I’ve got a keel guard on my boat and will pull it straight up on the concrete ramp in the very rare occasion that I can’t find a soft spot on either side. I’ve also used spotlock a time or two. A lot of people think fiberglass is fragile….it’s really not. I’ve seen a fiberglass boat slip off rollers straight onto the ramp and not leave so much as a tiny scratch
My ulterra could fail once a year and I still wouldn’t trade it for a terrova…both ulterras I’ve owned have ended up having the same solder joint break inside the trim motor. Fortunately I was able to fix it myself mid trip, but even if I hadn’t the inconvenience of not having a trolling motor for a short period would outweigh not having auto-stow/deploy
Order whatever “kit” you need from partsvu. Can’t imagine you would ever save any money peicing it together vs what they charge for the kit
Several beaches are above water now
As far as aluminum boats go new vs old I would say brand is a bigger determinant than age. I’ve been in some relatively smooth old aluminum hulls and I’ve ridden in some newer aluminum boats that pounded the crap out of you.
Only done it a couple times when I was desperate….and the water was warm
Economic siege warfare is my categorization. There is maybe 5% of the normal tourism for the walleye opener week. We’ll see what Bass is like.
No boats driving on the lake. None tied up at resorts by me. I saw 4 rigs at the Isle landing yesterday.
As for lobbying, both sides take $$$. They can argue & hide and do nothing. The band is fine with that.
You sure you’re talking about mille lacs?! I will agree there was a little less traffic than normal especially given the great weather, but 5%?!?!. The north end was still VERY busy
If you add a second high speed ducer and splitter how does the head unit know which sonar signal to read?
The splitter will take the 2d signal from your high-speed ducer and take the si signal from your big transducer…I rigged it the same on my boat
I’ve tried many. Latest attempt was tetra. Although they were the best, I still couldn’t stand wearing them all day. Ive just accepted that I’ll probably have some hearing loss in exchange for my enjoyment while hunting
Battery weight and charge lifetime are pretty big advantages. For me, I cannot get past that they cannot be charged at under 32 degree temps. I leave my batteries in my boat and trickle charge them over the winter, can’t do that with Lithium batteries in MN winter.
Wouldn’t need to trickle charge a lithium. At the price point lithium has hit now, I can’t wait for my lead acids to die….
Low battery…..
Like sand-burr said. Anytime the winds blowing! We have a family cabin up there and really don’t preference any specific time of the year. One of the few lakes that doesn’t die off in the heat of August. If you don’t have the gear to pull crankbaits deep if you need to (leadcore…down riggers etc.) I would MAYBE try for something earlier or later than August. That deep basin bite can be dynamite some years though.
Daiwa. I jumped on the president bandwagon years ago and although they are alright in warm weather, the drags are trash in cold weather. I feel like daiwa provides best bang for your buck at all price points. I was even talked out of more shimanos for the daiwa regal and absolutely love it for a $50ish dollar reel. Have a few Shimano sedonas and they don’t even compare to the regal..The stradics of old were fantastic but I won’t buy another. The piscifun carbon x is only popular because of tom boley…ok reel but better options for the price.
The 620 is quite a bit bigger than the wx1910. I’ve got a 1910 and love it, but if my garage would fit a wx2060 or 620 I’d own one. The 1910 is a great 19′ boat and it’s probably more “practical” than a 620 but if price was equal on both and you don’t have garage constraints I’d go 620. The only advantage of the skeeter would be a bullet proof 200hp Yamaha vs what I assume is the “older” turbo charged verado which seems to be a little less reliable
I made my own version with existing rattle reels I had. With kids running around it’s impossible to keep lines above the hole covers without them constantly getting pulled. Works great. They are definitely quieter when they are that low and you have to be good about clearing the hole enough that the wheel doesn’t rub against the ice shavings. I’m able to fit my fingers through the hole covers to give the fish some line before I lift the covers as well
I run a cheap 18ah lithium (Amazon). Lasts from sun up to sun down in my wheelhouse running livescope on the 93sv. I have the garmin shuttle so this was the largest battery I could fit but I don’t see the need for anything larger (I plug it in to charge overnight). I know some guys go larger to fish several days, I’m just not the guy that fishes more than 1 day without access to electricity. Can’t comment a whole lot on longevity as I’ve only run this battery for 1 year. But I can say I’ve been running a cheap lithium on my flasher for 3+ years and no signs of slowing down.
Sisters got a place on Big McKenzie. Very clear water nowadays. Not sure how it used to be. All my walleyes have been caught at dusk or dark. Mid July is going to make it even tougher. The lake is overun with bass now (and pike), so may want to focus on that if trying to keep the family entertained. The lake has an absolute load of structure that looks prime for walleyes it just never produced like I thought it would. For what it’s worth, the walleyes I’ve caught have almost always been on the cabbage weed lines and almost nothing in the rocks
Deployment and stowing is about as much effort as bending over to put on your socks.
I don’t get why anyone would tolerate this failure which keeps you from fishing.
Good luck I guess.
I haven’t had to step foot in the bow of my boat for years. That’s why we tolerate it. I’ve had two hickups with my ulterra in 7 years, wouldn’t even think about going back. As far as the original post, give minn kota a call. From my experience, their techs are very good.
I’ve got the same boat. I just gave in and put on a cobra hydrofoil. Props made a slight improvement but the hydrofoil was night and day. Didn’t like the idea of a hydrofoil initially and was reluctant but it has 100% improved the low speed performance
12lb for me…stiff enough not to twist up.
I think I’ve been out 6 times since opener. Plan to take tomorrow off and also fish Saturday in the Hamm Room tourney out of Hudson.
Opener we caught 3 walleyes all keepers between 16 and 18 inches. The bite was slow on crawlers in the Hudson channel.
Tuesday night after opener we only caught 2 short <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes on crawlers.
Sunday afternoon (5/7) we did a bit better. We kept 7 with only 2 on crawlers and 5 on lead. We also caught close to a dozen short fish.
Wed 5/10 the crawler bite turned on. We kept 8 fish between 16 and 19 inches. Caught well over a dozen short fish. Released a 24 inch.
Monday 5/15 the bite was still great. We kept 4 fish between 17 and 19 inches. Released 2 that were 20 and 22 inches. Caught a bunch of short fish all on crawlers.
Tuesday 5/16 (League night) we were optimistic only to be disappointed. All we could scratch up were smaller fish. We measured 45.5 inches with our 3 fish. The winning team had 69 inches. The flow difference in the Hudson channel was night and day different between Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday night there was a bunch of debris on the surface that just sat there.
The new Hudson landing is top notch. You can launch 4 boats at a time. It sounds like it will probably close again due to high water sometime this weekend or Monday. No wake went into effect again today so that is going to suck.
Best of luck to anyone that can get out.
I’ve heard about this hamm room tournament before. How does a guy get in it? Not a big tournament guy but fished the old Koval tourney and would enjoy getting in on another 1/yr
You’re not gonna beat the Garmin 93sv from a price standpoint. Built in maps along with si di and the option of livescope down the road. The gt54 leaves A LOT to be desired on the side imaging quality, but for $700 it’s well worth it.
Sounds like you’ve narrowed it down to the transducer…on the bright side, there’s no shortage of brand new gt54 transducers for sale, cheap! You could pull it off the trolling motor just to make sure nothing with the way it’s mounted is causing an issue but my guess is that the ducer went bad.
He was using livescope (admitted it in another video). Pretty easy to tell the difference between walleye and bass on livescope. And if isn’t, it’s easy to see that you’re casting to the same school of fish and pulling the same 28-30″ walleye ought to tell you something.
And if you caught a couple 30″ walleyes on a jerkbait, you would just pack up an get out of there?! Never met the guy but know his reputation….just find it enlightening that nobody on here would ever do something so terrible.
Toyota 4 runner drives like a brick. My wife was in the same market 1.5yrs ago and test drove every mid size SUV there is and ended on the palisade. There is a reason the palisade/telluride are number 1 and 2 on virtually every review. If you want to go the Toyota route I would make sure to test drive the 4 runner vs Highlander…and then go test drive the Kia/Hyundai. I personally love the look of the Atlas but have also heard too much about the maintenance on Volkswagen product.
Agree with last poster JJ. I will fess up to not being a fishing gear expert at all but bang for buck, the Regal beats a President IMO. I have both and I”ll choose Regals as I add to my arsenal. Practical reels at practical prices.
Agree 100%. I bought a president a few years back after hearing the “hype”. I was not impressed. Daiwa regal for $50ish is a much better reel
I’ve watched video above – seen a few YouTube videos . Looking for real life examples Mississippi River . Doesn’t look the gt54 transducer is very impressive.
It’s not…..no pictures but I have a helix mega si and gt54 Garmin on my dash…The gt54 si picture is probably even worse than my gen 1 hummingbird was and not even close to mega si
I use summits system as well. For what you describe it seems perfect. No it’s not as sturdy as some of the others out there, but it is very portable/transferable and still works very good….Im able to run mine up to 3mph without issue, just need to position it so the pole is also snug up against the rub tail for a little stronger hold.
After going from a 6×12 to 8×17 ice castle, I would never go back to the 6.5′ wide. If you plan to sleep in it at all a 6.5 wide is just very tight. Would make a great wide open day house to fish in, but if you want to be comfortable with more than just one person it is very tight. Can pull an 8×17 no problem with an ATV and dolly….They extra week you may get with a 6.5′ wide isn’t worth it….just drive further north of that’s the case… Currently looking to move up to a 8×21 as the family is growing and toddlers need floor space to rome… but have fished 4 grown men in the 8×17 without feeling too cramped.
