Fat Trout

this is true and here's something to consider for all....especially knowlegeable private boat captains. I had 3 guys on my boat for the last 2 days. Normally I'm solo /+1 knowledgeable. If you have more guys, you run more stuff and try to be the good guy and teach and "try" to reliquish some control to not be a dick. more explanations, more rigging while you or someone is driving. Tough conditions the last few days in Mexico and I was pushing to get fish. I had zero problems...BUT i approached a few and that was with minimal traffic so my guard was down. **** was deep so "I knew" how long people were running lines.....but my guys didn't understand it despite how much I explained. I have a good sized but smaller boat, my fuel burn is low which i appreciate. This years weather perhaps I don't appreciate so much lol. I know a lot of private boat guys with bigger boats who have a greater (soooo understandable) need for folks to come and help and help with fuel etc. I totally get that and its hard to keep the "good" guys always coming with you. I had no problems, fixed it all and a few times I had to jump in and correct abruptly (a few times) after stating the need clearly (I thought) but your head is on a swivel. In heavy traffic I would have dropped my rod count and type accordingly. Not all think that way and need to do so ....burden especially on knowledgeable captains. Safety is #1 for me and I hope for all but its easy to get distracted. my guys all are good with my super curt and abrupt commands and I warn them in advance but it can be hard to give your buddys both some level of control some level of learning and not be a total dick. Autopilot only makes that more challenging (easy to think all is well). keep teaching...keep correcting....and keep learning as the responsible captains we want us all to be. Oh and its still OK to be pissed at BS when it happens...even if its you....no excuses here. Told my guys a couple times....can't go where we want...have to spin and circle back if we want to go there now.

True, but anything you hear helps. That and if you know nothing start at lets say 125 in your guessed area (north or west) and troll out to 200+ looking for marks of interest and circle that a time or 2 and keep going. If you have a spoon line down on a rigger drop a free slider with 6 ft of lead. I get steelhead and salmon on that free slider a lot. One day I got a nice steelhead on a meat rig deep and a really nice salmon on the free slider with a spoon with color intended for a steelhead so you never know. If winds seem to bring in / up temperature don't be afraid to stop at 100. I've stopped short, observed high cold temp and picked up kings this way the last few years in early july.

Typically west as in off of the plant or west of the plant (ie radio tower). Seems to be what Im hearing (currently) although its always variable and in summer (generally) scattered when out of mexico....sometimes good sometimes not. Sometimes more north off of the south/north pond can be good....but when its not its a wasteland when not good (for salmon). Regardless out of mexico can be a crap shoot in june/july just depending on unknowns and winds. Sorry to be vauge, I'm a long time Mexico guy and it just is what it is. Generally guys out of oswego do better in this time fishing a little east of there or having ability to go a bit west.

Heres a pic of mine from a couple years ago that i had on my phone. Looks about the same

A few things for you as I have a 196 with 150 main and 9.9 on the port side, both yamaha and have been running it for 4 years. Its still a small light boat and will be sensitive to weight distribution. driver and passenger, batteries on both sides, kicker on one side....she leans. Clockwise rotation of the prop provides torque that I think doesn't help but I've never gotten into that. Regarding ease of turning right or left, if you mean at speed, thats prop torque, I'd suggest not to sweat it. If she wants to steer and not go straight when you let go of the wheel, thats what that annode tab you have pictured above is for (vs solving lean) Great boat, great platform, No doubt Starcraft mailed in in on some things which I felt were entirely stupid or under done. I made changes that make me happy. I don't know how much they could do to prevent leaning but they definitely didn't do anything other than hope the overall width was enough (I think). They have users who don't use kickers too so short of them putting tabs on not sure what they could do that would be universal. I definitely could see why folks would put tabs on. Here's what I see running my boat. As I am now, when I run the boat by myself (solo). No leaning. When my buddy is with me....im 175, he's 220....it leans a bit and yeah I don't love that but as it is now its tolerable. When I have a 3rd person I have them behind me driving....no lean. For record I have (2) Size 27 batteries up front. a size 29 on the port rear and a 27 on the starboard rear. I run by myself a lot, when my wife is with me I have her lift the arm rest and sit more toward centerline. Things I have done 1) I put a tube sand under the driver dash in that forward storage compartment and shoved it as far Starboard as it will go. I feel that helped. 2) I store my spare downrigger sharks on top of the above tube tube sand 3) I trim up (as mentioned earlier) as that helps. Things I am thinking of doing 1) when the size 29 port side battery needs to be replaced I may go Lithium on that one battery. In retrospect I wish I had shifted the battery box toward centerline originally but I did so much wiring work before season 1 that I really didn't want to mess with it again for a while. 2) I may pull the washdown pump and shift that battery as far toward centerline as possible. I don't use the washdown and never will. I have not gone down the road of tabs because I hate any more holes in boats than necessary. That and I'll be pissed forever if I ever cut a fish off on the edge of a tab. Also, theres this stupid frigging emergency fold down foot hold to climb back aboard that they put on the port size right about where I'd want to put a tab. They put that in an area that can't be accessed from the bilge / back side (separate compartment) so I'm hesitant to mess with that. BTW, I pulled the backwall plate in the back of the splashwall floor storage and cut in in half and put it back in there like that so I can away get into my bilge in some way at any time via the storage opening. I like having that option vs only via the black screw lids in the actual splash well.

I saw right away with mine that tilting the 9.9 up all the way created stresses on cables etc so i just dont do it. I have a similar if not same setup. Although the linksge doestlnt hit the splashwell tilted full up. I tilt it just enough to keep it out of the water running and thats it. When ttrailering i have it nearly all the way down since clearance is fine and thats the least stress on the transom regardless of the linkage.

I got a 9 lb walleye trolling cut bait last year out of mexico. you never know lol

Regarding the head support. For what its worth ive got 8 seasons on mine on two boats and i dont bother. I did at first for long trailering with a simple wood block and bungee. It just doesnt bounce much in a concerning way in the lake or moderate trailering. Ive rebuilt the motor once even and probably have 7 or 800 hours on mine total but head weight and bouncing isnt an issue.

Gen 1 probe picture for reference if it helps.

Yeah so Im going to challenge you on that a little. We all want free speech right? Its a topic these days in the news at a larger level. Hell I agree with the guy you are arguing against......perhaps not his approach. However I also agree the OP has the right to post. You don't like the flack. Don't post. You don't like the posts.....look away. either way deal with it. If you want to shut someone down because they have a (strong) opinion.....well consider how far that can go.

@Low BallerIf you still want info on a 2 battery system I can send you a pic of my wiring diagram. I researched the heck out of it and it was a pain in the ass to fully sort out. I'm 4 seasons into using it and all seems well. I have a 2 battery system with ON/OFF/ALL switch. ACR (Automatic Charging Relay). I run 2 DRs, fishhawk, house power, radio etc. My 9.9 has is a T model Yamaha so it has a good alternator for charging. I have the main going to one battery, the 9.9 going to the other and the ACR balances the charging of the 2. To your question on DRs and other stuff. I have one DR on each battery and no interference that I can identify with DR use. I also have a few pics. When you have this much stuff I found that using a buss bar is better than gang piling too many things on the battery terminals. Even then I still added a lug for the post of the battery so I could use the screwed post and the other one. My interconnect wires are large and sealed at the ends and all connection terminals were sprayed with battery terminal connector spray.