I usually leave mine running. 150 Etec. When Im jigging its a specific peice of structure being targetted so your constantly moving around.

With a 60hp Yammie the fuel consumption at idle is so negligable it would be a concern to me.

When ever i am popping it is generally running at idle

Yea i usually leave it going a fair bit.... throwing plastics etc....

when hooked up to fast fish,to chase and follow and when casting lures

thanks for the quick responses guys.

my motor runs the entire time i'm out

also when the tide has been running a pig on his spot and his mate fished and got the fish otherwise drift would have been way to fast, I'm talking 20 miles out

His outboard is designed to run on two cyclinders when trolling, 100hp mariner.

I turn mine off when I stop but then I have a 2 stroke :p

Sometimes and will put it in reverse to slow drift if a rough day, works a treat to hold you on the ground longer. I have the Yam 115hp F/S so it is quite and doesn't put the anglers off. I find on a rough day it gives the bait more action and can work a treat if all going well. need to be on the ball though and watch lines parachutes etc. Just adds to the excitment.

thanks again

so Blacknightz - do you still put out a chute / sea anchor even when slow revesing?

generally keep my motor idling.

I leave mine running all day in and out off gear holding over spots ,mine is a 200hp honda ,mite use a few more liter for the day but it help catch fish ,and the only bad thing is the services come around twice as quick .

mine is off when drifting, i dont see any reason for leaving it going, unless as paul says and you want to hold on a spot.

better resale as well with less hours on it, you try tell someone that half the hours were at idle, they think you bullshit.

i know with our engine we can get the print out of everything the engine has done, is the the same with other new modles?

Yes can get full print out of hours and revs. dont even think of resale .trade in on a 350hp would be good LOL

I also turn mine off. The only time I left it running all day was when my batteries were playing up, and I believe the extra fuel cost was negligible.
Ron, I think most new outboards can be plugged into a laptop nowadays.

they only have problems when you turn them off.......I never turn mine off...until i get home......

We never leave it on while drifting.  Like Fisho-Ron and Steve, I don't see any reason to leave it running?

I had Ryan's boat up here and was using it every now and then and I would nearly always have the engine on whilst out fishing on my own.  In my tinny I don't mind turning it off as its a pull start.  1 bad experience with electrics has got me thinking the same as seaswirl.

I do turn off when drifting but that is not often.

off when anchored occasionally leave it on when drifting but if i'm dicing with big stuff it's on idle ready to go, especially near the shore. I have a feeling that leaveing mine in idle all day while popper casting might have caused my current cold running issues which i hope are solved this week.

off when anchored or drifting on bottom fish (depending on how fast the drift is). I'll leave it just in gear to slow a drift on other occassions. I turn it off when drifting along for squid.

Plastic/popper fishing a reef, it's running all the time for obvious reasons!

cheers guys

I am with seaswirl - murphys law!!!

I have always turned it off, except for when fishing near rocks or reef or in a bigger swell. But I think I may have converted to the "on crowd".

The worst is when your battery is playing up and you want to test it by turning the boat off. The split second when you turn the key and think it wont start is not fun.

Can fully understand why people would not turn their outboards off, it would be my worst nightmare if I had to radio sea rescue to come and get me from 50km out. I never really show it, but I am relieved when the outboard kicks over for the final time for the run in!! Battery failure is always on the back of my mind.

cant see the point in running when on the drift unless really required, ie fish coming up and may need to alter boat position, if the drift is to quick i have a second sea anchor , only then if that doesnt do it , i will resort when required to hold the boat up where the fish are congregated, the only other time is backing up to surface bommies for casting and may need to move boat when swells getting up, the theory of not turning the motor off because it may not start, well the boat shouldnt be out if you dont have 100% confidence in your gear , there will always be a time when you will need to be towed, which may have been caused by to many hours on idle gumming up the plugs or injectors IMO

always shut mine down after i have sussed out the drift. sometimes its a long drift and others a short one , but will always shut it down. after all running a v8 isnt cheap. even did the same with my old boat that had a 90hp on it. got to agree with Ron and Just dhu it, idleing around will gum up the system the same as what happens in cars

I do reverse with the shutes out, they are on long enough string that I can see them and you have to keep in mind that I am only just in gear so no hard reversing. Just keeping it in reverse gear can get me on a rough day from 1.1kn to .6, .7 of a knot. plus it makes the bait when dropping in and out do weird up and down movements which can sometimes help with fish attraction. Keep in mind this only happens when it is very rough, days when really it would be better to be at home but in saying that I have caught some very nice fish in these conditions.

one day way out wide we shut the engine down to rig up our gear and it wouldn't start. Of all the open ocean around us we were dead inline with the only exposed reef for miles. Thanksfully we dropped the anchor and it stuck, then with a little bit of DIY electrical work I managed to use aligator clips to get it going again. We fished all day and didn't shut the engine down once, caught a bag full and I wouldn't say we used any more fuel than normal. When we got back to the ramp we shut it down and it wouldn't start again.

Now that I've told my old man tale, I nearly always shut my motor down when fishing, unless it's really short drifts.

Most days up here the current is up. So most of the time my motor is running, and being knocked into reverse every now an then so you bait can spend a little time on the bottom.

If your worried about hours for resale..pm me!

selling boats for years I would rather see a few hours on the guage. Most average out at about 50hrs a year which is pretty common. As mentioned before the reports of the engine are the way to go. I remember when I first put my boat together I did alot of trolling over on the east for game fish and clocked up nearly 200hrs in a year but when you look at the report and most was done under the 2000rpm range trolling live bait, so it was easy work for the engine. I would think anyone that knew boats and seen that report wouldn't have a problem with the hours.

Most battery failures would be caused by having the sounder and the radio on when your out fishing and the motor off, this would only happen with a battery that is not in excellent condition.

Most common cause would be by the battery sulphating, to avoid this next time buy an AGM Marine battery as they don't suffer from sulphation.

Better idea is to run all your accessories from an independent Deep Cycle battery, using the Marine battery as the starter battery.

My mechanic said not to let it idle for long periods, it caused a carbon build up ...but was easy to fix, new spark plugs and some injector cleaner