"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 05:38:43 GMT, "Calif Bill"
wrote:

Went to Moss Landing for the opener and party. Fantastic party as usual.
Both Friday and Saturday. fishing was good, catching was another story.

Ain't that always the way? Great times, good conversation, no fish.

Actually, that's really what it is all about - the fish are just a
by-product. :)

Me
and my partner for the day, trolled all over the bay. FBR on a ball and
watermelon Apex on the DR. Had one hit on the FBR and no stick. Raked
bait
and lost ball. Finally gave up about 11:30 as wind was coming up and
trolled from Mulligan's to the harbor. Not many bait balls. I think the
warm water temps and the swell have broken up the bait schools and kept
the
salmon up north.

I haven't been yet (still waiting on engine installation completion
but I've heard that the bait is coming in closer this year even with
the colder temps. I'm hoping to get a run in this weekend.

Good thing that I got to sipping a little Jack D. Saturday
evening, and decided to stay in the camper and not come home that
evening.
As I pulled into West Marine in Santa Cruz a nice man and his family
pulled
up and said my trailer wheel was cockeyed. Was about 5 minutes from
leaving
the trailer. Had lost a bearing and had got hot enough to deform the
spindle nut part. tied up the axle to the frame and moved the boat
forward
on the trailer and inflated the tire to maximum and towed home at 30-40
mph
from Santa Cruz to Pleasanton. No cop seen in the whole trip. Ordered
the
new axle and hardware this morning from EZ-loader. Have to pull the hub
and
see if it is toast. Kodiak Disk brake.

Ouch. I've had loose nut lugs, but never a bearing give out on me.
I'm really scared of that, so I change bearings every couple of years
and check things over pretty close. I get nervous about the Ranger
trailer wheels because they are the oil filled type and not the grease
type.

Maybe I'll check those today.

New engine ran well in the boat,
except idle is wrong. When coming off plane to idle, the engine would
die
at times. Had a small water leak at the exhaust hose. Was stopping at
WM
to get the better exhaust hose clamps. They were out of the 4" size.
Cudos
to WM for furnishing free coffee and donuts at the launch at Moss. I
heard
they did it at all the ramps.

Kewl. Glad you had a good day. Waiting on my first this year.

Later,

Tom

Was not my first, just the salmon opener. Went out 2 weeks before and had
engine problems with the old Ford Winsor motor. Electrical. Was figuring
on changing engine next year anyway as had 1400 hours and was getting tired.
So ordered an new 5.7L MPI from guy I know in Oregon and picked it up there.
No sales tax and was $600 cheaper than here. Ran the engine and boat for
the first time on test drive on Thursday.