1mainiac

Still working on final version of the rules but we added another change so here goes. Because we now have a boundary rule in effect and anyone fishing outside of the boundary will be DQ'd we do not really care where you launch from. You must remain within 1/4 mile of the pier until the 6am start however you may use the pier of your choice as long as you fish within the rules and remain in our boundary area. What we would like however is to have a port captain if possible. That is something we will try and work out as we go along. So if you slip in Whitehall, Muskegon, Mona or Grand Haven you can enter and come to weigh in. Weigh in rules are simple be there ready to weigh by 1:30pm or your out. Don and I have not worked out the exact final wording of the rules for this year but this is the intent. Also keep in mind if we get over 20 boats we will pay down 4 places.

Well the dates are set and we made a few changes. The big change is boundaries we now have a North and South line. The South line is 043.00.000 which is south of Grand Haven. The North line is 043.30.000 which is north of Whitehall a couple miles. This is plenty of water to fish in and brings us back to being a Muskegon event. Next up We are no longer charging the 10 dollar captains fee to cover expenses. Last on the list is a new rule on blocking the boat launch during weigh in. We have asked for some time not to tie up at the launch for weigh in now it is a rule and is enforceable as such. We are still working on the final wording on the new rule sheet but should have it done in the next couple weeks. dates are May 2nd May 24th Jun 27th July 18th Aug 8th Aug 23rd Sept 6th Note May 24th Aug 23rd and Sept 6th are all Sunday events.

Most charters run more than 9 rods and often fish the captains and 1st mates limit as well. Like I said follow the rules and should be OK, we allow anyone in our events but none of my friends that charter want to limit themselves to 9 rods and our rules for a low entry fee event that has a small payout.

Only issue I see having charter captains in is keeping them to the rules. Iff they are fine with the rod limits and rules and want to play in a small event so be it.

One of the reasons I stopped fishing this was all the weird rules. That and the low entry fee often meant even if I won it cost me more boat gas then the event paid but that is another issue. Trying to write new rules every year makes it hard to stay focused. 1st everyone needs to start at the same place and same time. Next use DNR rules on fishing 3 man limit weigh what you want we currently use 6 in our events. We are adding boundaries this year to keep it a local port event. Several years ago Don and I modified our MSCST rules to match the WMFL so we could compete with each other on a level field. We have changed nearly everything back except we still only weigh 6 fish. Honestly I often would like to return to weighing 10 fish but that has not been discussed. One issue not discussed with start times is the chance of a accident increases when you have a early start this is why most large events start after sunup as they could not afford the insurance to start in the dark. So my input is run it just like a TT event as far as rules and weigh what every you agree on. This way you have a fishing tournament with a low entry fee and it should work.

I like it Terry make it more like a Pro Am style event without the large entry fee. I really like the port start to keep guys from being on the fish when the event starts. It makes everyone equal if you can see where they all run to in the morning. 10 points a fish is also the best way, fish are fish we tried the mixed points and it really did not work for us. Having consistent rules and scoring makes it much simpler to do challenge style events like the ones we planned in the past that never worked out. It would be fun to do a head to head at a neutral port like Grand Haven some time.

Yep Ken was installed still working on other problems not very happy with Hall's since they spent all my money and it still does not run right. Has way more power than it ever had however they still did not fix the ignition problem which is a bad ballast resister. They changed my coil my distributor my shift interrupter and a bunch of the boat wiring yet never addressed the reason it gets hot and quits which turns out to be a ballast resister in the wiring harness. If instead of changing all the other parts they had figured out a 13 dollar part was the problem I would not dislike them nearly as much. I would still think they suck because this has been a problem since I bought the boat from them 7 years ago and they never figured it out then either. I too am partly to blame as I never added it up til now I just kept changing parts and going fishing. Several other places have also not been able to figure it out. However Hall's is the Four Winns Dealer they darn sure should know how to service what they sell. Even though the coil clearly states " requires Resister " on it they never thought about the fact it gets full voltage meaning the resister failed shorted. In fact they even used the coil connection to power the new electronic fuel pump they installed so they clearly knew it was getting full voltage. The coil and shift interrupter are only supposed to get around 9vdc at idle not 14.2vdc from my high output alternator. So instead of 6vdc at about 9 amps to the points and shift interrupter the circuit is running over 12vdc and nearly 22 amps thru the points and shift interrupter and coil. This has had it burning up points fouling plugs and ruining condensers for years and also cooking coils and shift interrupters. In 7 years it has had points and condenser changed over 10 times. with the next coil I will be on number 4 plus 3 shift interrupters and soon to be the 4th distributor. All of this to fix a problem they never even found. I hate parts changers they find a bad part and change it and never even try and find out why it failed.

LOts of people wonder why I don't run my own business anymore. Too many no's no vacation no paid holiday no paid over time The list of no's is long. On the other hand there are a lot of plus's I just never got that far it seemed like I was always trying to survive.

I feel you Ed having been in the RV repair business for 15 years summer is our bread and butter but You still have to use your vacation time and employees with kids only have the summer months to do anything with their family. Myself my kids are grown and gone so instead of a long vacation in the summer I use my days to make a few longer weekends for fishing and family.

Try and remember we are not slaves we also have a right to enjoy our time off when we want it. Also it is not easy to just pull the kids out of school in winter to have a vacation that works with your schedule.

Well Frank cost is one issue though not a big one the real issue is the OMC shift interrupter system I installed a Pertronix electronic system 2 years ago and it did not fit well but worst of all it would not let the boat shift correctly. They sent instructions on how to make it work but the results were not that good. Right now we are packing to move so money is going to be tight til spring. This means I will likely just make the correct repairs to get it running correct for the first time in many years and save up my money. The end result is I now have a system selected and will convert to fuel injection and electronic ignition next year some time. But in the meantime a 13 dollar part will solve the actual problem along with a change in some wiring.

I should also point out the boat has also been worked at in several other shops in west Michigan and not one found a simple problem. And like I said I also fell into the trap of changing parts without troubleshooting. Even though I know better I never once put the voltage and coil choice to test. I bought the correct OMC parts every time expecting better results. Every tech I talked to said to make sure I had 12v or better to the coil when the fact is the coils should never see much over 9v. The one exception is it should see full voltage during cranking because the starter motor will drop the voltage during cranking and if the lowered cranking voltage went thru the resister you would have weak spark trying to start it. Remember insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

A update the boat has made a few fishing trips now and of course died on the last trip again. However I learned a few things in the last few days. 1st thing I learned was Halls never put my boat together correctly or fixed it once in the 12 times it has been in their shop since I bought it from them. I have located the cause of nearly every issue I have had for the last 7 years to the fact the ballast resister was by passed in the wiring harness. Perhaps the previous owner did that as a repair and switched coils to run without one I don't know. However Halls put the correct coil on it which requires a resister. This has caused issues since the day I brought it home as the coil heats up which causes it to miss badly after running a while. Then it begins to eat the points and condenser which makes it run even worse then it dies. The result is every time it died I would take it back in and they would tell me this or that was bad and replace it then the boat would run fine for a fishing trip or 2 and the cycle would start again. If I had a fresh tune up and only made short evening fishing trips I would have no problems. But to fish a long day nearly always ended badly often with the boat barely making it back to the dock or being towed in 8 times. I have fished the big lake since a kid in the 60's and have only ever been towed 8 times all in this boat not happy. The idea that all of my problems are the result of a 13 dollar part the dealer did not install is making me even more un happy. This has cost me 2 carb rebuilds 3 shift interrupters 4 coils and several sets of points and condensers and plugs oh and 2 distributors because when they could not figure it out they decided it had to be the distributor was worn out. Have I mentioned I hate parts changers had any of them bothered to read the parts they installed they would of seen clearly printed on the coil the words requires external resistor. Those words mean you can't have full voltage at the coil. With my also replaced high output alternator I was getting 14.2 v to the coil which means I was running roughly 22 amps thru the points and shift interrupter and coil. they should be running around 9 amps max with around 6 v at the points and they were running more than double the amps and volts which explains why the thing has been so unreliable. The sad part is I know this stuff but because I don't work on boats I let them tell me what was wrong so many times I just replaced points and plugs myself. I would come in with a miss and sure enough the plugs were fouled so I change them and it runs good. The next time it would do it I would check the points and sure enough they were bad so I replaced them. When the coil would no longer fire I replaced it as well. However all of this was the result of a boat dealer that never did the repair right to begin with. This is why I hate parts changers they never fix the actual problem and I let them drag me into their web of BS. In that I am also to blame and I should know better. However this will be fixed this winter and expect a much better running boat in the spring sorry for the long rant.

Yep that was me and thanks for the help. did you get into some fish?

Ok we decided to go out one last time I was going to put it in storage this afternoon when a friend asked me if we could fish one more time. Since I had the day off anyhow the answer was yes. Made a late morning start left the dock around 9am and ran out to 200 south and set lines had first fish in the box 10 min later a nice 2 yr old King then another shortly after that. Blue and green was the preferred colors 3rd fish came about 3 min later and we picked away til 1pm going 8 for 8 decided to pull lines and run in found two shaker lakers which went back making it 10 for 10 with 2 throwbacks. Then the motor began misbehaving and quit. So yep I got towed in again. No big deal the coil died and took out the points with it. I am replacing the engine wiring harness this winter and converting it to a Mercruiser system. I have had it with the OMC issues I like the drive but the electrical problems have to go.

Most likely last trip as well as boat is headed for storage soon. Finally got the boat running again so went fishing yesterday. Fished out of Muskegon left the dock around 3:30pm ran out to 170 and set lines. We were 3 for 4 in first hour with a small Coho a medium king and a decent Steelhead. So a nice start then we went over a hour with no hits. Then took another Steelhead on the 115. With sunset approaching we pulled and setup our sunset plan. I set our course back to where we would be out front again at dark and as the sun set we went 2 for 4 with one breaking off my 150 copper. I have no idea what hit the 150 but it nearly spooled it in the rod holder, twice I set it back in a rod holder to help Steve and net fish as it was just the 2 of us. So while I battled with the 150 Steve got one on the 115 and another on the port rigger. Then he lost one on the starboard rigger that got into my 150 and broke me off. Whatever was on the 150 was big I mean real big I fought it for nearly 45 min and managed to get the board within a 100ft of the boat twice before it ran back off. I should of slowed the boat down but we were catching fish so my plan was to drag it til we got the fish in from the starboard rigger until it fouled me and broke it off. 6 for 9 first trip out in my boat if nothing else makes a good way to end the season.

Terry I may have a buyer for it waiting for him to call me back

As long as your in line at 1 pm for sign in and weigh in your good to go. leave pier heads at 6am after check in.

I have just finished doing upgrades to the site and reopened registration. I think I now have it pretty much spammer proof but time will tell. The website has been read only for quite a while with nearly no traffic I would welcome any who fish our events or out of Muskegon to join up and use the site it has no adds, no one begging for money it is just info on our events and local reports. If anyone has trouble signing up PM me with your email and user name and I will setup a temp password for you so you can join. My only goal for the site is for us to share info and keep people up to date on the events I am sorry I let it slide for so long but if people start using it again I promise to keep it up to date. www.mscst.com Thanks Jim

We were north and west of you 6 for 10 1 fat Coho 2 nice Steelhead and 3 kings one pushing 20lbs We fished 130 to 190 with 130 to 140 best for us.