I hope this isn’t too political but my kid has a hockey tournament and my lower unit is in the shop. Odds of wetting a line that weekend are somewhat slim.
Carry on though. I don’t mind hearing more about rocks and cows especially if there’s agates in there somewhere.
30 years ago a childhood friend of mine showed me how to fish for carp with oatmeal. You take a handful of quick cooking oats, dunk it in the water and squeeze it onto your hook. It acts like a dough ball. The really cool thing is that it sheds oatmeal flakes and essentially chums for them in a totally legal way. It actually stays on the hook way better than you’d expect.
The oatmeal worked great and we caught a bunch. You could actually see them rooting around in the spot where you were casting. When that happened the action was fast and furious.
Chumming isn’t legal here but fishing with oatmeal is. Give it a try. The Coon Rapids Dam is where he showed me this technique too. That’s where I spent most of my teens.
Last Friday the kids put down their rods for lunch and I plopped in 2 sturgeon rigs. Within 5 minutes they were both going. One was a PB 68″, the other was a mid 40’s. We targeted them for less than 5 minutes. This was in just a random spot while walleye fishing. I wasn’t seeking finding an honey hole or anything. Isabelle did most of the work pulling in the big one but I had to intervene several times. The kids hooked into I think 3 or 4 on their walley rods. We landed one of them.
Suprisingly I did see a couple surface in spite of the water temps being 42-43. In my opinion the bit was strong.
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2002 Johnson 150 2 stroke.
That’s what happens when you have a monopoly. Because of these prices, I simply can’t bring myself to go to a concert at any large venue. I won’t attend a stadium concert if the tickets were free.
As far as I know, there’s literally no other option. Sports events like the Wild you can open an account with the team and buy tickets though them with a tiny fee, but concerts I don’t think there’s a way to avoid it.
Run away from a shop that wants to sell you an SEI,run fast,run hard,absolute sh!t.
If you cant find someone shoot me a pm.
Countryview basically said the same thing. Leaning that way now. Just need to figure out if my adjuster can work with that or if he needs to hand it off to another adjuster for a different area. Hoping to just work with my current adjuster.
At this point. I plan on calling at least one other place to get the scoop on these SEI LUs and what other options there are. I want a LU that’ll last another 22 years if some idiot doesn’t hit another rock before then.
Good advice. I just don’t know which one I should get. That’s why I’m asking. The shops I’m calling I’m telling them I want the best available not the cheapest or best guarantee.
Countryview is my shop of choice right on 17 amd 61. Great shop and I’ve known them forever.
I’ve got a call into them. They are looking into it and will give me a call back.
I asked them about the SEI lower units and he doesn’t recommend at all. Online opinions in other forums are great either. Most people replace their LU with these because of the low replacement cost. Sounds like they are made in China.
The insurance guy spoke to Riverview and they told him they would take it apart and evaluate it, but they won’t put it back together. They said by the time everything is repaired, it would cost as much as a new aftermarket LU without the warranty.
Does anyone have any opinions on an aftermarket LU? He said they would install a SEI brand LU.
The only issue is that it would end up being black instead of white.
The way I see it, my deductible is $125. Everyone is telling me there is likely more damage than a bent prop, broken skeg and bent shaft. Even if the bill is $500 it might still be worth it. A new prop and shaft in parts alone will come to over $700. Plus $300 for skeg repair. $1000 before labor.
The insurance adjuster said he would advise the gears are sent out for testing to make sure they weren’t damaged either. If I go out on my own and find out it’s a lot more than what it looks like, it’ll be a much bigger uphill battle dealing with insurance than starting with them in the first place. If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard the words “Whoah! I’ve never see a prop bent so bad” I’d have this thing paid for by now. I’m not overly optimistic it’ll be cheap.
As long as he’s the one recommending that everything is thoroughly evaluated, I’m all on board. I want to do everything I can to prevent an issue 1/2 way between Isle Royale and Grand Portage this summer.
Leaning heavily towards Riverview at this point.
Hallberg has mostly bad reviews for their shop too. The people there always seemed incredibly arrogant to me. They have decent prices on parts and marine oil though.
I have an early 90s
Had mixed luck with Pro-Tec in Albertville years ago, have not gone back. Good luck with what you choose.
Thanks for the input. I dug up some old posts on IDO and the reviews are all bad. I get a feeling they’ve fudged their google reviews.
Anyone use Riverview Sports and Marine in Elk River?
I’m basically crossing off all the places nearby. Also interested in places in the NE or E metro/suburbs. I’d go as far as Pine City or so.
Depending on the outborad’s age, this can get tricky as so many shops won’t work on anything older than 10 years old. Which, BTW, is a total crock of ####.
It’s an 02. I see Hallberg does anything 2000 and newer. Hopefully that’s the standard cutoff year. Looks like I’m not going to be able to be too picky about this.
I’d check with H2Outfitters in Big Lake
Thanks. Looking into that place right now.
Anyone familiar with Pro-tec Marine in Albertville?
Call these guys and see what they say.
Performance Propeller
5333 Lakeland Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55429
Phone number
(763) 535-8011
Will they do the mechanical work or just the prop and skeg repair?
I have a bent (and twisted) prop shaft so the gears and the LU need to be thoroughly evaluated.
Unfortunately it’s not a Merc. It’s a Johnson. Rapid is out of the question because they do not work on them.
Bigdill, go get an estimate at a shop that you want to do the repair work. Progressive is going to do their estimate using software and it likely won’t be close to real world cost.
You should have the shop look at the power head too. A rock hit that bad could have did internal motor damage. I’ve seen plenty of motors totaled from a lower unit collision.
The last time I made a claim for my trailer tire blowout I recall them telling me to just give them a call back and send invoice and they would send a check for any costs over the estimate. They made it sound really painless. I have no reason to think otherwise since everything has been so easy so far.
I’ll definitely be asking the shop about the power head. Thanks for the input.
BG i don’t know if i’ve ever seen a prop look that bad and still have all the blades on it.
I saw the rocks coming so I throttled down and hit just as the boat was coming off plane. Then I had to motor away from the rocks while I was trying to raise the motor. It wasn’t a single hit at wot. I can see how the blades could shear off at high speed but with the current I was probably only going about 8 mph ground speed.
I followed my trails from previous years but clearly the 3’ drop in river level was enough to make all the difference. It was just dumb. Next time I’ll need to idle past that area instead of being so cocky.
Sounds like my pattern was just like everyone else’s. Heavy jigs with large darker blue green plastic was very good the last few days. Pitch it towards the center of the river, lift, drift and let it thunk bottom. Most hits came crashing in right before it would hit bottom.
Well maybe not exactly like everyone elses approach.
You’ve seen me fish up there. This is my bread and butter. Its not for everyone because it can be tedious and takes a lot of attention to do it well.
You know the bite is really on when 1/2 your bites come before it ever hits bottom after hitting the water and you get multiple hits and misses on the same cast.
They didn’t say progressive was necessarily bad, they just said it’s a lot longer process and way more hoops to jump through and everything takes way longer. I’m not sure how other insurance companies work but I was also able to buy my wrecked lower unit back for $100 which was nice. A new prop shaft and it would be good enough for a spare in a pinch.
I’m not sure what extra hoops there are but so far it’s been completely painless. I called this morning and started the claim process. Phone call was 5 minutes and 11 seconds. They called me back a few minutes ago to get the details of the incident and told me someone would be out within a week to look at it. They said this is a longer lead time than usual because claims are higher than usual because people are reporting claims from damage during storage.
She asked if I wanted a check to take it wherever I wanted or if I wanted to take it somewhere then they can work with the shop. She said I didn’t need an answer that right now. Will wait for the adjuster to see what needs to be done.
The woman on the phone was actually really knowledgeable about prop, skeg and LU damage.
Oh, and found out that I have a diminishing deductible so right now my deductible is $125.
This is so crazy to me. We had our best luck pitching jigs, but light. Usually 1/8 oz. We were using 3/32 for a good while when the wind was down.
The family used 5/16 and I used a combination of that and 3/8 with B fish-n pulse-r plastic. These have a lot of drag in the water so a heavier jig is needed to get down. I personally prefer solid contact with the bottom and believe the added weight makes more noise when it hits bottom triggering bites.
The kids and wife don’t have any concept of feeling bottom so the 5/16 had a better tendency to roll along the bottom which got a lot of bites. If you were to pitch a lighter jig up river and just blindly give it some pops until a fish picks it up, it would be a solid strategy as well. It would be a little more difficult to fish lighter jigs behind the boat because the current would make it rise up.
The week I fished averaged 20mph plus winds. You couldn’t feel anything if you went lighter then 1/4
The solution to high wind is heavier jig to maintain contact with the bottom. I couldn’t imagine using anything lighter than 1/4 in any significant wind.
I tend to lean toward heavier line which requires more weight as well.
My 6 year old who is Mr. Independent setup in the front of the boat casting in all directions and just randomly reeling and jigging caught a bunch of fish that way. I imagine he was casting up river and sort of let it just roll down along the bottom. Much like what someone with a lighter jig might do.
I thought it might be helpful to share some observations fishing the rainy river with kids or inexperienced anglers. My kids are 6 & 9 and my wife was with who fishes maybe twice a year. The rods and line seemed to make a huge difference in hookup percentage. The kids out fished mom by about 5:1 and I’m thinking that rods and line were the main difference.
My personal two favorite rods are a 7’ MHXF and a 7’4” MXF. They both had 2500 series Stradics and 15lb PowerPro super slick V2 line with a 20lb floro leader. I was using one and the wife was using the other. She missed more than 1/2 the bites mainly because I think she wasn’t setting the hook hard enough. With the braid, I was thinking that this would play better because the no stretch line would theoretically be easier to set. I feel this was wrong.
The kids were using a 6’ ML moderate or fast action with 6lb mono. At first they struggled to get enough pressure on the fish to set the hook so their hookup rate was 50% or less. As I kept reminding them they need to set the hook harder, their hookup rates went way up to around 75% or more by the end of Saturday.
So if you were thinking of bringing young kids or very inexperienced fishermen along, I highly recommend a lighter action rod with a softer tip and lighter monofilament line. One thing to keep a close eye on is the line near the lure. Their teeth can nick up the line really fast so a heavy floro leader might be a good idea too.
As far as boat control, I had us on spot lock all day on Friday. The kids would cast the jigs back behind the boat and either slowly work it in to the back of the boat or they would just shove it in a rod holder and wait for a walleye to pick it up. The rod holder did most of the heavy lifting here and worked well. Caught 70 fish that way.
On Saturday we started the day on spot lock and shifted to dragging jigs. I didn’t want to do this initially because I know there are areas with rock and logs so retying constantly wasn’t going to be ideal at all. We started out zigzagging across the river and slipping down current at .2-.4 mph. That worked really well but it was a challenge with other boats around. At the very end of the day we dragged up river at .3-.4 mph and this worked really well also. Actually seemed to be far more productive than spot lock.
As was already mentioned, plastics weren’t as good as minnows those days so you just have to be ready for minnows or plastics. My experience has been that plastics usually outfish minnows but this trip was different. Be flexible here.
I have progressive. I used them a few years ago when I had a trailer tire blow out and took out my fenders. The whole process was extremely easy and painless. The only issue I had was them figuring out whether it was auto insurance or boat insurance. We initially claimed it under the wrong policy.
Planning on giving my broker a call tomorrow.
I have been using a coated ranger net I really like but I need a longer handle.
Not sure what size you have but I highly recommend a telescoping handle Ranger. I know you river fish a lot and they are ideal for that and trolling. They extend to 84”. I couldn’t imagine trying to use a longer net handle because it would be far too heavy with the lack of leverage at a longer length.
I have the 9788TFB which is a 25”x25” and is perfect for lake trout/salmon, pike and very large walleyes. I rarely net walleyes under 23” unless I am trying to get them in the frying pan. The 20”x20” 458TSR4X4 has a completely rubber net and the same telescoping handle. It might be ideal for all walleye fishing.
Debating using insurance. A prop is going to be around $500, plus skeg repair, prop shaft and seals. Plus who knows what else. I want to make sure there’s no vibration when it’s done. I’m sure I could do it all except the skeg but don’t want to screw around without the right tools and any other damage that I’m not aware of.
I took the LU off already and want to get it repaired soon.
I didn’t catch many fish on this trip. The kids caught about 80% of the 173 we brought in the boat. I unhooked all 173 fish and baited all the hooks in the boat. Very proud of them for spending 9 hours in the boat on Friday and 8 hours on Saturday. They woke up this morning and wanted to go back out. We made the executive decision to head home because the NW wind was going to be a bear and wasn’t going to be enjoyable for anyone.
I got brave and tried to run the rapids so we could get out of the wind. I fought the rapids and the rapids won. Looking for a shop that will do skeg repair and rebuild the lower unit with a new prop shaft. Any recs?
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Ranger net . No frills built good and lightweight . Bag doesn’t drag in the water too when your trying to lift fish.
This. Ranger tournament series. I won’t buy anything else. https://rangernets.com/products/tournament-series/
The hexagon shape aluminum telescoping handles seem like they would bind up but they are smooth as butter and work perfectly every time. By far the best value out there.
Took the family up, wife and kids 6 and 9. Caught 70 out of Birchdale yesterday. Caught 103 today out of Birchdale. Minnows were far better than plastics and I almost exclusively use plastics when I fish here. Bought minnows because I knew it would better for the kids and wife.
Water clarity is about typical for the end of the season. Daughter caught all the biggest fish. Biggest walleye was 28 and maybe about a dozen between 24-26. Biggest sturgeon was about 68”. The kids are spoiled now.
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The plans she told the newspaper about would’ve required notification.
The newspaper tried to contact her multiple times to get a statement. Nothing.
The city council tried to contact her to get a statement. Nothing.
The mayor tried to contact her for a statement. Nothing.
Now she claims she was going to “benefit the community” but won’t now because people were too nosy.
If you buy up a bunch of residential lots and then start to tear down the residences, the value of those properties drop, increasing the tax burden on the remaining properties. Her overpayment on those properties causes the surrounding home values to rise, raising the property taxes on the other homes in the community.
People have a right to know.
