Fisherman

So my questions are: 1. Does anyone here run that motor, and if so, what is your opinion on their performance/reliability? Used them before, was stranded a number of times in the St Lawrence 2. Are new parts readily available for them? Lots of parts, always being fixed, can't get it right the first time 3. How are they on GAS? About as good or bad as any other 2 stroke. 4. How are they for trolling? Ring ting ting, cough cough, sputter. 5. Do they have the slip clutch prop, or shear pin? Older ones had shear pins. Honestly, I'd never buy a Merc product, never had any luck with them. Bring 50 feet of good rope, they make good black anchors. Unless they are bordering on a "gift", I would never take one and only if I had something else as a backup.

Best I can remember is that certain colours loose their "colour" as depth increases and by the time you are down 70-80 feet, it's all the same.

Something like what Roy said, set the prop on the leading edge of the hub, measure from the leading edge of the prop blade, (not the hub) to the trailing edge of the same blade vertically, don't follow the edge of the blade at an angle. Take that measurement and multiply x 3,( for a three blade), it should be pretty close to the correct answer.

1. How close to the edge of the spool is the line when completely reeled in?, should have about 1/16 to 1/8th of an inch clearance. 2. Do you have access to a boat?, if so, troll away and let all the line out with nothing(not even a swivel attached), after 5-10 minutes of slow trolling the line will unwind itself, then wind it back on using a small soft rag to maintain tension. 3. When fighting a fish, never crank against the drag, all you are doing is rotating the spool on the shaft and adding more twist to the line.

We use the Garmin Etrex models at work, they're reliable, accurate and pretty easy to use, cost around $100. Although they are not battery hogs, they don't have the option of plugging them into a cigarette lighter receptacle.

Kinda makes you wonder how a gill net puts back the slot size fish that the rest of us have to put back.

Pretty good effort, no shore lunch comments, no hootin and hollerin, just easy to watch..now who's yer sponser..

Another round of wiping coffee snot off the keyboard..if it's the same turbosqueeze top I'm thinking of, take a small sharp knife and trim the ejection hole a little, it seems the flaps are not flexible enough.

Urbock 23 when it can be found Don Sykes lite..micro brewery in Barrie

Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you gave me a nickle for every mile I've trolled with them, small species and salmon/rainbow, then I would have a healthy slush fund to buy minnows and worms. I use the open tube type Scotties.

Keep the Scotty, stick the downeaster where the sun doesn't shine, there's nothing wrong with the one you have, I've used them for over 20 years with no problems.

No "special" tool need just a standard grease gun fitting, if it's too tight you can get a small thin adapter to grease the nipples indicated in your manual, use marine grease. As for fogging, if your manual doesn't say, I don't, 13 years with the same motor that runs like day one. Store the motor in a dry place if you can with fresh oil in the crankcase.

No, there's no backwards wy to connect a fuse. You're best bet is to try the downrigger at home, connect the wires to the battery and give it a very short click on the switch to make sure it's going in the right direction, if not, reverse the wires. When you have it right, mark the direction of the plug. Gone fishing. Good luck.

Anyone have a manual for this downrigger, maybe copy and send him the basic installation set up.

Sincere condolences, may the memories help you overcome your familes loss.

Mercury dealer on every corner, hmmm, must be cause ya have to keep fixin em all the time, too many broken motors for one dealer to handle.

Got to agree, Lou/Simcoe B&T has most of everything that a person needs for local fishing, if he wasn't there, it would be a long ride to the next place. As grumpy as he can be at times, I would rather support him that the big box. Now if Cabela's came to Barrie...oh my...

I won't say salmon are non existant in G Bay anymore, but compared to what it was like 10 years ago, it may as well be. For every 10 lakers and 1 or 2 rainbow, you might get a small salmon. Lack of baitfish, cormorants, miles of nylon nets and it pretty much goes to hades in a handcart at high speed. I managed a 6lb rainbow on monday night, I'd hate to put a price/pound on it considering the amount of time and gas used to catch one. Years ago the Owen sound derby was just something to behold, if your fish didn't weigh at least 20 lbs, they pushed you into the "express" weigh in line. Last year there wasn't even a line up, maybe 2-3 people at a time. Now, if you get a salmon, you're a fishing god. I'm sure that numbers went from over 10,000 years ago to around 1200 fish entered for the whole 10 days, and that includes salmon, lakers, rainbow and brown. Pretty bad. Anyway, no point in complaining, go fish and hope for the best.

When you cut the plug off, the center will be green(unused), and most likely and black and a white. Keep the black for negative, white with a fuse for positive. Hope you have figured out which prongs on the downrigger plug are positive and neg.

No, you can use the extension cord, cut off the three prong male end, use the outer two wires for positive and negative, the center wire is the ground that you don't need.

Yes definitely a nice boat, and when the wifes happy, there's extra fishing hours to be had. Now go get some fish scales in the carpeting.. I managed a 6lb rainbow Monday night, your turn.

Yes, however I would use a three prong connector(leave one prong unsued) just to make sure you never accidently or someone else plugs it in backwards.

Hard to find, imagine a 2-4 hangover with your glasses on backwards..not quite..just follow the shifter linkage from outside of the engine cover to the inside and where it changes direction downwards is where the pin is. The shift rod will remain attacted to the lower unit but it's not that hard to thread it back up the hole when putting everything back together. Good luck and don't overtighten the lower unit bolts.

Not hard at all, go to the link, then go to the bottom link "water pump" on the left you will see the shift rod, it has a cotter pin and another cross pin at the top at the shift linkage that needs to be removed. Then you should be able to pull the lower unit off. Look at item #30 connecting pin and #15 shift rod. http://www.boats.net/parts/search/Honda/Ou...PUMP/parts.html That pin is under the engine hood, follow the shift linkage from the shifter, bit of a bugger to find.

Connect the positive wire to the positive post negative to the negative post. Make sure you have a fuse in the positive wire, 15-20 amp should do and as close to the batter as possble. Did you get a manual with it, should be able to get an on line manual for the downrigger with instructions