Further North

Thought you were in NC. As a fellow Wisconsinite...attach it to the seat...center is best, but front if you are fishing by yourself...

Which Motor Guide trolling motor? They make good stuff, as does Lowrance...but those 5" screens are gonna drive you nuts if you get serious about fishing...and you'd have more than $10K to spend on the upgrade... I'm a Humminbird guy, but the key there is to go with the brand you like the most. Ignore anyone who tells you one brand is better than the other...it's like Ford/Chevy...brand blindness does no one any good. They are all very good, it's best to focus on what you like. Most of the "standard" electronics and trolling motors provided by dealers is bottom of the price-list equipment that they charge top dollar for...for instance, locally I'll see a $40,000 boat with a MinnKota PowerDrive stuck on it, with a 5" or maybe a 7" screen fish finder... IMO, when you're spending that kind of money, spend a little extra and get good electronics and a great trolling motor, not the budget models. For example: You'll spend way more time on that trolling motor than on the big motor by several orders of magnitude...spend your money where you'll spend your time. Just my opinion.

Best way to get the bad small out of a boat is to leave Uncle Louie and his 6-pack, box of Slim Jims and bucket-o-worms back at the dock... Dude...I love the smell of wet dog. Brings back lot of happy memories. Well....you wouldn't have to deal with the smell of the dead mice any more...

That's a whole bunch less than the Nitro...and you seem to like it better... The price difference could net you electronics a whole lot better than a Helix 5....that's a tiny screen...bump that to a pair of Helix 9s, or 10s...or comparable Lowrance or Garmin units. ...No way I'd mix Humminbird and Lowrance on the same boat the way you've got it written above, pick the brand you like best and go with all the same. Upgrade the trolling motor from whatever bottom feeder they quoted to a 24 volt unit, and decent charger, maybe a Talon...

Right...all about the same as an extra car....Less, really, the insurance is cheap...registration is cheaper (by half), Gas is way less than a car... For me anyway...YMMV.

...or it was caught a few times early on and has learned to avoid hooks ever since. ...or a whole chicken...

That was the name of the Garmin system I was thinking of - thanks.

...and/or Hummingbird Side Imaging...or whatever Garmin calls their SI technology. Humminbird 360° helps a whole bunch, as does the Garmin product that looks out in front of the boat. I don't have familiarity with the Lowrance or Garmin products, but on the Humminbird products, you put your cursor on the structure you've ID'd on the SI or 360° view, and it'll pop a waypoint in your map. You still need to fish the structure to learn it's individual quirks and hot spots, but that's how I get started.

You have to hold tin foil or a Mylar lined snack food bag in both hands while you do it. I find that the old "YMCA" dance pretty well covers all the possible arm locations pretty well. Three times through while rotating 360° should do the trick ...that's what I do most of the time.

The fact that they are communicating at times makes it feel like an update-solvable problem...and HB is good about that. A thought I had this AM was that maybe the sequence they get turned on in has an impact?

That's my hope...But being a cynical guy at heart, I've always looked at "hope" as a bad plan... I posted the same question on the walleye forum as well. So far, all I've got is people who have the same issue. probably need to try an HB forum...

Intermittent weirdness... Brand new install, Helix 10 DI G2N at the bow using US2 transducer on a 2016 Ulterra, Helix 12 Mega G2N at the console, transducer at the back of the boat. I have a hub tucked under my starboard console, and a 360° at the back of the boat. Connections are tight, wire are in great condition. Sometimes I can see the SI on the Helix 10, sometimes I can't. The units are communicating through the hub as I have temperature reading from each unit displaying on both units (Temp 1 on the Helix 12 is from the transom transducer, Temp 2 is from the US2 at the bow...for the Helix 10, Temp 1 is the US2, Temp 2 is the transom transducer) Both units have no problem finding the Ulterra and the 360°. It's not that big a deal as I seldom use SI while I am at the front...but it's just weird and bugging me...

Nice rig, good choice! Enjoy it.

Battery box lashed to underside of seat. ...but I haven't tried it on my current canoe.

I've had two Maglite D-Cell flashlight since the 90s... They'd been relegated to to basement duty as all the new LEDs kicked their butts... But I've never quite been ready to toss them, just because I like them. A couple weeks ago, I got a bug up my butt to see if could find an LED bulb swap for them. Last time I'd looked they were either too expensive...or they just sucked. Initial looks where they replaced only the single bulb with a single LED...still sucked. I stumbled on this: My old 4D Maglite with the 36 LED, 1100 lumen converter in it. On a couple of flashlight forums (yeah...who knew?)...with positive reviews. You lose the ability to focus the beam, but at 1100 lumens, who cares? So for $26 delivered...I ordered two. They arrived Tuesday, and popped them in quick, waited for dark (fricking late here, this time of year) and tried them. They light up my whole front yard, or the whole back yard*...so I was right in thinking that the ability to focus the beam was unimportant. If I had more old Maglites, I'd buy more. Screw crenelated bezels, you can crush skulls with these things. *My yard is 200 ft x 300 ft.

Bummer. Want me to check ours? Shipping would be expensive.

I've never experienced the "Break Out Another Thousand" phenomenon...but I buy well maintained boats and take care of them well myself. I also do most of the work on them myself. I'll change the oil and lower unit lube once a year myself, replace the impeller on a regular schedule along with the water pump, as preventive maintenance. I'll fill my gas tank on the spring (call it $80, $90) top it off in International Falls (usually another $60), fill it when I get home (it was $77 last year)...and run on that until fall. I'm out at least once a week, often more. Generally speaking, figure about what it costs to own a car that is out of warranty. More if you are hard on your equipment. Batteries are much more than in a car (there are more of them, usually), but if you take care of them they will last as long as car batteries easily. I saw a boat not long ago that is 3 years old and is in far worse shape than my 12 year old boat. That guy spends a lot of money on his boat. When I saw it, it had a broken seat, the prop was all chewed up, the skeg was bent and the trolling motor was loose...I saw some other things that were going to be problems soon as well...but I've learned that he doesn't want to hear about them.

NW, WI - north of Eau Claire. I don't own one, but have heard good things about Kistler rods.

That'll work just fine.

Most of the rods in the range of the St. Croix Legend Tournament quality/price range are already gone. The best ones I saw at our local Gander a couple weeks ago were Kistler. Not sure why they were still there...might be that the locals don't know what they are...

Pretty slick video, thanks. My driveway is a bit above my yard, so that is my "deck" when I practice cast...which I do most nights if the weather is decent. The hint about timing the release was critical - that made all the difference in the world.

Yup.

Same here...since my decks are aluminum, I'll wear out the carpet before I have any issues with the floor.

Good move, IMO. ARs are a blast (pun intended) but if you're already using the boat more, looks like this was the right choice.

Spot on, IMO.