Tiller Vs Wheel Steering for your Next Boating Rig

By Bob Jensen

It’s Boat Show and Sportshow season across North America. It’s also the season when many anglers and boaters are looking for a different boat for the upcoming fishing and boating season.

One of the primary considerations for northern anglers is whether to get a rig equipped with remote steering—that is a steering wheel—or direct steering: tiller.

While it’s rare to see tiller steering on anything much over 25 horsepower in most of the country, up in walleye and lake trout country, tillers are common and are even the favorite of many top level anglers.

With tiller steering, you’ll sit in the back of the boat and hang on to a handle extending from the engine. The steering and speed control are in that handle. If you’ve never run a tiller boat before, there is a bit of a learning curve, but you’ll catch on quickly.

Notice all the open area in this tiller boat. For smaller water, a tiller boat is tough to beat.

The advantage of the steering wheel is you’re probably going to be familiar with the steering. You’ll also have a windshield, so you’ll be more protected from the elements and spray when you run from spot to spot. If you’re traveling long distances by water, the steering wheel is much less tiring than the tiller steering, although there are tiller-assist kits that really reduce fatigue from tiller steering.

The advantage of tiller steering is that it really opens up the boat. The steering console is gone, so there’s lots of room to move around.

Boat control is also better with the tiller when you’re employing some techniques, especially if you’ll be backtrolling for walleyes. Some of the electric motors that go on the bow do an outstanding job for boat control, but if you want the ultimate in boat control while backtrolling, a tiller boat provides that. Back in the day, almost all of the walleye guides and tournament guys fished out of tiller boats that were eighteen feet long and had a fifty horsepower motor. Now, because they’re fishing bigger water much of the time, console boats with steering wheels are the deal, although there are some twenty foot tiller boats with big outboards on the back of them out there.

Keep in mind also whether or not your boat will do double duty to pull skiers or tubers. This can be done with a tiller boat, but it’s easier done with a console boat.

Consider how much you’ll be on big water. If most of your fishing is done on big bodies of water and you’ll be running several miles or longer on a regular basis, a wheel boat will probably be better.

If you like to fish the smaller lakes and rivers that aren’t affected by the wind so much and you won’t be running long distances, a tiller boat might be perfect for you.

Tiller boats usually require less horsepower and the rigging is less costly, so the cost to get into a tiller boat is usually less. Also, with a tiller boat you can fish from the back, so you don’t need an electric motor or depth-finder on the bow, and you won’t need a kicker motor either. You can put a transom mount electric motor back by the outboard for the slowest presentations if you want.

I ran a Larson FX 1750 tiller boat last year with an Evinrude E-TEC 90 HO for power. This rig did an outstanding job for me. I fished some lakes that were large, but mostly smaller lakes. I didn’t miss the steering wheel all that much, although there were a couple of times when a wheel boat probably would have been better.

If you’re thinking about a new-to-you boat this year, keep these ideas in mind. If you do, you’re on the way to a boat that will do a good job most of the time.

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Yamaha Moving on Many Fronts
Jim Shepherd
from The Fishing Wire

Spending 24 hours with the top officials at Yamaha’s Marine Group makes it easier to get enthusiastic about the immediate future of the boating industry. Arguably among the upper echelon of technical innovation, Yamaha continues their pursuit of improvement across virtually every element of their product categories.

Your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you, that’s two boats sporting seven outboard engines. Yamaha’s expanded their Helm Master system to include quad engine arrays and their 200 HP SHO model.

From their smallest 8 horsepower to massive quad engine arrays on their newest iteration of their Helm Master system for boats 40 feet and up in length, there are pushes that they believe will continue the gains the company has seen in the overall outboard market.

But it’s not just motors where they’re making big changes. Their propeller business is expected to crank out 50,000 + props this year- with new pitches across the line. Those varietals were added to the lines because with changes in some Yamaha engines -and additions of new ones- have changed what the believe are optimal prop/engine combos.

“We’re excited,” says Marine Group president Ben Speciale, “what we’re seeing since the great recession says good things.”

Those things include boating consumers are coming back into the market. And, Speciale says, when knowledgeable boaters come back, they “buy up” into boats that include improvements ranging from multi-screen fish-finding displays placed at each fishing position to better furnishings, higher quality seating and an overall ramp-up in performance in the pleasure and cruiser classes.

“Maybe the biggest mystery we see,” Speciale told the crowd of writers, “is the fact that in the new economy, one of the things fishermen have to have on their boats is a $2,000 anchor to hold their boat in six feet or less of water.”

At low speed, it’s not so obvious (Above), but throttle up Ranger’s Model 620 FS deep-v boat when it’s equipped with Yamaha’s new 25-inch shaft model VF250XA engine and you’ll understand -immediately- the power and performance increase.

The line about the power pole type anchor was funny, but indicative of the fact that boaters don’t thing less is more. Today, they want more: more boat, more features, and, more importantly (if you’re Yamaha), more performance from their boats.

Research shared with media invited to their freshwater preview held at their testing center near Chattanooga, Tennessee included information showing a demand for more advanced technology. Technology, Speciale says, that is offered in the four-stroke engine, but not the “older” 2-stroke technology.

Two stroke engines, Speciale says, is a techology Yamaha is “out of” in the United States.

As part of their overall strategy, Yamaha officials say they’ll continue to follow their roadmap for success: offeri high-quality products with dependability that create a high customer value for those products, a customer-focused approach to sales and service to build longevity into their customers, and a continued focus on what Speciale says is their “core competency” – the premium positions of the marine industry.

Yamaha also took the occasion to roll out new initiatives in the political world. Having already held more than 100 meetings with members of Congress, Yamaha says it’s expanding their push for three goals they feel critical to the overall health of the recreational fishing and boating industries.

Reauthorization of the Magnuson Stevens Act with an emphasis on fair treatment for recreational fishermen when it comes to fishing quotas,
A permanent cap of ten percent (10%) on ethanol -and support of HR Bill 1462, and
Engine regulations that “make sense”.

Additionally, Yamaha has created an Annual Roundtable on a National Recreational fishing and is pushing those advocacy issues via its 1,000 dealers and partner boat builders.

We’ll be covering much more of the new Yamaha product lines in other stores, but the positive tone Fishing Wire editor Frank Sargeant and I heard at Yamaha last week is one that we’re hearing across the entire industry.

That’s definitely news worth reporting.

As always, we’ll keep you posted.

Don’t Get Hit By a Jumping Fish!

From the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission
from The Fishing Wire

Many of us have seen the jumping carp of the Mississippi River slamming into boaters and these are more than enough to cause serious damage-but boaters in Florida are sometimes confronted with airborne fish that may weigh 100 pounds and stretch 5 to 6 feet long!

It’s an ugly fish with a face only another sturgeon could love. It’s the prehistoric-looking, sucker-mouthed, scute-covered Gulf sturgeon and it’s creating quite a stir on the rivers in North Florida.

Although the sturgeon residing in the Suwannee River have received the bulk of the media attention during the last several years, the fish are present in quite a few rivers in the northern portion of the Sunshine State.

The sturgeon can trace their roots back 200 million years. And even though they’re just doing what they’ve been doing for eons, it’s causing a problem for some boaters. The Gulf sturgeon makes its presence known by jumping out of the water. With adult fish reaching up to eight feet in length and weighing up to 200 pounds, they can make quite a splash.

The problem

Boaters have been injured while traveling on the Suwannee River and other rivers in the Florida Panhandle when they are struck by the jumping fish. There’s no apparent warning…the sturgeon just jump. If a boater is in the wrong place at the wrong time, there’s a chance of injury.

In past years, boaters have been injured by direct strikes with sturgeon. However, in 2013, there were no reported sturgeon strikes on the Suwannee River. The FWC would like to keep that trend going for 2014.

The biology

Scientists believe there are approximately 10,000-14,000 Gulf sturgeons that make the Suwannee their summer home, with far fewer numbers in the seven other major U.S. rivers where Gulf sturgeon are known to spawn. These rivers are the Apalachicola, Choctawhatchee, Yellow, Blackwater, Escambia, Pearl, Pascagoula The Suwannee River, which flows from the Okefenokee Swamp in southeastern Georgia down through northern Florida, is one of the most pristine rivers in the country – with no dams for returning sturgeons to contend with. The Suwannee is considered one of the last “wild” rivers in Florida.

The fish use almost the entire length of the river to complete their complicated life history. The sturgeon spawning grounds on the Suwannee are 140 miles (220 kilometers) upstream from the mouth. Unlike salmon, which die after spawning in freshwater, sturgeons – which can live to be 25-plus years old – spend summer in the river, then swim back down the river to winter in the Gulf.

Sturgeon return to the eastern Gulf of Mexico during the winter, where they feed heartily. They typically do not eat while they are in the river – losing somewhere around 20 percent of their body mass. Because of this extended fast, biologists wonder why the fish would use energy jumping out of the water.

When they do eat, Gulf sturgeons are bottom feeders. They have barbles – catfish-like whiskers – that help them search sediments for prey, which they vacuum up with their sucker mouths.

Despite their long history, Gulf sturgeons were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1991. The sturgeon is listed as a species of special concern in the state of Florida.

Why are these fish listed? There are many reasons. Their Gulf-wide habitat has been destroyed or greatly altered. Dams have prevented the sturgeon from migrating to old spawning areas. Dredging and other navigation maintenance may have eliminated the deep holes where sturgeon congregate. They were overfished to the point where Florida took the unprecedented action in 1984 of banning harvesting, capture, or “take” to prevent their extinction, just as we did for Bald Eagles. To make things even tougher for the sturgeon, it takes many years for the fish to reach breeding age, slowing population recovery.

What FWC has done

FWC “Go Slow” sturgeon decal

When the reported strikes began increasing in 2006, FWC mounted an intense public awareness campaign to let people know these fish were present and could injure those boaters enjoying the Suwannee. The agency message of “Go slow on the Suwannee” for better reaction time if a sturgeon did leap out of the water was stressed.

Signs were posted at all Suwannee River boat ramps and “Go Slow” decals were handed out to remind boaters to go slow while traveling on the river.

FWC personnel coordinated with elected officials from the five counties in north Florida affected by this issue.

A news release was put out in the spring, alerting boaters that the fish are migrating back into the Suwannee from the Gulf of Mexico.

What boaters can do

Go slow: The best course of action is to go slow. This gives more time to react and if you are hit, the force of the blow is much less at 10 mph than it is at 35 mph.

Wear your life jacket: Some boaters don’t like wearing a life jacket due to its bulkiness or fit. However, there’s been a revolution in life jacket design, and there are lighter, more compact and less restrictive models on the market. They include lightweight over-the-shoulder and belt-type inflatables, in addition to vest-type life jackets. If you’re hurt and unconscious, a life jacket will help keep you afloat. FWC suggests getting a type that will have you float face up.

Be alert: Pay attention to your surroundings. If you’re in an area where you see sturgeon jumping, slow down and get closer to the shoreline. The fish tend to stay in the deeper sections of the river.

Designate an operator: Don’t boat and drink. If you’re impaired, you have slower reaction times. If alcohol is consumed on a vessel, there should be a sober designated operator.

Boat safe: Keep passengers off the bow of the boat.

The Suwannee River is a beautiful part of Florida and should be enjoyed. The FWC wants boaters to know that these fish are out there and they do jump. Just be prepared, go slow and have fun.

GULF STURGEON AT A GLANCE

Common Name: Gulf sturgeon

Scientific Name: Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi

Size: Average 5-6 ft, up to 8 ft. To about 200 pounds.

Range: Gulf of Mexico, from Florida to Louisiana.

Habitat: Marine and brackish water during the fall/winter months, freshwater rivers and streams during the spring/summer months; commonly found in spring-fed tannin-stained rivers with steep limestone banks and hard bottom areas upstream.

Diet: Gulf sturgeon in saltwater feed on invertebrates – brittle starfish, small crustaceans such as ghost shrimp and crabs, lampshells, marine worms, and lancelets (a group of primitive animals, fishlike in appearance, usually found buried on the ocean floor). In freshwater, Gulf sturgeon generally do not feed or seek out prey.

Status: Protected. Listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) since 1991. Also covered by Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 1998. Human interactions are restricted to observation and research; no harvest is allowed.

How to keep your pontoon boat safe and shipshape
from The Fishing Wire

Pontoons offer lots of space to swing a rod, lots of comfort and a shallow draft that lets them work around weedbeds easily. (Photo Credit Manitou Pontoons)

Pontoon boats are among the most trouble-free of watercraft; they’re simple, WYSIWYG rigs that don’t require much maintenance and don’t cause many problems. But BoatU.S., which maintains insurance claim files on all sorts of watercraft, reports there are ten recurring items and incidents that most often lead to trouble on these family friendly boats.

1. Anode awareness: Galvanic corrosion, which occurs when dissimilar metals are in contact with an electrolyte such as salt water, can quickly destroy aluminum. And unfortunately, most insurance policies don’t cover this damage. In salty, brackish and even freshwater, aluminum sacrificial anodes are best as they outlast other alloys. Outboard engine zincs also need replacement if they have deteriorated to less than half their original size.

2. Get Wired: In order to protect the boat and engine, the pontoon needs to be electrically connected to the pontoon’s engine via a ground wire. If not, galvanic corrosion can set in.

3. Avoid the “pits”: Pontoon logs that sit on muddy lake bottoms during low water can become pitted with corrosion. This occurs because the mud prevents dissolved oxygen in the water from making contact with the aluminum, which relies on an oxidized layer or “skin” for corrosion protection. Consider pulling or moving the boat if water levels drop.

Up to four anglers at a time can fish from most pontoons-and there’s also room for Fido. (Photo Credit Tracker Marine)

4. Don’t “plow” ahead: When seas build, pontoons have a tendency to plow into waves, which can lead to a significant amount of water over the deck. Pontoons are also challenging to handle in following seas. If you can’t avoid rough weather, slow way down and trim weight aft.

5. Passenger injuries: One big difference with pontoon boats is that they don’t bank in turns, which can lead to injuries when passengers are thrown to the deck or even overboard in a hard turn. Large wakes from passing vessels can nearly stop a pontoon if taken improperly. Passengers should always remain seated while underway.

6. Watch out for windage: Another reason to slow way down in heavy weather is the increased windage from a pontoon’s large bimini top. Never trailer a pontoon without removing the bimini. The boats also tend to “kite” in the wind when you’re trying to dock them or put them on a trailer.

7. Don’t Under-size-me: The normally benign wind conditions on many small lakes and rivers can also lull pontoon owners into using undersized dock lines and too few fenders. Since many pontoon boats don’t have rub rails, damage can occur quickly during summer thunderstorms.

Small four strokes like the Yamaha F70 offer plenty of power for most pontoons, plus low fuel consumption and very low noise levels. (Photo Credit Yamaha Marine)

8. Swimmers take care: Because they make great swim platforms, pontoons are involved in a fair share of swimming injuries, often diving related. If you’re going swimming, it’s safest to enter the water via a ladder – not head first.

9. Grand theft pontoon: No, it’s not a new video game. Because it’s difficult to hide or secure expensive gear on a pontoon, things like chartplotters, fishing tackle and iPods should be removed at the end of the day.

10. Four-legged vandals: Raccoons, muskrats and their furry brethren enjoy upholstery and wiring like a vegetarian at a salad bar. There’s no simple solution to keeping critters off the boat, but reducing fish or food smells by washing it down, or using commercially available repellants such as fox urine, have been known to help. (Unfortunately, the repellants may repel humans, too–use with discretion!)

BoatU.S. – Boat Owners Association of The United States – is the nation’s leading advocate for recreational boaters. See more at www.boatus.com.

Boaters: Have a Hassle-Free Summer by Doing Seven Winter Projects Now

EDITOR’s NOTE: The following feature prompted me to get some pre-season work done on my own boat. If you’re looking forward to spring boating, you might look through these maintenance and preparation suggestions from the Boat Owners Association of the United States.
from The Fishing Wire

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Boaters can get frustrated when a repair or upgrade takes a long time, but delays are often a simple result of supply and demand. “Spring and summer can be the most challenging times to get work done on a boat because everyone else wants their work at the same time,” said BoatUS Director of Consumer Affairs Charles Fort. But with a little foresight boaters can get the services they need – sometimes at a better price – now. And some things on a winter “to do” list don’t require outside help. Here are some common projects boaters should be looking at doing now, before the spring rush:

Engine and Prop: Getting your boat’s motor worked on in June is like waiting to buy Billy Joel tickets at the door. Get your mechanic on it now if you have a project in mind. It’s also the time to have the dings taken out of the prop – your prop shop guy will be glad to see you.

Canvas and Sails: Canvas and sail lofts are notoriously cyclical businesses so don’t feel guilty about asking for a discount on winter work. Now is the time to get the new bimini top made, repair the camper canvas, or get the sail stitched up.

Wiring: Every boater needs an extra 12V outlet at the helm, or knows of a corroded wire or two somewhere on the boat that needs fixing. If you want to take on this project yourself, here are some tips on wiring: http://www.BoatUS.com/boattech/articles/choosing-cabels-and-terminals.asp.

Paint and varnish: Generally you need warm weather for these projects – but consider taking home hatch boards, tiller handles or wood trim projects and working on them now in well ventilated basement or heated garage.

Line splicing: Maybe it’s an extra long spring line you’ve always wanted, or dock lines that will actually fit your boat’s cleats. Curl up by fire, sing a sea chantey, and start splicing because you will never want to do this in the summer. Here’s how to do it:www.BoatUS.com/boattech/casey/rope.asp

Chart and Electronics updates: Does your chartplotter use an old chip or are you using the same paper chart you had 10 years ago? Your helm electronics software may also have downloadable updates that make them perform better.

Do a winter tacklebox overhaul: You’re never going to want to do this once the fish start biting. BoatUS Angler pro Steve Chaconas shows how to get your tacklebox into shape at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMzNtCkVbic.

Social Scientists Dig Into Superstorm Sandy’s Long Term Effects on Coastal Fishing Communities
from The Fishing Wire

Superstorm Sandy damage at Vikings Bait & Marina, Laurence Harbor, N.J. Photo credit: Angela Silva, NEFSC/NOAA.

Within weeks of Superstorm Sandy’s devastating landfall in New York and New Jersey, NOAA Fisheries social scientists were on the scene to evaluate the damage to local economies that rely on fisheries. Overall, results showed that these communities in both New Jersey and New York incurred sizable losses and that the majority of these losses were uninsured, but researchers wanted to know more.

“We helped to conduct hundreds of interviews in dozens of communities in coastal areas most affected by the storm,” says Lisa Colburn, a social scientist at NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center, who helped lead the effort. “We compared pre-storm conditions with those in the four weeks after the storm. It was pretty hectic, and we didn’t want to make life harder for these traumatized communities, but we could already see the value in extending this work to look at longer term effects.”

Since the rapid response assessment, Colburn and her colleagues at the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center — Patricia Clay, Tarsila Seara and Angela Silva – have continued the work they started in the rapid assessment. They have looked more broadly at the importance and distribution of commercial and recreational fishing communities in both New York and New Jersey, and at changes in species landed since the storm. In collaboration with Rutgers University and with funding from the National Science Foundation, they have looked at resilience to the storm’s effects among fishermen and their families.

Superstorm Sandy damage at Shinnecock, N.Y. commercial dock . Photo credit: Angela Silva, NEFSC/NOAA.

A full report looking at recovery in the nine months after Sandy will be available by December. Preliminary results show clear differences in the volume and kinds of commercial landings after Sandy when compared with catches during the five years prior to Sandy. The number of recreational trips for shore, private/rental boat and for-hire vessels showed similar differences. Results from the collaborative study with Rutgers show a range of effects within all the categories of commercial fishermen, fish dealers, for-hire recreational fishing business owners, bait and tackle shop operators, and marina operators. These are strongest immediately after the storm for everyone, but rates and levels of recovery vary.

Beginning in 2014, the effort will ratchet up a notch as a large-scale survey is implemented to better quantify long- term effects and barriers to recovery. Commercial fishermen, fish dealers, for-hire recreational fishing business owners, bait and tackle shop operators, marina operators, and aquaculturists in the two states are among the survey targets. Researchers will be asking about the condition of businesses, communities, and personal well-being and use a variety of methods to measure and report on these aspects of the storm’s effects.

These data, and analyses of other ongoing work on social impacts, will form the basis of a detailed report expected in 2014 covering change after one year, post-Sandy. Patricia Clay, Colburn’s colleague and co-author, says looking at long-term recovery patterns after disasters that disrupt fishing communities is a relatively new research area. “By systematically talking with people who have been most affected we not only gather hard data about economic and social conditions, but also create a way to ground-truth and interpret the quantitative data such as those on landings and employment, ” says Clay. “If we can bring those two pieces together, it would be a big step forward in understanding the factors that influence resiliency in these communities in the face of change.”

Contact: Teri Frady, NOAA