RatONaStick

Heres dad with the 2lber.

Dad and I picked up a new boat (new to us) about two weeks ago. It's a 87 Bass Tracker TX-17 with a rebuilt Mercury Classic 50 (45hp) and a Motorguide foot controlled trolling motor. Anyway, the boat sat for awhile so it needed some work to get it water worthy. Yesterday the weather was beautiful so we decided to take the boat out for a test run for a couple hours. We ended up catching 10 bass all together. I caught four with a personal best for the year at 5lb 13oz. This fish was every bit of 23-24 inches long and was thin for it's length. Dad caught 6 with one being 2lb 9oz and another at 1lb 13oz. We encountered a few small issues with the boat that I need to take care of, that and it needs completely recarpeted. Heres the 5lber, when dad netted it and pulled it out of the water I thought this fish was 7-8lb. This picture does not do this fish justice at all, this thing barely fit in the net.

I'll need more info from you to recommend a prop. I need an actual speed, not a guess. A reading from a GPS would be preffered. The rpms at WOT would be nice, but I can calculate the rpms based on the MPH and acceptable prop slippage. I need to know the diameter and pitch on your current prop. Also, how does the boat come up on plane? Slow? Does it plane with two people? Way2Slow is correct, there are only five props available for that engine so you are limited in your choices. Ultimately you may have to go with a newer engine that has more of a selection of props available.

That it is, they are steadily heading from first to worst. I left the lake early yesterday to catch the game, I shoulda stayed and caught fish.

49er, thanks. The old car don't do too bad.

You da man Dan!

Here's dads

Dan, Al, thanks. We ended up going again today from 9:30 to 4:30 and ended up catching 56 fish between the four of us (me, dad, my brother and his wife). I caught 24, dad caught 21, and my bro and his wife caught 11 between them. Only reason they didn't catch more is because they got there late and left early. The largest of the day went 2lb 14oz for me and 2lb 13oz for dad. Dad said he had a solid 4 pounder break off just as he got it to shore, he had let Mandy (my sis in law) use his rod and was using a back up rod at the time. For those of you that may have not seen my last post, this is a private man made lake that was built about four years ago and was stocked. Very few people fish this lake and I wouldn't doubt many of these fish are being caught for the first time. These fish are not that old at all and evidently are eating very well, many of the larger fish are very short for their weight. This is mine, funny thing about this fish, it had a bird sticking half way out it's throat! Yes I'm wearing the same shirt, I can be a bit superstitous.

The early Chrysler Hemi was known as the elephant motor back in the day because of their large valve covers and size. Chevy came out with the small block V8 in 1955, in subsequent years these little small blocks were giving the early Hemi a hard time on the street and tracks. Everyone knows an Elephant is scared of a mouse, so the name mouse motor was given to the small block. In 1965 when Chevy introduced the big block it was dubbed the rat motor. My Chevelle has a big block and is a stick shift, put the two together and you have a RatONaStick.

I agree with HPBB, Suzuki designed it that way for a reason. If it were hindering performance they would have redesigned it. And if it were hindering performance(which I'm sure it isn't), you would have to alter the jetting once any changes were made to realize a performance gain.

Good advice above I wrestled and played football in high school. Making weight was one of the toughest things I ever had to do in sports. I had to work my butt off just to get close to weight, and actually had to wear trash bags under my sweats and run in place on the bus all the way to the meet. After all of that I just barely made weight. You have it a bit easier than I did though. My natural weight puts me well into the heavyweight class, but the coaches wanted me at 189. Unfortunately this sapped a lot of strength out of me.

Russ Great video, I think you might have missed your calling in life. 8-) Thought I might offer up a suggestion for a song on one of your future vids, how about Van Halen "Hot For Teacher". I've got the MP3 if your need it

Thanks Russ I owe everything to my dad, these are the kind of days you will remember forever. Next time you get around to making a new member video, would you include us?

Thanks guys All fish today were caught on Senkos. Both the 5lber and 3lber were caught on a red GY Senko.

posted the wrong pic of the 2lber the first time. this one went 2lb 5oz.

Mine

Dad and I went out to the lake today and got a few hours of fishing in this evening. We caught 22 all together, including three nice fish. I finally got a scale this week, Dads weighed 5lb 4oz, mine went 3lb 4oz and 2lb 5oz. One of these days we're going to put my little boat in this place.

Your mechanic brings up a good point. When engines are lugged below their power range there is a tendency for them to build up an abnormal amount of carbon deposits. There is also a tendency to go through spark plugs real fast. I couldn't believe how much better my 15hp Johnson ran through the entire rpm range after the prop change, plus it's not eating plugs anymore. If/when you do change that prop, go ahead and change the plugs too. Stick a big one for me!

I was in the exact same situation with my little boat and a 15hp Johnson 2 stroke, which I'm sure is much older than your Honda. I went from a 9.5"x10 prop to a 10"x7 and it made a world of difference!!! The boat only does 14mph or so and was way over propped. Like you, it had a hard time getting on plane with just me and my gear, with two people it would plane sometimes or not at all. Now with the new prop it literally jumps out of the water with just me and will plane with two people in all situations. To answer your question, it is better for the engine to be in the proper rpm range with a lesser load. That engine was designed to run in a specific rpm range, it will not hurt the engine by allowing it to run in that range, even if it hasn't seen those rpms yet. Don't get caught up thinking the engine is used to running at a certain rpm, it isn't true. As long as you don't over rev the engine it will not cause any harm.

About the seats/pedestal mounts, Earthworm and I dicussed it and it was the screws in the base that pulled out of the deck. This is easily corrected by adding bolts with washers/nuts so they don't pull out. I just thought this info would be useful for anyone considering buying one of these boats.

How much does your partner weigh and where did it break???? I'm 230lb and my buddy weighs every bit of 280lb, I have not had a single problem out of the seats/mounts. Curious about the 10.2 tracker you mentioned, will it get up on plane????

I have this boat, bought it used this spring and absolutely love it. For what I do it's perfect, as well as being extremely stable for a boat it's size. I don't know if you have seen these posts, check them out. You should find all the info on it you need, if not feel free to ask any questions. http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1149206668/11#11 http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1151286169/5#5

Dave I don't know where I got that 75lb figure from, 60lb is probably more like it. Basically what I should have said, you want the lightest 15hp outboard you can get. When you do get a motor, test it out with the stock prop with a full load before making a prop change. You don't want to over rev the engine, plus depending on your load and condition of your engine, it migh be fine.

Dave 15hp is 15hp. The problem is that the four stroke engines are heavier than a two stroke of the same hp rating. Basically you don't want an engine that weighs anymore than about 75lb, which is what the 9.9hp and 15hp 2 stroke Johnson/Evinrude weighs. I doubt you will find a 15hp 4 stroke that weighs close to that. I'm running a 1989 15hp Johnson on my KL 120. With the stock prop (9.5"x10p) I was having trouble planing with a full load in all conditions. Plus, I was way under the recommended operating range of the engine. I ended up having to swap to a lower 10"x7p prop to get up on plane and into the correct operating range. I use about a 1/4 tank of fuel (6 gal tank) an outing on a 1300+ acre lake. I consistently do 13 to 14mph, and i can get 15-16mph out of it on a good day. any faster and the bow starts plowing. I strongly advise you to go with a 15hp 2 stroke. It sucks getting out on the water only to find out the boat won't get on plane and you can't go anywhere.

Just get yourself some rope and tie knots in it one foot apart. Put a weight on the end and presto, you have a poor mans depth finder.