If you own a jet sled or fish for steelhead and salmon in any of Michigans major river ways you understand the importance and need for a solid anchor winch. There are a number of different brands on the market you can choose from all varring in price and quality, but not every system out there is going to fit your needs. Yeah, you could go with an ATV winch or maybe a Windless or some other brand name you find at your local marina, but honestly those wont cut it. You are going to need something that is heavy duty, fast, and powerful enough to pull up some weight. With that being said there is only one brand that comes to mind.

Unless your a duck hunter or fishing the rivers this fall in Michigan, its probably a good time to think about winterizing your outboard and shrink wrapping your boat for winter. Yes, there are still going to be some good days of boating ahead, but when the thermometer drops, getting your boat out of the water is the last thing you will want to take care of. Dealing with the cold, rain, or possibly even snow will just make the task at hand that much harder and unenjoyable. 

As I am looking over the Mercury Marine outboard motors for this up coming season I am seeing quite a few new additions and changes that have been made. Honestly, there are so many new motors this year that it looks like they have completely revamped their whole line-up. Which is exciting news if you ask me. Although the majority of the changes start at the 150hp range and go up from there, their 15 and 20hp outboards have some interesting improvements that can be seen as well.

Winterization season. Its a sad time of year for serious boaters and die hard lakers when they come to the realization that they have to prep the boat for the winter months and store it away until spring. To be honest, its not something any boater looks forward to, but if not done you can have some major issues and huge costs on your hands come spring time. If you are like me and winterize your outboard on your own you are going to want to do it by the book. That means treating the fuel system with stabilized gas, changing the gearcase lube, fogging the powerhead and lubricating all of the moving parts. Even if you do all of these things to a T, you can still screw up and make some huge mistakes that will leave you at the dock next season.

Ta-Who? Half the time this is the typical response I seem to get when I mention the Tohatsu line of motors to a customer looking to repower. Just because you may not have heard of them before or seen an advertisement for them on your Saturday morning fishing programs doesn't mean that they aren't one of the big dogs in the outboard game. In fact they are one of the larger manufacturers and make quite a few motors for some of the other outboard manufacturers in the industry. With all of the Tohatsu outboards that we sell, and we sell a lot of them, the MFS40AETL and the MFS50AETL would have to be the most popular models. Heres why.

Fall means a lot of different things for the people here in Michigan, but for Michigan anglers it really only means one thing. They finally get to fish the annual Salmon and Steelhead push as they make their way up our many streams and rivers. To be successful landing these powerful fish not only takes skill but a special set of tools. One of the most important pieces of equipment needed by river anglers would be a flat bottom stacked with a two or four stroke jet drive outboard.  Vans Sport Center is a certified dealer for all of the top brand names in the marine industry, we know our jets and what river fisherman demand in a shallow water outboard.

For many boaters in the northern states, Labor Day weekend marks the last big hurrah of their boating season before it is time to pull the boat out of the water for the winter months.  Shortly after the holiday weekend schedules get busy, the kids will be back in school, and that north wind starts blowing cold air from the Arctic. But wait a minute. Just because Labor Day basically marks the end of summer that doesn't mean that your boating season has to come to an end too.

When helping customers pick out their next outboard motor whether it be new or used, one common question we ask is what style control box do they need? This information is important in terms of pricing and installation for rigging the most practical control box for your set up. Since every outboard manufacturer makes a handful of different style control boxes, knowing what style control is on the boat or what options you can go with is going to make purchasing a new motor a whole lot easier and less stressful. In this article I will run down the different styles and what kind of boats they are typically found on.