MrGiggles

I'd head up north. 6 hours will get you into the twin cities, prime Lund territory.

The house in Minnesota that I grew up in was essentially a double wide parked next to an older small 2 story, and grafted together. Well done, but drafty. Had two wood stoves going most of the time. It was usually in the 50s, people ask me why a cold house doesn't bother me, that's why. One time by uncle spent the night. Had that stove stoked and roaring all night. We all woke up sweating and about kicked him out.

Well that's that. I only started it briefly without the lower unit on to make sure the ignition was all good. Will need to get it in water to see if it runs any better. It'll need to warm up a little before I can do that.

In the past Stockton has always been feast or famine for me. When you could find them, the average size was excellent and there was usually plenty, but if you couldn't, it was pretty tough. This year, they are much easier to find, but the average size is way down. Expect to sort through a lot of dinks. This time of year, deep brush, and fishing in large schools of shad are productive. Walleye are tough in the winter. Same deal with crappie though, find the shad and they are probably close by. I really only have luck catching them from March-November, they're easier to find in the summer when the thermocline confines them to the top half of the lake. To find shad this time of year, just follow the creek/river channels, and look for them on side imaging, split with 2D or down imaging in case you run right over them. If you don't mind a further drive, I recommend checking out Pomme, the crappie fishing there has been outstanding this year. I have only had a boat and been fishing there for 3 1/2 years, and am only now starting to piece together a somewhat reliable pattern together. I would send some spots, but I'm not real familiar with the Mutton creek area, if you want to take a boat ride closer to the dam PM me and I'll send you some brushpile locations.

Prison guards and CNAs don't live at their workplace.. All it takes is one to bring it in, with the delay in symptoms, and asymptomatic carriers, it can be spread easily without the host even knowing.

Swing by BPS in Springfield about any time, and you can usually count a dozen or more out of state plates. It's a tourist trap as much as it is anything else.

Got your auger and mini pole ready?

The big pond by my place hasn't froze over yet. Been too windy. Some of the calmer coves are likely frozen over, but I bet you could put in at Crabtree and find soft water.

I generally don't get out if it's below freezing. That might change if I had a windshield. The back roads are skating rinks. Where the state has salted is not too bad. But that isn't going to work later this week when the highs are in the teens.

Sure beats motoring around for an hour, trying to get cell signal to buy one because you forgot. Ask me how I know... The only time I ever get checked it this time of year when they expire.

I got that lower bearing pressed off, and the powerhead mostly assembled today. I don't ever want to do that without a ring compressor again. Hose clamps do not work worth a crap. Unfortunately my gasket set order was cancelled, so I'll need to wait for those. Need the base and reed gaskets for sure.

I replaced the head gasket a few months ago, it appeared to have been a leaking a little bit externally. To answer your other question, when I pulled the #3 plug wire, it ran no different. Spark on that cylinder is great, compression is 120# on all three, and I have swapped the middle and lower carbs fixing another issue.

The hour meter on the original boat was just under 300, but I have no clue if it worked. The bores and all the bearings are excellent, aside from the lower main, and it really isn't all that bad, just a little rough and noisy. Is the missing carbon on the top of #3 piston typical of what you see on a cylinder that is eating a little water? The top of that diagram is cut off, the upper crank seal is just like the lower, residing in the mag plate, on top of the bearing. It does have the oil bleeder hose like you said. With the powerhead on the work bench, I think I could rig this up and pressure test the crankcase just like you would a chainsaw.

Jay Siemens has some good videos on Livescope. From what I've been hearing, Megalive won't be out until 2022.

About all I ever see on the market is those old V4s. Probably good motors but they're a little archaic. Seems like 60-90hp motors are tougher to find. See a lot of 35-50s and 115+.

The plugs. Far right is the bottom cylinder. These only had 2 trips on them.

There are two sealing rings between cylinders, but none on either end of the crankshaft. In this diagram, #18 and #22 are the sealing rings, #25 is the main lower crank seal, and #26 are the smaller crank seals that ride against the driveshaft. The lower plug has always been cleaner than the rest, and often wet. The pistons are unremarkable, aside from the bottom one being a little cleaner around the edges. My best theory on that is it was eating a little water, which is also likely what led to the demise of the lower crank bearing.

If my Gamestop shares had done a little better, that might have been on the table. Some advice, when you're up almost 700%, take your money and run. Don't wait for it to crash and sell for 300% like me. Besides, why spend all your time fishing when you could work on boat motors instead?

Well, I wish I could say it's been smooth sailing. It hasn't. I have never gotten that Suzuki to idle right. I have been through the carbs multiple times, synced them twice, many sets of plugs, tested the ignition (Clymer is the only one with data for testing these with a DVA), replaced the TVS and adjusted it properly, you name it. The bottom cylinder has never worked at idle. As soon as you get over the hump, it'll take off and run like a dream. I pulled the reeds off of the lower cylinder, hoping to find a problem, and didn't. Out of curiosity, I filled the lower crank bearing with diesel, and it all leaked out in the time it took me to eat lunch. A leaking lower crank seal makes sense, with symptoms I have. I pulled the powerhead and stripped it. The lower crank bearing is rough, likely from water intrusion, and the crank seal is hard and worn. I've got parts on the way. If if this doesn't work, it's getting stripped, the good parts are going to Ebay, the rest can get melted down into a new Kia.

I was fishing right in the schools. Both of the bigger schools were on main lake points that protrude onto river channel, that may be more than a coincidence. I pretty much just followed the channel and looked for the schools with side imaging. I was using a fle-fly spoon, one that you can bend and get a real slow flutter out of. I have some from Binks as well, but the fle-fly is my go to. I'm still 0-2 on spooning for walleyes.

On the Little Sac, water was clear from Cedar ridge on down. Spooned up probably 10 crappie, and 2 whites. Mostly short fish, but a few keepers. 40-65 feet, near schools of shad. Crappie seemed to be near the top of the school, whites were just under.

Not a great success but not a total failure tonight. Hit a couple brush piles early and had one short crappie to show for it. Started playing with side imaging, checking different areas. Ran over a monstrous school of shad. Dropped a chrome blue jigging rap and had a good white within minutes. Chased that school for an hour or so and had 3 more, lost a couple others. I've read about this winter tactic, but have never been able to make it happen before, feels good to learn a new technique. I was in about 50 feet by a bluff, the shad were around 20 feet down, whites anywhere from a couple feet below the school to right on the bottom. At times they were so thick it was making my graph think they were the bottom.

I have a lot of fun using 2D sonar like livescope. Gain and scroll speed on high, and turn the A-scope on. Pretty fun watching a fish vector up to your bait. It is very hard to see fish that are close to brush, and it's useless in standing timber. I planning on upgrading to Livescope if it'll ever come down in price, now that I have a unit that can run it. Gonna try to make the run over to Stockton tomorrow if the rain stays away. Got a pretty good mess of crappie in the fridge from Pomme, wouldn't mind some walleye too, but I've never caught one between December and April.

What is PB? I was using Hornady hollow point sabots and Pyrodex pellets. Can't really complain, aside from the lack of blood, but I think that was more because of the roughly level shot angle. I was only 12ft up, and he was on an incline. The exit was only about an inch lower than the entrance. Dropped the cape and skull off last week at Possum Hollow in Weaubleau. May be a year or so until I get it back.

Good luck even getting in the door without a BS now. Hell, many engineering positions are even requiring a Masters, for a position that probably pays 50k to start with, give or take. College shouldn't be free. But it should be attainable without a note that is comparable to a mortgage. Tuition has gone exponentially higher over the past few decades, far outpacing wages. Worse yet, a larger pool of college educated workers has created a barrier of entry to many positions, so you have a huge loan to pay, with meager job prospects. darn if you do, darn if you don't.