CaptSpike

Saw a picture the other day (swear it was on this site) of the fattest laker I had ever seen. I was hoping to send the link to a buddy of mine and now I can't find the post with the picture of the fish.???? I'm probably looking right at it and missing it. Any help is apreciated.......tough to get old. Spike

Could be the safety switch too. Spike

If you just put a new battery in it I'd start there and check the connections over again. I actuall had a stud on my new battery spin out of the lead on the top of the battery this yr when tightening down the nut. If that is loose you wont be able to transfer enuogh juice to start the boat even though you may pass enough to power lights and what not. I'd at least recheck all your connections first. I also make sure my engine terminals are first to be placed in the battery. If you stack them on a terminal that has some corrosion on it then you reduce the amount of good contact you have there as well. Clean all contact/terminals on the battery and try it. Batteries on boats are notorious for loosening up/corroding and leading to bad connections. I always coat my terminals after installation with a dielectric grease to prevent corrosion. Spike

As stated above lots to check. Check the easy stuff first. Fuel lines, filters, separaters and vents. I had problems earlier this yr that I thought was fuel related and did a search on ethonol fuel. looks like there can be some issues mixing back and forth between the two. You may want to do an internet search on mixing the two fuels. I don't remember the specifics as I used ethonol fuel only so it didn't apply to me, but I do remember seeing something about it. Good luck finding the fix. Hopefully it is a simple fuel line replacement. Spike

I believe Jekyll stated 8 species, not 8 species of fish.So you forgot to count the earth worm! And not to break this down completely I believe for a species he listed the rainbow and steelhead seperatly just as the various salmon were listed a different species. Species strain ....whatever......He caught 8 different things, which I believe was the point. Sounds like a great trip. I hope my trips go half as good as that. Spike

Hydraulic is much better if you can afford it. I made the switch yrs ago and have never looked back. Spike

If you go out of Oswego it is a much shorter distance to deeper water. I think it is like 100' for every mile or close to it. Another option for launching. Spike

Check the saftey switch first. If that is gone you wont get any spark either. Do what you can then bring it somewhere. Checking the saftey switch should be easy enuf.A decent manual will also tell you how to check the other components you mention as well. Might be as simple as checking them and maybe a plug and play part. Google the problem as well, you may find an answer or at least some direction that way as well. I had problems two weeks ago and by doing what I could first figured it out. Saved some $$$. Spike

Welcome to the site. Spike

Welcome to the site, plenty of info here to up the odds. Best site on the internet. Spike

I was told it is better to be over reved than under. Under you are lugging the motor and will reduce the life of the engine. That stated when I was told over it was by a couple hundread rpm above the motor spec at WOT. So if your motor is rated at 5000-5500 you wouldn't want to be over 5700 on your rpm at WOT a nd due to lugging the engine you wouldn't want to be under your reccomended WOT range at all. just what I was told. Spike

One of the best things I had on my ocean boat was a lighted bilge switch. If the bilge was running the light would be on. In a displacement hull with a stuffing box there was always water in the bilge that would slosh around when running making the bilge switch intermittently light up the light as the water sloshed. I knew I had a problem if the light went on and stayed on for longer than normal. Thanks GOD the times it did stay on was just the switch getting stuck up aganst the wall in the bilge (lobster boat with narrow deep keel). A shake of the hose would set it straight again. Point is I always felt comfortable knowing when my bilge pump was on and when it wasn't. Might be something anyone with a larger boat would want to have for cases like this.I also carried a hand bilge pump. Jus make sure you get one long enuf to reach into your bilge and still dispense the water over the side. I believe you're on the right track sealing up those holes. Not worth the risk, especially at the waterline. Spike

If tracks hold downriggers with weights suspended off booms I would think they would hold a planer mast no problem. If you run the mast up front use tag lines to pull the line to the working area of the boat for setting lines, then release it back to it's natural path after the line is set. I use glass rings used in outrigger rigging attached to my tag line to pand some cam cleats to hold the line if needed. Works great. Spike

If you used a Aftco roller troller release I don't see why it couldn't be done. Spike

OK this is going to be a bit different than your typical Lake Ontario copper question. I have a couple set ups and last yr I started to take my 450' copper local fishing when trolling for lake trout. Problem is we troll 1.5 - 1.8 (2ish) and I have no idea at those speeds how much line out achives what depth. When I keep letting line out I sometimes find the copper has been dragging bottom but I couldn't tell that (until my set up hung and lost it). The bottom on the lake I'm fishing is very erratic (up and down quickly in many places) so it is generally tough to troll trying to stay tight to bottom (which is where most our larger lakers like to hang). I have been dragging spin n glo's with grease trap and other "light" weight rigs. Can anyone give me an idea of how much line I should let out or what the ratio is at that speed? I trolled a bit yesterday but was afraid I didn't let enough line out to get deep enuf..... I ended up dumping a ton more line out and still never picked up any junk on my line or fish????? My target goal was 35-45ft down yesterday. How much line to put the lure in that zone at 1.5mph? If we are yanking I have no problem feeling bottom using the copper line. However my shoulders aren't what they used to be and yanking, though effective, gets old fast for me. Thanks for any insight. Spike

X2, I have more than used up what I have or will ever put in a yrly fee. Broke down 22 miles offshore with a charter and towing wasn't an issue. Maybe Towboat US didn't realize I was a charter boat when I signed up but the operator (Know from the port) did and never mentioned anything about charter vs private tows. Maybe the policy changed? Anyway I never had a problem. Been towed 4 times. Twice due to the shaft breaking and twice due to water cooling failure, my fault leaving dock forgot to open seacock....hey straight inboards were new to me, lol. Also wrapped anchor line while tuna fishing. They dove and cut it off- no charge to me! Well worth it IMO. Spike

No need to stop on the ripping tide. On the coast we anchor up in front of bridge pilings and fish the water right in front of them. The current break will hold fish there. just be prepared to do battle with the piling after you hook up. Some guys rig the anchor so it could be dropped (like tuna fishing) and chase the fish down river after they hook up. Don't over look the obvious structure. I always did well casting storm shads and other various lead heads with soft plastics. Skip the worms and your likely to get larger fish. Spike

You guys have it made price wise. On the coast we pay $110/ft for a season that runs May 15-Oct 15th. Spike

I figured it wasn't just an out of state deal. Kind of sucked that you don't get a warning issued first though. At least I had mine on all trip! Spike

Arrived on Thursday to rough conditions. We knew it was going to lay down so we checked into our rooms and waited it out. 2pm we launched and got out fishing. It was a little sloppy but fishable. Blue and silver was the ticket. We took hits and fish on blue and silver sticks of all types. I think we went 7 for 9, something like that. Two huge lakers, a couple small steel and the rest browns, largest brown at 12.5lbs. We came in at 6 due to kicker issues and we wanted to get them checked out. Back at the dock the kicker started and sounded fine?????? Next morning kicker had issues again..... Wouldn't stay running. I was able to finally get it to stay running and we fished it with a biot of choke on the next two days. OK back to the fishing. Friday was great and we couldn't have asked for a better day. We lost count of how many fish we caught it was that good. Same pattern as the day before with a black silver/ purple silver thrown in there too. Largest brown on Friday was 11 lbs with a bunch over 9 and a couple of 8lbers. Some small steelhead, one small rainbow and some corker smallmouth. As I said that one day made the trip. Next morning we got a latter start than we anticipated. Tons of trailers already at the marina. We made the call to go west and avoid the crowds. Not sure if it was the right call but we went to rice creek and there were only two boats working the area (one was at the bluff's, Hat Trick). So we figured there must be some fish around. We deployed a mix of sticks and proceeded west. Well not being extreamely familiar with the area and going by my gps map I got in a little shallow and we hung a few lures. Then coming off the edge a rod fires and Glenn grabs the rods and says we're hung again. As I'm totalling up the lost gear Glenn says it's coming but it's dead weight I must have a piece of bottom. A short time later Glenn's piece of bottom was netted and weighed 9 lbs (a brown). We made another pass but no love so we headed over to the bluff's. On the way there a rod fires and the line is peeling off the reel. Glenn clears all the rods and Will is in an epic battle on the kokanee rod. A while later a 15lb king is in the net! We swing back after a rest and no love. We worked that area and the bluffs over until noon and headed to the dock for lunch. The afternoon we headed east expecting great things. The crowd had dwindled and everything was looking good. Three small stealhead later and some time we hooked a decent fish and the line broke..........some more dead time and another rod fires. 9 lb brown. Maybe we found some fish and they were going to turn on! we circled around changed over the the pattern that took the hit (fire tiger) and headed back to the zone. Just as we get there I look up and there is the Enviormental Police sitting right in front of us with long eyes on us.Being from the east coast we are not use to the life jacket rule but we were aware of it. I asked if everyone was legal and one of our group didn't have his life jacket on....As he slipped it on they headed over to us and asked up to pull in our starboard side board and rods. As we did that they asked if we had fish and we said yes. they said clear all your lines we want to board you and see the fish. So we pull the port side lines and board. They came up and asked to see our liscences and asked if we knew about hte pfd law. We acknowledged that we did and that the individual had just taken it off to put his sweat shirt on when we had a bite and after the action forgot to put it back on. Long story shorter they gave him a ticket. Since all the lines and everything were in and it was now 6:30 we headed in alittle disappointed about the ticket, but understanding it is what it is, a law. Not sure if it was because we were out of staters that they ticketed us or if they are just sticklers for the law and would ticket anyone???? Anyway aside from that a great trip. Be back in August for some more King action. Spike

One more question on those sizes....Tin or lead? We can only get lead here and tin is one size up from the lead rating (#2 lead is #3 tin). Maybe I'm splitting hairs? Thanks, Spike

Thanks, Spike