Trap Jaw

Ah, just when I was starting to forget how much fun that is.

If you had an outboard I would say you'd be nuts not to put a kicker on. With an I/O it's a little different story. First off I just want to say that no motor out there was ever designed to run for hours on end for years at idle or a few hundred RPM's over idle. Nothing is worse on a motor, other then saltwater. Chowder made a very good point about the costs. If your engine were to wear out it would cost you a few thousand(last I knew a crate motor ran around $2500+install) to get a Jasper rebuild installed. Does that offset the few thousand you'd have in installing a kicker, that's assuming that you buy a brand new kicker. It's a call only you can make. Myself personaly, I will never use a boat on the great lakes that doesn't have a kicker. I have pulled in way too many people over the years that only had one engine on their boat and that one took a puke. Also, it is much more fuel efficient to use a kicker. Also it is much easier to obtain the perfect speed that I need. Good luck on your decision.

If only I had a job. I found 2 30' Proline's in Florida. Sellers only wanted 20K. If I got a job tomorrow I'd be at the credit union by next week setting thing up.

If I were to buy a boat any distance away I would go through eBay. I already worked out the procedure since I have been looking at the 30'+ boats and some are cheeper then 22-26' class boats. Now I just need a job to afford one. Here's what I worked out. Put a down payment on it through PayPal, if anything goes wrong they can get your money back to you. If you want to get it serveyed, so be it, have the owner do it and make that part of the deal. Tell the owner that you'll pay for the servey and add something to make it worth his while. Tell the owner that you will transfer the rest of the payment in cash, at a notory, at the time of transfer. If at any time the deal looks like it's heading south, you walk away and get the down payment back from PayPal. I would still like to do a deal localy, but you don't find many 34' CC Donzi's around the great lakes.

I have only ever had direct experience with three brands, Cannon, Penn and Walker. I can tell you that I will never own another set of Walkers again. They just had bad design features. We had to keep a took kit on the boat and do a "preflight" check to make sure everything was tight. We had two, and the biggest problem was both handles loosened up and fell over the side. We ended up putting long bolts on just to have something to grip, but man it hurt the hands. I went with Cannons this time because other then electrics needing something here or there I have never heard of a manual blow up. As for the Penn's, I would love to own another set of them. I just can't justify the price. It's not like they have any better or worse features then the Cannon's.

I guess I'll be the vote of decent here. We put an F8MLH Yamaha on our 18' Welcraft C/C last year. The only reason we did was it was $100 more for the 8 over the 6. Honestly we could have gone with the 6 and still been fine. We have yet to run the motor "flat out" except for when we first took it out, just to see how it ran. Most trolling was done at less then half throtle. Honestly, was the marginal cost worth it? For us, no. We should have just went with the 6 and saved the money. My honest opinion is that since you're boat is aluminum, and has less displacement then ours, a 6hp would push it just fine. Personaly I think the only reason the dealer is trying to sell you the "T" model is because it costs more.

I set up my dad's boat with an EZ Steer and only had a few problems with it, all were self inflicted. We lock the trolling motor when trailering and we had a couple instances where we didn't unlock it and tried to turn the motor, pulled the rod apart. It would also have helped if we would have purchased the right length rod. I bought the rod off eBay and made the brakets that mount on the boat. Used stainless pipe and hose clamps. For the connector EZ Steer just uses industrial air fittings as quick disconnects. If I get a chance I'll get some pics, it does look redneck as all heck, but it works and I've got about $80 into it.

Oh yeah, same thing we're running into down here. Lots of birds, but they have been here so long that they've been educated. The one day we did get a cold blow we did good, 9 birds with an old squaw hen and two surf scoters thrown in. Just wondered if anyone had given it a try yet. Thanks for the responses.

Just wanted to put a post up to see if anyone is seeing good nubers of sea ducks on the lake. My buddy and I have been looking forward to getting up this year. I realize from reading the posts from last year that we still have some time until the gunning gets really hot... Unfortunately he ran into a bit of a snag. His girlfriend is expecting, of all due dates, the beggining of January. We were talking about it yesterday and decided that if there were any birds around it would be better to make a trip before the end of the first season then wait until the second season and have the possibility of her going into labor. It kind of sucks, but if we could get some marginal hunting in and not have to worry about anything it would be better then getting great hunting with that specter hanging over our heads. Not looking for detailed info like spots or anything, just what the prospects are right now.

Don't feel bad Yoda. I think it's mandated that all boat dealers are shysters. I live in PA and there isn't a dealer within an hour drive that I would trust getting close to me or my equipment. If I'm not mistaken, I think the dealers are responsible for putting the boat on a trailer. If you've looked at the price of trailers it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they put the absolute smallest trailer under it as possible. They save a few hundred dollars and you get headaches. I'm going through a similar problem now with our boat. When loaded the springs on the trailer bottom out. It's bad enough that if we hit a good enough bump the tires will rub on the fenders.

Nothing would have beat the retired Coast Guard 42' motor life boat I found on eBay once. My buddy and I were trying to figure out how we could afford that. Now that would have been cool.

Devoid of life. Very few pods of bait, and only a few fish hugging the bottom in close. Those fish must have gotten so screw'd up from the flip that they're swimming upside down.

Just got back. No good. Fished for 4 hours without even a nock off. Tried everywhere from 100-370, ran back in close and tried draging bottom in 70-100, still no luck. Overheard two charter capt's talking at the dock, they didn't have any better luck, one or two apiece. You know when the pay boats are having trouble finding fish it's bad.

Thanks for the reply Rod. I guess I wouldn't have to worry to much about getting them up since I have manuals. On the other hand if I need Arnold in the boat to get them up... They just looked like a much better solution to having a couple weights bouncing around the boat. For 60 bucks a crack I didn't just want to go and buy two just to see how they work.

Sounds like par for the course for those guys. In discussing the situation with my buddy we decided that the 3 grand + that he spent would have been put to much better use in covering the 10k+ cost of a new motor. I found this, very interesting read. I've had the experience enough that I would take on the conversion, I'm not so sure you would want to tackle it yourself though. Take a look, it is what you are looking at doing. http://continuouswave.com/whaler/refere ... rsion.html

I would not take it to Blackbird(1 outboard). My buddy just got his boat back from them after 2 months, complete rebuild on a 115 Mariner. It took them 2 months because they didn't want to change the tooling on their machines without having another motor to do. Too much of a hasle for them, what about not getting fishing for us? Bottom line is even after the wait they still didn't get it right. We have been back once already and probably going to have to make another trip since the motor is still not running right. I don't think he even got the original carbs reinstalled since none were sinc'd right, they were fine when we took it there. We decided they would be OK if you were just taking them the block and pistons to bore and you were doing all the assembly work yourself. I was thinking of taking my dad's boat to them to repower, but not now. I live in Erie and the sad thing is there isn't a mechanic within a day's drive that I would trust to touch my motor... Except of course myself.

The Z-wing downrigger wieght? I was looking at them and they claim that they dive the same as heavier wieghts. I had the thought that they might prevent blowback a bit better. Any thoughts?

I had a buddy that had an old set of Invader electrics that did something similar. They worked fine out of the water but in the water we had to "assist" them up(ie. flip the switch and turn the spool by hand). Ended up that the motors were worn. We tried having the brushes replaced localy, but no good. They were just too far gone. He ended up getting rid of them because new motors would have been almost as much as new riggers.

I agree with CB, just stagger everything until something starts producing. The good news is from all the reports on here you can get a good idea where to start. If I go out and have no starting point this is how I do it. I run 2 inside(1.5 setting) and two outside(2-3 setting). I will start each inside and outside 25 feet apart. If something fails to produce in 15 minutes I simply open the release and drop it back another 25. I know it's the dumbass method, but it's worked fine for me for the last 12 years.

Depends on how many are cut, but yes you will need to repair them eventually. A relative let his go years ago and they cut right through the guide. I have not found a good way to run wire without cutting the eyes, short of buying the roller guide rods. And I'm not shelling out that much for rods.

Fishing Report Your Name / Boat Name: ============== TRIP OVERVIEW ============== Date(s):8-15 Time on Water:7:30 Weather/Temp: Wind Speed/Direction:variable Waves: calm Surface Temp: 75 Location: LAT/LONG (GPS Cords): =============== FISHING RESULTS =============== Total Hits: 5 Total Boated:4 Species Breakdown:1 king 3 small steelhead Hot Lure: Trolling Speed: 2.25 Down Speed: Boat Depth: 270 Lure Depth: ==================== SUMMARY & FURTHER DETAILS ==================== My dad and I made our first trip back in over 10 years. Started off slow, couldn't mark fish to save our life. North/south zig-zag'd from 140-230' for the first 1.5 hours. Finally decided to try east/west. Had a dipsey hang up and wouldn't trip so I throtled back the kicker to make it easier to get in. No sooner did I get my hand off the throtle and the other dipsey started screaming. Nice fight, ended up being a good king. Heck of a fish to start off with. Can't tell you how big, left the scale at home, probably somewhere between 25-30 lbs. Picked up the first steelhead shortly after and made a turn west to hit the numbers again. We couldn't get anything on the west troll, but bangged two more steelhead once we made the turn back east. I think we got everybody excited because by the end of the second pass there was a sizable pack forming. Got the king and one steel on green crush SD with seaweed howie fly, one on crome/green holo tape flasher w/ green bucktail fly, and the last on a orange/yellow NK 28. Dad's first king in over 10 years, let me tell you, there was some whoopin' goin' on with that one. The better of the steelhead, not too impressive, but nice when they start the dance.

I know that every new dipsey that I buy I have to monkey with the release. It seems that even though there is an adjustment screw the plastic is always to tight. I take the screw out and pry open the seat with a screwdriver, put the screw back in and everything works perfect. After that I just run them out 10-15 feet and try to pop them. Then like everyone else said just trial and error. Just my 2cents.

I personaly love the Angerl's Pal holders. All aluminum, fully adjustable to any angle and they hold up great. I have some on my boat that are almost 20 years old. I will say that my buddy likes the RAM Mount holders. Very similar to the Angler's Pal, but if you are patient Cabela's puts them on sale every now and then. I need the versitility though. I fish for just about anything, perch, walleye, salmon; running boards, dipsey's, riggers... I have three up each side of the boat and have never needed more.

My buddy used the textured deck paint that Cabela's sells. Held up good for 3 years until he sold the boat. Just saying, probably a lot cheaper then rhino.

Just got a new boat last year, the first one ever with bunks. GIVE ME ROLLERS OR GIVE ME DEATH!!! I will never have another trailer with bunks. Very difficult to launch since the trailer has to be so far in the water. Getting it on is just as difficult since we get wet feet when the trailer is in far enough. Bought some bunk slicks from Cabela's, they make it a bit better, but still not as nice as roller trailers.