Good information here, so a follow up question …. If I get home after fishing and put an automatic charger on (AGM batteries) until they show charged (green) should I 1) leave the charger on, 2) unplug it and replug it in for a half hour or so before I go out again, or 3) unplug it and leave it unplugged until I get back from my next fishing trip. Usually my fishing trips would be 1 -3 weeks apart, but would also be interested in advice if the next trip were in just a few days too.

Look at where the water is spurting up while on plane (mine was coming through the space between the hull and the transducer in the bracket). Wrap some electrical tape around the bracket… problem solved (until of course the tape comes off after a year or so, then repeat). I would think the spacer would probably work too…

Nathan, an alternative to powering the unit off is to just switch lakes on the smartstrike chip and then go back to the lake you want. To the original poster’s question, I haven’t spent a lot of time using smartstrike yet, but have noticed that it usually highlights many of the areas that I know are productive.

total: 13.9
BF: 6.6

FB&RM, can you please explain how SS is used/interpreted while anchored. My side images are not clear. Is there a trick to adjusting the settings to get better pictures or is it just experience knowing what to look for/interpreting the data differently?

If left in the motor for a long period of time without running it, the ethanol could cause some issues with the seals. You can add a treatment to the fuel to avoid problems. If you run the motor regularly (once a month or so), it probably isn’t necessary to treat it.

I appreciate all of the thoughts… Thank you! I do understand that I would be best to direct wire my locator to the battery rather than the fuse block. I also would still like the piece of mind of having that second battery, so I am thinking I will direct wire my locators to the deep cycle and keep the fuse block with other accessories tied into the cranking battery. Then I will just have to remember to charge the deep cycle at home, and if it dies on the lake I can always tie them into the starting battery. Any potential problems with this thought? Also, any other things I should check since the “chirp” isn’t happening before I start it up for real? I would hate to ruin it. What are the main things? Oil.. water running through it to cool.. anything else?

To clarify the charging problem… When my onboard charger is hooked up and charging while the motor cables and or fuse block cables are connected, a small grounding strap attached from the motor bracket to the hull heats up (current runs through it). It heated up enough to burn through a transducer cable. My solution so far has been to unconnect evrerything and connect the charger by itself when charging, but this is a pain.

Oops… sorry Mike W… I see looking back at that forum that you were a part of the discussion. Did you try it out?

Here is another solution from a friend of mine in an old post…
http://www.idofishing.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=equipment&Number=886112&Forum=,f18,&Words=cleats&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Main=885574&Search=true&where=bodysub&Name=&daterange=0&newerval=&newertype=&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post886112

I’ve heard of someone having a head get busted up pounding some waves. Maybe it’s just an urban legend, but my trolling motor now has a support. I got off cheap, though. I found a rail mount GPS (RAM product)holder on clearance (literally less than $3 – it must have been for a discontinuted GPS). I took off the GPS attachment and I used electrical tape to secure the ball end to my trolling motor. Works great!

Mine are always dry (2006 trophy), and I’ve been in a few heavy rains. Never heard of a tard roller though? Care to explain that expression… I kind of like it.

I have a large gander mountain bag, and it has held up pretty well. My problem is that it gets too heavy when I load it up with everything (jigs, plastics, sinkers really add on pounds). I think if I had to do it again, I’d go with 2 smaller ones. On a similar question, how do you guys stay organized? That is, what stuff do you lump together? Would you have just one box for hooks, sinkers, floats, etc. Or would you have a box for each species, etc. I’m looking to get better organized and kind of lost right now at how to start my system. Right now I have one container with all my hooks, floats,etc., one for all my walleye cranks (okay, actually 2), one for bass/pike, etc. When I want to go with someone else in their boat and not be the guy bringing the kitchen sink, I have to pick and choose from each box. Generally, I like to be prepared for multi-species, and I do like to sometimes just grab a smaller assortment when going in other guys boats. Any ideas?? Thanks

Is this for MN or WI? If WI, do you know the changes?

I saw the grey suit and was interested in it too. Do you think it could double during open water colder season against rain?

Wow, great job Aaron… I think the Nate you fished with is my wife’s cousin – I’ll have to ask him about it. Great CPR!

Terry

Nice job Aaron, I took my 5 year old nephew out on Sunday. We managed 7, but 5 five of them were about 6 inches, 1 was 12 inches, all o minnows. Trolled a shad rap and pulled up an 18 incher before left. Was nice to get out. On a side note, I may have lost a pedometer at the rod and gun landing in case anyone finds it. Thanks!

I believe this statement is correct. I have a 798 HBird and also a Lowrance next to it. There was interference on the Lowrance, although it still worked, just some vertical lines.

You might want to dig deeper into this option before opening your wallet. I seem to remember reading somewhere that this option doesn’t actually turn off the trasmit or ping of a frequency, just the display of it. I’m not sure if that’s the correct terminology.

Here’s some info for example:
http://www.xumba.scholleco.com/viewtopic.php?p=6188&sid=f77979b0bdf2331b2cc52a07d61018ac

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I found that tire size at farm fleet and etrailer.com. etrailer.com was cheaper, even with shipping.

Yes, I shouldn’t need it, but I wonder if it is a sign of some other problem. What would I do with those leads, just tape them up?

I tried a drift sock of the bow, found it hard to control direction, tried two smaller of the side cleats, but it slowed me down too much. Listened to Mike’s advice below, and could only be happier if I had a kicker. I just use a couple of light plastic hanging baskets, as I didn’t see the need to slow down too much. I’d try it before you spend any money. I also had a trolling plate on my old boat and didn’t like it because it was cumbersome to go from the up/down position (and I sheared a lot of pins forgetting to pull it back up

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$2200 is cheap insurance if you are stranded with a main power plant failure on any sizeable lake when the wind comes up.

Or the cheapest option to slow a troll — and it works just as well as anything else – a few feet of rope and a few buckets thrown overboard. Basically free.

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I followed the cable from the battery to the motor, and the ground seems well connected at the motor. I cleaned up the terminals/cables on the battery end. The cable (“little straps”)that gets hot, i just found, also is hot (but not enough to smoke) when the cables from the main control panel are connected to the battery. I looked under the console and I think that cable is securely connected to the grounding block, but it is hard to trace the cable to be sure. There is quite a mess of wires under there too making it hard to sort out what is what.

Thanks for the thoughts… I’ll just keep my eye on it and my fingers crossed

Thanks for the thoughts, I don’t really want to spend money on the tracks, nor do I really have the space for them. There are ranger style poles, cleats, stern light socket, gas cap, and snaps for something(side curtains?) all over. My original thought was right where Mark had his before, and I was thinking about how hard it might be to reach, especially crank on the right side (as you look back). I have older uni trolls that telescope out. I think I may remove the rod cleats and put them there when the time comes. Still open to other thoughts too… does anyone run a board across the back?

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The H-Birds have a map offset that can be setup if the coordinates are off some from the map chip ( not all mapping chips are dead nuts ). It is not unusual to have this with any mapping chip software.

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I don’t suppose you remember how to do this?

I would appreciate this forum too!

I had the same idea you have last winter when I found a 798 on sale. I have a 522 with gps that I can run and utilize the full screen on the hbird. One thing to think about that I didn’t is that you will see structure on the side imaging that you can mark by scrolling over to it and making a waypoint. If you are like me, you won’t take the time to transfer waypoints to the lowrance, so now I have two gps units that I need to check at times. Otherwise, it works pretty good, although I’ve seen an 1197 in action and it is a much clearer and easier (bigger) picture to see.

Thanks for this post Nick. I updated my 798 and it seems to have fixed the problem with reading in shallow water!

x2 on the high water. Tried pulling some cranks this morning, but spent most of the time taking weeds off. Lots of debris, including some big logs so be careful out there!

Thanks for that video! Is there a follow up of how to correctly attach the meat to the rig? If not, does anyone have any tips on how it is best done?

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I’ve been looking at your pic off and on since you posted it and I really don’t see anything that jumps out as to why those fish would be crowded around that crib and not the others. But we both know there’s always a reason.

Time to send in the divers.

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I would bet one fish thought it looked like a pretty good spot to “fish” for some smaller fish… then another fish saw that one & thought it was one to something… then another, and another, and before you know it all the fish are crowded around one food-less crib while the all the baitfish are chuckling by the other ones. By the time Mike passed over they were all too lazy to “pull up anchor” Nice pic Mike.