I recently made a decision to purchase a new E-TEC motor from Evinrude. One of the major decision makers was the fact that they offer such great tournament tech support. Well, as my luck has gone with tourney fishing, I took off on day one of the league finals and my motor quit with no warnings or buzzers. We were told at the pre-tourney meeting by Sonny Reynolds that Evinrude was going to be present. They decided not to show up for some reason and we had no tourney support. I fished anyway with my kicker motor both days. I have never been more dissapointed in my fishing career. I am not bashing, just explaining the situation. I am not sure why a company like Bombardier would decide to not show up. This was a bad decision if they plan to grow in our sport of walleye tourney fishing. How can we trust a company who is not interested in helping out at the grass roots level when we do make the big circuits. Thanksfor your time, Dan Palmer NPAA#345 danp@theinhibitor.com

Dan:

Like you I was disappointed that Evinrude, one of the sponsors of the FLW Walleye League, didn't show at the League Finals. It's not as though they had too far to come. Perhaps they were tied up at a higher profile tournament somewhere.

While prefishing on Monday my Evinrude 250 stalled and wouldn't start 9 miles downriver from the launch. It was a long ride back upstream on the kicker. I was worried something serious was wrong with it. I contacted FLW and was told that Evinrude hadn't returned their calls. They did not know if they were comning yet (on Monday). Not sure what is going on there?

Big Kudos to Dick's Marine in Winona though :). On Tuesday morning I dropped my boat off at Dick's and headed out pre-fishing with my buddy. They had the cover off before I left. At noon I stopped back to check on it. The motor ran fine for them and no error codes were recorded! I hate that kind of problem, but at least my motor was running, so I launched it and went out fishing. Not long after it warmed up it started to stall again. Before it died I ran back and pumped the gas line bulb. That made the problem go away. For some reason I seemed to be having a fuel delivery problem. Maybe a bad check valve? It was also quite hot those two days - maybe a vapor lock? Some tournament support would have been nice.

Went back in to Dick's and bought a new bulb, changed it and went out fishing again. It only hesitated a few times after that. Later that evening I put a new fuel on the recommendation of Frank from Ranger Boats. Fortunately the motor ran great during the tournament. Unfortunately, it didn't translate into a better result for me though :(.

Thanks again to the folks at Dick's Marine!

Dan,

My eyes are thye size of basketballs... I am "negotiating" for a new motor and was leaning to an E-Tec. One of the reasons had to do with the "promises" (as far as you can call them that) Evinrude made at Winnebago. They assured me that they had made a long term commitment to the FLW and would be there at the major tournaments (Supers and Championships). Hmmmm maybe that Yammie is lookiong better all the time...

I think that dan and tj were fishing the flw league, not the top flw walleye tour.. I could be wrong.. I know that the evinrude tech has been at all the flw and pwt events that I have fished.... I am not sure of evinrudes commitment to the flw league, but it would be hard for one evinrude tech man to be at every flw league event in all the midwest..... I know the tech really good cause he has seen me alot at the events that I had the privledge to fish....

Its unfortunate that the scheduling of the FLW league finals was on the same week as Pre fishing for the PWT Championship, The big dogs will get the support first. They are fully sponsored Pros and probably started prefishing Mon or Tues. So its likly the trailers are down there and then headed to FLW championship in Moline, if something doesn't get in between. My view, scheduled your event to late and to close to a big event.

my buddy was prefishing the MN Walleye Trail Championship on Gull Lake
last week and blew his ETEC. I understand the disappointment involved with runnung the ETEC. Doesn't it seem that this motor hit the market prematurely? Seriously, they should have spent some of the marketing money on product development...

I am sure your Buddies ETEC was the only motor that blew in the country last weekend. I have run one all year and it has been flawless. I would buy another one in a heartbeat.

that is an interesting post. i bet the # of etecs that blew last week was greater than (1) one. power heads have been a problem all year. lots of work at the events has been the norm.

Powrehead work or Spun prop work? I have'nt seen that many Blown heads on tour!

Well I have run my E-tech 225 ho all summer and have not blown a powerhead. Nor have I seen one blow. I have spun a hub though. Quit with the bashing! The E-tech is a great motor.

Why doesn't everyone read the test done and see for themselves what big block motor came out on top. E-Tecs advertisements on speend, gas mileage and weight are soooooooo wrong. Read the test done in Walleye and Bass boat Magazine and see for your self.

BIG BAD BLACK WAS ON TOP!!! ENOUGH SAID!!!!!

GOOD MOTOR...........but not #1

Just read the facts. Your can't go against an independent test like the one that was done. Thanks.