Meh, first time in 4 years I haven't gotten easy limits in A9.

Run some Mercury Quickleen in a few tanks, and then add in every other tank for maintenance. It contains Techron. I used it in an older 2-stroke motor I had to keep it clean, when I finally decided to rebuild the carbs, they literally looked brand new! It was a 94'. The stuff works.

There is also a spray called Mercury Quicktune that you spray through the carb with the engine running. Close all your windows because your motor will make lots of smoke as the stuff does its magic. Can use on any motor brand.

With the way fish and game manage the fishery you would think every pot for everyone would come up plumb full, every single one. 
What a farce.

Shrimped in A9 leaving from edmonds and patrolling our normal area.  Boats were a little more spread out and we couldn't find a spot to ourselves this year.  Zig zagged around a less busy area and found some clouds on the bottom sporadically. 

First set dropped at 225 250 250 and 280.  270 was really crowded with bouys.  Started pulling at 10:15.  First pot blank with a sand dab inside.  Second pot, a little under half a limit.  Third pot same but with a rockfish, grrr.  Fourth pot a bit over half a limit.  1.5 limits total.

Reset pots as we pulled the first set between 250 to 320.  Started pulling at noon.  I think 2 longer sets produces the same as 3 1 hour sets and also has a better chance of limiting on the first set.  Consistent half a limit in each pot ending the day at just under 4 limits out of a possible 5. 

Water was lumpy.  Always good to be on the water.

2 suggestions.

1 pull the drain plug on the bowl that will drain any water or contaminates out.

2 if you see a tube sticking up in the throat of the carb just before the throttle plate hit the tube with some carb cleaner with the straw attached, spray directly in the tube. Safety glasses required don't ask, but carb cleaner in the eye is no fun

m2c

Ed

Seafoam worth a shot. Worked on a friends Suzuki 70hp.

Maybe try Seafoam in the gas.  Had good results with it, even in the crankcase oil.

Last year I didn't use my kicker much because I mostly fished the salt. That's a big change from my prior use, mostly trolling slower than 1.5mph in fresh water. My T9.9 now stalls at minimum idle. I assume a gunked up idle jet.

The motor hasn't ever seen a drop of ethanol fuel, has 100hrs--new old stock, a 2016 motor I bought new in 2020. I always run it dry at the end of the day. Maintained each year, regardless of how much it's used, and I put in a new spark plug this year.

I used fuel stabilizer/cleaner in my current tank, and the idle smoothed out significantly, with moments of perfection, during an hour of trolling, but it's on the edge of running rough at medium idle, very rough as it gets slower (with moments of purring, just to give me hope!).

I'd love to delay or avoid a carb rebuild, even though it's a small project on this motor, and welcome suggestions for a chemical solution--spray and go is ideal!

Thanks!
Dave

TomC,
A couple more questions if you're up for them!

With the #s I'm getting now using a Solas Amita3 13.5 X 15, and given that I have low prop slip, would I likely get performance gains by going to SS? Or is durability (and potentially corrosion, see below) the primary benefit? I'm assuming that I should reduce pitch to eeek out a couple hundred more rpm. I do know that the Honda/Solas 4 blade 13 X 15 adds about 150 RPM, has the same top speed (at least they were the same prior to adding the PH), but stays on plane about 1.5 mph slower, which can be nice.

Another factor regarding material choice is that I plan to move to the coast--in the first couple of years 90% of my boating was on fresh water, as of last year and going forward, 90%+ of my time has been/will be in the salt. If I add yet another prop to my arsenal, because I have two good options already, I'll probably just wait for a great used prop (still lighting a few $$$ on fire to finish up the PH configuration, which isn't going unnoticed at home :-)

I mentioned the edge wear on the Honda/Solas. Very minor, but only about 40 hrs on the prop. Bugs me because I've had Solas props that look new after hundreds of hours. I haven't had issues with the matte black finish on the Solas branded props. Picture included. After online discussion I switched to aluminum anodes.

I paid the gentleman $750 original quote was much more but he was a friend of a friend. He has 15 years experience and did a great job.