tip downs are free poles normaly made from wooden dowel or you can be fancier like mine and they are balanced on some sort of stand. Bait the hook and balance the rod and wait for it to ....Tip Down whan a fish hits, they work really well for light bite and smaller fish (pan fish) ...kinda like a bobber. When bigger fish get ahold of them you better pray its on the one closest to your shanty or you run the risk of loseing the pole and sometimes the base ...ask me how i know lol
i haved found building slush mounds around your holes retards the holes from freezing by keeping the cold wind off the water it also helps when useing tipdowns on really windy days keeping the rod from tipping from the wind.
Having built and repaired a few fishing poles in my day, I have found that the rod blank is finished then after the guides are wrapped on they are varnished themselves so it you take a razor blade and very carefully cut through the wrap in two places vertically they will almost just peal off. Then if there is any left over varnish it can be sanded down with some fine (600-1000) grit wet sand paper then rewrapped and refinished. I have used clear nail polish to finish them 3-4 coats just on the thread. Hope this helps
John
It may not be a weekly basis but its as much as i can and my work schedule allows but we're in a 1969 starcraft. Only issue is it 16 foot so we really need to keep an eye to the sky ...but its never left us stranded
Ok guys thank you for all the suggestions and ideas it is unburned marine sta-bil that I add to the fuel ....I put some of the fuel from my tank in a suitable burning container (beer can cut in half) and put a match to it when it was burnin the only thing left was a gooey tar substance. So I tried it with just gas and oil no goo. Highly scientific if I do say so myself. Guess its no more sta-bil
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We usually go out with 3 myself my son and a buddy and my son usually drives so I can get everything set up so he gets the first one then its a free for all
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Its not lower unit oil I know that for sure it doesn't smell like gear oil but it does have a burnt exhaust /fuel type smell. The only issue I have with it is that there is so much of it when it does leak out. Ive been going through the manual and found a few small issues with the timing. It was about 3 degrees advanced so I set it back to factory spec hopeful I can get out later and take it for a test spin and see if it made it better or worse. Last year I rebuild the carbs and reset the timing it was way out but ran well I wrote everything down before I did it so I could set it back to what it was but it was about 7 degrees retarded before I started. Setting the timing is a big pain in the rear cause the boat doesn't have a tach that I trust. Guess ill keep tinkering for now.
Ok so heres the deal I first notice the oil coming from the weep hole on the lower unit about two summers ago so I removed the lower unit to 1. Replace the water pump and 2. Find out where the oil is coming from. After getting it off the oil seems to be coming from the exhaust so I cleaners it all out of the chamber flushed the lower unit replaced all seals and gaskets, put it all back together and still doing it. It only happens after running the boat and leaks for about a day then is done. Its a older (74) evinrude 85 HP I mix the gas and oil very cautiously and use Pennzoil. The spark is strong and the motor runs great I have done compression tests on the 4 cyl they seem fine but have not done a leak down test. Its not gear oil and I have had the the lower unit pressure tested all good there. Any Ideas or advise would be greatly appreciated were having a new driveway put in and the wife wants it fixed so it doesn't ruin the driveway or she will make me sell it HAHA. Thanks in advance
They also have a really nice app for smart phones. I think the app was about 10 buck but well worth it if you dont have gps on the boat or have out dated software. We used it all through ice fishing to find structure under the ice and it was spot on
When I first got the boat the dash was completely rotten and the steering wheel was not attached so in my infinite wisdom I used what I had available 3/4 oak ply and automotive epoxy ... so now the ply is coming apart
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Ok so i took the boat out the other day to blow the dust off and maybe do some Brown fishing , the lake had other ideas for me. As we were motoring out in a pretty good chop holding on to the steering wheel for dear life i noticed that the dash was starting to delam and split. To be fair i did know that there was an issue with it and i was gonna have to fix it this summer but was hopeing to get a few trips out before that.....guess not. Anyways the boat is a 16ft starcraft with an open bow so the dash isn't very big but i only wanna do this once. I have a piece of mahogany "laying around" and plan on using that. My question to you all is have any of you used anything other than west system epoxy?? The stuff is extremely expensive and i don't know if i can get the wife to bite on that one. I've seen around a epoxy coating made by aeromarine and it seems to get good reviews. Now depending on how this goes i might also be replacing the motor board on the back of the boat (not the transom) later this year and would like to stick with the same system. Any feed back would be much appreciated.
Thanks
john
Not at the moment I just uncovered the boat and im replacing the riggers that are on there atm...stay tuned
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I went with the 2x6 also it makes it easy to move things around as i upgrade equipment and get it perfect ....also when i was "allowed" to buy the boat my wife told me everything had to be removeable as to not clutter it up for family outtings lol....it works great
We were out 9-1230 didnt do much my son caught a perch and his first pike through the ice but that was it everybody I talked to said the same thing SKUNKED lol but at least we were out and he cought a few
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