Garnet

A buddy buys lead from Home Depot. Likely Plumping Dept.

I ask at the Ajax Cosco a few years ago, buddy looked it up and sent me to Markham. Try customer service at your store.

I re read your post and you should clean those battery post and make sure your charger clips are clean. Dirty oxide post means less and less charge over time until you think battery is toast. Get a wire brush from $1 store.

Keep your eye on Cosco they half price there marina battery's around now every year. Until you load test this battery nobody knows if it's good or not. Another thing could be dirty terminals, they should be clean and shiny with white de electric grease on them.

You need to load test the battery. CT or any shop has a load tester.

I was on afternoons doing routine boat maintenance walked in the house for something and watch the whole thing unfold.

Your 2 stroke oil is likely blue in colour and the opoti is black with a goldish brown. If you get into a warranty thing with merc the factory will ask what colour the oil is and even a sample. Sell the 2 stroke and move on.

I was going to help you.

Need a little more info. Describe the lake and general area "Halliburton"lake. Are you fishing for large mouth or smallies .

Punch Skirt used a lot in Florida. Tooth picks are old school, most use bobber stops now.

You can make those jigs using shrink tubing. Just cut tubing on acute angle take a lighter and shrink it then pull the small tab out. If you want it even more secure run a tooth pick thru plastic just in front of tap. Nip both sides off.

So the first question is max RPM. Likely 5600. So at full tournament or fishing load livewell full you want your boat to run wide open just below to 5600 with a descend hole shot. A jake plate is the way to go. You should be able to buy a 4 inch jake plate cheap. Moving the motor/jackplate up 1/4 inch will add 200 rpm. You will wire trolling motor in series so the 2 wire going to the battery compartment is all you need. Don't start prop work until you get 24 volt troller. Boats are sensitive to weight.

Trax is right. Lots of these motors run for years after this repair. At this point you still have value. I'm just guest da mating 3-4k for this repair. If you run it and blow a rod out the case you have $50 of scrap aluminum. In may 2015 I was looking for a 1999-2003 225 opti. I found 1 EFI with enough hours on it for $5500 and any Opti 7k or more, most with eye popping hours on them. Like drifter said you can find cheaper Verdos put they are a bad fit for a bass boat. And not great on gas.

The labour cost are big. Just take your cowling off and have a look. Everything you see needs to be removed. Likely if you find the right guy you can split the cases buy over size rings, run a hone in each cylinder put it back together for a lot less than 9k. This is what I would call a hack job and when it's done I would trade it in for something good.

just look at the first shore line standard stuff. Tube, popper,jerkbait spinnerbait. Fished Calendar a lot shouldn't be hard.

I snapped jeckbaits on balsam. Caught a doz smallies and 3 wallys sat.

I'm also a use what I have guy. I had 4 spinnerbait racks with bigger cut outs. With a little high end duck tape I taped them all together and wrap my duser cable. What can I say it worked.

That looks perfect to me. Save a trip to city

And paul is a great angler. And he will make the deal. You negotiate with him for hours and write everything on the contract and he will stick to it. I have a couple guys closer to me in Bowmanville but if I need it yesterday Top Gun or Extreme Marine. Whats funny about that they where tournament years ago.

I'm smiling because I'm seating reading ont fishing with my arm bans on. WHY YOU SAY My no pay volunteer job today is take bricks off my over loaded half ton. I did the math every brick is 7 lb and I'm 1806 lbs. I wear these sh...t arm bans doing anything physical because fri and sat I'm pike fishing..............

My first run at tendinitis 1990 so bad my tournament partner would pry my hand open after 9am to set hook. Like everybody I thought just wear the arm bands when it starts to get sore. "WRONG" don't let them get sore. I have a pair of arm bands in the boat, in the truck, several in the house. If I'm doing any activity they are on my arms. My plan pays partly so I get a pair every year. And have a professional show how to wear them. Tight is not right. Every year I show somebody, MOST DON'T LISTEN.

The top of the lake is called the Bowling ally Green/red markers every 100 ft. Good indication on the outside are things you can hit. Straight out from Orillia launch on right is a shoal that you could hit the next markers on the left you definitely can hit. If you head up the lake towards big chief the first set on right is a shoal you can hit on the left are 2 cribs are hit able. Couch is gin clear only lake I don't use braid or braid/flouro leader.

If these are rods you like I wouldn't go warranty root. That tip guide can be fixed for $10-15 and the reel seat $10-20.

I recommend seafoam and spark plugs. It not likely has had seafoam before so start with 1/4 mixture and move up as season progresses. If it runs rough or won't troll on, the front is a air mixture adjuster. Start your motor and troll until warm, turn knob 1/4 turn continue to troll until you notice motor change tune. Keep going the same direction until it runs like crap. Start back at first spot and go other direction until it runs like crap. Adjust to middle. If it's trolling you do fine tune from there. Too check plugs is an other science. Always always run good oil in 2 strokes.

Go one more step. The transducer cord wrap in around a piece of plywood. Remember I said every wire has electrical field around it including transducer cord. When you wrap in ball that field is like a coil. Ups the power and messes with your unit.