Ben

You want the transducer mounted so it will shot as straight down possible when the boat is resting in the water.

Let me ask this, would you throw several millions dollars in a lake just to keep from paying a small fine? I would make evey effort possilbe to keep the fish alive so it could go to a state hatchery. I'm sure Florida, Texas, California or just about any state, would pay mega bucks to have it, since they are all in competition to produce the next world record but just to release it, ain't gonna happen. I guess it should go without saying, I'm sure if your fishing waters that have the potential to produce a record, you would have your ducks lined up before getting into that situation. Several years back an idividual tried to claim the record but was not allowed, for one, they found he was cheating and two, the fish was not legally caught so they said it would not have been considered had he not cheated.

I've been mounting them on trolling motors for years and the only problem I've ever run into is with some of the variable speed motors is you get interference running in the slower speeds that will make the screen black while the motor's running. This is only on variable speeds, never had a problem with the 12/24 motors that have the numbered speed controls, other than sometimes they will make a spike when you start them. THere is some grounding and shielding you can do to help cure the problem on the variable speed motors but need to get with TM manufacture for that fix.

Aluminum boat. I would use 3/8 interior with exterior glue or pressure treated. If you can find some 5 ply that don't cost an arm and a leg, and seal it would better. Standard BC or CD will give a little when you step between the ribs but not enough to hurt. If it's going to sit out in the weather, you will need to seal the wood unless you use pressure treated. Ideal would be to use some heavy aluminum at least .060" thick but that might cost a little more than you planed. Pop rivets or short stainless screws will fasten it down, just be extra carefull drilling the ribs and don't go through. Don't use anything galvanized on aluminum, it will set up galvanic corrosion and eat the aluminum away from it.

If I remember right, a Star Craft is a glass boat. 1/2" plywood is more than thick enough, 3/4 would add a lot of extra weight. Hopefully, the boat has a couple of stringers running the length of the boat so you have something to attach it to. When you get ready to lay the floor you need to coat the bottom side of the plywood with epoxy resin to seal it. You can use a slow cure additive so the resin glues it down or let it dry and use and adhesive. When you get it down, lay one layer of heavy mat over it and up the sides about four inches. If you add slow cure additive and thin the resin just a little, a 4" paint roller works great for putting it down. Roll on a coat of gel coat with the wax in or spray a sealer on it so it will cure and it will last a long time. If the floor curves up toward the bow too much to get a piece of 1/2" to lay down, layer two pieces of 1/4" on the curve with resin or glue between them. Forgot to mention, don't use pressure treated wood if you're going to glass it in or use resin to seal it. The resin won't stick and will turn loose in no time.

Most of the locations you're refering to are normally fairly shallow, less than 10 ft. All you need is a cheap unit to track bottom contour and will show stumps etc. I saw a post where I think it was Cabela's that had a Lowrance X-87 (I think) with 320 pixel's for $150. That would make you a great unit for your applicaction. 320 pixels will show excellent detail and with proper setup, the gray scale will help you seperate hard bottom from soft bottom. Finding hard bottom is critical during spring spawn. This unit would work great down to 30 ft or more.

FL_Fisher, Yes, I run a 25 on a 14' jon. I've run it on a 1432, 1436 and 1442. On the narrower boats, it can get a little hairy, you don't make quick turns. I have no idea how fast it pushes the 1436, I've never used my GPS to check it. Don't even know how fast the Fisher is. I run those in the rivers and upper end of shallow back waters where I can't run my bass boat. When you get in narrow water, it seems like they are flying, but get in big water, they all seem extremely slow compared to my bass boat.

As soon as you learn it not a "bass finder" you will be a lot closer to learning how to use it. Sometimes you will be able to identify bass holding close to structure but 95% of the time it's used to identify primary locations that hold fish. For other species and schools of bait fish that are not holding so close to structure, they work quite well. You also have to realize what shows up on the screen is probably not directly under you, it can be anywhere in the cone angle. My next suggestion is not to run it in automatic. That's basically the same unit as my X-75's and they work much better if you use the manual setup. There is also a learning curve of determining what's junk and what's not that shows up on the screen.

9.9 will push a 14 ft jon pretty good with your load. Don't know about 25 mph but no you won't have to run WOT to keep on plane. However unless you're doing a lot of twisting and turning up a river, you'll find you will be WOT most of the time. Keep in mind, these motors are built to run wide open all day long, especially a two stroke, so don't feel your'e hurting the motor running WOT. On a couple of the small rivers where the state has a 10 hp limit, I run a 9.9 Johnson on mine and with over 300 lbs in it, you still have to slow down for some of turns. The rest of the time I run a 25 Merc and the little sucker will haul butt with that one on it. It feels like it's faster than my 16' Fisher with a 50 on it.

I don't have one and for my personal use have no need for one. They have the name a little backwards though, should be ski and fish because they are a lot more suited for skiing than fishing. Their strong point is they give a family man a boat he can take the family to the lake and have a good time, yet still be able to slip off and do a little fishing. You have to figure, a bass boat is pretty much designed for two people, the larger ones can seat three and are not set up at all for several people, a bunch of life jackets, room for skies, and all the other stuff that goes along with a family day at the lake. When it comes to fishing out of a F/S, it has a trolling motor setup and a front seat. I see that big walkthru windshield being in the way trying to cast toward the front of the boat and that front deck is going to be rather cramped for space. Also figure rod storage is going to be a bit of a problem. Performance wise, they are going to be slower than their bass boat cousin because of the extra weight and it being more foward in the bow. They still beat the heck out of my first "big" boat. In 1965, while still in high school, I bought me a brand new 14' Glass Master run-about with a 65hp Merc (paid a whopping $1,427 for whole outfit) for water skiing and having fun at the lake. When it came time to go fishing, I climbed over the windshield and set on the point of the bow with my feet hanging in the water and used a paddle for as my trolling motor.

For what little gas that small of a motor burns, I wouldn't let fuel consumption influence my decission. If it's a motor you're going to be taking on and off, Two stroke. If you fish federal parks, Four stroke, I think two stroke everthing are banded in federal parks. Cost of repair and maintenance, Two stroke Quiteness, Four stroke. However, a new two stroke is not going to be a noise maker. Right now, you need to cnsider either one a disposable motor and I would go with a reliable name brand. Four stroke technnology is constantly changing so parts will probable be out of date/no longer available several years from now on these early motors. Two stroke are getting pushed out and manufactors are dropping/discontinueing a lot of parts as they are used up. In this area, I would have to lean toward the two stroke. There are so many and the little motors have changed very little over the past few years, someone will be making aftermarket parts for them for a long time to come.

The type prop, boat weight and location of water pickup in LU determine how heigh you can run the motor. You don't want to go high enough to make the water pressure drop below the manufactures recommended minimum. You have to watch for that in turns also, don't want to be frying a motor. Three blade props will normally run higher than four blades. The deeper you run the prop the better the hole shot, the higher you run the prop (to a degree) the more speed you get. That's why so many that want the max from their boats are switching to hydraulic jackplates. The more bow weight you run, the more leverage you need to lift it so you have to run a little deeper. The rake of the prop, cupping and design play a major part in what height you run. Key points to watch for when playing with height. Don't let water pressure drop below min. If boat loses lift, it's too high If motor gains rpm without gaining speed, you're cavitating. If motor blows out in turns, it's too high The lower the motor the more the boat is subject to chine walk. A lot of these can greatly improved by having the prop tuned for the boat as well, if it hasn't been already. Just make sure you mark where it is, the previous owner may already have it dialed in and you are just re-inventing the wheel.

In the summer and winter I do most of my bass fishing in deeper water. I can locate bait fish in ideal locations with the sonar. Using the sonar to hold over them, we can fish and get few to no bites. Drop a marker, turn sonar off, wait 10 minutes and start catching numbers of fish. I've gone through this same situation many times over the years. I've been using depth finders since 1966 and have read all the research books that say fish can't hear a 192Khz signal, but from my personal experience, over the years, theres something about them they've learned to since and will shut down as long as it's present. This seems to affect them much more while directly over them than when off to the side. Before I totally came to this conclusion, I have been catching fish, turn it on to make sure the bait fish were still holding in the location and have the bite to stop almost instantly. I've never run into this with stripers, hybreds or any other species but I feel there's something there the largemouth in heavily fished areas recognize. So, about ten years ago I started turning mine off and using markers when fishing over them. The problem I run into with markers is, if other boats are around, a marker will show them exactly where you're finding your fish so I won't put them out then. Don't want to advertise my honey holes.

Never even heard of that motor but if it's made like the MG's and MK's the two things I would check are the top and bottom bearings in the upper section and the cable. Sometime the collar around the shaft that hold the bottom bearing up snug in the race will get loose and slide down, letting the shaft rub inside the upper section. Sometimes when it does this, the balls will fall out and you have to take it appart and replace the bearings. Over time, moisture will get into the cables, causing them to rust and get very hard to slide.

I know your pappy did it, your grand pappy and his pappy ran the gas out of his motor and never had a problem but unless you store the motor inside, that's not a good thing to do. You should drain the carbs and pruge the pump and lines. When you just cut the motor off, it leaves a heavy film of oil coating the inside of the motor. When you run the gas out, it leaves the inside of the motor basically dry. During night time cooling and daytime warming, metal builds condensation, when run dry there's only minimal protection from this condensation and the crank, rods/bearings can rust and pit them, causing them to fail. I've pulled several motors down that have done this. Every one was where the owner ran the gas out and left them on the back of the boat. It's also dangerous to do this on multi-cylinder engines because one cylinder and run out long before the others and not be getting any lube while the motor is still running.

I use a synthetic GL-5 that comes in the quart bottles off the parts store shelf. I have a pump I use just to add a little but since my gearcase hold 44 oz's it's quicker just to cut the tip out of the bottle and squeeze it in. I seldom have over a table spoonfull to drop on the ground. One thing is to put the top plug back in before releasing the squeeze, then release it with the tip still in the case. This will suck a small vaccum in the case so when you remove it, very little oil drains out before you get the next bottle in the hole. Remove the top plug again and finish filling, put the plug back in again before removing the bottle again. I don't buy the OEM oil because it's greatly over priced. I've been running a good grade Hypoid gear oil (GL-5) off the shelf for many years and have never had a lower unit failure. For the last ten of these years, these have all been fairly modified motors cranking out some rather impressive HP numbers. Current motor is a little over 300 hp. Oh! and I change mine twice a year.

With a fiberglass boat you can place the tranducer in the little pocket in the back for the drain plug and shoot through the hull. I just needs enough water to keep air from getting between the hull and transducer face, about 1/8" if it's flat faced like the TM mount puck style. For your aluminum, you will need a clamp on or suction cup bracket to hold the transducer outside the boat. For a depth finder, if you get those little cheap things about all they are good for is showing the depth. The pixels are just too large to show detail. 160 pixel is barely ok, 240 is much better, 320 - 480 will give you the best. The MK Maximizer or MG variable speed trolling motor will give you the longest run time from a battery when running at less than full speed. I would get a self contained depthfinder or have a small 20AH battery to run it on because both of these TM's can damage a depth finder if run on the same battery. I would not go any larger than a 42 lb thrust 36" shaft TM, especially if not a Maximinzer of MG variable speed, the current draw will be so much, you will get very little run time out of a singel 115 AH battery, maybe an hour at full speed. Personally, I would stay at 36 lb thrust unless fishing a big lake where the wind could get you in trouble. With a bigger motor in hard wind, you will only have a short time to get out of it before the battery dies. Battery size should be group 27 or 31. If TM only and needing it to last all day, I would stick with a 115 - 120 AH true deep cycle and not the dual purpose battery Wal-Mart sells. A true deep cycle will have the amp hour capacity rating on it. CCA and MCA doesn't not mean a thing to a TM. I'm not hung up on brand names, just so long as it's not made by GNB (which are sold under several names). For TM only on a large lake, you may find you need two batteries in parallel. Charger should be a 10 amp fully automatic, and not one of the cheap $30 things.

The proper way to fill the LU is to pump/squeeze the fluild into the bottom hole until it comes out the top hole. You don't have to pump it, normally it comes in a plastic tube or bottle with a tappered tip you can just stick in the hole and squeeze it in.

If bass fishing, don't keep and tell the owner you will release any bass caught unless he/she would like for you to catch a mess for them. Even if they don't mind you keeping a few, clean some and offer them to the owner. Any species you fish for, you should always clean enough to make the owner a mess and offer them to him/her. You will be surpised at the number of pond owners that don't mind you keeping all the small bass you want because the pond has gotten over populated with them. I've fished pounds less than 1/2 acre and caught 12 -15 bass, some very nice ones.

I'm sure that wasn't your only problem. I'm not totally convienced sonar bothers fish that are 20 - 30 ft from the cone. I do turn it off when fishing over bass. I have been a firm believer in that it may shut them down if in the cone. I normally don't run my sonar when fishing that shallow simply because it's not needed. I will run it in shallow stained water lakes I don't know or have a good map so I can locate any channels or cover I can't see. I've never been in a shallow water situation where I thought the sonar cost me bites though. I feel stopping and starting the TM or making noise in the boat will lock their jaws a lot quicker than the sonar in shallow water.

I don't know anything about those two, never used them. I would not buy one with less than a 240 pixel screen. You start getting less than that, and you will start loosing a lot of detail on what's down there. You might like the 480. As far as function, it works fine and the things about it I don't like my not be a problem for you. I never use one in it's automatic mode and there are some features in my old X-75 that seem to make it work better for my use. There's nothing saying when I get my next new Lowrance's they will have the features I like in the old ones. As you know, they keep updating them to make them more user friendly for the general public, and do away with some of the more indepth programming. One thing in the auto mode, the 480 uses fish ID as a default and I absolutely can't stand the garbage on the screen. I want to see what's down there. With fish ID that computer thinks everything between the bottom and the surface is fish, even thermoclines and wave distortions. That X-87 looks like it would make a fair unit for $150. 320 mega pixel ain't a bad resolution.

northgabasser, I guess I didn't explain things real well. The 480DF has both, the 192 and the 50 Khz transducers. The 50 Khz works better in deeper water because of it's narrow beam width. The 192 works better in shallower water because it has much better resolution and the wider beam width lets you see more of the bottom. Once you start getting over 40 - 50 ft deep, unless you have a very narrow beam 192Khz transducer, the beam with will be so wide, it makes it very difficult to locate what you're seeing on the screen. If you don't fish deep lakes, you don't need the DF is all I meant. As for cost, you get what you pay for. It's gonna be hard to get a good LCD for less than $300. As for the reasons I don't like the eagle 480, I don't like the color of the screen, I don't like the limited backlite control, (I do a lot of night fishing). There are a number of features the Lowrance units have for custom setup I like the Eagle doesn't have. I've never been able to get the Eagle's screen to be as clear and noise free as the Lowrance's and still show the detail the Lowrance units. Now this is comparing it to my X-75's, these are old units but I still like them. Since I use the flashers more than the LCD's, they still suit my needs. As for the Garim, the one I had, if you adusted it to get rid of all the noise and garbage on the screen, it also lost a ton of sensitivity.

Depends on time of year and what type bait fish is in the lake. In lakes with shad, you use your depth finder to find large schools near some type of structure, point, creek channel, humps etc. Bass will hold on this structure and have a feast. Just finding schools of shad in open water usually don't help much. If they are too deep for a crank, white tube worms and white of silver jigging spoons work great (something a similar color of the shad). When bream are bedding, look for bream beds and work a bream colored crank out from the beds. Bass will hold out away from them to pick off and easy meal. Find areas where the crawfish are plentiful, and you will find bass. Setting out traps baited with cat food late in the evening and checking them early the next morning is a good way to find areas with crawfish. Coves with a heavy crop of hydrilla or milfoil that has open pockets in it and plenty of small bream swimming around is another good location. Drop a Sinko, lizard or worm in these open pockets. If there's water above it, so you can work a jerk bait or top water is deadly. Just some of what to look for.

Basically, what it boils down to is: Use deep cycle batteries for trolling motors Deep cycle batteries are rated in Amp Hour capacity. The number of plates, is one of the main determing factors for AH capaticity. A group 31 can hold more plates than a group 27. That does not mean a particular group 31 battery has more, it's just the case can hold more. If you have a group 27 and a group 31 sitting side by side and they are both 115 AH batteries, the group 31 will usually have a longer life span than the 27. As the battery ages and the plates start to swell, (ever notice how the side of and old battery bulge out) they have more room in a 31 case to swell before they compress so much they short. Unless you're doing some serious Tournament fishing or fishing big TM only lakes, two 105 - 115 AH group 27 batteries will give you all the run time you need. Group 27's are usually cheaper and easier to find. As for mixing batteries, you don't want to use a lead acid and a gel cell. You don't want use a deep cycle and a cranking battery together. You don't want to use a two year old battery with a brand new battery. It's not desirable to use two different brand batteries of the same size, or use batteries of the same brand with different AH capacities. For the best runtime and battery life, always buy both batteries of the same make, size and AH capacity, at the same time. Never replace just one of a pair, unless that one died a very premature death. I always check the date code on the battery. If it has been sitting on the shelf for several months, I won't buy it. It's very common to buy batteries in the spring a store had sitting on the shelf for six months, because they buy bunches and don't sell many through the winter. I've seen batteries at Wal-Mart seven moths old. That little brown and white round sticker on top is manufature date 8 04 means it was made in Aug 2004. Some battery companies hide their's a little better and some code it, but you can always ask.

I have my spare mounted on my spare hub, which is has the bearings and seal and is held by the spare spindal. You don't go down the road with a spare in your vehicle, do you want to leave your boat and gear on side of the road while you chase around the country looking for a spare for your boat, or have a wheel bearing go out and not have the parts to fix it, I don't. If the spindal gets torn up, all you need to do is call someone with a portable welder, because I don't think AAA or AARP (if you're an old folk) will pay for a rollback to pick up your boat. Even if you call a rollback, what's the chances of finding the parts in some little one horse town you might be stuck in.