Further North

I agree with that, to a point. Not using enough rod to land a fish can kill it. Fine if you're going to eat it, not so much if you're trying for catch and release. An example: My brother was tossing a smaller Daredevle for pike a couple years ago and a 45" musky came up and ate the lure...he was using a medium light spinning rig, and it took us forever to get that fish in the net. We spent almost an hour with it after we unhooked her, reviving and doing everything we could to help her make it...she was exhausted by the fight. She finally kicked up a fuss and took off for the lake bottom at speed...but I was concerned for quite a while. There's not much you can do about situations like that...a bigger fish than we were after...but to take an ultralight into waters where a big smallie is a reasonable possibility could put a fisherman in a place where they kill a fish they hadn't intended to. ...again: Fine if they're going to eat it. Not so much if not.

I put this in the topwater topic...but it works great in fast moving rocky streams as well. I'll cast it above calm areas and let it drift in, twitch it, and hang on. In faster water they don't have a lot of time to think about it, so if a strick comes it'll be fast, usually right after the twitch.

This one: I'll switch to blue if I'm seeing a lot of damsel flies.

That's just silly...it doesn't do anything better than my EGO for 4x the cost... ...now that I think about it...the EGO does at least one thing better at 1/4 the cost...

Yeah...research before you plunk down your cash is way better than buying whatever the sales guy is pushing.

'Zactly...a big gear turning a small gear (high ratio) gives you low speed, but high torque. A small gear turning a big gear (low ratio) gives you lot's of torque, but no speed. For pulling things, you want torque, not speed. I exaggerated for the sake of illustration, but visualize in in your head if you can.

OK, thanks - I appreciate the info. On my current set-up I just use the front for 2D off the US2 transducer...I grab the SI and DI from the back, and the 360°...which seems to eliminate any interference at all.

Couldn't possibly agree more. I don't use the Boat Buckle brand, but what use is the same concept. I will not own another trailer that does not have them...or if I do the first stop on the way home will be at Farm and Barn to get a new set and they'll be mounted an hour after I get home...

Thanks, didn't know that. What was the deal with the trolling motor? I ran a HDSI transducer on my Terrova for years with no interference...after I did some detective work to hunt it all down and eliminate it. Didn't know there was a puck style SI transducer available.

Bow: Helix 10 DI G2N Console: Helix 12 MEGA SI G2N Trolling Motor: Ulterra 112 36 volt I also have Humminbird 360° Image quality on the new Helix units is insanely good. Note that the SI is "only" 455 Hz, on CHIRP, not the new 1.2 Hz MEGA frequency. Yes, that's three fish you see just off the weed line in the zoom box. No tournaments for this guy, I fish for myself, for fun, and I do it a lot. What units do you have to do this with? I've heard of this, but is must be the lower cost units...the Helix 12 and 10 I just installed this season came with the transducers they needed to produce top notch imaging. This really confuses me...what do you have to do with the trolling motor that you have to spend $80 and wait two weeks?

I've never met anyone who was unhappy because they had "too much power" in their trolling motor. Mick, the Ulterra is the Min Kota trolling motor that has power deploy. It also has power trim so you can run it up when you need to go into skinny water. The Ultrex is a sort of hybrid between cable steer and electric steer. Sort of the "best of both worlds and Minn Kota sees it.

Man...I'm glad I don't have to deal with those kinds of security measures.

I strongly second looking for Jason Halfen's stuff. His videos are very thorough and detailed.

I went out and looked at some of our local water... ...and I can't figure out how to get a boat on it to troll.

Made me laugh out loud... Keeping in mind that pike are my favorite fish, and by a pretty good margin...I agree with you 100%. I've been known to bring them to boat-side, horse their heads above the water and then drop the rod tip to hopefully give them enough slack to get off.

It is. Another good way to quickly search the pond it to run a small Mepps type or small spinner bait through the pond.

That'll work. I can tie flies, but I lack the talent and the patience to paint lures. Those flies take about 10 minutes each...

Humminbird is wrong. You absolutely can use the DI transducer strapped to your Terrova. People have been doing it for years. (Look up transducer shields and how to run the cable). The US2 transducer will compromise image quality: you will not have DI below the bow. That said, if all you want up there is 2D, it will work great.

You could try tying flies...

Yup.

Set the hooks like you mean it and keep your line tight. I land bunches of pike every year on de-barbed hooks. I loose a few too...but it's almost always something I did, like fluffing the hookset, assuming they hooked themselves, or letting them get slack in the line.

Be careful about that "on my level" thing...last time I counted I had 24 fly rods and almost as many reels. It can get kinda expensive. I wrote up an extensive evaluation I did with 10 wt. rods back in 2014, if I can find it, I'll post it for you.

Spot on here. I did this for years, it works great. In my case I found I wasn't using it and went to DI only on the bow, but I have 360°, so take that for what it's worth.

Waste of time.

Move the older unit and its transducer to the front, put the new Helix at the console and mount the transducer at the transom.