Slab goes fishing in Elmore County Alabama
What I learned during my recent fishing trip to Elmore County Alabama had more to do with maintenance than fishing. All of us have motors, whether they be on our boat or in our car/truck. And they all need maintenance. Yes, even in this disposable age, even now when there's likely no dipstick for your transmission oil. Some cars don't even have dipsticks for engine oil. It's simple, you're not going to get the most from your equipment if you don't maintain it. Many companies want it to fail so you buy another one, but not Yamaha.
https://www.crappie.com/crappie/atta...3-img_0633-jpg
It was the strangest thing when I read the side of Dan Dannenmueller's boat where it said “Maintenance Matters”. I asked Dan what maintenance products did they sell, and he replied “they don't sell any”! Yamaha provides all sorts of information on their “Maintenance Matters” website at no cost at all. They are just selling the idea that maintaining your boat and motor will help it last a long, long time.
So I decided to check out their website http://maintenance.yamahaoutboards.com and there really is a bunch of good information in there. A ton of maintenance information which people are starting to forget about, especially our youth. So read it, learn some, remind yourself about some of the stuff you may have forgotten. They're not selling anything. Just good, clean, valuable information is in there like; changing “all” your oils, preventing corrosion, replacing water pumps, fuel filters....and so on.
This brings me to the next thing I learned in Alabama. I learned about “Fuel Additives”. I never really believed in fuel additives except for the stuff that comes in that little yellow bottle. Some of you may know about it. It's called “Heat” and I used it regularly in the winter up in Northern Illinois to prevent my fuel line from freezing when the temps reached zero (you really needed it when the temps dropped below zero). That was the only additive I've ever used. I always heard the fuels these days already had a bunch of additives in it and didn't need more.
So here I go fishing with Steve Danna. Steve has a new line of rods out by BnM, the Tree Thumper rods (more on that later). And Steve's boat is wrapped with this product called ProFormula, a fuel additive. Steve tells me it'll clean my engine and improve my fuel economy. Honestly I'm not convinced and I'll have to see it to believe it. So I put a bottle in my tank at the next fill up. I'm skeptical that it'll improve anything particularly since I'm driving a 6 month old F150. It's a new truck and I can't imagine there's anything to "clean" for improvement.
https://www.crappie.com/crappie/atta...redimage-1-png
Skeptical Slab!
Previously while driving down the highway, I would get at the very most 24 MPG on my F150, usually more like 22 or 23. And that's pretty good in my opinion. Yeah I know I should not just believe the on-board computer, but it's a fast and easy way to at least make comparisons. So here's the result after pouring 6 ounces of ProFormula into my tank.
https://www.crappie.com/crappie/atta...9-img_0848-jpg
2018 2.7 liter F150 SuperCrew Short Bed with ProFormula. 26.3 MPG averaging 72 miles per hour for an hour and 14 minutes. I was driving though a flat part of Indiana at the time FYI.
WOW, 26.3 MPG in a pickup truck! This stuff pays for itself in one tank. Holy Cow. I have to try this on my F250, cause pulling my 5th wheel I get about 9-10 MPG! We will see.
On yet another note concerning maintenance and boating, recently I had some major difficulty starting my boat motor. It was to the point where I thought I'd be paddling. The battery just about died, but it did finally start. I changed the plugs later, even though the gap looked fine and they looked like they were new. That fixed everything. Ran like a champ. I mentioned this to Shuorc later while we were fishing together and he told me what was happening. Over time, spark plugs will “get plated” and not provide good spark, particularly on 2-stroke motors. He said running a simple piece of sand paper over both sides of the spark plugs electrode would have helped too. So the moral of this story is: Maintenance really does matter.
Now back to fishing. Steve Danna, what a great guy, with a great new line of rods out by BnM Poles. Steve's a Tree Thumper kinda guy so here on the Alabama River what do we do; we go and thump some tree stumps. The fishing is hard, the fish have lockjaw because it's post spawn. But we do manage a few, and also a really nice one pictured here.
https://www.crappie.com/crappie/atta...7-img_0589-jpg
Just a hair over two pounds.
https://www.crappie.com/crappie/atta...5-img_0882-png
We were moving super slow though scattered stumps in 7 to 9 feet of water pitching and stump thumping a Bobby Garland 2.25 inch chartreuse and white Mo-Glo Baby Shad Swim'R with an Orange CrappiePro jig head. You have to love the "thump", especially when using Steve's very own "Tree Thumper" rods. They are super light weight, and they are stout as well. This aids in feeling the bite, setting the hook, and pulling crappie away from possible entanglements. I really like the lightweight, fish all day long, rear seat balance you get too. Overall I think it's a great design, good job Steve.
For the afternoon I had the opportunity to go fishing with Steve Brown.
https://www.crappie.com/crappie/atta...8-img_0620-jpg
Steve had a Garmin Livescope on board, and it was a great tool. Pictures do not give it justice because it's live action. You have to see the motion to really appreciate it. You can see your jig drop, you can see the tails of the fish waving as they swim. It really is a game changer in my opinion. It allows you to observe actual moving fish, fish activity; and you're not just looking at a historical, previously taken snapshots of them.
https://www.crappie.com/crappie/atta...5-img_0631-jpg
We Spider Rigged structure with jigs and live minnows, and were able to catch a few. Without the Livescope, yeah we would have been able to find the structure, but we would not have been able to find and target specific larger fish, IMHO.
https://www.crappie.com/crappie/atta...1-img_0614-jpg
Thanks Steve for a great trip on the water, and a lesson on Livescoping!
https://www.crappie.com/crappie/atta...2-img_0612-jpg
Oh, we also seen quite a few Spoonbill. This picture does not give the live action justice as I could see the spoonbill's tail wagging, and the gaping mouth, and the bill of the fish moving through the water. Very cool technology, which made identifying the fish as a Spoonbill very easy.
