Just bought my second Cat today! I knew there was a reason why I chose another cat over the other brands. Congat’s and best fishes!
Travis Fox
Guys, I have seen this boat and it is immaculate! I have the exact same rig as this one except mine is a year older and dual console. These are a great boat and super fast 74 – 75 mph on GPS when running the 27p prop !!!! If anybody is looking for a steal, this is it….not to mention, this is the most popular color scheme BCB has. If you are looking into buying a classic (best model for the money) you wont find a better deal than this! Travis Fox
First of all, I am by no means a marine mechanic, nor a expert on this subject, however….. I have a 2007 Opti and I just ran into this same problem. I had a group 24 Pro Guide battery that had 810 Cold Cranking Amps, and I believe 146 minutes of reserve. It turned the motor over fine, and seemed to work OK for the most part, but if I ran the aerator all night and blacklight and 3 graphs, and didnt move much, the battery would go dead and I would have to jump off of the trolling batteries. Heres the deal…. I just put one of the new Lowrance X38 graphs on and it and all the sudden the battery seemed like it wasnt lasting as long. (I never associated this graph with using more power until I read above, but I would believe it because this was about the same time I noticed the battery not holding up like it should) Anyways…… I figured since the battery was 20 months old now it would be time to replace it before too long anyways, so I won some money in a tourney and decided to splurge. My Uncle is a recently retired Marine Mechanic, so I called and asked him what I could get. He said that Mercury says that for the Opti you need a 600 CCA battery or higher and it will be fine. However, I figure if you are going to spend thousands of $$$ on poles, $30 jerkbaits, $3.00 gas, etc… you probably shouldnt try to save $20 for something that ultimately decides if you can make it to weigh in or not, especially when you are going to have it 2 years or longer. I was in Mountain Home at night and the only place to buy a battery was Wal-Mart so I got the best they had. The Everstart Marine Maxx (the big yellow one) I dont remember the exact ratings on it, but I can tell you it is a group 29 battery, it doesnt fit the battery tray in a 2005 Pantera Classic, it weighs a ton, and it didnt have near the CCA the group 24 pro-guide had. So….. to try and shorten this up for you…. I know a guy in Fayetteville that is a fellow fisherman and owns a battery shop, (Vaughn Battery), so I made the effort to drive and ask him directly what I should buy. I told him I dont care what it costs, I want the best I can get. I told him about all the electronics, pumps, lights, etc… He said without a doubt the absolute best battery he had was the XXHD-M-27 Exide Batteries. It had more CCA, reserve, etc… and he said that he thinks it was built better than any battery he can sell me. I was prepared to buy a Trojan or an Optima, but he said this would outlast and perform as well or better. The best part is it costs $75. So for what its worth, this is what he siad he runs in his own personal boat because he believes it is the best one money can buy. Oh yeah, all this guy sells is batteries, so I gotta think he knows what he is talking about…
Oddly enough, this project is on my list of things to do. I am a sales rep for 2 different companies that make hitchcovers. 1 company makes one that inserts into the receiver, and the other company makes one that fits around the tube and has a flap that folds down or up when in use so you never have to remove it. Cost is about the same on each model. Im going to have one of the manufacturers make up one with the BCB logo with chrome lettering and Ill send it over to Mnt. Home. Ill call Monday to discuss if you want. Travis Fox
The ONLY way to do this is to look at the realistic market and what you could actually go and purchase your boat for. (not what a booklet is going to tell you) Get on the internet, look in the backs of magazines, the newspaper, etc… and you can get a pretty close idea of what your model is bringing. To get a true market value, you need to find a boat that is as close to yours as possible and see what it is bringing. About 3 years ago, I spent hours upon hours researching boat resale values, so I feel I am somewhat qualified to tell you abou the NADA or Kelly Blue book prices for the boats…..I do not know where in the world those guys that put those values in there get their numbers, but I can without a doubt tell you that they arent even in the ballpark. I was running a BCB Pantera Classic at the time and even after putting every accessory and option imaginable on it, it gave me the value of something like $3,900 for the boat, motor, and trailer. ( FYI, I ended up making a guy a “deal” and letting him have it for $9000 cash if he agreed to come get it that day. He was at my house within hours with cash in hand and knew he stole it at that price…. )I was extremely anal about what brand of boat I was going to be purchasing next and very conscious about the resale value. I even went so far as to make a chart with Ranger, Skeeter, Procraft, etc… on it and what they were worth 1, 2, and 3 years down the road. I did a ton of research and found actual boats that were for sale and used those values instead of what a computer program shot out. The ONLY way to do this is to look at the realistic market and what you could actually go and purchase your boat for. (not what a booklet is going to tell you) Get on the internet, look in the backs of magazines, the newspaper, etc… and you can get a pretty close idea of what your model is bringing. In the end, I found myself buying another BassCat and Im very glad I did. The service and commitment they make to every owner is like no other. When it comes time to sell your boat, you can just list it on the BCB website for free and you arent going to have somebody haggling you down and telling you what the NADA booklet says its worth. I suppose the downside to a low NADA value is that if you have to use your boat as collateral for a loan or something, it isnt worth much to loan against, but on the other hand, you end up paying less on your personal property taxes because of it…Rest assured, you own the brand with the highest resale value out there!-Travis Fox
I have add about everything you can have happen with this situation over the years of hauling a boat all over the US form one lake to another and it does drive you insane! More often than not, it is in your vehicle. (I know that you said it did it with another vehicle, but if you have the luck I have, it may have been the same problem on both vehicles…)Under the hood of your vehicle there is a fuse box. Check the fuses that have anything to do with lights. This varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and on a Chevy, there is actually one that is labled “trailer back up”. 9 times out of 10, this is the problem. I have also had the connections on the wires corrode. This is normal as water, road grime, humidity, etc… will take its toll on metals in the wire and connectors that corrode. You connections may look fine, but give them a tug and see if they stay connected fine. My theory is that if they break in two when you tug, they were going to break soon anyways. Check your 5 to 7 way adapter that plugs into your vehicle. Sometimes if you plug the 5 pin connector from your boat trailer into that plug, one of the pins on the inside can break off into the adaptor.These are easy things to check and troubleshoot before replacing the solenoid. Ill bet it is not your solenoid. Good luck!
Chris Burgess is fine and sent me a text the other day checking on my mom who lives there. She and my uncle and aunt lost their house and all of their belongings but are safe. I went there to help out and one can not even begin to imagine how bad it is. The pics on TV and what it looks like in person are night and day.
The college tournaments are a great group to add to the list. I try to take these guys out after every event and let me tell you, they are a hoot! Talk about excitement and passion…these guys get excited! They are the future of our sport. Kudos for giving them the incentive!
I have lived in Fayetteville, Lowell, Springdale, and Rogers. Bentonville has the number 1 rated schools in the state. Bella Vista has some pretty sweet private lakes with excellent fishing but traffic is a nightmare in the morning and evening. There are several small lakes and city lakes all around NWA that are decent and Beaver is no more than 20 minutes from any of the towns. Springdale would be my very last choice. It has really changed over the last 5 years. Unless you speak Spanish, it is hard to co-exist there. I took my life savings and invested in property on the Lowell / Rogers border near I540 and it is by far the best place I have lived yet. Conevient to everything and no thugs to run down the neighborhoods. Best Wal-Mart Supercenter in the state, Pinnacle Promenade Mall, Several Excellent Restaurants, Hospital, Academy, World Gym, etc… Look between exits 78 and 81 on the West side of the Interstate… That is where the building has still been going on (even through the recession). Its booming and property values will be far better in the future. 20 minutes to Prairie Creek or Hickory Creek on Beaver, 1 hr 15 minutes to Grand Lake, 1 hr 10 minutes to Tablerock, etc…
I have been fishing the FLW Tours, Everstarts, and several other tournaments for some time now and while I reside in the Ozarks, I have been on Champlain, St. Clair, Erie, etc…. and understand what 2,3,4,5 and 6 footers on your Northern great lake impoundments are. The great lakes waves are a whole different animal than the waves in the Central US. End of story!I have been running the Pantera Classic models for over 10 years now. I have been in nearly every model and make of every boat designed in the past 20 years from all manufacturers and until recently, there is a reason why I keep buying the Pantera Classics…. I do not have to tell you how awesome of a boat this model is as you already own one… (not to mention it is BCBs “economy model”, has the best resale value of any other brand, best ride in its class, blazing speed and flawless performance, etc….), but what I can tell you is that you DO NOT want to go for a ride in an Eyra or you WILL have your Classic up for sale! One thing you should know about me is that I am the biggest tight-wad you have ever met. I do not make a lot of money and purchasing a “premium” anything is a huge step for me. Now with that being said, I recently took a trip over to Mountain Home and test drove both the Cougar and the Eyra to compare them and see what all of this hype was about and let me tell you, if you are not running a Cougar or an Eyra, you are missing out!It just so happened to be a 35MPH+ windy day when I took my test ride and we went out to the open water in front of the dam (needless to say, the conditions were brutal). You are going to have guys tell you the Puma and Cougar are a better ride over the Eyra, but I am going to tell you the opposite. Believe me, there is NOTHING wrong with the Cougar/Puma hull (in fact, I almost bought that model, but decided against it because I liked the layout of the Eyra better), but I also think the Eyra is a slightly softer ride in big waves. Kevin Short just happened to be over there that day and when I asked him, he said the same thing. Either one is night and day difference over the Pantera Classic. One thing I might mention is that the Eyra has a cockpit design for the on plane seating. If you picture the cockpit of a fighter jet, the design of the Eyra is similar. You sit down in it like a pilot instead of sitting up high over the top of the console. While it may seem awkward at first, I think you will love this design as you feel safer and more secure in those big waves when you are sitting lower. One last thing I might mention is how “dry” the ride is in these models. BCB designed these hulls to push water away from the boat and for the spray to sort of cap over and go back down quickly. The best way to describe this is to think of an ocean wave that a surfer rides through. The new hull designs force the water out and then back down, thus keeping you more comfortable and drier than most. What it really comes down to when comparing the Eyra vs. Puma/Cougar is the layout of the boat. I chose the Eyra and I think the cockpit type design of it is going to be awesome for the Great Lakes!Do yourself a favor and go get a new Eyra…. Women will want you and fish will fear you!
We all know you hillbillys shoot them at night over there so you might as well work in the day….lol J/K
Im in Arkansas but ready for a road trip…..2005 Classic w/ 2007 200 Opti (Warranty till March 2012)Lowrance X38C on bow with all lake maps Lowrance X125 in dash Humminbird 997c with all lake maps at console HD RAM Mount All boxes, manuals, extra trannducers, etc… for graphs Hambys Beaching Bumper Aurora Custom Cover MinnKota 82 lb thrust trolling motor with internal transducer MinnKota MK345 3 bank 45 AMP Battery Charger Hot Foot on slider IMCO retractable tie downs on deck IMCO ratcheting tie downs on trailer Break away trailer tongue LED trailer lights New Trolling Batterys (4/15/11) New Cranking Battery (7/15/11) New steering cables in trolling motor New Tires New Brakes New bilge, aerator and recirculator pumps New water pump Fresh gear lube Recently repacked trailer bearings$19,500 Travis Fox 479-841-8696
I cant quit fishing out of it long enough to take pics….lolHere is a sneak preview of the business end though.
There you go!
I remember the 1st time I met Jamie Alan Horne. It was in Feb. of 2008 at Lake Norfork. I was in an everstart tournament there and did well and Jamie and I were paired together to fish the top 10 on the 3rd day. He and I met and when he asked what boat we were fishing in and I told him a Bass Cat, I remember his exact words… “all right man, a BassCat guy. We are going to do good man….” I can still hear the exact tone in his voice just like it was yesterday. He was so excited to have a Bass Cat guy as a partner to fish with the next day and he was about as hard core BCB as you could get. He asked me if I had a place to stay and I told him “no” and he said “well if you are a bass cat guy, you must be a pretty good dude. Ill pay for a room and you are welcome to stay with me”. We went and got dinner together and stayed up late trading fishing stories and getting ready for the tournament in the morning. He was the kind of guy that you couldnt help but love and we quickly became friends. We stayed in contact and traveled to some other tournaments together later in years. He was always so excited when I came to town and wanted to introduce me to all he knew as his friend and fishing buddy. Jamie had a way of making you feel special and you knew that he was always there for you. He loved fishing at any and all levels, but he lived and breathed to fish 2 tournaments a year…. 1) the BCB Invitational, and 2) the AR Big Bass Bonanza, with his wife. He had one of the olded Bass Cat boats around and you would have thought it was fresh off the assebly line the way he loved that thing. I remember him telling me about it and saying he was goin to put his name on it… and boy did he ever! I cant even begin to tell you all of the hilarious stories and jokes that we traded on and off the water. Some of the worst days of fish catching I ever had were with him (although we had several outstanding trips) but those were always some of the best because he knew how to make them fun. He was the guy you loved to go fishing with because you knew you were going to have a blast and laugh all day whether you caught anything or not. Guys like Jamie Alan Horne are rare and very special and I am glad to have been blessed with his friendship for the 5 short years that I knew him. Tight lines and rough thumbs buddy. The next big ones for you!
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