champlain-champ

the RPMS at *** are usually right around 5,200 but its actually not *** because i cant even get 3/4 throttle before it over revs because the pitch is so small.

FIRST. i know how to trim my ******* motor once the boat is on plane. and i know when i over trim it and it chops water. this isnt my first rodeo. the motor does not over heat. and the prop is the one that the motor calls for except the pitch size is smaller than i think it needs be. however. i believe that wether its a 17 pitch or a 21 the only variance would be top end speed the bow still does not have sufficient lift. its not horrible but its deffinately not where i want it. the spray from the hull should start from where I disagree sits in the boat and from there back should be the only part of the boat in the water when running. mine starts from 4 feet back on the bow. i know thats not right. can someone please tell me if those fins above the prop (the ones that you can attach hydrofoils too) if those are supposed to line up with the bottom of the hull. thats what i was told and i was told thats why my boat doesnt lift properly it seems that when i trim my motor up i should be able to trim it a tad bit more before it chops water. and i believe the reason for that is because the hull is forcing the water down and the prop cant "grab" enough of it. i really honestly thing that my motor is between 2-3 inches too high. im not an expert and nor do i need a d**n pressure guage etc.. ive had boats and been in boats my whole life so i know how to run one and its not user error. im pretty sure its height. and other than the pitch being off thats basically the only solution. and i have a feeling that the pitch would not affect the bow that drastically.

im thinking it has something to do with the prop. i have a 17 pitch and im only getting about 5/8's throttle and then it starts to over rev. the prop just cant give me all that my engine has to give. i was thinking that the motor is too high because shouldnt the fins above the prop be in line with the bottom of the hull?

all i have to say is.. melon pepper on an 1/8 ounce tube head in 12-18 feet of water fishing for smallies. sometimes when a drop shot is the ticket i cast the tube out the back of the boat and just drag it around if im drop shotting a flat. you would be suprised how many times my little buddy has legally caught fish for me while i was catching them on a drop shot.

i was really hoping there would be some kind of redneck out here that has a camaro on cinder blocks in their front yard that has tried this and had success lol

well i know i have the right hardware. and i know the boat specs support a jack plate. its been on there for 8 11 years. i was more worried about lowering the motor if it would cause stress to the transom. im not really worried about it falling off. im more worried about hitting a rough wave and cracking the transom or something along those lines. obviously the weight will still be the same but im wondering if lowering the motor those 3 inches would put the angle of pressure a little different and possibly mess it up. i also have to take a look if it will even work or if the motor would hit the top of the transom when i trim it all the way up. i think i looked at it last year and it wasnt a problem.

i have a rather large problem.... last year i purchased a new motor it was a 2004 115 merc with a 20 inch shaft... i put it on my 1987 stratos 179v. when i purchased the motor i wasnt sure what shaft length i needed. the guy at the local marina said all bass boats have a 20 inch shaft.. well after putting it on my boat and taking it out a bunch i realized that the shaft is too short i lowered the jack plate as low as i could and it planes out really fast ive tried different props etc.. and the boat never seems to run on plane right... im always pushing water and the nose is always close to the water so when its a little windy and i got 2 foot waves i spear them and lets just say it makes for a wet ride.. even when the waves arent that big...the nose sprays so much water that it blows on me and soaks me... i should have got a 25 inch shaft but i didnt know any better and i dont really have the 6 grand to buy another motor. i got a steal on this one... i tried putting hydrafoils on it to keep the nose up but all that did was slow my boat down even more... i get about 36mph with a 17 pitch.. i had a 19 and got about 38 but i chipped that and got a 17 from a friend dirt cheap. next year i plan on running a 21 for the extra speed. but my question is this... "is it possible to take the jack plate off of my boat and bolt it back on upside down so that instead of jacking the motor it lowers it? i only need to go about 3 inches... i was wondering if anybody on this forum has any input on this and knew if it would be bad on the transom or the jack plate or anything i really think this could work and it could save me alot of money. i have no other option but to try this... or get wet on every tournament day there is... its def worth a try as long as im not looking at ruining the structural integrity of the boat or having the motor fall off i dont see exactly what it could hurt it would almost be the same as if it was upright. you dont know how many times i get beat by boats with 75 horses on them... its embarassing... lol i really miss my evinrude xp150 it was bored etc... and it did 67mph.. probably the fastest 150hp ive ever seen however it was the most unreliable. it got to the point where it took 10 minutes to get the thing started wether it was warmed up or cold. and the prop shaft had a serious wobble. i didnt feel like spending 3 grand to rebuild the power head and then another 2 grand on a new lower unit. anyway if anyone has any input on this crazy idea please feel free to share. even if you dont have any idea about it.. let me know what you think COULD happen

i just want to thank everyone for not helping me lol it lead to one of the greatest discoveries i have ever made on lake champlain... while looking at a map one day trying to find some new ground i could cover i was idling in about 21 feet of water staring at the map and my partner said "HEY WHATS THAT!?" looking at the graph.... i peaked up from the map to see this giant object on the graph and it stuck up off the lake floor about 7 feet.... i hit reverse on the motor shut it off dumped the trolling motor dropped a line and caught a 3 1/2 pound largemouth within 30 seconds... shortly after that a 4lbs smallie and several other big largemouths followed... what was it that i found? A SUNKEN BOAT! not far from the plattsburgh area about 150 yards from shore. i dont know why no one else has ever found this but i havnt seen anyone on it yet! i have a tournament coming up this weekend but so far everytime i have fished it i have produced over 16-17 lbs in just a matter of minutes fishing a football jig.... its absolutely amazing. and all i can say is thank you everyone for not wasting my time looking at your spots cuz now i got one thats all to myself lol

need some new spots on lake champlain to broaden my tournament days when my spots arent holding up. i fish the northern part of the lake and if you are willing to show me some new spots ill take you out in my 18 foot stratos and ill trade some of my spots with you as well. feel free to bring a handheld GPS ill pay for the gas. im looking for spots between ausable and the canadian border. im from plattsburgh new york and usually launch from wilcox dock. the same place the flw etc... launches from. give me a shout i have some really good spots but the only problem i have is that everyone in my league knows most of my spots and theres nothing worse than making a 20 minute run to see someone already sitting on it.

all my spots produce through the mid summer - late fall. however this time of year during my tournaments i come up short of a big bag limit. i had a tournament today and i have the second part tomorrow and i had only a hair over 10 pounds with my 5 fish. dont get me wrong i can absolutely pound smallies but they have little to no weight. where am i going to find hog smallies and where am i going to find largemouths.. im looking for something with size. PM me and let me know where you like to go during this time of year i launch in the north next to the bridge to vermont by the border

for some reason i find that at this specific time of the year when the fish are done bedding and are not yet in my summer spots that it is better to fish later in the evening in the shallow spots that they once were bedding. i usually have a tough time finding a morning/mid afternoon bite on the lakes near my house at this specific time of year (dont get me wrong there is an occasional day where you can really pound them this time of year) but 90% of time its a tough slow bite all day that can really make your confidence level drop before your first tournament. but like i said if i go fishing when i get done work i seem to have more success just before and right after night fall. during the day the fish scatter from the shallows and seem to move a little deeper but not yet concentrated on deep structure such as ledges and submerged brush/rocks. however when the sun goes down they seem to move back up to the shallows where the sun beat down on the rocks and brush at night and wherever there is something holding the heat that seems to be where you can catch 5 fish very quickly. is there a tree you think should have a bass on it but you cant seem to catch her? try fishing it right at dusk and she will probably be there this time of the year. good luck and i hope the advice pays off.

update. fixed it!!!! yay lol i was ticked off taking it off the boat stepped on the cord that goes to the plug and vrrooooooom it took off. so i sliced the cord and the negative wire had a slice in it it must have been from the manufacture plant because the rubber sleeve had not been tampered with but the ground wire only had about 2 strands holding it together spliced it together crimped it and now it works like brand new. saved me 70 bucks in shipping. i find it wierd that during the manufacturing process something so stupid could happen. dont they test them before they package them up?

i just bought a brand new motorguide 70lbs thrust trolling motor hooked it up. its not the first trolling motor ive hooked up so i know that the battery cables are wired right and so is the plug in the boat etc... however the trolling motor only turns for about 2 seconds and then dies completely and it sounds as if there is a sizzling sound in the lower unit any ideas? i have a tournament in 2 weeks and im afraid if i send it back then it will take to long to get the new one back to me. i have a feeling it cant be fixed and it is just a defective product that motorguide produced however if anyone has encountered a problem like this and was able to shed some light on my situation so i dont have to bring it back that would be appreciated.

im curious if anyone has ever created a fishing spot im thinking about trying this in a small lake near my house for local tournaments. i was thinking of using pallets making cubes out of them putting a cinder block in the center and dropping about 4-5 cubes in about 12- 15 ft of water. either that or making spikes out of pvc i can get 20ft sticks threw a hardware store for around 3 bucks and i was going to wire 6 pieces together to make a 4 foot spike kind of thing if i spent around 100 bucks i could make a whole artificial reef in 15 feet of water any ideas? i know you shouldnt pollute the water and just keep it natural but why do they have the bill dance spikes then? and pvc doesnt rot so it shouldnt harm the water correct? a friend of mine told me that they dragged about 14 spruce tree's out in champlain near point au rouche and created a hedge row in 13 feet of water and he seems to win most tournaments in mid summer by flipping those tree's ( i wish i could find them lol )

hey id def be out there this weekend but my trolling motor died so i got to wait a few weeks before the ol bass boat hits champlain again.

lol wasnt very good today was it? whitecaps EVERYWHERE any i havnt found many fish other than breakwater up by rouses point which has some big smallies on it and the chazy river over by the chazy landing (kings bay area) thats stacked with largemouths at the mouth of the river and the the rest of the way up.

nice largie i went out on champlain today didnt really have a good day the wind was incredible however 2 days ago i went out and pounded them in the river up by the chazy landing prespawn fish the rivers and youll catch about 10 in an hour rather than 10 in 4 hours. lol i caught about 40 males at the mouth of the river on a white and red spinner bait the females are making the beds and the males are just STACKED at the mouth. what part of vt are you from and what part of the lake do you usually fish? i live near plattsburgh

adirondack bass association PM me and i can get you a schedule and rule book etc.. its 20 bucks to be a member and each tourny is 25$ a boat we usually have anywhere from 30-50 boats and we fish 5 different lakes most of our tourny's are on lake champlain though

i fish lakes mostly but ponds often everyone that says that the bass have moved deeper are 100% accurate heres what you need to do fish deeper water with a jig starting at the weed line and drag it out back to your float tube try using a texas rigged tube they might swallow that right up. in regards to top water any bass will hit a top water any time of the year theres just a few things to consider. during mid day a top water bite might not be that good try fishing it at the crack of dawn 90% of the fish ive caught on a top water has been when the sun was just peeking out or just setting in late in the afternoon is also usually fairly descent for a top water. for a top water lure i like to chuck a weightless zoom fluke on a G-lock (skip gap) hook and fish it like a spook the erratic action drives fish crazy if you want to fish that bank you were talking about try fishing it at a different time during the day. i recommend fishing it at night anyone that has never been bass fishing at night doesnt know what they are missing the bigger fish move from the deeper water to the shallows for a few hours each night feeding on the bait that isnt in the deep water. the biggest bass ive caught has been between the hours of 8pm to 6am its not that the fish has changed their pattern ITS THAT YOU NEED TO CHANGE YOURS go after the fish at different hours if you want to keep that zoom worm technique or switch it up and jig some deeper water and youll find your fish again

i was hoping it was something like that however the boat has a pee tube speedometer built onto the boat. can i plug that hose and not have to worry about it because i dont need that speedometer from that seeing as how i already have one on the boat. so basically i can cut it short and cap it off right?

tin when do you plan on fishing champlain next? lets hook up and go sometime this summer i can show you some HOT spots in the north branch of the lake.

i have a new motor on my boat picked it up about a month ago got it installed ran it just havnt been to the lake yet. plan on going saturday however theres a hose on my lower unit its about 12 inches in length and im not quite sure what it is or where it goes its about 1/4" diameter maybe 1/8" i dont want to leave it dangling. it looks like it was hooked to something plastic before and broke off im wondering if it went to something on the boat it was on perviously its on the front of the lower unit the side that is closest to the boat should i cap it off? any advice is appreciated.

does anyone live around port henry new york that would be interested in fishing a few tournaments on lake champlain with me this summer? im looking for someone that knows a few hot spots down near the ticonderoga area. if someone shows me a few spots down that way then ill do the same and show you some serious small mouth spots up near rouses point/valcour island etc... in the northern part of the lake i have some killer spots but when we fish the port henry or ti tournaments i have no spots that produce the quality fish that i catch in the northern part of the lake. i need some big largemouth area's

the championship for the league i fish was probably the most succesful outing i have ever had in a tournament... why? because i went back to the basics of fishing. we started the day out excited because we had about 4 or 5 really hot spots that we were catching fish on consistantly all summer however the conditions were not right and things did not go as planned out of 5 of our spots that we knew were holding big fish we only caught 1 fish that was a keeper. by noon things were looking pretty depressing so we decided to run up to rouses point and fish the piers next to the canadian line what a surprise when we got there ... atleast 6 or 7 of our club members were already flipping the 500 yard structure and the pressure they were putting on the piers was too much we fished it for 30 minutes finally realizing that the fish didnt stay in the area because of the pressure from all these boats. so what did we do? we kicked back at lunch and came up with a new game plan the fish were there somewhere all we had to do was locate them. about 300 yards away from the piers there is a small marina maybe 100 yards in lenght with 5 or 6 slits that have big canadian yachts parked on them and big sail boats. however no one was over there fishing it. we decided that would be a good place to start looking for fish and what a shocker first cast and we threw a nice 4 lbs largemouth in the boat for the next 2 hours it had to be the most incredible fishing experience of my life. within 2 hours we must have caught over 50-60 bass in that marina using a junebug senko rigging it whacky with a weighted tube hook so we could get it down under those yachts. the fish were holding at about 12-13 feet of water they wernt under the docks they were holding at the edge of the slits in the deeper water. to give you an example of how good the fishing was we were throwing back 4 pounders towards the end. in those 2 hours we went from having no fish to having the biggest bag of the championship along with the biggest bass of the championship over 22 pounds with a 5.8 largemouth so basically the moral of this story is that when your "hot spots" that usually produce... dont. then go back to the basics fish docks with senko's or go to places that you know have fish and if they are not there. fish the basic area's around them if your fishing a reef and the fish are not on it. go hunting to the area's closest to that reef

i just purchased a used mercury 115 it is actually a tracker by mercury marine it is a 2004 and i watched it run when i picked it up. i put it on the boat and fired it up 2 weeks ago ran it for a minute since then i ripped all the wires out of my boat and replaced all the bad grounds etc.. i basically just fixed the livewell pumps and things of that sort. somehow i have no spark to the sparkplugs before i ripped the stuff out of the boat it ran i then hooked up the temp guage to the temp wire and that is the only thing on the motor that i touched. however i unplugged the temp guage and still nothing motor turns over fine it just does not fire im so confused. i guess it could be something to do with the controls but i dont understand what? the only thing i touched in the boat that is related to the new motor is the controls because i spliced a trim wire to run it to the front of the boat so i could have that trim switch up by the foot pedastal however i dont see how that would conflict with anything that has to do with spark on the motor please respond with any sugguestions. i checked the fuse that is on the top of the motor and thats fine and i dont see any other fuses