Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Took the day off work today with a buddy and rather than work on the Chief we hit the lake with the SN and filled up the wells with some gills, crappie and perch. It's 85 here today with a light breeze and I got in my first sun baked day of the year. Feeling a bit crispy right now but it's awesome. :tan: Love being on the water and the fishing was great. :biggrin-new:

 

[barato2]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

and no pictures for us deskbound bretheren? yer a cruel one.....

(or maybe i should say that i'm glad you went fishing instead of working on the boat cuz now i don't feel so guilty about misplacing my camera and not gettin you the promised pix of hatch latch yet....i'll find it tonight)

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Fishing.... yeah, that's much better then boat work

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Your weather sounds great and so did the fishing. Of course pics always are good too, especially of a nice mess of panfish. I don't ever worry about the 1st sun bake of the year, after that it all just tans up.

 

[dozerII]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Fishin I'm Wishn, Good on ya Water. One of these days it's going to warm up with out the wind.

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Pics yeah I avoid taking them of panfish normally because most people think all fish should be the size of king salmon.

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Pics yeah I avoid taking them of panfish normally because most people think all fish should be the size of king salmon.

On the contrary, not only are gill super tasty they put up a heck of a fight. Especially these 10"ers I pulled through the ice.

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Yeah I stand corrected, not everyone looks down their noses at panfish. I did snap a shot of the livewell once it was drained to show the mix of tasty panfish.

 

[dozerII]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Nice, Real nice I can hardly wait.

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Thank you Water, that is a nice mess of crappie ya got there and some real nice perch to boot. Excellent eating there. Even though I am a tired and true salmon slammer I always enjoy a day of panfishing and the fry afterwards.

Ok everyone, fish fry at Waters!!!

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

We have a HUGE run of Salmon and Steelhead here in the Columbia but the crowds the Salmon draw sends me to the reservoirs and lakes to avoid them. Guys that sit sideways in their 60k Duckworth because their wallet is 3 inches thick. They believe that the river they drove 3 hours to get to in their 50k diesel truck and that I grew up on is theirs and they're the only humans on the planet. Every chance they prove it either on the water or at the few crowded launches. You can imagine every foul thing someone can do to spoil your fishing and it's a reality. Then the guides take it to the next level as soon as they see you with a fish on. Not worth the hassle.

 

[cj8mule]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

I'm sorry to say it's like that every where else to H20. ... not just up where you are. Even Texas was like that with the guides going after redfish.

The only places I've found where a fellow can really have some peace and quiet was on Padre Island National Seashore in TX (62 miles of beach to drive on). The other was in mutiple locations in Alaska.... now that's some salmon fishing!

 

[barato2]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

it's like that every where else to H20
one of the advantages of fishing in Mexico, and esp the far side of Baja, is that you sorta get away from that....the difficulty of getting there deters many of the azzoles. as they say, bad roads bring good people, good roads bring the kind Watermann describes......100 miles of bad washboard really culls out the losers. which, in a nutshell, is exactly why i'm building my boat and trailer for that sort of duty.

nice mess o' fish. i'll bring the cerveza for the fish fry....:hungry::very_drunk:

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Si, mas cervezas mis amigo....rapido! Combat fishing seems to be the norm with salmon unfortunately. On the Lk Michigan side it can get quite vicious and have had a couple of the charters try to run across our lines and then yell at us for not moving for them. Well,,,,,,I don't and won't move out of my troll to accommodate them. On Lk Huron where I mainly fish the salmon fishery crashed several years ago due to the loss of alewife but our fishing has regained not only with salmon but great steelheading, browns, atlantics, coho, and yes walleye too. Nice thing is we don't get the combat fishing like that on the other side of the state because we don't have the abundance of kings like they do. And I like the subtle days of a few boats out there and we are catching a box full.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

When do I have to leave the house to be at the Watermann fish fry for dinner? About 3 days ago :grumpy: :blue:

Just us is what keeps us going to the little fishing spot we always go to. Been many dozens of times, and if we see anyone, it's unusual. In 3yrs of 3 season fishing, I bet there's only been 24 other people, total, there while we are.

I think I can share 'our' fishing spot w/ 8 other people a year.

Crappie were just getting active the last time we went. Caught 1 each, the Admiral landed the larger fish

Enjoy the fish fry.....

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Last weekend I got the transom assemblies all bolted up and gimbal bearing pulled. I do however have a question for guys who bolted their assemblies and torqued them down on a new transom. I was shocked how long it took me to get the measly 20 Ft Lbs of torque on the 8 bolts, it seemed like the wood was maybe compressing. Kinda makes me worry because my transom was right on the 2" mark when I started. Did you guys have to work on yours quite a bit to get them all to the correct torque? I only did mine to 20 as the book says 20 - 25 Ft Lbs and do you think I'm good or should I go back after a few days and re-check the torque?

Got the Shark nautolex flooring off the brown truck today

 

[dozerII]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Last weekend I got the transom assemblies all bolted up and gimbal bearing pulled. I do however have a question for guys who bolted their assemblies and torqued them down on a new transom. I was shocked how long it took me to get the measly 20 Ft Lbs of torque on the 8 bolts, it seemed like the wood was maybe compressing. Kinda makes me worry because my transom was right on the 2" mark when I started. Did you guys have to work on yours quite a bit to get them all to the correct torque? I only did mine to 20 as the book says 20 - 25 Ft Lbs and do you think I'm good or should I go back after a few days and re-check the torque?

Got the Shark nautolex flooring off the brown truck today

I found the same thing when torqueing mine, seemed to take for ever. I saw no distortion in the skin or the ply. Just one of those scratch your head moments I guess.

 

[GT1000000]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Just popping by to see what's up...
Nice progress on the Chief! Tank, trailer swap and all...
Also noticed I missed the fish fry...darn...all them panfish sure do look tasty...MMM-MMM-Good!
Also, wanted to add my non-scientific 'splanation for the torque issue...
Don't know much about I/O's, but I have found that torquing aluminum head bolts into aluminum blocks takes many more steps than the usual cast iron set ups...biggest reason I can come up with is that the aluminum threads are being stretched by the bolts until all the give is gone and they settle to their torque tolerance...
The other tid bit is sort of a question/comment...
I/O's, don't they use a gasket around the keyhole? If so, 20 ft. lbs. is not a lot of torque, yet as you reach the threshold, the gasket begins to compress until it too, takes a set...and...
20 ft. lbs. is usually applied best using a 3/8 inch drive torque wrench, as opposed to 1/2"...mainly because of the sensitivity to torque afforded by a smaller drive...
Finally, due to most torque wrenches having a tolerance percentage of several percent [3-6% for the better ones], usually beginning from 20% & up, of their specified torque range, I tend to always go for the higher specified torque value...generally, the closer you get to the upper end of the specific torque wrench scale, the closer you'll be to its "sweet spot"...
L8r,

 

[cj8mule]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Congrates on getting that gimbal assembly on H20. This is my second I/O transom rebuild and they both tightened up the same way ... so +1 to what Dozer said.

You're going to like that Nautolex. Did you get a vinyl roller yet? You might want one of those.

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Thanks for the reassurance and advice on the assembly torque issue. Did you guys re-torque and go to 25 like Gus suggests? Yeah Gus the foam gasket around the outer gimbal mount does squish down but it had done that long before I even got the torque set.

Yeap I have a roller!