LittleRedFisherman

Your preaching to the choir I guess, it has run good for me, but i'm an Etec man myself. When I used to duck hunt a lot, my Merc buddies dealt with this issue a lot it seemed running though the woods and trash. My Etec has never... ever. give a minutes trouble. It's weep hole is the size of my thumb, it's like a trash pump...lol. Anyhow, thanks, i'll look this over and see where i'm at, if it seems over my head, probably run to to Doniphan and let Fred look at it.... Edit....After looking at it, I think I got this, thanks again for the info Wrench!! You may have to go fishing with me someday!!

Ok, thanks a lot FishinWrench!! One more question, where is the thermostat housing on the 25 merc at? Sorry, i'm pretty mechanical, but i'm geared to work on John Deere and Internationals..lol Here's a pic I took the other day, where do I go from here.. You see where I took the hose off that blows water to the indicator, it was clean as a whistle.

Fishinwrench? I blew around on some of the pipes the other day, and took it fishing today. When I first started it, it was pumping perfect, after about 5 minutes of running, it was pissing about half a stream. After about 10 minutes, nothing was coming out the indicator, it seemed to be clean. However, the engine to me, didn't show any sign of running hot? Where do I need to go from here, because I didn't have to run the motor no longer than 5 minutes at time today, i'm afraid to run it much longer till I know for sure it cooling properly.

Awesome!! Man you guys had a lot better luck than I did, minus Marcus's treble to the ear, nice move on the bargaining chip tho!! Glad I could help you out, if we could of waited one more day, I think the conditions would of been a lot better were we went!

Wow, great pics and fish, that 3rd one looks painful!! It is a great river, I have a lot to learn about it really. I used to fish it a lot, but just been twice in the past year on it now. Maybe I can catch you down there some time and show me some pointers!! I knew we probably were making a bad call going to Lobo that day, but had father in law wanting to go there, and a 10 yo, so didn't want to chance unfamiliar swift water.. My best days have been when I went myself, that's when I can get serious!!

Marcus, I figured we should of went closer to the Dam, next time there running two, that's what i'm doing! I saw where they were running one unit yesterday, glad you got in um! When the LLR Is right, it's a hard one to beat!!

Great Report as always. Sometimes losing jigs and lures like that just run in cycles. Didn't here you mention Jerkbaits? Guess that was because of the sub 40 degree water? I'm going to try to go myself later in the week, don't have any hair jigs, but got some Eakins jigs I plan on fishing slow on the bottom. Got to try some of those someday, Mitch's jigs look awesome!! Kudos for catching some fish and getting out there in the winter!!

Man, that would be fun, but might be to warm to go fishing....

Pickeral are very common on some places I fish on the 11pt, it's not uncommon to catch 2 or 3 every trip. Never ate one, but they sure will attack a jerkbait!!

Wow, that looks like so much fun! Thanks for sharing!!

Thanks fishinwrench, I was going to work on it today, but been a little under the weather as our household had caught the bug... One thing I noticed when I first started it, it would piss out for like a second or two. Got me to thinking it might be stopped up down deeper in the system. What about blowing air from an air compressor down through it?

Spring river is a nice trout river, kinda a sleeper really, it gets so much press from the wild canoe groups of the summer. You'll have it to yourself this time of year. Two of my favorite walk in spots on the river at Dam 3 access at the hatchery, you can fish the water as it comes out of the hatchery, or walk down the park and fish some nice shoals on the big water. I usually flyfish here, very good for that. My next choice would be Bayou access, which is on the other side of the river, you have to drive to Mammoth spring, there will be signs that will get you there after you do threw the downtown part. Good flyfishing water there as well. There are also other places, but those are two i'm familiar with. Personally I like the Dam 3 access alittle better.

I've heard for years about how you'll hate a jet when the water get trashy, I've never had a problem with that till this weekend on the Little Red River. I had to stop about 10 times in two miles to clean off my intake. Something must have sucked up in there, because it wasn't showing that it was pumping water anymore to cool the engine. It' a 25 Mercury Jet, and was wondering where I should start. Was hoping it's just the indicator, and am going to try to blow air or water back down that tube. I ran the motor some after that happened, and it didn't seem to be overheating. My duck hunting buddies used to have these problems with there mercurys running them in the woods, my Evinrude never had that problem, so I think it's a Mercury thing, and suggestions appreciated if there's something more I need to do to fix it!!

I tried some of those tricks Ham with the jig, but I'm thinking if we had been closer to the Dam, the trash might not have been as bad. In that Lobo stretch, the river takes on an "alluvial" look to it, much like a delta river, it has a lot of grass and trees on the banks, leaves were everywere in the water. Up towards JFK, there big rocks more like white river. When they run more water in the white, its not a problem, this river is different for sure. Being closer up there would have been better, but the lady at Lobo said it's so swift up river that some of the docks stopped renting out there boats, the lobo stretch is deeper and not as swift. Anyhow, it was fun, but will not be as excited to fish on two units again....My jet stopped up so many times, that it isn't pumping water out the indicator, gonna try to back flush it before my next trip..

Just that one day is all we could go, we came home yesterday as all of us caught some bug while we were up there. Spent 3 hours up there in an urgent care getting meds for my daughter, she has strep, think my wife does to, and it hit me last night, hot one minute cold the next, and sore throat. I was getting ready possibly tomorrow to go smallmouth fishing, but doubt it now...

I was just thinking Mitch needs to chime in on this, great info!!

Well, fishing was pretty tough yesterday, at least on the stretch we chose. My father in law wanted to fish the lobo area thinking how swift it get up stream while they are running two units. When we got there, the water was getting to LObo. We we immediately started fishing from the ramp down. Right away we started catching a few fish. My Father in law and his 10 yo grandson wanted to drift fish in the swift current, I was determined to throw jigs, so that's what we did. We all caught a few on the first float, when we boated back up to float down again, we were boating up into more fo the high water, which had got dingy and trashy. From then in on, the jig fishing was not working, and even the drift fishing power bait was almost usless, with a fish being caught every now and then. I am still second guessing our decision to go there, I really wanted to go up to JFK. The trash got so bad, on my last run up the river, I had to stop 10 times in 2 miles to clean the intake on my jet with the trash, must of been a heavy 2 units they were running. However, it was a beautiful day for DEcember, we did tough out some fish, and my 10 yo nephew had a great time, and actually out fished us with his powerbait, which he rubbed in....lol. He took the three biggest ones he caught to take home to clean and show his dad! There's no such thing as a bad day on a river!!

Lol yeah, we worked that good looking stretch above the put in to long, then had like hour and half to fish 3 miles to get off the river by noon. I was getting "wife" texts. One thing bout the Southfork, the phone still works there... Would love to do that same strectch in about 6 hours next time, work it thoughly!!

Ham, it's experiences like that, that make you wanna go more! Man, if I was closer to Mt. Home, i'd wanna be regular fishing with you guys, at least Muddy is pretty close! I know about short trips, I used to do a lot of those.

Man, would of loved to have seen that Brown, how big do you think it was? Maybe we can hook up in Feburary when I head back your way first of the month! Heading to the Little Red tomorrow, we are trying to figure out where we are going to put in as we speak!!

Thanks guys, we might try to get out tomorrow afternoon, but for sure Friday. They were running two units around noon, but shut down to 0 by dark, so who knows what we will have on water! I'll give ya'll an update on how we do!!

Well said Rick!! When it comes to my enthusiasm for fishing, it's just like it was as a kid!!

Very good point, that could very well be the case either way! I figure we will stick to the trout water that i'm familiar with, just trying to pinpoint were the best stretch might be to throw jigs. I really liked that JFK to Lindseys with one unit running a couple winters ago, if there not generating, i'll probably stick to Lobo, there's always good water there in a nice stretch!

What that is telling us guys, that either it separated the men from the boys, or we were just kinda crazy....

Yes, that was something wasn't it!!