We were so busy working on the initial issue that we forgot to say "Thanks" & give credit to some special people who helped us get OSJ off the ground. In particular:

Marshall Cutchins - Owner & webmaster of Midcurrent.com, for his extensive technical advice and support

Capt. Dan Blanton - Outdoor writer extraordinaire, Fly Fishing Hall of Famer, and Editor at Large for Fly Fishing in Salt Waters, for taking the time to review the site, his moral support and words of encouragement (see www.danblanton.com)

Carolyn Loo - Our better half, for her almost endless supply of patience -"Honey, I promise I'll go to bed before 1:00am...soon."

And also: Dave Sellers, Randy Norris, Capt. Ray Chandler, Floyd Sparks, Marcus Schroers, Roland Ferrer, Tim Tominna and Glen Tagami for taking the time to look at the test site & give me feedback.

Thanks Again to Everyone!   

Our initial release of the "Can We Talk?" article contained an error . We incorrectly indicated that if a Talker had both NMEA Output (+) and (-) wires, but all of the Listeners did not have a NMEA Input (-), that the Talker's (-) wire should be attached to the battery ground.

As it turns out, this could potentially lead to a short circuit on the Talker, although most, if not all devices on the market have circuitry to prevent this from happening. The correct technical solution is to leave the Talker's NMEA Output (-) wire unconnected. This issue was discussed on www.thehulltruth.com, and was pointed out to us by reader Tom Sheehy. The article was corrected and reposted. Thanks, Tom!

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A lot of press on the topic of trolling spreads in the last few months (see sidebar). We find it really fascinating to see the different approaches to setting out baits, lures and teasers, and how they vary by species and geographic region. One of the most applicable articles to OSJ is George Poveromo's Tactics+Tackle column in the July 2005 issue of Salt Water Sportsman, titled "The Small-Boat Spread" .

While George's 28 ft. Mako center console is a bit longer than our self-imposed limit of 24 feet, it seems like most of the comments still have value. Here are some highlights:

• He fishes a dense spread for a small boat - 8 lines
  
  
• He runs his lures in a staggered diamond formation , to set each lure visibly apart from the others
  
  
• He runs a center stinger lure at least 100 yards behind the boat
  
  
• He runs two lines off each outrigger. To accomplish this, his outriggers have external eyes (rather than running the rigging through the center of the rigger like our Precision Marine outriggers), and he has two halyards per outrigger . He does not combine two clips on one line.
  
  
• His favorite teasers include the Moldcraft fenders, a daisy chain of bowling pin lures, and the Strip Teaser , which is a six-arm dredge of mylar strips with fish images imprinted on them
  

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The July/August 2005 issue of The Big Game Fishing Journal contains an interesting article titled "Small Tackle -> Big Bills", by Hippo Lau. The article describes an interesting approach to fighting fish when using heavy GSP braids. Since superbraids are so thin, it has become possible to use smaller and smaller reels with heavier and heavier line, and still achieve the capacity needed for fishing offshore. For example, we were able to fit almost 500 yards of 50 lb PowerPro on our test Shimano Thunnus 16000 spinning reel. Compare this to a Penn Senator 114H, which "only" holds 475 yards of 50 lb mono!

Some small reels have been adapted mechanically to handle the heavier drags, and there are more than a few (such as one of our test reels, the Accurate Boss 870 ) that are more than capable of handling the superbraids. However, these small reels are not well matched to rods that are strong enough to survive using these heavy test lines. On the other hand, rods that balance well with these reels are usually too light to handle 50 - 80 test line.

To get around this problem, some innovative Bay Area fishermen have developed a new form of fighting fish that removes the rods from the picture almost entirely. They use a heavy drag, point the rod directly at the fish, and pull straight back (the "Draw"). To gain line, they simple thrust the rod straight towards the fish, while cranking the reel (the "Shoot").

While you don't gain a lot of line with each cycle, it is claimed to be a very efficient way of fighting fish. Even more than a regular "short stroke" pump. No word on where a rod belt or harness fits in, but it looks like the technique is not well suited for it.

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Nowadays it seems like people are more interested in seeing a conflicting view or new product go down in flames than in developing a fair opinion.

A good example occurred when Powerboat Reports' ran an article in their July 2005 issue that announced that one of their long-term Evinrude E-TEC test engines had the powerhead replaced. The engine had just over 100 hours on it. Within a few days, the buzz on some of the Internet forums was that "One of the E-TECs developed a loud rattle and failed, forcing Evinrude to replace the powerhead. Evinrude blamed the failure on the use of non-Evinrude oil". A number of people trumpeted this as confirmation that E-TECs were untested, unreliable, and too complicated for the average person to use.

To recap the FACTS: At just over 100 hours, one of PBR's E-TECs developed a rattling noise at idle (600 rpm). There was never any loss of power or poor performance. When they reported it to Evinrude, Evinrude replaced the powerhead under warranty, even though there was no sign of a problem other than the rattle.

Unfortunately, the powerhead swap took two weeks to complete. It took some time to ship the new powerhead, and then the mechanic did not have the right tool to pull the fuel injectors. As of PBR's press time, no one knew what caused the rattle. PBR's contact at Evinrude conjectured that the rattle MIGHT have been to due to the use of non-Evinrude oil, but she didn't know for sure.

Is this a disappointment? Sure. Is it an indictment of E-TECs? Hardly. It is interesting to note that all  of PBR's other long-term test motors (which include 3 Evinrude Fichts, a Mercury Optimax, a carbureted Evinrude, a Honda and 2 Suzukis ), in PBR's words, "performed almost flawlessly".

However, a review of their past issues found that all but one engine had had at least one minor problem during their tests ( the only trouble-free motor? The Honda, of course). None of the other problems had precipitated a powerhead swap, but it's not clear if the swap was really necessary. Hopefully, Evinrude will get back to PBR with some sort of diagnosis which will clear things up.

 

You've got to hand it to the folks at Google - they come up with some clever ways to advertise. One of the neatest wrinkles (how's that for an oxymoron) is a concept they call "AdSense".

AdSense works like this:

• Google provides code to create small block or banner ads on your web page. The ads are paid for by their advertising customers.
  
  
• Google's software evaluates the content on the page where the ad appear, and tailors the content of the ad to match the page content (or as close as possible).
  
  
• The owner of the web page gets paid a small amount of money for people clicking through the ad to the customer's site.

Since our initial survey indicated you don't have a problem with limited advertising, we've decided to give AdSense a try, at least for a few issues. Check out the links on the left side of the page. This fits in well with the OSJ model. Since we don't wind up directly taking advertising money from anyone, we can remain objective as we work with different products.

So, if you want to help us keep the site going, click on some of the ads that you see - the spare change will be a big help in offsetting the cost of running OSJ.

 

We were so busy working on the initial issue that we forgot to say "Thanks" & give credit to some special people who helped us get OSJ off the ground. In particular:

Marshall Cutchins - Owner & webmaster of Midcurrent.com, for his extensive technical advice and support

Capt. Dan Blanton - Outdoor writer extraordinaire, Fly Fishing Hall of Famer, and Editor at Large for Fly Fishing in Salt Waters, for taking the time to review the site, his moral support and words of encouragement (see www.danblanton.com)

Carolyn Loo - Our better half, for her almost endless supply of patience -"Honey, I promise I'll go to bed before 1:00am...soon."

And also: Dave Sellers, Randy Norris, Capt. Ray Chandler, Floyd Sparks, Marcus Schroers, Roland Ferrer, Tim Tominna and Glen Tagami for taking the time to look at the test site & give me feedback.

Thanks Again to Everyone!   

I keep an occasional fish, and I certainly don't have anything against people who eat what they catch. However, I do think that fishermen need to be a lot more conscious of the impact we have on certain gamefish populations. Fish that have low reproduction rates or grow slowly, like billfish, sharks, and certain inshore fish like kelp bass and grouper can be seriously affected by indiscriminant sportfishing. I encourage readers to"Catch, Photograph, and Release" (CPR) their fish, or find another way to capture the moment.

One of the coolest alternatives I've seen is to have a custom Gyotaku print made, instead of a photo. Gyotaku is the Japanese art of taking an impression print from a real fish. 

One of the modern masters of this art form is Naoki Hayashi, of Kaneohe, Hawaii (http://gyotaku.com). Naoki is experienced with both spear- and conventional- fishing tackle, and has a deep appreciation for the fishing experience. He combines the original black-only ink print with true-to-life colors to capture the essence of the fish in its natural environment. He has a large library of stock prints available, and can custom frame the print, with a shadow box containing the lure and leader used in the catch. A beautiful and subtle way to relive a memorable catch!