Skeet’s Beat – Thanksgiving

Santa’s Sleigh tipped over a little early for me at the Reese house – I got my new Stratos Elite 210 last week.

As usual, the tour boat was rigged with a Mercury Pro XS 250, the MotorGuide 109 Tour Digital and my usual complement of Lowrance Electronics. It has two HDS7 units; one mounted in the dash, and one mounted in the bow plate. It also has two HDS10s on Ram Mounts for high detail viewing. They’ve also got a Sonic Hub connected to them so I can jam if I want to.

I’ve got the dual Power Poles rigged again on the transom. I started out last year with one, but quickly found out how much more effective two is, so I started that way again. But, the trick deal is that I had the boat rigged with those new Lithionics Lithium batteries this year.

These batteries are going to save me more than 200 pounds in the back of the Stratos; which is going to help me be a little faster out of the hole, faster top end, and draft shallower in the water – I can’t wait to try them.

The guys at C&C Marine in Citrus Heights, Calif. did all of the custom rigging for me. Mike VanWagner; the manager there is a longtime friend, and he knows how to do the job right.

I also spent a couple of days at the annual Angler’s Marine Bass-A-Thon in Anaheim, Calif. this past weekend. Rick Grover and his crew down there have been putting that show on for more than 20 years, and they did another great job this year.

My seminars went well, and I got to see a little bit of the new tackle while I wasn’t busy talking to all of the people. The big star of the show was definitely all of the new umbrella type rigs. Since the Alabama Rig got exposed about a month ago by Paul Elias at Lake Guntersville; people are producing them left and right. There must have been 10 people with their own versions of it at the show; it definitely was the hot ticket.

I also heard that they sold five boats at the show – that’s a big deal. To sell five boats in November is something that doesn’t happen very often. One of them was even a fully rigged Stratos Elite 210; and that was really good to hear. After all, I think it is the best boat on the market.

Anyway, it’s Thanksgiving week and Kim and I are taking the girls for our annual Thanksgiving camping trip with my brother Jim and his family to the coast. We’re also going to have a few other friends and family with us and we always have a great time. We’ll catch Dungeness Crab and deep fry some turkey for Thanksgiving, and enjoy each other’s company.

But, I don’t want to end this blog without saying Happy Thanksgiving to all of you out there, and a offer up a special thanks to our military serving around the world – without you, our country’s American Dream would not be possible – Thank you!

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