I am planning a trip to this area and wanting to book soon. Me, the Wife and two kids between 7-14. We want o be right on the beach. Any opinions on a condo on Destin Beach Sandpiper units, Shoreline Towers, etc) or a hotel down on the Fort Walton Beach side of the area?
Got back last night from a long weekend on Lake Winnipeg, the trip referenced above. So many great experiences and memories made with my son and two great friends.
A lot of walleyes. More than enough “eaters” everyday, and found some of the lakes big fish. Between the 3 of us (our 4th fished 1/2 a day) we caught 13 fish between 24.25 and 26.25. We never unlocked the code to one of the famous greenback 30’s….so I’ll likely have to return. Twist my arm.
Put it in perspective, I’ve been ice fishing for 30 years and my biggest ice walleye to date is 27 inches. The 26’s I caught at Lake Winnipeg were the thickest walleye I’ve ever seen, amazing girth on those fish.
A few firsts and notes.
Slept out a inevitable Lake Winnipeg Wind Storm that closed the lake access for 24 hours. Brutal wind.
Nearly bottomed out an auger with extension trying to punch through. We have about 3-4 inches left and the extension on the Stikemaster 40 was a 12 inch.
The two St. Croix rods I bought worked great! I basically used two lures the entire time. Large green/silver Frostbite Dinner Bell and a 3/8 Pink PK Spoon with a feathered treble. Still blows my mind that I never once put bait on either of these lures.
Fins Icetamer braided line. Strong, supple enough, but as for anything new on eliminating ice build up on the line…not so much. Same old same old, water on braid in cold temps will freeze. When we hole hopped outside one day the temp was around zero with a slight wind. We kept a truck running with the heat on and switched out our ice rods about every 10 minutes to thaw line.
Introduced my son to Tim Horton’s, but no poutine on this trip. Another reason to return :).
wrong post…sorry
Amped, two 24V 50AH batteries in my new boat (2023 1875 Crossover; Minnkota Ulterra 2024 60 inch). Only 3 outings with them so limited experience. Ran the trolling motor spotlocked for 6-8 hours one day, batteries read 93% charged when done. This was the setup Amped suggested for my boat prior to rigging. I pulle3d the batteries and stored them in my garage at around 50 degrees this winter, with about a 85% charge upon storage.
I just picked one up…that’s a great deal.
Lots of terrible reviews on that yaber if you look in to it. Most all YouTube videos show it being dead after a couple weeks of sitting in a car. Every one says the air compressor makes the unit over heat and the company is impossible to get ahold of. So that sounds like it’s right in the 50 dollar alley.
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2100+ Reviews on Amazon….88% are 4-5 star. I found similar positives in youtube and walmart reviews. I don’t doubt some have had negative experiences, and there is probably something better out there…but so far this has worked for me (twice) to jump a battery and held a charge stored in the vehicle. So far so good, time will tell…
Found an extension on Thousand Lakes Sports for $23.99
The 4500ah Yaber with compressor was on my amazon greatly discounted. Original $129, sale $69.99, and 30% offf that…so around $50. Heckuva deal IMO
I learned the hard way on boat trailer tires last year…shredding all 3 in one trip and a bent rim for good measure. Tread was great….but they were 8-9 yrs old. My tire guy said anything over 5 years is a gamble.
The feedback I’ve gotten from people “in the business” is that Garmin is far and above ahead on FFS; Lowrance is best on Downscan, HB for side scan. I have a LVS34, not ML2, but am impressed with my garmin. On my new boat rigged this fall I bought a HB Gen 4 12 in MSI/MDI, the previous boat I sold had a Lowrance Elite ti2 12. Maybe I haven’t dialed in the HBg4-12 yet but as of about 6 hours with it I’d trade it for the old TI2! Not impressed with HB and only reason I went that route was to integrate with the Minnkota Ulterra. Once Garmin has the auto deploy thing and linking to countours on graphs down better with trolling motors it will likely put a large dent into HB and Minnkota.
Taking the winter to think about my OP I have another idea…
Why not leave the shuttle on the ground and put the 10 inch screen on a ram mount that goes on my sport track? That is how I have the 2nd screen up front setup. Cord length for power and gls may be an issue?
I have the Hawg lights on my flip shack currently. Used them one year and the usb connection got very hot and melted. They sent me a new one but I am not impressed with the product (amount of light, hot end). I’ve tried a lot of things over the years for lights. Now, I put my headlamp and/or my sons headlamp in the netting up top and turn to the flood setting (Olight Perun 3 or Nitecore UH65). No additional gear as we have those with us, small, rechargeable, plenty of light. Also, look at Olight O-Clip Pro…$30-$40 and about the size of a box of stick matches. Plenty of light, spot-flood-red…that’s all you need. I don’t see myself ever running light bars and cords again.
I had a similar experience with the “new” Northland in early Jan. Ordered like 15 tungsten buckshots and slim spoons. Nothing came…for 10 days, then that was incomplete. The rest showed up after 14 days. I sent them an email and got no response…then a “extra” tungsten buckshot showed up a week later. 
That wireless networking may have some real benefits for hole hoping. 2 screens along with FFS. Now if we could come up with a good motorized system to rotate the FFS pole by remote….
I have seen the VR application with FFS but with Garmin you have to step up from the Echomap series to use this.
FFS does not transmit wirelessly
Livescope with 2 screens….new boat….Winnipeg Ice trip……..expensive year
I own 3 of those same drill heads and have had the same happen to mine. Once the battery’s get around 3 years old, they are much more prone to stop, blink. and/or overheat. This is more common with the smaller 5 amp battery’s and I have went through over a dozen of them. I have also had the shifter slide into a torque setting which will cause the drill to stall out with any decent load. Once the battery’s get weak they will die out in seconds and still blink 3-4 bars.
I would carry another battery with to verify if thats the issue first.
Same thing happening with me and 5ah batteries. I have had it/them for about 7 years and it does help to have very sharp blades.
I’ve had 1/2 ton Sierra’s, Silverado’s, Ford XLT’s and Lariat’s. I keep going back to Ford as I feel the interior is more spacious and the clearance is better than Chevy/GMC. I’ve never experienced a Ram and have no interest. For how I use my truck (Highway, ice fishing, boat towing, pheasant hunting) the interior space and clearance are important to me. I do not love the towing gas mileage with the 3.5 but that has been a common theme when towing the 6×12 enclosed trailer I have labeled as the “windsail” with FOrd/GMC/Chevy. Seems you hook anything to these new 1/2 tons and it trips the gas guage to dump fuel as fast as possible. Funny enough, I get better gas mileage pulling my new 2023 Lund Crossover 1875 then I did a 2010 Lund Explorer 1825. The Crossover is heavier, has a full windshield where the Explorer was double bubbles that weren’t on while towing, and both had single axle trailers No idea….
In this truck conversation I’ve always said they are all nice and all have their plusses and minuses, it comes down to what’s important to you and what you like.
That JB80 seems to be pretty amazing stuff. Sprayed the locks, coupler, trailer hinges….spray Spray SPRAY!!!
Found some dandy jumbos this past weekend on ML. Great time, but COLD!
Jumbos huh? Like enough for a meal??
Yea. Biggest was 14, couple of those, many 12’s. Kept enough for two good meals.
When your running your heater in that crate, isn’t that garmin getting hot ? Seems like that battery would cook.
I thought about that and checked it throughout both days. It got warm but never too hot to touch. I slid the HD shuttle and bag towards the back of the crate and had the buddy forward. At one point I did put an extra 1lb canister in front of the shuttle to thaw prior to use. I also have that board below the shuttle to mainly make sure the crate doesn’t collapse (collapsible ends on the crate) but it also defelcts some heat. In that thermal I rarely run the heater on anything but low
Might be a silly question but why travel with the locks on in the first place? I get sitting in the driveway but why not take them off while traveling where the roads will do the worst damage.
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Never really thought about that…just leave them on. Security so the doors don’t pop open, I guess.
Thanks, all. I have a can of JB80 and will keep it in the truck to give the locks a spray now and again. Also planning to pick up a small 3 in 1 Lock Dry can.
Chuck: That would be my guess with the tire slime, but going to ask to be sure. They seemed low, also. Can a person add air to tires with slime…I would guess so?
That milwaukee drill and batteries is only used for ice fishing. I typically get 4-8 trips per year as travel is usually involved. With LVS I don’t drill a ton of holes so the 5AH have worked fine, but would consider larger AH if economical.
Can of jb80 stay ok in high and low temps? Dont want anything going boom…
I was at a scheels yesterday and it had a specific row of 10 inch lite-flite blades but not 8…got me confused. thanks
How often do you spray the WD40/Zeb45/JB80? Seems like the locks on my enclosed trailer (side door and back door) are the main issue when traveling with snowmobile/atv for ice fishing.
Combination locks?
So the “lazer power” 8 in blades are the right ones?
I took a few deep dives into these questions the last 5 years, like I do much stuff, and below is what I learned and works for me. Many ways to cook a filet, but this is my way…for now :).
Deadstick rod: I went with a 32 in TUCR Deadstick. I did not want a parobolic deadstick rod, and didn’t even know what that meant prior to diving in on this topic. I want a deadstick rod that has some tip bend/sensitivity but transfers the “load” to the baitfeeder as to audibly tell me to pay attention. The parabolics put the load on the road for too long and render the baitfeeder not as successful as the TUCR deadstick does, IMO. I use this in the shack but also with a firststrike rod flag and rod holder when I’m fishing outside. I’ve recently added a Frostbite drench, which is longer and half the price, that I use outside with the firstrike flag and holder also, and have found that to work well with the baitfeeder. I have friends with the JT snare rods and they haven’t come out of the rod case for 5+ years. Some love the snare rods, I have other JT Rods that are awesome, those just aren’t for me.
Finniky Fooler: I have two of these (hookset version) and my son has 1 and 1 jawjacker. As we use the hookset version I bought $10-15 Berkley Cherrywood med action rods for these with shimano sienna reels. DOn’t want/need baitfeeders for hookset version. WIth the rods under a good amount of strain I didn’t see any need to invest anything more. That was 4 years ago and they’re still going strong.
I use a go pro syle flex clamp mount.
Go on amazon and search Suptig Jaws Flex Clamp Mount Gooseneck Mount for GoPro Hero 13 Hero 12 Hero 11 Hero 10 Hero 9 Hero 8 Hero 7 Hero 6 Hero 5 Hero 4 Session Hero 3+ Hero 3 Akaso EK7000 DJI osmo Arlo Action Cameras
It screws into the back of my marcum recon, but takes a little finesse. Has worked the past few years.
