1mainiac

Due to the cold weather and long winter we have several guys that have not gotten their boats out yet so Don and I were just discussing moving the first event back a week to May 10th. We need fast input so respond asap.

Ed there was a rough but restoreable GT350CS I saw a while back for under 10k if your interested I will see if it sold. I don't remember if it was a 68 or 69 but a nice factory fake Shelby.

Kevin I had a RX3 til it shattered the motor racing it. what a insane little toy way faster than people gave it credit for. I had a 94 Probe GT that was a blast to drive as well. Then there was a 280Z that was mid range fast. My cousins ex wife had the fastest grocery getter in Rockford years ago when he put a Vette motor in her Vega Station wagon it would run mid 10's

Made a decent living in the 70's and early 80's street racing won a lot of money and a bunch of cars. Only had a few that were pretty because I never kept them long enough to care about pretty back then. People think I am full of it but Frank should remember what I am talking about because in the 70's you could buy most of those muscle cars for under a couple hundred bucks. I bought a 1970 Dodge Charger R/T 440 6pack Pistol Grip 4spd in Plumb Crazy for 250 bucks from a Ford dealership sold it a couple weeks later for 495 bucks and was happy for the profit and the handful of races I won with it. Sold it because it was too slow and screamed fast so it was tough to get people to race. I had lot of cars back then one have have always wanted was a 69 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II my fastest highway car was a 71 Torino T code that was a spec built NASCAR race car. Could barely break the 13's but was just getting started at 125mph Shift from 3rd to 4th at 150mph and let it roll. I used to love killing Vette's on the highway with that. It took 17 cops too catch my brother in it and my dad made me cut the car up before it killed someone. I had to talk to a couple of the cops that chased him to get it out of impound one of them said he he was right behind him at 150mph and my brother drove off and left him I said that should of been the 3rd to 4th shift point he did not think it was funny LOL. The car was a moving violation anywhere you drove it loud and violent had headers that dumped into 3in side outlets no mufflers at all cammed to the max would not idle below 1500 and sounded like a top fuel dragster at idle. Darn I miss that car right now LOL. Would not miss the 2mpg avg though but gas was 30 cents a gallon back then.

well I could copy and paste my post on batteries from the GLA site or you could go read it. Perhaps reading it in context with the questions would make more sense. I almost never recommend AGM batteries because they don't last but on the other hand most people don't take good care of batteries so none last for them. Batteries are a part of a system to work and last they require regular maintenance and they need to be suited to the job you use them for. Most of the batteries in boats are AGM dual purpose batteries which if you want a put it in and ignore it battery will last you a couple years or more if you have a good charging system. And don't abuse it too bad. There are several factors in getting the right battery for you.

I have some of them they are not smaller

Entry form and rules are on the website www.mscst.com feel free to ask any questions Don or I will do our best to answer them. We start at 6 am from the pier head in Muskegon fish 3 man DNR rules and must be at weigh in by 1pm. Weigh in is at the Grand Trunk Boat launch you can pay and sign up at the weigh in. It is a 10 dollar membership per captain to join the group each event is 40 dollars. We have great sponsors and lots of stuff to give away at nearly every event. 10 points per legal fish plus weight cash prize for biggest fish 100 dollar second chance drawing for any boat that does not place. Open radio lots of fun with some serious fishermen.

When I bought my SPX-5 Mariners Center told me that it would not talk to anything other than RayMarine Sea Talk units on the NEMA 2000 network. It will talk to anything on the NEMA 183 wiring. I think that changed with the new Evolution series.

I was told My Lowrance cannot talk to my SPX-5 because the network protocol is different like wiring a Mac to a Windows same connections different language. If the 2 units will talk you need the network adapter and terminators to wire them up. However like said above you can wire the NEMA output to as many devices as you want. One talks several listen.

I have had mine a couple years without the rudder reference it works pretty good. Was planning on adding the reference this year but gotta save for a new motor instead. Without the rudder reference you will need to make adjustments to the response settings and anti rudder settings to match wave and wind conditions. More than a few times I have had to make change to the AP while trolling because wind and waves changed. Some of this is due to my personal setting to begin with Since I prefer to keep the boat quiet so I run with slower response settings because in my boat most have problems driving due to over steering. So on a calm day or certain troll patterns I crank the response way down and let the boat pretty much sit the troll on it's own. Doing this is much nicer than hearing it constantly trying to steer but a large gust of wind or a set of waves from a passing boat can bump you off course.

Is this from experience?

Ive always wanted to run across the lake one nice day to fish.

Problem is finding riders willing to go in an 18foot open bow straight across the lake!

Better have a big gas tank it takes 70 gal to get mine to the other side. Kevins time is about right took me just over 4 hours to make Milwaukee from Muskegon the last time I made the run. And we had to slow down cause it was lumpy on the other side. If it was flat all the way across maybe 2 and a half hours to get there.

I bought 25 12v UV LED bulbs on Ebay still have to build the box because I can't decide on the size yet but I want to do my flashers and several lures at the same time. Right now I have a old briefcase in mind. I want it foil lined with dividers made of clear lexan so everything gets a good glow. I also have a small overnight bag I might use if I can sneak it past my wife LOL.

Don and I have not spent much time discussing the tie issue I doubt we will have one but I plan on keeping a strength of field number that we could use if need be. Similar to the 333 scoring we could consider adding points based on entries. 15 boats add 1.5 points the that event score 12 boats add 1.2 to that score ect.. The reason I did not put it in the scoring is we pretty much have the same number of boats at every event not always the same boats but unless we get some new members it won't change much. Don and I are hoping the second chance drawing helps us bring in more boats. 20 boats per event would make a much better prize payout 30 would be even better. 7 events 30 boats per event would make the Port Championship $1050 for 1st $630 for 2nd and $ 420 for 3rd plus each event would pay 150 for big fish 300 for 1st 225 for second 150 for 3rd and 75 for 4th plus the second chance at 100 bucks. So if we can get to 30 boats we are no longer just fishing for gas and beer money. Frankly there are between 50 and 100 boats that fish out of Muskegon every decent weekend all summer long we just need to get more of them interested.

I have the 24th on my schedule so must be a typo sorry. I just checked Don's flyer and my date schedule all say the 24th so must be a typo somewhere.

Checked the weather report it said no spring for us.

Heat won't likely help much unless you can get a lot of it if you can get the receiver hot and cool the hitch shank it might help. If you have a good snatch strap hook it to the hitch and wrap around a large tree to try and pull it out much safer than trying to tow a trailer to free it. But again keep hitting hit with the big hammer do not try and force it with little hammers get the biggest hammer you can swing. Hit it from every direction then hit it some more.

Just keep hitting it till it moves then hit it more. I have had a couple where I had to cut them out with a torch. Rule number one never leave a hitch in the receiver in MI. Which reminds me to pull mine out tomorrow LOL. My younger brother refers to rust as the grip of God and what God has joined together let no man take apart LOL.

Johnson Controls and Exide make probably close to 80% of the batteries you will see. There are several smaller companies that make up the rest. A resting voltage of 10.6 is a dead battery discharging to 10.6 and recharging is considered a cycle most batteries will give you the number of cycles it has based on avg lifespan of the battery. Maintenance free, AGM and Gell Cell batteries have lower cycle spans mostly due to the lack of ability to dissipate heat. This also makes them touchier to recharge as they can't absorb high charge voltages. Because the charge regulation on my old Merc 80hp was not good it would kill a AGM battery every season so I went back to wet cells. AGM's do very well when they are constantly kept charged so if your able to keep them charged they do very well. However if you run them fully down then recharge them they don't hold up as well as a wet cell. Most quality battery chargers have a selector for standard or maintenance free batteries which controls the charge voltage and does not let it do a equalization charge. If you want great life in a wet cell you must feed it distilled water which can be a PITA but it improves the life of the battery.

Well you will get a few opinions and I actually have several but they all come down to you and how you want to deal with them. The first issue is how much battery do you need in AH? Second is how much maintenance do you want to deal with? Next is space for them and charging issues. Since unless you buy a custom battery you will be using 2 12v batteries they must be identical because you will be limited both in use and charging to the quality of the worst one. So you have to calculate your load always use your highest load level for this so lets say you use it on a trolling motor and max is a 20 amp draw 2 group 24 batteries will give you a avg of 100ah so 5 hours run time max. Group 27 batteries might get you 6 and 31's might get you 7 or 8 if you have the room for larger batteries. Some batteries will give you more AH some less but the idea is the same. Personally I prefer standard wet cell batteries but they require regular maintenance and some would rather have the newer style maintenance free batteries. That is a choice you have to make. I realize I am not giving you a direct answer only questions and ideas but I have no idea what any of the factors are in this so to say buy this battery it is the best would be pure BS. You need to know what the battery will run how long it will run it and how much space you have for the batteries.

I have been tying my own for years designed and built my own jigs to tie them on. Using either Bullet heads or tubing. Easy to do and fun to catch fish on gear you built.

Material layout

bullet head ready for material

finished fly

This is what I use http://www.amazon.com/Gerber-09841-Diamond-Knife-Sharpener/dp/B0001WOTHC

A couple pulls down the grove and hooks are sharp.

Yep looks like it they can verify it is the right one for you on the phone. There is usually a series number or letter code on the bottom of the reel seat that verifies which exact reel it is. I used to have a set of LC counter reels with bad level winds so I removed the level wind ( I really don't like them ) but fixed the line counters and used them for lead core. What I would do was reset the line counter when I attached the board then I could use the line counter to set the line out and board placement. Even though LC are not accurate with that much line out using it on a 3 board spread with inside board at 100 middle board at 200 and outside board at 300 gives a consistent spread every time. Doing that if your middle board fires when you reset it you just let it back 200 and put it in the rod holder it will go right back where it was.

They are simple and easy to fix what keeps Tuna and others in business is we have become a nation of appliance operators. That and the fact they have parts in stock and can fix it fast. Most have a gear on the end of the worm drive shaft for the level wind that drives the plastic gear on the counter. The ones I have fixed needed a new counter because either the counter jammed for a second or in many cases some one held the reset down while a fish was running, either one will knock a couple teeth off the counter gear and cause it to skip.

Another great year was hoping for better turnout but with the Outdoorsman having it's annual sale and seminars a lot of people went there instead. The pulled pork was great I looked at my stuff Thursday night and decided to just hand out flyers for our tournament and hang out with friends.

I don't fish a spot or a troll so much as I actively hunt for active fish. For me the key is learning where the baitfish are and what their pattern is. I have a probe and seldom use it anymore because I usually have a idea what I want to do. Other than tournaments I am mostly a evening fisherman which gives me all day to find out where they were in the morning and see what the weather will be like. Paying attention to weather patterns for days in advance can also help you eliminate water to not fish in. Ignore the pack of boats often those guys just follow each other around all year. No matter what the fishing conditions are in Muskegon there is always a pack of boats in 80 to 100ft and yes they catch some fish. But they are not pounding out limits of nice fish they are just picking away at them. Do I have preferred starting locations yep 3 in fact and depending on conditions I will likely run to one of them and begin. I also fish around the nets as much or more than most, the action of fish caught in the nets brings in other fish. I seldom follow any pattern very long unless it is working well.