fishinwrench

I wouldn't expect "less people being present at the plant" to make a difference in water quality in the creek anytime soon, unless that definately means "less chickens" also. Less people available to take care of things usually means sloppier practices, and less environmental control. Hopefully someone is keeping a close eye on them.

I clean them with spray carburetor cleaner, and then just wipe a little reel oil on the shaft. If you get grease, or too much oil in the bearing housing they will slip. Especially in cold weather.

LOL, True that.

Chris, I see situations similar to what you describe pretty often. And this is just my personal feelings, but I really wouldn't purchase a used Opti (for a fair price) unless it had some warranty time left on it. If it was a straight Merc EFI with no warranty I'd jump on it, but not the Opti-max, and especially not one manufactured just prior to the race to meet emission mandate. 4Fishys, "fantastic" is quite a stretch, but Thank you, and you are more than welcome. I think you made the wiser purchase. What engine did you have on the boat, how bad was it blown, and are they keeping it as part of the deal ?

Myself, I would go the extra 2,500 and get a fresher outboard. You are going to gain at least that much in resale value. And in the event of an insurance claim that 05 will be depreciated...regardless of how "new" it is to you.

That 95 200 Johnson is a darn fine engine. Take care of her and she'll be good to you. Keep an eye on your voltmeter and tach though, and if either of them starts acting differently get it to a shop ASAP. Rectifier/regulator fires are somewhat common, and when the regulator gets too hot it will take the stator and powerpack with it.

The factory does pay the dealership for warranty work BUT they do not get paid their usual shop rate, and they miss out on the parts markup, so as a dealer you kinda get the short end of the stick IF you get bombarded with warranty work and have other non-warranty work waiting. There were some "issues" with the Opti's during that time period, but the bulletins should cover the important ones. It's my opinion that Mercury Marine tends to rush things, trying to get thier cutting edge products on the market fast.... and then they attempt to correct the short-sighted glitches as they surface. 2006 was the deadline on emission standard compliance, and Merc had their engines running REALLY lean coming into 05-06. Then as powerheads began to meltdown by the thousands all you heard was them blaming it all on poor quality fuel. Well, That is darn hard for a customer to control! And while that excuse might save their reputation, it doesn't help the owner of that engine one iota. Even the ones that had failures inside the warranty period were without their boats for months waiting on a replacement powerhead. My "growing pile" statement was kind of generally speaking to be honest. It simply won't be uncommon at all to see alot of 03-06 engines going down in 2010. You can be sure that at least half will be the result of lack of maintanence or lack of USE. People that use their outboards on a regular basis have far fewer problems than those that only run thier boats 6-10 times per year.

Let me clarify.... What I meant was that the lower end (so far) has been the focus of water quality testing and referrals to the AG on violations. I wasn't trying to imply that the upper-end water was better, although it most likely is, as far as pollutants are concerned. One interesting pattern I've noticed is that Zebra mussels seem to be thicker in the Hurricane deck area than anywhere else. The boats that have been hauled to my shop from other areas of the lake usually have a few mussels on them...But several boats from the lower Osage have been loaded with them.

Have a tech run the serial number for updated service bulletins, they should be covered if you are aquiring it with full factory warranty. There were several "covered upgrades" (Merc refuses to use the term "recall") around that time I think. One was the alternator....and you DO NOT wanna get stuck with that one out of your own pocket if it can at all be avoided. And I believe they have a better spark plug for that application now, vs. the ones that came stock in '05 Swapping out the impeller would be cheap insurance because they take a permanent set after sitting unused for awhile. And make sure the rigging is done by a cert. Merc dealer to avoid warranty red-tape later on. There IS quite a growing pile of blown 05 Opti's out there.....so take that for whatever it's worth.

What's the bluegill population like at Busch, are there many big ones ?

Yeah but any given neck will be heavy on a certain size range. It's been my experience that the biggest part of any neck cape will end up in the bottom of a drawer somewhere.

Ok, I'll take on the hackle farm. I have some fightingcock raising in my bloodline, so surely I can pull it off. But I'm gonna need some stimulus to get started, who want's to persue that angle ? If we get started now they'll be ready for harvest in time for Techo's next 911 Fitness function.

If I was stocking a flyshop such as yours I think I'd just stock Whiting 100"s packs, and Bugger packs, in the sizes and colors most requested. I'd be afraid that full necks would set on the shelf way too long.

Nope, all the action being taken so far (to my knowledge) has been where the money lies. There has been about 25 or so cases turned over to the AG so far and all the cases that are making the news are in the lower lake area. It's always going to be about money, that's a given.

Various Bombardier (Johnson/Evinrude), Mercury, and Yamaha service text and tech notes for 2007-09 engines. Gotta get smart on the ones coming out of warranty soon

Don't ya hate it when you stop by a flyshop on your way to the river...and end up standing around bullshittin' all day. I've learned to hit the shop on the way home. Just call Chuckie and tell him you need to swing by for a few things when you get off the river, he'll hang around for ya.

Just for the record: That wasn't MY mother that said that.....it was Thumpers.

I can't believe thier comments on Hickory are drawing fire like this, is there no tolerance for honest opinions and straightforwardness among fishermen anymore ? Ollie, people visit Lake of the Ozarks and the Niangua and comment towards the negative routinely. I love both of those bodys of water, and overlook alot of things, but I can't deny the reasons why alot of people get those impressions. While it sucks for me to hear negative feedback about my home waters, I have to just suck it up and say... "Yeah I know...but we're working on it". Maybe they could have only mentioned the clear water and created something positive to say, regardless, But what good is a candy-coated report ?

Political correctness once again raises it's ugly head. Kudos to Gypsy and P-diddy for getting a quick bead on it. Nice work Brian and Matt !

Those are the original "Legend" blanks, pre-IPC, and not to be confused with "Legend Ultra", or Legend Elite SCIV and SCV . The blanks on the Legend series were SCII (a step up from standard IM6) and comparable to the Premier series of today, but a different color, and a bit slower action than todays SCII blanks. I had a 8.5 for 6wt. and I think i gave about 160.00 for it new...but that was a long time ago.

Sold, Thanks.

LOL Cool, I think I'll give myself one this year too

I Understand completely. This last year has been a basturd, for alot of us.

Ordinarily I would be happy to work out a trade, Mike, but to be honest I'm hurtin' for gas money now. Wish I could though. This Premier would make a sweet trout rod, throws rapala's like a dream.

Some of the "old school" dry woollys were huge....like a #8, weren't they ? I never fished them but I remember seeing them in the fly bins, way back when.