retiredbosn

It is 7 degrees here in the mountains of WV, wintertime and my arthritis doesn't allow me to be very mobile. As a result I have had a lot of time on my hands and have been filling the time with researching lines and their effects on crankbaits. What follows is some of my thoughts that I would like to have validated or refuted. First is the false advertising on most crankbait packaging. The diving rates given on the packaging of the crankbaits are either formulated by actually casting the crank or trolling. If trolling you will have a hard time getting the crank to the stated depth. When I have contacted various manufacturers they have responded with the same answer, that the depth ratings are calculated assuming .012 diameter line, trolled. None however bothered to state how much line they had out to get to the depth on the packaging. Anyway on to the line. Mono the oldest and most popular type of line, from what I have gleaned still the standard that all cranks are rated from. The good news is that the 10lb test line that the manufacturers use to calculate the depth is .012, which means that using a quality mono you can actually use 12 or sometimes 14 lb test line and still be in the ball park of the depth rating. However mono has an open cell construction which means that the line actually absorbs water, which reduces strength and causes more water resisitance on the line when being retrieved. So I have pretty much concluded that using regular mono I will never actually get the advertised depth on the crankbait. Fluro, the new darling of the industry and pros. As a disabled vet living on a fixed income, I have difficulty spending the money on this line. I have read that some test show that the flouro will stretch around 15%, mono stretches 25. Now before anyone has a knee jerk reaction the zero stretch claims made by manufacturers is a myth. Everything will stretch when there is enough pressure applied. I don't care if it is wire rope, braided line, flouro, mono, dental floss, a steel girder. Actually the faster the pressure is applied the less stretch any material will stretch before breaking. The slower and steadier the pressure is applied the farther the material will stretch. Anyway fluoro has approximately the same diameter as mono, but the reviews I've read all agree that the crankbait will dive a little deeper on flouro when compared to mono of the same diameter. This lead me to conclude that the closed cell construction of the fluoro results in less resistance on the line as it is retrieved. Therefore the diving aspect of the crankbait is not only a matter of line diameter but water resistance against the line. The reviews all agreed that flouro is slick, knots are little harder to tie and to get to hold than on mono, i.e. a regular cinch pulls through on flouro, so the reccommended knots are the palomer and improved cinch. So to recap the flouro gets the crankbait deeper because of the closed cell construction and its ability to repel water resulting in less resistance against the line, the fact it sinks is illustrative of these properties. Braid the darling of the media turned into a sow's ear. The reviews on this product and crankbaiting are all over the place. Some people sing it's praises others declare that the braid destroys the action of the bait, pulls the hooks out, etc. However most agreed that 10lb braid will allow the crankbait to dive deeper than any other line, this of course is due to the diameter of the line. I have not found any site or information to confirm what I'm getting ready to type, and hope that someone here can validate. I'm betting that cranking with braid that has the diameter of .012 will result in the bait being more shallow than either the mono or flouro. The reason is again that the water resistance against the line will be more than either of the other two. Most braided line floats, and has an open cell construction which would result in a lot more resistance on the line when being retrieved. This brings me to the last consideration, copoly line. The line supposedly shares the properties of flouro and mono. I'm hoping that the line having a closed cell construction has better crankbait potential than mono, not as slick as fluoro as therefore better knot strength, with better abraision than mono. What has been your experience with this type of line? Also do my opinions mirror what you have experienced on the water with these lines? Any comments will be appreciated. thanks

Does anyone have first hand knowledge of this product, or any of the Viscious line products, thanks.

I really don't want to be a wet blanket or stick my nose where it doesn't belong, but depending on the year of the Durango you may not be pleased with the mpg. I have only had one Dodge, so I am not an expert by any stretch, but my full size 1500 got 13mpg! towing it got 13mpg, highway 13mpg, town 13pmg, darn thing had greatt power and passed everything on the road but the gas pumps. Check out the weblink in my first post to see what real people are getting with the year model, engine you are considering. From my experience that website has accurate information. Best of luck to you.

While living in the Carolinas I routinely saw gators, they never bothered me any. Being from WV I was more intrigued than anything. Watermoccasins on the other hand freak me out. I have no idea why they freak me out like they do, but I am absolutely scared of them. There are a lot of myths about the snake, but to me they are the scariest of our poisonous snakes. Any snake that lives in the water and can bite you there without you seeing is scary. Needless to say I was always careful while fishing from the bank especially of where I put my feet, hands, etc. Gators were just neat to see. BTW anyone should be able to identify the snakes you find in and around water, and I think everyone should learn how to.

Just curious as to how many people here striper fish. I'm always looking for ideas on how to catch these fish. I "accidently" hooked one a while back and have been addicted ever since. Man those fish have shoulders, they can really stretch a line. I'm wondering how many of you catch them while fishing for LMB, I caught the first one on a Bomber Fat Free shad. I know most people troll live bait, but I really don't have the patience for live bait fishing. I really enjoy feeling like I do something to catch the fish, picking the right lure, right color presentation etc. I've never targeted the striper on purpose but really enjoy the suprise of hooking one while fishing. Any advice on how to fish for them on purpose.

is it a maintenance free battery, if not check the fluid levels in the cells of the battery, if low refill with distilled water, unless extremely low then go to the auto store and get some battery acid. Otherwise the drop isn't that drastic, check and see if the voltage comes up with a slower speed, if it does it is just the load of the trolling motor would be my guess. You can also do a load test on the battery if it would make you feel better, but it all sound fairly benign to me. You should put a ohms meter on your car battery and have someone crank it, you will see the same phenomena.

a power stroke with a banks turbo and intake will net 25mpg with 4wd. But the price of diesel now makes it hard to justify imo.

I know that many people may disagree with my suggestions but to me the answer is a simple one. Get either a Suburban or a Tahoe, the v8 scares off a lot of people, but here is my experience with these vehicles. I had a 97 Suburban Vortec 350 mileage on trips was between 20 and 22 mpg, 4wd and I live in the mountains of WV, around town I averaged 17. My Tahoe's mileage was the same. I consistently got better gas mileage that any of the vehicles you listed, parts are reasonable, the vortec 350 is good for 200,000+ miles, and are easily worked on. Quite honestly neither the Pathfinder or 4Runner has any more towing capacity than the Blazer that you had, add to that the fuel economy will be no better and most likely worse than it will be in the full size vehicle, especially when towing the boat. This is coming from a confirmed Ford fan for all of my adult life, that was until I purchased my first Chevy. BTW on the Vortec 350's make sure the gasket at the fuel system has been replaced, they go bad around 120 to 150 thousand miles, the aftermarkets are better and last a longer time. Also make sure you have the trans pressured flushed, a bit pricey but results in a lifetime of service from your tranny. here is a link to mpg rating from actual drivers http://www.fueleconomy.gov/mpg/MPG.do?action=browseList Also a trip to Edmunds.com would be beneficial as the websites lists specifications for older vehicles including tow capacity. Good luck to you.

Same as above, you will have no problems, good luck.

I'm either not looking in the right places on the websites, or am just an idiot. I'm having a hard time finding the warranty information on the major boat manufacturers. I will probably buy a mid grade boat from one of the more well known manufacturers. I'm looking at Stratos, Tritons, Nitros, Skeeters etc. Does anyone know what kind of warranties are offered by the various manufacturers?

Kansas, believe it or not you will only need two quarts tops to paint your boat. Mine is an 18 footer and I used a quart of green and and half a quart of the beige. What you can do is look at the quart sized cans (my Lowes had a much better color selection in the quarts) and mix a brown with the white and get the beige, just play with it until the color is what you are looking for, use a gallon can to mix it in they sell empties too. As far as the aluminum primer thing goes, if you lightly rough the hull with a fine grade sandpaper you can use regular primer and save some money again. Just depends how much elbow work you are willing to do. The etching primer has an acid base that etches the aluminum chemically to make the primer hold. Roughing the hull lightly will accomplish the same thing just mechanically. A lot of people don't think you can use the alkyd based paints on fiberglass and as a result pay a lot more for their paints. But you can use regular enamel if you know how to put it on: and it doesn't weaken the glass.

From your last post, I would re-estimate that your max hp is 25 to 35 by today's standards. If it were me I would opt for the smaller to keep it on the safe side. Good luck

Depending on when the boat was manufactured, it should have a placard on it somewhere telling you the maximum capacity of people and horsepower for an outboard, if rated for one. If it doesn't have one, you will have to do the research to find out what it is. Federal law dictates what size engine you can have and all states will fine you for exceeding the maximum capacity of the vessel, not to mention it is extremely dangerous to overload a boat with an engine that is oversized. Here is a link that will give you a rule of thumb so to speak on the size of engine you should get, http://www.boatingbasicsonline.com/course/boating/3_7.php If you happen to know the year and model, you can go to the starcraft website and find out the capacity limitations. From the pic and what I can find, I'm thinking the max hp for your boat is between 15 and 25 hp. Good Luck. http://www.starcraftmarine.com/index.php?page=index

If you are going to brush it on I wouldn't bother with a Marine paint. The typical marine paint is meant for a constant submersion environment. Interlux makes a nice marine paint, but for my money I would just use an akyld enamel, IMHO I would and have and do use Rustoleum Professional Series, you can get it for something like 20 bucks a gallon, will self level (within reason) and the brush or roller strokes will not be noticable. As my name suggests I'm a retired Bos'n Mate US Coast Guard, and one of my primary jobs was deck maintenance. You can spend a whole lot more, but if you want something that is easy to apply provides reasonable protection and easy to touch up an akyld enamel is the way to go. BTW akyld enamel is really old school automotive paint, and again Rustoleum makes it and is easily found, cleans up with regular thinner, no special equipment needed and will do a fine job. Here is a b4 pic of my boat and after using an alkyd brushed on with a good brush Good luck

Don't know what part of the country you live in, but fishing spring here in WV can be tricky. Depends on what you are calling spring, Sutton and Burnsville are north of here and will be cold at least till mid april and Bluestone gets hammered, don't fish there much at all, and it is only 30 minutes from here. Depending on the time frame you are talking about I can get you some information. I'm mediocre at best when it comes to fishing but have some friends that are always willing to share info. Wait a minute, maybe their advice is why I'm so mediocre! : The other suggestion on the WV DNR site is good, the information they post there is good.

thanks fellas, the main reason I was thinking braid is that stripers snap 10lb mono/floro like thread. Had it happen to many times and I am looking for a good solution when crankbaiting for stripers. The ones who don't just snap it end up rolling on it and breaking it, hard to put a 20-30lb striper in the boat on 10lb mono. I dont troll live bait and prefer using lures for all of my fishing so I need a good compromise that will allow me to fish the way I want without worry about breaking the line. Thanks What braid do you reccommend. I was thinking fireline crystal as it is supposed to be harder to detect. Although while cranking I don't worry about it a whole lot, as it seems to me that if the treble hooks and the huge bill doesn't scare the fish a piece of line won't either.

thanks, I am afraid that I may have ruined the motor. :-[ I have a mechanic coming to look at it, may be in the market for another boat

Thanks everyone, I will just replace the end guide, I was worried about ruining the sensitivity.

Ok I have a Quantum Tournament Grad PT rod, 7 foot MH for worming and jigging. I was cleaning the tackle the other day for storage and noticed the lead eye, the one on the end, is missing the ceramic insert, I guess it is ceramic anyway. The eyes are Fuji, and the eye missing the insert appears undamaged in anyway, not bent, out of round or anything like that. Will the missing insert hamper the functioning of the rod? What I mean is will the lack of the insert cause the line to wear? Will it affect the sensitivity? etc. Another is can I get a replacement insert as I would rather not go through the hassle of replacing the eye. Thanks

I have a question that I'm hoping someone here has tried and can enlighten me. I am toying with the idea of doing some deep cranking with someting like fireline crystal, I have the David Fritts cranking reels and BP Cranking Stick, and I'm thinking that the give in the rod, and the reel will compensate for the lack of stretch in the line. The reason I'm thinking braid is because of the little diameter, not interested in flouro at all as the diameter to pound ratio is so close to mono that I would just use mono. I've been doing a lot of looking at the pound ratings and line diameter lately and have come to the conclusion that unless you go to 8 pound test mono/flouro you won't get the depth out of the crankbait. So am I just plain nuts for thinking this? Or will it work? My thinking is that on my deep crank set up I would put something like 25lb test braid/superline with the diameter of around 8lb mono. Then on the medium and shallow cranks just stay with typical sizes mono 15lb mono. I have found Stren or is it Suffix 15lb test has a diameter of .014, 12 lb mono has anywhere between .012-.014 same for 10lb and 8lb has .010. So I'll run the mono on the shallow medium and when I want to get the crank deeper than 12 feet or so I'll switch to the braid. Let me know what you think.

Hello all, been a while since I've posted but I have a couple questions that needs some answers. the afore referenced motor was running fine, I fouled the carbs when I ran out of gas, after I got them cleaned out the motor was running fine, while running it on the water house with the ears one day the motor just quit. Now there is no fire or anything, the stator is putting out the correct voltage but I'm loosing it between there and the plugs. On another note, when I put it on the pressurized hose to try to start it now the water does not come out of the "pee hole". If memory serves me before the motor quit it did, I sure hope that I haven't really messed the motor up. So my two questions are could the fire problem be the power packs, as of now it isn't the stator, the kill switch or in the key switch. Another is should water be pushed through the engine when on a pressurized hose? If so and I ran the engine without water I guess I could of destroyed the head, but would that cause no fire? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks for the advice. The reason I looked for advice here is because I live over an hour away from the nearest outboard mechanic. the only option I have is the guy I bought the boat from, I trust him but he is working shifts and don't know how long it would take him to get to fix the boat. I talked to him the other day and he thinks it is the power pack as well. Hopefully we can get together in the next week or so and get her fixed.

1987 Johnson 110 hp VRO 4 cyl

Hi all, don't know if questions like these relate to fishing, other than I'm stuck at the dock during the fall fishing > I was running my boat here at the house, had the outboard in a large bucket to muffle the noise and for water intake. Water was moving freely through the engine and the boat was running fine. Then it happened, the engine shut off, now it has no spark, the kill switch is fine, the ignition is fine, the stator is putting out the recommended voltage, the rectifier seems to be operating fine, but from there the spark is lost, nothing to or out of the coils. I'm at a complete loss, any suggestions, other than take it to a mechanic. Thanks

I know what you mean, who can stand to do anythig that brings the bass to the boat. I go fishing so I can cast and retrieve nothing else. : :