big easy

I copied this from another site.It's the response to fishermen from the MI. DNR.I thought it might be interesting,in light of the three rod limit being discussed here,for NY. The new rules allow for three rods with single lines,or three single lines,and a total of six hooks.I'm wondering,is a slider considered a single line? >>>>>>>From The MI DNR Thank you for taking time out of your valuable schedule to assist Fisheries Division and the Department of Natural Resources in our request for your opinions of changing Statewide regulations for the number of fishing lines from 2 to 3. Your opinions are highly valued and each response counted in our formulation of the proposal to request a change in the number of lines anglers can use. We heard from nearly 700 interested citizens and almost 80% of those responses were in favor of increasing the number of lines that an angler can use. Since 2000, anglers have been allowed to use three lines when fishing for salmon on the Great Lakes, but were restricted to two lines elsewhere and when pursuing other species in the Great Lakes. Just recently, the Michigan Legislature amended State Statute to provide the Director of the DNR the authority to allow for an increase in the number of fishing rods for all anglers on all public waters of Michigan. The intent of this change is to allow anglers to fish with three lines (rods) regardless of species, location or season. The Director would also have the authority to reduce the number of lines to no less than 2 if necessary. Fisheries Order 247.09 was signed recently by the Director and states that "on all of the public waters in Michigan, those persons in the act of fishing shall be restricted to using no more than 3 single lines or 3 single rods and lines, and shall not attach more than six hooks total on all lines." The order becomes effective April 1, 2009.<<<<<<

More free time to fish Lake O.,and a Radar for my boat project.The free time will have to wait,but the Radar is definitely coming.

Jake,yes,he sells it,and his prices are very good.He ships everywhere and quickly.He carries Epoxy,Polyester,Vinylester,& Dion resins,gel coat, putties,fiberglass cloth,mat of all types,paints fasteners,paints,and anything needed to build or repair a boat. I don't want to knock the competition,as they also have a good selection,and good brands,but you will get expert advice from the owner of Mertons on the phone,and his prices are generally better and shipping is faster.He has built several boats,and has been in the business for more than thirty years. The System three is a brand of epoxy resin,and is a very high quality resin,as is West Systems,Mas epoxies,and a few others.Most of the major brands like these are very good resins. His website is below http://www.mertons.com As for the outdrive,i had to completely gut everything,and build all new engine beds,as the originals were rotted.If you have to do likewise,I'd suggest that you record every measurement that you can think of regarding the engine placement,as it will help immensely when you have to fabricate the new beds. I do have a Mercruiser cutout template that i gladly send to you if you need one. Shoot me a PM,and i'll give you a phone #where you can reach me.It's easier to explain things verbally.

Thanks Seasquirrel, I used System Three epoxy resin,thickened with Cabosil, to a consistency somewhere between ketchup and mayonaise.I troweled it on with a 3/16" notched trowel. I didn't clamp it,but instead I laid the sheets on my garage floor,and placed about five hundred pounds of weight on it.I work for a scaffold co,so i was able to borrow a bunch of 50lb counter weights(about 15x15"steel plates). I did a couple other transoms this way,and it works great,and there is no way it will ever come apart. I used System Three resin,because I help out a friend in the marine fiberglass supply business,he sells it and many others,and we both are pretty familiar with it,and its use.

Jake, I've done a few transom replacements,and have always used fir with excellent results.You could also use a composite like Coosa board,but it's very expensive.Done properly,fir will last longer than you will. Here's a few pics of a transom i did on my 23' Seacraft this year.I used two sheets of 3/4" glued together with epoxy.the beam on this boat is a bit over eight feet. The last picture shows how there are no voids in marine ply,and there are also more plies than regular fir. If you click on the pics,you can enlarge them for a much better detail. LAYING OUT THE PATTERN ON GLUED PLYWOOD CLAMPING AND BEDDING IN THE TRANSOM OUTSIDE VIEW LAYING UP GLASS ON THE INSIDE FINIHED OUTSIDE WITH NEW PAINT,AND STILL MASKED OFF FINISHED INSIDE A PICTURE OF THE GLUE LINE (dark line) BETWEEN THE TWO PIECES OF PLYWOOD.

Don't know where you live,but Atlantic Plywood stocks marine plywood in a few types.I've bought several sheets of marine fir from them.They are a wholesale distributor only,but some of their branch's may sell direct to you. Atlantic Plywood has branch's all over the country,and a lot in the northeast,here's their Rochester NY phone #585-458-4180.They may sell you direct,but if not,any lumber yard(a real one,not Home Depot) will order it for you.Many independent lumber yards will let you pay them,and will give you a Po#so that you can go to Atlantic and pick it up. They have lots of branch's in the northeast,with several in NY,,Pa, and the New England states,so there should be one close to you.Give them a call,if they won't sell you direct,they can tell you which lumber yard will order it for you. I bought some 4x8 sheets of 3/4" marine fir from them last year,and it cost about $70.00 a sheet.They carry all thicknesses of it,and i believe they also stock some other species of it,besides fir. Good Luck

Chad, Yup,I'll be selling the Trophy some time this coming spring.I'm going to sell it with the kicker,riggers,electronics etc.It's a 230hp 305 with a cobra drive,and a 9.9 Yammie high thrust kicker. I figure I'll tow the SeaCraft up around the end of April,and get any bugs worked out of it,then sell the Trophy. Is yours stored at the Boat Docs,or do you take it home for the winter? Ted,I'll help if i can with your spider cracks,feel free to send me some pictures,or send me a pm,and i'll give you my phone number.It may be easier to explain stuff that way.

Chad I like the color, looks real nice.Very nice job. If your going to repair stress cracks in the gel coat,you will have to grind them out,all the way down to the laminate,and lay in some pieces of mat saturated with resin.A small tool like a Dremel will do a decent job of grinding out the gel coat.Get some 3/4 or 1-1/2 ounce mat and tear some off,and place it,in the prepared area. Catalyze up some no wax resin,and wet out the mat with it.A small throw away paint brush,or plumbers acid brush works well for this purpose.Make sure you get any air out of the mat,when you lay it in. Don't brush mat like you do with paint,as it will just slide the fibers all over the place,instead,use a dabbing motion,to push the mat into the repair and to get all the air out. If they are truly stress cracks,you will have to do it this way or similar to this way or they absolutely will return.You might be able to get away with filling Very very minor spider cracks,but even they will most likely return. As for matching the color,you can come very close to the factory,colors,especially whites or pastels,by mixing colorant in with the gel coat.the colorant comes in 2oz bottles,so if you wanted a white on the beige side you could mix in some caramel colorant etc. Try http://www.mertons.com he has everything you could possibly need to build or repair a fiberglass boat,all types of Polyester,Vinylester,Dions,and Epoxy resins,all types of glass fabrics,paints ,fasteners,putties,etc etc. He ships everwhere,and very fast.His pricing is also better than most others.He also has a working knowledge of boat building,and can give you valuable info. And finally,don't buy resin from places like Home Depot or chain stores.It's usually a poor quality resin,and probably has been sitting on the shelf for a long time.Resin has a shelf life,and they just don't move anywhere near enough of it to give you a quality product. Their prices are also astronomically high,and they have no idea on how to use it.

If you shrink it,make sure to use adhesive lined heat shrink tubing.The adhesive melts as its shrinking,and makes a watertight seal.Almost all high quality marine wiring is done with this type of tube. You could also use heat shrink tubing made for use on wiring submersible well pumps,and is made to be waterproof.Home Depot has it in their pump dept.,or you can get it from a good hardware store,or plumbing supply house.

Right now,in the Western Massachusetts area,it's anywhere from $1.75 to $1.89.I paid $1.59 at Stop and Shop supermarkets,last Friday(11/27). I always try to get my gas there,as they offer something like a 10 cent per gallon discount on gas for every hundred dollars you spend on groceries. I just don't get the New York prices on gas.I thought Mass was raping their citizens,but NY takes the cake.They must be spending all that money on give away crap to the dregs in NYC. I was hoping to retire to the western NY area,but the more i see how terrible the taxes are,I'm giving it second thoughts.

Thanks Gambler. I gave a lot of thought about making a custom hardtop for it.I do some part time work for a friend in the marine fiberglass supply business,so all the materials are easily available from him.He has also been a huge help with the technical side of fiberglass,and how to laminate and work with it.So,i gave it serious thought,knowing that He could help me. But,in the end,I decided to go with a canvas top.I did quite a bit of research on other boats like this with hardtops,and if they are made too heavy,it has a tendency to cause the boat to roll a little in a beam sea,which is common in very deep v hulls,although these SeaCrafts are.much more stable,because of the variable degree deadrise hull design,so,it's not really an issue. I could build a hardtop for probably much less than having a canvas top made,but i gotta be honest,I'm beat from working on this project.I'm tired of wearing Tyvek suits, I'm tired of inhaling Styrene fumes,and I'm tired of grinding,sanding, fairing,and painting.I just don't want to lay up any more glass. The canvas work will be semi permanent,as it will always be up,and only taken down when it's put away for the winter.Back home in western Ma,we have local guy,who is sort of a friend who does very nice canvas work,so he's going to fabricate something that's a little more rugged than a standard canvas top.It will be attached to the tower that i installed. I was hoping to get it done this fall,but i ran out of weather,(and money),so that will be the last thing to do in the spring,before we tow it up to Olcott. Here's a picture of the installation of the Tower placement, my buddy's in the boat moving it to where we think it's going to work and look the best.The canvas top will maybe be attached to the smaller tubing on the tower somehow,I'm not sure yet.We made the Tower high enough so that we could easily walk under it,but low enough to get rods out of the rocket launchers.

I'd be in favor of it.It makes no sense not too.They could keep the limits the same,but allow more rods.Many times,I fish with only one other person,so we can't run everything that we'd like to. It's not that we're fish hogs,in fact,we release most of them,but it would be nice to run all our programs,until we find which is working the best.We just can't do that effectively,with only two rods per angler rule.

dsco, A friend of mine made a beautiful top out of aluminum,for his Islander. It looked almost factory made.He basically took some 1/16"aluminum sheet,and bent the edges in a brake,made an alum. frame for it and supported it with some stainless tube that he had laying around. This was much easier than messing with glass and resin.This might be another option for you.

It's also time for some sportsmen to clean up their act.I've hunted and fished most of my life,and always followed the law and safety procedures.Unfortunately,horrible things happen sometimes,like the young boy who was killed,when he was allowed to fire an UZI.My heart goes out to that family. At the same time however,why let a child fire a weapon like this? Things like this,only serve to only irritate a large segment of the population,that already despises guns,and these are the people who always vote.This terrible tragedy, probably did as much damage to the second amendment as any left wing group could. I believe that we all need to fight with all the resources that we have to be able to keep our right to own guns,and i think being forceful,and aggressive in our talk,is good,but bumper stickers that say "Gut Deer",although funny to those of us who hunt,Infuriate a huge segment of the population. All this just reinforces their perception of hunters as beer drinking dummies,who just kill for no reason. Consequently,many of them who vote by emotion, vote against us. We do need to get in their face's but it has to be done intelligently. As for our guns being taken away,rest assured that it is absolutely one of our rights that the left wants to take away from us,and if you think it can't happen,then you're living in a dream world. They are going to try everything,from outright bans,or more sinister ways,like raising fees to unaffordable amounts,or limiting some types of ammo.etc etc. All i can say is that if your a gun owner who voted for him,you deserve everything you get if they make it impossible for you to own a gun.I have no pity on you.

That's just the beginning,once these creeps take over.

Yup we're joking .The spring king fishing is usually great from the Niagara bar,and east to Wilson,and Olcott in the spring.This past May was absolutely terrific for us king fishing off Wilson,and Olcott. We had one week when all the rods were firing,with all nice kings.It didn't seem to matter,the riggers,wire dipsies,and leadcore were all hot.Most of the kings were in the high teens to mid twenties.Our biggest was 26 lbs. We figured,hell this is going to be a great year if the fish are this big and this plentiful already,well,the rest of the year sucked (for us anyway).all our summer and fall trips were lousy.We had a few good days,but most weren't great. I don't know where all those spring fish went,but they didn't come my way.

Gill T is right, the king fishing is terrible on the western end in the spring.It's best to stay as far away as possible,the further east you go in the spring,the better off you are.Plus there are no boat launches,no boat repair shops,no places to stay,no restuarants,and lots of awful people,on the western end.Don't go there in the spring.In fact,it's best just to stay completely away from the western end of the lake,at all times of the year. I think it's against the law to fish on the western end,so it's not even worth the trip.

We had the same thing happen in Springfield Ma.on I-290. Trash from the ghetto would throw all kinds of stuff off the overpasses onto cars and trucks.Now,on some of these overpasses,the state has erected very high chain link fencing, that curves inward toward the overpass,so that the lowlifes can't throw stuff off them. That's the way the state deals with it,Oh no,Don't arrest the little pieces of crap,instead,place the burden on the taxpayer to erect all this fencing. If i had my way,I'd drag the pukes up on the bridge,and throw them off,right into the front of an oncoming Peterbuilt. I think the truck would do just fine,and the planet would be better off.These losers will never amount to anything other than criminals anyway. We also had it happen to us once,while shad fishing the Connecticut river.We and several other boats were anchored under the I-391 bridge and were almost hit with rocks and other stuff.The little non english speaking rats had walked on the catwalks under the bridge and were throwing stuff onto the boats. The good thing was that one of them fell and broke several bones,It made me very happy,i only hope that he can't walk for the rest of his life.It couldn't happen to a better guy.

Aw,Shucks,thanks guys. Billy,we haven't met,but I'm looking foward to seeing that nice Penn Yann of yours, on the western end of the lake next season.They sure are a nice looking boat. It will be helpful to have your reports during the season. Tim ,Jimmy mentioned that he saw you the other day.Did he ever give you a price on the bottom paint?.That's the one thing i really don't want to do myself.I keep saying that I'm just going to leave it the way it is,but deep down i know it should be done.I'm just tired of the nasty, dirty, itchy, work that fiberglass requires. I swear this is the last boat project for me,besides,I'm running out of time age wise.All you young guys,enjoy it while you can,because fifty and sixty arrive quicker than you think. The mind says yes,but the body says no.

Well,how accomplished are you at laying up fiberglass?You could fabricate one out of one of the marine foam boards, such as Divinycell. You'd have to shape the foam to your desired contour or shape,and lay up some cloth like 1708 over it.You'd have to do both the top and bottom sides of the foam.You would also have to put in solid blocking into the areas where you would be attaching any structural things,as the foam would not hold screws,and thru bolting would collapse the glass. The other way would be to fabricate a female mold of the top you'd like to make.You'd have to apply a mold release to it,then roll on some gelcoat,and lay up glass on it,and apply a core material like foam board or balsa core,then finish up with a layer of glass on that side. That would be similar to the way a glass boat is made,and would give you a nicer finish. It all depends on how nice you want it to look.If you want a factory look,then be prepared to spend some money and lots of time to achieve good results.I wouldn't recommend attempting it if you have no experience working with, or laying up glass. If you only want a utilitarian top to keep you dry,and out of the sun,and aren't particular on looks,you could make one out of some plywood,covered with some 1-1/2oz glass mat.You could use some aluminum pipe or (eek)conduit placed into some Hollander Railing fittings to hold it up .It wouldn't look great,but may suit you just fine. It all depends on how nice you want it. I work in the fiberglass and marine supply business,so if i can help feel free to ask.

Today,(11/11/08) it was $1.97 for regular at Stop N Shop,Western Massachusetts.Springfield

Brad,I'll take it.I sent you an Email.

Brad,any idea of what you're asking,any pics?

I'm looking for four to six Tite Loc rod holders,the single adjustable kind.Anyone out there have any?

Billy, At home in western Massachussetts,it's anywhere from 2.19 to 2.29 a gallon.Man!,what's the deal with NY.I suppose by the time i bring the new boat up to Olcott,Gas prices ther will be even higher. I didn't want to tow with a full tank of fuel in the boat,but i will if there's a huge price difference.