problem of transporting all of those rods to the lake. I don't like the idea of real tall rod racks and would prefer under gunnel storage for rod transport. I ordered a couple of rod racks that I think will work out ok, but we will see.

I'll miss the old boat, but a good friend did buy it from me. I didn't want just anyone to buy my old boat...too many memories.

Once I get it set up, I'll post a picture of it.