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Caught a musky while taking a break from casting, then when I am trying to catch one they get off, pfft!

I did. Another deal to be had, so, snagged this Big Chief. Dents had no effect on the smoker,but it would seem it was the cause of the discounted price . Oh I am so devilishly sly . All I can say is wow, this thing is going to be so nice to use. No more cutting up ribs in to 3 pieces,or the same with fish. Just throw the whole slab on. 5 racks and huge burner . The only thing I need is to either drill a small hole on top to get my thermometer in it,or buy one of those fancy wireless ones. I am not a nerd nut for these, so might just do the hole thing . Unless someone can convince me different . I will put a few pans of smoke through it Tomorrow and Thursday to season it, then this weekend well,who the hell knows what I am going to do. Oldest boy will get my other smoker. He is happy,as he loves smoked fish and ribs and beef . It will be a learning curve for him, but I know once he gets the hang of it,he will have his river hound buddies asking to have their catches smoked . I love new shiny things.

I have a 16ft tiller, deep and wide, with a 40 on it. I use a 55lb powerdrive V2 with ipilot link, Bluetooth, and universal sonar. I don't use half the features, but the spot lock and autopilot is more than worth it. Trolling has never been easier, and totally hands free, its AMAZING. I haven't touched my anchor in....well....forever. The spot lock works amazing, I use it every single time out. If I was you, I'd go with the terrova though. You can then use the hand control, AND the foot control from anywhere in the boat at any time. With the power drive, I can only do one or the other, and the foot pedal doesn't have the ipilot features built into it. It actually doesn't even come with a foot pedal, I had to buy one separate, and its still new in the package. I will say though, it takes a bit of time to get used to the hand control. At first I hated it, because, like you, I am used to a foot pedal, but I"m getting there now. If I'm cruising a shoreline casting, I still prefer the footpedal though. The auto deploy units are sweet, but they do have a lot of issues. More than I'm willing to take a chance on, personally. I like to keep it simple, but effective, and that's exactly what the terrova is. If you want to go bigger than 55lb you are into 24V, 70lb powerdrive, or 80lb terrova, but unless you have a very big 16ft tiller, you won't need it. I have had a 55lb on my boat for over 20 years, and unless its stupid windy, you won't need it. If its that windy, you won't be out using it anyways. I have every trolling speed covered between my bowmount, and my 40 yamaha, and battery life is amazing. My last 55lb powerdrive I used 2 31 size batteries, but this new one I've only installed one, and its been great, never killed it yet. What kind of boat are you looking at getting? Just curious. S.

I've had 3 Big Chiefs, first two were top loaders and the newest one is a front loader. It's handy to access things without having to pull out the whole rack. What I don't like is that they only put the rack supports at the front and back instead of all the way so if you pull it out partway and let go the back of the rack tilts down and things slide off if you're not careful. Now you'll be able to do bigger chunks of meat like picnics but with a max temp of 160° or 170 maybe on a hot sunny day you'll still have to finish things off in the oven. That last picnic I finished yesterday was over 8 hours in the smoker and then 5 1/2 hours in the oven at 235° for it to reach 200°. It turned out great, super moist with ton's of flavour and I ended up with almost 2 cups of juice in the foil that I let sit in a measuring cup until the fat had separated at the top and then sucked out the juice under it with a baster and heated it to a boil in a pot. Between the mustard, spice rub, ginger ale and maple syrup the flavour is fantastic and it thickened up well with a corn starch slurry. It will work well too for pulled pork sandwiches for sure. Have fun with it Brian, now you'll be able to do up a smoker full of old bread to make crumbs. I've found that the regular store baked white bread loaves soak in the smoke well and give the nicest light crumbs that stick well for coatings. Sourdough works ok but you can tell it's a bit heavier. I've added a loaf of "brown" into the mix too, but stay away from whole grain and heavier breads if you want it for coatings. It's fantastic on the schnitzels, the smoke flavouring brings them to a whole new level. One last thing, I give the dried chunks smaller/shorter shots of smoke but spread out with a break between. So instead of 2 full pans I use 4 half pans. The result is a smokey flavour that stands out from the crowd. I'll be using 4 cups easy tomorrow for a freshly sliced, trimmed, and pounded loin I did up for schnitzel tomorrow. Cheers

Had a bunch of follows yesterday evening and got a consolation prize of a wee little one that chased a whopper plopped a full 100yrds, made quite a wake for such a little guy. I couldn’t help notice the distinct ‘bars’ on it… tiger musky?

after 9 months 3600 km of driving back and forth 4 carborators later my9.9 kicker and boat is finally working the way it should .. would like to thank city marine for there work and fitting me it so I would not be all summer with out a kicker motor

Yea, real estate is crazy. Don't forget if you sell, and plan to buy something else, you also have to pay those prices. S.

A mix of acetone and tranny fluid is the best rust buster going, lots of vids on it.

First pick is all muskie.

No. Barred Muskie.

I have a 12v,minnkotta powerdrive v2. On a 16 ft.Mirrocraft.25 Honda tiller! I fish Erie all the time! Never had the battery get below half when spot locked even on fairly windy days! The autopilot works great for trolling! Mine is 10 yrs. Old! No issues so far! Works for me! Keep the shaft clean and spray with silicone now and then! Deployment and retrieval are cake! Im 70! Cheers!

One of the best meals I’ve ever had. fine dining and they served bc smoked salmon. I can almost taste it right now.

Ummm, nope. She's a hard-ass and thinks it's fun to sleep on a thin foam pad on the ground in a freakin' pup tent. I got over that about thirty years ago....

Nice

Funny story. My sister and BIL just bought a new to them boat. A 23 bowrider. They told me they were going to take it out on a test run out of Bronte sunday mid AM. They are new to boats and launch ramps. I warned them about it being prime salmon season and Sunday being a prime fishing day and that it would be a bit crazy down there. They listened, thought they understood, and went anyway. They now know what I was warning them about. I got a lot of "what a $hit show" texts from them. Apologies to anyone else going in and out of Bronte on Sunday late AM. We all had to learn some time! Try to be nice, and I will try to give some more advice or maybe go with them next time.

Thanks for the reply. makes me wonder why anyone bothers to buy black anchors.

mercury..... long long long long long story.... mercury will not let me talk to there head people they tell me to talk to my dealer and they will talk to us....

Was on Stoney Lake last week and found a new to me rock! Not a lot of damage but bad enough that I require some rivets to be replaced Anyone have any suggestions for a reputable repair service. I am in London but can drive a little ways for the right repairs Any help much appreciated Thanks Mike