Ben

I just use the same GOJO with Pumis is use to clean the grease off my hands. Never have tried the Lemon juice. I used to use tomato juice to get skunk oil off (which is about the only thing that will get it off) so maybe that will get the fish smell also. Oh, back in my younger days and I mean a lot younger, I used to descent skunks and sold them for pets. See I didn't wait till I was 58 to turn crazy, I've been that way all my life.

Not too sure I totally agree with the tight line on the fall, that kills the action of the lure, jig, tube or spoon. I think you will get more bites if you let the rod follow the bait but not hold tension on the bait. The trick to this is knowing where the bottom is and if the lure stops before it gets back to the bottom, which is easily seen by watching the line and if more slack comes in it, something has it so set the hook. Even a jig dances around on the fall, unless you're fishing one the size of an anchor, and I just prefer not to kill the action on any lures fall. My method takes a little more practice learning to watch your line and to time your rod tip with the lure fall, but once you get it syncronized and your rythm going, it catches bunches of fish. Tubes and spoons a deadly doing this when done properly. You don't want to feel the bait, but you don't want slack in the line until it hits bottom. I will agree, bottom bouncing is a great way to catch fish. I use this method about 50% of the time during the winter and hot summer but use spoons and tubes more than jigs. There is also no guarentees on what you're gonna pull up. I've caught just about every kind of fish there is in Clarks Hill on 1/4 oz jigging spoons. Makes you wonder when you pull up a bream smaller than your hand in 30 feet of water. You may catch a bream, a couple of bounces later a stripper or hybrid, then a bass or a cat, crappie or a white pearch. All within a few minutes of each other.

Not too sure I would want their four stroke. I affraid I would have to spend the extra bucks and get the Honda four stroke. Theirs has been around a lot longer, and has a proven track record. The Tohatsu's two stroke is an OK motor, until it breaks. When you start buying parts for them, you come to realize how they were able to sell their motor cheaper than everyone elses. Most all brands parts are expensive but they are just totally rediculas on theirs. Add that to the fact they haven't proven themselves in the four stroke world like the Honda has, I wouldn't touch one with a 10 foot pole. As for hp, I'm a firm believer in putting just as much as the law allows on the back of a boat. By that I mean based on hull hp limit, and rive/lake hp limit

Strickly as preventive maintenance, I also change my LU lube twice a year, but I also fish all 12 months of the year. First thing I do on any used motor I buy before putting it in the water is change the LU lube and the water pump. A $30 impeller or a $50 kit every couple of years is a hellava lot cheaper than a fried powerhead or a spoiled fishing trip. A also like to pull my LU and grease the drive shaft spline so why not just do both at the same time. I've seem too many people run theirs untl the water pump quits (that can be years and years) and then can't get the drive shaft out of the crank where it has rusted in there. Another problem with running one till it quits is when it does quit, it usually comes appart, sending chunks of rubber up into the block to stop up water passages causing it to run hot after putting new pump in or creating hot spots. The people I really love most though are those that always crank their motor at the ramp and rev it up a couple of times before launching the boat, I guess just to make sure it's going to crank after they launch it. Doing that fries the tee total crap out of a water pump. Only takes a few seconds for that impeller running dry like that to make things nice and hot in there.

Yes. In laymens terms, the impeller is the rubber thingamajig inside the water pump that moves the water. The water pump is the complete assembly. Unless the gaskets, O-rings, etc are broken or the housing is damaged, you can usually just replace the impeller. I usually replace the entire assy the first time and impeller the second, then the entire assemble again the next. However, I also replace mine every two years and grease the driveshaft spline.

Matt-Fly, Yep I'm a very stong advocate of catch and release, "when I'm doing the right thing for the lake". On the lake I fish, if I caught 400, 12" - 13" a year, and was not over the total creal limit allowed in the freezer I would keep 400 a year, and if I thought we could eat that darn many. There have been many times my dad and I have cleaned 20 bass from one trip because the lake has a 10 bass per person limit. There is a hellava difference between keeping over populated 12" - 13" bass and keeping the few big bass in a lake. Don't shout foul because "you" think all bass have to be released. I'm probably helping the lake I fish by keeping as many of those little pesky suckers the law will allow than you are with your high and mighty everything should be released attitude. We have gone many times and caught as many as 100 bass in one day, and not more than a 1/2 dozen be over 14". Years back, we used to constanlty get into schools of bass where we could catch "and" release 30 - 50 bass in just a couple of hours, and none of them would be under two pounds. Now your lucky to catch that many 2+ pounders in 10 trips. So grow up, learn what's right for your waters and pratice what's recommended for those. Don't critize someone else's practices when you don't know the lake they are fishing. I will say, I don't know of many lakes that can consistanly support all the big bass being pulled out just to hang on a wall or dragged around town just to show of to your buddies what you caught. Any big bass picture you see me take will always have the boat and the lake in it, because the picture was taken when the fish came out of the water and the fish went right back in the water. Not hauled around in some livewell and all up and down the boat ramp, just to have it so stressed if it did get released, it probably died. Like I said in my first post, I have a tendency to ruffle feathers when it comes to catch and release because too many don't really know the true concept behind it. You have to know "your" lakes and what's best for "them".

That engine actually runs two fuel pumps. One is called a lift pump, which sounds like where your problem is. It works off crankcase pulses to pull the fuel trom the tank and supply it to the electric high pressure pump. The motor can not operate on the electric pump alone, it will run and die (sound familiar). Luckly there is a kit for for your lift pump, the early V-6 don't have kits and the lift pump is approx $300. There is a way to check the lift pump using a LU pressure tester but not sure you have the will or a way for doing this test. Figure on spending a few hundred bucks at the shop to have it tested/rebuilt if that's the problem. If you're handy with tools, you may just want to get a kit and put it in yourself and try that first. I guess I should have menitoned, the first thing you want to do is make sure it's not sucking air from a bad fuel line or connection. Also, one way to check to see if it's possibly a lift pump problem, is to keep pumping the bulb while the motor is running and see if it still dies. (OOps, see you did that already) The lift pump only maintains about four psi on the electric pump so the bulb was just replacing it.. There is also a schrader valve on the output line of the electric pump. You can connect a pressure guage there and make sure the electric pump is doing it's job. When you first turn the key on the electric pump should run for approx 10 seconds and maintain 32 - 36 psi. After 10 secs and it cuts off, it should not drop back below about 15 psi. Crank the motor up with the guage connected and make sure it's maintaining the 32+ psi while running, but you have to make sure the lift pump is keeping it fed. Probably the reason for the oil light coming on is the oil pump also has a line the connects to the lift pump fuel input line and supplies a small amount of oil to mix with the gas to keep the top ring lubed in the motor. The oil pump only maintains about 20 psi so maintaining pressure on the bulb was probably causing a back pressure in the oil pump throught this line interferring with oil flow and the oil pressure sensor, causing the alarm to go off. I guess I'd better quit typing before I give the false impression I know something about that thing.

Realistic gains from a SS prop over an aluminum is maybe 2 - 3 mph and a better hole shot. Now, if you have a jackplate, get a high rake prop and play with the setup, so you get more bow and stern lift and more hull surface out of the water you might see a little more but don't start expecting no 7 -8 mph increase with an underpowered boat, it just ain't gonna happen. Even to see those gains the the boat is going to have to be running light and is going to be very weight sensiitve because you just don't have enough motor to fly the hull to start with. Speed comes for haveing the right setup and enough power to get the hull out of the water so there's less drag, something underpowered boats have a hard time doing.

I have a tendency to ruffle feathers all the time on the C&R debates. 1'st if it's my pond, unless someone else wants to pay my taxes, fertilizer bills and other expenses involved, they ain't got one dang word to about what I keep or throw back. 2'nd if the DNR fisheries ask people to please keep all small bass, and not release them I don't. I probably catch and keep a couple of hunder 12" - 13" bass a year from Clarks Hill. Now, where I do have a problem is keeping a big bass just to take it home and show it off or hang it on a wall when they already have several on the wall, many even the same size. I feel a true sport fisherman should know his waters. Know what the recommendations are for catch and release and follow them. If the bass population is limited and they ask you to release them or only keep a few to eat, then do just that. If they ask you not to release small fish, then don't, you are only hurting the lake because you have a mindset that all bass should be released. There is no bigger advocate of catch and release than me. I've ticked a lot of people off fishing with me when I refused to let them put a big bass in my live well and told them they would either release it or hope it's big enough to tow them back the the boat ramp because they wasn't getting back in my boat with that fish. However, I still keep and eat a whole bunch of small bass, when the population supports that. After all, what other kind of meat are going to be able to eat the probably cost you well over $1000 per pound to eat. I figure that's about what each pound of bass I eat cost me.

In general, if a 22 is turning 5,100, a 20 will turn 5,400 - 5,500 and a 18 will turn 5,800 - 6,000. How many people do you normally. Prop the boat for a normal load and then, so what if a person have to move forward on the rare occassion you overload it. If you do this often, then invest in a smaller prop that will get that extra load up. If the boat won't turn in the high 5's with your normal load, then it was overproped when you got it. The two stroke motor should be proped to turn near it's max recommended rpm for the normal load. As mentioned looks like you are underpowered running a 125 on an 18' boat. That boat is probably rated for a 150 or 175. Beofore you buy any prop you should try it or one like it with the load you plan to use it with. Don't buy and 18" prop and then go try it with just you, a light load of gas and empty live well, it will most likely over rev the crap out of it. One or two hundred rpm over max is not going to hurt, you can always back out slightly. They cost too much just to buy them and find you bought the wrong one.

Dang, forgot to say the first thing you need to check. Check your manual and see if it has different types of alarms for different problems, steady alarm for one, on and off for another. Then determine if it's an overheating, low oil, or no oil alarm. Low oil is for the oil level in the resevoir, no oil is for the mixing pump, says it's no longer mixing oil into the gas. Overheating, and you just turned the key on for the first time and the motor is still cold, you probably have a bad sensor. Check the oil in the resevoir, make sure it has plenty. Then check all the oil lines and the oil injection pump. You may have to get some brake part cleaner (be carefull with this stuff and don't get it on your Covers paint) to spray on all the fitting's, lines etc and blow off with an air hose to get them clean and dry so you can see where your leak is. From what you're describing, sounds like your problem is in then oiling system. I dang sure wouldn't run it again until I found it. Since I don't know much about Merc/Mariner's, I'm not sure where all the sensors are. Should be one for the oil resevoir, unplug it and see alarm quits, provided the resevroir is full. Should be one for the mixing pump, unplug it and see if the alarm quits. If neither of those silenced the alarm, there should be one in the head for temp, unplug it. IN all probability, something has gone wrong with the oiling system. This is what keeps the motor lubricated. Without proper lube, they don't run long before internal parts become external parts. Always keep a couple of quarts of oil in the boat, at least enough for a tank of gas. Most quarts have the oz markings on the side, if not, keep something to measure it with also. If you get an oil alarm or are in doubt, immediately turn the switch off and add enough oil to premix the gas in your tank to a 50:1 ratio. (16oz to six gallons or approx 2 3/4 oz per gallon). Rock the boat around the best you can to get it mixed in the tank. Only run the motor at an idle for several minutes until oil/gas mixture has time to get into engine. THen you can run the motor normally. If it's not the oil system causing the problem, all your doing is double oiling the motor, that's just gonna make it smoke more and cause a little extra carbon build up and can be decarbed to get rid of that. If it is the oiling system you just saved the motor from coming unglued.

I know several people running hydraulic jack plates on their cans. We do a lot of river fishing and the river near me has tons of trees, sand bars and other obstructions that play havoc on a motor all the way down in the water. Sometimes you have to get you speed up and actually slide over tree trunks to get up/down the river. Being able to raise the motor straight up works much better than having to try timming the motor up. One of the best rigs I've seen is a guy has a 16 Aluminum tunnel hull, 60 hp Merc with hydraulic jack plate. He can run WOT with no worries about what's under him. He said once he get on plane he can raise the motor up until he only needs 2 1/2" of water to run WOT. I like his much better than the jet drives I've seen running the river. Last year the DNR guys ripped their jet drive off the back of theirs on that river.

Man, your unreal, sounds like you don't think much of your motor and don't mind it grenading so you can go buy a new one. Yes, most likely that was the (there's something bad wrong) alarm and do not operate until you determine the reason for the alarm. Could just be a problem with the alarm, could be a faulty sensor, could be problem with the oil injection/no oil in resevoir or several other things that can cause major damage to the motor. Seems having bunches of oil puddled under the motor, would make a normal sane person think maybe something's wrong and I should have it checked before I operate it again. Sorry, I know this is a little harsh but I haven't meet many people that totally ignored the engine alarm, have oil pouring out of the motor and think the motor is still just fine for fishing but just thought they would ask if maybe it has a problem.

That also says you are good for this weekend as long as you have your bill of sale, they give you 30 days from time of purchase.

Check with a dealer they should have the forms. Don't know how Ohio does it but here you fill out your registration form, tear off the bottom, mail it and a check and use the bottom as a temp until you get yours back. I can guarentee you the fine will be much greater than the cost of registering it. At least take your bill of sale to prove you just bought it, but most game wardens don't cut you any slack.

Line will take one out in a heartbeat. Probably has been leaking ever since and the weeds making it spin the hub may have saved you from needing a whole LU before much longer. A word of advise. Play country dumb about anything ever being wrapped around the prop shaft. If some didn't get under the seal and stay there, they may just fix it.

Same in GA, pretty much if it's propelled by anything other than paddles, it needs a registration.

It may also have just been it was there warming in the sun, knew exactly where you were and what you were doing and had no interest in feeding. I was fishing a small lake in VA once where I made a number of cast long cast with top water, spinner bait and a fluke to a large, floating tree before deciding there was nothing around it and started easing by it. Boy was I wrong, there were about 10, 10+ pound bass side by side just holding under it catching the moring sun. They could have cared less if I was there. If I got too close they would slowly swim off until I moved away and then they would come back. I think when big bass move out of their feeding areas where the feel safe and secure, for what ever reason, just to check out the neighborhood, get a sun tan, etc. they have no interest in feeding and nothing short of a grenade is going to get one.

Lake is 77,000 acres, over 1,200 miles of shore line. Too big to even think about knowing the whole thing, I know about 1/3 of it fairly well. I know the main area I fish, (the west end which covers two major creeks can one river about as well as I know my back yard. Actaully, I probably know that part of the lake better than my back yard. To start with, I've been fishing it since 1964, Until the last couple of years, a several year drought had the lake down to as much as 14 feet below pool level. When it was down to the 14' level, I spent several days doing nothing but taking photos, videos and gps cooridinates. I have a fairly large spiral note book of gps coordinates, a number of video tapes I called off the gps coordinates for tons of spots and logged the photo number to the coordinates, This if for about 15 miles of backwaters there are no topograhical maps with the contour intervals on. Now that the lake is up pretty close to pool level, (only down a couple of feet right now and has been as much as four feet above pool. A one foot change in pool level can change the way a lake looks a whole bunch especially when trying to relate underwater structure to distance from the bank, so all that time spent doing gps coordinates are worth their weight in gold now. BASS and FLW tournaments have been held on the lake last year and this year, Most of the guys that quilfited to fish the last day fished my end of the lake. Wonder what they would have paid to have access to my videos, photos and gps log.

If Cabela's has it, I buy it from them, mainly for just that reason and have been for many years. I bought a Lowrance depth finder they had on sale as a special puchase and it was missing the mount and power cable. Called them, gave them my invoice number, she verified the model number and what parts were missing, and had them at my door two days later. Total time on the phone was less than two minutes.

ONE THAT'S PAID FOR, HANDS DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't like it when they don't jump. I hold my rod high and slow the retrive just to incourage them to jump/break water. I luv it when a big bass comes to the surface and just wallers back and forth. Heck, if it wasn't for the jumping, I had just as soon catch strippers. They pull a lot harder and longer than bass, plus it's nothing to get into them and catch bunches 8 - 16 pounds. Fun to catch but doesn't compare to a big bass, because they don't break water.

For you young guys, bike power might seem like a great idea, for us old folks that like to relax and take it easy while fishing, that idea kinda sucks. Actaully, it would be way too noisey and make too much disturbance in the water to make an effective fishing boat. Years (and I mean years) long before you were a thought, I used to make my own pond boats. About three sheets of 1/4 A/C plywood and some 1x2 poplar strips brass screw, waterproof glue and could have a failry cheap 12 - 14' jon knocked out in a couple of days. Several heavy coats of varnish and a coat or two of paint and they would last several years as long as you turned them over, and didn't leave them on the ground or in the water. Todays small aluminum jons are sooooooooooo much lighter and fairly reasonable in price, it's not worth building them any more.

Wait now!!! We can't all fish at night, there would not be any of us on the lake during the day for those dang PWC's to aggrivate. That would take away from their fun.

Can't offer much since I don't mess around on the dark side, don't know much about them black motors but he never did say what rpm it's turning at WOT. That 2.5 motor is not a real high torque motor and needs to be turning 5,800 - 6,000 at WOT. I don't care what kind of boat it's on, if it's only turning a little over 5,000, it ain't gonna come out of the hole strong. If the rpm is up where is should be, could have a problem with high speed windings in stator, that's about where they start coming in. I see too many people trying to run a taller props thinking that's gonna give them more speed, but the motor doesn't have the innerds to spin that prop at near max rpm, it's gonna actually run slower and be a dog coming out of the hole. Another thing you might want to look at is running a compression test. Low compression a a cylinder or two can cause your problem. Compression makes torque, not horse power, so the motor can still run fine at WOT but be very slow getting on plane. Again thought, that's ONLY if the motor is turning 6,000 rpm or dang near it'