Mikeyman104

I still consider myself very green when it comes to trolling, but I've has pretty good success near the bottom in 70-90 FOW pulling cowbells and spin n glos for lakers. This is always a bit of an adventure as the lake has some pretty significant depth changes that can sneak up on you, so make sure to adjust the riggers as needed and not get snagged. Down speed around 1.7-2.0 mph and if you don't have a probe, usually was around 2.3-ish on the gps speed.

When I took it out the boat out for a ride (ran a couple miles at about 4000 RPM), I didn't get any alarms or beeps, so hoping it was ok and not running hot. Once she got running, the flow improved. Maybe it's normal for these motors? Either way figured it'd be good to replace the impeller (till i messed it up ) Also had to google what a poppet valve is, where it's at, and what it does. Looks like a pain to get to.

Thought about this as well. Once that gasket got chewed up, I was worried about it getting lodged up in the thermostat or elsewhere in the system. I flushed it afterward it got chewed up, but thinking about replacing the thermostats just in case.

Thanks all! Cleaned out the pee hole with some weedeater string. That worked great so thank you for the recommendation. Unfortunately it still wasn't spitting but I at least knew that was clean. Took the lower unit back off and gasket was all torn up again. Watched some more YouTube and looks like I had the gasket order on wrong, so user error. Got another kit on order. Tried to flush everything out best I could. Also turns out this new motor has its own flush port, so ran some water in there for a bit too. Hopefully I'll put it together correctly next time 😆 (instructions are just someone else's opinion)

I recently picked up a new to me boat, a 2001 Starcraft 196 Superfisherman with a 2004 150 Mercury Optimax on it. When the guy was showing me the boat, he hooked up some muffs and I noticed how it took a while for it to start peeing but eventually it started to flow ok. Fast forward to my first outing with the boat and pretty much same thing was going on. Starts with a trickle but then gets going ok. I chalked it up to needing a new water pump, so I tossed a new one on tonight and then put the muffs on it. Nothing comes out. Makes me super nervous running it without any water coming out of the tell tale so I shut her off and pulled the lower unit back off. Guessing I did something wrong with the install cause one of the gaskets got chewed up so I tossed the old one back on. Hooked the muffs up again but she still wasn't spitting. Maybe a piece of gasket clogged everything up? I pulled the tell tale tube off and blew through it and it seemed fine. Anyway to clean out the system?

Update on the Ol girl: Took her to a shop and she had bad compression on the middle cylinder. 120/80/110 PSI on the cylinders from top to bottom. Could have done a rebuild or a motor swap, but figured it might just be time to move on from the ol leaky girl as I think the fixes/repairs were going to cost more than what it is was worth. Posted and sold on facebook so now in the market for a new to me boat.

Thanks all! My biggest worry right now is the low compression as I did use the screw in type compression tester and it was a brand new one right from the box so hopefully that isn't the issue. All plugs were pulled during the test but I can turn the flywheel with my hand so it's not overly difficult to turn. The starter struggles with it though but might be the battery? I did try 2 batteries to start it, but only 1 was a starting battery so might be the issue with the hard cranking. I had the starting battery on a charger for the last 2 days so I'll give this a quick look to see if she at least turns better. If she does, I'll give her another compression test and hope they are around 90psi. If so, then I'll replace all the coils. I suppose worse case could be that the original stalling was tied to the fuel/oil pump on this thing and now the low compression is because they weren't getting oil and fried themselves? I obviously hope not, but does it kind of makes sense? Apologize for all the "if" "and" and "buts" about my testing and diagnosis here. First time diving into this motor so have been watching a lot of youtube and greatly appreciate all the insight above! Wife has been saying it might be time to take it somewhere for service. I'm not at that point yet, but am starting to lean that way

Thanks all for the input! Much appreciated! On Friday I ended up replacing the top cylinder ignition coil and power pack (found the power pack on Amazon warehouse so was a pretty good deal so figured why not replace it?). Run the motor in the driveway with the muffs on and seemed to run good. Took it out on Seneca today launching from Sampson. Made it about halfway across the lake and she just died. Was cruising at about 28mph and right down she went. No bang, or any odd noise like something breaking, but was able to get it going again after a bit and headed back toward Sampson only for her to die again. Couldn't get her running again and she was starting to turn over harder. Got back to the launch with the kicker and trolling motor so no real harm. Got it home and pulled all plugs and didn't see anything noticeable. Tested compression on all cylinders and was at about 50psi for all 3 so something bad happened. She toast?

Very impressive collection of plaques and trophies above! Well done all! Here's to hoping that someone on here wins some more shiny hardware and cash this weekend! Meanwhile, only cool thing I've gotten at this derby is an anchor we caught with a dipsy last year

Well, took apart the top carb to clean it best I could. Wasn't as bad as I was expecting getting it off so I'm sure I probably did something sketchy. Also, ones off it was nerve racking getting the small screw behind the drain plug out cause didn't have the best screw driver for it. Only thing I noticed was this one gasket was pretty beat so put a new one on along with some other parts from a rebuild kit (ps. It's worrying how many extra pieces are included in those kits😆). Thanks again to all for the input on this! I also ordered a fuel pump rebuild kit, but that thing looked like a pain to get out. Might tackle that on a different night.

Thanks all! Greatly appreciate the input! It is a VRO unit and based on the oil in the top cylinder I was assuming it was working OK? (Pic of plug and head from last night) New spark plugs so hoping that's not the issue. I actually ordered NGK plugs originally and that's when I first started noticing the issue and then I went back to OEM and no change. It does tend to run better when first starting in the morning. As day goes on usually becomes worse, which makes docking a bit of an adventure. Hadn't thought of the fuel pump, and really didn't want to do a carb rebuild but might end up going thay way. I'll check out the CDI electrical tests as well. Thanks all!

I have a 1987 Evinrude 70hp (E70TLCUR) motor that is stalling out when I put it into gear. Under throttle she seems to do OK but at low idle, and with a load she stalls and sounds like she's running only on 2 cylinders. I put new OEM champion spark plugs in it, have run some seafoam thru it, changed the fuel filter, and gave the carbs a quick spray cleaning. At first was leaning towards it being a fuel/carb issue but now am thinking it might be electrical? Not sure though so if anyone has any thoughts or ideas of what to check out, I'd appreciate it. Also wanted to note that I checked the plugs tonight and the top one had a lot of oil on it which makes me think this is the one that wasn't firing?

Great report and seemed like good fishing! No good about hitting the deer, but hopefully it all ended up ok

Spoiler: my dumbass had it in night mode so it was all backwards 😅

Anyone know how to change the color setting on the chart views for a Garmin Echomap 73sv? I'm used to charts showing a darker shade of blue for shallower water and then a lighter shade or white for deeper water, similar to the Navionics chart viewer. However, the charts on my new unit are showing the opposite. Darker blue for deeper and lighter for shallower and it's kinda driving me nuts. I've seen the shallow shading rules in the settings, but this appears to be something different. Probably something stupid that I've missed but just wondering if anyone had any thoughts or experience with this.

Appreciate the honesty on saying you have no idea what that one lure was. 75% of the time when I see the reports and folks talking about specific colors/names of lures I have to google what they look like.

Forgot to mention we did snag an old dipsey diver off the bottom in about 60 fow. Think she'd been down there for a bit so if yall lost one we found it 😅

Launched at 9 and called it at 4 with one 1 laker to show. Slow day filled with sun, bugs, muddy water, and flat calm conditions. Launched out of Mexico and headed left. Basically tried from the launch to the plant in 7-20 fow. Water was cloudy pretty much the whole way. Saw a couple boats take some fish but nothing for us in there. We tried sticks and spoons mostly but no takers in there. Was looking to get rid of the skunk on the boat so went out to around 80 fow and the water was still dirty and muddy out there. It seemed like it was everywhere. Found some clearer water more east and thanked a laker for kicking the skunk off. Took a death trap to get him. Slow, buggy day on the water is still 1000% better than being in the office so good day still! Thanks again PD just wasn't our day.

Thanks PD, actually taking tomorrow off to try and get out after them so appreciate the response and intel! Thanks again

A bit late with my report here, but launched out of Mexico last Saturday around 8:30. Lot was a lot fuller than I was expecting but good to see folks out and after them on the nice clear day. This was my first outing of the year on my boat and it was a chilly one. Winds out of the north made it feel even colder and gave the water a decent chop for my 16' boat to start the day. Right out of the launch the milk chocolate water gave way to some nice green/brown so we didn't go far to set up. Worked 7-15; of water east of the launch and only landed 1 small brown on a blue/silver stickbait behind an inline board. Only have tried for browns less than a handful of times so wasn't mad at it and saw others out having pretty good sucess. We worked out deeper around 11:30 to check to make sure my depth raider was still good after sitting all year, so threw on some gamlber rigs and hammerheard cowbells. Trolled in about 70' and took a 10lb laker on the downrigger with wonderbread on the business end at about 1.7-1.9 mph (you'll never guess where I was from the pic lol). We also had something rip a dipsey off that was out 160' with a raspberry carbon 14 spoon on it. Fish wasn't on the line long before it broke off, but seemed sizable. One thing I found interesting was that the surface temp was about 40F but near bottom was around 48F. I don't get out much so maybe it's common this time of year, but first I've seen that.

Bit late posting this, but me and a buddy went out with Captain Nick of Soco Outdoor Sport Fishing on Sunday. We were his first boat outing of the year and the plan was to jig up some lakers. Launched out of Deans around 7 and the water was a bit low but no issues with his 23' Crestliner. Weather was a bit chilly, 28F at launch, but lake was dead calm so no complaints there. Got to the first spot, dropped our jigs down and nothing. Nothing for about 5-7 mins. To me, this is normal fishing. Hell, to me and my buddy it's normal to go 5 hours without a fish so we didn't think too much of it, but Captain Nick moved us about 20 yards and then it was game on. Me and my buddy troll for lakers on Owasco quite a, bit but I have to say, jigging them is a whole different ballgame. Captain Nick gave us some great guidance on what to do and 30 seconds after moving to the new spot we had our first hook up. On the day we ended up bringing 40 lakers to the surface and lost probably about another 20. Average weight of the first was likely around 4-5 lbs and most were solid healthy fish with maybe a handful having lamprey scars on them. Did bring one up with a little lamprey right on the top of its head but we relieved the fish of that parasite. Fishing was so good Captain Nick handed me an ice rod and I jigged one up with that. The whole experience was video game like and very Chuck Norris like (Chuck Norris doesn't go fishing. He goes catching). Like I said, me and my buddy are not used to catching stuff so during our first double (one of 6) all we could was laugh. Overall though, it was the most lbs of fish I've ever boated in a day and wanted to post the great experience in hopes that others could enjoy something similar.