galyonj

I hate it, but I think you're right. Worst case, changing the part doesn't change the symptoms, and you just return it.

Oh, I don't ride. Growing up looking at my old man's leg was enough to keep me to four wheels. I have worked on bikes before, but my experience with cars (racing, wrecking, and fixing them) is far more comprehensive. I've never seen voltage drop on an engine when everything was working the way it ought to. ETA: I'm still trying to convince @TnRiver46 to let me put a shot of nitrous on the boat. ?

Oh, I didn't take it that way at all! I was explaining how spotty my experience is. lol

I wouldn't call myself a mechanic, but I can turn a wrench and read a schematic. This is my first time working on a boat, though, and, honestly, it's close enough to a motorcycle engine/charging system that I don't feel terribly out of my depth. Which is nice. We've both seen the battery at 12.9V, so I'm...assuming that it's good. But you know what they say about assumptions. Yeah. We hooked the engine up to one of the deep-cycles you have for the trolling motor. Same result. Voltage drop at the terminals with the engine running. Further, I see the same voltage at the battery terminals as I do at the starter positive/ground with the engine running, so the only voltage the entire system is seeing is that supplied by the battery. Even so, I don't think it's the battery. Even if the battery itself was bad, we should still meter out 13.8-14.3V at the starter.

They don't think it be like it is, but it do. -- Abraham Lincoln

That boat launch looks perilously shallow, too.

@TnRiver46 and I need some advice. The wiring fixes we did are fine, but we still have a charging issue. Yesterday afternoon we tested the stator and the rectifier per the Mercury service manual. In addition, we did some diag on the battery itself. Stator tests 0.1Ω shy of the 0.2Ω-0.6Ω range that the manual wants. Rectifier tests OK per the manual. We've removed all accessories from the starting battery, so the only connections it has are directly to the engine. The battery cables have new copper lugs on the battery end. The battery terminals themselves were brushed and cleaned. We have good continuity through the battery cables to the engine (tested at several locations). Battery can trickle-charge to 12.9V, and has what appears to be plenty of water in it. I think he said the battery's 3 years old. The engine starts strong and the trim motor sounds strong -- correct me if I'm wrong on those, Russ, you know better than I do how they ought to sound. But the battery still isn't charging via the engine-mounted charging system. Ideas?

Honestly, I think that's a great way to look at it. To hearken back to something @Catt posted way upthread somewhere, you've got three "zones" in fishing: top, middle, bottom. More specific than that, and you're really dealing with variations on a theme.

We got lucky -- these were easy problems. Even so, electrical problems almost always look worse than they are, but if you're careful about eliminating variables, the problems often as not solve themselves. I don't own a boat, but I assume that @TnRiver46 is running the same setup as I assume just about everybody that fishes from a boat; a 3 battery system -- 24v for his trolling motor, then a 12v battery for his starter, trim, and accessories (lights, depthfinder, aeration, the compressor for his wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man, all that good stuff). We knew he had some kind of short somewhere, otherwise there never would've been an issue with the grounding wires in the first place. Much less them flaming out the way they did. So first we started with making sure our connections were good. Cleaning battery terminals, pinning cables for continuity, etc. I went through and replaced all the cable lugs and ring terminals I could find that touched that battery using what I jokingly called "the pants and suspenders method," Not only did we crimp the terminal connection, but we then soldered that to make sure it was solid, and then we slathered it in waterproof RTV, before melting heat shrink over that. It'll take a long time for nature to bugger them up again. He found the stainless braided cable we used to make new grounding wires for his lower unit at Walmart, of all places, and it worked perfectly for what we needed. Here are his pretty new grounding straps we made with only the best materials that Walmart and Harbor Freight had to offer: After that work, and replacing the starter, we connected everything back to test our progress and that's when we -- entirely by accident -- found the source of the fire that put his boat out of commission in the first place. He said he smelled burning, and that ground wire was glowing hot enough to light a cigarette off of. The only thing we added to the circuit that hadn't already been tested was the depth finder. Anyway, probably, I dunno... 4 hours of work and we were all set. Probably coulda got done faster, but there's no value in hurrying with electricity. I'm glad it's fixed, and I'm grateful I got to help. It was fun.

Bro, I'm just glad I could help get it figured out. Somewhere in this house I've got spools of cable that'll work for making replacement extension legs for your console-mount depth finder, and then that problem will be solved entirely. I guess we can put your starter-adjustment hammer away for good now.

Absolutely. And, too, complexity is relative based on the individual. Having a half-dozen different presentations tied to the front deck makes perfect sense if one is to the point in their growth that they have a discrete best-case use for each rig, but that many options and different flavors of muscle memory doesn't do someone that's new to the sport any good and, indeed, could actually prove a hindrance to their growth. The hardest thing about learning a new skillset is knowing how to filter out the BS. Without guidance -- or with crappy guidance, which is worse, the whole enterprise becomes maze-like and frustrating. Fishing can be so even with guidance, because the fish eat what and when the fish wanna eat, and there's not a whole lot you can do about that.

I don't think any presentation works literally every time it goes into the water, because the fish never got that memo. I try to tell the ones I find, but they all look at me like I'm an idiot. Keep it as simple as you can get away with, but don't be afraid to experiment. This is supposed to be fun. People forget that -- I know I do.

Just one bead is fine. The primary reason for the bead is to protect to knot that secures the swivel to the main line from getting beat up by the sinker. The sinker and bead will both slide freely. Here's a handy diagram: [rod]------------[sinker][bead]--[swivel]------[hook/lure]

I'm not gonna pretend I'm an experienced fisherman, but I would no sooner expect a beginner in the hobby to be intuit the best presentation for a given set of variables (water clarity, temperature, current, structure, etc) than I would expect a new racer to be able to eyeball the best line through the rollercoaster at VIR, or someone that's never touched a table saw before to be able to make me a nice set of cabinets. But everybody wants to run before they can walk. Same as it ever was.

Depending on whether I've taken all my meds or not, one might see all those options within a few feet in one cast. lol

You've seen me fish, so you know I don't have any proof to the contrary, but I'm curious why you think that is.

That reminds me. I should go check on my osprey down at the George Creek ramp. Hopefully they didn't decide to move. Based on his livewell count, I think maybe you're okay if you just keep doing what you're doing.

If it's that close, I just grab the line and strip some off against the drag. This also helps me make sure I've got the drag set where I like it.

I saw a couple boats yesterday morning blasting up and down the main channel when I was out at the creek mouth. I thought they were the same category of poser one would see riding around on road bikes with logos all over them, but it makes sense now.

Nah. Just regular old round bend treble hooks. If I've got any without a home, I'll change the hooks for just about every hard bait I get out for short-shank EWG trebles. Which doesn't really do anything but make me feel better because I like that style of treble hook better. The H2O Xpress hard baits are nice, though. They're cheap enough you don't feel too bad about losing one, and they (in my experience) work pretty well. Used to you could get their lipless cranks in a color called Green Terror, and that was fire for me the last couple years.

Yeah, that's not a healthy fish.

Lort. Now we got monkeys and ants?

I know what the OP said. I was providing additional context for the point you made when you mentioned that you were using 6lb YZH.