gnappi

I wound up buying the Promariner 3 but since it was so big, and had no status for the three batteries, i wound up returning it and getting a Noco 3 bank charger. The Noco is smaller, and has more a more complete status of charge states in LED form.

Where are you fishing? I'm in southeast Florida. I guess my experiences in some ways are the opposite of yours. We fish very narrow canals with lots of shoreline cover dipping into the water with lots of weed cover. They're narrow enough to make turning the boat 180 degrees a less than a subtle maneuver. Long casts don't happen unless we're in a clear lake, which is more the exception than the rule. On shore for me a cast more than 60 feet or so is unlikely. Even with zero line stretch I find long casts to be more problematical to get a good hook set, add to that weeds at the shoreline to snag the hooked fish in, and long casts are for me a non starter. I also fish with 20 or 30 pound braid (no leader) not ideal for horsing a fish through heavy veg. Like you I find snakehead to be weird when it comes to being spooked. While on my boat, they aren't very spooky (if at all), but can be while I walk the shore of a grassy lake, pond / lake other times they'll let me bounce a frog on their head and swim away like it was avoiding a pesky mosquito. So far I've not had a problem using my rear drag reels (11 pound drag) with 9-10 pound snakeheads, but I'm open to a heavier reel if I find I lose bigger fish, but then I'll only use spinners... I've never spent enough time with baitcast reels to want to use one, though I'm in the minority for sure among snakehead hunters.

This is my third season targeting snakeheads and my fishing buddy is on the opposite side of the coin. Like many he chooses 7'+ rods, our hook up ratio and fish in the cooler is about the same. When he sets the hook, he literally changes the direction of my 10' tinny ? Typically we spend six+ hours on the water so I don't think I'm missing anything that tackle can fix. I've tried 7'+ rods, and the 6' suits me fine. If I ever wanted more from a blank, I'd have one made, but not an inch over six feet. PS, if anyone has or knows of an over the counter (or net purchase) 6' heavy rod I'd look at it. But unless it's like my ugly sticks short handle, a L-O-N-G handle is a deal breaker. Money has absolutely nothing to do with it unless the rod maker is behind in a couple of Mercedes payments and needs to make up for a bad season last year.

Thx all. I ordered a pack of Gamakatsu 5/0 superline. I'm fishing 50+ years and never had a hook bend like the Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp 4/0 on this snakehead this last week. Then again, I've never fished for snakehead before last year and nothing I've caught in double or more the size / weight of a 10 pound snakehead that fight like this. I'll be better armed next week. Thx again!

I've been using Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp 3/0 and 4/0 hooks for many years, most recently on my frogs and this past week lost a nice snakehead because the hook bent... the first time in my life this happened. A buddy swears by the fairly expensive Beast ($4.00 each) hooks, but I was thinking of Gamakatsu or Mustad Ultra Point Mega-Bite in 4/0 which are both more palatable price wise. I'm not one to put a $3.00 frog on a $4.00 hook and in the dense stuff we fish in and lose one or two a day. So, anyone have experience with tough fish and the Gamakatsu and Mustad hooks above? Any other suggestions?

In the past my go to reels saltwater reels were Penn Internationals, but since I'm no longer fishing saltwater they stay in the garage. Freshwater my reels were the low end Shimano and up to a Stradic Ci4+ RD which is no better than my $45 models, all on Ugly Stik rods. Nowadays It's Daiwa Sweepfire 2500 RA's and I have no problem catching fish. The truth be told, the Daiwa is so smooth I have to often check that my line isn't broken, no higher end Shimano was ever so well done. I think my current three rods with reels were something like $70 each.

Ugly stick are pretty inexpensive so if you decide for some reason you do not like them, you won't be heavily invested in a booteek rod.

Nowadays I only buy and use UglyStik rods. They're extremely durable, available in strength and lengths no other rod is available in, with features also not found anywhere else. An example is their USSP601H. It's the heaviest action, shortest rod (6') with the shortest handle (8") on the market and I bought my three for less than $45 (each) delivered. For me it's the perfect frog rod for hard fighting fish like southern snakeheads in close quarters, especially on my tin boat. That short handle doesn't clank on my bench seat or my fishing vest, and the short rod is perfect in densely wooded canals.

That's a sweet little rig you have there Lonnie.

I started out as a kid fly fishing from stream banks and saltwater fishing in a wood dory, moved to Florida as an adult and had a 16' trihull, then later on a host of deep water boats. After I got the saltwater out of my veins I wanted a simpler fishing life and turned to wanting to hand launch a boat in places untouched by fishermen. My first was (there as was said so many on the used market) a used 1032 tracker. It was inexpensive, about 8 years old and had several rivet repairs, no biggie, it floated, was light and a good trainer to flesh out my needs and wants. But what it lacked was enough beam to have two passengers and gear with a reasonable amount of stability, so I looked to a wider boat. After putting every 10'-14' boat (I became flexible on needing a trailer) that is generally available on a spreadsheet for comparison I wound up with the Lowe 1040. Not that Lowe is "The best" boat, but the spec comparison proved it was the best for my needs. So, my "trainer" boat served its purpose, that being fleshing out what I wanted and dismissing what I did not need. So what I think you need to do is try your best to figure out what your needs are and look to a boat that checks most or all of the boxes. If you are looking to 10'-14' boats, I can post a screencap of my 2017 brand / model comparison which may help you if nothing else see at a glance what the 7 makers I gathered specs on offered.

Forget the gear, get the fish next year! ?

Power use on DF's is really negligible, at least on mine and there's a number of sites that refute the DF power hog issue. As far as handling two small batteries instead of one being problematical, IMO it's not. I started with a 27 and really needed a lot less weight, lower cost, battery redundancy / backup and more controllable weight distribution. I think smaller all electric boats are an ideal candidate for U1's. My GF's son has a group 31 battery (he's stuck with it till it dies) and once he saw that my instruments never died he bought one of the U1's for instrumentation, lighting, bilge etc. and he likely will never buy anything else but U1's in the future. If you're comfortable with the 24's by all means use them. I'm not trying to convince you otherwise, just to give you a realistic and maybe better option.

Yup, good point(s). I have a separate U1 for my electronics, I started out with just one, but when the TM got bogged down in weeds, or if I used a lot of full speed jump starts ? to 3-4 mph. The DF and GPs would crap out since the DC dropped to below 12 volts, the second dedicated battery cured that. I highly recommend U1's in a small all electric boat.

Why not look at U1 deep cycle batteries? My 35Ah AGM (Solar/Wheelchair/multi use) battery weighs 24 lbs. I get 3.5 - 4.0 hours run time in my 10' Lowe weighed down with a 50lb TM, rods, gear, electronics, cooler and my fishing buddy. I never drain it below 11.9 volts (40% charge state) even though I can. These are around $60 each with the 20% off electronic coupon. https://www.harborfreight.com/12-volt-35-amp-hour-sealed-lead-acid-battery-64102.html For the weight of a single group 24 you can get two U1's for a lot less money and similar runtime, and if you switched the batteries (run one at a time) always have a spare to get you home and / or run your electronics. So you know, I started out with a group 27 92 Ah (still have it for solar uses) battery but at 63 lbs it wore me down taking it out of the boat to hand launch it.

Most of the time staying in the shallows and waiting till the water warms up gives the best results. I've rarely caught them early in the morning like at sunup, and so far never in deep water. I use soft paddle tail shad, and some other soft swim / wiggle tail baits. I've taken a couple of bigger ones on frogs too.

Update, I've since switched over to the Daiwa sweepfire reels. They have stronger drags than the Shimano reels. Yeah the drags are not as strong as front drag reels but I for fresh water the Daiwa RD reel drags is more than enough.

Fish close to shore, P's don't do deep or colder water than you can find in 2' of water. Get to Wally world and get some different colored wiggle tail lures, I use blue, black and yellow but if one color doesn't work in 30-40 minutes, change colors. You may have to do that all day because sometimes they just shut off to one color that was just working. Until the sun is up and the water is warm you won't have much luck. They "may" take a lure early, but more likely than not they strike when the water is warmest. Anyway, sometimes casting straight out from the bank with the lure dragged into shallow water works, but I catch most casting up and down the shoreline in the shallows. They will also take a lure dragged past their nose if they're nesting out of wanting to protect the nest more than hunger.

If the bank isn't crazy steep a small Jon boat will have no problem hand launching. Muddy bottoms down here are typically very smooth on my DF, with only the odd branch or stump showing. Among some of the problems might be if the rocket sank horizontal to the surface it may have sank in the mud and may not present a sufficient profile to any DF side scan or not. Also at only ~4' deep the transducer beam angle of a typical DF may be so narrow that mapping an unknown area greater than 50 yards may not be possible at all. OTOH, I don't know the math, but I "think" if you could find the transmission rate of the GPS, and could guess at the rate of speed that it fell you may be able to narrow down the actual location rather than +/- 50 yards. But, that's above my pay grade ? At any rate if you were closer to me than the hundred miles you are, I just might take my 10' tinny and make it a recovery / fishing day ?

Weightless? Are you being funny or delusional? As I said, " I ditched the group 27 battery for 3 smaller U1 AGM batteries which I can remove at launch time and reinsert after it's in the water as with all of my other gear." They move my boat through pristine lakes... for over three hours each at up to 4mph with 4 rods, a tackle box, 2 fishermen, a cooler filled with ice, full instrumentation with DF, bilge pump, nav lights, horn, rod holders and more. My boat is so much superior to a yak in every measureable way any comparison is simply laughable. My minor inconvenience is loading it after dropping it in the water. You want to argue with that? I don't know why you are, but keep on ranting.

I've looked at wheels, but still use it as is. At 67 and not a big guy I'm not having any problems handling half of a ~90 pound boat. " My trailer is used only to drag it out of my yard to slide into my truck bed. " Actually, my previous statement is not entirely correct, since I store the boat on it the trailer also raises the boat above the ground so I can put the cover on it. ? There's very little to zero use for a trailer where I fish and until you have a small boat hand launched into quiet, pristine, mostly unfished waters there's very little positive I can think of about using a trailer. Especially on long hauls hand launch is a very positive direction... worry about flats/blowouts? Replacing said tires? No... bearing, axle failures? Nope. Trailer lights? No siree.. trailer electrical problems? All definitely no. Been there done that all too many times and at my age those are things that I won't tolerate any more. I've had boats that would comfortably be able to fish far enough offshore that you need a passport to gas up, nevermore. In all my years of fishing I've never had more fun than I do now. Your point about speed is useless if you can't get a boat with a motor into a body of water inaccesible to a boat with a motor and trailer, no? See me on a remote lake with my boat in the water, and another on a trailer and show me how a boat with a 200hp motor on a trailer not moving at all is better than a 4mph electric boat :-)

Good question(s) OP, good answers too. I'm on my what sixth boat and with most of them, like any financial decision I bought what I thought I could afford for the purpose I intended, and finances just merged with the cost. Much like having a second kid, the money just sorts itself out. Of my six boats, half were new including my most recent 10' Lowe tinny, the rest were used. A well cared for used boat for your purposes is likely a good idea, a friend who is an experienced boater / tinkerer who likes beer is invaluable ? Learn to use google proficiently

My casting arm is like a Fiddler crab from casting artificial lures all my life ? The few times I tried live bait both fresh and salt water I found it less than exciting... cast, wait... slow retrieve... Nah. Dropping a lure in the perfect spot, in a tree, or on a rock just seems natural, and then there's that oversized casting arm to keep developing.

I started out looking for something like a Gheenoe or a fishing yak which I may still get at some point but right now the Lowe is perfect and I'm hard pressed to change. This is my second 10' aluminum boat. My first was a 1032 topper which was way too narrow and unstable with two fishermen. The Lowe 1040 is far better. I stuck with the 10' because the 1236 Lowe is over 30 pounds heavier (and narrower) than the Lowe 1040. All of the other brand 12' boats are in general MUCH heavier still. I researched all of the available brands with weight, beam, and length as primary needs and made a spreadsheet for comparative purposes. I've kept my 87 pound 10' Lowe weight way down to make it easy to handle. I did not install seats, I ditched the group 27 battery for 3 smaller U1 AGM batteries which I can remove at launch time and reinsert after it's in the water as with all of my other gear. This is my third season hand launching and it's actually quite easy to handle. My trailer is used only to drag it out of my yard to slide into my truck bed.

At that weight it would tip my tinny over backwards.

There are no (AFAIK) and all electric waterways here in Florida, but I know other States do. I've had a number of gas powered boats, but my option in my advancing years to minimize my problems in life was to get a full size pickup truck, downsize my boat, go all electric and hand launch from the truck bed. The benefits (for me) outweigh the option of needing a larger boat and trailer. I can get places I only dream of needing a ramp filled with traffic, newbies, and dolts, I generally have zero competition on the water with other vessels (other than the odd yak and shore fisherman), there are more fish, the fish are uneducated towards lures, and it's deadly quiet... almost prehistorically so. And when I get home, I unload and I'm done. No engine flush, no gas tank filling, no engine problems. The only real drawback is the lack of speed and maybe size. But I liken an all electric boat to owning a sailboat instead of a stinkpotter, you're not getting anywhere fast, but when you get there you're so much more relaxed. It's also like owning a small condo, you keep and store things you REALLY need, not everything you want