23lbs to win and 8+ big fish

Not us though. We had 10lbs 14 ounces for third ... from last... LOL.
(ABA's scale was stuck on pounds and ounces)

I've been fishing from The Tin Can for the whole winter, and its getting to
have some problems. Its always been my backup and occasional trash water
adventure boat, but the lower unit came apart on our prefish scouting on
Thursday. We had located a number of areas where big fish where moving up
and we were excited, but I had to get the lower unit fixed first.

It's a pretty simple motor and I have it pretty well figured out so, I was
confident in that since I've been buying up spare parts cheap when they come
along. I knew I had everything I could need to repair the lower unit, but
when I tackled it on Friday it just wouldn't go back together. I was ready
to give up when a fishing buddy called me to tell me he had a spare boat we
could use. One of our competitors. Real class.

Since I was no longer stressing over it I decided to take The Tin Can's
lower unit back apart and look again. With the nose cone housing clamped in
the vise and the prop shaft gear assembly in my hand I started looking it
over carefully. Everything looked right. Slider worked, and didn't stick.
The new(er) gears where exactly the right length, everything spun, but the
rear prop shaft bearing carrier and cap wouldn't quite go on tight when
reassembling.

I started tapping it apart to see what I could possibly have done wrong. I
know these lower units. I've rebuilt this one before. That's the nature of
trash water boats. Lower units get screwed up. I really should have a mud
motor on this boat, but I try to keep it tournament legal. ANYWAY, I slid
off the rear gear, and the thrust washer. Then I set it down to take a sip
of my coffee before picking it up to slip of the thrust washer. DOH! In my
scavenging parts to get all good stuff to put the unit back together I had
somehow installed two thrust washers between the shift slider and the rear
drive gear. What an idiot. I put it back together and tested it. It fired
up, ran beautifully, and shifted with a nice smooth "snick" into both
forward and reverse.

I called my fishing partner and my buddy to let them know we were good to go
with The Tin Can.

Our first fishing spot was within trolling motor distance and we picked off
four keepers before we ever fired up the big motor (actually I warmed it up
before call out). The bite was steady, and my partner lost a toad in a
submerged tree. When I turned to grab the net I could see his rod surge
when she shook her head. Our bite slowed down and we decided it was time to
move.

When we got some light we decided to head for some of the places we had
spotted some of the big ones moving up. Thump, thump, THUMP! It kinda felt
like the lower unit was dropping out of gear again except we were losing
power too. I cut the throttle and slipped it out of gear thinking maybe it
needed a slightly shift rod adjustment. No big deal. I threw a couple
wrenches in the boat just for that the night before. The motor died as soon
as it went into idle and wouldn't start again. Aurgh. Kalib threw down the
trolling motor and turned us around so we could back if I couldn't find the
problem quickly. I never found the problem. It just wouldn't start.
Seemed like no spark. Its times like this I'm glad I don't skimp on
trolling motors.

We spent the rest of the day working everything near the marina, flipping
tulies, senkoing docks and brush, dragging jigs, and throwing cranks and
spinnerbaits, We managed to cull five times, but after we filled our limit
and culled our one small fish it was just culling for ounces. We knew we
wouldn't be in the money with all the big fish we had found staging during
prefish, but we aren't quitters either. At the end of the day I was spent.
It had not been a good day, although my Kalib still had some spirit.

"Where is the Basscat," you might ask? "With big fish moving up why weren't
you fishing out of that with its new 250 Pro suXS so you could get to
atleast one of your big fish spots first?" I dropped it off at the shop
four weeks ago tomorrow with a bad miss. Late last week I got a call
telling me they "FINALLY" found the problem. Manufacturer's defect. A
cylinder sleeve spun in its hole and was causing symptoms similar to fuel
system issues.

It took three weeks to find the problem, mostly because Mercury wouldn't
listen to the mechanic when he said, "ITS NOT BAD COILS." They insisted on
sending him six new coils first wasting atleast part of that time. Its my
understanding that the new powerhead will be shipped truck freight sometime
this week. I was already told that it might take as much as 7 or 8 days to
get here. Basically I am looking at another two weeks before I can pick it
up and start breaking it in all over again.

"Didn't you just get that new motor Bob?" Yes, well sorta. I sent of my
deposit check for it in July of last year. It took several weeks to ship
and a couple more for it to arrive at my shop. I dropped off the boat for
what should have been a one day engine swap. I even pulled the old motor
and had a new steering cylinder ready for them when I pulled the boat in the
shop. No luck. The new Optimax has different connectors than the old one,
and the shop didn't have any adaptors in stock. (That shop is no longer in
business) A couple more weeks and I picked up my boat and took it home.

I put my gear back in the boat when I got home and prepared to take it out
that weekend. I turned on the key sitting in the shop, and the gages
wouldn't register. They said engine not detected. "You have got to be
kidding me." Since its six (6) hour round trip I got the mechanic on the
phone and we went around for a week. I bought new gages (which I didn't
need), metered out the data cables from end to end, check the t-res, etc and
finally took it back to the shop where they replaced the computer. That's
right. With zero hours in the water, and less then 1 total on the hose
during setup, dyno, etc it suffered a PCM failure.

Now I need to mention some things here. During my testing to see what was
wrong with my boat I had run the motor on the hose for a few minutes myself
and I noticed it had a rough idle. Rougher than my old Optimax. I
commented on this to the installing mechanic and he said it was normal, but
should smooth out a little after its broke in. I am convinced this was the
first symptom of its ultimate failure.

I followed the breakin procedure to the letter. I even grabbed a stopwatch
and headed for the water with no fishing poles in the boat a couple days. I
ran up and down the river, varying RPM and following my stopwatch for each
RPM change. I put my ten hours on in two days. I kept to the breakin
rhythm for an extra couple hours just to be safe. During all of this I
noticed several things.

I would occasionally get a tick like the skeg brushing a sandbar. Sometimes
in places where I didn't ever remember sandbars being a problem. Since it
was winter and the water levels were starting to drop I just assumed somehow
I just didn't remember the river as well as I thought. It also continued to
idle rough, and it would miss during a fast idle. I dropped an e-mail to
the mechanic, but received no response. Remember that sandbar tic I
mentioned? It was actually a high speed miss, and when I finally opened it
up it showed up as a full fledge loss of power. Sudden, and extended long
enough to cause the boat to fall off to one side for. Dangerous.

I expect I'll get to open up my boat and start breaking in my new powerhead
in August the way my luck is going. If I get it back by the end of March I
will be in shock. Not happy, but surprised.

Before taking it anywhere I called Mercury and asked which shop in Arizona
had the highest customer satisfaction rating, and that's where I took the
boat... There it sits.

Bob La Londe
Proud Owner of a "Brand New" 250 Pro suXS