Why do you need more than 4lb test?

[crap-king]

Don - you da man - and as Jerry said I like my Johnson 4 srtoke - it is a Suzuki with a white cover and Johnson wrote on it - mine is a 90 hp - really like it - if you come to visit your family down this way we will find you a seat on a boat somewhere - nat has plenty of room on the USS Bourbon - that is if he makes it back from the outerbanks - my boat is at Emerald Isle until the week after Thanksgiving and then I will have mine back here as well - just let us know buddy

[Roberta]

Nice fish, Don. I had to switch to 6 lb so I could see it well enough to tie a knot. Bonus is that if I hang up in timber, I can usually straighten the hook and pull free rather than breaking off.

[fishin3]

use 6 cause they did not have 4 in it. I am usually the odd one out in most fishing circles I run in. They all tell me I am going to light on the line. I think on my flipping stick for bass only has 17 on it most of the other 10 or 12. Other than lossing a couple of jigs ( no comments for the billbob secition)HEHE I get along very well with 4 or 6 no more than that.

[skiptomylu]

Nice catch!

My reason for using line stronger than 4# is I want my jig back if it gets hung up and fishing here you are going to get hung up from time to time. Like every time you go fishing, LOL!

[Billy2]

Sorry about your motor, will you post what caused the motor
to blow?

[crappiechappy]

4 lb. is what I prefer because I think you get a few more bites w/ it........I'd like to hear what caused the motor to blow also.

[Bluegillfreak]

Buy a evinrude or johnson they the highest ranked motor by the U.S. Consumer

[LBM]

Don

I can sure relate to your blown motor. I had a 9-10 year old 175 Evinrude blow on me shortly after I retired and this was before I could draw Social Security. I had planned on a different rig sometime after retiring and repairing a blown engine sure wasn’t in the plan.

My fishing interest had changed from green carp to crappie and cats and about a year later after repairing the blown engine I down scaled my rig to a 16 ft Lund with a tiller steer and a 60 hp Mercury four stroke. After retiring I figured I didn’t need to get to my fishing spots as quickly as I had been with the 175 Evinrude since I now have more time on my hands.

That experience sure left me with a ‘gun shy or snake bit’ type feeling about marine engines since I always thought I had been performing all the required maintenance so as to ward off this possibility.

I sure felt your pain but guess it’s always out there as a possibility while using any engine. The call of the water will even be more intense while waiting to get things fixed and running again.

Guess the crappie in your neck of the woods can breathe a sigh of relief for awhile. Anyhow good luck and a quick return to the water.

[Don G]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. For those that wanted info on why the motor turned loose I offer the following.

This motor has always used Mercury Premium Plus oil, Mercury high performance lower unit oil, Plus gas, and maintenance has been on schedule...The problem was caused by me. I listened to some Merc mechanics tell me this 200 EFI "liked" to be run around 5900-6000 rpm...The Mercury Service Manual reads 5000-5500....Live & learn..Maybe this happened for the best...Getting a "little older" has slowed my reaction time and this boat could out run my reaction time..I might have to go back to a 50 hp stick steering boat ....lol..

A friend of mine is a tech rep for Mercury & I have a call in for him...If he adds anything about I will post it.

Thanks again for your concern....

[Jerry Blake]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. For those that wanted info on why the motor turned loose I offer the following.

This motor has always used Mercury Premium Plus oil, Mercury high performance lower unit oil, Plus gas, and maintenance has been on schedule...The problem was caused by me. I listened to some Merc mechanics tell me this 200 EFI "liked" to be run around 5900-6000 rpm...The Mercury Service Manual reads 5000-5500....Live & learn..Maybe this happened for the best...Getting a "little older" has slowed my reaction time and this boat could out run my reaction time..I might have to go back to a 50 hp stick steering boat ....lol..

A friend of mine is a tech rep for Mercury & I have a call in for him...If he adds anything about I will post it.

Thanks again for your concern....

Can you catch any from the bank at Grenada?

Hey Don:

Are you saying that you think the reason the motor came apart was because of excess RPMS? I wouldn't think 500 RPMs over red line for a short period of time would cause a motor to come apart.

My Suzuki has a "Rev Limit" failsafe system. If any one of a number of sensors pick up any abnormalties including excess RPMs this system automatically brings the RPMs down to something like 3,000. I've had the system activate a few times so I know it works.

It activated a couple of times when the RPMs got too high while running with a light load and trimming the motor up so far the prop cavitated. I was trying to determine what my top speed was and whether or not the motor was at max RPMs at top speed so I could give my prop man the info he needed to tune my prop for me.

It activated one other time while I was running down the lake and apparently picked up some trash - probably somebody's minnow or ice bag - in the cooling water intakes, which caused the motor to begin to overheat for lack of cooling water I guess. Of course as soon as it cut back to the lower RPMs and I saw a light flashing I throttled back and shut her down.

When I raised the motor whatever had been obstructing the intakes was no longer their so I started the motor and let it idle until the "Pee Stream" came out good and strong to make sure it was getting cooling water. When the Rev Limit system activates one of several different lights come on so you can determine the reason.

Anyway, don't be too hard on yourself. Darryl and I were in a marine shop last week and the owner showed us several Merc EFI motors that had come apart the same way and for no apparent reason. His theory was that the rod bolts on the crankshaft start to loosen up, which causes the bearings to "stack up" and then attempt to seize, which throws the rod through the block.