Nitrofreak

Thanx Bobby !!!

Seafoam is a good product as well, you should be ok with that decision.

The water pressure guage is for the engine, a water pump impeller picks up water supplied through openings at the bottom of the trans above the prop and sends it to the engine block to keep the engine cool. The pressure guage is there to supply information to you as a visual point of reference to let you know if there is a malfunction in the system or if it is operating correctly. The pressure should read roughly around 40 psi, not all guages are the same and some will differ greatly but if it shows good pressure and the water return port, or what we affectionately refer to as the "pee stream", seems to be operating correctly then you should have no issues. It is common to see this guage fluxuate as you increase in RPM's and decrease, as much as 10 to 15 psi, the lowest you want to see this pressure is 15 psi, any less than that could mean you have an impeller issue or a restriction. Hope that helps. Good luck and be safe !!!

How many amps is being drawn on the battery? Perform a battery draw test, it should be less than .25ma If your stator is grounded the engine will not run, or it will be running poor.

I do it because it gives the appearence of a bleeding fish, it's a tactic that will get results when they wont hit the same bait under the same conditions. For those of you who doubt this, go to your favorite waters on a slightly windy and overcast day, an even better time would be to test it during a cold front when the fishing is a little tougher, throw your favorite crank without one first, record your results and change your front hook to red and see what happens. When the bait hits the water, let it drop a second or two, depending on the depth of water you are fishing, give one quick little jerk, pause for a second and then bring it back to you as irrattic as you can using short little bursts.

Thanx Sam. Sent you a PM.

ooooooooooo!!! When?

What you may want to try is a spoon, get it out there as far as you can especially around the clam shell areas, you can fish it a couple of different ways, swim it back to you or a "YO-YO" retreive, get it close to the bottom and even let it graze the bottom if you can.

I have 3, all will run right if fished too fast, these blades are ment to be fished just under the surface I think because all 3 run true when slow rolled and the blades just barely crack the surface. I too use a polomar knot. RW, professional overrun? HA HA !! I thought professionals don't have overruns?

Good bit of damage too!! Hope everyone is ok.

Thanx Vinny !!! I look forward to it !!!

What about those of us who are not on facebook? Any chance of us here on resource getting a shot at them?

LMAO !!! I love seeing those moments, I hate it for the owner that he damaged new equiptment but still that had to be funny as...well you get the picture. Thanx for the info it's much appreciated !!! I have some more vacation time left, I am thinking of coming down during a weekday or two and try to have some fun.

Really good advice right there !!! X2 The fish can be shallow as well as deep, it really depends on o2 levels and how thick the layer of o2 is, I feel most of your fish will come from around the 20 ft mark if they are not shallow. Good luck and be safe !!!

If you do go there, there is one spot that really peaks my interest, I have circled it in black, it looks to be a shelf of some sort with a pretty vertical drop to the south of it and a more gradual slope to the North of it, something I don't see anywhere else in the area. Good luck and be safe !!!

HELLOFA JOB !!! Thanx for sharing !!!

Well, it looks good so far, I have made the inital plans to attend my first road trip, I already set aside a few bucks but there is a lot of work to do yet for getting the old truck out of the weeds and back in towing shape. I hope to be able to join all of you this year and make some new friends, enjoy some bud suds, and perhaps do a little fishing on the side with a few of ya.

Congrats and keep up the good work !!! Good luck and be safe !!!

Zoff, Red Earth, Thanx for the replies, another question I have is where to launch from, I hear horror stories about different launching places down there. It seems most are private and very few are public, any suggestions on the best place to launch from?

This past weekend I was on a lake here in Va., I saw big females swimming around side by side with males that were themselves around 3 lbs, the biggest female I saw had to be a double digit, man she was huge, the weird thing about it is, they acted like they were getting ready to spawn when the spawn should have been long since over, then I had seen one of the females open her mouth and the young were everywhere, just as if she had coughed up a big cloud of muck, that has got to be at the top of my list of things I have ever seen on the water.

I personally don't see where he is going against any grain at all. What I am saying is that every one of us have to use our noodles a little when fishing different baits with different lines and rod combos. A braid and a fast rod for soft baits don't require strong hooksets, especially with todays hook technology for all different kinds of applications, this even includes the jigs in my opinion, the newer jigs from Strike King and I am sure others are very sharp and very strong and require very little effort to penetrate even the roof of the mouth when using faster rods and stronger lines, braids or otherwise.

WOW, really nice post !!! One thing I will add that has helped on my home waters and maybe it will help you, I have found that when the fish are suspended in 8 to 15 feet of water and are lathargic during summer days, is to look at the fish and see if they move at all, if they are not moving at all I will pull the JB down under them and let it float up through the water colum where they are staged, I will use very very little movement as it does float up, usually when these fish are that lathargic it's due to a few different things like o2 levels etc.. the fish in turn will use very little energy to grab a meal and the bait has to look like a really easy target. If they are aggressive enough then it is used just as if I were fishing the spring time, but with shorter pause times, as with a JB you have to get the right cadence to attract attention so a little extra time spent with the JB may be needed. Good luck and be safe !!!

What I mean by free is you should feel very little resistance, if you try and spin the prop it should only spin maybe 3/4 to 1 revolution, the gear oil is thick and wont allow absolute free movement but should allow easy movement both ways not just one way while in netural. As far as the carb is concerned, there is an off idle port that allows extra fuel to be sucked in during acceleration, the carbs do not have an accelleration plunger or pump like a car engine would in most applications, it relies on a venturi effect to pull the fuel into the combustion chamber, these ports are very small and can be partly clogged, if it sat in a basement for that long chances are it could be dried up particulates in the ports, I would definately add the Startron product to the fuel mix and see what the result is. It may take a couple of tank fulls to get a result so don't give up on it right away if the first one fails to yeild a good result. at the end of the first tank there should however be a noticable improvement, if so, you know you will be on the right track, if we are on the right track then continue mixing the Startron with the fuel mix until the problem is resolved then you should only need the product every other tank full.

4 horsepower is not a lot of power, but it does sound like you may have an issue, put the trans in neutral and spin the prop by hand, it should spin freely, if not check the differential grease level and quality of the fluid. How long has it been since this engine has been on the water? It may also have some fuel line or fuel related isuue that is causing a restriction, check all of the fuel feed componants for any needed attention. Try a bottle of Startron mixed with the gas/oil mixture and see if that improves anything at all before you determine any carb work is needed, it may be needed if the Startron does not cure it.

Take a deep breath before you throw each bait, take a second to reflect, and let 'er rip !