Molten Lead - Casting More Fishing Weights

Smelt dipping was a bust, and with all the sturgeon fishing lately it was time to stock-up on fishing weights.

Fortunately, a good friend had all the casting equipment for the job.

We picked up some brass loops, and heated up alot of lead.



The nice weather was great for doing the castings outside.

Pretty simple setup - same as for cooking crab or scalding chickens.

We've never done this before, so it was a new adventure.




The molds were nice, and simple to use. Alittle tricky to get the loops in place when the molds were REALLY hot... but we did it all without a mishap.

Its important to keep the molds HOT, so the lead fills the entire cavity before hardening too much.



While the lead was melting, we tore out the old thermostats on the outboard motor.

The motor is running well, but still getting too hot at slower RPMs - the poppet valve cleaning did NOT fix the issue.

We also put a new layer of 'liquid' tape on the bolts, to keep corrosion down. More on that, later.


Casting the lead into the molds was alot of fun.

Pretty straightforward, too. Just keep the lead good 'n hot, and pour slowly and smoothly.

And don't get burned.




Here's a few of the weights cooling.

The only other step was to trim the weights and put the excess lead back into the pot.






Out walking the streets alot like we do, we often find wheel weights around and pick them up. They have alot of other alloy metals in them, and make good lead for bullets. The alloy gives them strength and more durability in a bullet.

So... we threw them in the pot, too.




Here's the molds, waiting to be unloaded, with other weights ready for triming.

We also had fun pouring hot lead into a bucket of water, and other fun stuff... but safety first, of course.

Especially when putting wet items back into the hot lead - pop!



We had so much fun we got alittle carried away - and made ALOT of weights!

They sure like nice 'n shiny...

Another fun project here in the great Pacific NorthWest.

First Smelt-Dip of the Year

All reports said there were no Smelt in the Cowlitz river today, but we had to try anyway.

Besides, we had errands to run in Longview, anyway, so we took the dipnet along.

The weather was beautiful, and we had the river to ourselves. That is a sure sign of no fish.


We took a couple dozen dips, which confirmed the obvious - no fish.

It was funny, though, how many people stopped when they saw our rig along the roadside by Carnival Market!

Maybe next weekend. WA DFW is only allowing 4 days of fishing on the 4 Saturdays in Feb.

What is better than 'Fish in a Barrel'?

Fishing in a hatchery is better than in a barrel - there is more room for a fight!


No smelt in the river, and only one keeper sturgeon - we headed off for a birthday-party on the pond!

The pond we went to was on Sauvies Island, just north of Portland.

It was a beautiful place, with numerous ponds with various size trout.

The pond we were after held some 10 lb fish...






What a blast!

Even the adults were giggling like little kids.

Here is a fatty that one of the boys pulled in.

The spinner was homemade by the kid - he has big plans to market his new "super spinner" now!


Every cast had a good fish on - a couple REALLY big ones got away, too. They were huge.

About the only job the Dad's had was to help get hooks out - the boys took care of all the netting.

Oh yeah - Dads were busy taking pictures, too.

Here are the boys with their biggest ones.

You can see the strain and effort in their eyes...

Besides using his own home-made spinner, look at the tiny, flimsy fishing pole he pulled this big dude in with!

He fought the fish really well - with such a light rod and 6lb test, you have to finess a 12 lb fish into the net.

The boys were pretty tired after all this work and effort.

They did really well netting them, too.

We should have brought a bigger cooler!

The only downside to fishing at the hatchery was that it was over too soon - every cast brought in a fish, and we didn't want to take too many of them...

Oh well, what a fun time! I know alot of adults that would love to have a birthday party at a fish hatchery, too!

They had a very cool setup there - it was fun seeing all the small fry and equipment they used.

They said these little fish put on about 1.5 inches per month in the summer months.

Here is the haul when we got home.

The trout make the sturgeon look kinda small!

The smallest one was 8 lbs, and several of the big ones were over 14 lbs.

Beautiful meat on the fish - it was just like filleting spring salmon!

The bright meat and heavy oil - and we've NEVER seen so much fat inside a fish before. It was kinda gross...

A good chance for the older brother to practice filleting a fish, too.

He did a great job. Alot easier working on these shorter, fat fish than a big, long salmon when you are learning how to do it.

It was a great end of a great day. Lots of fish for the freezer and a beautiful day, too.

Can't wait for spring to get here!

One Last Try at Sturgeon

The last two trips out we struck-out for sturgeon... we hit the Willamette river, then the Columbia.

The last option was Multnomah Channel.

This time we took along the secret-sauces, too.




The weekend turned out BEAUTIFUL!

Nice, calm, peaceful. Mult-channel is a beautiful place when the weather is nice.

But how was the fishing?




The fishing started out slow.

We tried several spots, and only picked up a couple of shakers.

The lucky RED shirt did the trick soon, and we started hooking shakers. He said the shirt was for "heart attack awareness" and not for fishing, but it sure SMELLED like a lucky fishing shirt... just kidding. This guy always gets us into fish!


The bite started turning on, and most of the shakers were pretty good size.

It gets fun when you start measuring them because they are close to the lega size!





In between shakers we found plenty of diversion.

No one hit the pilings that we could tell, but then again, we could hardly see the pilings...

Uh oh... another bite - Put that pea-shooter down!




Finally, just as the bait was running low Al pulled off a 'hat-trick' and landed this nice keeper.


It was good to get blood in the boat!

Way to go, Al!

It was a great day on the water.

Making Eyes with Bigfoot

This project was to add alittle 'life' to a big carving of BigFoot.

We have some of the plastic eyes, and will be embedding an LED into them to light-up his eyes bright and beautiful.

Not green or blue, either. Bigfoot's eyes must be RED!




Simple enough to drill a whole for the LED into the back.

The only trick was to avoid the post that holds the eye in.







The eye lights pretty well with a little battery to power it.

Next step is to wire on more batteries and get an ultra-bright LED.

Or, use a brighter light...

Our suggestion was for LASERs... peering at all traffic and cutting through the densest fog!


Here is Bigfoot overlooking the Lewis & Clark Bridge.

If you travel between Portland, Longview, and Astoria, Oregon you've probably seen him!






Here he is in front of his home at the Chainsaw Carving Chateau!

Get a closer look at http://www.knotjustabear.com

And don't be suprised if you pass by one of these nights and see his eerie-red eyes watching YOU!

Secret Sauce for Spring Salmon

Reports of the first salmon are starting to trickle in. We all have a bad case of cabin fever, and are eager to get out after the Springers!

Last year, tuna-in-oil was an effective additive to lure offerings... we canned alot of tuna and salmon, and thought we'd try making our own tuna-scent for our lures.



The first thing we tried was adding sugar to thicken the oil, and make it sticky.

The sugar didn't disolve very well in the oil, and just sank to the bottom.

Hmmm....



Next, we microwaved the sugar/oil mix to see if that would help thicken the mixture.

30 seconds did the trick. Came out smelling good!

The heat definitely caused the sugar to mix into the oil, and gave the oil a thick, STICKY quality - just what we were looking for!

And yes, it tastes GREAT!

Tuna-candy!

This is going to come along in the boat this spring.

Last year it was difficult keeping the oil on the lure - this mixture should hold up well over time and keep that fresh taste lasting longer.

Another mixture we tried was using powdered, plain gelatin.

It thickened the oil ok, but it was less sticky in water, and did not cling to the lure as well over time.

We like the sweetness of sugar - real cane sugar, too. Not the artificial aftertaste of chemical sweeteners...

Our test subject preferred the sugar/oil mixture as well.

A little too well - she followed us all around begging for more!

Here's the simple recipe:

- 3 parts oil

- 2 parts sugar

- heat for 30 seconds or so, let cool, and serve chilled.


We got ahold of some small "icing tubes" for cake decorating to let us keep the mess down in the boat. Stay tuned until March when we start out after the salmon!

If you try it, let us know how it works for you.

Sturgeon Fishing - More Shaker Action

The rain broke and hope springs eternal... so we went after sturgeon again.

It was a beautiful morning... sailor take warning?

This trip we launched out of Goble, and headed to the deep hole where the old Trojan Nuclear Tower used to sit.



Here is the lead rock - the water starts dropping from 50' down to 80' about where the marker rock is located.

The old Trojan tower was just behind that tallest tree...

Its actually too bad they blew it down - it was a nice landmark.




Anyway, the water was cold, and so was the bite. We caught a few shakers down in 100' of water - even small fish feel big with 16oz. of lead down that deep!

Farther down, the water dropped down to 145' deep!!! Alot of fish stacked up down there, too.

But none of them biting. None of the other boats had much action, either.

We moved around quite a few times, and finally put the boat back on the trailer.

You can see, the launch in Goble isn't very big or wide.

Oh well - we had to try. Reports are the sturgeon have been slow everywhere. Some folks are doing well, but most aren't.

We think its just too cold right now. We'll probably try again, though....

Boat Repair - Outboard Poppet Valve

Later last fall the outboard motor started acting up - the temperature would heat up if we slowed down on the throttle.

Since then, we've replaced the water pump (impeller), and the thermostats, but the heating continues.

We are ok if we are at higher RPMs and speed, but when we slow to anchor, it heats up quick.

Our next idea was a stuck Poppet valve - if it was stuck open it wouldn't build water pressure.


There are great diagrams and information on outboards at this site: http://www.boats.net/parts/search/Merc2/Mariner/V-200%20(2.5L)%201991%20ONLY/parts.html

The hardest part of openning up the Poppet valve was removing the lower Cowling.

We found the first 3 bolts easily, and finally found the last one up front of the cowling.

The poppet is on the lower starboard side (right) of the motor.

Here you can see we've dropped the starboard cowl to expose the poppet assembly.

Outboards are pretty easy to work on - it is nice they are easily available to get at most of the parts...

Here you can see the poppet housing.

The four bolts holding the housing together were pretty corroded.

It has been a while since anyones been in here.

Here is the housing opened up, exposing the valve's spring.

The gaskets were in good shape, and some grit and sand inside.

Actually, I was really hoping to find alot of sand and gravel - so then I'd be more confident this would fix the overheating problem.

It looks too clean inside...

We flushed the motor with a hose up at one of the thermostat ports, to blow out any gravel inside to come out the valve.

Here are all the parts, and the valve body itself.

We scrubbed and cleaned it all up, and it went together very easily. W

Now lets keep our fingers crossed that it fixes the problem.