things we are doing to our boats for this years fishing season

[Scrminbanshee]

Yea im going for the 2 stroke 20 route I think. Thanks for the input. I usaully try to put the fuel tank up front if im by myself in the boat because of the planning problem. i put my dads 15 horse on it and his prop i think is pitched a little weird, took a bit to get it up on a plane and get the rpms up but when it did gawd dang did that boat move out. i dont usaully use the gas motor for trolling so the high speed option would be nice

I also ran the hydrofoil on the motor.when i went with a new motor i put a 25hp etec out back. I would think that a 20hp two stroke would be the way to go. Doesnt the plate say no bigger than a 20 without a remote steer? If so they nailed it lol.

 

[T K]

Up next is going to be another down rigger, been debating on electric or manual. The electric would be nice but is so expensive.

When I was rigging up my boat I asked a friend of mine about down riggers. He had two manual. I asked if he did it again what would he wished he would have gotten. He said," electric motors". "Cranking those manuals up and down all day gets old real fast". I took his advise and got electric downriggers (Cannon Mini Mags) and have been soooo glad I did. I can hear people from across the lake cranking theirs up while I just hit the switch and wait for mine to come up. Think about how many times your stuff goes up and down in a day. The extra money is well spent.

 

[kokanee_slayer]

I also ran the hydrofoil on the motor.when i went with a new motor i put a 25hp etec out back. I would think that a 20hp two stroke would be the way to go. Doesnt the plate say no bigger than a 20 without a remote steer? If so they nailed it lol.

It's been a while and I don't remember the HP limitations but it did make quite a difference in performance. Agree the 2-Stroke has a much better power to weight ratio. However, the 4-Strokes are much quieter and lot more fuel efficient. Obviously, it just depends what you are looking for.

 

[kokanee_slayer]

When I was rigging up my boat I asked a friend of mine about down riggers. He had two manual. I asked if he did it again what would he wished he would have gotten. He said," electric motors". "Cranking those manuals up and down all day gets old real fast". I took his advise and got electric downriggers (Cannon Mini Mags) and have been soooo glad I did. I can hear people from across the lake cranking theirs up while I just hit the switch and wait for mine to come up. Think about how many times your stuff goes up and down in a day. The extra money is well spent.

I agree on the electric downriggers. I fished with manuals for years which weren't too bad for lake fishing with 8 lbs weights and typically running no deeper than 50ft. However, when fishing the Salt and cranking up 13 lbs weights from depths of 100+ ft, it got old real fast. LOL

 

[dragonfly]

T K are you mountimg them mid way,in between, or at the rear ? good choice going electric saves a lot of time, also something to consider is having them set up with ball retrivers makes life a lot easier too. dfly

 

[T K]

T K are you mountimg them mid way,in between, or at the rear ? good choice going electric saves a lot of time, also something to consider is having them set up with ball retrivers makes life a lot easier too. dfly

Mine are mounted off of each side at the back.

 

[dragonfly]

OK I am doing some minor overhaul work to my electrical to get ready for my 2 scannons I am modifying. I will be adding 2 group 27's to the starboard side cleaning up the wiring and adding another transducer for the digitroll 10's and will be permanently mounting and wiring the 2106's to the forward gunnel's first I had to figure out the slope of the gunnel's which is 8 degrees then I got a piece of 1'' thick black uhmw and cut to 6''x 8''and and milled an 8 degree angle and drilled the 4 holes and made backing plates out of 1-1/4 x 1/4'' SS flat bar and mounted the scotty mounting plates, ball retrievers, and the scotty 6'' risers to clear the rails heres pictures of the project so far. gfly

 

[Scrminbanshee]

Dam dfly you been busy huh?

I agree on the electric down riggers. i just hate how expensive they are.

 

[dragonfly]

thanx Scrminbanshe also if you noticed in the lower picture top center I installed a led flood light it not only lights up the rear deck area but I turn it on when backing down the boat launch and lights up the whole area for those dark thirty fishing starts something to think about when setting up lighting. dfly

 

[DLM]

having a place for the net and boat pole so they are handy but out of the way was a problem so I came up with this and mounted them behind the cab so they don't take up much room but are easy to get to when needed dfly

Dragonfly

Tell me about the light on top of the tower. I don't have a tower, but I need to light up the back of the boat in some way. I have been looking at LED systems but am concerned about how much light they actually put out.

 

[dragonfly]

DLM it boils down to how much light you need. todays LEDs rival there halogen counter parts , and out last them by years they are sealed and potted so weather or vibration doesn't affect them, and use very little power. the light on the right is the halogen that came with the boat the one on the left is a 10 led which put out way too much light and I switched to the 6 led which still puts out more light than the halogen but spreads out wider and has a more pleasing light. they are still spendy retail but once mounted you won't have to mess with them again we use them on our drill rigs which is the toughest environment out there, and they have been maintenance free. they are a work/flood light see, www.trucklite.com for some info. the ones we use are imports from Fleet Pride if you want to check them out. dfly

 

[DLM]

DLM it boils down to how much light you need. todays LEDs rival there halogen counter parts , and out last them by years they are sealed and potted so weather or vibration doesn't affect them, and use very little power. the light on the right is the halogen that came with the boat the one on the left is a 10 led which put out way too much light and I switched to the 6 led which still puts out more light than the halogen but spreads out wider and has a more pleasing light. they are still spendy retail but once mounted you won't have to mess with them again we use them on our drill rigs which is the toughest environment out there, and they have been maintenance free. they are a work/flood light see, www.trucklite.com for some info. the ones we use are imports from Fleet Pride if you want to check them out. dfly

Thanks for the info, now I just have to figure out a mounting system,

 

[SuperD]

Dave,
Another nice light source and easy mount is the light that clamps to the handle bars on a bike. I have 2 that I put on the bimini tubes. They produce a good amount of light and I can direct them where I need them.

There are several types out there and I'm posting this one just to show the easy mount to bimini top tubes.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_i=B0034IAQM2

 

[DLM]

Dave,
Another nice light source and easy mount is the light that clamps to the handle bars on a bike. I have 2 that I put on the bimini tubes. They produce a good amount of light and I can direct them where I need them.

There are several types out there and I'm posting this one just to show the easy mount to bimini top tubes.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_i=B0034IAQM2

What a great idea. I tend to over think stuff and miss the simple answers like this one. Thanks for the tip.

 

[sawtooth]

Both light systems look like winners. I like the ease of the bike light idea and will probably give it a try. I don't usually need light for my summer koke fishing, but early season kokes or fishing springers on the Columbia will definitely call for a light at 0 dark thirty. If I used a light more often than a couple of times a year, the hard wired system that dragonfly has would by worth the time it takes to set it up. Thanks guys for the suggestions. Dragonfly, you certainly have a talent for making goods products even better. Thanks for sharing.

 

[dragonfly]

thanx sawtooth. my wife and kids were complaining about getting back on the boat after swimming and said they would like a step, and after a couple years of looking for one I could live with and not having any luck I decided to make my own, it had to lock in place without pins had to be low enuf so as not to inter fear with the big cooler on the upper swim deck when crabbing, and be able to be used for getting on and off the boat when trailered with out swinging around so I made this one with a cam setup when down it has a positive stop. to put upright you just swing up then when up you push down and drops in the cam slots and locks in place to drop back down you pull up and swing back down.and now every body is happy and it makes for not having to crawl over the sides to get in or when loading up gear to go. here are a couple of pictures dfly

 

[sawtooth]

Another nice addition dragonfly. I wish I had your welding skills.

 

[kokanee_slayer]

dragonfly,
You are quite the fabricator!!!!

This thread is loaded with great ideas and am going to implement some of them on my rig.

 

[Steelheadin360]

Dfly thats quite the machine!! very nice ideas!


My parts came for my small kicker, got that bad chicken going and running good. So this last weekend i took the boat out to lake stevens to do a leak test. let it sit for a half hour and didnt see any leaks and it just so happened i brought my fishing gear with! spent about six hours on the lake and the kicker did great, electric motor did great, boat worked awesome, loving the braid on the riggers. now its time to start cutting stuff up and opening up some room in the boat

 

[dragonfly]

heres something I do when my boat is going to sit for long periods I have a tricker trailer with torflex axles I use my floor jack and jack up one side at a time and put a jackstand on the frame between the tires so the tires are off the ground and no load on the axles now you can check or pack the brgs. air tires and what ever other stuff you need to do. my trailer is a 2004 with a 22' t-jet and I have been doing this sence 2006 when I bought it. last summer my friend from medford came up with his 2007 21't-jet same trailer and we were at wall mart parked side by side and he noticed how much more tire clearance my trailer had compaired to his. so we started to look at the axles and noticed they were sagging more than mine not to the point of replacement but worn more so. the only thing I can think is by lifting my axles and taking the load off, the axles don't take a set and load the rubber. just my thoughts