I ran into this issue recently as well. I purchased the Brew City CT360, and went to remove the transducer mount from the shaft of the HB ice pole… no joy. I ended up ordering the Humminbird ML Open Water Adapter Kit from Scheels (see attached). It was another costly upgrade, but at least it comes with all of the cables I’ll need to rig the boat the right way.

Attachments:

1. 

   IMG_0907.png
   

I was just talking with my buddy about this tonight, and he suggested the justencase box. I believe James plugged these guys (without a sponsorship) a couple of seasons ago for storing his RippinRaps, and I just ordered one of their medium sized boxes.

Attachments:

1. 

   A82B54FD-4835-4F0D-91AA-7D24C954C078.jpeg
   

I hadn’t thought much about using drift socks… I’ll be sure to pick a couple of different sizes up. Thanks!

After a 48 hour shift this weekend, I got a chance to get a little work done on the boat today. I removed the old Eagle fish finder and mounted the Helix 7, ran the power and transducer cables, and mounted the transducer mounting board on the stern. I also bought a couple of 20# River anchors and anchor ropes, a new bow rope, and a 4-pack of Scotty rod holders. The rod holders have been installed, I’m considering grabbing two more (3 rods per angler in WI), but I’m undecided. Got the new bow and stern lights wired in, those work like a champ. Tomorrow morning I’ll run one more bead of silicone around the outer edge of the transducer board and attempt to install the high speed transducer (this model is just GPS/CHIRP). I’ll get some photos up tomorrow.

We have two boys (11 and 13) that I will be picking up from her house, boat in tow and girlfriend in the front seat

Anyone care to share some photos of how they have mounted their graphs?

Dutchboy wrote:

Good job on the boat. Don’t worry about the age of it, your ex wasn’t getting any younger or in perfect shape either. The boat will do everything you want it to do and cost you less money.

Thank you for the chuckle, Dutch!

Thanks for the info gentlemen. Any specific depths or parts of the lake that were best? I know we want to get up into Pelican if possible, but aside from that we’re going blind as far as the perch go. Feel free to PM me if you don’t want to post that type of info here.

We ran into a major slush problem in the NW Angle a couple of years ago, that stuff is no joke. The resort we stayed at buried a tracked Suburban, and I dunked my Polaris snowmobile. The only fix was to shovel it out and go back the way we came.

Attachments:

1. 

   5C23BFDB-665A-4E77-AD89-4D53C2225A7F.jpeg
   

The saga continues… last weekend I took this unit out on the lake and the battery performed flawlessly for the little bit of use it got. I took Cheers’ advice and voltage stayed right at 13.6.

The issue I had this trip was that the transducer wouldn’t pick anything up – I was in 30’ of water so I manually set my max depth at 33’ but the depth kept flashing 0.0 and never picked up my jig. My son also has a Helix 7 (his is a G3, mine is a G2), his worked perfectly. I was running 2 year old software, he was running the software from last year (factory installed). Rather than try messing with it on the ice, I used one of my old Marcum backups for the day.

Once I got home, the first thing I did was a factory reset. The second was the software update, and immediately I could hear the transducer start pinging after the update. I’m going to try and get out this week, I’ll keep everyone posted.

Tight lines!

Thanks for all of the responses. As soon as I got home I ran to the hardware store and picked up a multimeter. The battery showed 5.8 volts, so either the unit got turned on in the carrying case or the brand new DL 12v10ah is bad. I charged the battery back up, and adjusted the head unit so there’s no pressure on the power button. The battery has been off the charger for 6 hours now and is holding strong at 13.5 volts. I’ll be headed to the lake in the morning to give it a good test and I’ll report back.

How was the trip Lance? I’m headed out at the end of February for my first trip there.

They were not.

Sorry David, I edited the original post to include price and location.

Dave,

I have a few boxes full of TUCRs, and an assortment of both Precision’s and Commanders I’d be happy to let you play with the next time you hit Pete or the Rock (I recognize quite a few of your spots in your videos). I have varying lengths of Precisions from 30”-36”, all spooled with 6# Sufix 832 ice braid tied to a barrel swivel and fluorocarbon leader. I run most spoons and #4 Rippin Raps on those. The Commanders all get 8# 832 braid, same setup to the leader, and I’ll fish larger spoons and raps with those – if there’s any chance at deeper water or bigger fish (23”-24”+ walleyes) I’ll run a Commander over a Precision just to make sure I get good hooks into the fish.

Brandon

Attachments:

1. 

   FF5D990D-D5E0-4ECA-A781-CD9EC0A34CB4.jpeg
   

2. 

   E5B98725-0E11-4513-9B19-15BF4AB91E41.jpeg
   

3. 

   714BB6E0-F9A2-4A30-95B1-615131F45BE8.jpeg
   

I’m up in the angle now, and I think quite a bit of those soft spots are starting to heal up. We’re staying at Flag Island and running snowmobiles and portables, and we haven’t really ventured TOO far off the bomber paths. We kept enough for a meal this evening…

John got me all set folks- thanks for the pointers!

John, thank you again bud! You made a couple of boys pretty happy.

Thank you for the input Pat and James!

Thanks for the input gents. I had a few minutes of down time at work today and watched part of the Green Bay walleye episode from season 12 and caught the Inspira 20 commmercial, which ultimately answered my question. Anyone else getting the itch to get on the ice???

We’re planning on making a weekend trip of it… I pull my boys from school on Friday and we spend the weekend in the cities together. They were pretty pumped getting to meet James last year. As far as purchases go, at the very least I’ll be getting my wife a new Striker jacket and some decent gloves. I’m sure I’ll find a few other items I just can’t live without as well.

Attachments:

1. 

   D8ADB7D3-862B-485A-8CC4-A409252C96A1.jpeg
   

2. 

   CAB25518-5D03-4F4A-8CDC-89C9394ADF7E.jpeg
   

Fishwater, where are you located?

I’ll be fishing Wisconsin, Minnesota, LOTW/Rainy, and Devil’s for sure this year. I’ll be using the unit in the boat as well, and really just want to make sure I’m buying the right tool for both applications. Is spending the extra money on LakemasterPlus chips worth it (total of approximately $100 difference when buying 4 chips)?

For sure!

We did every day on our own – we stayed in one of the condos and headed out on snowmobiles in the morning and returned after the bite shut down at night. I’m not the type of guy that would be able to sit in a hard house all day long, especially not in that environment… If you have the means, I would highly recommend being as mobile as possible.

Last year was my first trip to LOTW and we stayed on Oak. We’ll be back at Sportsman’s at the end of February again this season. UV green and UV pink were great, red was good, and the more noise the better.

Attachments:

1. 

   FA3F7881-BC8E-4353-B418-2637AD35F811.jpeg
   

2. 

   3386C0B9-D05F-472B-96C9-EEB250A1D93C.jpeg
   

3. 

   B5DA0DC0-600F-4EC3-BCE8-F7F12F798D92.jpeg
   

This is the most useful tool I found when researching my trip last season. James and Dave did a great job of providing useful information that helped me immensely!

Brad Hawthorne has a great video from a few years back when he was still guiding on Upper Red where he demonstrates how to deadstick a split grip in an Otter house. The only rods I put in my rod holders are my DS sticks with full cork handles. Hope this helps! Pay special attention at approximately 3:55.

I have 2 of the White Bear hoodies – one IDO and one TUCR. I used them all week up in the Angle, rarely wearing my Striker coat if I wasn’t on the snowmobile. Easily the warmest hoodie I’ve ever owned, and I’d recommend them every time.

We crossed the border in Warroad and took the ice road from Young’s Bay.

Attachments:

1. 

   39D6E1F9-69F1-4349-931E-CE817305F27F.jpeg
   

This year I’ve completely gone away from bobbers and put my TUCR DS into play. Both of my DS rods (36” and 32”) are paired with an Okuma Avenger baitfeeder, and have been absolutely incredible all season. The rod has a soft enough tip that you can see your fathead swimming, and a fish can typically get 2”-3” of pull before the reel starts feeding line.

I have had the best success this season using VMC Teardrop jigs with a tail-hooked fathead, but if I’m fishing medium or large shiners I use #6 VMC SureSet trebles – I can count on one hand how many fish I’ve failed to button up this season. 95% of my hookups have been right in the roof of the mouth with the Teardrops, and I think it has a lot to do with the timing of the bite in relation to the way the setup is rigged – most times it takes approximately 10-15 seconds from the initial strike (initial drop of the rod tip) until the spool starts feeding line and I pull the rod from the holder. I close the bail as I drop the rod tip, watch the rod load, and set the hook with approximately 18” of sharp lift.