AKRISONER

Dont overlook the idea of repowering a hull. Hulls on good manufacturer's boats dont really go "bad" much these days. Plus if youre handy at all, a lot can be done to make things like new again, seats, carpet, electronics etc can all be modernized fairly easily. Im running a 19 year old hull with a 2024 motor...the $80,000 that manufacturers are seemingly valuing their hulls at, the math aint mathin...at least not to me.

I don’t know about you, but after blowing up my Yamaha last year and searching high and low for a used replacement that made sense, I sure as hell don’t ever plan on playing $30,000 Russian roulette. That’s far far too high of a price to risk. i found it ridiculous that people were trying to ask $15,000 for a 2012 motor, but that’s the going asking price apparently everywhere. bit the bullet and now have a nice ultra powerful, effecient, reliable motor with a warranty. truthfully the technology in these motors that’s come out within the past 5 years is absolutely next level stuff.

i love to hear that big cliff is out fishing...thats whats important!

unless the pricing for the boat is close to a motorless hull, then steer clear. Etecs at this point essentially have little to no resale value. Also the stuff you hear about BRP making parts etc...i know first hand of someone running a G2 in 2023 that couldnt get a trim motor repaired unless they essentially purchased an entirely new power trim and tilt for 10k aka...scrapped the motor. Also those old Merc two strokes were a very different tec than the new evinrude 2's with direct fuel and oil injection. I kinda am of the belief that 2006 was the last year for all manufacturers of all power sports equipment in 2 stroke format where the motors could be considered reliable. once the EPA got involved with leaning out oil delivery it was essentially the nail in the coffin for two stroke motors. Which yes, with the modern 4 stroke motor being certainly more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly, had its desired effect. At the same time, holy cow a lot of motors got thrown in the literal garbage in the name of "emissions" my 88 suzuki carb 2 that starts every year without issue sure isnt in alignment with "throw away culture" I would argue its emissions dont add up to anything near what it would take to mine and smelt the metal or dig up the oil to manufacture the new plastic for multiple replacement motors.

was sure happy to have installed new AT's on my truck last week when i drove home from collingwood on Monday. 124 was closed, was forced down a country road, plenty of sections the drifts were over a foot deep. 4wd and big tires, no problem!

im still waiting to fool one of these fish on one of your high flies, had a perch attack on last trip out but incredibly did not get the hook somehow. More importantly though Im hoping to fool one of these whities with one.

Not sure what “the code” is beyond the fact that I didn’t speak Spanish and couldn’t double haul directly into 20mph wind.

a great spot, i have also been out with the operators son, was one of the best guiding experiences I have ever had. He worked so hard to put me on fish and genuinely was a really nice guy. Caught some fish, as well! Definitely a far better experience than I had in Cuba, even though I caught more in cuba...the guides felt like they were robbing me the entire time.

+1 for Paul Castelano from cast adventures if you want to go the Erie/niagara route.

I’m going to give the same recommendation of fishing with taro Murata on lake simcoe, or a lake of his choice. He will get you on fish and your kid will have a blast.

Weibe is the goat…full stop

30AH is way way way more than enough to power an echomap 95 for a full day. Especially in the warmth. for perspective, I am able to use a 24amp hour lithium with a 106sv and livescope in the cold for about 7-8 hours

just saw this thread now...RIP beans!

the cold snap worked, less fishing more hockey though

really really hoping this little cold snap will start to get things locked up around here on the bigger waters. Lots of back lakes are skimmed in zone 15...I plan on trying to at least build a rink on one of them. Who knows I will probably end up trying to catch a few pan fish for entertainment too at some point. Its my annual "will scott fall through the ice? Christmas tradition" so far Im on a falling through streak the last two years lol.

never mind winter tires, how many people are running on belted slicks or better yet...driving essentially without brakes.

Just saw a stat on the weather network, Saturday will be the coldest day in toronto since February 2023, and it’s only supposed to be -10

This is a bit of a weird one, like anything there is some inherited nuance. I run big (expensive yeesh) all terrains on my truck, my truck in 4x4 with those tires is certainly a hell of a lot safer than a rear wheel drive mustang with snow tires. My idea, buy one expensive set of tires that gets me through anything. my wifes crv? It’s got winters. as someone else alluded to…it would be criminal to make someone that lives in the Niagara region to get winters, they see snow on the ground 20 days tops these days. they haven’t even had any snow yet this year!

Lake Lanier, it’s not a lake that Chris Johnston is particularly familiar with. He just knew how things were going to be lining up to win the tournament. this is the greatest misconception about FFS, people think that because it exists you don’t need to pattern fish anymore. 1. It’s useless up shallow in grass 2. Fish have seasonal movements, if you don’t know that…you probably aren’t competing in any form of fishing. my clubs current angler of the year, is a guy that throws a jig about 90% of the time. the whole “I lost because of ffs” thing is a convenient excuse for guys that aren’t very good at fishing. Shocking, the best anglers in fishing including in my club and at the pro level, were still winning before ffs. the Johnstons have been taking everyone’s money long before ffs yes, you throw me on a smallmouth lake in September, ya I’m probably going to outfish you if I have FFS and you don’t. But i can assure you, im still going to catch fish even if i don’t have it. It’s not like anyone I know that’s decent at fishing is hopeless without it. It’s one of many tools in an arsenal. Maps have caught me far more fish than any sonar ever has, that’s for damn sure lol.

just to be clear, only some units...mega live 2 will not be supported on the helix series of units.

hate to break it to you...but its the same guys the current Bassmaster AOY entered a no electronics super tournament with a huge buy in...and guess what..he won

improvements will simply be range and target separation for the next bit IMO, the fact that Garmin has 2 transducers for different ranges...someone is going to fix that with the swiftness. Be it a frequency function change, or perhaps just a transducer that is a little wider with a cone selection, similar to choosing your frequency for side imaging for more range...or just figuring out how to stitch all of that together.

good news for the h-bird boys they are finally getting decent FFS...just catching up though, nothing groundbreaking yet.

Don’t run graphs on the same battery as your trolling motor, it will give you interference issues. You’d be better off getting a 10ah or 20ah lithium for the sonar.

Zaldain has the same deal going on his boat too, hds 12, apex 12 and a GPS map. I do have to say, wheeler's set up is horrific and giving me an aneurism. He clearly should have called up the guys at Geigertech but I have to assume he has some deal with Boat logix. Here's probably the wildest electronic's set up on the planet, although he swapped one of the garmins on the bow for an NBT during the season. Here you can see his bow set up at the final st lawrence event. https://www.bassmaster.com/takumi-ito/video/taku-ito-moving-into-the-top-10-at-st-lawrence/ New bassmaster rules now make Taku's set up illegal. Perhaps the biggest impact it will have is that "crappie brakes" are now illegal and no one is allowed to run livescope deucers off of their jackplate anymore. I could see this quickly changing though, someone is going to release an all in one deucer for sure in the near future. The idea of side scanning in live time makes complete sense. I also think that this LVS XR and LVS 34 will just be combined into one deucer with multiple frequency selections. I think thats basically where this stuff is headed in the near term. Especially because they are only allowing one FFS deucer on Bassmaster now. Dont even get me started on MLF..their zany weird rules are ridiculous.