TOXIC

And my old fuel oil system being forced air was rare in New England. Most had boilers if they had fuel oil. Luckily my tank at my current house did not leak but it had about 100 gallons of product left in it. We called a local fuel oil dealer and although they did come out and remove the oil, they made it clear it wasn't what they would normally do because of some regulations that I was unaware of regarding the removal of the tank. We also had to have soil samples taken after it was removed. Big PITA.

I have had both fuel oil and natural gas. All of the pro's and cons have been pretty well covered. When I lived in New England I had a house that was built during the Bay of Pigs incident and everyone was on high alert for possible war. My house had 2, 250 gallon fuel oil tanks in the basement and it also had a concrete underground bomb shelter and the house was built on top of the Artesian well head. Paranoia at its finest. The one thing I liked about fuel oil above everything else was the actual heat the system put out. I had a forced air fuel oil furnace. In the cold New England winter once that furnace kicked on, the house was warm in short order. The downsides were the smell in the basement (most tanks are exterior), the large cash outlay to get the tanks filled and of course having to fill the tanks and track your usage. There was more required maintenance on the oil burner to keep it performing at peak. That being said, my current house (built in 1975) was originally fuel oil with a buried 250 gallon tank but was converted over to natural gas before we purchased in 1991. They didn't disclose the buried tank that I had to have removed but that's another story... Natural Gas is what we heat with now and although efficient and cleaner, I have had to replace my furnace twice, I am on the third one. There have been more repairs to my "high" efficiency units than I would like. Circuit boards, flame igniters, heat exchangers, exhaust fan, and on and on...Just for reference, I am not buying budget units either. All professionally installed as well. I sure did like my old fuel oil furnace but that might just be a little nostalgia kicking in and frustration with my current setup.

Some of it is a "definition" thing, affected by regional or slang variables. The first bait that comes to mind when the term "jerkbait" is used is a longer (4 or 5 inches plus) bodied hard bait with 2 or 3 sets of treble hooks that either floats, sinks or suspends. Kind of a variable of a crankbait, bill size will determine where it positions in the water column. It got the name jerkbait from the standard retrieve of snapping or JERKing the bait although you can retrieve it just like a crankbait. Even the almighty Senko is called a soft Jerkbait by some but that refers more to the retrieve than the action.

Although I got the passion to fish from my maternal grandfather and my father, I have had only one teacher that gave me hard lessons and just rewards when I did something right. The fish.

That just looks like a healthy bass to me. Not overly short or fat. My point being that body shape also has to do with the environment as well as genetics. River fish tend to be longer and thinner vs. lake fish being round. Anybody who fishes Lake St Clair and Lake Erie for smallmouth can tell the difference between the 2. We can tell immediately when a Lake Erie smallmouth is in St Clair either by migration or by taking a ride on tournament day. They look completely different but are the same species. We call them Lake Erie Footballs and St Clair Toads. The St Clair fish are much longer and thinner as a rule.

We'd all be sick if we knew just how much markup there is in all aspects of the fishing industry. Rods/Reels/Line/Lures/Boats....etc.

And if I had to review it based just on that and not the app and other features I would have some serious concerns. I don't see how an outboard motor is going to "Charge" the 4 batteries in my boat on it's own. If I still have to plug in my on-board charger at the end of the day then this is really not a "charger" it is a battery maintenance system that has the ability to redirect the charging capability of my big motor however insufficient that may be. Am I missing something? I believe the Lithium comment was responding to my statement that it was new technology.

Exactly. or a bad bulb. First run the boat on a remote tank (on the lake under load) that will tell you that: 1, It's not fuel quality related 2, It's not fuel line Related If it runs like a champ, you have a problem with your fuel or lines. If it still acts up, you have a problem on the motor side.

I can only speak to Yamamoto baits but they put their Heart Tails in molded clam shell packaging and I've never seen one deformed. If you look at packs of Senko's on the retail pegs, you will never see any out of place baits inside the bags. It's part of their QC process. No bags of baits leave the factory with any of the contents not perfect in the packaging. I've been to the factory and all of the Yamamoto baits are hand packaged. If there is a bag on the pegs that has baits askew, it's because someone opened the bag.

Honestly, how many fishermen have to worry about draining a set of TM batteries in a days worth of fishing? I would venture a guess not many as long as they have properly charged and installed batteries. It's a nice convenience factor to see the details on your batteries though. I've seen that with externally mounted gauges and related apps. Then there's the "jump" switches to assist if you drain your cranking battery and there have been products that charge your TM batteries either from your truck or on the water from your big motor. The novel thing about this is that you can control the batteries that get the charge from an app or your graphs. The market IMHO is moving to newer battery technology and not necessarily on managing the batteries we have now. At some point in time someone is going to develop a solution to the weight/charge time/durability/longevity/run time of our current systems. Lithium may be the next "step" as soon as they can get the price more manageable but as of right now they are not on my budget.

Funny story, when I bought my truck new in 2016, the new truck sales manager is an avid fisherman and while we were out on the lot looking at the new inventory he asked me if I needed to match the truck color to the boat color. I laughed and told him it really didn't matter, what mattered was the PRICE of the new truck. Evidently a lot of fishermen are concerned about matching the colors. Me, Iridescent White truck, Black/Gold boat.

But now you're going to have that song in your head the rest of the day. It is a true story though.

Define "Burped". There's the "it wouldn't start or run right" kinda burp and then there's the "it threw a piston through the block" kinda burp. Hope it's not major.

Good time for me to relay a little story. When guiding, there is a rule that when the big motor is on every occupant including me had to have their PFD on. I had the added responsibility for the kill switch. Never waivered never allowed anyone to complain enough to make me let them out of it. I would always state that it was an insurance requirement (and it was). Where I was a little "lax" was if I was out by myself pre-fishing or fun fishing. The pfd almost always went on but I would "cheat"" if I was just going a short distance. Then one night I had a dream. It started out as a great dream. It was very early in the morning in the summer, I had the lake to myself and I was catching topwater fish. Decided that I was going to run from up lake to down closer to the dam. Since no one was out, I never took my pfd out of the locker. Put the boat on plane and was running full throttle on water that was like glass. Wind blowing in my face, shirt flapping in the wind. Got to the mid-lake area and out of nowhere I hit a wake that literally threw me out of the boat. Side Note: I used to pull a crazy stunt when I was young and stupid of jumping out of a ski boat when it was running full throttle so I know what it feels like. I came up laughing and then a feeling of total dread came over me as I watched my boat continue down the lake at full throttle wondering where it was going to hit (at that time I did not have a hot foot) because I never connected the kill switch. I woke up in a full sweat and sheer panic. It scared me to the point that I have never started the big motor EVER AGAIN without my PFD on and Kill Switch hooked up. My current boat also has a hot foot. Word to your Mother!!

If you're positive the population is there, they gotta eat. It's up to you to figure out what they want to eat. That being said, I would bet money that the place is going through a down "cycle" for whatever reason. All bodies of water have ups and downs. Keep at it and vary your lure selection.

If you stop and think about it, the different spawn times are like opening the Chinese buffet for those species not spawning. Mother Nature keeping everything balanced.

Do yourself a favor and don't spin yourself up about wind. It is what it is and if you let it get in your head, it can ruin a day of fishing. Lakes, especially big lakes are windy more often than not. Think about it, wide open water with nothing blocking the wind. You always have options, sheltered coves, leeward side of islands, creeks, etc. If the wind is too bad to fish the main lake, explore the other options and get used to having a backup plan (A, B, C & D). On St Clair we always plan for "Blow Day(s)" but we have a lot of options like staying in the bays where the cottage is located and even trailering to a part of the lake that is more sheltered. When I was guiding, I didn't have the luxury of staying home when the wind blew plus I had the added pressure of putting clients on fish. If I spun out every time I have to fish windy conditions I would have been a pretty poor guide. I have a motto, "Never Fight Mother Nature, Because You Will ALWAYS Lose" learn to work with the conditions.

You never answered how you were charging the battery. AGM's require a different charging profile than wet cells. Your original battery was from walmart. If you were happy with it, take the core in and get another.

I can honestly say that there's no feeling in the horseworld like being on the back of a thoroughbred at ears back full speed. I was younger and much lighter then but still outweighed the jockeys or exercise boys by close to 50 or 60 pounds. When we had a problem horse that they just could not handle, I got to work them on the track. I didn't especially like the English saddles and would always drop the stirrups down so I had better leverage when they acted up by doing anything from bucking, rolling or running off by getting the bit in front of their teeth. Highlights of my short career was to help train one of Foolish Pleasure's colts and to be able to spend some time with Secretariat. My daughter has been an equestrian for most of her 21 year life and currently has 2 horses, one being an off the track thoroughbred.

Having trained thoroughbreds early in my working career, that's not a bad strategy but a better one is to follow the jockey's wives to the betting window and bet the same horses as they do.

"Normally" if you want on-plane accurate readings, you need to mount a transducer in the bilge for a shoot-through reading. Since side scan and down scan aren't designed for on plane readings, I use my 2d sonar while on plane and it works well.

All I know is that if the cows are laying down, the fish won't bite. Thanks grandpa.

Been many a fish caught with a Shakespeare Ugly Stick combo from WalMart. At last check Ugly Stick was the #1 selling rod. In many cases the most expensive gear satisfies a need in the individual more than the fish. We all are more serious about fishing and enjoy our gear or we wouldn't be on a fishing site. Truth be told that if functionality were the only consideration, we would have a lot different looking tackle. I have a lot of rods/reels that many would snicker at. For example, I have some old Bass Pro Shops Pro-Qualifer spinning reels that have to be 15 years old. They have what was new at the time, called Wide Spool Technology that was developed especially for braid. The wide spool carries the braid better and because of the bigger barrel, doesn't wind it so tight on the spool. I love them and use them often. When I used to fish a tournament put on by Classic winner Woo Daves for all of his sponsors and to support a local charity cause, he would routinely use push button reels for a type of fishing he made famous....slop fishing and he used them to "shoot" baits up under docks. One year I took the wife of the CEO of Georgia Boot (one of his sponsors) and he gave her one of his push button combos to use out of his personal tackle. I put her on fish with that setup and we took second. Her goal was to beat her husband, which we did. I got a few pairs of shoes out of that deal!! As for brand bashing, to me that's just a sign of insecurity.

Is there anything else that is going to be run off the battery? What size/brand motor are you trying to start? How are you planning on charging the battery?

Your reel is overfilled. That's the major cause of wind knots in braid. What size reel and how much of what lb test braid do you have spooled up?