# Yearly canada trip (and a bit of well deserved thanks)



## Invector (Jan 13, 2006)

Well guys here is a long but good ending story.

Our boat went down. She served us well for the past 11 years. It was a nice boat, one of those boats that you wish you could keep around forever. But things happen. People get screwed and dad and myself had to take a huge bite out of a $h!t sandwich. We were having problems with the 150 EFI merc that was on the back of it. Early this year it left me stranded out in the middle of one of the lakes around my area. All power went out. So here I was flowndering in the middle of this lake with only the electric up front to try and get me back to shore. Well after about 15 minuts the power came back on and I managed to get the 150 going again. The power would come and go, not long enough to get the cold blooded 9.9 merc started. So it was up to the 150 to get me in. After a quick phone call I took it to the local boat shop to get them to look at it. After about a week of looking (or should I say sitting on it) they said the voltage regulator and the statuator went out and some wireing had to be replaced. So we got it back and got it out to see if it worked. By this time we were 3 weeks away from our yearly trip to Canada. I should mention at this point the boat is my fathers and not mine...I cannot afford one yet. So we got out to the lake unloaded it every thing looked good and we were hopeing to get some early season bass on the hook. Just as we were trying to back out of the dock the 150 shut down again. This time we could not get it started. So back to the shop it went with my father and myself not too happy with the results. They looked at the engin for a few minuts hooked the water hose thingy up to it and away the 150 went...no problems and the guy just sort of looked at us like we were stupid. Next day we went out to another lake in the area to try our luck on some pike. Sure enough, poof, the 150 was dead in the water. The odd part of it was the fact the starter was running and the rest of the engin was doing fine. It was a puzzle that was hard to figure out. Well some harsh words were said and we continued to fish using the 9.9 merc to move us around. Luckly it was not a big lake and so we managed to get around just fine...loading the boat was a pain. So back to the shop it went again. And after a few days of doing nothing they said there was nothing wrong with it. So we convinced them to take the boat out and test it on the water to see if it would do it. Needless to say it left them bobbing in the middle of the boat lading area. So after the $$$ droped the first time repairing they found that the fuel pump was shot. The pump was putting too much fuel into the heads and flooding out. So here we are 2 weeks to go and no working engin. So my father started looking at the options we had. 1. get a new engin for the boat. 2. fix the pump 3. get a new pump. 4. get a new boat. We found that options 2 and 3 were not a good idea. The time and $$$ it would have taken to fix or replace the pump would have ment we would have been boat less till some time in late july. So after talking to many places in Bismark about it no one would sell us a new motor. They more or less said we had to buy a new boat before we could get a new motor. But we were given the name of a guy (will remain nameless due to the [email protected]# he did). He had sold us a used 175 EFI merc XJI Black Max modle that was 1 year older then the 150 efi we had. The only other engin he had was a rebuilt 150 mariner that he recogmended we did not buy. So we traded the 150 efi for this 175 POS. We took it out to the mighty Missouri River putting in at the rifle range south of Bismark. We did not make it very far due to the fact the 175 POS did not work very long before it shut down and we could not get it started again. Thank god for the 9.9 merc. So for 8 miles going against the current of the river we had to limp back with the 9.9 since the 175 was not responsive. We took the boat back and dropped it off at the guys shop. We found out later that he thinks the main baring went out on it. So he sold us a POS of an engin. (if you have not picked up on it by now...we are not too happy with this guy) So option 1 was tryed but died, options 2,3 were no goes, so we were left with option 4, the new boat. We took time to see what boats were available at what would be short notice. Its now 6 days before we were schedualed to leave. We found our selves looking at a Crestliner Tournament. I would like to take this time to welcome the newest member to our fishing arsenal (clapps all around). We rigged it with a 175 Varado, a 9.9 mercury pro kicker, and a 80lb thrust 24 volt electric up front. We ended up at Moritz Marine in Mandan. We were treated very well and our salz person Cory was very helpful in our looking. The most impressive part was how fast they got the boat ready. We got it on a Saterday and they had it rigged and ready for us that following wednesday. We still managed to make the Canada trip. I would like to take time and thank them for what they did. :beer:

Now on to the Trip. We go to a lake not known to many people near Flin Flon. There are very few people who come to this lake in surch of pike. Mostly the camp is filled with bear hunters. We however run the whole lake in surch of "Kong" the big pike, a real monster fish. We started the trip in a cold and stormy weather pattern. We managed to fish some but spend 1 and 1/2 days looking at each other in the cabin. Thank god for DVD players and small 13" TV's. Well we managed to get out and hit it hard the last day we were there with boating over 100 pike in just that day. New to the trip was a buddy of mine. He had never fished like this before and we thougth it would be fun to have a green horn around. HE did very well for never catching that many pike or size ever in his life. For the trip we figure we managed to boat several nice pike. The final total was four 31", two 33", one 36", one 37", one 41", and one 42.5" wich was the biggest and caught by the green horn.

All in all it was a good trip. The 157 Varado is one He!! of and engin. I would like to thank again the guys at Mortz who put it together, my buddy the green horn for putting up with my dad and myself for 5 days, and for you who managed to read all of this and follow it all. :beer:


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## scissorbill (Sep 14, 2003)

I cant believe you didnt check the undulating bobulator right away,if this fails as it can the disgronificator will lose pressure and then youre screwed.


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