DawsonH

I liked to burn fire ant mounds with the old gas when i could. Anyway, how much gas you got? If its just a little bit you can probably just use something like a 1 inch deep pan and poor a little in it at a time to let it evaporate. Just do it where the wind blows. Also, you may want to try the sewer clean out if you have one. If you do that run alot of water to get the fumes on down the way. You may also try dumping it early am in a storm drain or something along those lines. Or, run by a local mechanic shop and ask how they get rid of it. Expect to pay heavily whether you do so legally, or not. It won't be cheap in helifornia.

The lower unit on a tm is not that hard to take apart. I have took apart two of mine and put them back together in working order. It is something that you should do with an assistant because the brushes are hard to get set back in place. If you don't want to fool with that you should probably go ahead and have it looked at. Anyway, a question: How long have you had the motor, and how often is it used?

Mayflies represent a very easy meal. Nothing will pass them up.

it wont plane a bare piece of plywood

On smaller pike and pickerel you can grab them right behind the eyes where the gill plates are and squeeze. Usually you can get a good enough grip there to lift them.

You won't have time to throw the whole tacklebox in one day. If you find something working stick with it until it doesn't.

Ripped their lips. Wore them out. Wore ourselves out. They gave up and started jumping in the boat. They started turning themselves in. We buried ourselves in fish. Loaded the boat. Got 'em one after the other.

Where is a place to get to know a good mechanic?

No I am not.

I don't know of anyway to adjust the motor height, its not on a jack plate or anything like that. Ill get a spare and carry a wrench like you suggested, I kind of had the gut feeling a ss prop would tear the motor up since it wouldn't give.

Its a tilapia. We sell whole frozen ones where I work. You could freeze him and put him in the bag with them and that would be a perfect fit.

When im running about 80-100% of throttle I can hear my prop losing bite every few seconds. Sometimes if the weight distribution is wrong or the waves are just right it will lose it bad enough I have back off the throttle and let it get going right again. What may be causing this? Number 2 is I have an aluminum prop and I run in a river a lot of the time. The sand is starting to make a shallow depression in the prop, and I know eventually it will ruin the prop. Would a stainless steel prop be worth the money for this motor and be a solution for this problem? The motor still runs good and has never had any major repairs. Finally, what type of maintenance do I need to do on this motor besides lower unit oil changes? This is a 2 stroke motor. Thanks for any and all help.

Didn't think of that. Glad you brought it up.

I looked at your boat pics. If you haven't added a deck to that boat you really should consider getting a hand controlled tm for the back of that boat. A foot pedal in the front of that deep v boat would be a royal pain in the @$$. If you haven't already bought one, take your boat down to the lake along with a couple bricks and try putting your right foot on the bricks and your left in the bottom of the boat. Then imagine how it would feel after a few hours. Please don't take offense but I really think you should reconsider.

You don't save battery power by using a smaller motor. You will use more if you have to put a 40# motor on 100% then you would with a 55 on 75%.

What is even funnier about people like that is the fact they say: "I know he couldn't do it because I failed to do it." Like the guy who said my biggest was 38 and Ive hooked bigger on 12# but without a chance. Its not that hard to get big fish on light tackle, all you have to do is have your equipment in good order, have some patience, set the drag, and a little bit of luck with the fish staying out of snags.

Here in Texas its $28 for a license for basic freshwater fishing, 50/ year for boat trailer and $35? every two years for a boat.

Wife and I went out this afternoon, and from about 5:30-8:00 we managed to catch 27 red ears and 2 blugegills ranging in size from about 7.5" all the way up to 11" with some of the red ears weighing a pound. Got three quart bags stuffed full of fillets out of them. The best part is how much fun my wife had catching them though, it was a blast. We were using ultralights with 6# line and fishing cut up night crawlers on the bottom with a small split shot for weight.

Eat that Bass.

Well reason I asked is I was trying to figure out what you would be looking at for a price on it. If you can get it done for just the cost of materials then thats good. Go to walmart or a pet store and measure some fish tanks that would fall within about 250-300 range. Im figuring the other 200-250 for the rest of the stuff you will need to put in it. Also, not at walmart but at a pet store it may be possible to find a stand,tank,hood,light,filter,heater combo that fits your budget and would save you enough money on the cost of those items by themself to make it worthwhile for you to go ahead and buy the stand. Do a little shopping around when you get a chance and let us know what you come up with.

Do you plan to make your own stand or buy one? You can save a large some of money by making your own. Understand that your tank is going to weight in the neighborhood of 10#'s to the gallon when full and decorated.

Lol, yeah that would work with the stand. That's actually not a bad idea with the filter from a Rubbermaid bin or a smaller old tank. Of those fish you listed, the only ones that would be good in a smaller tank would be the puffers, oscars, red bellies and the africans. With the oscars you wouldn't want more than one in a 29 gallon tank, and 2 in a 55. For a first timer it would really be better to go with some smaller stuff that doesn't require so much clean up with the tank. The rest of those fish get to big to go in a tank thats reasonable for most people. Pacus eat plants, Im not really sure you would want to put those in a planted tank. The gar and the redtail cat will grow over 50#'s in the wild. Those are not fish tank fish unless you have an indoor pond. The redtail cat will actually get over 100#s given a chance.

When i say thousands I mean the 2-4 grand its going to run you to get a the full set up for a 100 gallon plus set up. (Full hood, bulbs, filter, stand, gravel, decorations, cleaning kit and heater) I know you don't need a heater to go with native fish, but the reason I say heater is because in the event of a power failure you would want to be able to put it on a generator to prevent the tank from freezing. A frozen tank that exploded upon thawing would be a major disaster if it was that size.

To summarize: Yeah, if you are willing to spend the money and time without trying to cut corners you can keep bass or other locals healthy in a tank. If you are willing to spend several thousand dollars needed to get a set up and if you don't mind taking some time each week to clean it(2 or 3 hrs) then yes, you could do what your talking about. If not: You don't have to give up on having a fish tank, just go with smaller fish and less expensive stuff and see if you like fooling with the maintenance and care. If you find that you enjoy the fish and don't mind the work then you can always get a bigger tank and try more needy fish when you have some exp under your belt and you know what your dealing with. IMO, for your case I wouldn't get a massive tank for large fish to start off. Because of the investment required to do it right. Get something like a 29 or a 55 (yes those are small tanks, smaller than 29 isn't worth it because of the limitations on numbers of species and numbers of individuals IMO) You can go to walmart or a reputable pet shop and get a kit that has filter, heater, light, and some other little accessories for around 100$. You will also need to plan on getting a stand with lockable cabinets(kids). You need to look for a spot in your house that has room for all of the above, and that has an electric outlet nearby with room for at least three plugs. You should also check the strength of your house floor, evne at 29 gallon tank weighs 260-300 pounds once full. Don't put it somewhere and expect to move it, its a really big chore and alot of trouble to move once you have it set up somewhere else. Let us know if you decide your going to do it, it can be a real joy and good learning exp for you kids and yourself. There are some more things you will need to know once you make up your mind. Good luck

Ill tack a question on to this topic too: I have a 15'10" aluminum boat with a 30hp motor. My normal load is me(190#) two tackle boxes, 70# thrust bow mount tm, 3 series 23 batteries, all in bilge area with two on left and one on right, 7-10 gallons of gas (max 13), and two anchors. This is a console steered boat, not a tiller. I keep the anchors in the under seat storage box to my left. When I run this boat it still leans a bit to my side unless i sit right in the middle on top of my cup holders. My top speed is about 23mph, i don't know what it does gps because I don't have one. My motor is a manual lift type, with a pin and six choices of holes to put it in. When I run at wot my bow tends to dig a bit and it throws alot of water and doesn't do waves well at all. I get about 3mph more speed than at 3/4 throttle, however at 3/4 the bow doesn't dig in and it takes waves 100% better. Now with my background info and details, here are the questions: 1.Can a hydrofoil do anything for this boat when I run at wot? Like allow me to use all available power but without the negative performance? 2.Is there anything that i can do besides weight manage to get it to ride centered?