simek3ru

Total long shot but I was loading at Summit Landing at Lake Gaston on my way home to Northern Virginia this morning (7/29 @ around 9:30/45am). I may have left my Helix 9 SI G3N and Helix 7 SI G3N on my truck bed while loading things up and they fell off when driving out or near the public ramp. If anyone was around that area or is around that area and found these, please let me know. Again, total long shot but have to try. thanks, Jason

Thanks for the heads up. Is this still relevant?

@TheTripletDaddy - I heard the same on the fish population. Do you know if you can launch a boat yet? Thought I saw they were building a ramp?

I am currently looking at a new Helix unit for the console but wondering if anyone is hearing if they will announce new units at ICAST 2020, July 14-17? If so, I will definitely hold off to see what is new, or grab an old unit much cheaper.

Anyone know how the grass is in Belmont Bay near Conrad Island by chance?

Welcome! I have done several floats on the upper Potomac between Brunswick and Point of Rocks over the last 4 years. Mainly floating closer to the VA side, than MD. Although the conditions are amazing for smallies and what used to be really good numbers and decent size, just isn't there anymore. With the rain/flooding over the last couple years, the spawns haven't been good at all and has killed that stretch. I did my last float there this past weekend, really with perfect conditions of a rising river in the Spring, and only managed 5 dinks. Nothing over 10". I'd go Shenandoah River instead. Just my experience.

I am in the market for a new console unit with mapping and I fish a lot of the Potomac River. I'm curious to see for those who fish the Potomac, what mapping software you use? Lake Master, Navionics, C-Map? And how do you like it? I also fish Lake Anna and Smith Mountain Lake, but those lakes seem pretty well mapped no matter who I go with. Thanks for the advise!

Seems this is different than what was mentioned above. Sounded like Navionics couldn't do depth shading and only lakemaster could. Is this not correct?

Interested in this comment. I'm from VA myself. This is only for trailers with brakes, correct?

Thanks HBB. I was reading in another forum from a post in Dec 2018 that Minn Kota was going to come out with the Gen3 transducer as an accessory part to be able to add it to the head. Anyone else hear this? I can't find anything from Minn Kota on it.

Good stuff! I am pretty anal in wanting really clean installs of any add-ons, so running it up the center shaft of my Terrova looked like the perfect option until I realized lift assist might not make that possible. The video of the cable guard showed it to be a bit bulky - do you have that feeling now that you installed it? This might be my only option, so trying to figure out which way to go.

You took off the control head and routed it up that way? Does your Terrova have lift assist? If so, how did you do this?

I am debating getting a Helix 7 SI G3 with Navionics+ built in. Should I not do this and consider buying a lakemaster card?

Thanks guys. I'm going to test it out again over some known structure and see what it shows. I will say that electronics is a big learning curve. Thanks for the help.

I have the Striker Plus 9sv and also think the clearvu (DV) is giving me trouble. I always have 2D sonar up next to clearvu and get the below. What am I doing wrong here? I have never once seen a clear picture on clearvu.

Thanks. Sorry, probably a silly question. Where is the starter connection to check?

Hi, looking for some suggestions to my recent problems listed below. Setup - 2007 Tracker 175 Starting Battery size 24 (April 2015) - bow (old stock one) and console (Garmin Striker Plus 9SV) fishing finders and motor Deep Cycle size 27 (December 2012) - trolling motor Problem History from my last 2 outings: First Trip 1) At boat ramp ready to launch - my motor trim would not work. Electronics worked though. Swapped all my connections from my starting battery to deep cycle, still didn't work. Moved them back to the starting and it worked Second Trip 2) Motor stalled at idle at launch 3) After first run, motor would not crank at all but when I turned it to "on" position my gauges were active. Removed battery connections then placed them back again, motor fired up 4) After second run, motor would not crank at all and when I turned it to "on" position my gauges were off and I had no power. Removed battery connections then placed them back again, motor fired up again. Made one more run and it fired up after that when I went to head home. Took the starting battery out of the boat and went to AutoZone to get it tested, they said it was good. Not sure I really trust whatever test they do. I'm wondering if my starting battery is going bad or if I just all of a sudden have a bad connection. Could this be something else I'm not thinking about? Thanks! Jason

For those of you who store your bass boat outside and winterize it, when does it become safe to de-winterize? Do you wait until the morning temps (lows) are above 32 degrees? Where I am, temps are at least high 40s, low 50s throughout the day - but the overnight/mornings sometimes still drop below freezing. If I take the boat out this weekend for the first time, you think I'm at any risk for anything freezing during outdoor storage? I'm likely being overly paranoid...

Check out the Minn Kota Terrova in 12v/55lb

I own a 2007 Tracker 175 TXW with a 50. Got it 2 years ago as my first boat. OP, based on your requirements, you'd be fine with a 50. You're not fishing tournaments and not looking to speed up and down - it will still get you around 30mph which is plenty fast for what you described you will be doing. Additionally, I have a 12v 55lb Terrova TM. This moves the Tracker quiet well, and with the spot lock and auto pilot, I've had no issues in wind. As for battery life (mine are from 2012) - I've fished for 7 hours in wind, and had plenty left. Just throwing it out there to say, you don't need a 60/75hp and 24v TM.

Got back from Lake Gaston. Weather report heading into the week was pretty terrible but turned out to be a nice week with only a few showers here and there. Not sure if those scattered storms effected fishing but I didn't do that hot. I only fished in 3 main creeks and some smaller ones. I could only get out and do some "real" fishing 3 times during the week and the biggest I landed was a 2 lber. Numbers were pretty low too. I caught most on creek points and near grass. Since I only fished in the morning, I didn't do any dock flipping. I marked a lot on the steep drop offs in the 10 to 18 foot range but couldn't get any of them to bite. Although the fishing for me wasn't great, the lake was beautiful and would definitely go back.

Sorry to bring up an older thread, but didn't want to start a new one. I decided it was time to change my prop on my 2007 Tracker 175 with 2-stroke Merc 50hp, as my old prop from the previous owner had some chips in it. My owners manual says max RPM at WOT is 5000-5500 My old prop is a black maxx 10.38 x 14P - 3 blade My new prop is a Spitfire 10.3 x 13P - 4 blade When I was WOT with my old prop, I was running 28mph at 5050-5100rpm Now when I am WOT on this new prop, my RPM jumped to 6000-6100rpm and was still running 28mph I am thinking about returning it and getting the same SpitFire 4 blade but back to a 14P. My concern is that I was not expecting a 1000rpm difference in WOT with this new prop. If I go back up to 14P, will I drop the 600rpm I need? I don't think I will. Any thoughts?

Dumb question I'm sure, but being the first time boat owner, doesn't hurt to ask what others have done. This will be the first time I am leaving the boat out docked over night. I always keep it trailered and stored when not in use. I am only really concerned if there is lots of rain overnight and although I will attempt to cover it, should I keep my bilge on auto while it's docked? On a normal day of fishing, my boat doesn't take on any water, so I never (thankfully) use my bilge. Thoughts?

Launched out of Pohick Bay and fished Gunston Cove yesterday morning. On the water by 6am and by 9am I had a good dozen in the boat with a 4-5lber (couldn't find my scale for this fish) and 3.0 as my top 2. Bait fish were popping all morning, so thought top water was going to be very productive, but saw little blow ups and didn't produce. Ran a shallow crank in the same spots and started picking them off. These bass were chocking it too and had 4 cats hit the same crank. Caught all of them off one crank except for 2 fish off wacky. Might want to try crankin' Surprisingly there weren't many boats on the water but the weather was absolutely perfect yesterday morning.

Got a map I did some more research and it looks like primary patterns are docks and grass mats. Looking forward to hitting the creeks and have heard very positive reviews of the lake. I'll update when I get back end of July.