greenhornet73

I hope the wind cooperates for you guys.  I’m heading back out Monday, let us know how you do!

I can’t stress enough to occasionally jerk the rod or give it a steady pull then drop back motion during mid-troll.  You’ll grab those followers that otherwise may not strike a steadily moving lure.  I learned this trolling spinnerbaits and bucktails for pike and muskies in Ottawa.

I ran a third quart of oil through the crankcase today to make sure all of the gas/oil mixture was out and filled it with good oil. Fired it up and ran it for 10 minutes on almost half throttle with muffs on.  Checked the oil after and was perfectly clean and level didn’t change.  I’ll run it on the lake this weekend but for now it seems replacing the thermostat did the trick.  Thanks everyone for all the input. If anything changes over the weekend I will post it to help anyone in the future with the same problem.

I replaced the thermostat and changed the oil twice.  Will fill again tonight and run it and post what I find.

Seriously, makes my transom look like a car top boat!

I’ve been experimenting with different setups each time out and have caught fish each time.  So far it is one rod that takes the most hits on each trip. One day it was a planer board flat line with crank bait, next time was a 1 color with a spoon, and last time out was the downrigger but over deeper water which makes sense.  The one constant is that I have been running every line on one side of the boat instead of spreading them over a larger area.

I really hope not

It is not an EFI model

I’m going to talk to the marina where I bought it used last spring and see what they say.  I trailered it all last season and didn’t have a problem so something has happened this spring.  If the thermostat doesn’t do it then I’ll bring it in for service.

2 hours ago, Sean Youngblood said:

https://www.walleyecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96806#:~:text=The valves on the motor have'nt seated themselves,it at speed and they should seat themselves.

Interesting conversation in there that is very pertinent to my situation. I trailer long distances with the motor down and also only troll with it at fairly low speeds.  It doesn’t have a lot of hours on it and I can’t imagine it could have a cracked head gasket or anything serious like that so soon.  I’m going to change the oil and thermostat this week and disconnect the fuel line when I trailer it on my next trip out and keep an eye on the oil while I’m out there.  Thanks guys for all the possible factors that might be causing this.

Yeah, last night I thought condensation because it was milky but the level wasn’t much higher. Today it poured out when I pulled the dipstick after running it over an hour on the lake. It was running fine but wanted to keep an eye on it.  Definitely smells like gas in there.

21 minutes ago, 13owhunter said:

If you got a bunch of water in there and think the thermostat will take care of the problem, it would be a good idea to do a second oil change after one trip to make sure you get it all out.  Personally, I would do a third after another couple more trips just to check it.    You could also change it, get it up to temp and run for a bit on muffs or barrel and then change again right after.  No reason not to run cheap dino oil for this purpose.

Yep, that’s exactly what I plan on doing. Really hope that’s all it was.

When I pulled the dipstick the oil started running out meaning it was collecting water so I shut it down.  Looking it up online it appears this is typical for a failed thermostat that is stuck open.

I have had bad luck with PLine fluoro as well and only use Seaguar and Yozuri for leaders, same for saltwater.  

The thermostat was open when I pulled it out this morning before starting so I suspect it is stuck open.  It “made oil” during this mornings trip so I shut it down and ran my main instead.

The wind forecast was correct today and I finally got out again.  Started at 8am and fished shallow inside the chocolate water and out to the midline with no hits for 1.5 hrs.  Decided to slide out deeper for kings and saw a good mark at 35’ so I worked that area for rest of the morning.  My downrigger with the MVP of the day purple clown took all the fish but 1 that came unbuttoned on a planer board with 1 color and UV Die Hard. Landed 3 browns and 1 screamer 29’ down over 44fow.  There was a pod of 6 or 7 and thankfully I didn’t double up because it took 20 minutes to land it on my med light action rod and 12# leader.  Went about 15# and 31”.  What a blast watching it do acrobatics 150’ behind the boat after it peeled over 100’ of line out on the strike.  The Coast Guard went out on a call but went out of viewing distance,  not sure what the situation was but couldn’t pick up anything on my radio besides the weather.  Great day on the water, didn’t even pay attention to the rain.

Thanks, good to know. I’ll check it tomorrow.

I’m reading about it and I’m wondering if this is normal from condensation since I have only been trolling with it at low rpm’s since I have been slow trolling in cold weather under 2.5 mph at all times.  Am I going to damage the motor running it like this if that’s the case or will it burn off if I run it faster?

I have a 2021 Mercury 4 stroke 9.9 I use for trolling.  I just checked the oil before going out tomorrow and the oil looked like milk running off the dipstick.  I’ve ran it twice this spring and it has been running fine.   I ran it all year last year and never saw the oil look like this.  What is it?

The wind was out of the south today for the most part correct?   I’m still trying to find the sweet spot where I can fish solo and still maintain boat control with my trolling motor autopilot.  E and W is manageable but anything from the North at 10mph or better sends me in circles.  I’m giving it a shot Sunday and hoping I can last a few hours at least.

On 4/10/2024 at 3:39 PM, HB2 said:

I fish a little most every day , sometimes 3 times a day , certain times of the year .

 

Sometimes it's great and sometimes  it's not . 

 

When it's really good ,  it can become quite tiresome hauling all those big fish in . When the kings are in I got tendonitis in my left elbow 3 years in a row .

 

But I guess we all have our crosses to bear . 

That’s funny, I get tendinitis in my forearm every fall.  I finally stopped going to Physical Therapy now that I know what to do when it starts up and nip it in the bud.

You should definitely fry a batch of those in my Mountain Dew Fish fry from the recipe section.

That’s a pile of really nice perch!

Nice job, I love fishing the skinnier water and definitely have to be stealthy.  Looks like a section of Orwell I used to fish years ago.

😳.  I’m feeling a sick call coming on