st clair maiden voyage

[1fife]

took the boat out to st clair sunday afternoon. Couldnt find my muffs so i decided to gamble it would start at ramp-and she did
hall road-ramps arent in, which makes launching by yourself hard. Went by mac rays and tried trolling the chaneel-wanted to pick up pike-have done this in past. Water way to muddy-made ojne 10 min pass and decided to go for a ride. Went out pass grasyy island all the way to north channel. 4 boats fishing channel-2 walleye and 2 for salmon. did mark my shasre of fish in the channel(might be worth a shot). i went home. water was fairly clear in the north channel. I love seeing the jet skiers going out-dah-brain dead. Highest temp i got was in 2 foot of water 40.5

[ESOX]

Did you ever resolve that planing issue you were asking about last year? I'm still ready to take that boat off your hands.......LOL.
Thanks for the report. Pike are done spawning, look for fresh weeds in the 3-6' range for a while......

[1fife]

yes i solved some-went to a 21 pitch prop(from 23)-and gained 3 mph and lots of holeshot. Still need to get rpms up a little(5400). got a jackplate(hydrualic), to help me in the bigger water(and rpms). i am a perfectionist-so i want it to run in smooth and rough water-i go out alot in heavy stuff. Alos going to get the prop reworked(herd this can do wonders-especially on the trophy props.

[ESOX]

What brand jackplate did you get?
When you have the jackplate all the way down, and come up on plane and trim out the motor, have you noticed an increase in rpms as you jack the motor up? I just put one on the winter of 2001-2 . I pick up about 250- 300 rpms as the engine raisees, creating a lot less drag. Just have to remember to jack her back down before any real turns or it will ventilate like crazy.

[1fife]

i got a detwiler

liked the ez dial

figured id gain a few rpm(maybe 150-200)

whcih will get me in the 5600 range i want to be in. Also the prop work will get a a few also. but i really want it for the movement of my motor under different conditions. Alos im really interested to see what prop work will do to my new trophy prop-some say the props from factory arent as great as they say-work makes a differnce. i guess ill plop down the money and try anything once to see.

my old prop (trophy 23 only got me to 5250 rpms for my merc 200. not in my power range. im looking or 5800 with a light load, which will get me 5500 or so with a heavier load. Im no speed demopn, but want my boat to perfrom as it should. I want a nice run in smooth water, but also a nice run in heavy water(with 3 guys salmon fishing-my 5 batteries-15 hp kicker and 60 gallons of gas-2 live wells-full of salmon) :)

[ESOX]

One thing I noticed is that after I lift the motor once up on plane, the trim will need a little tweaking have you noticed that?

[1fife]

havent put the jackplate on yet.

did you do it yourself?

how big a job was it?

[ESOX]

I did it myself. (with help from JPollman). I got a CMC. It's not a huge job, but it wasn't a piece of cake either. Since you shouldnt take the rack off the steering wheel without replacing the rack and cable (according to Teleflex) I pulled the steering wheel to get the cable pulled out of the engine and back into the rod locker. I had to extend the hole where the cable came through the splashwell wall so the cable wasn't at some extreme angle with the engine all the way up. The wiring is straight forward, with the usual problems of standing on your head trying to mount relays with one hand through a 6" access hole. I used a lot of the cable ties with the tab for a screw to take up all the slack and keep things neat. As far as mounting the toggle, gauge and automatic adjustment dial, I put them in the "pocket" right by the throttle.
One hint, mount the engine a couple inches higher than you think you will want it, because the weight sitting a few inches further back will change the attitude of the boat at rest, but it certainly makes a huge difference in performance, the engine being further back gives it a lot more leverage to push the bow down, and the prop runs in a lot cleaner water.

[1fife]

so what weekend are we going to mount mine?

[ESOX]

HMMM sounds like it would be better to do on a couple of weeknights, next few weekends are full (like till December....LOL), and I'm sure you want it on reasonably soon. Check your PM's.