Hello All,

(I posted this on another forum but I figured I would post it here as well)

First off I would like to thank Hoyt, Kyle and the Rest of the Staff at Gator-Tail for being very cooperative with my time schedule. These guys are top notch. I showed up and they threw my motor on the boat and had it running in short order. I arrived at Gator-Tail on a Friday at 12:00....not exactly a great time to show up but I drove 20 hours straight with my friend to get there.
A+++ Customer service!........Even for this redneck Yankee....

1860 Hunt Deck
GTR35 Stage II
Mikuni Carb
Plastic Bottom
Winch Mount Front and Back
Grab Rails

Here she is…..I named her the “Trout Bucket” this ones for you Craig!






All I can say is wow....this thing flat out performs...A whole different motor than what I sent down there…scary powerful actually....
Look for the speeds/weights below..

Empty-Me the battery gas and the motor-28MPH

FULL LOAD INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING:
3 guys-600 pounds
3 batteries-180 pounds
7 gallons of gas-42 pounds
Ice Chest- 50 pounds
Bows and other necessities-100 pounds
Front deck-150 pounds
Ballast box-60 pounds
Generator-130 pounds
Tool box- 30 pounds
Spare goodies ect-25 pounds
Trolling motor-35 pounds
Anchor-10 pounds
Stingrays-80 pounds

Total Weight excluding the motor and boat

+ or - =1500 Pounds

I checked my gps and we hit 22MPH in DEEP WATER and easily 25 in the shallow water.

Subtract 200 pounds and the chest of ice (Which wasn’t necessary...)
26.0 MPH Deep water


Met up with Craig and we toured the Bayou for the afternoon. You guys sure have a lot of cool stuff to see down in Louisiana. Here is a couple of the action shots.






The only mean local I met…..


After the Bayou tour my friends and I where invited back to his friend’s house for good ol Crawfish boil. Talk about cool. I can’t say I have ever done anything like that before.






After the tour to the south I have been busy for the past 3 weeks building a bowfishing deck and wiring the remote ballast box. Here are some build pictures.







Then it was off to Maryland for the Fourth of July weekend to break in the boat and shoot some Skate and Stingrays... WOW...this the coolest thing I have ever done. Talk about sheer power… We met up with a local that is a member of this site that knows the water down there. The spawn was over and we only got two the first day.

First arrow released front the deck of the Trout Bucket……..ever….what a fight!!










The second Day we got skunked....


The third day we made a drastic move and got into them at about 11:00 and from 11:00 to 2:00 we slayed em.

2 little ones with one shot….





Two things I will not forget…

Gloves…..uuuuuh……it’s a deep burn….



And a slotted Retriever with a float. We doubled on 30 pounders and almost killed ourselves.


Finally got my lights working. It was a generator problem and a bulb problem.

nice rig, cool pichers

ya know them cownose rays are sum fine eatn.

It was 105 Deg that day. By the time we got back to the ramp the "Illegal immigrants" that where fishing from the dock wouldnt even take them. My boat still stinks like stingrays...

Nice rig!!And yes Hoyt and the crew are great people

Nice pics. Thanks for sharing. That first pic is behind Taco Bell @ the Days Inn off Grand Calliou.

Show me a photo of the winch mount location on the stern...

Nice rig!

Good looking boat and some nice fish... The people in LA are good folks (at least the ones I was around). Taken two trips down there in the past few months... Good folks, good food and good times for sure...

Dats a sweet rig u got der!

that's pretty slick right dere!

I hunt alone about 50% of the time so I wouldnt be caught dead without a winch (after getting my last boat stuck.....real bad....like a beached whale...)

Okay sweet... I have the same setup in the front I like the rear mount. Do you find you use the rear that much? I've always just used the winch and a snatch block to get me turned around and back out.

what do you hook the winch to if you get stuck? Thats a nice rig by the way.

sweet rig, what lights are you running??

Very nice rig I like the winch mounts a lot

four of the 400 WATT HPS

Ive havnt had to use the winch yet.


I carry a small sledge and a t handled .5" steel rod about 5 feet long and I drive in into the bottom and hook to that. Then I pull it out.


I also have found that is you hook the winch cable around a 6 foot diameter abound ot cattails that you can drag a loaded boat across dfry ground without ripping them out of the ground. Wrap the cable low. Fold the cat-tails the opposite way ur pulling and let her buck.

4 guys
14dozen mallard decoys
battery
6 gallons of gas
2 dozen goose floaters
BLIND
GEAR
WINCH

SHALLOW WATER SPEED OF ABOUT 26MPH

THIS SUCKER WILL HAUL A LOAD BOYS!