Well it's almost that time of the year again! I will be pulling the Mako for the long trip home from Florida in about three weeks. She is a little bit worse for the offshore use (small dings, dirty, etc). It was a very bad trolling year for the panhandle. Mega rains dumped billions of gallons of dirty bay water into the gulf, and I do mean dirty (one night in the dirty bay water left an ugly stain that the marina did not get off very well before every dry storage period).

Here are some things I learned by the experience fishing in RON-da-vU:

Good Stuff

• The fish box in the floor is huge for a 20 footer (see page six).

• Being located in the floor is very convenient for sliding a gaffed fish into and quickly closing the lid . Cobia can wreck a boat. The ones put into the fish box, and then closing the lid gave no problem.

• We put over 300 lbs of fish on there on one trip. No place to put that big of a cooler on this boat.

Bad Stuff

• Due to the way the lid for the fish box is made, there is no way to add a gasket so the box won't fill up with water when it rains. The fishbox holds a little better than sixty gallons= 420 lbs. When it rains and the fish box fills up the scuppers are underwater..............not good.

• It is not insulated. Ice melts very fast, even block. The combination of water entering and no insulation will dissolve expensive ice in no time.

I will be asking advice on your opinions as how to best address the problems with the fish box.

The cooler seat was comfortable and worked great, but................. it isn't high enough. A Mako is designed to ride bow up. The seat is just too low to sit down while running through three footers. I am going to built in a tackle box station under the cooler to raise it up and gain some storage at the same time.

The built in cooler I converted to a live well worked good, but............ water sloshed out in anything over one foot seas and kept the floor wet all the time. I am going to make a lid for it that is designed to be more water proof.

The notched transom is designed to allow room for twins. A twenty foot boat usually uses a single motor, I do. I am going to do a lot of changing in this area. I hope to get a lot of discussion here. Will probably put the transom project on a forum to see if any revelations appear.

I added cutting boards to the rear storage lids. These were designed to be used while trolling. As I mentioned, trolling was terrible this year, so I ended up bottom fishing a lot. When bottom fishing, and the bite is hot, you need a small cutting board right where you are sitting. Will add those.

I added a built in tackle box and it worked beautifully. People you invite like to bring their own tackle box. I will probably build out the front deck a little bit to create some additional space for tackle boxes.

I did not cut the front deck and add a hatch for an anchor locker. Don't use an anchor much trolling. I will make that change also.

There will probably be some other small projects. I am going to refinish the outside. It will be fun and interesting.

I have decided to address just six main issues this winter and avoid any spring deadlines. I'm going to see if I can't have even more fun than last year!

• Fish box issues: this was really aggravating. I have a very large in floor fish box. Room in there for a six foot Hoo. Only trouble is it fills up with water when it rains and from water used to wash down, etc. Every trip it seemed to collect water and melt all the ice I put in there. I think I have it figured out how to proceed.
• The flip back cooler seat is too low. Can't see the seas in front of you very well while underway. My neck won't let me stand up for long periods of time. I plan to add a ten inch structure to go under the seat just high enough to hold two built in tackle boxes.
• Add an anchor locker. I have a locker in the bow, but it is accessed from the side. I need to install a hatch so the rope can be stowed while pulling the anchor. I used a garbage can that was stowed in the motor well and it did get the anchor out of the way, but a buddy set the trash can down on the gas line and caused some anxious moments 25 miles offshore.
• Do transom modifications. The transom is currently twenty inches deep and the notch is very wide. Minimum mod will include making notch just wide enough for single motor. Undecided about this at this time.
• Spruce the old lady up some. Yep, paint the hull. Not decided on what shade of white just yet. Gonna roll and tip some awl grip.
• Address livewell issues. Last year I converted the front cooler to a live well. It worked ok, but in any kind of seas it sloshed water all over the deck, not too cool.

I will post before and after pics of each issue. As before suggestions and comments will be welcome. My goal is to end up with the absolute slickest 20' offshore boat around.