TheRodFather

Ok, so I just got back. I caught two 2-3lbers today, both on a drop shot with trick worm, both on a point in about 10 foot of water. Different points though. Both of the bites felt like a bluegill bite, tick tick tick, but I waited a couple seconds and then reeled into a light hook set. One of them I lost at the boat, stupid mistake, I should have used a net. The pleasure boaters were getting bad, and it was getting stupid hot. Thanks for all the pointers guys! It felt good to be the guy that was catching. There were boats on nearly every point on the lake, lol. I think I am going to start going to Jordan lake from now on. I have some confidence in a bait, and my ability to break down the water, Jordan is much bigger, and hopefully there is less pressure on the fish. Thanks again guys!

Open meaning I'm giving the hairy eyeball to the pleasure boaters when they fly by me :). Those two dinks were about 100 yards off the bank in 10ft of water, on a very long point. Like I mentioned, there is a thermocline set up and there is no life below it that I could see, verified on several areas of the lake. So I ruled out everything deeper than 15ft with my depth shading. Should I be looking below the thermocline?

I will explore the edges of the vegetation tomorrow. I have been working points and flipping shallow stuff for the last couple of weeks. Last weekend I caught two dinks, but they were in open water, so that's something. One on a chrome red eye shad, and the other on a dropshot.

So, a couple things here. The water clarity is terrible, maybe a foot. So I can't really see any beds. I have seen a couple males (presumably) cruising the reed lines on the shore (months ago), but for the most part, I can't see much of anything. The statement you make about the white bass, what causes you to say that? Purely a learning op for me, what is that telling you when I'm catching the white bass that would cause you to go shallow when for my target LMB. Does catching the white bass give you a clue to where the LM are? Ok, what exactly is desirable in your eyes? Flats with quick access to deep water? long tapering points where creek channels bend in close? Bluegill spawn means LM should be hanging close by looking for an easy meal, yes? As far as cover, nearly the whole shoreline is reeds. Still exploring the lake for things like downed trees, etc. Only one dock that I know of. Last time I was out, I could see a thermocline set up in about 12 to 15 feet. So I changed my map shading and only fished the areas above the cline. But still skunked.

In my previous home state, the largemouth fishing was very much like you describe. Small ponds and an occasional small reservoir were really the only places I had available for largemouth. I remember one day on a pond in late morning I absolutely slayed em (In my world anyway) on a luckycraft pointer in a bluegill pattern. Like 7 fish on 7 casts. That's a ton of action where I'm from, for LMB anyway, guys were rushing me to find out what I was throwing . After that day I was half afraid to throw the thing anymore, for fear I would loose it, since I couldn't find any backups for the bait, that's how rare that day was to me. But after I found some backups, I fished it several times after that and never a hint of a bite. Some days I would catch several on a fluke, another day a senko would get me a few. One day I would catch a couple on a spinnerbait. But nothing would be a "go to". I swear it was just a matter of me throwing something they hadn't seen in a while, and after I beat em up that day, they learned their lesson for some undisclosed amount of time. That's how the bait monkey got me. I just had to try something different all the time to get them to bite. It was so bad that I was superstitious about staying in one spot after I caught a fish, thinking they were so pressured (they were), that they would shut down when 1 of the 10 fish in the pond got sore lipped. Because that seemed to be what was happening if I didn't move and fished a spot I had caught one on I would just soak my bait and not catch another. But I digress, I have been known to over think things.......:) Now smallmouth was a different story, they were all over the ned rig in small creeks I waded, day after day after day.

If you are getting some part of your line making a hard 180 around the line going out to the rod, you have a backlash that wasn't picked out fully. Click the thumb button, grab the 180 loop only, and pull , then pull the line that's going to the rod. Keep doing this until you can pull line freely out to the rod, it may take several attempts. Then hold some tension on the line out at the rod, and reel back in everything you pulled out. Maybe tighten you brakes or spool tension some and make a 50% power cast, if all casts well, set your brakes per the videos others linked and go to town.

It's in better shape than the one I bought and restored. If the transom is wet it's a hard no. Unless you want a big project. If your not handy and looking for something "as is", you should have him take you out at least, but probably still a soft no. It's a shame, it looks like he did a fairly nice job on the work, screw holes are straight, nice cuts and spacing etc. I wonder why he didn't just do it in wood and carpet.

This thread cracks me up, we are a bunch of old farts looking at the "kids these days" and shaking our heads. Just like our dads did with us........ I can't stand to watch them either by the way. LFG is good if it's one of his, but if he is with them I wont click on it. Plus one for Fishing the Moment.

Ouch, that's a bit high. Doesn't sound like it can follow mapping contours with Garmin graphs. No power stow and deploy, no power trim. And about 1000 more than an Ulterra. What features am I getting for 1/3 more cost than an Ulterra? The wireless foot pedal is "neat", but 1000 dollars.....? I feel like Garmin missed the mark on this one. I had high hopes, having Garmin graphs, but I just don't see the value, the Ulterra has several more features, even after I factor that my Garmins won't ever communicate with it.

Dielectric grease on electrical plugs is always a good idea. Cant say if it will solve your problem, but it keeps terminals from corroding.

I like to fish with someone, but I have trouble finding people that want to go consistently. To be fair, I am on a level of dedication that no one I know (save you guys) is on. So I might go out from sun up to 4 or 5, or out at 6pm till dark, maybe not even catch a fish, my friends are not really up to that. They just want to go out for a couple hours. They don't see my perspective of all the things that go on with boat ownership, work, kids, etc. When I get a chance to get out on the water, I'm going to stay as long as I can. One guy I know wants to go out, but doesn't want to be at my house by 530, and thinks I'm crazy for having graphs, and more than one rod. He thinks you just go out and soak a bait and catch fish. Lol, I told him I would be happy to take him out with his ugly stick/zebco combo and he tells me where to stop and we will just start slayin em.........

Tough to speak to this over the internet, If you want to do it reading resistance, you would take the positive off the battery at a convenient location, and hook one of your leads from the meter to the wire going to the pedal/motor. Then find the wire going to the motor (after the pedal), disconnect it, and hook your other lead to that. Then turn the knob and you should see 5 different resistance values when clicking the speed dial to the 5 speeds. You could also leave the system connected to the battery, disconnect the power wire going to the motor (after the pedal), and troubleshoot the dial by voltage.

My guess would be that the little box you see there with the 4 red wires is a step resistor type of deal, where each wire has a different resistance value, meaning different amounts of voltage to the motor (like what's on the blower motor for the heat/ac in a vehicle to change blower speed). I might try to find which wires are going to the motor, disconnect them and read the voltage values given during each of the speed settings, which would test that speed "dial" component and let you know if it is switching through all 5 speeds. That third connector from the left looks like it got hot at some point. If you aren't up for that sort of thing, or don't have a meter, it might be best to take it to a dealer who is more experienced. Do not run the motor outside of the water (for long) it will get too hot and maybe fry something due to lack of cooling water!

The fuse and pigtails that were spliced onto the wire at some point in time looks a little small to me. But like Jamie said, find out what amp draw your TM has and size the wire accordingly. I suggest going bigger with the wire when in doubt. Going bigger will only cost a little more, and you won't ever have to worry about it again, or ever run new wire when you upgrade TM in the future. If you own a Tracker, they are notorious for keeping costs down and installing wire that is barely adequate at best, If you are running the TM hard, or upsize, the wire won't handle it.

There is a way to set the "timing" on the motor. This may be worth looking into. First I would check all connections for corrosion though.

Looks to me that the positive wire got toasted and the neg is fine......?

Glad you found out about it before the long trip. Bearing buddies are a good thing to have if you don't already have them. Most people think the purpose of them is to "auto" grease the bearing for you. This only partly true, they DO keep constant positive pressure on the cavity that has the bearings and grease, so they force the grease to the bearings. But the other main purpose for the positive pressure, is that when you drive to the ramp, the bearings will be warm, you dip the trailer in the water and the rapid cooling causes a vacuum (if you don't have bearing buddies), which sucks lake water into the bearing cavity, greatly decreasing the life of the components. The other benefit is they keep you from over greasing the bearings. If you put too much in, the grease purges out a weep hole and the buddy self regulates the pressure of the cavity. Just a couple squirts every so often to top off the buddy and that's all you need. I keep the grease gun in the boat so I know where it's at when I need it.

When you did the bearings, did you back off the spindle nut properly. Trailer bearings get "preloaded" differently than cars. The bearings on a trailer should be loose (by car standards), because of the large amount of expansion that occurs, so when they expand, they will be where they need to be, and not overheat.

Hey fellas, are there any known times to make large purchases on equipment, electronics in my case. I know about the BP spring sale, are there any others, after ICAST, I have heard prices will drop on previous generations, etc. I am itching to get another graph but would like to avoid seeing it selling for hundreds less two weeks after I buy mine

Yes. If it is a ground wire it would go to the negative terminal of the battery. Is this an aluminum boat? Does this boat have forward controls? (I take no responsibility for any smoke let out of your wires. People do some hack work to boat wiring! Who knows what was done, if you aren't familiar with electrical you may want to have somebody look at it for you before something possibly expensive gets fried). Best thing to do is find out what doesn't work, then start testing to see if it doesn't work because it's missing ground, or 12v. You would need a DVOM, or a test light can work if you know how to use it.

Thank you Jamie, lots of great information in your video, I appreciate the time you put into it. So I think I have a game plan going forward, I would like to get another Plus unit and mount that on the bow for now. My current 73sv plus on the console, and the plus I am about to buy for the bow, can be networked (share waypoints and look at transducer of choice) with a crossover wired cat5 cable, is that correct? I already have the tools to make my own cable/terminations, I will probably end up getting the garmin waterproof terminals though. Down the road, if I add an ultra unit and panoptix to the bow ($2000 plus $500) and put the second plus back at console, or if just adding panoptix to my two plus units $1500, I will ditch the crossover cable, and do standard cat5 cables from each unit to the diy network hub, correct? Thanks again for the help!

Hard to say, what type of boat is this? Console with gauges, etc?

What doesn't work on the front of the boat? What do you have on the front of the boat?

I have been fishing only Harris for about a month, trying to break that lake down before making a more serious effort at jordan and falls. We are transplants (just like everyone else lol), smallmouth on the susquehanna was my experience, so large lakes are a big change for me. I see a lot of guys netting bait and then fishing with that, so keep that in mind. If you are launching from Hollemans ramp, run a half mile or so down lake to the main lake point, there is a killer shelf out there that I see a ton of guys parked on all the time. Up by the rip rap bridge (opposite direction from shelf) on the way to the boat ramp there is a creek channel that runs under the bridge with a deeper pocket on the deep side of the bridge, I have caught some out of that pocket working the bottom. Lots of fish are in the reeds on the many coves with vegetation. I have had some big bites with a shad pattern swim jig with keitec trailer and a black and blue jig, just flipping into irregularities in the reed line. I have been cursed with equipment/user error and haven't gotten the 3 or 4 big bites I had on the bank to the boat, but they all jumped and were nice bass for sure. As far as fishing deep, I generally suck, and that is my goal for this year to get better at it. It's stinkin hot, so I have no idea if the main lake fish are scattered or what. That's why I am trying to learn to find the offshore fish. I have cranked deep, carolina rigged, shakey head, but no deep bites thus far. Seen some pictures of a friend of a friend that was catching 7-7lbers deep with spoons, but that was early summer. I am looking forward to later in the summer and fall, when they concentrate a bit (hopefully). I have talked to some locals and they say that Duke energy introduced grass carp to the lake a couple years ago and the carp have been decimating the hydrilla that used to dominate the lake. You can see them finning all the time in the coves. The local told me to look for the hydrilla to find the fish, but he said its all on the south side of the lake. I have only launched once from the south ramp, I have been focusing on tactics that aren't dependant on the grass so I haven't done much fishing on the southern end. Harris's day may have come and gone by now, it gets a ton of pressure because everyone knows there were (are?) some monster bass in there, and it's not a big lake by any means.