New Boat Thursday!!

Lake of the Woods or bust!

I’ve had a lot of boats over the last twenty years and I still get as excited picking up my boat today as I did when I got my first boat over twenty years ago.

The size and speed of the boat and the complexity that goes with my latest rig has changed over the years but the emotions are still the same. I’m flush with excitement over trips to come, day dreaming of big fish over the gunnels and memories that will be made with good friends in the months ahead.

I went a different direction with boat and electronics this time. There’s some changes coming in 2016 to the MX2025 so it didn’t make sense for me to buy a 2015 version. And i didnt want to be without a boat until the 2016’s become available late summer. Instead of waiting I went with the WX2190 and made Dean promise that when I wanted to go chase muskie or bass he’d let me borrow his 2025!

After seeing Garmin’s new line of electronics on the water during a demo…I was blown away. So I rigged three XSV touch screen units. Two on the dash and one that can be moved from the tiller to the bow as needed. I did add the Panoptix transducer after seeing that the technology on the water. I look forward to dialing in my setup and getting some time with it on the water.

A huge THANK YOU is owed to the guys at Skeeter Boat Center. They did the rigging and boat setup exactly the way I wanted it and they got it done in time for me to make my trip to LOTW with families Koonce and Nelson which officially starts TOMORROW!

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Wow! Very sharp!
I also checked out the Garmin electronics and the image seemed so sharp and bright compared to the other two it was amazing.
Have fun breaking her in! Hope Joel doesn’t treat it like he does the front of his IDO hoodie!

Happy Fourth!

Congrats James! Did you go with Minnkota or Motor Guide for you TM?

FDR

francisco4 wrote:

Congrats James! Did you go with Minnkota or Motor Guide for you TM?

FDR

After messing around with Dean’s MG Xi5 I opted to go Motorguide. The spot lock seemed to be significantly better and I used the heck out of the jog function to make small position adjustments on a piece of structure. I’ve never had an MG before so we’ll see here shortly if I made the right choice to switch.

SWEET RIG JAMES !!!

I’m looking forward to spending some serious R~n~R Time on on the Angle and the hospitality of Sunset Lodge !!

Also looking forward to sharing family time with two of my best friends !!

My rig is packed and we will be on the road at 7am tomorrow morning with the nose of the Silverado pointed North !!

See you soon !!

Walleys…Smallies and Musky OH MY !!!

Congrats! I’m hoping to make that upgrade next year or the year after that. Let us know what you are thinking of the Garmin system of products. Good luck fishing and enjoy the resort! My wife and I rescheduled for the same place for the end of July.

There’s a dream rig….

You only forgot 1 thing James. You forgot to throw me in the storage compartment and bring me along!!!

Enjoy!!!!

Looking forward to the panoptix reviews!!

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

Looking forward to the panoptix reviews!!

x2

That’s a sexy looking machine!

Nice ride James.
DT

You sir are living the dream!

James,
for the Motor Guide Xi5 get the 3-Blade Machete III if you are going to be in the weeds at all. that thing is a weed grinder. also zip tie the top and bottom of the small strait data cable to the big coil cable or it will pull down and out of the head.

That is an eye catcher!! no pun intended. congrats on the new boat, and happy 4th to you guys and everyone here.

Where did you get an on the water demo of the Garmin’s? I’m looking to switch up next year and Gen3 or Garmin was what i was looking at.

Nice rig James! I sure love my WX2190’s. Go get it slimmed up.

congrats James….hope your new rig works out well for you…have a great 4th and a safe trip north

The rig is gorgeous.

I see a lifetime of hard work coming to fruition right there, amazing, congrats.

Nice ride, what changes are coming to the 2016 MX lineup?

Have a great trip & enjoy the new Panoptics !

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Nice ride, what changes are coming to the 2016 MX lineup?

No updates yet Joe. Dealer meeting and product announcements will be the first part of August.

What a Great Lake to pop the…. Cork on that great looking rig!

Sweet looking rig, dressed to perfection.

Good luck fishing. Let’s see some of the catch.

Looking forward to the TV shows where that rig is home base.

After messing around with Dean’s MG Xi5 I opted to go Motorguide. The spot lock seemed to be significantly better and I used the heck out of the jog function to make small position adjustments on a piece of structure. I’ve never had an MG before so we’ll see here shortly if I made the right choice to switch.
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Don’t forget to report back on how the MG Xi5 is vs. MK. I have heard great things about those Xi5’s. The thing that bugs me about my MK is the spotlock does not have pinpoint accuracy.

Sweet rig !
It’ll be interesting to see how you like it vs a MX2025.

Your spoiled Jim “however you do run a fishing show for a living, so you likely need the bells and whistles”. My gut tells me you could still catch them in a 15′ runabout if you had to. Best wishes and nice boat.

Sweet rig. I see its ready for Great Lakes trolling. Fish Hawk and a rear mounted graph will be pretty cool.

I also see traxstech rails on there. Do you still have the trees?

have you seen the traxstech graph mounts yet? I was thinking of buying one for rear mounting one of my graphs.

James-Great looking boat and the rigging is fantastic too! Kind of like a sports bar…all those screens…which one to watch is always a fun decision making process. Now you opened a can of worms! Any dates to announce changes for the 2016 MX2025 or do you happen to know what some of the changes may be?

Great rig James! I also have a new (2014) WX2190. It’s an awsome boat to fish out of. I can fish two rods, intertain two Jack Russels, in a 15mph cross wind…all pretty comfortably. Boat control is just awsome. I am however having some sonar issues, and wanted to pick your brain about transducers. I think the hull may be a bit thick where I have mounted thru-hull (epoxied to inside of bilge) 3 different transducers, trying to get acceptable fish-finding capability. I’ve put water in the bilge and trialed different locations. I just can’t get far enough forward through the access port. I’m about to drill a hole in her, and mount an in-hull transducer. Your thoughts?
Thanks, and congratulations on your new ride. You are going to love the boat.

Hugh Fraser

Rafter 8 wrote:

Great rig James! I also have a new (2014) WX2190. It’s an awsome boat to fish out of. I can fish two rods, intertain two Jack Russels, in a 15mph cross wind…all pretty comfortably. Boat control is just awsome. I am however having some sonar issues, and wanted to pick your brain about transducers. I think the hull may be a bit thick where I have mounted thru-hull (epoxied to inside of bilge) 3 different transducers, trying to get acceptable fish-finding capability. I’ve put water in the bilge and trialed different locations. I just can’t get far enough forward through the access port. I’m about to drill a hole in her, and mount an in-hull transducer. Your thoughts?
Thanks, and congratulations on your new ride. You are going to love the boat.

Hugh Fraser

Hugh, We have been down this road a few times ourselves while rigging these boats. To get a good picture and a solid reading at all speeds I would cut your loses and install a transom mounted high speed transducer. If you have any worry about having to adjust it you can mount it on a board and be able to move it around on that to avoid more holes in your boat.

That has been our best solution up to this point.