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Caught a musky while taking a break from casting, then when I am trying to catch one they get off, pfft!

Game changer

Smoke away my friend! So you went ‘big’ but going to drill a ‘small’ hole! I just purchased this for my BBQ, has the long cord that you may be able put the wire in the door and still close it.

Well if your wife is like mine they told you camping but are currently at a spa sipping sangrias...they are fine

The Anchor lock or Spot lock is a useful feature though!

Doug, my first bow mount trolling motor in the 80's was a Minn Kota. The thing was a Power Drive and it was plagued with foot pedal issues, but otherwise worked great. I thin switched boats and got a Minn Kota Maxxum 65 with cable steer foot pedal. That thing was bullet proof and would plow through any weed bed with ease. It was only 12 volt but had the Maximizer technology and was easy on the battery. When I bought my new 16.5 foot tiller with 40 HP Yamaha in 2017, my Wife convinced me to go with new technology and get the Motorguide Xi5 55# with 54" shaft & with remote control, wireless foot pedal, Anchor lock, and I can even control the thing from my graphs! So far, it is no match for the weeds like the Minn Kota was and I am on my third remote! The things just quit after a year or so. If I had to do it over, I would go back to cable steer and forego all this technology! I find the motor does the job fine on 12 volts though.

I get some real nice ones come fall . Buy when on sale . With the new smoker,I can probly do enough for the whole winter this fall and some for the folks as well . Yup,I am all giddy. That injection sounds interesting Smitty. Let us know how it tasted .

Thats my job. LOL Albert,put some oil or WD ,on the shaft and the rim area. Let it soak a bit. Over night if you want, that would be better . Then give the rim a few hits with a hammer all around the rim. That should loosen it .

Continuous thunder here a 2 good down pours .. Amazing how many people are outside watching the sky. Fear of mother nature has set in. Parents had that huge cell go over them this afternoon. Pop said it was really wild. nickle size hail in some areas .

I went wit the 40 Yamaha tiller for some of those reasons, gas tilt assist, tilt motor up with 2 fingers and the electronic idle control.

Funny story. My sister and BIL just bought a new to them boat. A 23 bowrider. They told me they were going to take it out on a test run out of Bronte sunday mid AM. They are new to boats and launch ramps. I warned them about it being prime salmon season and Sunday being a prime fishing day and that it would be a bit crazy down there. They listened, thought they understood, and went anyway. They now know what I was warning them about. I got a lot of "what a $hit show" texts from them. Apologies to anyone else going in and out of Bronte on Sunday late AM. We all had to learn some time! Try to be nice, and I will try to give some more advice or maybe go with them next time.

how long you got there partner lol Ive spent 4 years reading and reading and reading and keeping up to date with this stuff and even completing installs of Garmin and humminbird electronics, including networking them etc. At this point i could basically sell and install them professionally lol Ill add the ulterra although fancy etc with its auto deploy...is known to break...a lot The new generation of Terrova's have a spring load system that helps you deploy and stow the motor. It can get buggered up too, but its pretty darn easy to stow and deploy. The garmin force has a twin shock system that helps buffer and give you power to both stow and deploy the motor. The force is a cable drive style motor, big, powerful, and stows on a pivot vs a sliding shaft like the terrovas. They really are two totally different beasts and I think its overkill for your application.

to date I have owned A motorguide Tour cable drive minkotta powerdrive v1 Minkotta Powerdrive V2 ipilot A minkotta Terrova Gen 1 ipilot minkotta terrova gen 2 ipilot Garmin Force and I have multiple close friends and first hand dealings with Minkotta Fortrex Minkotta Ultrex For your type of fishing I would most highly recommend a Minkotta Terrova gen 2 with ipilot (non link) or if you want to get crazy a Garmin Force (totally dependant on your boat...please remind of me of what kind of boat you are running...this is a very very heavy robust motor that I would not suggest for any aluminum boat under 18 feet long. Having experience with all of these motors, Minkotta has very much disappointed me hence my move to garmin this year. Out of all of those motors, only 3 have operated without signficant issues/are now dead. The Foretrex The Terrova V2 ipilot and the garmin force are the only motors that have worked to expectations with the Garmin Force being literally on another planet as far as trolling motors go. You pay for it, but its by far the best trolling motor on the market (I havent used a lowrance ghost yet but my understanding is that its comparable) That being said...i think for the type of fishing you enjoy (judging by your past reports) an 80lb thrust terrova V2 Ipilot without a link is the ideal motor for you. You dont need the link because 1. to run the link youd need a networked humminbird sonar GPS which as a whole other investment and 2. the ipilot follow contours function is based off of the use of either lakemaster or a humminbird zero lines chart card which requires you to map the lake yourself. The Lakemaster canada card simply put...is terrible. Its honestly pathetic in Canada and I would highly recommend to anyone to not bother with it. In fact its so bad I would outright consider it dangerous due to its complete lack of accuracy. Hope this helps.

We got a good deal about 3 k 3 Years ago. The link feature integrates the sonar and the motor more. Allows you to follow lake contours... ie. I can tell the motor to keep me in 14 ft of water and follow the shoreline at whatever mph I tell it. Allows for more saved tracks and waypoints. Has a nicer remote. I'm sure it does more but I haven't taken the time to learn it. Biggest features for me are spotlock. Spot lock jog ( move in 5 ft increments in any direction while spotlocked) Auto pilot. I use it when drifting to keep my heading down on st Clair River as well as slow the drift. Also use auto pilot on erie and lake o trolling. We use the kicker for thrust and I set a heading on the hummingbird can dile in exact speed and heading and not have to have my hands on the wheel all day I actualy bungee the steering wheel straight. Complete gamecganger. Let's me fish instead of drive the boat all day.

The spot lock uses very little battery unless it’s very windy. Another thing you’ll like is the autopilot feature. It will change your world if you like to troll. I’ve heard of some occasional problems with the self deploy, but I sure think I’d take my chances if I needed a new motor and it was in the budget. Talk about a nice feature to have!

If you want mature fish and aren’t concerned about big silvers, the level best time is the last 2 weeks of August/ first week of September in front of rivermouths anywhere from 20fow to 120fow. Here’s a tip, at that time of year, the hooks you see hugging bottom aren’t always carp. If you want to be a salmon fisherman, set your alarm for 2am and be Setting lines by 430-5am. Your success will double if not triple. This is a direct result of water clarity and no doubt zebra muscles. Guys leaving the launch at 7:30am have missed the best fishing and should perhaps consider bass fishing as a hobby!

$100.00 bucks is $100.00 bucks..get a hold of them they should replace it. Probably broke before you got it 🤣

My Personel choice although i like the morning is couple hours before dusk when the sun is going down and it looks like the buildings are on fire in toronto (that of course is from a bronte perspective i use to go right to 75 feet and 45 down badda bing badda boom

Spot lock does not use much power I have never used more than half in any amount of wind. As Garnet says a game changer for sure

I have a Terrova with spot lock and i pilot. 24 volt and 80 lbs thrust I would recommend The newer ones have lift assist not self deploy but it is easy. I have a foot pedal but mainly use the remote. I use spot lock a lot avoid the anchor and rope i pilot is for GPS heading and i pilot link will hook up to a Humminbird and follow a contour

At 4 grand I would also look at the garmin force trolling motor. Best on batteries by far

Ulterra with I pilot link. Had it for 3 years no issues so far.

We have the auto deploy... worth every penny. Especialy in the rough stuff. I can deploy and spot lock from the helm. 19.5 ft aluminum we run 24 v and never run it down in a day. Running crown floor sweeper batteries.

Minn Kota makes a self deploy , the price will likely shock you. And spot lock is incredible. I've stayed with the cable steer so far. But spot lock models so popular there's many good deals on used cable steer . ! would suggest 80 Fortrex 50 inch shaft.

Sounds AWESOME Smitty! I almost never see pork hocks any more, and they are a treat......... Doug

So last week I picked up a couple of 6lb whole picnic shoulders at $1.99lb. One went in the freezer and yesterday I prepared the other one for the smoker. Took all the skin off, and Injected a mix of ginger ale and maple syrup into it. Then I smeared it with Dijon and regular mustard and then coated it with close to a cup of my home made spice rub. I also sprinkled some rub on the skin and took out 3 pork hocks out of the freezer that I had brined for 5 days a couple of months back. Many hours later at 3 in the morning in the big chief the roast had a nice dark bark on it and was up to 158°, the skin was all shriveled up and the hocks were finished. Today I took the roast out of the fridge wrapped it in two layers of heavy foil, added the half can of ginger ale left over and drizzled some more maple syrup over it. It went in the oven at 235° and will be removed when it hits over 200° for pulled pork dinner tonight. I forgot to take a pic of it out of the smoker but did get one before it went in. Looking forward to it.

Ha ha ha! good one! My new F-250 does not have this! I didn't want it. My Wife was disappointed, but I said the last two trucks had it and I never considered using it! No way I am backing up using a little dial!

We got clobbered by another vicious storm yesterday which was probably worse than the one last week. Nothing like what Barrie went thru of course but that's ...I think...the 4th bad storm in a couple weeks. My wife cooked up a beautiful roast beef dinner and while I was slicing it the thunder started rolling and as we sat down at the table on the back deck there was probably the loudest bang I've ever heard as the lightening flashed overhead, the wind started howling and within seconds the food was getting saturated as we tried to get everything back in the house. Woke up this morning and there's 2 large trees down nearby plus smaller ones on the ground everywhere. Crazy thing though as it was beautiful here all day and even when the storm hit the sky didn't look that bad. It was all good though as the roast beef dinner was fantastic even though a bit wet LOL

I have a cheap Shimano 4000 series I take down south. Rinse it off.