Thanks for the tips, guys! I’ve never been to the lower St. Croix before…just one of those places I’ve always wanted to get to. Where would you recommend putting in at? Also, I kinda caught something about no-wake zones on the river…is that still going on and how much of a big deal would it be to get to decent fishing if we go that route?

Mille Lacs is probably our third choice just due to the distance from Rochester, but if that’s where the best bite is, we’d do it.

C’mon Ron, you need to do something on break besides read your fishing porn mags!

Yup, the fuse for the trailer tail lights in the van was smoked. Between that and fixing the grounds on each tail light, all my problems are solved.

Thanks for the help, guys!

An aluminum box might do it. I’ll look at the price on building one of those, too. Thanks!

Update:

One of the tail lights was inadequately grounded. I fixed that, so now the blinkers and the brake lights work. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction there!

Still nothing when I turn on the headlights. I’m thinking it’s got to be either a fuse in the tow vehicle or a wiring problem in the tow vehicle causing it. Gotta run by the hardware store tomorrow and pick up a volt meter to check it.

This would be a whole lot easier if I hadn’t let my wife take my Tahoe to the airport instead of her van (so I can change the oil in her van while she’s gone ). I *know* the trailer wiring’s good on my SUV.

That’s a very good possibility. I didn’t think of that. I will try that first and post again if I’m still having issues.

OK, I managed to answer my own question, for the most part. Here’s what I did, if anyone cares:

I bought and installed MapCreate7 on my PC. Included with my software was a card reader for MMC cards.

I pulled up my LakeMaster MN map and created a new map of Voyageurs National Park (VNP) and saved it to a new chip (also included in my MapCreate purchase)

I then went to the VNP website and right-clicked on the download link. The file on the website is an .xml file which MapCreate can’t read, so I saved it as a .gpx file by simply changing the file extension in the SaveAs box to .gpx

I then went back into MapCreate and imported the file from where I’d saved it on my hard drive. All the gps coordinates came through, but the different icons did not. I just got red dots for everything, regardless if it was marking a rock, a bouy, a campsite, or whatever.

I’ve tried a few different ways to convert the file so that the icons are retained from the original file, but have not been successful. Unless someone has a better idea, looks like I’ll be converting icons manually.

Anyway, this looks to be the most workable solution to my problem so far.

Thanks, Jack. I have been impressed with the overall helpfulness and character of the forums here!

I found some of my answers in a similar thread.

Looks like I need to get MapCreate and a card reader to get the job done. It appears that I can/should load the info straight onto my Lakemaster chip?

Thanks for all the recommendations guys!

Good to know about the amber. Through the years I can’t recall ever owning anything with amber lenses. I think I will probably give them a try this time around.

In regards to cheap vs. expensive shades, I used to use strictly cheapies. I was buying a new pair yearly because they were constantly getting lost, scratched, broken, etc. plus I was young, careless and dirt-poor. Then I discovered lanyards and I was no longer losing/damaging my shades. I then upgraded to some high-quality sunglasses (with a lanyard) and got a pair of H2Optix. They’ve lasted me 10 years or so, but time has finally gotten the best of them so it’s time to get a new pair. Just figured I’d see what else people were recommending.

One other thought on the expensive shades is that I used to get a lot of eyestrain and headaches after a long day on the water. The H2Optix almost completely eliminated that problem. I also know I was giving my eyes better protection from UV than I was getting from the cheapies. That alone, to me, is worth spending the $$.

Should we tell whoever wrote this that their parents didn’t really take their dog to go live on a farm when they were 5 years old?

Good to know about the new chips. Do either of them mark safe navigation routes on Namakan? I have this on my paper maps, but paper sucks when your up on a step.

Agreed, in the future gloves are the way to go. I do a lot of homemade salsas and I always use gloves to handle the peppers.

After you finish, wash your hands with the gloves on to get the worst of the pepper oils off (the oils don’t soak in to rubber or latex like they do on skin) but still be careful when you pull the gloves off not to touch any parts of the gloves that were in contact with the peppers just to be on the safe side.

No such thing as too much time in a canoe…as long as you’re not trying to compete with the big boats where you’ll get a lot of this…

Piranha Fish finders are relatively cheap and work well, if you’re just looking for a product recommendation.

You plan on using the finder only when you are running your trolling motor? Or will you use it in situations where you will not have a 12-volt battery to run off of?

You can go one of three ways for the main unit. You can buy a regular depthfinder which runs off a 12-volt battery and run it as designed, or you can convert a regular depthfinder to run off of 8 AA batteries, or you can buy a portable unit which generally runs off of lantern batteries or 8 smaller batteries.

Then for the ‘ducer you can use a suction cup mount, a trolling motor mount, or shoot thru the hull. Depending on what material your canoe is made from, even ‘ducers designed for suction cup or trolling motor mounting can shoot thru the hull. This works well with kevlar or royalex in most cases but I’ve never tried it thru aluminum. Couple ways to rig this, either temporarly or permanent.

The best option to use will really depend on where you plan to use your fishfinder and what features are most important to you. I played around with using speed/temp before and decided that in a canoe they are pretty pointless.

Feel free to PM me if you’d rather…