Mickey Finn

Islander owners,

I have a 95 221v Islander and when you fill the live well the boat really leans to the port side. Would trim tabs fix this? Have you ever experienced this? I too was thinking of trim tabs to stabilize the boat.(I've moved people around to level boat out ). Starcraft Islander is the best boat I've ever owned. Great on fuel and catches a ton of fish!!! Adk1 please keep us informed in what you decide to do. Thanks.

Jay

Trim tabs should take care of that problem, if you get the correct size, but only when the boat is on plane. They will not help when not on plane.

Use the boat for a while before you decide to add them. They can be a help getting on plane for an underpowered or overloaded boat but I don't think you will have any issues with that V6. The other thing they do for you is level the boat when on plane if you have more weight on one side of the boat but this is really more of a comfort thing. You can always tell someone to move to the other side of the boat if its not running level. I'd see how she handles first and go from there. If you don't need them, then there's no need drilling more holes in your transom.

Main Duck is actually in Canada. Some of the boats from Henderson do fish on the US side of the border off Main Duck. They fish between the border and the wall West of Galloo Island.

21 pounds is an awesome Coho! 30 boats is pretty good for Saturday of Labor Day Weekend. I've seen over 100 boats in there on that weekend several times.

Did Starcraft make some different style Islanders during the same years? I've noticed a few of them like this one with no side windows in the cabin, shorter front cabin windows and short sides to the windshield. I've also seen several with what appears to be a higher cabin with side windows and longer sides on the windshield. I've been looking at a 1989 with the side windows in the cabin.

OK, definately don't get one with a 115. Guess I better put a for sale sign on mine right now and head down to get me a 250. I don't know how I've been getting by.

One word of advise on buying a used Starcraft and this probably goes for most brands, especially aluminum. Check the transom very good for rot. Look in the motor well where the bottom of the well meets the transom. If there are cracks there, the transom is likely rotten and flexing, causing those cracks. Find access to the inside of the transom, take a small flat blade screw driver and poke at the plywood, especially near any bolts that come through from the outside, such as those holding on the motor, trolling motor, swim platforms, and such. A good percentage of the older aluminum boats I've checked have some rot in them and need new plywood in the transom.

If you want a boat that will go 50+ MPH, then do not get one with a 115. It won't happen. Mine does somewhere in the mid 30's loaded with all my gear but I can't tell for sure because I never do it. I usually run in the low to mid 20's if the sea conditions will allow me to. You'll need very good seats or a neck brace if you are going to run 50+ on Lake O. I assume you are looking for a Lake O boat, seeing as you are talking about fishing kings. I assure you that a 115, especially one of the newer models will push that 19 or 20 foot aluminum boat at 35 MPH or more, plus it will troll down better, cost less, use less fuel and weigh less. Just depends on what you want the boat for.

I'm running a 2008 115 Nissan on my 22 foot Starcraft Holiday and it does a nice job. It had a 1989 150 Evinrude on it before. This motor does just as good a job and uses half the fuel. I had 5 of us on the boat a week ago including one guy near 300 pounds. She hesitated a little but put us on plane. It won't go as fast as your 225 though.

I'm not sure that all downrigger rod holders would take the pressure? Depends on the rigger and rod holder, I'd say.

30# FF is twisty stuff. Never liked it. Either drop to 20# FF which doen't twist as bad or just go with 30# regular mono, like Trilene Big Game.

Braided line is pretty bad for fleas. I have used the flea-flicker line from Cortland and it's ok but it twists a lot. I didn't really like it. Now I just use 30 pound big game line and it's not that bad. They have a harder time clinging to the larger diameter line. I use a 20 pound flourocarbon leader.

Swapped my Cannons for Scottys 5 or 6 years ago. That was the end of failed auto-stop circuit boards for me. I'd never go back. So far all the Scottys have done is keep on working! Have had no problems with them.

I still had this bookmarked from the reading I was doing last season. It's pretty informative: http://www.lowrance.com/Support/Tips-an ... -Tutorial/

Was just going to post that one. Beat me to it.

http://www.decalsplusofmaine.com/boat%20names.htm

Just came across this site. Check it out. Looks like for $25 plus shipping you could get Name and port of call. Thats the link to the boat page. Here's the main page: http://www.decalsplusofmaine.com/

The Lowrance transducers don't last that long. I've replaced quite a few of them. The word is: get an Airmar tranducer for it. They are a little more money but work much better and last much longer.

If you do it, make sure you do a good job sealing around the bolt holes. Every hole you drill through that transom is a place for water to get in and rot it. I've seen a few rotten transoms due to swim platforms.

I use one now but fished for years without one. Some of the best charter captians I know on the lake don't own one. Cable angle and GPS speed indication will give you what you need. I'm fishing anywhere from 1.5 (lakers) up to 3.0 (other species) on my GPS. Just have to watch that cable angle. I always used my port side rigger as my speed indicator as it was the easiest one to see from my seat. Just have to keep telling everyone in the boat to get out of the way so you can see it. Also having weight evenly distributed in the boat so that it doesn't list to one side makes it easier to consistantly monitor the cable angle. As previously mentioned, keep those cables running straight behind to boat.

Wow, not the kind of stuff I expect to see on a site like this. All the guys in those boats are pumping money into the East End economy. They are paying money for lisences that put the very fish we catch in the lake. I guess this all comes down to what a guy's real interests are. Your own cooler or the fishery? I guess we could keep the good fishing secret but then who's going to by the licenses and lodging and food and gas that keep the fishery strong and the economy of the local area going? Then, these same guys would be complaining that not enough fish are being stocked. And yes, I'm and East End Fisherman. And if not for a family illness, I'd be one of those boats out there in your way.

Richard, you beat me too it. I was just posting that same link. I used the smaller one. Used stainless fasteners and marine sealant.

This one took lures off two different rods on two different riggers last summer.

Most of us notice that the depth raider and sub-troll both will indicate .5 MPH slower than GPS. You can check this by putting your probe in the water just a foot or two and compare them when trolling on a calm day. It's not that important that they match. It's more important to be able to get your speed the same using the probe. I just keep it in the back of my mind that the probe reads about .5 slower.

When I had my Cannons, I swapped the 150 footers out for 300 footers. I'm not sure if I noticed a big difference in performance but keep in mind that with the larger diameter of the full spool, your actual depth will be a little deeper than it was with the smaller spool of cable. In other words, each time the spool goes around, advancing your counter by 1, you will have let out more cable than in the past. I haven't swapped the ones on my Scotty's. I think the came with either 200 or 250 feet.

which probe is best?

Oh god! Here we go again. This has been the source of many many conversations/aguments on this site but it's a great question. They all work well. I have the Depth Raider and it works well for me.

Get wingers for the outside riggers... You'll hardly ever have tangles. Run the middle riggers deep and the outside riggers with wingers shallower. We figure that at 100 feet down, the wingers run about 15 feet shallower than the riggers without wingers. You lose around 10 feet of depth on blow back, and probably another 15 with the wingers. I simply subtract 20-25 feet on the wingers and that's where I estimate the weights are actually running in the water column.

The only time you'll need to be careful is when/if you try to run all four riggers with paddles and flies. Keep your leads short (10 feet) and you should be fine. I was trying to run mine with long leads and getting tangles. I shortened them up, and ended up catching more fish and having little to no tangles.

Just about exactly what I was going to say. My boat is 8 feet wide. I run my back riggers on an angle so that they are right at the corners with 8 feet of seperation. Then I run my outside riggers fully extended with wingers. I might run a little lighter weights than some of these guys but it works fine for me. Here is what I'm running: I put a 12 pound ball on my deepest rigger which is my port center rigger. On the other center rigger I have a 13 pound torpedo under my probe. When fishing deeper than say 100 feet, I run 13 pound torpedoes on my side riggers under the wingers. To get more seperation when running shallow, I put 10 pound torpedoes on the wingers instead of the 13's. I do usually run the center ones deeper. For a "V" up pattern, I'll set the outside riggers at the same depth as the center rigger next to it or maybe 5 or 10 feet above it depending on depth, remembering that the wingers will make them run higher anyway. I do sometimes run the wingers below the center riggers and I don't worry about tangles because of the extra spread created by the wingers when you push them down deeper. Sometimes this works well if the fish seem a little spooky by giving me more seperation between my two deepest rigs. Oh yes, and make sure you use crimpless terminators. The added stress caused by the wingers will cause cables to break in the crimps which is big bucks!