J-Doc

Well that stinks. At least you know your carbs are rebuilt and you saved money doing it. Post a question on the Iboats forum. I bet they can get you an answer or idea to help chase down. On older motors like mine, it sounds like a coil or power pack would go out. Matter of fact, I bet thats a possibility. My buds Johnson Venom had a bad power pack. Bogged down, wouldn't plane out, etc. Replaced itand it ran good. He had a pinched wire later that cost him 500rpm one time. Electrical is funny like that. Try Iboats. Don't make it a planter yet. :-)

Nice report! I'm not a crappie guy but always want to get into it one day. I wouldn't have thought about the presentation you did near the dock cables. Nice job fishing the conditions!

I have not been on the water enough to say. I was out a few weeks ago but the water temps were still cool. Most of the white activity is up river in the War Eagle arm and upper White River. Due to low water levels, you have to be very cautious. There are many here that keep current with the "running of the whites" so hopefully, they will jump in here. Glad you love the lake. Welcome and hope you catch a good mess! The overall size seems to be increasing in years past. I recommend a white or white/grey Rooster Tail if the water has any clarity to it. If it's still muddy up river, white and red works well too.

Does Mercury or your repair manual not have a parts breakdown? If I can find an engine cowling emblem for a 79 Evinrude on Ebay, you should be abke to Google search the part number. :-) I bet you can find it if the repair shops can't or if the price seems high. I know Evinrude has a nice parts breakdown even for my old motor. There are other sites tha you can find good parts with other than Iboats. Although I do love Iboats and I'm an active member there as well.

I did the same thing. I think they have a delay and it will probably come on soon. I hope!

You're not making me feel good about my rebuild now.... Tell ya what, if I can get mine fixed before you do, you're welcome to tag along with me one Sat. morning. But don't hold your breath, you'll probably get yours fixed before I do.

Sorry to hear that. Do you have a repair manual? I picked up one of of Ebay for $15. It could tell you some easy things to check that won't cost money and you may fix your problem. Definately sounded like a carb issue and now you need a fine tune adjustnent to get it to run right. My bud use to race cars and he said only his Dad was allowed to touch the carbs when they rebuilt engines. They are pickythat way. I bet you could follow the repair manual and fix it. Funny thing is, the carb is the life's blood of an outboard. You don't mes with it unless you know it needs it and you know how to fix it. Might be worth looking at the repair manual or let Wolf take a look at it when the funds are back. Welcome to the beached boaters club. I'm thinking of starting a support group for guys like us! Haha!

Great news! I was going to suggest checking every single ground wire. A loose ground will do really wierd things. I had this happen to me at Hickory one day. Spent an hour backchecking wires, fuses, etc. My buddy said, "is this supposed to be loose?" Sure enough, it was and that was the issue....loose ground connection at the starter solenoid. Killed the whole system. Glad to see someone has their motor fixed. As soon as time and funds allow, I'm hoping to get mine going again. It's killing me that I'm not getting any fishing time on the water. Hope the boat runs good as new for you!

So did you get your boat fixed?

Good for you for taking it on yourself. Feels good to know you can solve a problem and save a ton of cash. I agree with the post above, check the reeds.

Quick example of who “doing it yourself” can save a ton of money. Last year, my starter was making some gosh-awful squealing noises after engaged. When I asked my mechanic, I was told, “just buy a new one, I don’t work on starters”. Easy for him to say……that’s $190 I didn’t have. After a little research on iboats, I found out that I could take the starter apart, spray some electrical cleaner from O’Reily’s on the armature and internal parts, apply a little anti-sieze lube to the bottom of the armature shaft (where the noise was coming from due to dust from the starter brushes) and when I put it back together, it worked like a charm. The problem was the inside parts of the starter was dirty. For about $7 at O’Reily’s, I fixed my problem as well. Still using the same 32yr old starter that came on the motor.

Sounds like $7 will have you fishing in a week.

I would read up on Seafoam and be quite cautious before using it. It has been known to deteriorate gaskets, gas lines, and other things if not properly used. It can also dry-out rings, if rings are worn and has deposits helping to hold compression up, Seafoam will remove the deposits and free up the ring thus loosing compression because of the deteriorated ring (one of my problems). Regardless, a deteriorated ring needs replacement. I don’t think your problem is expensive if fixed now. As for oil not cycling, that’s not as big of an issue as having good water flow to cool the engine. It’s definitely a carb problem and I would rebuild it vs. flushing any “majic formula” through it. Trust me on this. I have tried stalling a carb rebuild and now I’m stuck rebuilding where as a carb kit could have avoided that.

Sadly, welcome to my world. I suggest you post the same quesion on iboats forum. There are a bunch of very experienced guys on that forum. You can also try looking online under Mercury's website. I know Evinrude has detailed parts/assembly breakdown drawings showing parts for the motor. That can help you determine what part numbers you need to search for. As for "not taking to mechanic", I totally get that. I'm forced to rebuild my motor because my carbs were not working properly and I didn't know it until it was too late and I have low compression in one cylinder now. Fix it now before it's too late and check your compression. Might even break the head gaskets open and visually inspect. Head gaskets are reasonably affordable and you'll have peace of mind. Again, the guys on iboats can walk you through detailed issues. I've had lots of luck there.

They announced at the lakeside weigh-in yesterday that it would be around the first of April. Yeah, I too was shocked to here Thrift was pounding them this morning and that the fish were biting well. With that cold front rolling in, I figured it would just kill what's left of a bite. I don't buy into Andy Morgan's "never cross the 12 bridge" theory but in conditions like it has been this week, I'd say that would have been true. Everyone predicted the river arm was going to kill on the first day or two but it was a grind and the wiggle wart bite was not as strong as predicted. Sounds like deep water near the dam is not nearly as affected by the weather changes. If you know what to do when you get there and specific spots to go, you can do well. One thing I've learned about Beaver recently is you have to fish specific patterns in specific spots at key times. Otherwise, you're junk fishing. "Hello...I'm J-Doc and I'm a junk-man". Can't wait to get a new boat with some side-imaging to really step up my fishing.

I got 1,618 points today on day 1. I've never played fantasy fishing before....is that good?

I did but there was little to no information on him so I wasn't sure if he was actually in the tournament. I added him and removed him like 6 times. He was definately considered.

First time I ever used fantasyfishi.g.com. I think I just realized I didn't pay enough attention to what order I had my anglers picked. Dang! I picked Ehrler as winning at 65lbs and Greg, Rose, Fukae, and others. I don't think Thrift will make this cut. Clark aka Mr Beaver Lake has a stong chance at the win also. I saw those big three Greg pulled out of Table Rock. I also heard he had a good secret pattern. I'd love to see Greg win it at his home lake in front of locals. Would be awesome! Ole Ehler is hard to beat when he's dialed in. I predict he will become the KVD of FLW in the next 10yrs. He may go to the Elite series but I hope he stays with FLW. As for Greg being a nice guy, don't know him personally but I hear things from my fishing buddy and others. Super nice guy. Quick story here... A few years back I was up around Lost Bridge fishing. All I had was a 16ft jon boat with a big 55horse on it that I had borrowd from my father-in-law. I saw Greg in his Stren boat prefishing for the FLW tournament that year. As I buzzed by at 35mph in that old boat, Greg looks over, smiles and gives me a big wave. He doesn't know me and I didn't really know who he was at the time but a pro was polite and waved at some crazy fool in a jon boat on the big water on a windy day with rough water. He must have thought I was nuts or just felt sorry for me...haha! From then on, I've been a Bohannan fan. Seems like a real class-act and super nice fella.

I spent several hours studying the ratings, the points system, digging up history on previous wins vs. water conditions, who had fished the lake more often, etc. My team added up to be quite a collection of great anglers. NATURALLY Greg was in my pick. Considering he's a good friend of my best friend Joe (aka Jolicious on the forum here), well that was an easy pic. Plus he has a really good shot at it. Joe's tournament partner was pre-fishing with Ish Monroe all week. He said he had a blast and Ish was a really cool guy. Ish was on fire earlier this week so he should do well tomorrow. I don't know if he can hold it for all 4 days though. So... Who wants to predict the outcome with me? I think there will be three major patterns but one will die out on the first day. Pattern 1: Largemouth up the river arm around War Eagle and further up. I think at least 1/3 of the field will go up as far as they can go and still catch fish on wiggle warts, jigs, and grubs (Brent Ehrler). With the second cold front coming on Friday, it will shut down the shallow bite early. Not enough to last 4 days Pattern 2: Main lake points. Pretty much anywhere above the 12 bridge fishing suspended bass on points, timber, ledges, etc. This has potential to be the winning pattern but a lot of anglers will do this. Probably 2/3 by day 2. Pattern 3: The smallmouth bite. If Fukae can run up near the dam and find some fat smallies that no one else knows about, then coax them into biting, he's got a great show at it. The smallmouth bite will be adequate if not top 20 potential tomorrow. I bet it picks up on Friday and you know how aggressive they can get once they are feeding in schools. This pattern is a risk but it has potential to sustain day 1 (warm & sunny), day2 (cooler, rainy, and storms), day3 (more rain), and day 4, back to sunny and warmer). The biggest gamble but would pay off big-time is to fish all three of these patterns and have everything fall into place. Fish up river on day 1 and get a big limit, fish smallies on day2, fish main lake points on day3, and fish up river and main lake on day 4. If KVD were here, that would be something only he could pull off. Any other predictions?

Very true and I can't seem to have luck with the deep crank pattern myself. There are some that are really good at it. Bohannon has become local legend with cranking so maybe he can pull of a hometown win. That woukd be cool to see. I wouldn't count out Brent Eherler either. He'll be in the top 20 and possibly top 10 in my opinion.

Please post some water temps for us guys who can't make it out on the lake. All of this warm temp should have at least gotten it close to the 40's if not low 40s by now. It would be great if the water temp was up to upper 40s by March for FLW.

I fish during the winter but when water temp and air temps are around freezing, its not worth it to me. I can't imagine fishing in 5-degree temps with wind chills in the negative double digits. Just crazy! I bet someone will be on the water. Hope they are in a Ranger af least!

I wish it would warm up. Beaver has always gotten a bad rep due to unusual weather conditions over the last few years. Locals now its a fine lake and it has good potential on the tournament trail for 15lb+ bags. I hope it can at least make to 50 before the tournament. Don't see how at this point. Looks like drop shot and downscan sonar will win this one.

I think some will pull closer to 18-20lb bags once they are dialed in but those guys will make the top 5. The top 10 will vary from 12-15lb bags average. Of course I'm pulling for Greg Bohannon since he's the local pro. He knows the lake well and has won many tournaments on it. I think he was in 3rd place a few years back. I think the fish will push up shallow by early march or staging on drop offs near spawning areas. Those that can establish the pattern for fish that shift from shallow to dropoffs at a moments notice will have a shot at winning.