loebs93

Luckily the new layer of paint peeled right off. It was clearly the wrong paint to use. It was literally coming off in sheets, which made removal easy. I have since purchased an epoxy primer and automotive paint which I have much more confidence in. The primer coat is actually aready on and drying as I type and I'll be able to finish up the painting tomorrow. Thanks for the input guys.

I recently purchased a used aluminum truck topper that was red in color originally. To match my truck I took advice from an online source and Sherwin Williams and painted it black with 100% acrylic latex paint. With the rain today I noticed it's starting to take in water and bubble up already. Needless to say I'm not too happy. I, knowing nothing about paints, am now looking for advice on what to do now. Thanks for the help.

Oh wow... what a fish! That, as musky fishermen, is why we put in countless hours on the lake. What an unbelievable fish! A huge congrats to all aboard that day.

I like the home page but I could see how it would slow things down for dial-up connections. I would guess a majority of FM'ers have a faster speed connection so it isn't much of a problem.

What a perfect day to be out on the lake. Beautiful fish too!

Way cool video. I always think of that type of situation when fishing in lakes with big pike or muskies.

I'll be checking out a lake just west of the metro area. I was thinking Sugar, Eagle or Rebecca which is nothing special and will probably be packed, but its Musky fishing.

I use products by Nikwax. There is a Tech Wash that is detergent free that I use to clean my Gore-Tex (or any other waterproof/breathable materials) that works great. Then I have used a variety of sprays or other wash-ins to restore the water-repellent finish. Nikwax TX-Direct Spray-On and Nikwax TX-Direct 2.0 Wash-In are both nice and effective products that work very well. Do a search on REI's HSOforum for Nikwax and that will show you a good variety of products that can be found at almost any outdoors store.

I would like to take a look at some pictures too. Thanks loebs93@hotmail.com

I have the same auger and had the same problem the first year I used it. I think most of those Tecumseh motors have that issue. I have since switched to different oil at a different mixture. The name of the oil is Amsoil Saber and it is mixed at 100:1 ratio. Now I have very little, if any, oil leakage. It makes things a lot cleaner; not to mention the fact that the auger starts easier in colder weather and runs a lot smoother. I was sold on that oil the first time I used it. This oil comes in small 1.5 oz packets and is relatively inexpensive. It can, however, be tough to find in stores. I have heard that Fleet Farm carries it occasionally and a few other small engine shops have it from time to time. If you go to Amsoil's HSOforum you can order it straight from them. That's what I did. I ordered 5 packets and they were at my place in a week or two. They're only shipped from Wisconsin. It's good stuff!

Dang that sounds like a good deal.

I'm glad I could help you out.

I’ll take a stab at helping you out. First off, you need to have the desired picture saved on your computer. It can be on your desktop, in your "My Pictures" folder, "My Documents" folder or any other folder; it just needs to be saved in your computer. Then you need to go to an image hosting site. Do a search for Image Shack and that will get you to the one I have had the best luck with. When you get to the HSOforum, click on browse. This will open a new window that will allow you to look (browse) through your folders on your computer. You want to navigate to the location you have your image saved. Once you get to your image click on it one time and then click the open button. This will prepare the HSOforum to upload the image and give it a URL. Before clicking "host it" make sure that the "resize image” box is checked and the size is 100 x 75. Also make sure a check is in the box that says "remove size/resolution bar from thumbnail.” Now you can hit the "Host it" button. After the image is done uploading, you will be brought to a new page. You want to highlight the link in the "Direct link to image" box, right click on it and select copy. Now open up Fishingminnesota.com and click on "my home" then click on "Edit" which is to the right of the words "Personal information, email, password, etc." Then scroll down almost to the bottom of the page. Right click in the "URL to your avatar" box, and select paste. This will put that new link into that box. Make sure to dot the circle in front of the box. Lastly, click on the submit button. Your avatar should now pop up on all your past posts as well as new posts. And there ya have it. Feel free to ask if you still have troubles. Eventually you will get it. It took me a couple tries at first too.

This is what usually gets me started. Marmooska Lindy Frostee jigging spooon Fatboy Ratso Demon

I didn't get any nearly that huge this winter but here are pics of my and my buddies' seasonal best. Nothing monster-like, but nice fish.

I switched to Amsoil Sabre this winter with a 100:1 ratio. It can be tough to find in stores; I just purchased mine on line. My Stikemaster use to take at least five pulls to get going. Now, no matter what the temperature, it fires up in one to two pulls. I absolutely love that stuff.

That makes good sense. Thanks for the tip. I was there today as well. I needed a piece for my throttle. I showed the gentleman the piece I needed and he immediately went to the back and grabbed me a replacement for free. He offered to put it on too. It was an easy fix so I declined, but what a great service they offer there in Big Lake. I always read about their nice people here on FM. I never really needed to go there for anything before today. I have no more problems driving nearly an hour for their service.

Here are two of mine from this season so far. They also happen to be my two largest slabs to date. 15 inches, 1lb. 15oz. from a Wright County lake in December Here is one from last weekend on URL that went just shy of 15 inches. I caught a few more that were in the 13 - 14 inch range. This was my first URL crappie... what a blast!

I went through Valv for all the parts too. For the tank, pump, hoses, switch board and fittings it only cost about $50. Some handy work from my dad and I and we had a livewell. It actually turned out very nice. We designed it to extend out from the deck in center of the boat. The deck is now 1.5 feet longer, wich is good. We have a 14 foot Grumman and the tank we put in there holds 12.5 gallons of water. It effects the control of the boat a little but the speed is the same. It turned out to be much more of a complex project than we thought, but cool in the end.

I recently rigged my tip-up with a florocarbon leader. I am not convinced that it will prevent bite-offs in most situations. I have a swivel attached to regular tip-up line which is then attached to some of Cabelas brand florocarbon leader material in 40lb test. Will this do the trick? Should I have gone with a larger lb. test? Or should I just stick with the classic wire leader. Any other recommendations? So far I have not seen any negative results. I have caught a few pike where the hook was burried deep in the mouth and the line was easily exposed to its' teeth. But I just don't want to have any get away due to them slicing the line in two. Thanks again loebs

Now that's a dandy pike. That's also an interesting way of holding it . Did he get ahold of you at any point? Congrats

This will be the first time for a group of some buddies and and myself fishing the contest. I know that flashers and other depth finders are allowed to be used by anglers. My question is: What is the interferance like? The holes seem so close together that there would be a lot of interferance between all of the flashers. Has anybody had any trouble with this?

Here is a chunk I caught in the middle of last week. She went for 12lbs 2oz and 35 inches. I caught it on a tip-up with a sucker in a Wright County lake. My personal best through the ice.

Two short true stories here that got me wondering: This last summer I was out on the boat and noticed that the transducer, which is mounted to the transom on out boat, was not reading accurately. So with the locator still on, I went to adjust its position on the bracket with my hand. Once I reached under it, it shot a sharp pain through my wrist and hand. I immediately took my hand out of the water and wondered what the heck is going on. My curiosity was able to convince me to try it again - and again pain. Last night my girlfriend and I were looking at the LX-5 at a store. I turned the switch on to give her a little demonstration on how the thing works. I then picked up the transducer to tell about how that works. I pointed it in different directions to show her how the tapping sound travels. At one point I went past her ankle. She immediately asked me to stop and said she had pain in her ankle. Has anybody else experienced this? Anybody have answers to this? I thought it was kind of cool, but unexplainable.

Improved Clinch for mono, Palomar knot for most braids and some combination of Palomar and Uni-knot for my musky lines (braids over 65lbs). I stumbled across this one by myself.