Sk8man

I have 10 Stainless Perkos (among others) on my boat 6 of them on the front ss railing and I even run my 15 ft. outriggers off them without any problems. They are rail mounted so no holes to drill can be moved or positioned using small wrench. Can take them off the boat if you sell it ....without holes etc.

All you have to do is pry the level opening wind a little wider carefully with a screwdriver ...

Yeah I used to service my 1979 Johnson 35 myself but when I look inside this Optimax it looks like some alien planet

Mine went this year too as well as the impeller....what ever happened to the old motors that you just got in the boat and drove only worrying about going into shallow water and shearing off a pin?

How long has it been since the impeller was changed? Don't let the engine overheat....while getting mine fixed last week I saw one in the shop that blew because of the overheat.....it will be $6500 just for the parts for the guys boat....

I'll PM you.

The speed is dependent on a whole bunch of things such as what you are running for rods, the type of lures (spoons or stickbaits, the type of attractor, dipseys, wires.mono or leadcore, time of year etc. What I am getting to is that your speed is pretty much relative to your own boat/motor setup situation combined with the above and any currents you detect in the water you are fishing, and wind speed with or against you etc.. Someone could say fish for lakers at 1.8 mph and it means just about zero to your situation because of these variables. In the old days before the GPS and temp/speed metering devices they used a "gizmo" that had a wire with a weight attached to it which dragged in the water at the side of your boat and it was attached to a scale of colors (e.g. red being slow, yellow medium and green at high speed for example sake I don't remember the exact colors or sequence). As you increased your speed the the hand on the dial moved toward a certain color and when you caught a fish at that speed you put a mark with a grease pencil or small piece of tape exactly where you were on the scale. It was a measure of relative speed but focused on your particular boat and that particular species of fish so you learned the RANGE of speeds associated with actual catches of fish. That same principle applies here but with more specific metering of the surface speed on your boat. The long and short of it is that the best way to make the determination of the ranges is to do it with your own boat and use your own data to make your decisions, and speed at the depth is a more relevant measure if you have something like the Fish Hawk etc. to measure it . In general though lakers are usually caught at slower speeds with browns a little faster and rainbows and landlocks at higher speeds but nothing is cast in stone as you will discover I think the.5 mph noted above is quite a bit slower than usual laker speed...Change speeds often and go against or diagonally across currents and make "s" turns...I sometimes even "rock" my boat to change the action of the lure.

They work fine for dipseys if you have a medium rod. I use 30 lb 7 strand wire on mine and another with braid.

Question: Are you sure the Big Game line is 25 lb test? I've only seen it in 20 and 30?

It will work in terms of getting the copper on there but the reel itself is very awkward and clumsy because of its size and weight. Selecting a rod is also a problem because you are pretty much stuck with a boat rod to support it and even then it turns over in the rod holder and will drive you nuts In the old days I ended up using mine for my planer boards

Question: Were they all caught in the same general area of the lake? I know that often individuals of the same year class are found together "clumped" in the same spots but interesting that this seems those numbers are way outside normal random probability.

The board is supposed stay in place Andy and you take it off on the way in.....kinda clumsy but it works. There is a tension adjustment screw on the tx44 and I suppose it is the same on the tx22. I screw it down pretty good. I use the board with braid and it will slip somewhat without the rubber band approach. I originally tried using the board from another heavy boat rod (like a mast) as a regular planer board (experimenting so I took off the release and used another type on the back of the board but it didn't work....makes the board off balance. I actually prefer my old inline yellow birds for lighter stuff now.

Thanks Ed. I actually saw the fish and it was a really fat and short son of a gun for the weight....very healthy looking fish.

The last I heard a 13 pounder (laker) was leading it but when I checked the paper tonight nothing was mentioned about it....pretty worthless sport section....

You might want to think about using a combination starting/deep cycle battery. The regular deep cycles aren't really designed for starting the engine (high amp short term draw) they are better at running the other stuff over time...

The only thing that is worse is being ALLERGIC to the cotton ....that's me! At least I can still breath with the fleas

We're ALL learning here ...no matter how long we've been at it. The way to keep learning is to ask questions....and experiment. That's what it is all about ...having fun and experimenting. Sounds as though you have a good plan...Good luck and tight lines!

I guess first of all leadcore has its place in the "arsenal" but it is a rather limited window of opportunity these days because of the fleas (and cotton). During the height of the flea season it becomes virtually unusable in most places after early and mid Spring. After the water cools in the Fall it becomes practical once again to use it once the fleas aren't actively present. My suggestion to use wire was based on this fact together with the fact that wire is more flexible in its use to achieve depth. I've used mine with dipseys, cowbells, dodgers, flashers, Spin Docs etc. You have to adjust your setups accordingly (e.g. with cowbells I attach a three way swivel with a fairly heavy sinker at the bottom and fish the bottom in 100-150 ft or so for lakers). I don't run it with boards though although I could set it up for that as well but risk of kinking is there to a degree. If you are stuck on leadcore I would suggest using inline weights to achieve greater depth or dive bombers etc. to get down a bit further but leadcore is not really DESIGNED for real deep water fishing or bottom fishing it is basically a way to "topline" a little deeper than surface fishing. Also there aren't many reels other than expensive saltwater jobs that would have the capacity for 20 colors...