AKRISONER

this site needs more of this content! Great trip, and some great fish caught.

2 hours ago, BillM said:

Do yourself a favour and get EZLube hubs.   I'll never have another trailer without them.

Agreed, I like them and trust them better than any other set up including bearing buddies. You know the grease is going right to where it needs it

+1 for cerka as well

my uncle caught a 120lber in the 90's. You can no longer keep a fish that size. It was so big they simply dragged it home in the water.

had one fly over me while fishing smallies on Gbay, i almost feel like the pilot purposely adjusted his flight path to buzz us as we were a loan boat out in a vast expanse of water and he buzzed us.

7 minutes ago, woodenboater said:

thanks man ! it seems everyone can't understand why Humminbird doesn't have inline fuses preinstalled, like you alluded tom are they just being cheap ?. It's a smallish battery so *shld* be ok, but  inline fuses are cheap vs blowing something on the finder lol

also gotta say it's really nice seeing depths for wolseley bay (even the spots where I bent some props are marked as rocks lolol). heard the water is lower this year as well.

literally thats what it is. Humminbird products always undercut the competition but you end up needing to buy accessories to get it loaded the way you truly want.

lol this is actually pretty smart. I could see someone mass produce these on some scale for guys with the powerdrives i pilots

Remember the draw on a TM in heavy wind or in your case attempting to get back to shore is quiet significant. Were talking about high amps with risk of fire, sparks etc etc.

Heres my two cents...its always smart to throw an inline fuse on a unit. But im also guilty of when I hook my helix 7 up for ice fishing its unfused. You buy a Marcum ice fishing flasher...the power cables come with a pre-installed in line fuse, because thats the way its supposed to be. You buy Garmin Sonars, the power cables come with an inline fuse from the factory, because thats the way its supposed to be. Johnson Outdoors cut corners and costs on their products that's why the sticker price is always cheaper then the competition. This isnt me bashing them, I have humminbird electronics on my boat, its just my observation having two companies on my boat.

When my helix 7 is in the boat its definitely fused though, I installed the inline fuse myself. 

When wiring electronics in your boat Always keep your electronics on an isolated power source away from all of your other accessories (i.e. dont wire your units into your main BUS) Either buy and create a new one strictly for electronics (if you have multiple units) or just run clean lines with inline fuses directly to your battery. (this is the best way)

Wire everything with 10 gauge marine wire or 12 if the run is short, if its at the front of your boat from a battery in the back, run 10 and solder shrink tube or get waterproof crimp connectors at minimum to ensure everything stays nice and dry. The idea here is to absolutely minimize line loss, eliminate corrosion and avoid any interference from any of your accessories in your boat to ensure the best imaging quality.

I can assure you that in reply to this very post, we are going to have multiple people reply to it saying "I wired my units all into my accessory BUS without any issues!" ya...well ok, but its simply not the right way to do it and their imaging quality is degraded any time an accessory is running in the boat. You can find a pile of stuff about guys and their voltage levels when wiring boats. Its a very real thing, the more clean power your units get the better.

12 minutes ago, LefroyFisherman said:

I’m tempted to sell my 16 foot 2001 sylvan with a 40 on it for more then I paid for it back in 2010 lol! 

This is common, Problem is you sell now you will have to buy again. 
 

no boater wants to be converted back into a bank fisherman lol. 

That’s the game, the bass boat market legitimately sold out last year in North America. ask chonger how long it took him to get his skeeter.

I agree, I’m about a year or so out from buying a bigger boat and I’m just waiting for the right time to strike. Maybe fall 2022 as the boats get put away for another winter. I’ll be heading over the border for any boat I inevitably do decide on.

watching the used bass boat market in the United States, I’m definitely starting to notice a bit of a flatten/down trend in used pricing. Inevitably the boats literally couldn’t get any more expensive then they have. There is definitely bound to be a few guys around that ended up scooping up a beautiful rig and spent a pile of time fishing during covid that don’t have that time anymore once the kids start playing rep sports and the wives inevitably drag their husbands back out to social gatherings on weekend. Heck I even already notice a trend on the water that the weekend traffic has declined substantially since the lock down ended and the social gatherings have fired back up.

until then I keep updating my spreadsheet regularly, tracking prices on boats with japanese motors and waiting for the dollar to hit parity or the guy that got himself into a massive payment for a toy that no longer gets used. As always, the best time to buy is when you’ve already got a decent one to use, it allows you to be very very patient.

On 8/11/2021 at 11:02 AM, Sinker said:

In my experience, the fuse or breaker is the weak point that leads to problems. I removed mine. Straight to the battery. Zero issues for over a decade. 

 

S. 

Personal experience, my minkotta plug loosened, the wires began slipping out, resistance built up as less and less copper was making a connection, I ran the motor on 10 doing some autocharting for a period of about 8 minutes. my wire lit on fire and melted the insulation and my fuse blew. I got home safely. Was glad the fuse ended up blowing before the fire got bigger in the hull of my boat where I couldn’t see it.

those guys do such a crazy good job. One of the best taxidermy/replica artists in the world without a doubt. How much did that big ol girl weigh? 8?

2 hours ago, cisco said:

Sad and glad for you. Glad re the retirement but sad the business isn't still profitable enough to keep running.

With the looming economic issues such as growing inflation and such I would have thought that folks would hang onto their vehicles longer rather than buying new...... meaning more work for car repair fellows. 

Any idea why it seems opposite? A good friend started boat repair and is swamped. He also says people are happier compared to people needing car repairs. Maybe since boats/toys are not essential vs cars vitally needed. 

Perhaps another option for you Dan?

Marine mechanics require schooling to be above board.

although Dan with your skill set, I can already see an incredible amount of “side hustle” available to you.

you could easily find yourself with a pile of cash jobs for close friends and family. Heck you could probably make enough money just fixing peoples lawnmowers outboards and winterizing boats for a few friends.

Congrats on retirement Dan. Most retired folks I talk to always mention that they are so busy that they have no idea how they worked their whole lives. 
 

19 hours ago, Sinker said:

What are you covering it from? The sun? I'm obviously no help here .....LOL 

S. 

I was once told that the idea behind covering your outboard is that they aren’t designed for the wet road driving environment of fine sand and salt that we have here in canada. One drive down the highway in the rain and you all know the horrible thin layer of road grime that coats absolutely everything. 
 

a car’s air intake typically has a pile of bends/collection points plus a large air filter for this kinda junk, meanwhile my personal outboard has a small piece of foam before the intake and that’s about it. Hence, I cover the motor to try and keep some of that road grime out of the intake and engine bay in general.

Marine Circuit Breaker 50Amp for Boat Trolling with Manual Reset,Water Proof,12V- 48V DC https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07J5FBLKM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_i_BJE41QZDRASB0K7DAMTQ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
 

get that…I think 50 is correct. But you have options. Bass pro “brands” these exact same breakers and sells them for double the price.

if you are looking to catch a pile of dinks you cant beat a whacky senko up shallow. Also the afternoon is notoriously hard to fish on the kawarthas, the pressure, boat traffic and high sun pushes the fish into the abundant grass cover. 

The fish will always be in 7-10 foot weeds but fishing them can be really boring and miserable. 

The fish come back up at sunset though, they almost seem to appear out of nowhere and the topwater bite can be amazing. 

On buckhorn a couple of weeks back we fished a tournament and grinded out bites all day, we were frustrated and went to an area that we literally got skunked in during the pre-fish and tournament...sunset? We caught 10 decent fish in about 30 minutes all on pop-r's They were absolutely chewing.

Caught the biggest musky of my life in the river, plus a few more. There’s lots of them. 

Definitely depends on how much power you have.

also worth considering is how much money on fuel you will save with for example a newer four stroke vs an old two.

especially with gas at 1.30+

1 hour ago, DanD said:

LOL!

You should never force anything; just get a bigger hammer. I broke 3 5lb slide hammers trying to get a rear wheel hub off of a C3 Corvette. I then went and bought a 10lb; just like butter. LOL There's some crazy crap we have to go through in this trade; just to do what looks like a simple job

Dan. 

I always said, those car enthusiasts in arizona have no friggin clue what working on cars actually entails.

truthfully I feel like 90% of a mechanics job is just trying to get siezed bolts off of your vehicle. 

What lake did you guys go to? Looks like simcoe in some photos and Georgian bay in others!

nice fish!

Don’t run graphs off of the trolling motor battery. You are asking for a pile of interference. 
 

keep your graphs connected to the starting battery but you should also be keeping your batteries all fully charged any time you are not fishing. You may have wrecked your 3 year old battery by basically keeping it discharged for over a year.

the amount of time running On the alternator is nowhere near enough to totally charge up your batteries that have had two graphs running on them for days.

id personally bite the bullet and get a three bank charger and try out the old battery once it’s been fully charged and see how you go. If the batteries toast, lesson learned.

22 minutes ago, Sinker said:

A pet peeve of mine is when people talk about things they have no idea about.

Have you ever set foot in a starcraft? How about a brand new one? Smokecraft and starcraft are not the same hulls. Kind of like comparing a legend to a lund.  If you knew much about starcrafts, you would know they have a HUGE following, and last for generations. Hop in a new super fisherman and tell me about the ride. Blindfolded you would not be able to tell the difference from a Lund or Alumacraft. 

Talk to some big water guys with starcrafts and see what they think.  

Yes, I am biased because i have a starcraft, but I've also been running boats since I was 6 years old, and from one coast to the other, in every size, shape and configuration there is, and for the life of me, can't figure where you come up with a smokercraft is the worst riding boat ever. Maybe the one model you were in was a bad design? Maybe the operator? Maybe just a bad day out in it? I don't get it. Its a very bold statement to make. 

S. 

S. 

I own a star craft 🤷‍♂️ 

My best friend/tournament partner/fishing partner got rid of his 15 year old smoker, it was sinking, multiple failed rivets, felt like a car wreck with every ripple of water it touched. He never “beached it” or ever hit anything in it.

he’s in a similar size/model crest liner now, the difference is astonishing

i can assure you, neither the Starcraft or the smoker feels anything like the alumacraft I own.  Or the Lund my uncle owns.

deep creep, a blow torch and a sledge hammer...thats how we get rusted on rotars off when doing brake jobs...i hope Dan doesnt see this and tell me that Im a moron for ever doing this.