It sounds to me that you are saying it leaks when the motor is in the up position and NOT running…. do I understand correctly that when you motor down river with your bigger motor it’s your kicker motor that leaks gas while in the up position?

So does mine. All I do is make sure the vent on my kicker motor gas tank is open to relieve the air pressure inside the gas tank. That way the gas is not forced out of the carbs to drip inside my boat. This stops some if not all of the leaking in my older 4.5 hp Merc kicker while it is in the up (non running) position. You can also unhook the gas line when not in use….

Bigger is always better. Small single doors would be a pain in the butt with boats and snowmobiles.

Don’t forget the “height” of the door. Get the taller door so you can stand up in your boat without bumping your head on the garage door. Also, some SUV’s with luggage racks cannot get into garages with shorter doors. With the taller garage door I can back my snowmobile trailer in the garage, open the hood on the snowmobiles and run the machines. The door does not hit the open hoods as it goes up and down.

I have a smokercraft. Compare the specs and then compare the prices. I think you will find Smokercraft is a quality boat with an attractive price. If I remember correctly, Alumacraft has a double hull system (good idea), but I think Smokercrafts hull is thicker than most, at least when I purchased my 16 footer. All three are good boats.

Great question but sorry I don’t have a good answer. Just one comment and question. Do you have a four stroke engine on your boat? It seems to me that some boats (not sure about the Alumacraft)cannot keep the bow from porpoising when you trim up with a heavy four stroke engine. I believe part of the problem is some boats are designed with the fuel tank in the stern and the heavy four stroke engine puts too much weight in the back of the boat. I noticed a big difference (improvement) on my new 16 foot Smokercraft that has an under floor mounted fuel tank. I no longer have bow bouncing problems when I trim. As far as mounting the engine high or low on the transom, this is an excellent question and I look forward to an educated answer from someone. When I rigged boats 30 years ago as a kid, taking directions from adults, we set them all down on the transom and bolted them on. That doesn’t appear to be the way it is done today. – jim

I am no electrician but am also starting some work on my cabin. A book I have says something about you can run 12 gauge wire up to 50 feet with a 20 amp circut. You can run 12 gauge wire up to 100 feet with a 15 amp circut (maximum 1800 watts on circut).

I am running wires under ground with electrical (grey) PVC pipe, and my neighbor who is an electrician said 18 inches was code. It may depend on what type of wire you are using though??

Airpart, do you have a Lowrance GPS? There is a constant battery drain on some of those units (example Globalmap). That is why mine is hooked up to the accessory switch. I turn off the switch when I shut my GPS off so I do not have battery drain.

I went out yesterday at Blackhawk Island for the shake down cruise and that is what it was. Right off the bat the main motor would not start. After about one hour of messing around I got it running. Then it did not run right, but I still needed to entertain the 5-year old so we did a little fishing (very little). For those of you who have raised kids, I am now going through your(joyous?)pain. Out of about one hour of fishing I probably was able to make 10 casts. I think I had one bite on a minnow cranking the bottom, but that was it. I saw one fish caught but there could have been more as my eyes were mostly on my son trying to keep his line out of everything but the kitchen sink. Good luck! – jim

Excellent unit, I have the older version and love it.

I am going to try to get out thursday afternoon. The kid is off school so if it is not pouring rain we will try it for the first time this year…

I was up there on Monday but did not have time to fish. It didn’t look like too many were out there. None at the dam in boats when I drove by. I did talk to Len and it sounds like he will be out of town for a walleye tourney so I doubt he will have computer access to do any reports for awhile..jim

Hi Len,

I will be up there this week but may leave the boat at home as I mainly want to work on the hunting shack. I would be interested in how they are doing on the float. I may try to fish there on Tuesday or Wednesday for part of the day…thanks! -jim

P.S. Len has not steered me wrong yet.

I would have to say a two bank (10 amp) should do him well. If it was me I would buy a Guest. Guest has a gal named Sue who frequents some of the message boards. She takes care of those with problems. Not that their units are problem prone by no means, but if there is trouble their customer service is second to none. Cabelas is another great place to shop. Their customer service is also excellent. I hate to go against the grain here, but a walleye magazine tested several brands of on-board chargers a couple years back, and Minn Kota was one of the worst.

A bad ground makes the trailer act like it is possessed. If you think the devil is in your trailer, it’s probably the ground.

Be sure everything is GROUNDED properly. Clean around all ground connections with a wire brush before connecting. Be sure you have the white wire on your vehicle grounded on your vehicle and the white wire grounded on your trailer. Many don’t use a ground, and then after the trailer ball rusts badly they have problems like you describe.

Nice fish Crappie Catcher. I know first hand what it is like taking kids fishing. I have a five year-old and we kept a couple of bass earlier this year. It was my son’s FIRST FISH through the ice. I am trying to get him interested in fishing and to throw them back was not the best thing to do that day. He also loves to eat fish.

Once I get the kid hooked on fishing I will then teach him about “catch and release”. I do plenty of that and believe in it as many do. But let’s not jump on people who keep some fish, as Paul Harvey would say: “What’s the rest of the story?”

Len, I will see ya soon. March 10 is my last day of work for at least a month. Have the burgers ready and I’m looking forward to sharing a fish story or two over a beer or three.

There is a motel in Lynxville, but I think it closes in the winter. Sorry, don’t know the name of it so you can check.

Len and Sandy also do a tasty breakfast

Try the Sentry food chain. They stock them in Fort Atkinson, WI.

Nice truck, don’t ya just love the new smell…

I hope I can make the GTG one of these years, I love a party!!

I am in 100% support. Let ’em go and let ’em grow..jim

Question. Did the fish turn on a little after 3:00 pm? Thanks…jim

Fishing was slow all up and down the Mississippi in pools 9 & 10 on Saturday. I didn’t make the GTG because I knew my five year old couldn’t (or wouldn’t) walk that far and I only had a short time to fish and knew the shuttle people would be busy. So I fished up river from you all and the fishing was SLOW. There were 20 plus fishers around me and about the only time I saw a hand go up was to tilt a beer. Oh well, that is why they call it fishing and not catching, hope to meet some of you maybe next year…jim

Len, hurry up and get that bar opened back up, I am turning to skin and bones without your good burgers!!

I’ll try to post a picture..

Dave, I sure hope I can get over there, it sure sounds like a good time! My wife just told me her work Christmas party is on that Saturday, so I am hoping I can make either the Friday prefish or the Saturday get-together. I do have some questions though:

Do people park on the ice at either of the Ambrough landings if the parking gets full? I have a snowmobile and thought if I could pull on the ice to unload it would be better than getting parked in or having to back up a long distance with a trailer.

How is the ice? I drove down there the other day and I did see wetness on top in places, but I am guessing that did NOT mean bad ice anywhere?

How far from the parking area do you think we will be fishing on Saturday? Maybe I do not need my snowmobile?

Thanks!! – jim

It has always been that you needed a coast guard license if you operated a “boat for hire” and had paying passengers on any waters in the U.S. that were under coast guard authority. These Federal waters were usually waters that either crossed state lines or were used for commercial shipping at some point in the last 100 or so years. Most lakes in Wisconsin are not under Federal status and thus no coast guard license is needed. Now, if some state passed a law that said all guides need to have a coast guard license, then that is a different story. I am not sure if any state has done this but It has not happened in Wisconsin to my knowledge..jim

Hey Jeff, it’s easy, just head west until you get to the big creek!!

I am sure the tents have changed in the last two years since I bought my Frabill. But one consideration I had back then was some of the tents had the windows up too high, what I mean is you had to stand up to look out. If you were going to set up tip ups you would constantly be “up and down” which seemed very annoying to me. Another factor was weight, another was do the make a nice tow bar? The other issue for me was can I seat my wife and young son in the tent if we all wanted to warm up or jig fish in the tent at the same time. Also, are they dark enough inside so you can look down the hole. These are some of the points I considered before I bought. Good luck. – jim

I read that in the paper and I feel for ya. Let us know if we can do anything….- jim