Gerry

From someone who has had both I see no difference in quality with the universal transducer.

Lew, Here's my take on that. It is 'not' necessary because as you stated the fuel won't remain for very long periods. You might be referring to a decarbonizer and this is something totally different. Yours is a 4 stroke so these comments may not apply and I would check with your dealer. I run a Merc 225 OptimaxProXS (a 2 stroke) and I use it occasionally, i.e. every other tankfill. I also have a Merc 9.9 Prokicker which is a 4 stroke and it pulls the fuel from the same tank and I haven't had any issues. I did however have a situation where I didn't use the kicker for a while and I had to get the carburetor cleaned out. So now if I see that it will sit idle for a while I just run it dry. Hope this helps.

Nice boat. Did you get a kicker for it? The downeasters are great rod holders but they will roll when mounted on the rails, you just can't get them tight enough. If they do let me know because I've got a fix for that.

Fusion, your numbers, if correct don't tell the whole story. Ford, GM and Dodge had some blow out prices on 2008 models which were significantly lower than Toyota's prices on the Tundra which would account for the higher sales numbers. If you're selling at below cost then it doesn't take too much logic to determine why the numbers are as they are, and why the domestics are losing their shirts. I own a 2006 F150, FX4, 5.4L and recently I priced out a Tundra. Assuming I didn't get a dealer who really didn't have to sell any more trucks that month, the price I got was a lot more than I expected as compared to a new F150 similarly equipped. I don't disagree with others who've stated that reliability is an issue with domestics, although I haven't had any problems so far (72,000 kms). My opinion is that when buying a Tundra you are prepaying the repairs that would come up with the domestics....a 6 and one half dozen situation in my book. I love the looks of the new Tundra and would love to own one but I have to be prepared to pay a premium for it. As for mileage, a bigger motor will burn more fuel. I think Ford made a reasonable compromise between power and fuel economy with the 5.4L. I can't go as fast but it doesn't cost me as much to take my boat to the lake. My 2 cents, CDN.

Wayne, nice Superbee. That picture makes me sorry for not keeping my beauty, 67 Plymouth GTX 440 convertible. That beast was fast and never could open it up because of the crappy tires we had back then. Of course, I'm lucky to be here today to talk about it

I'm with Stonefish, I have over a dozen Diawas' and they have all been good. Some are over 15 years old and still going good. But mine are all higher end and I think low end of any manufacturer is a crap shoot. In my opinion, if you pay less than $50 for a spinning reel you'll be disappointed, $100 or more and you'll be happy. A $20 combo should only be used to teach kids how to use a fishing rod and reel. You get what you pay for.

That's a nice fish. I'll be there Friday late morning to Sunday early afternoon, staying at the Harbour Inn. I'm on channel 72.

Just wondering who'll be there. I'll be there Friday noon through to Sunday afternoon.

Nice fish Dave. I'll be out there Friday through Sunday along with Neil (2 boats). I'll have the radio on channels 68 and 72.

I've have owned 3 of these suits over the years and they are great for fishing, and they're inexpensive. They can be stored in a very small ball and they are very wind proof. They are not however good for heavy rain and they wear out quickly, they'll last about 1 or 2 seasons depending on how much use they get. I always carry a set on board as well as a heavier rainsuit.

I don't know about this one. I can see a ban on texting while driving which I see many young females doing. But a ban on hands free cellphone, and worse yet a GPS? And what are you supposed to do with that $3,000 navigation system that sits in the center of the dash? And if we're afraid of distractions, then we should ban all passengers too.

Lew, I would have had some fun with her. Why not tell her it's $1, or $0 for that matter. Or, ask her what she wants it to be, $35 million? I know that people like Bill Gates couldn't answer the question either.

Just a word of caution for those of us who have more than 100HP motors. Insurance policies require that the boat be stored from Dec 1st. So, if you use your boat after that date you have no coverage.

Ah yes...the cracked pump issue. I'm not the one that Wayne's referring to but something similar happened to me about 10 years ago on my Lund ProV. Mine was a cracked livewell valve and I almost sunk the boat in the lower Niagara.....twice! That's right, twice. After launching and filling the livewell in March to keep the minnows alive we motored down to the mouth of the river and began fishing. After a few minutes we noticed water on the floor. I pulled the hatch and found that the hull was full of water. So we booted it back to the launch while following the shoreline in case we had to ditch. We made it back and got the boat back on the trailer and pulled the plug to empty the hull. Figuring it must have been a loose drain plug we put her back in and repeated the run to L. Ontario. Again, after fishing for a few minutes I check the hull and noticed that it was filling up. Back to the launch and this time we called it a day. It was only after sticking a hose onto the livewell pickup that I saw what the problem was. The bilge pump was OK, I guess there was more coming in than the pump could handle. So now I check all of this before launching the first time in the spring and I'm more careful when winterizing as Wayne suggests.

I've got two LCX26C HDs' and I like them. But I can't give you a head to head comparison because I've not owned the Humminbird. From what I hear the Bird is as good as the Lowrance, it's a question of personal preference. Now this really helps, doesn't it?

This is the product that you need: http://www.stayncharge.com/ I have a similar problem in that I have prolonged stays at my cottage which does not have electric power. I bought one of these this year. Still early to say how well it works but in the first 10 days I didn't run out of power and I'm on my trolling motor all the time. I didn't get the optional hookup for the vehicle which is what you'll need. Check it out.

I'll be out that way this weekend so if you see this big white Ranger, holler and I'll come over. I'll be up the Arm a bit further at my brother's place but I'll be cruising on Sunday.

Yep, weak battery. 9 years out of the old one is darn good, a lot better than I've ever had. On my 2002 Optimax I had to replace the cranking after 4 years. The Optis take a lot of juice to turn them over which is why we need a 1000 amp battery. I'm not sure what your 4 stroke needs.

You can't just change the number (add an ON in front) on your own. As Bly stated, the 80E was the old style for registering boats (pre 2007) but these old numbers remain until the boat is re-registered. You do have to change the registration to show you are the new owner but I think that you have the option of keeping the old style numbers.

Mornin' fellas. You're right Lew, best part of the day.

The owner of the business has the right to set the work conditions and the waitress knew what these were. The fact that she did this for charity is immaterial, she knowingly contravened her conditions of employment. This is all media hype.

Yes, those old Johnsons are hard to kill, heck they'd probably run on tomato soup but they are also dirty, they smoke and spew oil into the water. That isn't the way of the world today, pollution and emission standards are far different from what they were 20 years ago. DFI motors were developed to meet these new standards and oil is manufactured according the each company's exacting recipe; they can tell if you've been using the correct oil or not. The new DFIs' are quite different than the old motors, they have many sensors in them and these should not get clogged up. Yeah, we're probably paying a premium for the suggested oil but I for one will not risk a $12,000 powerhead in order to save $5 or $10 on a can of oil.

I had a 2002 Optimax 225HP and I used what Merc suggested,Optimax oil. I've never had any problems with the motor and the new owner is happy. I now have a 225ProXS and they suggest Premium Plus. I don't know why they've changed but I won't use anything else....saving a few dollars on oil isn't worth the cost of a new powerhead.

Nice picture. If you do go to Chapleau take time to fish Five Mile Lake. It's a good walleye lake, or at least it was when I last fished it some 15 years ago. And, while you're out fishing you might just bump into someone famous like I did that time 15 years ago. I was slow trolling for walleye and in the distance I could see this bassboat and with voices coming from it, guy talking in a slow drawl. I cozied up to the boat and low and behold isn't it Mel Tillis (the country singer) standing on the bow of the boat tossing spinnerbailts in the weeds. I chatted with him for about 15 minutes but I never had the courage to tell him that there were no largemouth bass up there. On the way to Chapleau there's Horwood Lake (near Folyette) which is also a good walleye producer.

Sorry to hear about this Dutch. Too bad you didn't read my warning about Magellan that I posted about 18 months ago......I got screwed by them too and will never, never, never buy anything that has the name Magellan attached to it. Did I say NEVER? I have a handheld unit sitting in my basement that after paying $700 became useless after just 2 years of interrupted use. I say interrupted because it went in for repairs 3 times during this time, 2 of which I had to pay $100. NEVER, NEVER buy anything made by Magellan!