Looks like a small gar to me.

My brother has one and he had nothing but trouble, has sent it back once, and still has problems. Another friend has one albeit a more expensive model, his has been back a few times as well. so draw your own conclusion. I would buy a cheap Eagle.

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i beleive that i remember hearing that those particular motors have a problem called heat sink

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They are prone to heat sink, but that usually happens in very warm weather when you are idling or running slow for extended periods, fuel helps to cool an engine down…so full throttle type running wouldn’t cause this. And when it happens It usually won’t start at all. Last time it happened to me I just sprayed a little off! into the carbs and the propellant was enough to get her to light and run fine. My plugs needed replacement after just two years… so definitely replace those, you’d be surprised how bad they’ll look.

It was almost 10 yrs. ago now, I wish I/they had digital cameras back then, It was 43″ long and a fat prespawn fish…low to mid forties for weight. I remember foolishly thinking how easy this Flathead thing was going to be…..

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It also make you wonder what might happen if you were catfishing with 5 lb suckers

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You would catch a 6 lb. Flathead.

I think like with everything else, once you get used to something…and know it’s strengths and weaknesses it can be used effectively. I’ve used mono from the get go, and it has given me no reason to change. I can tie a good improved clinch knot with my eyes closed, and like monitoring the integrity of my line, and the solar big game glows nice with my blacklight ( for those of us who don’t use clickers) I have never been able to break 40 lb. using good knots, maybe I don’t see enough big fish ( if there is such a scenario) But like I said everyone seems to be aware of their choice’s advantages/disadvatages and that’s half the battle.

that jackplate will work great especially is it has zero setback…the further from the boat the crummier the apron of water gets.

Sounds like you are on the right track. That being said my next bit of advice would be to max out the horsepower rating. The standard way to adjust the horsepower of the motor with a jet is to reduce the prop horsepower by @ 30%
my 150 is a 105 a 115 would be an 80 and so on. With a jet you can not put a lower pitch impeller on, like you can a prop…so make sure you have all the power you’ll ever need.

Also make sure you have the jet foot at the correct height behind the boat. Most jet set-ups will have a 25-27 inch transom. So you would want to buy a 20 inch shaft length motor, with the conversion you will achieve 25-27 “. I didn’t check but the boat you are considering probably has a 20″ transom, so you will need to have a transom riser fabbed up. On smaller boats you can circumvent this by finding a 15” shaft length motor, but larger motors usually don’t offer this.

If the jet foot sits too low it will spray like a mother, and you will lose speed. If it sits too high it will pull air and lose suction. I have mine set about a 1/4 ” above the trailing edge of the tunnel…as the water breaks upwards a bit after it leaves the tunnel, this postion works great on my boat, but experimentation is usually necessary.

Jason.

centrifugal pumps….as you have found out, will build up heat. If you leave them alone without water changes, they will cook your bait…even bullheads.

All the conversion units outboard jets make are model/brand specific each one is engineered and sized to the specific powerhead it is fitted to. Two strokes are better out of the hole and most industry people who sell both will tell you they (two strokes) make the better powerhead for outboard jet applications.

The boat you are using makes a huge difference in performance. And in my opinion the crestliner you mentioned without a jet specific tunnel hull would be a poor choice. An outboard jet needs a flat apron of water directly off the stern of the boat to get an effective intake stream for the jet. The boat you mentioned has a 10 deg. deadrise at the transom so the water would be coming off the stern in a slight V, it probably would work just not very well. My boat an 1872 SeaArk has 9 deg. deadrise but has a flat, shallow (jet specific) tunnel hull in the center to provide my jet with a flat turbulence free stream of water.

Lowe offers a good tunnel option on all but the smallest roughnecks, alumacraft just came out with a jet tunnel 1760 but it’s more bass oriented. Another new player is the new G3 jet tunnel 1760 with the console already pushed to the front and a cat friendly layout. And of course SeaArk makes some nice jet specific tunnel hulls as well.

Spend more time on finding the correct boat than motor, in my opinion. There are quite few unhappy outboard jetters out there that didn’t do their homework.

And of course there is always the nice riverpro inboard jets too, the interior layout doesn’t suit me, but they have quite a few happy customers on this site.

Any more questions just ask.

Jason.

There is only one thing I’d change on that wood chipper…..

Number one I don’t think those are “state” records they are some sort of catch and release line class world records, check out the different states. Number two, by doing a little digging to see what’s doable and buying yourself some certified line, something that breaks real close to what it’s rated at…you too could be a record holder, for what it’s worth??? i.e. a 40 inch fish on 70 lb. line….

RELIABLE bullhead spots are worth every bit of work to find them. Around more heavily populated areas city park ponds usually are the best combination of convenience and success. Every year I try and scout some more good spots…but I keep coming back to the same pond which unfortunately is now 25 miles away. Talk to as many people as you can, most people don’t mind sharing where they have caught bullheads, to most it’s a nuisance.

That’s too cool, I know we have a service call coming up at a paper mill in Jesup, might have to request that trip personally….now if I could only figure out a way to get the SeaArk on a plane.

I can’t speak for minnesota, I am more concerned with Wis. But like I said I know of two bodies of water in Wis. that have coughed up 30 lb + channels. The word is out on Mendota, and the average size is declining…so I know regs such as this would be a real shot in the arm for Wis. We now have site specific trophy regs, on Pike, based on the body of water’s potential….why not channels?

Jason.

I don’t hook through the lips unless I want to cast a country mile. Just hook lightly in the tail muscle sort of with the length of the bullhead….not directly across.

I use circle hooks exclusively for Flatheads, I like daiichi circle chunk lites 5/0-7/0 and gamakatsu circle octopus in 7/0. I don’t use clickers, after the first pop signaling a cat has the bait I grab the rod, feel for a fish moving away, and slowly and steadily sweep the rod. I like the circles because they tend to hang up a bit less in snags, and they are always in the corner of the mouth. Don’t hook baits too deeply and every thing but a fish coming at the boat should be hooked. I am not sure my percentage is any better or any worse than when I used J hooks, but the other advantages make sense to me

These potential regs would never hurt me personally, but they have a shot at helping me immensely, if in any way shape or form…even a fraction of the Red river’s success can be duplicated. Wis. has at least two bodies of water with the right genes and forage to produce fish in excess of 30 lbs. why not nurture that
situation. Anybody remember the picture of the 44.5 inch channel I posted last year? Why not improve all our chances at fish such as that?

Jason.

Great fish. My advice to you…get a good scale. I have had fat prespawn 38″ fish push well into the thirties, you’ll be surprised.

Jason.

Congrats Tom!!! He’s been paying his dues for a long time now. Bout time the “teacher” catches up with the “student”……

There is absolutely no torque steer with an outboard jet…steering my 150 is a one finger affair.

J.

CA,

Circle hooks seem to snag far less for me and that is a big plus where I fish. The flats rarely have time to hook themselves when I’m on watch, I have the rod in my hand on the first pop that signals a flat has grabbed the bait, then I’ll either steadily sweep the rod or begin reeling either way is quite interactive…the only fish that will hook themselves are the suicidal ones, usually channels, but they hook themselves on the ultra sharp j hooks I used to use anyway.

J.

Kind of in the same vein as what FD said but some of us think clickers are useless for either species. I use cricles exclusively for channels and flatheads now…no clicker required.

J.

Matt,

My choice for an inexpensive alternative to circle chunk lites…would be the same as Brian’s I like those hooks almost as much as the daiichi’s

Jason.

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I dont think alligator gar are this far north. An 8 footer would be way over 100lb I think…

We have longnose and shortnose gar that can get maybe 5 feet long.

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You are right we do not have any alligator gar this far north, and the species we do have, longnose (the largest) the world record is 51 lbs. maybe six feet long taken in Texas. The other two species shortnose and spotted the records are under ten lbs. So I am not sure what that fisheries guy was talkin about.

Tuck, I’m not sure I’m following you…as I said the water IS clean, the sediments get moved around to some extent but remain contaminated…the common removal of pcbs for instance usually involves mechanical dredging of the contaminated sediments…these contaminants are insoluble in water. a free flowing river without dams might eventually move most of the contaminants further downstream but they will always be somewhere. In a channelized river with dams they can’t go very far. I guess the point I’m making is if there was a factory with an illegal discharge into a lake the problem would be similar there too, it’s just that most industrial facilities dumped their waste products into our rivers back in the “good ole days” My first job out of college I worked for a firm that did government superfund remediation, we dredged the Manistique river in the UP for just this sort of contamination, and pcbs for instance bond to the organic portion of the bottom sediments which would explain why they end up in fish…..

Jason.

Don’t tell me you ate all that perfectly good bait!! bait in WI anyways…nice fish.

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a river that is constantly cleaning itself is thought of as dirty.

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It’s not actually the “water” that is the problem anymore…not since the clean water act of 1970 anyhow…it’s the bottom sediments that are contaminated with “persistent” toxins like the aforementioned pcbs, and heavy metals. These sediments are not washed away easily, and these toxins bioaccumulate…intensifying as they move up the food pyramid into the largest meat eating fish…and then you.

The 150’s are being built right now with the 115’s right behind…not so sure about the 130

Jason.

It is power loss through friction/heat…gears meshing take power to turn, the power needed to rotate these relatively heavy, touching parts…is used up before it can turn the propshaft/prop. It is much more prominent in a car. My old fox body mustang made 225 hp at the crankshaft…but after it went through the gearbox and driveshaft/axle it only made 189 hp on a chassis dyno…more power would be lost if it was an automatic tranny with more junk to turn…to put it simply.

Jason.