Breaking in my new fly rod in KC yesterday and got a new rod at  Cabelas. A TQR 5-foot 2-weight. I hurried home and went out to the lake after the storm passed to see how this new little toy felt with a fish on the end of it. This was the first nice bluegill on the rod. All I could do was stand there and laugh as the rod doubled over and he ran straight for the weeds! What a fun rod!

Since today was a holiday, I got up and headed back out to the lake first thing this morning. Most folks camping hadn’t gotten around yet, so very few people were on the water. I ended up bringing home 8 gills about the same size as the above pic, all on the 2-weight. Before the clouds cleared, purple was just killing ‘em, and then chartreuse was the ticket after the sun came out.

Think about changing your water pump because  in my 25 HP Johnson,  the water pump is a wear part like tires on a car. Eventually, it has to be replaced because the rubber impeller will wear away. I’ve long been told that the water pump should be changed every 10 years at the absolute longest and every 7 years if running in river water or salt water where silt and corrosion wear.I’ve had my 25 HP motor for 7 years so I figured it was time. I assumed the previous owner changed the pump at some point because the motor is a 1985 model. Bad assumption! I really dodged a bullet as the pics will show.

Here’s a pic of the water pump with the impeller exposed. Notice how thin the tips of the impeller splines are worn.

I found severe cracking in each impeller blade, here’s the worst, this blade was about to tear free, but all the blades were cracked to some degree.

Notice how thin the tips of each impeller blade are. Look at the one my index finger is on. They should be about the same thickness at the tip as at the base next to the hub. That’s what running in river does to your engine.

I’ve seen worse, but this one was pretty bad.

So if your outboard is 7-10 years old or more and you don’t know if or when your water pump was last changed, I’d strongly suggest either doing it or having it done. It takes about an hour for me to do one, obviously an outboard mechanic should be able to do that in half that time. It’s not terribly difficult, but I’d say you’d best be a competent intermediate mechanic an have good instructions if you haven’t seen one done before.

I replaced the whole pump, but you can replace just the impeller providing the pump chamber case isn’t worn badly, which mine was.