sherman51

just wanted to share the loss of a great sportsman. he was my little brother he was my best friend, and he was our auto pilot. you know how hard it can be to get someone to drive sometimes. well he moved up here from florida where he had been living with our mom about 25 or 30 yrs ago. he made a trip to lake mich with us, that was the end to our driver problems. he did atleast 90% of the driving ever since. anytime i said anything about auto pilot, he would get alittle mad, and say he was my auto pilot. when he first got up here he was working for minium wage. so when we went fishing i always paid his share. i did anything i could to help him out. he was my little brother, and with him living in fl i didnt get to see him much. so he asked a friend of mine why i was being so good to him. my friend told him as a joke i was just setting him up for a big $crew#%$. and a couple of years later he told me about that. and that he was always watching me untill he figured out it wasnt true,LOL. we have done just about everything together. raised our kids together, took them snow sleding together. we have fished from mich to fl and about everything in between. we have bow hunted muzzleloaded and hunted the gun season for many years. we have taught our kids to hunt and fish. and to always try to take out more trash than they took in. he has been a great brother and friend. i miss him so bad. they say time will help, but there is just nobody to take his place. he was the last one left of my old fishing crew that was left. hate to lay all this on you guys, but alot of you guys have become friends, and i just felt like talking about this with you guys. sherman

boy, from the reports i,ve been reading you,ve missed some good fishing. i know i have really missed some hot action on lake erie. i wrecked my atv and have been down with my back for awhile. had a trip planned with another guy, and my little brother passed, so i had to cancel on him. maby the 3rd time will be your charm. sherman

the best batteries i,ve used are the optima blue top ones. but they cost so darn much. the last couple i,ve bought have just been wall mart brand. they seem to be good ones, and less than half the price of optimas. sherman

i dont know what others do but i like running my outside riggers alittle deeper. just seems to work better for me. sherman

if its that simple to change your waterpump. i would go ahead and change it out also. if it wasnt getting water for whatever reason that time it overheated at the dock, it could have damaged the pump. it would just eliminate one other thing that could be the problem. i have a friend who i met on another forum. he had just put a new pump in his year before last. then last year he had a problem all summer long. he even took the thermostat out of his boat. nothing he did helped. he took it to a good friend of his that works on boats. the first thing he did was check the impeller. it had 2 blades that were missing part of them. he replaced the impeller this spring. he said it was doing good. so he put the thermostat back in. it was running to cool.LOL. sherman

im not sure about this but i think that is for the 1st owner. sherman

i got so into the boat gas i forgot about the other gas. its 700 miles round trip for us, but we usely go for atleast 3 days. but the motor home gets around 6 mpg with or without the boat. and last year the truck got 8 mpg pulling the big boat. so thats alot of math. then when we use to motorhome and pull the cobia we take a car about launching the boat and doing our running. but it gets around 24 to 25 mpg. so thats 116 gal for the mh and 87 gal for the truck and we took the car anyway. that was 29 gal. at todays prices thats around 900.00 plus boat gas. but that was for a 2 week trip. this year we plan to do a 4 day trip with just the mh and cobia boat. then we have a 9 day trip planned for july, and well take the mh and the car. still alot of money. but you either spend it for fishing or you use it to pay bills. and without fishing whats the use of paying the bills,LOL. you sure cant say its cheaper to catch walleye than it is to buy it. even at the 15.00 per pound at the store is about 100.00 cheaper at the store per pound,LOL. but as long as im able and my daughter n law and my grandkids faces light up like a christmas tree when they reel in a nice walleye i guess when i have enough money we,ll be going fishing. if i could afford to go i would be there every weekend from the middle of june untill the middle of sept. but we live so far from where we fish its a major expence to just go fishing. sherman

if you pulled the water line coming from the outdrive to the engine and wasnt getting water then its not your thermostat. i would check the water intakes real good to make sure something isnt blocking the water. sometimes bees will build nests in places like that. if i didnt find anything i would go ahead and invest in a new pump and housing kit. all i changed on mine when i had the overheating problem was the bottom wear plate the impeller and the upper housing. i dont know if you know how to change the waterpump yourself. but on a mercruiser it is quite simple. but you can google changing a waterpump on cobra outdrive. you will get plenty of info. i could give you step by step for a mercruiser or mercury outdrive. but thats the only thing i know about. it takes me about 1 hour to change the pump. but now i have to have help to lift the outdrive back up. i have changed plenty of them by myself in the good old days,LOL. if theres anything i can help you with, feel free to pm me. sherman

boy, i dont do near as good as some of these guys. but i fish the central basin of erie in the summer. so its a 15 to 18 mile run before we shut down. but we start out trolling northeast so were going farther out, untill we find fish. then we try to stay with them. i run a 21 ft cobia with a 350 vortec 320 hp with a 650 double pumper holley carb. we use between 20 and 25 gal a day. so the cost depends on the price per gallon. which right now is pretty high. i have a 28 ft sea ray amberjack with twin 4.3 mpi 6 cyl engines. we used it last year and it took about the same gas as my cobia. the 4.3,s are good on gas, and we trolled with one engine. but its a 700 mile trip for us. and its a job to trailer that boat that far. and we have to use the truck to pull it, where we can use the motorhome on the cobia. so im going to sell the sea ray and just fish with the cobia. sherman

i have to agree with you. i want my little stream coming out. it could save your motor. but atleast you would know if its the intire cooling system or just the pee hole. sherman.

is your motor overheating at all?? i had an old mercruiser that i smoked the pump in. so i put a new impeller in it. it did pump water but the engine overheated. i ended up having to change the impeller housing and another new impeller, and that fixed it. just a thought. let us know what happens. maby some of the other guys can help you. but it may be normal, i just dont know. but using the muffs you have pressure pushing the water up. and just sitting in the water it has to do all the pumping. once you rev the engine and it starts pumping, does it keep pumping when you go back to idle?? if you shut it off do you have to rev the engine to get it pumping again?? sherman

i googled replace prop seal, and i did get a couple of good videos. so from what i seen, you would be money ahead to just have it done by someone who has the right tools and already knows what there doing. just my opinion. sherman

i,ve only changed one seal in my life, and that was on an old outboard, and i dont even remember for sure how i got the old seal out. it wa easy to put the new one back in. i just used a block of wood and tapped it in. but on that outdrive and not knowing what your doing, i would just spend the money and have it done. if your determand to do it yourself. then it really would help to have some kind of instructions. you might try googling changing a prop shaft seal and see what you get. i have got alot of good info from google. sherman

it was a few days ago that i seen the one i told you about. it may have already sold. that was a good price, i hadnt seen it anyplace for that price. thats why i told you about it. thats usely my luck, a day late a dollar short,LOL. but 119.00 still isnt to bad. and you did get a good antenna. sherman

i dont know how a suziki is set up. on a mercury there is alittle keyway that goes in between the impeller and shaft. there isnt any way you could have lost it out is there?? even if the housing is bad you should be getting some water. how big of a job is it to get to the thermostat?? i would take that loose and start the engine and see if youre getting water to the thermostat. that would tell you if the pump is pumping water to that point. it could be a bad thermostat. these are just suggestions. sure hope you find your problem. sherman

this is one of the ones i would suggest. and they had it listed on one place on ebay for 80.00 plus shipping. that is the cheapest i have found this one. i have also heard good things about the digital antennas, you should be able to pick up a pretty good one for not much over a 100.00. the one i have i think is just awesome. its a shakespear 5399. but they do reccomend using a mast mount with it because it is 9'6" tall. but i just used my standard ss ratchet mount. the only trouble i,ve had with mine, we forgot to lower it and started back to the campgrounds, and hit a overpass. but lucky for me they are in two sections, and i only busted the top section,LOL. then i still used it for a few more days with it busted untill we came home. the i got on the net and found a replacement for 18.00 and change. sherman

you,ll be ok for awhile with that antenna. but the first time you upgrade, maby get a digital or something like the 5225 xt or xp. you,ll just be happier with the way it performs. personaly i like my 9'6" 5399. but they are alittle pricy and everybody dont want that long of an antenna flopping around in rough water. but i havent had any problems. and the do reccomend a mast mount, it will work just fine on a standard ratchet mount. but i do use a stainless mount and not plastic. sherman

sometimes you can just isolate the transducer cable away from all your other wires and that will take care of it. another thing you can try that has worked for me, is to run a new wire from the battery to your depthfinder, but make sure you have a inline fuse somewhere in your line. i had to do that with the boat i have now. i had just hooked to a hot wire under the dash, and that wasnt working very good. so i ran a wire all the way from the battery. my depthfinder already had an inline fuse on the hot wire. that was the end of my problem. hope if you try it that it works for you. sherman

check the water intake area real good. sometimes bees will get in there and build nests and stop up the water at the pick up. just a thought. i bought an old mercury 115 hp that was stopped up there. cleaned it out and got water going through the engine. but still wasnt getting anything out the hole. i took about an 18" piece of weedeater line and worked it is as far as it would go. then just started working it back and forth, then when i pulled it out i had some water coming out. so i repeated the process a couple more times. and this old greenish brown stuff started flowing real slow, then she opened up and started flowing good. havent had any more problems. fyi you should change your impeller atleast every 3 yrs. if you run alot in muddy water or salt water every 2 yrs. i know they usely last alot longer than that, but it keeps you from ending up with alot of rubber going into your system, and stopping something up. i had a mercruiser once we were working on. and forgot to turn the water back on and started it up. was revving the engine up and remembered the water. it smoked my pump. i put a new impeller in it, but it just kept over heating. i cleaned and replaced the lines from the pump to the engine. nothing i did helped. then i was talking to this guy i had chartered out on erie that also worked on boats. he asked if i changed the pump housing. i said no, i didnt think i had to change it. he said sometimes when the impeller comes apart it can warp the housing. so after working with this thing and putting 2 new impellers in it for about 6 weeks. i tore it back down and put a new housing and bottom wear plate and another impeller in it. took it out on the lake, and she was good to go. then i had already bought another boat, so i sold this one. good luck and keep us posted. sherman

now thats putting your junk to good use. another mans junk is someone elces treasure. but this time your junk turned out to be your treasure. great job. sherman

i am taking alot for granted, but by your name you sound like you might be a lady. if so dont get offended if your referred to as one of the guys. most of us just use that word loosely. but either way you are welcome here. and the fish bite just as good for ladies or gents,LOL. this is a great place to share info. the guys on here are not as tight lipped as some forums im on. alot of them are afraid to tell where and how they caught there fish. there afraid we will run out of fish. now i can understand if they find a pocket of fish, not getting on the radio and telling everybody where they are, because they may get crowded out of there own spot. its not like that here on the forum. people post all the time where they got there fish and how they were fishing. and that can be a big help to someone just getting ready to go out. the best of luck to you, and dont be afraid to ask questions on here. WELCOME ABOARD sherman

yea, try to get alittle more info about the boat and condition of the motor and interrier and then some pictures. you might be surprized how quick it might sell on here. if its what you make it sound like im sure somebody would like to upgrade to a big water boat. its worth a try anyway. sherman

i have the sg17,s and the adp17lc,s and im sure you would want some type mono backing to make sure the wire didnt slip on the spool. i already had that problem with running braid. so how much wire do you think these little reels would hold?? sherman .

you didnd say where the grease was, so im just throwing this in as an after thought to what youve been told. but sometimes the little screws where you put the grease in and the one to check the fluid level will leak. make sure you have the little tefflon washers on them if the prop shaft seal isnt the problem. sherman

+1 for the cheaper radio, but get a real good antenna. on the radios they pretty much work the same. the more money you spend the more bells and whistels you get. i do like one that has scan on it. but you can get a good radio for less than 150.00. then plan to spend anywhere upwards off 100.00 for a good antenna. the quality of your antenna is what picks up the signal. here are a few good ones. just about any digital one should be good. one good one at a deacent price is the digital 329-vw. they have them on ebay for around 110.00. then a couple of others is the shakespeare 5225 xt. they usely sell for over 100.00 but they have them listed on ebay for 80.00 plus shipping. then the 5225 xp and another good one is the 5226 xt. they have it on ebay for about 130.00. then the one i have and love. the shakespeare 5399, its a 9'6" and they reccomend a mast mount but it will work just fine in a regular mount. but its alittle more money, i paid 165.00 and free shipping for mine on ebay. but the cheapest they have them on ebay now is about 180.00. and the same antenna is listed from there all the way up to 300.00 plus and thats for the same antenna. and in my opinion its worth every cent of what i paid for mine. i had always just used a cheap antenna, i just didnt see any reason to spend that much more money for the same size antennas. but after doing alot of research and asking questions, i decided to invest in a good antenna. and i sure am glad i did. i was always content but not really happy with the 39.99 antenna, but had never used anything elce. last year after putting my new one on, i was in a whole new world. i could talk with boats much farther away. and the reception was just so much better. another thing i like about my 9'6" one is its a 2 piece antenna. we forgot to put it down last year and hit a bridge and busted the end on mine. so i got on line and found a new top part for like 18.00. but the good 8' antennas are a good investment. and maby wouldnt even have hit that bridge,LOL. and if you are limited on money those cheap antennas will work, and like i said i was content with mine untill i tried a good one. now i wouldnt put one on my boat if it was gave to me, if i could come up with the money to buy a good one. i,ve just rambled on way to long. so i,ll get off here. and this is just my opinion, and thats what you wanted. one more thing, you might get on line or get some reccomendations on where to get them even cheaper than on ebay. but that 5225 xt for 80.00 plus shipping is going to be hard to beat. but you may want something elce. sherman