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If you just want the steering part numbers here is what I spec'd for my boat. HC5328 HH5271 HF5502 THE TUBE KIT FOR YOUR BOAT LENGTH AND OIL Also you will need a Mercury clevis part num B98735A1 That will get you HYD steering and the fitting kit to add auto pilot of your choice. Depending on your Helm station you might consider the tilt wheel pump HH5741 or the rear mount pump kit HH5261. Because my steering wheel is so close to my shift throttle control I went with the HH5271 in my specs because it will move the wheel back about 3in which I hope will keep my fat hands from hitting the throttle when I steer.

You will need the same setup as my boat personally I would go with the Garmin system but that is your choice. http://ww2.seastarsteering.com/STERNDRIVE/stern.htm That is a link to the layout sheet for part numbers. This is a small volume system so you will not need a big pump for the Auto pilot. The pump size is based on the volume of the steer cylinder so bigger is not better here. The sam in my opinion will apply to choosing a helm pump with the steer cyl for a Mercruiser being a small displacment cyl you can use pretty much any helm pump the difference will be in steering ratio ( number of turns lock to lock ) and also in steering effort this will be a big factor when you are running on the non power assist motor. Which you should know by now if you troll on one motor you have power steering but on the other it is manual. The reason I prefer Garmin GHP 10 autopilot is Shadow Drive this allows you to take control without turning the auto pilot off so if you want to adjust your course simply turn the wheel and hold the new course for a few seconds and the system runs the new course. Programable trolling patterns are also included and a nice feature. With the Simrad or Raymarine systems you have to shut off the unit to change course and then re engage it to set it to the new course. The last thing I want in a emergency is to have my wife or someone else fighting with the auto pilot because they forgot to push a button. To my knowledge Garmin is the only system that has Shadow Drive.

Here is the visual requirements for boats 26 to 40ft One orange distress flag and one electric distress light, or three hand-held or floating orange smoke signals and one electric distress light, or three combination (day/night) red flares: hand-held, meteor or parachute type. you can pick any line you want but you don't need them all. That is cut and pasted from the Coast Guard website. There is no law that says how many expired ones you can have on board but you have to have at least 3 day night devices that are up to date so go get the 3 handhelds and call it a season for the 28 buck plus tax.

When it comes to flares shop wisely I get mine from West Marine but you have to pay close attention or you will end up getting old flares. I bought a set online and they had 6 months left on them when received them so I sent them back. A few years ago I bought a set at West Marine and did not look at the date was I suprised when I got inspected and was told they only had a few months left but would get me thru the season. Last spring they had them on sale so I went in but all the ones they had on display were old so I went to the store manager and explained they had screwed me the past and I was not going to buy outdated flares again she went back and got me new ones and still honored the sale price. She pointed out store policy is to sell the old stock first which makes business sense no differant than bread milk eggs or any other date coded product. The reason they go on sale is to clear out the old stock sadly any left overs go back to regular price when the sale is over. You can't put them in the garbage and you will have to contact the Coast Guard as to disposal of arial flares however smoke and hand held flares can be set off inland such as in your back yard where they cannot be mistaken for a distress signal. I get rid of smoke units by setting them off at night and dispose of hand held flares in the daytime by lighting them and dropping them in my burn barrel with a lid on it. Another thing I do is to rotate the types of flares I purchase. Since smoke is daytime only I never replace them anymore I have one and that is enough the law requires 3 day night devices so when my kit expired I purchased only the required day night hand held flares. When these expire I will purchase a new set of shells for my arial display which is also legal for day or night. By going back and forth and only keeping a max of 2 set of each on board when it is time to dispose of the oldest ones they will be 12 years old. I doubt I will keep the boat that long so I don't see it as a big problem.

Flies and short leaders all Gamma Flouroleader material. Most of my long leaders have been 20lb Big Game which I have had very few issues with. I also use P Line Flouroclear line in 20lb and like that a little better than the Big Game but it is more expensive. I think that short leaders need to be leader material due to the shock loads they encounter longer leads can be mono as mono is more forgiving but I want Flouroleader at the point of attack.

I also understand why they want them there as well Mark that however does not change my point. We live in a state with a lot to offer the sad part is most of the rest of the country wants us to give it to them we bottle millions of gallons of water a day a great deal for the owners of the bottling plant and a few workers not so great for people in the surronding area who have seen their wells go dry. Importing apples from overseas has seen MI go from the worlds largest apple producer to somewhere around 5th. There is a long list of states that want to suck the Great Lakes dry and pipe the water to them. Altanta GA is a good example of a area that out grew it's water resources 2 years ago as they sucked the local lakes dry. This is another socialist policy take from a few and give to many we are losing all individual rights. It has come down to a simple idea and consider it this way. If you don't like Yougart but the rest of the group around does should you be told to eat it and learn to like it because you lost the election. That is the attitude of our current government. At what point do we actually have rights to keep what is ours ours and not have to share our resources with the world. What if we get a one world Government like some of these loons want imagine them deciding to tap into the Great Lakes and shipping the water overseas or having Japan bring their fishing fleet in for a few weeks a year. That is how this plays out maybe not today but it is coming we just gave Interpol full rights recently so you could be arrested by them and have no rights whatsoever as a american citizen. Not likely to happen but it now could. Also back on subject most of the winds studies have to do with reducing the loss of money and shortening the time to a break even point and still require much higher electric bills. If not for the fact many of the engineers are young my bet would be that few if any of the people designing these would still be alive when they actually begin making money. and at current electric rates none of them will ever make a penny.

And if power is for Milwaukee and Chitcago why do we have to look at it? The issue to me we have plenty of power and resources here why should we mess up our lake to power a city that wants to distroy our fishery to divert their sewage. If Chitcago needs the power put em in their section of the lake. Also consider none of these wind power ideas are cost effective which means they require very high electric bills or Gov subsidies to survive. How much extra do you want to pay to help power other cities and states? CA is a fine example of a stupid state they buy 90% of their electricty from other states because they don't want power plants. All of these huge liberal areas want someone else to provide for them while they vote away our rights. Personally if the dog I am feeding bites me I tend to take em on a one way hunting trip. If you choose to live in a place with no resources or choose not to use your resources how is that my problem? We have all but wiped the American farmer off the planet with price controls and over taxing their land till they can't afford to feed us anymore or keep their land to farm.

you know I am in lets do this guys great way to get together and share some ideas.

What am I gonna do with all that beer I don't drink much a 6 pack will last me several months. Honestly I really doubt I am going to fish a lot of ports this year so I am going to work on promoting the port I live in and fish out of most. I see no reason why others should not do the same. There is no reason to fish in a group of boats and not get to know some of the guys out there that like doing what you like doing. Many like me have met a lot of great guys here but for whatever reason we don't have a lot of meet and greet events. My goal for this year is to change some of that Dirty Dog has started the traveling port idea my idea is to have a group in place at every port so when he or his group shows up they have people to fish with. I like to fish in the evening You know well in advance what the weather is doing and the lake often calms down at sunset. It is easier to get reports in the afternoon then in the morning so finding the fish at night is much simpler. And if anyone knows a better deal than a great sunset with drags screaming all around you this is not the website you should hv clicked on LOL. I want to make Sunset and Salmon a summer theme. This is not designed to be a competition but a gathering of friends the purpose of a weigh in is so we can discuss what worked and what didn't BS a bit and bragg if you want. Groups can be a couple of boats or a hundred no specific rules DNR laws of course pick any night that works for your group. Let people know when and where your group meets and fishes so some of us can invade your group. At the moment I have a group of 1 out of Muskegon with no set fishing dates but I am hopfull this will grow. Perhaps Mark or one of the other guys who fish Port Sheldon will get a group going as well and keep in mind I also fish Port Sheldon with some friends so could show up at a meeting or 2 down there. Again for those who are not afraid of the dark think Sunset and Salmon this year.

Another option would be if there are several groups would be port challenges Muskegon VS Port Sheldon ARRR meet in front Grand Haven and prepare for war LOL. Or we come and invade your port or you invade ours this could be a lot of fun could try supprise invasions. I could see it now Port Sheldon invades Muskegon on the same night Muskegon invades Port Sheldon LOL.

I am thinking we each start our own port group those who fish several ports can join several groups if we get them going. I have a couple of other friends that fish Port Sheldon and like to fish after work. This is not about having a serious contest it is about getting us guys together and get to know who each other are. Many of us have fished around each other for years and other than yelling at each other at the landing or on the radio have no contact with each other. Knowing who is fishing next to you can solve a lot of problems if you keep in contact before you run each others gear over a lot of hard feelings could be avoided. I know I for one have gotten to know a lot of the guys in the boats I see on the water all the time now and much is do to sites like this where we can chat.

LOL Don the only secret I wanna know is how you managed to lose all those fish and all that gear and still end up beating me? LOL

Guys several of my friends and I have discussed having a mid week fishing league type event. I am thinking fish from 6pm to 10pm weigh in at 11pm and be done. Nothing fancy just a few guys getting together and doing some fishing. I don't want this to be a tournament but if guys want to have a side bet or 2 I won't stop it I may even get in on a few. Since I don't see any sense in haveing a lot of rules that can't be enforced this is just a get together idea for those who night fish the Muskegon area. If this sounds like something you would like to do say something and lets see if there is any interest in doing this. I average 15 to 20 night trips a year and while the numbers are not always fantastic if you are on or near the fish at sundown the fireworks at sunset can be a blast. But the first step is to see what if any interest there is in doing this so let me know if you want to do it or not.

what is most scary is the thought one of these people who stand to lose money if the canal closes will plant some in the lake and point out it is too late to stop them so leave the canal open. Just like the Alewife the Lampry Zebra mussle and countless other things dumped in our lakes the prevention is so simple a 3 year old could figure it out but yet our elected officals can't seem to come up with a answer. Tell my 3 year old grandaughter she has a fly in her dinner because the door was left open she will tell you to close the door not start a enviromental impact statement.

They are good but much of it comes from having the time and money to do it. There are lots of us that could do very well fishing in half million dollar plus boat with all the best gear and the money to fish every day. Don't get me wrong they are good but they are in a boat that will eat 40 gal of fuel per hour plus on cruise. I would love to have that setup but could not afford to get it waxed let alone fill the fuel tanks. I bet Dirty Dog and a couple of other guys here get way more fish per dollar invested.

I knew I would get something out of fixing my mother in laws sewing machine need to get her the measurements for all my rods there is only about 60 of em.

Well for one I am cheap LOL actually I have been considering them but my KISS concept leaves me fine tuning each peice for what I want it to do. The issue I have had with the adjustable releases over the years is getting everyone to set them the same way for each setup. I think just setting up a couple boards to run light releases and a couple to run medium releases and a couple to run heavy releases may be simpler in the long run. The same thing applies to down rigger releases I have been fishing for Salmon over 40 years on lake MI and there is no universal anything. If there was by now we would all fish exactly the same way with the same gear. Also I fish with a lot of friends and family and get tired of being the only one who can set the gear much of the time. So being able to Clip the release on the line so the line is in the middle of the pads and matching the release to the intended job makes it simple and no one has to think they can just clip it on and go. Everything on my setups is purpose driven if you see the light tackle rods in my down riggers you can bet I changed the releases ( ask Jay how many times he tried cranking the rods down and tripped them) . This makes it simple all the releases are set the same way I just use differant releases for differant setups. Once in a while we make a change on the fly and have to adjust for it by setting the line deep or shallow. But for me I like pinch pad releases no real adjustments to make no learning curve to figure out just clip it on the line and go.

Very cool Mike looking forward to seeing it and will help if needed.

Matt the problem I have with the Chruch boards is they are designed to pull slow my fav troll is going fast with the current this allows my top stuff to be hauling butt for Steelhead and my deep gear working in the current a little slower. My issues with Church boards are basicly I don't like the release which I can change and they don't like to go fast without diving and tripping this I have found no way to change. Since my fishing style is haul butt and cover water trying to pick off the aggressive fish and my idea of slow is 2.5 mph I am stuck trying to find a balance that works. The only issues I had with my setup this last season was I had to heavy of a clip on my outside boards and they often would not release I will solve that by putting on the black clips which I changed because they tripped to easy pulling copper and full core's. The other issue is getting the heavy gear to track better which I am sure will require a bigger board or at least some mods to what I have to get more weight forward so the front digs in and pulls them to the side. I have a simple fix but it makes putting the board on and off a bit of a PITA which the last thing I want is fumbleing around trying to remove a board with a fish on.

Ok I like the Off Shore boards but they are too small and don't pull well with some of my deep setups. Personally I think they need to be a couple inches longer and perhaps a little taller with more forward weight. I have considered removing some of the flotation from the front of a couple of boards or adding more weight to the front. The problem i have is when pulling 300 copper or 300 copper with dive bombs they act like a jon boat with two fat guys sitting in the back. As such they don't get a good bite on the front and don't get very far to the side. Several times when tripping a diver to change lures they end up in the copper this causes me to say most of the seven words you can't say on TV some of them several times. They also need to be stable at speed for me anything below planing speed can be trolling speed. I read somewhere that the fish can swim up to 30 mph so not sure why people think they need to troll slow. I prefer that the front release and the rear be fixed so when a fish hits it or you want to change out gear you trip it and it flips over and falls in behind the boat.

I have ran a lot of meat rigs over the years I always liked them and caught a lot of fish on them. A friend of mine who charters on Lake Ontario and was one of the guys involved with Rhys Davis meat rigs showed me some of the things he does with his flies and convinced me to drop the meat program. 2 years ago I did and my catch rate went up I was getting more fish and even some bigger fish. This last season I ran a few meat rigs and they did not get hit very much but neither did my fly program much last year which was why I tried running the meat program again. One thing I can say after being Herring impaired is the boat smells better no more finding rotting fish strips in strange places. One thing I noticed is the new strips come packed in salt not brine like the old strips not sure if that had a effect or not. I can say when the meat rigs work they are on fire the only drawback I know of is you can't just toss em back in the box to use again so it is like live bait use it or lose it. One place the meat program always worked was pre run as the fish staged and were more aggressive. They also seemed to work better for getting fish to bite late morning.

I built a set years ago took lots of trial and error mostly error to get them to work. If i had to bill my time by the hour probably had over 300 in the pair when done and still did not like them very much. I am considering building another set as I want something that handles long copper and and some other heavy setups better and have considered a set of Otter Boats just for the deep gear and stick to inlines for the rest.

For rods on a budget I bought some of the Diawa Firewolf rods 19 bucks ea and have 4 of the Diawa Wilderness rods that I got for 14.95 ea. The Firewolf rods are ML 8ft rods and a blast to catch fish on with 12lb test and Okuma CL30 reels rod reel and line was just over 50 bucks ea. They are rated for 17# test line and a blast to fight fish on. running 17# Maxima on them now as my late summer line after losing a few big kings on the 12# mono. I am just not a big fan of the old pool ques with eyelets fishing poles I like light tackle and giving the fish a chance.

I was thinking same thing Frank they look the same and have the same line capacity and gear ratios. Only cheaper if you compare them to Convetors which they are not even close to.

Personally most of what I learned in early years is from my uncle who is a commercial fisherman in AK and much of his setup is run something you know they like run lots of it and go fast so they don't have time to think it over. Salmon can swim close to 30mph which is why we can get explosive hits. So going fast does not mean you will out run them it does mean you will cover more water and put your lures in front of more fish. However many lure setups don't run well fast so you do have to adjust you speed to make your lures work. For this reason when I am in search and distroy mode I don't run flasher flies or divers they just don't work well at high speeds in haul butt mode I stick to heavy spoons and a few body baits like Thin Fins and Rapala style baits. Not sure who started the 1.8 and straight trolling that many live by but I consider that drifting.