1mainiac

Not wanting to disagree with Pat too much but the OMC drive was designed by a mercury engineer. Mercury said no one would ever want a stern drive and thru the idea away. The design got passed around and OMC was formed there are still tons of them doing a good job every day however they made no attempts to update a 1950's design untill it was too late and then they made a few attempts to modernize leading up to the Cobra design but had lost market share and could not buy back customer loyalty. Volvo Penta ended up with most of their final designs. Personally my Cobra drive is as good if not better than any of the Mercury designs but thankfully I can pull it all and put in a Mercury or Volvo if I want. They are expensive now because they are out of business and out of production so there are not many good deals to be found Stern drive info has most if not all parts but again no competition so not much need to offer deals. I just sold my last upper unit for much less than the shaft will cost or I would be shipping more parts on Mon. http://www.outboardjunkyard.com/ these guys might have the parts you need as well and they are fair to deal with.

Bell helmet ad from back in the 70's says it all if you got a 10 dollar head buy a 10 dollar helmet same goes for fishing equipment I guess I like my Bert's and My Big Jon holders.

The 24 dollar DNRE sticker covers all DNRE launchs always has since they came up with it. The only reason some launchs were perceived to be free is because of lack of enforcement the fine is usually just a daily launch fee there are several launchs that I use for free untill they are staffed then I buy the sticker no big deal. Kinda like free parking till they put in the ticket booth you are using something others paid for and yes some of you license fees and taxes may have been used as well but the world we used to live in was voted away over the years and not just in one election so sooner or later everything we use will have a price tag or we can choose to stop using it. We all complain about the government me more than others but I see no problem with paying for a service I actually use what sucks to me is what I pay for lazy people to stay lazy and others to have a free ride. This is really not a bad thing I would rather see them stay with launch permits than to go to license fee increases as those who don't fish will get a free launch paid for by us.

Some of this debate should come down to is it a boat launch and maintained or is it a boat access and not maintained. Most of the free inland lakes launches are actually just public access and local groups such as the Boy Scouts maintain them also many are county owned as well. If you want a nice place to launch your boat expect to pay for it if you need it free then push it off the trailer and drag it to the lake. I don't see the problem here if you use it pay for it some of you seem to think someone else should pay for your boat launch or that it is a right not a priviledge. There is a certain amount that everyone in the state should put in to the DNRE to help take care of our resources however the money needed for hunting issues should come from hunters and boating and fishing costs should be paid by those who use them. If I don't hunt why should I pay to improve your hunting?

sadly most of the time you replace the antenna as they are not adjustable you can sometimes adjust by triming the coax if you have a feedline missmatch. If you are around Muskegon some time I would be happy to hook up my analyzer and see what the antenna is doing.

NO the power and ground to the radio must come from a clean power source. I have never seen a radio that transmits that does not have some form of chassis ground but there is a first time for everything. I just read the manual on it and you are right it does not have a chassis ground. Check the grounds to the engine and lower unit it is also possible your SWR is way off this will put the radio in protection mode and it will not put out full power have you checked SWR on the antenna?

Grounds grounds grounds. now that you know you have good power to the radio on the back of the radio near the heat sink is a ground lug run a heavy guage wire from it to the motor or outdrive or better yet a bronze or copper plate on the stern below the water line. All RF goes down basicly in simple terms you make a bank shot off the earth frequencies below 30mhz also can bounce off the atmosphere back towards earth depending on conditions this is called skip on CB. VHF radio frequencies usually pass thru the atmosphere with a few exceptions and travel into space. Antenna design can concentrate the signal and even amplfy it but the signal must bounce off the ground to be heard at a distance. 1/2 of your signal is the ground field you create that produces a repelling charge to make the other half bounce. The quality of the ground (EC) and height of the antenna determine maximum distance you can be heard. lets assume a great ground system and the base of the antenna is 6ft above the water your strongest signal would bounce between 3 and 5 miles from the boat and be workable by a similar antenna system for 6 to 10 miles away you also will have secondary lobes transmited that will bounce further from the boat which will reach further but will be lower in RF signal strength but can still be workable. Even though I am discribeing this like a rifle shot it is not it would be more like bird shot but eventually you get to a point where only one pellet makes it and the rest pass above the target and off into space.

For me I am just about at the point that I would need a much bigger boat to really use many more setups. So now my plan was to begin to upgrade my gear as it needs replacement but instead of replacing the old Magda reels I will try out Tuna's and see if I can get a season or 2 more out of them and if nothing else they will become backup reels. The funny thing is I did not like the cheap Okuma reels when I bought them but needed low budget rods and reels so back then my goal was to fill the rod holders and hope for the best. As the years passed by I have become pretty happy with them they have reeled in hundreds of fish so now I wonder what they will be like with quality drags.

I like Diawa but the handles are too small and the line capacity is much less then the Okuma reels. 6 years ago I bought 6 Okuma Mag 45 DX reels and most of my friends told me they were junk well they still catch fish and I am going to send a couple of them up to Tuna's and get them upgraded if I like them after the upgrades I will send the rest in. For a trolling reel on a budget they are hard to beat. I can't understand what some people have against them esp since they constantly want to compare them against reels costing 2 or 3 times as much but hey I would expect a reel costing 2 or 3 times more to out perform them. Simply put the Magna and Classic are low cost reels that hold a lot of line and will work get the drags upgraded and plan on replacing a few parts now and then and you will like them. Or do as some do and complain about how they ain't 200 dollar Shimano reels. I can't figure out why there is a big argument between a 80 dollar Okuma Convector and a 200 dollar Shimano as to which one is best Duh. The Shimano is a better reel however compare the Shimano against a 200 dollar Okuma and the difference fades fast. The same applies to Diawa reels every company builds good stuff and they all build items based on meeting a price point personally a Okuma Convector beats a Diawa every time for me. Mostly because of line capacity and the handles on the Diawa feel like reeling in a Zebco the Okuma may not be the best but at least they look and feel better to me.

I run a mono segment between the power pro and the lead core on all my setups it makes it much easier if you want to do the willis knot to connect braid to lead core remember to do 2 knots as the small diameter braid will pull thru the knot. A double uni knot has also worked for me if I need a repair in a hurry.

I have never seen a CC that was not self bailing so taking one over the bow is not as bad as you might think. Stuffing the bow is a differant story but as long as you have everything closed water on the deck is not a issue.

maybe a 36ft YellowFin or Contender as a run and gun tournament boat. In a 19 I am not sure you would gain much and you would lose a lot of dance floor in most of them. Great boat to go out and bottom fish with in the gulf.

Had a blast Mark sorry for the botched net job but will take a mulligan due to not having any practice with lures tied up in the net and not often a fish charges the net.

5/22 fog delayed us so we started at 6:30am got a nice little brown about 3 lbs first thing right out front on a 5 color then worked out to play in the fog ended 10 for 12 with a decent box of smaller fish. South troll in the 160ft range with anything green worked best for us and every rod took at least 1 fish. Other than not always being able to see very far past the bow it was a good day. 5/23 beautiful morning light breeze nearly flat water fished our same pattern as Sat but the fish were gone spent the entire day trying to sort out a pattern probably 200 lure changes from 28 ft to 220ft and back north south pulled lines ran and tryed differant spots. Ended 7 for 8 with all small fish felt very humble at weigh in as we ended up in 6th place. Should have done several things differant but hey we worked our butts off for those little fish today.

BOAT NAME 1ST EVENT 2ND EVENT Points WIND DRIFT 165.85 166.3 332.15 REEL OBSESSED 168.25 148.1 316.35 FISHSNIFFER 146.2 145.7 291.9 1 MAINIAC 90.6 152.8 243.4 CHARLIES ANGEL 61.8 152.5 214.3 DOUBLE J 99.4 52.7 152.1 7MARY3 96.45 30.1 126.55 HIGH SEAS 49.9 37 86.9 THE ARVLE "O" 0 53.75 53.75 DREAMER 50.7 0 50.7 INREELTROUBLE 18.35 22.45 40.8

yep working on it will have posted on my site and here shortly. Thanks for all the help this weekend Tyler.

1st event results a great day on the water sadly for my boat we found neither numbers or size. But the weather was great calm and a bit of a breeze with on and off cloud cover. Was very suprised at the turnout as many who told me they would be there did not show up. So again it was just 10 boats and everyone got at least a couple of Silver Streak lures and a prize package. Here are the results BOAT NAME BIG TOTAL TOTAL TOTAL FISH FISH WEIGHT POINTS REEL ABSESSED 12.7 10 68.25 168.25 WIND DRIFT 13.3 10 65.85 165.85 FISHSNIFFER 10.85 10 46.2 146.2 DOUBLE J 5.5 8 19.4 99.4 7MARY3 4.5 8 16.45 96.45 1 MAINIAC 7.5 7 20.6 90.6 CHARLIES ANGEL 13.05 4 21.8 61.8 DREAMER 10.15 3 20.7 50.7 HIGH SEAS 12.95 3 19.9 49.9 INREELTROUBLE 8.35 1 8.35 18.35 Wind Drift again had the big fish and 2nd place Reel Obsessed took first with a very nice box Fishsniffer took 3rd We drew boat names for the prize packages had more prize packages than boats again so every one got a nice package. Next event July 3rd weather permiting going to be a great summer sure hope the fishing picks up around Muskegon soon which once the water sets up and we get a actual thermocline it will.

Second event results yep I know we have not fished the first one yet LOL that is tommorrow. We delayed the start by 30 min to let the fog clear a bit it never fully cleared but once it got more light we started fishing at 06:30. I think I boxed the first fish because rather than run slow out to the fish we dropped lines and got a nice Brown right away. So it was nice to have one in the box while everyone was still heading out. However then we had to troll out to the fish and did not pick up another fish for a while. We ended up with 10 boats and will have a few more tommorrow. here are the results. BOAT NAME BIG FISH TOTAL TOTAL FISH COUNT WEIGHT POINTS WIND DRIFT 13.3 10 66.3 166.3 1 MAINIAC 12.1 10 52.8 152.8 CHARLIES ANGEL 12.1 10 52.5 152.5 REEL ABSESSED 13.1 9 58.1 148.1 FISHSNIFFER 7.15 10 45.7 145.7 THE ARVLE "O" 3.75 4 13.75 53.75 DOUBLE J 8.1 4 12.7 52.7 HIGH SEAS 4.4 3 7 37 7MARY3 9 2 10.1 30.1 INREELTROUBLE 1.65 2 2.45 22.45 We payed 1st 2nd and 3rd place plus big fish and pooled 45 dollars towards the port championship and then drew boat names for the lure and prize packages. Every boat won a prize package as we had more prizes than boats. payout was as follows 1st place 130.00 2nd place 50.00 3rd place 20.00 4th place a 11" Pro Troll flasher Big fish was 45.00 Tommorrow is the Siverstreak Event and we have a lot of stuff for the weigh in hope more of you guys can make it.

Hard to beleive it has been 5 months since we kicked this off but here we are and about to do a double event since the first one was blown out. The weather report looks good so we will fish both days and rumor has it there are fish to be found so tie them knots tight and sharpen them hooks cause we are about to tear em up. Will do a roll call on ch 72 at 05:45am anyone who has not mailed in their waiver and entry form can take care of it at weigh in. LETS GO FISHING !!!!!!

Well just a few days till we kick this off weather looks good and fish are showing up so I expect a great weekend. If anyone has any last min Questions my number is on our website www.mscst.com so feel free to call if I can answer any questions.

Nice job and nice talking to you on the radio. Is funny cause we gave up on the spot you get 3 of your fish and trolled north. Then when you told me where you got the 3 I almost headed back but decided to call it a day instead.

Location location location, GPS is line of sight so the antenna has to see the Sat even cloud cover between them reduces signal level and quality. Also the more Sat's it can read the more accurate it becomes. So ideally it should be a external antenna mounted above everything else so that nothing on the boat can block it's signal.

Congrats Mark and DeAnna, very nice work you two.

New schedual is May 22nd Captain Gary's and Purple Taco event May 23rd is the Silver Streak Open hopefully we will get decent weather and get them both fished.

We are going with Plan B we will fish two events on the next weekend one on Sat and one on Sun. We are having a captains meeting at Papa Bears resturant on Apple ave tommorrow Sat May 8th at 10 am are are incouraged to attend so we can go over details and answer any questions.