DiverDennis

Added some more pictures to the photo album. http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk80/DiverDennisL/ROCKET%20LAUNCHER/

Thanks for the reply. They draw 0.8amps each and do a great job of charging glow baits.

Hello all, Wanted to add some rod storage so looked at buying a rocket launcher to mount on the hardtop. Around $450 for a 10 tube aluminum model. Wow. Decided to build one and $ave. Picked up the 3†x 1/4†x 96†aluminum flat bar and the 2†x 1/8†x 96†aluminum tube on eBay. Got the red tube caps from bigpapasportfishing.com/gl_holders.htm. My neighbor owns a machine shop and allowed me access to his cutoff saw and welder. Cut 10 tubes at 9.5†with 15 degrees lay back. Cut the base to 75â€, laid out where the tubes would be and drilled drain holes at each location. Drilled and countersunk the mounting holes. Dressed up all the sharp edges, put witness marks on the tubes and base for accurate location during welding. Turned the two end tubes out 45 degrees. Cleaned up the weld spatter and took it to Elite Electro Coaters in Lansing for a white powder coat. Nice. Mounted with 1/8" delrin spacers underneath and secured with thru bolts and backing plates. The rod holder offered a perfect mount for some deck lights. Bought two quality LED spreader lights at Coastalnightlights.com and two deck clam cord seals. Hooked up the wiring and they are bright enough to charge up glow baits. Parts: almuinum - $85, tube caps $25, powder coating $75, lights and seals $190, doing it yourself….priceless. Click here for the complete photo album.

After 5 days of SW blow we were finally able to get out this morning. Went 5/6 with a nice 18 pounder. Set up in 120' out from the Bathhouse. Sonar was lit up with hooks down 50-100. First fish at 5:45 on downrigger, double glow wonder bread mag, 13 pounder. Last fish at 9:55 on braid diver back 150 set on 2, Hello Darlin' mag, 18 pounds. Wore my wife out. Fish in between were 4-6 pounders all on spoons. We had fun. Water temps were 70 on top and 42-55 down 80'. Sometimes the water was warm all the way down. All fish had 4-5 inch alewifes in their bellies. Saw some thick shouldered kings at the cleaning station with one in the 25# class. "If anything's gonna happen, it's gonna happen out there."

Thank you muchly.

Hey Captain. Good to hear from you. We will be there on the 30th. Come see us.

Finally got out to break in the autopilot and new hyd steering setup. Glad to report everything works great. The pilot now steers the ship's main rudder or, with a flick of a switch, the kicker (trolling) motor with ease. After performing the pilot's sea trial steps (autolearn, calibration) in the calm waters of Muskegon lake, we went out the channel do some trolling in Lake Michigan. The water was pretty calm with a 10mph NW wind. While trolling with the kicker, there were no crazy back and forth motions, no zig zagging, just a nice smooth straight bearing as she goes. We even caught a couple kings. Headed to Ludington for a week on June 30th. Will be at the Municipal Marina, E dock.

Good job. Thanks for the report.

Thank you for the nice reply. I remember a couple of guys stopping by the boat to check out the Sirius weather display. Was I around when you came by? It was a cold and crappy week...IN JUNE!

Congrats on your new 1983 28' Marinette Fisherman. Lots of room on the dance floor.

Beauty eh? Lots of speed too with those twins.

Beth and I are real happy with the boat. She has the creature comforts and I have the dive/fishing features. It is great to be able to put in at different ports. Total weight with trailer: 7,800#. Marinettes rock dudes.

We bought our BIG M in the fall of 2005 in Eastlake, OH. Sima Marine prepped and lowered it on our Loadmaster twin axle aluminum I beam trailer. We love our boat.Check out the Marinette Forum for tons of info.

Raymarine Reference Manual: This manual gives information on the Raymarine SeaTalkNG system. It should be read in conjunction with the documents for the individual products that connect to SeaTalkNG. http://www.raymarine.com/GetFile.aspx?fileId=400&categoryId=3

Nick,What control head did you get? I ordered an X-10 autopilot and ST70 control head from Marine Discount Center (eBay) the first week of Feburary. Got the X-10 a week later but it took 10 weeks for the ST70. They were out of stock and Raymarine took their time getting one out. Also had to order a 5 way spur connector (PN-A06064), 2 backbone terminators (PN-A06031), a SeaTalk2 adaptor cable (PN-A06048, E120 SeaTalk2 to X-10 seatalkNG) and a longer SeaTalkNG cable to go from the 5 way to the ST70 (PN-A06039). Got it all hooked up and dealer calibrated. After the bottom paint dries we'll get out there for sea trials.

Mounted a 24V, 55 pound thrust, Navigator trolling motor on the transom to use as a stern thruster on our single screw. The thruster motor is completely out of the water when on plane. Sure helps around the docks...

Chart: http://www.glangler.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=view_attachment&file_id=6101

Congrats on a successful seatrial and thanks for the report.

I was exploring Pro-Troll's website and happened across Salmon Fishing Tips from Dick Pool. Good read.

Here are the valve specs and a description of it's operation...http://www.hydraforce.com/Solenoid/Sol-pdf/1-640-1.pdf From the helm pump the hoses connect to 1 & 4. 2 & 3 go to the main cylinder and 6 & 5 go to the trolling cylinder. When the solenoid is energized, the flow is blocked between 2&3 and permitted at 6&5. Operating pressure: 3000 psi Max flow rate: 2gpm Waterproof solenoid current draw: initial 1.22, hold <1

He will be at Fish On Bait & Tackle in Nunica on March 27th.March 27th Fish On Bait & Tackle Open House 8am-5pm Food and Beverage Seminars-Big Lake Fishing 9-4 (call for tickets) *Brain Butts *Willis Kerridge *Chip Klein *Dick Griffin *Bill Bale Limited Seating Available ($20)

Hey Nick,Thanks for the advice. Our first trip will be a shakedown outing. Have to "learn" the autopilot and the water needs to be calm. Muskegon Lake will offer calm conditions to do the seatrials. We did a road trip on Sunday down to D&R Sports for a salmon clinic with the Best Chance Too guys (Bill Bale and Dave Engel). Then we headed down to New Buffalo to check out the marina and launch. Gonna check out SH/SJ next weekend. DD

Thanks Mike. Our first trip will be at Muskegon in April.

Hello All, Just finished adding hydraulic steering to the trolling motor. Tapped into the existing steering with a 6 way solenoid valve. The valve allows steering from MAIN or TROLLING. With this setup and the Raymarine X-10 autopilot, the trolling motor can now be steered by the autopilot. Let's go fishin'