G-Daddy

On our first outing of this spring, my son and I took our Sportcraft 252 to the Chesapeake for some striper fishing. We also took a couple of my grandkids along anticipating a good day on the water. We just got to the area to set up a trolling spread and my son reached for the throttle control to get us down to idle speed. Just as he touched the control handle the engine died - just like someone had hit the keyswitch. We cranked a couple of times, but no start. Everything that worked through the ignition switch was dead. Everything else worked - GPS, VHF, Sonar etc. I could see there was nothing I could do to perform an on-the-water repair, so I called the TowBoatUS number. It took about two hours for the towboat to reach us and another 4 hours for them to tow us the 24 miles back to the launch. They made sure I had the boat securely on the trailer before they departed for their home port.

Turns out the guy we bought the boat from had bypassed the kill switch and had spliced in a piece of automotive wire with no heat shrink or anything else to protect the wires. The wire parted at one of the butt connectors and we were dead in the water.

I have the unlimited towing package and am certainly glad for that. I received my copy of the towing invoice and BoatUS paid $1,480 for that tow. Since my waters are the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay and coastal Atlantic, I pay $125 per year for unlimited towing. You do the math.

Our favorite port on Lake Ontario is the Oak, and they also have a TowBoatUS service. I can recommend them as cheap insurance if you ever need them.

We have the 585 and have found that we get blobs on the 200hz setting and arches on the 50hz setting.

We were real rookies when we made a trip last August. We had added a subtroll and used it more for the temp than down speed. One day we found a temp break and just kep moving back and forth working the break. We picked up al lot of fish including two 20+ kings and a 14 lb steelhead. Knowing the temps was better for us than speed.

We have stayed at the Lakeview Motel several times. Very fisherman and boat friendly.

We dragged our Sportcraft 252 8 hours from home to Wilson last spring. Son was running the boat as we started setting lines. Said this thing is getting hot what should I do. Shut her down. Checked to make sure raw water pump was working - still getting hot. Got back to ramp, puller her out, went back to hotel. Pulled the thermostat and started her up on water in a bucket from a hose. Engine circulating pump started squealing this time. Dragged the boat back home and changed the engine circulating pump. Boat has been running fine ever since. So the engine circulating pump can go bad, but so can lots of other things that can cause an overheat.

Feeder Creek Lodge is only about 5 miles. The VanWormers are great people.

Otter Boats don't take up as much room as these: http://www.downtimecharters.com/Ideas/P ... ns2010.pdf

We use 4 Uni-Trolls on our boat. Last season I was only 62 years old, but Ibuprofin was my friend. On a four-day trip the first three were ok, but that fourth day my body was aching from all the cranking. I'm thinking my 13 year old grandson needs to learn the joys of running the riggers.

I used two of the 15 lb fish shaped weights last season and had no problems to 140 ft. Used them right of the corner riggers and they tracked straight. I had one on my probe rigger for the Subtroll. I bought them off this board, but do not remember who the seller was.

Virginia has a requirement that all boat operators under age 40 must pass a safety course by July 2013. Older age groups are gradually phased in until July 2016 when all boat operators, regardless of age, must have a boater safety card by July 2016. Boat safety is a good thing.

Our boat is at BOE Marine for installation of a B164 right now. It's a tilted array model that is at 20°. Our deadrise is 17° so it will be close. We are pairing it with a Furuno FCV-585. Hope it works as well as Jim says it will.

There are great boats and there are great captains. Having fished with several great captains on Lake O, I must say that Bill is one of them. As you would expect, a great captain has great equipment, and Billy V is a great piece of equipment.

I second BOE Marine. Jim really knows his stuff. Our Sportcraft is there now for installation of a thru hull and FCV-585.

Yup - this site is great. Best advice on a fishing forum anywhere.

Yes - the pedestal has a mounting plate on top. Used shorter mounting bolts for the swivel base. We do check the set screws for the pedestal base in the track several times each day but so far no problems. You can crank the traxstech setscrews pretty tight with an allen wrench.

We have 48" Traxstech and use the 4" risers with Canon swivel mounts. This combo works for us.

I really enjoyed last year's seminars with Capts Ron and Pete. Both were great guys who spent time with me in the store after their seminars.

Granddaughters flounder fishing

Another granddaughter flounder fishing

Grandson with a Chesapeake Bay striper

Grandson with his first big King

There is a common mistake of referring the the process of galvanic corrosion as electrolysis. Technically, electrolysis is a process used to drive a chemical reaction that would not normally occur. In galvanic corroision, a less noble (anode) metal will corrode when in contact with a more noble (cathode) metal in the presence of an electrical current. That is the concept behind sacrificial anodes on boats. The process is that the anode (less noble metal - aluminum spool) will disolve into the electrolyte (saltwater) and deposit onto the cathode (more noble metal - stainless steel wire) in the presence of direct current. So, you could reasonably expect to clean and dry your reels to prevent galvanic corrosion. Another technique would be to isolate the metals and that could be accomplished by application of an anti-corrosion spray such as BoeShield or CRC.

It was a good summer - even a bunch of rookies like us could have a good trip.

We put mats on the deck of our Sportcraft. We like them for the cushioning you get on your feet and when dropping stuff on the deck. They also provide better footing than the gelcoated nonskid of the boat deck. There is a downside and that is cleaning up the deck during a day of fishing. They do catch dirt and debris.

We took the green Sportcraft to the Chesapeake for its last dunking of the 2011 season on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. We had a breakoff and caught a 33" striper on Friday. The fall season size limit is (2) fish 18" - 28" except one of the two can be over 34", so the 33 incher went back. On Saturday we caught three in the size limit like this one:

The big fish was this 42" fish that weighed in at 33 pounds. Largest fish of any species that we have caught on this boat.

Now the long winter wait begins. Looking forward to spring striper fishing and our summer trip(s) to that fantastic fishery on Lake Ontario.

One of the largest real estate operations in the Marcellus Shale region is Range Resources. You can see completed well reports including additives in the fracking water here:

http://www.rangeresources.com/getdoc/50 ... ports.aspx

Still using the bilge heater on ours. We hope to get a couple of bay trips in for fall stripers next month.