chinook35

I am surprised by your lack of success with cut bait. I have used cut bait and twinkie rigs for 15 years and I can tell you it works. I even tie my own teaser cut bait rigs. The lack of cut bait availability has seriously hampered my fishing program. I have a high degree of confidence in cut bait. I have all the other options as well flies,dodgers,squids, too many spoons,j-plugs etc. , but I like fishing with meat. I hope Rhys Davis can get things straightened out with the DEC and bring their product back. It looks like in the new regs that they may be able to brine their bait and make it saleable in NY. I hope so.

The new fishing regs. are about to take effect on Oct. 1. It looks like we are still going to have problems with cut bait. My experiments with fish from the super market are probably at an end as the fish are not listrd in the "acceptable" list. Oh well, back to the drawing board.The new regs can be seen at www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/34113.html

This whole cut bait fiasco has me scratching my head. The DEC banned Rhys Davis cut bait in NY waters but it is still being used in Canadian waters, I hope the virus if it is indeed present in the bait,respects the International border! Why can't the DEC with all it's wonderful(and expensive) equipment test a few samples of Rhys Davis and then we will know for sure. I am having a very hard time blaming a frozen herring. What about all the ships coming in the seaway dumping thousands of gallons of untreated water into the great lakes, how about the round goby, a known carrier of the disease. No one at state seems to want to point a finger in the direction of the seaway. Too much money involved! Lets just go after the fishing population and blame it on the untested bait.DEC, either prove the cut bait is to blame or lift the ban!!! Maybe you could ban the goby, that would be something i could get behind.You people at state wonder why fishing license sales are down, go look in the mirror!

Just a quick update. The SEI sterndrive I purchased to replace my Alpha 1 is performing beyond my hopes. I have run the boat at WOT (4400) for as much as 25 minutes with no issues. It performs as well or better than the Mercruiser it replaced.

Been using the SNT since they came out. I have had lots of issues,but I finally got one that works. I still have to use a wet towel wraped around the rigger boom and antenna to use below 100'. Cannon can't give me a reason why this, works but it does.

I hope you have as much luck with SEI as I have had. I am past break in hours with no problems at all. This company has re-established my faith in the marine industry.

Before you invest any more money in your old sterndrives,check out Stern Drive Engineering Inc. I replaced my Alpha 1 last year with one of this company's replacements and have been very satisfied. They sell a new,not rebuilt ,sterndrive for less than Mercruiser's rebuilts.

I hope someone buys the right to make this excellent release. How about it Cannon or Scotty???

The suction pump seems to get all the old oil out (or as much as possible) . The new oil looks clean after running engine for a few minutes to check for leaks and rechecking level. Getting to most drain plugs looks like a major pain to me.

The oil is sucked out through the dipstick tube. There are all kinds of suction devices out there,both manual and electric.

Finally got over 10 hours on the new sterndrive. Has worked flawlessly. Quiet and smooth. Top speed is the same as with Alpha I. I would recommend this company to anyone who needs to replace their Mercruiser sterndrive. The SEI sterndrive is a new unit that sells for less than half the price of Mercury's rebuilt.

Just wondering if anyone was fishing along the East shore near Sandy Pond when the weather (tornado ?) hit the Greene Point area of Sandy. The news showed several camp sites destroyed and a few boats totaled.I did not hear of any boats in trouble on the lake. I am glad I wasn't out there!!

I bought 2 13# pancakes a couple of years ago and had nothing but headaches. I belive if you get into cross current you are in for major tangles. The large fin must take off in a current. I went back to 12# Tru Tracs and have far fewer tangles.I keep the pancakes as backup.

The NMMA standards I refered to only concerm original equiptment manufacturers. The people that build the boats are held to this standard. The aftermarket manufacturers(Garmin,Furano,Etc.) are not held to this standard.

Seasquirrel The wiring in your Volvo should match the new side of the wiring code I posted. That's what NMMA is all about , all manufacturers use the same color code after about 1991.

You don't mention the year and model of your sterndrive,but maybe this will help. I replaced the tilt/trim senders on my Merc Alpha 1 Gen II a couple of years ago, so I have the wiring diagram. There is a different wiring code for older and newer(NMMA) wiring. Both old and new- Black-Ground trim up switch---old-blue new-lt. blue/white trim down switch--old-green new-green/white trim sender to trim guage old- purple new-brown /white (probably your tan) ignition switch- old-white new-purple trim trailer switch- old-purple new-purple/white You may not have all of these if you don't have the trailer trim. Hope this helps. Mark

Just wanted to update a previous post. Took the boat out on the St. Lawrence this PM. Put about 2 hours on the new sterndrive. No issues,very smooth shifting and quiet. Needs 5 hour break-in before I can exceed 3500 RPM. So far I am very pleased with this product.

Meatal clips on Roemers? You must have older models,all the Roemers I have use a plastic trigger. Speaking of Roemers, do any of you tackle dealers on this site know if Roemer is still in business? I am having trouble finding the Roemer release, Cabelas says they are discontinued and the Roemer website is down. Say it aint so, been using them for years.

Daun, Thanks for keeping us up to date on the bait question. The Gander I was referring to is in watertown NY. The manager at that time was Mitch and I gave him a computer print out of the ORIGINAL Fish On bait Co.,he ordered direct from them and had bait (of questionable quality) for one season only. After that he was unable to get any product.Freezer has stood empty for two years. I have seen a reference to a product called BTB (better than bait) any info on this alternative? Mark

Does anyone have any experience with the sterndrives supplyed by SEI? I had a run in with a rock on my last trip out last Oct. and devestated my Mercruiser Alpha 1 Gen II sterndrive. I did a great deal of searching on the web for used/rebuilt sterndrives. The best deal I found was the NEW sterndrives offered by SEI out of Fla. Is this too good to be true??? I hope for positive response because I purchased one!!! I will post my experiences when I get the old girl back in the water.

Just want to address the "fish on bait". I was in contact with the previous owners 3 years ago. I sent bait heads to them so that they could make their cut bait fit the heads. I was assured by Tim that the company had purchased a machine to cut the herring strips to a consistant thickness and that I would be given a supply to test. I also gave my local Gander Mountain manager the contact information to stock fish on products,which he did.The last time I was there the freezer supplied by fish on was still in their bait shop(empty). The story in NY is that the fish on products were not available. I feel that this company has made a lot of claims and promises and has not lived up to any. I feel bad that I asked Gander Mountain to stock this product(I imagine the cost of freezer and initial supply of bait was substantial). I for one will wait for Rhys Davis.

I am starting to get the fishing itch. Does anyone have any information on the status of Rhys Davis cut bait strips? I hope they will be available this season. My supply is getting low!!!

I have used Roemers for many years on both coated and bare cable with no issues. The Roemer does not appear to damage the coated cable or affect the performance of the temp probe.

Kingfish, First of all let me say thanks for being a soldier. You are all heroes in my book. The cut bait program seems to be at a standstill due to the rules governing bait, because of the new invasive virus,VHS. I hope this all shakes out soon, cut bait is by far the best way I have found to target large Kings. Cut bait is generally pre packed and frozen herring strips cut into a pennant shape and inserted into a plastic bait head and trolled behind a large flasher to give it a rolling action. When all other lures(spoons, flies, Etc.) slow down in mid day, cut bait, in my experience continues to catch fish. All the biggest kings I have caught have come on bait. The biggest to date is a 35# pig caught last season on Mexico Bay. I hope this has helped. Mark

I use a device called the Elberta Clip'r . it is spring loaded and attaches to your line anywhere you want it. When a fish hits the spring tension releases and the clip'r slides down to your main lure. I bought them at All Season's in Pulaski. I'll never go back to a free slider again.