Bernie

If the motor calls for a 60 amp breaker and 6 gauge wire, I'd go with their recommendation. Regardless of the distance between, the wire isn't capable of flowing enough amperage to supply the motor properly. It may work, but not to capability and there is a risk of burning wire. Not real keen on fire on a boat myself.

Neat shots Joey. Have at least one of those around the cottage too but it blends in with the other lake noises like waves on the shore and loons. Lots of noise from such a small thing.

Here are some pics from the weekend. Didn't take too many as it's hard to shoot when you are laughing. Joe up front jigging away. Mike with a keeper. Will and Rueben close by. Will always moves up close when he sees us catching Joe in action. Netting another fine one.

Soon Chris.

Back when I was working on outboards I kept an impact driver with the proper blade on it just for doing these. Impact driver Drifter beat me to it.

I call horse **** on this. In the 60's and 70's you could hardly drive the boat across the bay for the number of boats around fishing. The fishing lodges were full of people fishing. Yet fishing remained good. Where we fished at the mouth of the French River there was a string of boats end to end on the reefs. Yet the fishing remained good. Remember also the limit was 6 and no slot either. There were guys out ice fishing back then too. I must admit not the numbers there are now, but I'd say it evens out with the small numbers of fishermen in the summer. The last 3 summers on the long weekend in July I was out I could not see one other boat on the water.

HA! Only some of us will get that Paul. By the way, Evinrude rules! But seriously, pick what you want and what you think is best.

Yep. Still driving the truck to the island. Last year on this day I was riding in a boat.

Great shots Lew. I guess we will have to wait for summer to see the nekked wimmen wildlife.

Hi gang. I did head into work with good intentions yesterday. But it was a quiet day, and next week didn't look like a ball of fire either, so decided to take a few days and get some stuff done at the cottage. First on the list was something I have been putting off...tearing out the kitchen ceiling and insulating it. I knew from experience that there would be an accumulation of ..uumm, lets say debris. Ughh. I was going to hold off until today, but went ahead and pulled it yesterday. Ya, it wasn't pretty, but managed to get it torn out, insulated and vapor barriered. Noticed a difference already in the comfort. I cleaned up the best I could before hitting the sack last night, but woke up with the feeling "I need a Shower!" But my water system is shutdown for the winter. While I don't often stay out here more than a couple days at a time in the winter, there have been times where I thought a shower would be nice. Home isn't too far away, but once I'm here, it's good to stay. So while sipping my coffee this morning I thought about the 12 volt pump I used with the solar panel for watering the garden last summer and using it to power up a shower. Wasn't sure if it would have enough volume. So I went out to my tool shack, dug out a big box of plumbing fittings and set to work. In the box was an old shower head too...bonus! Hooked it up to the hose on my 12 volt pump. Under the cottage there was a big aluminum pot. Set it up on the propane burner with several buckets of snow and lit it up. Wrapped a dish cloth around the pump to filter out any pine needles and seeds from getting into the pump. Hooked it up to a 12 volt source. And it worked great. I taped the shower head to the existing one. The pot was real heavy to carry, next time I'll heat it closer to the shower stall. It worked great, even had plenty of water left over. It was a little hotter than I would have liked, but wasn't uncomfortable and I wasn't going to hop out and add in more cold at that point. Start to finish, including the shower took an hour and a half. Not bad for a quick plan.

Na, we are getting soft. Had to put foam down on the outhouse seat....

Nice fish. I know that guy, good fellow. He likely kept it and ate it. He would not waste it. I'll ask him how it tasted the next time I see him.

The cruise likely doesn't work because the brake lamp circuit is being backfed with power through the signal circuit. Cruise shuts off when brakes applied. Did you check the bulbs and trailer light plug?

I agree with Ernie. It's possible a filament in a bulb has crossed over to the signal side from the running lights. Could be front or rear bulb.

Sorry bud, not the case. 2 strokes run slower.

Hey Will, on Saturday during your no catch, I remembered a story that my mother read to me when I was a wee tad. Next time you have a day like that, just go to this link.

A guy walks into a bar and there is a robot bartender. The robot says, "What will you have?" The guy says "Martini." The robot brings back the best martini ever and says to the man, "What's your IQ?" The guy says, "168." The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space exploration and medical technology. The guy leaves, but he is curious, so he goes back into the bar. The robot bartender says, "What will you have?" The guy says, "Martini". Again, the robot makes a great martini, gives it to the man and says, "What's your IQ?" The guy says, "100." The robot then starts to talk about Nascar, Budweiser and John Deere tractors. The guy leaves, but finds it so interesting, he thinks he will try it one more time. He goes back into the bar. The robot says, "What will you have?" The guy says, "Martini", and the robot brings him another great martini. The robot then says, "What's your IQ?" The guy says, "Uh, about 50." The robot leans in real close and says, "So... you gonna cheer for the Leafs again this year?"

Thanks for the report Joe. Well done. It was good to get into a few fish again. By the way, I caught some too. Great time again! Glad to have Wayne and Rubin come along this time around. Never had the time to just sit down and shoot the breeze with Wayne at length before. He really does have some talent. LOL And Rubin, I threw a bunch of wood on the fire after you left and swept the floor. I think I spotted some dust. I'll enter in a couple pics tonight.

You will add more weight to maintain the same horsepower. There are no smaller engines that will perform as well as your 9.9. I'd suggest using a better quality oil and stick to proper mixing. Also, most 4 strokes the same HP will not go as slow as the 9.9. The only advantage you may gain is less emmissions and fuel economy. But the 9.9 isn't all that bad on fuel anyway. Great little engines. Keep it in tune and maintain it properly and it should serve you well for a long time.

I pour my own jigs as well. I use wheel weights as I have easy access to them. I melt down a bunch of weights all at once, then scoop the steel locks off the top. Then turn up the heat to high in the pot after and stir the lead. This shakes most of the impurities to the top. Skim it off and then pour into a bar for future use. When pouring into the mould, pour some lead into it without any hooks to get it heated up some first. This will help prevent the lead hardening before it gets to the bottom. Follow the good advise given to you by the folks above. PS, if you want some wheel weights, come to Powassan and I'll give you all you need.

I'll admit it, I'm not much for ice fishing. I'd sooner take it easy, sitting on the couch in front of the woodstove, pounding on the keyboard while watching some dumb movie out of the corner of my eye. My good friend Fishnsled brought his truck in for a checkover at my shop on Friday, so I asked if he would like to spend the rest of the weekend at the cottage seeing as he was up here anyway. He didn't turn me down After checking over his fine Ford machine, we picked up some grub and headed out on the frozen big pond of Nipissing. With the mild weather we experienced last weekend the usual access on to the lake was iffy. So we went out at another location and made the trip across without any problem with our vehicles. It was around -20 when we arrived at the cottage, just a little chilly. We unloaded our gear and fired up the heat. About an hour later it was getting comfortable. Before leaving the house to go out to the cottage, I raided the freezer for a couple special items for supper. A partridge and a venison heart, both of which Will had never tried. I'm not a great cook and overdid the spice a little, but I thought it was generally OK Served that up with some baked spuds and a can of corn. I don't think either one of us had a snack after eating all that. Will was up pretty early to make it up here but I still had to call it a night before him. The next day we headed in to pick up a couple dozen minnows and then headed out to see if we could find a pickereye. We went out to a reef I sometimes fish that had no shacks surrounding it. Once we drilled some holes and located the edge of the reef we set our lines. Will is always prepared for anything fishing related. He's always has the right stuff for the job. A sharp ice auger that starts and full of fuel, chairs to sit on, fishing poles, ice scoops and much more. He plunked his sonar on the hole he was jigging and there were fish surrounding his jig right away. But no bites. I suspect they were not-so-hungry perch. It was a fabulous day. The sun was bright and only a hint of a wind from the northwest. As the afternoon progressed cloud banks developed to the north and south. Snow was plainly visible coming out of the clouds to the north and suspect the same from the dark ones to the south, yet the sun continued to shine where we were. You notice I did not mention catching a fish yet? Thats because to that point, there really wasn't any. I was the first one to haul in a small pickerel, think it was around 4PM. Will brought up another a few minutes later the same size. He said his was bigger, but we threw both of them back, so it really didn't matter. Think it was a little after 5 when I hooked a keeper. and there were a few hits and misses in a very short period of time. But we still only took the one home. The shacks in the distance didn't appear to be too active either. The fish were biting well in January from what I had heard, but had shut off in the last week. Not sure if that is why we did so poorly or if we were just not in the right spot. It was good to spend the time on the ice, haven't done it for a couple years, maybe 3. Glad Will coaxed me out for the day. Thanks Will, a better friend I could not have.

A couple years ago I had the opportunity to work with Charlie for a weekend. He is a genuine good fellow that just loves to fish. He has a wonderful sense of humor, is very intelligent, very personable and all the rest of the qualities that are needed to become an accomplished television personality. I like his show. It's easy to watch and he raises many fine points. Good stuff Charlie!

Thanks Roy, I can shift my monitor back over to the right now.

AT the end of the summer when cleaning out the cottage freezer there are always leftover buns because they don't match the weenie packs. Definite deliberate design.