Diversion

The reason you are supposed to use 25W-40 Mercruiser oil in an I/O is that an I/O runs hard, its not like a car with a transmission where it shifts and the load is reduced through a gear reduction. The heavy oil keeps the motor properly lubed under stressful loads, such as when on plane. If you were to run 10W-30 in an I/O, you would experience a lot of lifter noise at higher RPM, at that point, the motor is at a higher stress rate and the oil just won't stand up to the pressure. When I had my boat in the shop this summer, my mechanic asked me what type of oil I ran, I said 25W-40 Mercruiser oil, his reply was great, don't run anything less. I guess it all comes down to spending a little more $$ now on maintenance, or a lot later.

In my little boat, I run Mobil 1 10W-30 full synthetic. That is in a 40HP Mercury Four Stroke. I would think that your owner's manual would have some insight as to your oil weight requirements.

I have fished on a friend's 24' Thompson many times, those high gunnels are very nice for both rigging and fighting fish. Haven't really been in rough water while on it, but the ride of that boat really impresses me. Make sure to get a survey, and if it passes, then grab that boat, you WILL NOT be disappointed with it.

Fished the Niagara River this morning, water was 30 degrees, with no ice bergs, just a little skim ice here and there. Steelies wanted pink kwikfish, couldn't get any on egg sacs.

That $50 limit is a pain, it basically defeats the purpose of having a "pay at the pump" when I need more than 15 gallons to fill my truck. This whole gas thing is just the "man" sticking it to ya......... :evil: :evil:

Great pics!! Thanks for sharing

Do you have your excess cable coiled up? If so, the interferance could be coming from the coil as the signal would be traveling in a circle fashion. Back some time, I was told to never coil excess transducer cable, but rather run it forward and back along itself so that the excess is running parellel to itself, and not in a circle. I hope that makes sense.

I use Meguire's past wax, seems to do a pretty good job and produces a nice shine.

Great pics man, gotta love Simcoe

Good showing Doug, does the house come with the old car???

Like Tim said, wait until close to when you need your registration updated, go online and it will be cheaper than the original price on the renewal invoice. Takes about a week and a half to receive the new sticker and card in the mail.

Yankee, is your transducer on the inside of your hull, epoxied to it? Just curious.

There wasn't any interferance last time I ran the river on my GPS. We also use GPS while in the river to duplicate successful drifts, especially when walleye fishing in the fall.

Great pics Bill, looking at those, its almost like you were there

Thats the ice bridge below the falls. That will be there until it warms up, then it will all come down river or just melt off. Yankee, I forgot your boat is fiberglass, I would be very careful with a glass boat on the river during the winter as I wouldn't want to scratch or mess up the fiberglass. Typically, everyone runs aluminum boats in the winter because of the ice. Like Doug said, there is usually ice you don't even see, but rather you hear it when you hit it while running. I think that would be hard on a glass boat.

No, thats not the norm for the river. The third and bottom picture represent the river better as far as ice levels throughout. The first picture is at the bottom of the Artpark drift, which is a curve in the river, thus making the ice pile up. At the Lewiston docks, the river is pretty straight and the ice should be more thinned out.

Sweet pics Doug, how was the lewiston boat launch? Last time I was there back in November, the water level was really low. Gonna hit the river soon as I can't ice fish anymore.

Yes it was, good to meet ya in person

Can't wait

You can always just walk past the boat and toss the new stuff into it, she'll never know

If only 2, then they would be: NK28 Glow Frog NK28 Gold Watermelon

Same here Tim, gotta start saving some coin

Rich, do you use your kicker with the main motor off, and thus, no power steering? How hard is it to turn the outdrive and connected kicker without the power steering, assuming that you have no power steering at that point?

Fished Virginia Beach 12/27 in 8 - 12 FOW and caughts tons of perch, had to sort through the dinks for any keepers. Ice was between 8" - 10" thick, people were even driving cars to and from the main land to the island. Fished Sibblad Point 12/28 in 6 - 10 FOW and found bigger fish, still lots of dinks to sort through. Ice was 6" - 8" thick. Open water is right next to Sibbald Point going west :shock:

Go for the downspeed & temp, my choice would be either a Moor or Depth Raider. If I could only use one electronic tool on my boat, it would be my Moor.