Wagoneer

If you're worried about that particular motor being considered heavy compared to the norm for the market than don't worry. The 8hp motor is the first step up to 2 cylinders, so in terms of weight they are going to be about 25-30lbs heavier than 6hp motors which are only a single cylinder. But for that extra poundage, you don't get the vibrations from a cylinder. And yes 4 strokes have come a LONG way in terms of vibrations but a single cylinder will always vibrate a large amount more than a twin, it's just physics. The lightest 8hp 4 stroke on the market is the Suzuki DF8, and even still it's only a couple pounds lighter. And next to your 115 which weighs over 400lbs, you're not going to notice it at all. Happy trolling! I know a lot of people prefer casting over trolling, but sometimes trolling can be even more relaxing I find.

My dad uses an evinrude 8hp 4-stroke alongside his 150 evinrude on his 21ft aluminum. He has the remote for the throttle and the steering linked to the 150. This setup is worth every single penny. The remote is great. As soon as you hook a fish you just hit the idle button and the motor returns to idle and as soon as you're ready to start trolling again just hit the run button and it returns to the exact throttle setting you were at before to insure you always keep the exact trolling speed and you never have to reach down to touch the kicker motor. The first couple years we didn't have the remote and it's amazing how streamline it makes trolling. If you do any trolling by yourself the remote setup is the only way to go. Not to mention the obvious reasons of having a tiny 4-stroke motor that you can barely hear sipping away fuel compared to your large motor burbling at idle with zero low-speed throttle control. When you spend 8hrs on the water trolling that alone is worth getting a kicker.

I don't believe accidentally hitting a deer with your vehicle is the same thing as clubbing one over the head and leaving it there to rot. Most of us who badly hook a fish end up eating it instead of releasing it, so at least it's still serving a purpose.

Lets hope he loses his fishing license for a couple years and he can't catch his dinner every night. I just love how people blame another native species of fish for wiping out a fellow native species. The common problem in every animal population issue (whether it be underpopulation or overpopulation) is humans. And yes I count introducting a non-native fish somewhere a human problem as well.

Holy crap. Lose a little faith in humanity after witnessing ignorance like that. Does your motor have a shallow water setting? Looked like he needed a shower.

I think it's just a matter of finding the fish this year. It's been a messed up cold/late summer. I think the fish are also confused by it. I've caught all my biggest fish this season while fishing for a completely different species. Biggest small mouth I caught trolling for musky, biggest pike I caught fishing for top water large mouth, biggest perch I caught while fishing for small mouth. It's just a matter of throwing away your usual techniques from other summers and trying new ones.

Sounds like your idle is set too high. I'd turn it down until it starts to chug and then go about another half turn up from there. Depending on what prop you have and what gear ratio your motor is that should net you between 1.5-2mph. This is what the idle adjustment screw looks like on my 20hp, should look the same on just about any carb'd motor. Make sure you play around with it when the engine is at proper operating temps.

I might have to give it a try if trolling isn't working one day. Those prop baits look like they'll make enough of a commotion even in rough water!

I'm really curious about top water muskies. I absolutely love top water bass fishing and even more so when I hook into a pike on the surface. So do you top water in deep water or is this shallows where you know there are big fish? Do you only do it when it's super calm like with bass? I bought a massive hoolahopper to try out but I'm not sure where to start.

Sorry, quoted instead of edited.

Lithium-ion 12v batteries are by far the lightest on the market by a massive margin. They're used in extreme racing cars where weight is everything. But they're also $$$ and not worth it unless you're in a situation where every single pound counts. I have a class 27 kirkland battery (largest deep cycle they make) and it's not too bad at just over 50lbs. Pretty much any flooded cell acid battery is going to be in the same ball park. AGM is a bit lighter, but again not really worth twice the money to save 5-10lbs if you ask me. Costco is the best value for 12V batteries in Ontario right now. Don't get hung up on brands and whatever they claim the battery weighs on the internet. There are only about 3 major companies that make batteries and are rebranded by other companies. Just takes some light research on the internet to find out who makes a certain battery.

Can't agree any more about nipissing. When you go out to a great lake and get skunked it's a crappy day because the shoreline is ugly (most of it) and they're basically giant puddles surrounded by flat land. But up north and especially the nipissing area the shoreline is so beautiful and there's so much wildlife around you getting skunked doesn't mean it was a crappy day on the water. It's the kind of lake where you could just drive out to the centre and just sit there with a worm on a hook with a smile on.

For downrigging lakers I have my go-to lure. It's a light spoon, about 4" long that's neon pink at the bottom, goes to yellow/gold in the middle and then a bright lime green at the top. No idea what this colour combo is called, but I always have the best luck with it at long point. I call it the best of the 80's.

If you register it as home made and it's technically not, just make sure you remove the registration plate. You're not doing anything illegal by doing so. Technically if you change out any major component of the trailer (ie. tongue, axle, parts of the frame etc) then it's qualified as home made. And you also have to mark the trailer with the registration number somewhere on the trailer that you got with your license. If an officer can't match the number with something on the trailer than he has no idea if this is the trailer you registered. Or the opposite of that if he finds the original registration plate he's going to think you're trying to register multple trailers with the same license and just switch the plate around. I have my trailer registered as home made because the only thing left is the frame from the original. But since I swapped out my tongue with the longer one I didn't have to worry about replacing the tag. I have my registration number etched into my trailer tongue, easy to find and read. Also don't forget to having a working license plate light on your trailer. This is their favourite thing to nail people for and it's one of the most overlooked and forgotten things when building a custom trailer. It doesn't have to look pretty, doesn't even have to be really functional, just has to be a white light sorta/kinda pointing towards the general direction of the plate.

Oh yeah. I go out further and jig for lakers in Erie That's one of the main reasons why I upgraded to a 20hp. I really loved my little 4 stroke DF6, but I've been caught out in storms in Erie where I wish I could have gotten in faster.

Just our fantastic canadian fuel standards. Third world countries have cleaner fuel than us. One of the big reasons why manufacturers are so sketchy about bringing diesels to north america. Our diesel is so dirty the chances that the vehicles will pass emissions is very low. Not to mention with all the filters and cats with new cars, they'll never last the length of the warranty periods running our fuel. Only thing to really do is drain the tank, alert the authorities of that particular gas station have a stupidly high water content in their fuel, and never give your business to that station again.

Forgot to do a follow up trip report! Had some bad luck with weather and storms but the first day was excellent. Nice calm day and mostly overcast with some sunny moments. I went straight out from mitchell's bay about 10km out until we got to 12ft of water and trolled east/west back and forth for a couple hours. I hit a weenie little musky (it was barely bigger than my lure) as soon I started trolling on a butcktail only a couple feet below the surface and then nothing for about an hour. Then I hit the second one on my 8" solid body perch coloured shad about 8' down. But again, nothing to write home about, barely over 20" and super skinny. Just goes to show even the tiny musky have big appetites! Then just before heading in I got a HUGE strike, drag went like crazy, again on the perch coloured shad. I thought for sure I had a huge musky on. Turned out to my surprise to be a monster smallmouth! I've never had a smallmouth hit such a large lure at such high trolling speeds. I guess this was one of those monster suspended smallmouth that people are always after. The next few days were super windy and rainy and we just basically stayed close to shore and fished the shallows for bass. The wind brought in so many weeds into the bay that was pretty much our only option. Overall a good trip to gain some experience musky trolling and I'm going to try and plan a few day trips this fall and hopefully hit some monsters. I recently bought a 20hp engine so getting to the good spots will be a LOT faster than before. Here's the smallmouth, the only fish to brag about for the weekend.

I've always owned very modified wagons of some sort (Volvo 850R, Volvo 740 turbo, Volvo V70R, Volvo 240 turbo, Suzuki SX4 AWD). And the very first vehicle I ever modified was a little red pull wagon (like in my pic) that I used to gravity race down my street as a kid.

Most of the gremlins have been worked out. There's only about 3 big suppliers of CVT trannies, but Jatco is the big one. They make trannies for everything from Jeeps to Mitsubishis. Their early trannies had a belt that was both too small and liked to overheat. That's long been fixed and most of the CVT's now can go as long if not longer than an automatic tranny. I really used to hate CVT's, I'm a gear head and love to change my own gears. But recently there have actually been a couple really good ones coming out. The one in the impreza is particularly good. My father's Suzuki Kizashi sport also has a CVT and I've been really impressed with it so far. They're all going to be dogs off the line (just the nature of the beast) but on the highway is where they really make the most sense. But they basically have the same limitations of an automatic tranny - heat will kill them. I wouldn't be at all worried about reliability though. There are thousands of CVT's out there running around with more than 400,000km on them.

Eat a banana! balancing on a boat uses tons of little muscles that aren't regularly used. There's 600mg of potassium in a single banana, that helps wonders with stopping overstressed muscles from cramping up and gets rid of that restless feeling. If you're already taking magnesium then having more potassium will work even better.

Your sons fishing stance is the best! I'm goin to try that technique the next time I catch something. Those are the kinds of days that stick out in your memory as a kid. Best times!

We've stayed at the welcome lodge on nippissing a couple times a few years ago. Great little cabins for the money! It's a little bit of a boat ride to get to any good walleye spots (probably about 20-30min depending on how fast your boat is) but the pike fishing was amazing even straight off the dock. Lots and lots of great little inlets for top water bass fishing too. I was a kid back when we went and I had lots of fun.

Tupelo has a good point about resale. Look at the heavy duty truck used market - anything without a diesel simply doesn't even sell. The diesels are the only ones people are looking for on the hard market. It's showing even with the last gen Cherokees with the CRD. The overland people are snatching up the used ones like crazy! If you have a CRD Cherokee with the QD2 off road package it will sell in a couple hours if you post it on the right forum.

Anything under 15L/100km for a light-duty with a load is incredible! I've been saying for years and years they need to start putting small diesels in their light duties. NA gas engines just make zero sense in trucks.

Yeah, "camping" and backwoods camping seem to be two entirely different things anymore. When I say I'm going camping to people I have to explain that I'm not going to a provincial park to drink and party, I'm going way up north and getting lost on logging roads for fun. I usually draw the line between the two by whether you have to poop in the forest or in a toilet. People seem to understand that the best. It is sad how many people have no idea how to survive away from civilization. And I'm not talking about Survivorman stuff, I'm talking about just basic outdoor knowledge to get by. It's a rare thing.