I was out in the back last evening clearing the snow off the winter covers of my boats. I thought I'd better do it because 6-8 inches more is heading our way for tomorrow. Oh well, at least it isn't a lot of snow, but I thought I'd better not let it stack up on my rigs and risk tearing the winter covers.

Being out there started me thinking, damn I wish it was already spring and I so I could get these babies in the water. It seems like a long way off right now, I just drove past a local lake yesterday and half a dozen cars were parked on it.

But I love boats and I really enjoy fishing from boats. I give up on trout in the heat of the summer and I fish exclusively from my boat and I love it.

I think one of my greatest pleasures in fishing is the ride back to the landing in the twilight after a good day or after-work fishing session. I love running the St. Croix from Hudson back up to Stillwater in the fading light. The river is calm, no one is on the water. It's so beautiful skimming along just on plane with the church spires of Bayport and Stillwater silhouetted against the setting sun. It just doesn't get any better. I can justify boat ownership for a whole year just by making that run once.

And I love the smell of spent two stroke fuel! That smell says "time to go fishing" to me. I can remember ticking along trolling for walleye on the wingdam just above Hershey Island on the Mississippi in my dad's 12 foot Alumacraft with his 1963 Mercury. I can still hear that outboard and smell that 2-stroke smell. I won't miss a lot of things about 2 stroke outboards in 25 years, when most of the 2 strokes have been replaced by oh-so-modern 4 storkers, but I'll still miss that smell.

So who on that side of the pond owns their own fishing boat? What is it, where do you use it, and how do you fish from it?

Grouse

I was just testing my 1963 Seagull silver century 25/1 mix 2stroke today for the coming season.You are so right Grouse, I love the smell of a 2 stroke outboard. It just smells of fishing.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

I'll get you a picture once the season starts Grouse

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Tight Lines. :)

Ahhh. 1963 must have been a very good year for outboards, eh Jim? A fine vintage. Two stroke outboards have personalities. Some have more than others , but they all have one.

I have to laugh, picturing that 63 Merc of my dad's. The lower unit and the rest of the motor were different colors because one day he was running fast to get home before dark and he got out of the shipping channel to get out of the way of a barge coming up. Bang! Silence.

He tilted the motor up and there was nothing below the anti-cavitation plate. The whole lower unit was totally missing.

He caught a chunk of limestone on an old wingdam and and it sheared all 6 bolts off leaving his lower unit at the bottom of the river. So in the days before cell phones, ma had just written him off for dead when he called from Slippery's Bar, the very one (badly) portrayed in the film Grumpy Old Men. "Come and pick me up, but not for an hour. . . "

That was a $250 repair in 1975. Ma almost made him quite fishing after that, she worked out the cost per pound of fish and a long "discussion" ensued . . .

Grouse

Peering into the crystal ball I see ---- Castrol R


More seriously - how stable is the pre-mix these days - now that the petrol formulation has changed?

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Plusnet/Madasafish > Liars to the internet community

My seagull was designed with a 10/1 mix but with modern fuel and low ash oils and a new main jet it is very happy to run all day with 25/1mix,I wish it would run 50/1 but i don't want to risk it.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

Great thread Grouse...

I love the smell of the old 2 stroke as she roars into life like a throaty ford capri at the start of a mild summer dawn. An anticipated day of angling on a creeping high tide mixed with salt and fumes as you accelerate on to the plane. Nice.

The oldman built his first 16 foot run-a-bout in 72 with a second hand 40 horse power mercury. Used to put me up in the anchor well at 18 months old to sleep while harbour fishing the weat coast. Scaled up to a sea nymph
23 foot fibre-glass with cabin for off shore reef and game fishing with a 100 horse power Johnston. As he is now retired he down scaled and I chipped in with him to purchase a custom built aluminium hull 'brooker', 18 foot, central console, plaining hull, with casting platform on the front for targeting tuna, kingfish, travelly and kahawai on the coast and trout on the lake margins on Taupo and Rotorua, hes has a 60 hp, 4-stroke mariner on the transom.

Back here in Ireland I have a custom, 19 foot traditional fibre glass clinker for lake fishing and traditional loch style. 15 hp Taihatsu on the transom.
Swivel seats, hummingbird depth finder and custom fins built into the transom to get her on the plane quicker. Target anything that swims really...

With modern oil almost anything can run at 32:1 with no risk whatsoever. I read on a boating forum that the main reason is that modern oil says in suspension so much better and provides very uniform lubrication.

My father ran his Mercury (recommend 16:1 according to the plate on the outboard) at 100:1 using synthetic Amsoil for 20 years and the outboard was still running well when he sold it in 1988. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but with good synthetic 2-stroke oil there's certainly far better protection at higher ratios.

Grouse

I'd love a little fishing boat... trouble is the one I have a hankering for is a little, wait who am I kidding, is a lot out of my price range.

I saw a real pearl of an example recently... I'll see if I can google a pic of a boat similar to it.

Essentially it was an 18 foot launch with an inboard diesel, beautifully restored, clinker style build, forward steering and other controls.

Very similar to this:



One day maybe

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Adam
"Dum vivimus, vivamus."

http://www.adamhughes.net

'63 - Silver century... Alarm bell
http://www.britishseagullparts.com/engine-fuelratio.htm

I remember a seagull owner saying that some were VERY picky about fuel oil ratios.

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Plusnet/Madasafish > Liars to the internet community