fishinwrench

Uh hu, and you don't come UP the Gravois cuz you're scared of a busted prop. When my boat gets over water deeper than 20' I start getting light-headed.

657-ish is pretty low for mid-October, especially since Truman is at regular pool. I don't understand the games they play with the lake level here anymore. If you're a mid-lake guy it doesn't matter so much, but for us upper-enders it's frustrating as hell.

All Mo. Smallmouth water is "blue ribbon".

To be totally honest it isn't so much that I don't wanna kill it, but if I did then I'd have to go pick the nasty sumbitch up and haul it off somewhere. So if I'm gonna have to do that anyway then it might as well stay alive and have one more chance to find a good home.

Wait. What? That happens? I wish our smallmouth could get the same degree of protection.

Yeah I can't tolerate drifter Kitty's around here, I don't want them crawling around in my customers boats. I don't have the heart to kill them so when one starts hanging around I have my kids catch it and we take them to weigh-in and release elsewhere. They never show back up.

Running the TM on a low and/or tired battery is what causes the seals to degrade and let water in. The lower the voltage the greater the heat. Rubber doesn't like heat or drastic temperature changes. If battery condition is kept up good then the seals, bushings, brushes and springs will practically last forever. But one season with a battery that's on its last leg will guarantee future TM problems.

Check the armature shaft for any grooves in the shaft seal area. If there is a noticable groove then put a .025 - .030 shim behind the seal so that it seats over a clean area of the shaft.

The same size (and smaller) o-rings keep pressure in your tilt/trim system and keep water out of it too. If they were thicker you'd have to constantly be tightening them as the rubber relaxed and compressed.

Gasket sealer on rubber seals and o-rings is not the best idea. Over time and temperature changes the gasket sealer dries and cracks offering no sealing qualities. Best to just wipe them with a little Marine grease (blue).

With a 6" setback I'd expect you to be running with cav plate 2" above the hull on that Stratos. Quite awhile back people started doing their own water pump service, and Marina's with "more important things to do" started throwing water pump service to thier flunkies. On some motors that's fine but on your V6 Evinrude there are a few little special things that need to be done when servicing the water pump.....or else you lose pump volume and pressure, and create excess wear on the lower pump plate. Basically if you don't know what "driveshaft preload" means ... then you have no business servicing the water pump on a 3 cyl, V4 or V6 Evinrude. Anytime water pump pressure is in question the first step is to PROPERLY service the pump. You can't learn the proper way to do it on YouTube. I know because I've watched them all and snickered when they said "and that's all there is to it. . .Thanks for watching and please Subscribe". There is also a service bulletin on 99-2000 Evinrude Ficht's that requires you to re-route the pisser hose. That hose needs to go over the Starboard cylinder head or else you are running with an air pocket in the cooling chamber. Water does not fully fill the block (above the bottom edge of the thermostat) if that hose is below the top of the uppermost cylinder head. A good stream out the indicator (pee) hole shows that some pressure exists in the cooling system but it doesn't indicate anything at all about the volume of water moving through the system. To add to that....dash mounted water pressure guages are flakey, plain and simple, you can take 5 brand new ones and they'll all show different readings.

Chinese ?

When you say 3.5" and 4" "below pad" are you referring to the cav plate ? Surely not!?!? Let's settle that first, but what is water pressure when revved up to about 2500-3000 at idle ? (Don't do it for long.... just a quick rev)

The only person that knows is the one that collects the entry fees. I don't know if boat numbers are assigned or not. Of you guys that participated, were any of you assigned a number?

Why would fishing the river cost a few more dollars? Are you into the moonshine this early in the day ?

So size matters ? They are little laughy smiley guys...cuz I was just messing with ya. You need to try that little "Buzzball" thing that Billethead uses, that thing is a killer attractor dry.

You've got some good stuff goin' on. Keep it up !

You know why sheep herders wear robes?

At the current level there really isn't one. The Niangua is crazy low right now.

Awesome, looks good. Where can we see the entire line ? Link me! 👍

I don't like it 😎 You Eastside Boyz are supposed to tie perfect CB's. You got some work to do. 😀

Well, if there is indeed a fault line there then someday it's gonna move again, and the odds that it will move more (or less) than it did in the 1800's is 50/50. When it shifted before there was something that halted the shift, and that something is still there keeping things in the same general position they have been in for 205 years. Eventually that something is gonna break loose and things will shift again, and again....until everything has settled and no fault line remains. Personally I'm not any more concerned about a devastating New Madrid quake than I am an asteroid strike.

I don't recall anything in MDC's mission statement about pandering for economic gain. They are supposed to be concerned about things like constant relocating of wildlife for monetary gain, and crap like that. I wanna throw a copperhead and cottonmouth tournament and have the weigh-in and release right in front of Fitz Tackle shop or Bassin' Bob's place. Oh don't worry, they'll go back to where they were caught from. 😀 And we'll be sure to fly old glory and the blue lines flag, and play the national anthem at least twice. Kids need to learn about catching snakes for money.

Appreciate that. But pffft, you can't do anything about it. It makes kids, cops, and veterans happy, so until we convince THEM....... it ain't gonna change.

Glitter boats and fly gear just don't go together It's just wrong... like hauling firewood in a mini-van wrong. There's this.... And this... Not to mention seats, windshields, electronics, and everything else that is there to grab line and ruin an otherwise perfect double haul. I have enough trouble keeping my feet off the line, I don't need any additional obstacles. Oh I caught a few short green fish while waiting for the shadows to get longer But I should have known what kinda evening it was gonna be when I eased into the White bass "magic area" and found it occupied by this Lovers of Death convention. Tonight was not the night. While I sat and waited for signs of nervous shad I noticed tons of Lake O midge shucks on the water. Then captured a hatchling. This is what has replaced dragonfly's and damselfly's over the last 10 years. Usually they hatch in Mid September. They are several weeks late this year. Yeah, he pooped on me I watched and waited.....nothing happened. Piss on it I'm about ready to break out the gear and go join Oldplug and 96Champ further down.