Hemi6677

I'm going to dig back into it tomorrow night to see exactly where the power wires in the bow run to. The console unit is directly ran to the battery.

So I pulled the trigger this winter and upgraded the electronics on my boat. Purchased a Lowrance HDS Gen-3 bundle with a HDS-12 and a HDS-9. My boat is a 1997 Triton TR21 with a 3 bank battery system. Standard two batteries for the trolling motor and one for the big motor and electronics. All batteries were Group 27 that are a few years old. Using my previous electronics I never had any power issues. But now that I have upgraded everything I am finding that power is lacking. My cranking battery was a Duralast 27DP-DL with 800CCA. I noticed the battery seemed weak when I fired the boat up on muffs at home a few weeks ago. But it would start the engine so I waited until I had the boat on the water to decide if a new battery was needed. Idling around with the big motor everything worked great. The HDS-12 worked just fine but once I had the big motor off and my HDS-9 on the bow running I soon realized some change was going to be needed. After roughly 45 minutes my supply voltage at the bow was down to 8.5 volts at which point the HDS-9 would start to have issues. So I fished the rest of the day with the unit off and always had enough juice to start the big motor. The HDS-12 at the console even with the big motor off would always read atleast one volt higher or more than the front unit. I had tied into the existing power wires that were ran up front for my old sonar and honestly I'm not sure if they are tied into a fuse block at the console or are ran directly back to the battery. If i'm not mistaken I think they may run to a fuse panel up front which could explain the extra voltage drop. I do plan on running them back directly to the battery before my next outing. After the initial fishing trip I purchased a new group 27 battery (Everstart...don't burn me at the stake please as I bought cheap just to test my theory) just to see if a new battery would solve my issue on running out of power so fast. Well, it sort of did. I was able to use the front graph for a little over an hour before the voltage finally dropped enough to start having issues. So, my question now becomes, do I need to really upgrade my battery type/size or go ahead and throw another battery into the mix and have two for my big motor/electronics? I've currently priced some Interstate Marine batteries as I get a very nice discount for them through work. I thought about going with two Group 27 Deep Cycle batteries as the current battery holder is made to fit those. Anything bigger and I will have to modify the tray plus add another tray for the extra battery. Or, do I really bite the bullet and add two Group 31 AGM batteries? Here at the specs for them. BCI Group CCA MCA RC Hours of Ampere Load at 5 amps and 15 amps Deep Cycle 27M 600 750 160 17.2 and 4.8 AGM 31M 800 1190 190 100 (does not break down into different amp loads) Obviously the AGM's seem to have the better numbers. But, does an HDS-9 and an HDS-12 require this amount of battery power? Or do I have something else going on. My NEMA network is ran to switchable power like it is supposed to be. Any other suggestions? Thanks, Jake

I have worn WileyX's with yellow lenses and loved them. Had the chance to buy a pair of Smith Optics with a bluish lense and they are very comfortable and work good. Next glasses though I will probably go back to Wiley's as I really liked them.

If all goes according to plan there may be two more boats and 4 people added to the festivities at Kentucky Lake.

Definitely agree with you there. But, with the purchase of the boat, taxes, supplies, etc.. that didn't leave much left over for new fishfinders. But there will be new Lowrance units on it next year.

Version 3.7 is the current version but that is for a newer version of the LCX-15. They had came out with a newer version which will take the 3.7 version. Mine is the older version and it will not recognize the 3.7. You have to have the 3.6 version they say.

Edd, you are awesome. Going to download this today and hopefully it works. I searched and searched all over the internet and never stumbled across that. THANKS!

Recently purchased a boat. The gentleman I bought the boat off of took his SD cards out of the fish finder which is an Lowrance LCX-15 MT, and then preceeded to reset all options on the unit. So this has left me with a nice fish finder but no maps what-so-ever. So after visiting the Lowrance site I have found out that I can not use their lastest update which is version 3.7. Older units like mine require version 3.6 which is not available on the site anymore. So my question is, does anyone have version 3.6 laying around? I would be willing to purchase a copy of it if so. Also, once I have this updated, I still need to load maps into the unit. I've read that I will need to use Navionics Classic map packs. I'm new to these units so I'm not sure what all is available. I was hoping to get through the summer with this system and then upgrade to a new unit for next year. Any help is appreciated.

She is a bluegill catching machine. She never has really bass fished so I'll have to work with her on that. My 6 year old is the one I'm really looking forward to go fishing with. Although he will want to swim more than anything I bet.

That was definitely an added bonus! Already have the boater safety course completed.

After years of mentioning to my wife (she probably classified it as whining) that I wanted a bass boat, she surprised me the other day by showing me a picture of a boat for sale in our area. After debating for a week or so I called the guy up and finally pulled the trigger and brought it home. It's a 1997 Trtiton TR21 with a Johnson Venom 200. The gentleman had bought it in 1999 and fished a lot of local tournaments. It has a few dings and scratches (which is okay because I do not have to worry about being the first to scratch it now) and the carpet will probably need replaced in a few years but mechanically the boat is in great shape. The engine starts right up and is as clean as you could ask for with its age. I've primarily been a bank fisherman the last 20 years so this is going to be a very big learning experience. But, a day on the water is still better than a day at work.

Went through 8 packages of Rage Space Monekey's last year. Caught a lot of fish on them though.

I've got two pair of the Wiley-X's that Abu Garcia offered when purchasing new reels and love them. I have a pair of P17's and the Zaks. Very comfortable and great lenses.

I currently use the BPS Stalker bag and love it. Holds a ton of stuff and slap it on the back and get to fishing! As for the BPS double sided bags I would stay away from them. I have the small version and the larger version and hate them. The plastic sleeves rip easily and on my large bag the shoulder strap broke and the carrying handle broke within 3 months of owning it. Not very good craftsmanship in those items. Definitely not BPS bashing as I love my BPS Nitro rod!!!

My head is buzzing with the amount of knowledge that is in this thread. Although I fish ponds and creeks 99% of the time this information is invaluable and worth it's weight in gold to any angler. I sincerely say THANK YOU for sharing this information. Now if I only lived in Cali, Florida or Texas and have the lunkers you guys get to see everyday. :-/

This is very much a hot topic with me right now. I'm 33 yrs old and have been at my current employer 10 years. I began here working as a temporary in a parts kitting department, got hired full time moving to a forklift and unloading steel parts trucks, kept applying for jobs internally and moved into a QMS position as a document control specialist and ISO auditor. Finally worked my way into our IT department as a software system and SAP security engineer. But, next Monday our company is going to downsize again and 100 of our 200 salary employees are going to be let go because production is a 1/3 of what it had been and the industry is down all across the globe. Yet while I sit here at lunch typing this I have a group sitting next to me that we pay (basically like contractors but they work for our company... makes a lot of sense huh?) that has very little management supervision plus has temporary associates working for them. They come to work late, take longer then normal lunches, leave early, surf the internet all day or just don't show up for work yet have no worries of being fired, yet when they are criticized for not getting things done they complain and moan that they have to much to do! Definitely makes me wonder how upper Management sees how things are really going at times.

I've been using the Original Chatterbait for a couple of years now and have caught a ton of fish on them here in Indiana. Earlier this year they caught me a lot of nice fish although my success rate slowed down with them as the summer came on at which point I switched to jigs and soft plastics. My favorite colors so far have been black and blue, white and red, and a root beer/watermellonish color with appropriate colored craw trailers.

It only weighed that much because it has a brick in its stomach!! ;D Very nice fish!!

I picked up a BPS Stalker a few weeks ago and love it. Holds a ton of stuff and is comfortable to wear.

Good luck Mottfia!!

Welcome back home!!! Hope you get many more trips with your wife! (Although I bet the ride home was rough being she caught the only fish) ;D

I just purchased my first ghost minnow and will get to use it for the first time this weekend. Was unsure about the color but it looks like it will produce!! Nice fishies!

I recently culled some small bass out of a 1 acre pond that is to populated. They were all 1lb or less and boy they tasted so good. Put a little batter on them and fried them up along with fresh okra from the garden (that stuff is awesome fried) and home made maccaroni and cheese... YUM YUM YUM My father-in-law is making me go out again this Sunday to cull more fish so we can repeat the process. I have two ponds that I have been instructed to cull due to over-population of bass and bluegill and I'm going to get as many as I can before the weather gets to bad.

Who else has this problem. You have fished for hours, hardly catching a thing but try as you might you just can't quit. Well, I had another one of those moments last night but this one turned out a little better than normal. Now before you read, be aware that I'm in Indiana so you won't be seeing any Florida or California monsters in this post! Went to my fathers 2 acre pond after work. It's come to the point that his pond needs culled of smaller bass as you can catch 1lbs or less all day long but 2 to 4lb'ers are few and far between. My neighbor has been wanting me to catch him some fish to fry all summer so today I was going to oblige him. A storm front was coming in yesterday and as soon as I got in my truck after work it started to sprinkle. Rain is a minor nuisance so I continued on with my plan. After getting to my dads I quickly hooked a couple small bass using an *** trick stick in Pumpkinseed Chartail color and Black Blue Laminate (love these two colors). Not long after getting those two the rain picked up and a very strong wind came in and the fish quit biting. I roamed the banks for another hour not having much luck when the weather decided to get it a rest and the rain and wind quit. I snagged another 3 smaller bass and decided that would have to be enough for my neighbor today. As I was putting my plastics away I noticed a neat colored 6" Duper Fluke had fallen out of one of my Armed Robbery bags. The color was Watermelon Clear Gold Laminate. I knew the wife probably wanted me home but I just couldn't go without giving this beautiful colored bait a try. After a few short casts to see how it swam I gave it a big chuck across the pond and slowly began a twitching/pausing retrieve when all of a sudden my line got spongy. Now I have fished this pond for 25 years and have caught a few nice bass but nothing so far has compared to what I had on the end of my line. Being that I only had one spinning rod and my plastics bag I didn't have a scale handy as it was in my big bag at home. I'm bad at guessing weight so I'll just let the picture speak for itself and hopefully catch and weigh it at another point in time. Tight lines and good luck fishing this weekend!