It is that much better. I used to do it the other way as well, just over the side. I thought that was incredible, and it is, but underneath is just awesome.

It is literally like someone drove a stake thru your boat and into the bottom of the lake. You can turn a circle inside your boards if you weren’t paying attention. It works so well that I use them even when it is dead calm.

As far as the shallow water thing goes, last year at the PWT Mobridge I never went deeper than 12 feet, used the bags every day and caught nearly 100 fish per day. Maybe the boat was just that good, but I did not feel the bags hurt me at all.

I can see a ton of my crankbaits hanging on the guard rails of that bridge. Gotta love side imaging. LOL!!!

I love that road!!!

The key is to match your boat speed to the chart speed. It takes a little playing around to get it just right. At 2-3 mph I run my chart speed about at the mid point.

Chart too fast and the images are elongated, too slow and they get short and fat. I hate it when that happens.

I used my SI a ton on the river last fall during the PWT event. It really helped me figure out what spots to fish on the wingdams. As all of you know, wingdams are not created equal. The SI allowed me to scan the face of a dam, find the irregularities, go back and fish them and then move on. I did not have to spend time fishing the entire wingdam, I could focus on the areas I thought looked better.

SI may not have changed how I fish, but it sure has changed how I look for places to fish. It is simply amazing.

Love my Revo STXs. I will agree that you need to be careful when using them. It took me three weeks to cast without a mess. They are smooth enough to throw #5 balsa Shad Raps all day long and not get tired.

Simply Awesome.

Pete’s Bait Shop is no longer in the parking lot of the Topper. It is anly a few hundred yards away, but they have moved.

The Topper is priced right and easy to get in and out of.

If you are coming soon, bring a sled to get around on. The snow is deep and if youa re travelling off the beaten path, you will not get far on wheels.

The eye bite has been pretty good with a few big fish in the mix so far this winter. Perch are spotty but there have been a few good catches reported as well.

Enjoy the lake.

I have been using the Bird 55 for a few trips now and so far so good. I will not say at this time the unit is the best on the ice, but I will not say that it doesn’t have a ton of neat features either.

So far everyone that has seen me use the unit has asked to try it and none of them have yet to say that they wouldn’t buy it.

As Scott said, just a few days is not long enough to make a good review. So far, everything that has been frustrating has been because it is different, not worse, not better, but different.

I like many of the features. The 6 color pallette is awesome. Talk about dialing things in. The depth cursor is nice for setting bobbers for suspended fish too. There is no guessing anymore. The fact that the depth range is on a LCD in the center of the screen means you no longer have to calculate what the lines are telling you. As you change depth ranges, the numbers change as well.

THe best thing so far is that I have yet to have interference issues with any other unit. Side by side with Vex FL 8, FL18 and a Marcum that I can’t remember the number of and no interference on any of the units.

Yes, there are a few things that are not the best. I have adjusted the gain instead of the zoom a few times, and turned the wrong dial, but that is just getting used to a new unit.

Enjoy the ice.

Nav Planner is simply awesome. Not only can you view your electronic charts and waypoints, you can manipulate data as well.

You can change names and icons for your waypoints much faster than on your machine. You can create new waypoints or delete old ones. I use this to plan my next day on the water from the comfort of my home or hotel room.

A nice feature is the measure feature. You can find the distance between two waypoints in the click of a mouse. Great planning tool for tournament day time management.

The other nice thing is that you can convert to and from any other brand of GPS that supports Navionics charts. I transfer to and from Humminbird/Lowrance/etc all the time.

It is a great tool and one I am glad I have learned to use.

Most of us really enjoy having folks along for pre-fishing. I really enjoy meeting new folks and sharing what I know and learning from them along the way.

I know I don’t post here a ton, but I check in nearly every day. As things get closer and anyone may want to ride along for pre-fish, just drop me a note. You can e-mail or call anytime. You can find my contact information at http://www.johnniecandle.com.

I look forward to meeting some of you guys at the Croix.

I run the Hbird stuff as well and yes the back and front sonar units do interfere with each other at depths greater than 20 feet. Mine are 20 feet apart on my boat.

The interference is not enough to need to turn one unit off, you can still see the structure and the fish with no problems.

The transducer for the SI does work for moderately high speeds, but I would suggest that you get a switch box and a second dual beam ducer. When you are running accross teh lake, use the dual beam. When you are fishing or looking for fish, use the SI ducer. I didn’t go that way this year, I used two units instead.

You will love the units. Mine performed exactly as advertised and it is truly amazing what you will find down there.

Ted,

I would stay in Lewiston or Youngstown, not in Niagara Falls. It is a little cheaper and not that far away. It has been too long to remember the names of the places to stay, but they are not hard to find.

The Salmon run will be in full swing. You should do all you can to get in on it. The fishing is not that tough and your walleye gear will be more than enough to land ’em. Use your trolling rods to drift three ways with fresh spawn bags and hold on tight.

Enjoy the trip, that is my favorite part of the country. Those falls are just incredible.

The other option is to purchase the Navionics software called NavPlanner. It comes with a special card reader as well.

Not only can you view your Navionics charts on your computer, you can create, delete and edit waypoints and routes.

I used this program a ton this summer. I converted waypoints for may friends between many manufacturer’s units and did a ton of pre-fish preparation in the hotel room the night before.

It really helped when figuring out how far it was from spot to spot so I knew if I had enough time to fish them all in a day.

It costs about the same as an electronic chart, but well worth the investment.

I fished both of the PWT events there and enjoyed my time spent on BS. If you do everything right, the fishing can be very good. However, if you are off your A game, you will struggle.

A good day there would be ten fish of keeper size (18 inches or larger) and a bad day woule be the ole goose egg. I have had a few of each in the 20 days I have fished there.

I would say head to BS if you are looking for something different and challenging. The folks ther are awesome and the scenery is incredible. The multi species fishing is very good as well. If you want to catch 50 eyes a day, there are better places to go.

Warren,

I was out with my search and rescue team here in Devils Lake. They were raising a car that fell through the ice as part of a fund rasier. They pointed me in the general direction and I found the car within minutes. It looked just like a car.

They then put a diver on the botom with a marker buoy. I drove by the diver several times and placed an icon where I felt the diver was. When he released the buoy, it was within 10 feet of my waypoint.

I am not sure I would have been sure I saw a body, if I had not known what I was looking for, but it did show up on the side scan.

These units are pretty slick and do all they are advertised to do.

I have two 787s on my rig and they are working wonderfully. The screens are very easy to see in the sun and the menus are very simple and easy to navigate. These units are every bit as good as anything else out there.

I like longer rods for bobbers as well. The rod I use is a Scheels Bobber Rod. 7’6″ with a nice tip, yet a good amount of back bone. They are reasonably priced at $60. They work well here at Devils Lake and performed very nicely at Mille Lacs this spring.

Scheels makes a great bobber rod in their Walleye Series. It is 7’6″ long and has a nice tip as well as plenty of back bone. I use these a ton here on Devils Lake and think they work very well.

My set up consists of a Wave Buster Bober, 15 pound Spider Wire Ultra Cast, and a 2 foot leader of Vanish Leader Material. When I am in the trees over here, I use 10 pound leaders, when I am in open water like at Mille Lacs, I use 6 pound leaders.

One tip, pre-tie your jigs and hooks all on leaders the same length. When you break off a jig, just replace the leader and you will never have to adjust your bobber stop.

Thanks. Make it a good smack too, would ya?

He needs someone to keep him in line.

A great reel for bottom bouncing is the Abu Garcia 2005LP. Low Profile, flippn’ switch and less than $65 at most retailers. If you also cast with the reel, the 4007LP is the same reel with more bearings and a magnetic brake.

I have a Berkley Cyclone Spooling Station and love it. It is a smaller, portable version of the commercial line winders you see at major retailers. This thing is fast. I use it more for the LC reels and the bait casters. I have trouble getting the line on the spool of a spinning reel evenly since only the spool mounts on the machine.

Great investment if you have to do several LC reels each year. That is a ton of hand crankin’.