NBR

geedavid, I lived in SW and SE Michigan for many years and you are not going to find many if any smallmouth lakes safe and suitable for your 10' boat. You will have to pretty much resign yourself to river fishing or go after those largemouths. Going north and in my experience west you can find smaller lakes with smallies. Several years ago my wife had a seminar to attend at Crystal Mountain near Beulah. I took my boat along and had some great fishing while she was learning. Lots of small and large lakes in the area. I have also had a few trips to the Hale area north and east of Bay City with some decent fishing for large and small mouths. Also lots of small lakes in the area. Neither of these areas are very practical for one day trips from SE Michigan.

There is no question about Ike's excellant fishing skills and the hard work he must put in to understand the water, season etc. in order to be effective. I have never met Ike so I don't know whether I like him or not but I sure have no respect for his antics. I buy nothing from his sponsers and let them know when I can. Screaming, "It's a giant the lipping a 2 pounder". Give me a break! There have been some pretty critical comments about his conduct beyond the screaming and break dancing and if they are true I don't care to meet him. If you don't understand the dislike of his antics, there is not time to explain the dislike in my life time.

dactor, I have a 65# Minn Nota Maxxum with cable steer and a constant on feature. I replaced an old Motor Guide abot 3 years ago. I thought the constant on feature would be nice since the power on button was somewhat hard to feel with the MG. The MKota power button is easier to use than the one on the old MG and I rarely use the constant on feature.

I have never had a power drive and am not apt to buy one. It seems like any time I have something to repair on my boat, motor or trailer it is something electrical. Replace the batteries, clean the contacts of every thing and on and on. DC and corrosion don't get along well together and metal and moisture equals corrosion.

Chrysler Marine was bought by U.S. Marine who named the motors Force as I recall U.S. Marine also had Bayliner as a boat brand. Mercury bought the motor part maybe the whole thing I don't recall. Mercury still produces the Force engine as their low end product to supplement the Mercury and Mariner brands. Unless something has changed Mercury and Mariner are identical except for the paint jobs. Force is different but you can probably get some information from Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac, WI. I would have some concern about the engine overheating. How much damage might have been done? I consider replacing the water pump impeller every 3 to 5 years depending upon operating conditions a basic part of preventative maintainence. What other things hasn't the present owner done? If I was paying much for this rig I'd have a competent mechanic look at the boat, motor and trailer.

I asked Mionn Kota the same question. They said it would void the warrantee so it must be possible but they gave no clue as to how.

You need a bank per battery. Unless you run your big motor a lot don't rely on th big motors alternator keeping the cranking battery charged. I have a set of jumper cables in my boat that were put there after I had relied on the big motor to keep the cranking motor charged.

I like to use a guide the first day when fishing new waters or at a time of year I've never fished a particular body of water. Guides are on the water nearly daily so they know the stage and location of the fish. If it has been a tough bite they know it so you instantly know it. Just getting started on the right track makes the rest of a way too short week so much better and more fruitful.

There is a heat melt especially for tip guides and ferrules. Years ago was called ferrule cement. I don't know what they call it now but Bass Pro ships it with their tip replacement kit and I would think it was available at many places. I've replaced lots of tip guides and more than a few ferrules and never had a problem using it.

They usually do go back to their beds but the preditors are in there eating the eggs and fry while the are gone. However, with many private ponds the problem is too many fish. I have had two friends with ponds and they asked me to take fish out rather than C&R. Ponds are like lakes each are different.

I'd take a cell phone and a camera. If he became threatening I'd just call the marine patrol or cops. He either doesn't know the law or doesn't care.

Some lakes have tow services but I would guess most don't. Bigger lakes with heavier traffic tend to have the service. Here in NH you must stop and render assistance to boaters in distress unless it would put your vessel in danger.

You will spend more on renting than to buy a used boat. Buy the boat, winterize the motor and boat before you go to school and it will be ready for you when school is out in the summer. Winterizing the motor is easy and depending on the boat just flip it over on its trailer and secure.

Bass are probably the most pressured of all the fresh water fish. Even with catch and release a few die soon after release and some unknown percentage have a delayed mortality. While I would rather eat walleyes, perch or crappie I do keep an occasional bass but never over 14" and if the size limit is 14" then I don't keep any bass.

Vince, Any suggestions where I can find parts? Dick

I don't know about the F20 but I have a 1989 18FSX and it has served me well. In regards to Astro not making bass boats any more I think it was a marketing decision. When Brunswick first brought out the new boat line in I think 1989 Astro and Procraft were identical except for the decals. No data involved in this opinion. The only proble I have is the front deck control panel is starting to crack and I haven't been able to find a replacement.

My boat has a system that allows the big motor to charge all of my batteries when it is running. But if you depend on the big motor to keep any of the batteries charged up then you are running a whole lot with the big motor. Generators(alternators) on outboards don't put out a lot of juice and at low rpms very little. I had nothing but problems when I back charged through the TM circuit. I just couldn't get enough back into the batteries using a seperate charger. I put an onboard in the boat (3 bank in my case) and the problem is gone. I plug in as soon as I am home or back at the dock. Nothing is worse than a boat with low cranking or TM batteries.

Hap The signal you are getting from your transom transducer is probably some 4 to 7 feet behind the boat if you are making headway Put your second tranducer on the trolling motor. You are a lot better off knowing whats right below you when casting. Why bother with the switch. Your second sounder will come with a transducer. They might interfere with each other depending on boat size. My last boat had a transducer off the transom and one on the TM. The boat was a bit over 17' and I could not run them at the same time. My current boat is a bit under 19' with a TM transducer and a thruhull right at the transom and I can run both at the same time without any problems. Both sounders are the same frequency.

I hope you have some muffs or other water supply when running it in the drive. If not when you have someone look at it they had better replace the water pumo impellor.

If you have a transom mount it may have loosened and be tilted to the back. When the signal gets back to the transom you are long gone. I has happened to me!

I assume you are tucking the motor all the way down before you start. IF not you should!

What you see is most likely 6 to 7 feet behind the boat. Just as was said don't count to much on seeing fish. The depth sounder see anything suspended as a fish. I look for depth changes, differences in bottom material. ie rock, sand silt and weedsd or wood and when conditions are right I look for bait.

I thought I had posted a response to this some time back but I must not have pushed the right buttons. Absolutlely correct that you need the motor tucked all the way under when you start out of the hole. If you don't the bow can come way up, block your view and you will be a long time getting on plane. I nearly hit a navigation telephone pole in Eufaula when I didn't realize I had the motor trimmed out. I realized what was happening just in time. Fine tuning your trim can depend on your boat and load. I have a 1990 glass 18'10" boat with a 1990 Merc 150. I tuck the motor under and give it full power. As the boat comes on plane I back the throttle off a bit as I trim out the motor. I probably plane out between around 2500 rpms, maybe 3000 I just don't recall. as I trim out I usually get the sweet sound at about 4000 with very little increase in throttle. Play with it a bit and you will see what I mean. What I am looking for is no feedback to the steering wheel and a noise change that a mechanic I was talking to described as sweet. Sweet is as good a description as any when this happens there is literally no torque an the wheel and the boat runs down the lake as good or better than you car goes down the highway. When you get the sweet sound you can increase or decrease your speed with little or no trim adjustment. If you start to porpoise you need more throttle or less trim. Many, maybe most trim out to far. I trim for speed and efficiency not for the size of the rooster tail. With a real heavy load which happened when I was going into a remote camp with another guy and food, clothes and equipment for two weeks I just couldn't get the sweet sound and could not eliminate all of the steer torque.

There is a tool called De Barb that has a groove to follow the line down and cutters to cut the hook. It also has magnets to catch the hook piece so it comes out with the tool. I found mine but searching on the web for D Barb.

Glenn, Your are wrong about Mercury using Yamaha heads. At one time they used Yamaha for smaller 4 stroke heads (as I recall in the 40hp range) while they were developing the technology. I haven't been in their factory for some time so they might still be using Yamaha. The larger 2 stroke engines have not used anthing but Merc built products.