jeb

I understand that arguement. And really, ethanol has come back to bite many of the greenies groups that were at least partly responsible for pushing it through. With the steeply rising corn prices caused by ethanol demands, more and more margainal farm land is being brought back into production, impacting land and water health. And impacting wild game populations because of loss of habitat. It also increase food prices, which leads to more starvation in 3rd world countries. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. They have. Ethanol use has been approved in all the major outboards for a lot of years now. But it seems the engine referred to in this thread was built before ethanol was around.

I understand. But often times companies will "recommend" a product because they have ownership of the brand or a marketing agreement. Like Ford recommending Motocraft filters, etc. When they recommend a product they have no apparent financial interest in, it carries more weight with me. I lived in MN for 35 years before moving here, so I feel your pain! There are different kinds of alcohol. The stuff used in the fuel "dryers" is usually methanol or isopropyl. With the advent of ethanol fuel, the need to run the dryer additives has pretty much gone away. All 3 of those alcohols remove water from the TANK by attaching themselves to any water molecules (known as hygroscopy) that may exist in the fuel. Then they carry the water through the fuel system to be burned safely in the motor. Otherwise, the water could build up in the tank and cause frozen fuel line issues and other problems. I never really heard anyone complain about E10 up north. MN was one of, if not the, first states to mandate its use. There was a lot of fear about it when it first went on the market, but it was all for naught.

That is the difference between an HD lake and non-HD, like I talked about above. Makes a huge difference.

Search around the mouth of the PC Cove, also called Sunset Cove. If you have side imaging, you'll see them. Big time. Everytime I've been on Beaver the last couple of weeks, it's been choked with shad. Not as much in front of the Avoca cove this year, for whatever reason. Hard to catch black bass near those bait concentrations, though. The fish just have too much real stuff to look at. Not sure on the whites as I don't normally fish for those on purpose.

I never have any from the boat. It's 3 years old now and I have 400 hours on the motor and over 1500 hours on the front depth finder. It doesn't sit around much. But when we do have old gas to get rid of, we mostly burn it through our John Deere garden tractor. But I'm not talking known bad fuel. This would be stabilized fuel and/or dirt bike fuel that has been in the tanks for a month or more. I'm not sure what to do with old, unstabilized fuel.

Depends on who you listen to, I guess. My dirt bike owners manuals say not to use any premixed fuel that is over a week old, for example. But for me personally, if I know something is going to sit for more than a month, I use Stabil in the fuel before putting it away. After living in MN for 35 years and storing a lot of stuff for 6 months at time, I trust the product. I know there are some in this thread that put the product down, but I'd say that's an unusual stance, to say the least. All kinds of engine makers recommend stabilizing the fuel. One of our generators and my pressure washer came with some in the owners packet. To each their own and all, but it's cheap insurance IMO.

Great info from fishingwrench. And it's great he'll be updating your motor to tolerate E10 fuel. So you should not have much to worry about, unless you store the fuel in the boat for long periods. Then I would recommend something like the Marine Stabil product. BTW, there are a fair number of non-ethanol fuel sources in this area. The Anderson's on Hwy 62 near Avoca (87 octane only), the Jiffy Kwick in downtown Rogers (across from the farmers market, all grades E-free), the gas station in Prarie Creek (only the premium is E-free there), etc. I ALWAYS get my boat and dirt bike fuel at one of those places.

Call HLS in Rogers. I believe they have a person who repairs rods for them.

That's putting it mildly. PC cove is choked with shad balls. I thought it was odd in the report that they shocked up more LMB per hour than spots. That's not what my catch ratio is.

My Progressive policy also covers boat towing. Not sure of the max or deductables off the top of my head, though.

I think the tournament series they started on that lake last year fires up again this weekend, too. So the fish are likely to be pounded by Sunday. I personally don't think they should have started an every other weekend tournament on a lake that small. I'm not anti-tourney, but it's such a small lake that a tourney really can crowd the recreational fisherman. EDIT: I was wrong on the tourney start date. The first one is not until Dec 8th. Sorry about that.

If you know the versions of the chip you have, you can probably call Navionics and ask them if there has been any updates to the lakes you fish. Generally, the new chips have more and more "High Def" lakes on them, which means lakes that have the maximum detail. So if TR was already HD on the chip you have, it is probably the same.

Nice buck for sure! Tall rack on it. Ever since mating season started, we're seeing some nice bucks at the feeder in our yard. Normally, we only see does except for this one month of the year. I don't hunt deer anymore, but sure enjoy seeing them, and seeing them harvested.

Odd. I see it now. I'm pretty sure it was not there this morning. Maybe they were calm winds when I looked. It was pretty still this morning before the sun came up.

I wish it had a current wind speed indicator. Odd that it doesn't. Did I miss it? I see the chart on the bottom, but that's not current speed.

Cool. Bookmarked. I'd nominate it for being pinned!

I know you love catching those Smallies, Jeff, so I'm sure that was a highlight for you.

At least year's FLW on Beaver, I witnessed something interesting on the last day. I was staying out of the way fishing spots they were not in, but was in a cove where several of the wrapped boats were fishing. It's the cove I launch on, so I had not gone looking for them. But what was interesting is that 2 of the wrapped boats were fishing a real hotspot area (at least it was last year), and neither of them had made the top 10. So they were just fishing, not tournament fishing. When Dudley came by, who was either leading or in the top 3, they would not move out of his way. He hovered around for a while, but it was obivous the other guys knew who he was and all but put the power poles down to block him out. Really an eye opener for me. I won't say who the other guys were, but at least one of them has a good rep towards being a "nice guy". Take what you will from my story. I personally would still probably move out of their way if they were working towards me. But I'm not really sure why after seeing that display.

Pretty much the same story on Beaver for me today. I think the full moon last night and mostly slick water this morning put a hurtin' on the bite. I caught a bunch yesterday afternoon in the same spots, so I'm hoping it's just one of those days.

Be afraid. Be very afraid!

Quillback had not seen the "green castle", so I showed him where it was. It's looking pretty bad in it's current state. But we stopped to fish for a minute, and to our surprise, you could hear music blaring from the place. Something is going there. Squatters maybe?

Yeah, I had high hopes with the sunrise surface bite in PC! But it sure slowed down fast. Still not a bad day for Beaver, but we sure had to cover some water to find groups of more active fish. It's always fun to see what Beaver has in store. I've taken to thinking of it as the upside down lake. Cold front moves in and they bite. Warm and windy day will shut them down. Sunny, calm day and they'll be out maurading open flats. The bass on this lake like to break rules.

I also have one. Got mine from HLS in Rogers on like the 2nd or 3rd of Sept. I have 4 of the Gen2 Premiers and really like the dual brake system on them, which is the same as your Gen2 STX. But with the Gen3 Premier getting the IVCB brakes and the STX now weighing less than the Gen2 Premier, the STX seems like the reel to have of the Gen3 lineup. I have the MGX with the IVCB brakes and I just don't like nearly as much as the dual brakes. Much fussier. Actually, it's become a spare reel for me at this point. As Quillback says, the spool tension knob takes more pressure to slow the spool, but does not seem to be a problem. I also hear a bit more gear noise than my Premiers if I'm winding a bait in quickly. So maybe not as refined in some ways as last years Premier, but still a great reel, and very hard to beat in the bang for the buck category. Nothing else comes close in that weight range. Casts really well. I've been throwing everything from 5" senkos and small swim baits to 3/4oz jigs with it, and lots in between. Casts them all very well, and has good manners in the wind, too. Is it better than a Gen2 Premier? Probably not. A tiny bit smaller and lighter, and a very nice reel that I'm happy to own. But I'm not in any hurry to get anymore since I already have the Premiers.

Yeah, there is one good path most of the way to the back. I've scuba dived that cove a lot too, and am sure of the "good" route. But I'd never run in there on plane in the dark, GPS track or not. You're a brave guy to do that!

I live on the hill between Avoca and PC Coves, so I've fished those two a lot. I've seen the water lower than it is now in there, and it's always fun to see all those trees sticking up like they are now in Avoca. It's far more forested than most people realize since most of them are hidden when the water is at normal pool. I see wakeboarders and skiiers back in there pulling folks around when the water is up a bit. I keep thinking someone is going to get killed clipping a tree they had no idea was there!