blew my boat motor

First time I've ever blown a motor and I even raced cars for 10 years! I have a Mercury 250 Pro XS on my Ranger 20 foot. I was at bass tournament in Oklahoma when in practice sometimes had a problem shifting into reverse or neutral. Turned out my motor mounts were shot. Mercury support trailer at tournament, so they replaced. I have never had problems with this motor, but after they replaced motor mounts I was having power issues. About the 4th time I had tech work on it and then back on water to test it was making good power, but sounded off. All of a sudden I lost power and it blew. Hole size of baseball through block and fragments everywhere. They wanted $18k for a new powerhead right there, so I just borrowed a boat rest of tournament and got a remanufactured one back home for $6k. I broke it in this week and running great, even caught an 8 pounder out of it yesterday.
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The 8 pounder.
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10 pounders are like seeing bigfoot. I only have one double-digit, a 12.18 back in 2011. Since then I have caught 4-5 9-pounders and 20+ 8-pounders. Shows how rare those 10+ pounders are. I fish a bunch at Lake Fork, which is one of the best places, but to give you an idea there is tournament there this weekend 1,000 boats fishing 3-days and big fish will be 8-9 pounder, if someone is really lucky there might be a single 10+ pounder. That is 24,000 hours of fishing and maybe only 1-2 10+ pounders MAYBE.

If you just want to experience a 10-pounder there is a pond south of Dallas costs $1,000-$1,500 a day and especially if you give it a couple days you are likely to catch a 10+ pounder, likely a 13-15 pounder. I have never fished there.

Mexico is also a good place for a 10+, like Sugar Lake is good right now.

ohh never mind, I see you are in Southern California, you just need to hit one of those trout stocked lakes!

 

fuel injector, ran dry. they said it is pretty common for power head failures, nothing warns you or shuts motor down or anything, it just tries to run until it blows.

 

no, aftermarket reman. Mercury wanted $18k for a new powerhead at the service trailer. You can buy new complete motors for $15k away from tournament. Boat is 2011 and only worth $30k-something and plan to sell this year, so best was just putting reman in there $6k. Comes with 1 year warranty and will pass to new owner. I'm getting a new Ranger and Mercury, if I have problems at tournament they will put whatever part needed (even $18k powerhead) on right there for free under warranty!

 

about as many bass tournament guys die in Texas a year as car racers. always 2-3 a year. usually not tournament start, but lower light condition morning or evening boats intersecting. I love the starts, guess that's all I do of racing anymore. first video is a mass start, the second one is the typical numbered start (boat start about 1:05').

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUNN4pcngRI[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA-6Yrr0aKA[/ame]

 

My 20 foot Ranger hits 74 mph and it is known as one of the slowest bass boats. Most hit 80 and a few like Bullet or Allison will hit mid-80's. Even in tournaments no reason to go more than 70. Honestly the more important factor is handling rough water which Rangers are good at. We have to "deal" with 3-4+ footers more often than we need to hit a spot calm water few seconds quicker.

 

all kinds of tournaments, just like racing.

Solo.

Team.

Boater & Coangler in different competition, but same boat.

 

bass fishing tournaments are all catch & release. bass taste good and there are several opportunities overpopulated ponds and lakes to keep them for eating. generally in lakes people prefer to catch crappie and catfish for eating. 99% of the popularity for bass fishing is the challenge catching on artificial lures and the fight. mentality is release so there are more fish to enjoy.

 

bass are really good, I don't care for white or stripped bass.

 

I can get you a new 250 HP for $15-16k, they list for closer to $20k though.