During the course of our discussions this summer, Kevin and I have talked about strategies for keeping fish alive in livewells, particularly in a tournament setting. Kevin offered a recommendation….install a timer on my livewell pump so I can have the pump run for a minute or two every 5 minutes, rather than constantly flushing out the water in the well. My fishhawk has a pump that is either on or off, with no timer. I tend to ice (and now oxygenate) my livewell water, so I don’t want it to be constantly be flushing through. At the same time, I need some new water coming in, to add more oxygen and to remove fish wastes.
We decided to have Kevin install a timer on my livewell pump. He wired it in, did a perfect install, and the timer worked like a charm up in Bemidji. I filled my well early in the day and then flipped the pump switch to timer. I never had to worry about fresh water for the rest of the day. You can see the switch (labeled well, for dummies like me) here in the middle of my console switch bank.
While Kevin was working at my console, me made another recommendation concerning my locator. As you can see, I run a relatively heavy LCX-25C at the helm. That heavy unit shudders and shakes something fierce when I’m running down the lake, even in a light chop, because its RAM mount is just stuck into the relatvely flimsy console plastic. Kevin runs a 37C, and had excellent results by mounting his RAM ball on the gunwale. I admit to being skeptical, but I had Kevin move my system out from behind the screen out to the gunwale, and after a couple of weeks of running the boat this way, I have to say….I LOVE IT! Not even a twitch up at Bemidji, even in some stiff breeze and “enhanced” walleye chop on event day. The pump timer and the new console electronics mounts are both winners!