bigjimmcbob

Coming in a few weeks back someone pulled a brown trout (or what looked to be) at the end of the launch. As a teenager I caught browns starting in mid Aug am and late pm from the ship canal pier. As well as breakwalls along the hamilton/stoney creek shore. That pier use to be pretty busy in the spring and fall for salmon/bows, wonder what its like now. I use to fish it up until Dec. I use to hang row bags straight down off the end of the pier for Lakers in Nov/Dec. Not sure how much as changed in 15-20 years but it should be the same.

Where is the Marina/ boat launch in Wheatley exactly?

Thanks guys. I will probably focus on Musky for most of the week, given my boat is in water on Lake St Clair. I just installed a FishHawk X4, so I'm hoping to try it out for bows on Lake E, I'll pick a day and trailer it out. I hope to try Wheatley for walleye and/or bows. I assume if I find temperature for bows and eyes with my X4, trolling patterns for bows would be similar to Lake O I assume - spoons mainly.

I picked mine up at a local fishing store, just call around, you should be able to find one. Okumafishing.com will ship to Canada too.

Get a 10' roller rod like a Okuma Blue Diamond, run stainless steel stranded(7+) wire 30lb on your dipsey. Any fleas that collect will be smashed by the rollers. I run this setup, its great. 2 dispys on wire, riggers on 30lb flea flicker, and copper out the back for the full spread. Copper collects the fleas too, a roller rod helps, but the abrasion of the stranded copper on the guides is decent enough to keep the fleas crushed when they aren't too bad.

I ran braid for a year then the massive flea magnet that braid is, made me switch to flea flicker or 30lb+ mono on my dipsy's But the stretch on mono for the last few years have driven me to wire, its a pain to pop the dipsey when changing up. I highly recommend getting a roller rod and some wire for dipseys you won't be disappointed. Or get a copper rod setup and run it straight off the back.

I'm renting a cottage in Lighthouse Cove at the mouth of the Thames in early Aug. I usually fish Lake O for Salmon, but I'm hoping to connect with some big Musky and some Walleye. Any tips for Musky on Lake St Clair? My equipment is geared for Lake O, copper, wire dipsy's and riggers. Anything I need to change up drastically? Lure recommendations, speed/depth for trolling? For Walleye I assume they are deep, I don't mind a 10 mile run out to try for them, or is it better to just pull the boat and drive to Leamington and try for eyes and bows? If Leamington is the ticket any tips for bows and eyes? thanks!

I removed the bolt, and the transom is a little wet. Just looks like wet wood, no rot in the hole. I can see why the water penetrated. They drilled the hole about 1/2mm skewed to the upper left. The proper size mounting bolt fits perfect but you can see the gel-coat is just ever so slightly not shown in the upper left part of the hole, its there but looks like the water path came from up there and penetrated around the bolt. Also there didn't seem to be much 101 sealant around the bolt at all. Looks like to me they did a piss poor job of mounting this motor. I'm gonna pull off the other one after and reseal it too just in case. How long should it take to dry out that hole? Should I wait longer to ensure it'd dried. I have no clue how far the water has penetrated, my guess is not that far. (Been in the water a total of ~52hrs this year)

Also do you know if I have to have a certain amount of torque on these mounting bolts? thanks again!

So when I remove the bolt(s) inspect the hole and check the wood core if its wet, if so wait until dry, filler up with 301 sealant and the washers and re-bolt? Can I assume if the wood core at the hole perimeter is dry the interior wood is also dry? I think its only started this year and it's only been in the water for a few times. I don't understand why anyone would trust just the sealant? Wouldn't it be more professional to drill the holes slightly larger, 5200/4200M seal the hole and insert a bolt through hole stainless steel housing that is completely sealed. Then thread the bolts through that with a sealant. Just like the drain plug housing is done? That way odds are water would never touch the wood core and you'd just have to seal the ends. I guess if different motors have different mounting hole pattens, but how often do you replace a motor?

I normally trailer my boat, so it never sits more in the water than a fishing outing. This weekend had her in continuously for 3 days. With no rain, I noticed some water in the bilge. Maybe 1 or 2 liters for 12 hours in water. It's a fiberglass boat, so the only holes I can think of are transom holes - 2 below water line mounting holes for the outboard, and the drain plug. I troubleshooted the leak to the port side mounting bolt for the outboard. Not sure how long its been leaking (4 year old boat), but I haven't noticed any water from the bilge on the day trips before, so I suspect its a recent problem. Can I fix this myself without having it sent in to remove the whole motor. Can I just remove the bolt and put a bunch of 3m 101 in there to try to stop the leak? If I do have to bring it in, seems like a simple job to me, remove the motor, clean the wholes reseal and remount the motor + test. How many hours should this take? thanks!

Thanks guys. Ya I hooked up an external tank, same problem. It's getting air someplace. External hose to tank seems solid. I think my 115 EFI has 2 pumps, the first pump pressurizes the line, and the second pump moves fuel to the internal reservoir. Seems when the fuel is up there and the first pump shuts down the engine runs OK. I sent her in today just don't have the time to play with it midweek. thanks again

4 year old Mercury 115HP 4 stroke Haven't had any issues with it besides a blown EFI micro controller (left me stranded ). Always starts immediately, been trolling on Lake O with no issues. There's < 200 hours on this motor. On her maiden voyage had issues with the fuel line. On 2006? + EFI's there;s no primer bulb, the fuel pump pressurizes the line. We tightened the clamps and all was well. So this year maiden voyage (after 2 nice salmon) it stopped while trolling. Restarted, 15 min later stalled again. It had 80L of stabilized gas + 40L of fresh gas/ This time on restart, didn't sound right, "putter putter" etc. At full throttle it was OK, 1/2 throttle OK for a bit, but at idle very bad and stalled often. Figured we'd better pull up and get back to port. At home, I put the muffs on and hooked it up to an external tank hoping it was bad gas. I let it burn out the "bad gas". Hooked it up to a fresh 20L tank. Noticed the "pressurization" of the new line I had to the external tank had air pockets it in. (It was tight to the external tank) Same result, putter puttered and stalled often. I then disconnected the line, and after about 2 min, the motor ran smooth again with no gas tank connected until the gas in the motor ran out. I tried again to hook up the "fresh gas" and again putter puttered with noticeable air in the line. But again after 2 min the motor ran smooth and all the way until she ran out of gas internally (5-8 min). So is this a fuel pump problem or perhaps an issue with the line internal to the motor that is not air tight? It sounds like the motor just isn't getting enough fuel, but its odd that it runs just fine when I disconnect the fuel line! I've ruled out gas as being bad, so its odd to me it runs good after its not sucking gas from a tank. Does this mean its just consuming fuel that the pump has already sucked and that its now full its OK? I'm going to take it in to my Merc dealer, just don't want to know what might be happening to this motor before I take it there. thanks guys, Big J.

Will be down there for the Sept long weekend, I've never fished out there. Normally I fish Lake O or Georgian Bay. Where should I go for Walleye or Bows? I have a boat, capable of deep water trolling. I've never fished the western Lake E basin, not sure on depths, patterns etc. Any general tips?

I normally fish Lake Ontario, or Georgian Bay for salmon. I'm in Kitchener, and sometimes I can't get out there or the lake is not comfortably fishable (weather), and I just want to get out fishing sometimes with the family. I have a 19' walkaround deep V fiberglass boat with a 115 Merc. Is this too much boat for Belwood? I used to fish for a lot of Pike/Bass up north but not on a boat like mine. My main concerns are water depth, rocks etc. Can I fish Belwood with my boat? What's the launch like, and is there any docking available? thanks, BigJim.