muskiedreams

Those kind of lures are used a lot for deep river jigging. Typically 15 to 20 fow.jigging just off bottom or dragging along bottom. You can also cast and jig or swim them toward the boat. Easiest to use with a baitcast rod and reel. Reel should be a musky size reel spooled up with 50 to 80 lb test braid. Power Pro is good.You can get away with a 7.5 ft med heavy to 8 or 9 ft heavy musky rod. Sometimes people troll with them but not usually. You will need extra long nose pliers and hook cutters. Other lure suggestions are large (6"+) spinners, spinnerbaits,and spoons. A few crankbaits in the same size range that you can troll or cast and twitch might also come in handy.

I assume you have gone through the break in period and followed the break in instructions since the motor will probably not give peak performance until broken in. I looked at the operator's manual for my Evinrude 15HP 4 stroke that I use for a kicker. In the installation instructions, it says that the anti-ventilation plate must be no higher than the boat's bottom and no lower than 2" below it when the angle is parallel with the bottom of the boat. i found the operator manual for your motor online but it doesn't go into any detail on mounting. I did do a little more research and found that it may vary depending on the boat and motor. Here is a You Tube link to a video where a guy was trying different heights and aluminum vs ss prop with a Yamaha 90 hp. In that you can see that the anti-ventilation plate is a little above the bottom of the hull. But it may depend on the hull or how flat the hull is at the transom and how high the hull is in the water when it is on plane. There is a few other You Tube videos there that you might want to look at. So changing the height may or may not make a difference. Doing it takes some time and you will probably have to reseal the bolt holes. It seems like Starcraft should already know what the optimum setup is for that motor on that boat including height and prop. Especially if is normally equipped at the factory that way. A good question might be: What motor is this boat normally equipped with from the factory? OR: How many of these boats have they shipped with this motor? (since there might be choices available). I would think that they have already done the testing to determine the best setup if it is a standard configuration. If so, they should be able to tell you the standard motor mounting specifications and what prop it should be equipped with so you can verify that it is all correct on your boat. I wonder if adding the bow mount and deep cycle batteries would have an effect on it but I wouldn't think it would make that much difference. Maybe it would make sense to try a 19 pitch prop. It would be easy enough to try. If the boat gets on plane real quick with the 17 pitch, that may be an indication that the 19 pitch would be more suitable. If it seems to be having a hard time getting traction at first or right after it planes out, maybe that would be an indication that the motor needs to be lowered.

Thank you for sharing. They are truly amazing photos and should be award winning. I had to pass the link along to the NMA members. It reinforces my respect for Lake Erie and all the GREAT Lakes.

You must like those eels!

Nice fish Dan. Looks like Chautauqua was the place to be today.

Nice Chad Looks like that may have been either the first of the day or the last.

The definition of upstream is against the current. I like going downstream or cross current more than upstream. You can generally cover more water that way. You need to change trolling motor speed when you change directions to compensate for current. Also, lures will go deeper downstream than they will upstream and action will change. For colder water slower is generally better. So the lures you use need to have good action at slower speeds. Going upstream you may need to use lures that run better at faster speeds. If you see big fish arches in an area (better if there is also bait), keep pounding the area. Make changes in speed, depth, trolling angles and maybe lures. Sometimes all it takes is a turn or change in speed at the right time to convert a follower to a strike. Sometimes when bottom comes up and you think you are going to snag, that snag ends up being a fish. If it makes you feel any better, there were others out there that day who got skunked. After all it is musky fishing but the more time you put in, the more success you will have. We got lucky. There are many times we get skunked and I consider it a success to get one fish. Anglers who spend a lot of time on the water do better than us but they even get into a slump once in a while.

Ryan, That is a lot of distance to cover. I fished East River with Mr. Toothy on Wed. 10:30 to dark. Nice day to be out there. I got a 39"er dragging a ROB tube about Noon. Mr. Toothy got one about 37" pulling a Mr. Toothy about 1:30. That was it for the day. Both were between Strawberry Isl. and S. Grand Island Br.

Very nice.

Yes. Also need to make sure shafts are ok.

Nice!! The trip paid off.

The colors and pattern on that last one looks more like a purebred musky except for the rounded tips of the fins and also the fact that only tigers are stocked there. In waters that have both, it can sometimes be hard to identify a fish correctly. That is why the regs are the same for both in waters that have both.