The thermostat was open when I pulled it out this morning before starting so I suspect it is stuck open. It “made oil” during this mornings trip so I shut it down and ran my main instead.
The wind forecast was correct today and I finally got out again. Started at 8am and fished shallow inside the chocolate water and out to the midline with no hits for 1.5 hrs. Decided to slide out deeper for kings and saw a good mark at 35’ so I worked that area for rest of the morning. My downrigger with the MVP of the day purple clown took all the fish but 1 that came unbuttoned on a planer board with 1 color and UV Die Hard. Landed 3 browns and 1 screamer 29’ down over 44fow. There was a pod of 6 or 7 and thankfully I didn’t double up because it took 20 minutes to land it on my med light action rod and 12# leader. Went about 15# and 31”. What a blast watching it do acrobatics 150’ behind the boat after it peeled over 100’ of line out on the strike. The Coast Guard went out on a call but went out of viewing distance, not sure what the situation was but couldn’t pick up anything on my radio besides the weather. Great day on the water, didn’t even pay attention to the rain.
I’m reading about it and I’m wondering if this is normal from condensation since I have only been trolling with it at low rpm’s since I have been slow trolling in cold weather under 2.5 mph at all times. Am I going to damage the motor running it like this if that’s the case or will it burn off if I run it faster?
I have a 2021 Mercury 4 stroke 9.9 I use for trolling. I just checked the oil before going out tomorrow and the oil looked like milk running off the dipstick. I’ve ran it twice this spring and it has been running fine. I ran it all year last year and never saw the oil look like this. What is it?
The wind was out of the south today for the most part correct? I’m still trying to find the sweet spot where I can fish solo and still maintain boat control with my trolling motor autopilot. E and W is manageable but anything from the North at 10mph or better sends me in circles. I’m giving it a shot Sunday and hoping I can last a few hours at least.
That’s funny, I get tendinitis in my forearm every fall. I finally stopped going to Physical Therapy now that I know what to do when it starts up and nip it in the bud.
Wow, that’s awesome. I couldn’t motivate myself to go out this morning with the N wind forecast but sounds like it was calm early on. Congrats on a good king bite
I hear that and has been my experience as well. An hour drive isn’t as bad as many others have to do but it still stinks losing a day with a wasted drive out.
South shore guys, what wind report do you find to be the most accurate? The shoreline seems to have its own microclimate and never ends up being what my report says the night before or even as I am driving out in the morning. In my experience, anything more than 8 knots from the north is a no-go for me. I’ve been using windfinder.com but it failed me last weekend.
Just watched the video. That kid did a great job fighting that king. It’s hard to hold back the excitement when a king hits and have the patience to take your time tiring it out on light line. ….ask me how I know🙄
Spoonfed- that’s the exact program I started with until my rigger leader snapped on a hit. Seeing that it got hit 4’ down I put my 1 color out with a spoon instead on an 3rd board and got 2 more off that one.
Thanks for the input guys. I ran all 3 off of my inshore side yesterday instead of spreading them out and took fish on all of them. Definitely helps the confidence when I change up a routine and it works.
The plain nightcrawler is easy to overlook with all of the other options available but I have had days when jigs and blades wouldn’t get hit but a worm and split shot drifted on the bottom took fish.