RobDar

My father worked at a lab in a refinery for years and years...I asked him this question a few years back here is what he told me... The requirements of most manufactuers USUALLY has to do with the oils ability to maintain viscosity under condition. Meaning that...if your boat has a recommended RPM of 5500-6000 WOT...the suggested oil maintains a a good viscosity under those conditions... IT IN NO WAY MEANS IT IS THE ONLY OIL THAT WILL...it is likely the manufacuer only tested a handful of oils. Viscosity; an oils ability to maintain viscosity, and oil Clarity ( cleanness) is the major difference in oils...so long as you are using an brand name oil ( like Penzoil) you will likely never notice the difference and not damage your engine. The Cheap off brand oils ( Habib's Oil Company of East Belt Buckle Ohio) break down easier and have more impurities. ( in a two stroke since the motor is supplied with fresh oil continiously the impurities are the issue ...in a four stroke it is the breakdown of viscosity). Unless the manufactuer is looking for a specific additive ( Chrysler Transmissions as an example need a particular quantity of detergent in the oil) a good quality oil is a good quality oil...and many of the WAL Mart type brands are made by the big refineries anyway...

I know ALOT of guys who do..... I was using a Palm Pilot my brother gave me... It is somewhere in the bottom of Lake Michigan right now though...

surface bait...a spook...popr...outside the lilies... maybe a purple passion french fry in the lillies

MinnKota's are easier to find parts for local I think. At least in my area... I can go to any Bait Shop or local Marine and buy a new prop or components for a MinnKota... Not so with MotorGuide...(which is what I have now)... I would see which is more popular in your area and which is serviced in your area and buy that brand...

I have never been a real big fan of spinners either... My wife and Father in law throw them all of the time with fairly good success. I think some of it has to do that they have confidence in using it...so they fish them well. One of the things with spinners I have noticed is that there are variables... how many blades, what shape blades, what color, what size, length of the skirt, yadda yadda yadda. I think spinners work fine once a pattern has already been established using other baits. For instance...if the fish are active/aggressive and hitting my crank...my wife will throw a three or four bladed spinner of a similar color. If the fish are slower they will throw a smaller single blade and draw it in slow...pausing to let it fall or pulling it up on occassion... these are just my observations though...I have tried using the spinners like they do and still do not do as well...so I do not use them often.

this used to happen to me as well... Either i am catching and my wife is not... or she is and I am not... ( which is holey better than niether of us catching anything) every tournament...when we had our limit it is usually one of us caught 4 or all 5 of them and the other was the sucker for the day... but I think we have got that figured out... We used to do the same thing...try and match up lures etc etc etc...there are just way too many subtle differences to account for... One time I even grabbed her rod and fished with it...AND SHE STILL CAUGHT ALL THE DARN FISH!!!! with a different lure, rod, different everything... so now we do not try to match up at all...if she is catching them on a texas rigged worm...I will move to a deep crank I can bounce off the bottom...If she is running a spinner...I will throw a jig and pig or a Fluke... I does not sound right at all does it? If they are hitting a 6 inch bright pink Senko...why throw a Green Long Lipped Bandit Crank? I do not know, but the last three tournaments we have both caught fish...so something is working...

S.t Joseph River...mid june...cool day for June, partly cloudy...stained water...just out playin around... There is a spot near the Six Span bridge we always stop to fish...not because we have had an enormous amount of luck there, just that when we have caught fish there they have been good fish... Wife is rolling her spinner bait slow and patient through this lay down and then out over the drop... I am throwing a 6 inch plastic worm... we get nothing... As my father in law is pulling up the trolling motor and we are rolling our baits in to move...my wife gats hammered by a smallie about 6 feet out from the boat...as she is pulling it in...another smallie comes up and strikes at the fish on her line...he holds on for a quick second and the wife, still reeling in, pulls the smaller fish away from the bigger...I toss my worm out there and damned near before it hits the water the big boy...a 4 1/2-5 # smallie nails my worm... I have never caught a bigger smallie and will likely NEVER again see one fish go after another while on line and being reeled in... was a once in a lifetime experience.... afterward we all sat there in the boat...speechless...

wow...I do not think there is anything I can add to all that advice... my only advice would be patient and fish the pads thoroughly and completely. drop you lure in every hole you can get into...

I agree with lightning rod... I would explore with a crank...bouncing off the timers...at a few different depths...

I wont go blabbing during a tournament, but other than that...I don't care who knows what.

Well I wont go so far as to say i LOVE fishing in the rain....(Bass Hammer you a crazy dude!!! LOL) I usually have good luck in the rain... On a clear water lake I find rain helpful...less chance of spooking jumpy fish... I sometimes will change my color if the rain has mixed up the water and made it murky... If I am fishing points in stormy conditions...rain accompanied with winds and other nasties... I will usually drop back to the sheltered side on the point... other than that I usually just fish... the rain does not seem to change much.

I am a Texas guy... but have had luck with both... I think my preference for Texas is more just a familiarity than anything else...

My old lights needed to be unplugged...they were not encased in the clear-water proof housings like my new ones. ( previous owner had bought non submersable lights at Wal-Mart or somewhere and had screwed them right over and through the existing...was hilarious!!!!) As long as they are sealed lights no need to unplug them... One of the guys on the circut has a switch...which I have never seen before...I do not know if it was something he installed himself or what... speaking of being courteous....when you are all lined up at the ramp to launch in the morning...turn off your head lights so they do not glare on someone else in the ramp... asked a guy last week to click off his head lights cause I could not see in my mirrors...he told me to "just launch the "F---in" boat" so I grabbed my 2 million candle power spot and lit him up... he turned his head lights off!

2000 Full size Dodge Ram 1500 series 3.9L Van with towing differential/tranny upgrade. 96k miles. Hard working van! Also rescued over 500 Beagles/Coonhounds in this van! Will never use Goodyear tires again though...terrible traction on wet ramps...

I have personally found the color ones harder to read...well not as a dash unit, but as a bow mount, which is the one I am usually just glancing at while casting or whatever, not really "studying" it like I do the dash mount...I find the color ones harder to read at a glance. Almost too much going on on the screen. I like the simple straight forward black and white ones that give me just the info i need quickly....depth, cover. bottom detail and fish... I also use a mid range resolution...enough to make the graph clear to read, but since I have the tendency to be just glancing down at it while fishing, not really studying it like I do the dash mounted one...a high resolution is just money I did not need to spend.

my wife and I were having bad problem with catching undersized fish every tournament. Two weeks ago is a perfect example...we caught 17 fish...not a single keeper ( 14 inch limit)...the guys who won had 4 fish between 14 and 19 inches...and had just 5 bites the whole day. Frustrating!!!! to catch a lot of fish, but none worth wieghing in. an old timer gave us this advice... fish smaller ( baits)...fish slower...fish deeper... this past weekend, our next tournament...we did just that...cut down the plastics, used a little dead stick time...and fished deeper waters... by 9 am we were culling fish and weighed in a limit.

soldering can cause you more problems than it is worth if you are not careful. The most common mistakes made is overheating the wire. The heat changes the resistance in the wire...increases it...and lessens its amp carry capacity as a result. So if you have 6 gauge 60 amp capacity wires the have been over heated...you may have only 50 amp capacity at the connection. Electrical systems are most definately only as good as their weakest part...so you will only have wiring good for 50 amps in this case. Use good quality electrical crimp connectors...the Burndy or Hubbell ones you by at an Electrical supply house...not the cheapy G&B or similar you find at Home Depot or AutoZone...use the proper crimp tool, not your pliers...and pick up a chemical called Pentrox while you are getting your terminals. Cover the wires in Pentrox before applying the crimps. The Pentrox is an antioxidant anti diaelectric compound that also resists water, oil, etc that may be present in your compartment. The wire will fail before the connections do. ...upgrading my trolling motor iring was the best decision I ever made!!!!

I do not have alot of experience with this but I had a similar problem. Mine did not click and flash, but would go green and no charge...it was a failed voltage sensor. ( cheaper...at least more beneficial... to replace the charger than the relay by the way) Dont you have a meter on the boat? that tells you the battery charge? If you do hook the battery you are worried about up as though it was your main starting battery and the volt meter will tell you what the charge is. A cheapy DC volt/amp meter is always a good buy as well...I carry one on the boat ( about $30 at Harbor Frieght) in case I loose a switch, a fuse, want to check a battery...whatever... Autozone also used to sell a battery jumper with a built in gauge you hook up on the battery that tells you the remaining charge. My father in law is religious about the 80% rule on his batteries so he uses these to watch his remainng charge.