For me the biggest difference was noticed when I added a 7’6″ rod to my arsenal which previously included a 6’9″ and a 6′ rod. I also bought an 8’6″ rod which didn’t seem to be a huge leap away from the 7’6″. I have since mothballed my 6′ rod and substituted my 6’9″ as my jerkbait rod.

Without a doubt, the biggest benefit that I realized was on the figure 8. You have a much wider radius with which to work the bait around and depth to punch the tip down into to avoid spooking a fish next to the boat. Since getting used to the longer rods, trying to figure 8 with a 6′ rod feels as awkward as trying to write with my left hand. Ability to fight the fish is also a big plus with a longer rod which is much easier to keep a bend in the rod blank. This is a double edged sword because it is more difficult ot bag a fish in the net when you are fishing solo.

Smaller prop will give you better hole shot but may give less top speed, at least that is my understanding. 17″ prop seens too small for a 90HP on a 16′ rig. At 43 mph I would say that you are doing extremely well.

What you are experiencing is Saint Elmo’s Fire

I have had this happen shortly before and after a strong thunderstorm front moves through. Best bet is to get off the water ASAP when this happens.

Not sure how well jumping off of a trolling battery would work. A deep cycle battery has thicker plates and is designed for long duration, low amp draw. A cranking battery which has thin plates, and delivers high amps for short duration.

If I was on the boat landing, I would probably jump off of another boat, or off of my truck. If I was stuck in the middle of the lake, I wouldn’t hesitate to hook up a single trolling battery in place of the starting battery and try to crank.

I have a 2 battery trolling motor arrangement and a 2 bank charger. One bank is hooked up to each trolling battery. I am rigged to run 24V (series), or 12V (2 batteries in parralel). I can charge the batteries in either configuration. I did check with the charger supplier to confirm that this was OK and they agreed.

Miller High Life Lite

with regard to discussion on Etec vs Yammie…

Emmissions: Both motors are EPA 2006 and CARB rated

Weight: The Yamaha is 33# heavier than Etec. That amounts to around 1.75% difference in weight on a 2000# rig.

Speed: There is no head to head comparison that I am aware of that can settle this dispute. With the Yammie being EFI this year, I would be surprised to any significant difference.

Oil changes vs oil injected: Believe it or not, if you can change your own oil, it is less expenive to operate a 4-stroke See Etec commercial thread from last year

What it boils down to is price for the motor and testimonies to their reliability. You really have to look hard to hear anything bad about either.

That being said, all I can say is GO SUZUKI!!!

Steve,

If your sonar has a speedometer, it may also have an odometer counter on it that you could use to calculate your mileage. Also if you have a GPS, it may have a trip odometer function that you could use.

For a good apples to apples comparison, Yamaha has bulletins for a 4 stroke and 2 stroke 90’s on a 165 magnum. The 2 stroke best mileage (on plane) was 5.4 mpg, the 4 stroke was 8.2 mpg.

2 stroke Yamaha

4 stroke Yamaha

The 2 stroke data is not from the HPDI motor, it is from the classic 2 stroke design.

The NO NO that you are referring to is a short circuit which would involve connecting the “+” and “-” of the same battery to itself with nothing in between. With your 24 volt rig, you could still have problems if you connected the “-” of battery 1 to the “+” of battery 2.

Last year I put RAM 2000 holders on my boat and I have been very happy with them.

Quote:

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Get the big yellow batteries from wally world. Great batteries, won’t break the bank, and the best warranty I have encountered. I’ve got 3 in my C-liner right now and couldn’t be happier. Plus, I spent ~ half as much as you’re thinking about on those Optimas.

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I’ll second the comments made on Walmart (Everstart) batteries. I am on year #3 on mine. Since I keep my boat in the garage and plug in the charger every time, there is no need to spend the extra $$ on a gel cell or something more elaborate that what I have.

My Father-in-law went to a gel cell on his sail boat which makes sense since the battery compartment is always hot, humid, and it is not practical to charge the battery every time that it is used (boat stays in a slip, not a garage).

Never had Power Pro on any of my reels but can relate to your observations on super braids. The first super braid that I used was Spider Wire when it first came out. Had many of the issues that you described. For a long time I stuck with mono. Recently tried Spider Wire Stealth and have to say that it has come a long way in the past 5 years. The teflon coating makes a big difference and tends to make the line handle more like a mono.

I ordered from Cabelas…

Control Post / Pedestal

I had a 97 Mariner that used to get garbage built up in the pee hole because the nozzle was a restriction in the line. Used to take a paper clip to open it up every once in awhile.

I can’t help but be curious on this one…

How many people on this website have actually shattered a graphite rod because it was too cold outside? I like to fish late in the fall and have not yet had an issue with this.

Brooktrout,

Just caught you post and trolling speed and looks like you can dial down lower than me. What is your prop and how low can you drop the rpm’s on your 115?

wtail,

I have a 2004 90HP Suzuki which is the same engine block and majority of components as the 115. As Tuck said, Suzuki makes Johnson 4-strokes.

I have been extremely happy with my motor so far. No issues. A friend of mine has a 115 Yamaha and the one difference if you are a troller is that the Yamaha can be dialed down to lower rpm and lower trolling speeds. His motor can go down to 0.9 mph I believe. I can go only as slow as 2.0 to 2.5 mph and because it is electronic fuel injected, it cannot be dialed down lower by the dealer (or so I have been told). The EFI on the other hand makes this motor very snappy and it jumps out of the hole nicely. Also starts on the first crank every time regardless of temperature.

top…

Nice rig

My best all around musky combo would be an Abu Garcia 6500 C3 on my 6’9″ St Croix heavy fast rod (1-5 oz). Works for well for everything in my tackle box except for my magnum Bulldogs which is the heaviest bait that I have.

This year St. Croix changed their entire Premier Musky rod lineup. The 6’9″ is now rated for 3-8 oz lures which would work great on those heavy Bulldogs but not so good on lighter lures. If you can get your hands on a 2004 or older 6’9″ PM69HF rod (or something that is roughly the same length and lure weight) it should work very well for you.

Tuck,

That is really good speed for that motor. Do you know what kind of prop they had on the Suzuki? My 90 Suzuki / 1750 Fishhawk runs 39-40 mph with a 19″ stock prop.

Last time I had to propane torch out it ended up being a big project. I developed a pinhole leak in a 1/2″ elbow. Went to shut the water supply off at the main and the stem on the globe vave broke off!!! Had to call the water dept to leave the tool for shutting the supply off outside which is in my driveway. While working on the plumbing, I left the shutoff tool sticking up in the driveway. My wife drove home and didn’t see the tool sticking up and ran right over the top of it bending a nice 90 deg angle in the tool!

When I went to Home Deopt to get my fittings to make the repair, they had fittings with the solder already in the female end of each joint. I bought a bunch of those. Very slck! Keeps a hand free when sweating your joints. All you need to do is clean and flux each joint, assemble, the heat until you see solder sweat out of each joint.

Called the # and the reason that Suzuki was not placed in this year’s survey was that there were less than 100 surveys turned in by Suzuki owners. JD Power feels that less than 100 replies is not a statistically significant representation for that segment of motor owners.

Results should be similar to Johnson 4-strokes since they are built by Suzuki, however, for whatever reason last year Suzuki outscored Johnson by a fair margin.

I’ve been through a number of worm gears and pawls on my C3’s and C4. Abu Garcia updated their website with drawings on all of the Ambassadeur reels which makes it easy to ID any parts that you might need. You can also order from Abu Garcia by phone.

I had a 16.5′ Northwood Kingfish (hull built by Smokercraft – same as a Pro-Mag). Biggest differences would be width of the boat, and storage space when comparing similar models. I now own a 17′ Crestliner Fishhawk and would never go back. I used to have to decide what I wanted to use before going out and pack the boat accordingly. Now I can carry gear for all types of fishing on board (casting, spinning, fly gear, etc) and it can all be stored out of the way under the deck and in rod locker.

This is based on a 1997 Smokercraft design. It may very well be that they have changed the deck layout quite a bit since then. Worth cheking into.

Take the time to really go over the features before you buy. Otherwise, you will end up buying something else in 2 years because you are not happy (thats what happened to me ).

The Johnson 4-strokes are built by Suzuki. I have the 90HP 4-stroke Suzuki (same power head as the 115). I have nothing but praise for this motor and can say that you will not be dissapointed.

The only disadvantage to the 4-stroke is physical weight. You will not notice the extra weight when it comes to get-up-and-go. The EFI Johnson will pop up out of the hole as well as any other. Acceleration is very clean from any rpm range.

Just beefed up my bow mount trolling motor from a 12V 50# to a 24V 70#. My motor came out before maximizer and is a 5 speed motor which allowed me to beef up to a 70# lower unit without changing out anything else but a prop and shaft (broke the old one removing the 50# lower unit).

My next concern was being able to turn down the motor speed for low to no wind days when I just want to creep along as slowly as possible. No problem, I used to run a 12V motor on the front and 24V on back so my batteries are set up with a plug arrangement that allows me to switch quickly from 12V (parralel) to 24V (series). In 12V mode, the output of the 70# motor is appx 1/5 of what it is in 24V mode so I can actually turn the 70# motor speed down lower than I could with the 50# motor.

Check out the look on that guys face and the faces of his kids. Looks to me like he was happy to just catch that fish and feed his family. Hope he has no regrets.

I’m sure that your perspective is different when you fish to live (instead of live to fish ).

Saint Peter the Musky Fisherofmen

After Jesus was resurrected, He appeared a number of times before His disciples before he ascended to Heaven. This particular appearance happened on the Sea of Tiberius and it happened this way:

Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, James, and John, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish for muskies” Simon Peter says. The other disciples agreed that this was a good idea. The disciples went out in the boat and caught nothing (The Sea of Tiberius was not well known for muskies).

Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore but the disciples did not recognize Him. Jesus calls out to the disciples “Friends, have you boated any muskies?” “No” says the disciples, “but we have had two follows, and James missed one on a depth raider”. Jesus calls out to the disciples again “Tie on a suick and cast over there by that rock pile and you will catch one”. Thomas, the doubtful one, hollers back, “We have thrown everything at that rock and there are no fish there!” Peter, who had not raised a fish yet that day and having an affinity for rock piles, hooks a red and white suick to his leader, runs to the front of the boat, and fires out a cast. After the third tug on the bait, a mighty battle ensues and Peter boats a very respectable 52″ musky.

John, who then recognized the Lord, and upon witnessing this miracle (lets just say that Peter was not the best musky fisherman) exclaims “Jesus Christ that’s a big musky!!!”

Peter, in his gratitude jumps into the water and runs toward Jesus and the other disciples follow dragging along the 52″ musky. Jesus says to the disciples “How’s about holding that fish up for a group photo?” After taking a few pictures, releasing the fish, and breaking bread together, Jesus says to Peter, “Simon Peter, son of John, do you truly love me more than you love musky fishing?”. “Yes Lord” says Peter, “You know that I do”. Jesus says “try some live bait on a quick strike rig, this works great in the fall.”

Again Jesus says, “Simon, son of John, do you truly love me more than you love musky fishing?” Saint Peter answers, “Yes Lord, you know that I do!” Jesus says “Try a shallow invader under overcast skies, they work great when twitched over weeds.”

The third time Jesus says to Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than you love musky fishing?” Despite his recent catch, Peter’s feelings are hurt because Jesus asked this a third time. Not wanting to give up any more good tips on musky fishing though, Peter replies “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you more than I love musky fishing!” Jesus replies, “Don’t quit your day job Peter, Follow Me”

Peter went on to continue the Lord’s work and to spread the Christian faith. He boated many more muskies in his day thanks to the wisdom given to him by the Lord.

… Inspired by a true story (John, chapter 21)

Pete Yake