[parallaxbill]

Hi folks,
I grew up hunting Lake Norman, Lake Wylie, and Mountain Island lakes but have mostly been surf fishing the Cape Hatteras area of the OB for the last 25 years or so. Used to have and fish out of a 50 HP Merc powered 72 Ebbtide bass boat but sold it years ago. Just aquired an 18' 73 Glassmaster Tarpon equipped with a 165 HP Mercruiser in fine shape and hope to get back into lake fishing the central piedmont again. Cane Creek Lake will see my boat in the water tomorrow for a test run so wish me luck.

 

[NCangler]

Welcome Paralaxbill to NCangler.com! Glad you found us and enjoy the water tomorrw. Looks like great weather and nothing like a boat on a beautiful lake with a little fishing to restore the soul.

 

[Topsail Angler]

Hi Paralaxbill! Welcome to the best fishing website for NC fresh or saltwater! I hope you have a good day ont he fishing tomomorow. Post some pictures if you can.

 

[Crummy]

Welcome aboard.

 

[parallaxbill]

Thanks for the welcome guys.

I got the boat out today and it runs fine overall. Cane Creek if you don't know it is really too small (350 acres) for joy riding but it gave me the chance I needed to see how the engine ran and how well the old boat planed out. It ran fine and planed fast enough for me but I am only getting 3400 rpm's with 4 people aboard at WOT. I'm thinking I need 4000-4100 with two for it to be up to par. The previous owner put on a longer pitch stainless prop and had complained about the lack of revs after that mod so I figure he blew it with his calculations.
I'm going to check the pitch of the current prop then go one inch pitch shorter to restore the proper WOT rpm range.

BTW, the fish were not biting. Only caught one bream.

 

[sundrop]

I'll tell ya an easy way to see what prop you need. I know I'll catch flack from some of the "experts" here when I say this but this ended up working great for me when even a boat shop had led me astray on propping out my little "Rude 70.
I went down to the local boat ramp, watched the boats coming in and simply chose everything similarly equipped to mine and asked what prop they were running and what they use the boat for the most.... Then I actually bought my prop used on Ebay for one third the price of new and was good to go!! That helped make up for the cash I handed over for the wrong one at first..(which I sold later on Ebay for over half of what I had paid..)
It might not be the "right way" but with no Tach and no good advice from what was supposed to be a reputable shop( who refused to refund!) I just made do with the sense God gave me...

 

[NCangler]

I don't know who those "experts" are but sounds like a good plan to me.

 

[parallaxbill]

Figured my current prop out...

...by typing in the numbers on the hub into Google. First link was some mathematical question that didn't apply and the second was for a used Mercruiser SS prop just like mine. It's a 13.75" dia 21" pitch blade that is probably a couple inches longer (in pitch) than I should be using. Now I am looking at a 4 bladed aluminum prop of 14"X19" pitch. I should gain some pulling power and get close to 400 rpms back with the same load of people and fuel. With just two adults the WOT rpms should be just right.

 

[sinker man]

Welcome aboard parallaxbill. I hope that next prop is in the ten ring. Lottsa folks get carried away trying to soup up their machines. Most of the time it's the old "if a little more is better then I want a lot more" syndrome. Al

 

[pier dweller]

Welcome,

Great site..........loads of info, jump in and get your feet wet. Glad to have ya