my old fishing rig was a '72 dodge dart i inherited from my deceased brother in law. his nickname was the "salmonator" so, since i had extra cash after not having to pay for the thing, i put vanity plates on it that read "SALMN8R". that name stuck and now, as you can tell, it's my e-mail. the car was mechanically sound but was an eyesore, to say the least. it had moss and algae growing on it and enough dog hair inside to weave a filson cruiser with. it took 5 hours to clean it and i got so tired of scrubbing i finally just hit the thing with a not-so-dilute bleach/water solution (inside and out) to kill everything off. now i have a job working with hazardous waste for a living.
you could start it with a jigsaw blade. it had a hole in the driver's seat the size of a wash basin and there were miscellaneous dents all over the place. the thing floated down the highway though and when you pushed the gas pedal, the 318 let you know it. i added a pflueger "Trump" flyreel (with flyline) for a hood ornament, a couple of blocks of wood on the passenger side (one on the hood and one on the roof, both with velcro) that held two rods secure at 85 MPH and, last but not least, it had a brass drawer-pull as a sighting device on the left, front fender lined up with the center of the tire. it worked just like a shotgun bead and you could sight down it and pop anything you wanted. i never procured any materials with it but did practice a few times on pop bottles and beer cans some inconsiderate people left in the road...worked pretty well. all in all it was a sad day to see the thing go away but the spousal unit was too embarased to have it in front of the house in Suquamish (i still can't figure that one out; i thought it fit in fairly well). now i have a 1986 mazda sundowner. what an upgrade! takes 25 minutes to get up to speed and i'll die if i'm ever in a parking-lot accident. it gets decent mileage though and it has a cd player that is worth more than the truck itself. the passenger-side wiper works when it feels like it and i have to break into it if i lock it. but, i have the old "Trump" back on the front so it's just like home again, just a little slower. i've been contemplating the RSD (roadkill sighting device) but seriously think even a ruffed grouse could get out of the way before i got to it. ~dj~ --- Kent Lufkin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Over the years, we've discussed just about every > kind of fishing gear > or strategy imaginable. But it struck me the other > day that there's > still one indispensable piece of gear that every one > of us uses: the > vehicle that gets us where we fish. > > I assume that for most of us, our fishing vehicle is > also our daily > driver that spends most of its time making trips to > the store or > commuting. For some of us in a multi-car household, > a second vehicle > may be much more appropriate for fishing. A very few > of us may > actually have a rig dedicated just for fishing, > refined over years of > use. > > To get the ball rolling, here's my own 2� on the > subject: > > I've always owned a pickup. In fact I can only > remember a couple > years when I didn't have one. My current ride is a > 1998 Ford Ranger > XLT extra cab 4x4 with a 4.0 liter V-6 and an > automatic. Wish I'd got > it with the small, half-sized doors to get behind > the front seats. > However, a retractable cover keeps things out of > sight back there. > > The bed will hold a couple float tubes fully > inflated or my 9 foot > pontoon boat (I haven't tried stacking two pontoon > boats back there > yet.) There's plenty of room left over for gear > bags, coolers, oars > or rod tubes. Plus, the bed doubles as a place to > sit and wader up > without rocks that can tear up my neoprene wader > feet. > > But having a pickup does pose some limitations. > Leaving stuff in the > back is an open invitation to theft if you leave it > there even > briefly. And relatively light weight stuff needs to > be tied down to > keep it from becoming airborne at highway speeds. > > My truck's bed isn't long enough that I can stretch > out in it to > sleep, and I'd need some sort of canopy to stay dry > in the rain. The > space behind the seats doesn't hold very much gear > (long rod tubes > are an especially tight fit) and it's a real pain to > get to. Finally, > if I owned a boat and trailer, my rig is probably > much too puny for > serious towing. > > But for the most part, it works well for the kind of > fishing I do. > The 4wd and high ground clearance are a real plus on > marginal roads. > > I'd sure like to hear how other subscribers have > adapted their > vehicles for their own fishing style. > > Kent Lufkin > ===== __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Find the one for you at Yahoo! Personals http://personals.yahoo.com
