gnappi

I have a small tin boat (a 10' Lowe 1040) with space at a premium I have Garmin Striker 4, and at ~$100 it does everything I need it to do mainly: It fits my small boat, it's waterproof, has a depth alarm, water temperature, and it marks fish, grasses and underwater structure clearly. I have no need for charts as the waterways, and small lakes I fish are not on charts anyway. Anyway, It's bright, easily removable, and there's an optional cover for it to protect the screen for when I take it off the boat and put in in the bag with the rest of my stuff.

In the last two years (summer 2017 and summer 2018) I've had two alligators take my frog. I've also caught bats fly fishing in the Catskills

Ribbit frogs. Depending on retrieve technique, nothing else I've used attracts more species in So. Flo. I have to ask though... You "SEE" LMB swimming near the surface in those canals? I never have. Oh, I'm using the 6' heavy Uglystik (USSP601H) rods with 20 lb black 4 strand braid exclusively now. It has a short handle that doesn't whack my tin boat bench seat or my fishing vest when casting, its 6' length is handy when fishing from the shoreline with lots of brush and low scrubby trees and the rod stiffness is up to the task of any LMB, snakehead or Peacock alive. Add to that I got my three on Feebay for less than $50 each delivered, they're the best rods I own.

I took 6 years of magic at Hogwarts. You'll notice the Earth is sideways also... it's an artifact of this type of levitation. Old folks fell down around there too.

The usual places for snakeheads were barren, so moving on I found a few little bass from 1 to 2 lbs hungry. On the down side the peacocks make themselves scarce but as long as the LMB are taking lures I'm happy. This one was ~two pounds, caught with a frog.

I don't know why the jpg is uploading blurry, it's not blurry on my end... sorry. I tried to upload it in a gif format in 256 colors but the file will not upload. If anyone wants a clear image PM me with an Email addy and I'll send it to you.

Old threads never die when the content is usable. The OP didn't say what their needs were, size, cargo capacity, beam, and engine size needed which are I found important to make a better decision. I mostly hand launch (Electric only) from my pickup bed, and my first tin boat was a used Tracker 1032 and I liked it fine. Using the Tracker for one season fleshed out my needs beyond needing hand launching. The problems with it were while carrying two passengers and gear it was squirrely unstable, standing up to fish was to me a perilous undertaking, and its load capacity was on the skinny side so I looked for a 10 footer that was wider and wound up with a new Lowe 1040. It has more of what I need, (cargo / weight capacity, and wider beam) it's not a better boat it's just a better fit for me. At any rate, there are probably 10 to 1 more Tracker boats on the water compared to other brands, for good reasons... they're available (which some brands are not), and reliable. The thing deciding one brand over another is (to me) more about about specs than brand because when it comes down to it every boat has things about it that some do not like. When I finally fleshed out my needs, I genned up a spreadsheet with features of most of the 10-14' tin boats available in 2017, maybe it will help others out making a decision.

If you may occasionally want to carry live bait like I do once a year. The Flambeau insulated 5 gallon (actually holds 2.25 gallons of water ) works for me. It can also use a standard 5 gallon bucket "tool wrapper" to store quick grab stuff like pliers bait dip net etc. Its only drawback is some fishermen try to pull the styrofoam insert up by a rope and crack the foam because Flambeau doesn't show how to use it. On mine I made a 1/4" plywood base, and ran a thin poly line under the bucket liner through the side races. No way the liner will crack then.

The water down here is not very deep on the lakes I fish, ~20' or so is most often the max, and I can't recall pinging a hole deeper than 30' or so. My FF marks lots of fish (or debris) at depth but many fish are in shallower water we target them. As a bonus the peacocks are there with the LMB so we get more than our fair share of action. Snakeheads generally ignore the baits we throw for bass (unless we're throwing frogs) we can target what we want. My fishing bud and I have been talking about spending a few days at depth so I'm reading this thread with a glimmer of hope at success for when we do.

We have snakehead tournaments down here for the express purpose of killing them. Releasing a non native and allowing a species that doesn't belong here is stupid. OTOH calling others who remove non natives ignorant is unworthy of an acidic comment.

So that's a pretty broad brush stroke. Some Mosquitos are not native to the U.S that cause viral infections in humans, so it's OK to kill insects? Where to draw the line? Kill insects because the new introduction directly affects humans but it's OK if native species of animals are displaced because somebody could not kill a tank pet and released them into an ecosystem not adapted to handle the introduction? Sorry that mindset is surely misplaced, and it all starts because people with a like mind released exotics in the first place.

Well down here there are waterways where the LMB are gone where snakeheads never were but are there now in abundance. ? Gars are protected in Florida by law, so killing them is a bad idea, vultures, racoons, bears and Florida panthers do and will eat carrion. I will feed them all I can.

Yesterday (10-20-2018) My fishing buddy and I hit a lake only reachable by hand launch and very limited walking area due to the majority of the lake being posted by commercial companies, and he took some 5 snakeheads (SH) home to fillet. I've read that some anglers just will not remove (SH) they catch from waterways, I guess they're expecting the fish stock of LMB to stay as it is across their southern range where SH inhabit. Wrong. The pic attached is a 2"-3" LMB from the stomach of a 4-5 pound SH. Maybe eradicating SH down here is no longer possible but I know for sure there are a number of little bass and other desirable species that will live because we took 5 SH from that lake.

You didn't say how long your rod is but I guess it's 7'-7.5' and an ~10-11" handle is about right. My 6' heavy action Ugly stik handle is 7 1/2" from the back of the reel seat. My 7 foot med/heavy is 12" long from the reel seat and it's more unwieldy fore and aft for me. The 6' heavy rods just balance much better and my casting arm isn't nearly as tired after a whole day fishing with the shorter rods, and the short handle never crashes into my fishing vest pocket. A major plus for sure. Anyway, the two 6' ugly stiks came in and they're going into the rack as spares in case the one I'm using bombs out. Before I "discovered" them I was looking at St. Croix, and KastKing rods or even going custom but disregarded it all for the ugly sticks. Even though the ugly sticks weigh a bit more than the 7' Med/hvy rod by a couple of ounces, I like them far better.

I may have seen one, maybe not...I saw something like it on the interstate, but assumed it was a home made wind power generator ? I did get to look it up, thanks and some of it is making no sense to me. They "say" you can charge while underway, on a yak? With a 45 watt (or two 45 watt / 18volt most likely in series for the high voltage) solar cell? A single 45 watt / 18v solar cell with current tech is going to be pretty big (~26" square) unless they had a breakthrough in solar cell technology to get the size down and the voltage up that high. Anyway, it's Waaayyyy too rich for my blood at $2,300 and $600 and $900 for a spare battery. It makes the LifePO 38120S 10Ah or 40152S 15Ah cells look downright cheap, and I don't think you get the charger with it? If you have done it, how many of the 4 cell arrays have you parallel jumpered? Are you making your own or have you found jumper kits? What charger are you using that the LifePO charge profile? I read that you "can" from (powerstream.com) "Nevertheless, it is common to charge a 12 volt a 4-cell series pack with a lead acid battery charger" Your experiments are very cool keep me / us up to date on what you're finding.

I'm in the walk upstream camp. I never fished downstream except for at the spot where I entered the stream.

Very cool Harold, I'm not trying to be confrontational, I have looked at LifePO4 technology with interest and I have more Q's than answers for boating applications on which info is not readily available so don't get offended by my Q's / comments. You are right, LifePO4 is a bit expensive to get current from compared to an AGM battery and like you suggested it may take a while to get the prices down. But with ~2000 charge cycles that's gonna be an option real soon if not already for some. Are those cells in your pic the 38120S 10Ah or 40152S 15Ah? For a house battery (electronics, lights etc.) that's not too terribly expensive ($100 to $160) and the four cells (either one above) should do that with less weight and used space than many AGM out there to run everything except the TM. Your problem may be the TM. I figure to match anything similar to even a small 35Ah AGM battery which runs my 50 lb TM for between 3 and 4 hours (separate battery for the house), you'll have to put a 3 or 4 ($300 or $400) 38120S packs or two or three ($320 or $480) 40152S in parallel to run a TM an equivalent or slightly more amount of time? That's not very expensive (IMO) for an all electric boat at all. Of course the boat, passenger, cargo weight and thrust of the TM come into play, I used my boat for reference as it's an all electric 10' Lowe. Have you found a commercial charger charge the LifePO4 battery packs?

I think that most experts say you can eat some limited amounts of most freshwater fish in Florida, see: http://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/health/mercury/human-health-advisories/ https://dchpexternalapps.doh.state.fl.us/fishadvisory/ I do eat a couple of fish (bass and peacocks) per year, but by and large I release most except snakeheads (SH) which I either kill or eat a couple per year. Not much is known about SH, but I read that they grow much faster than LMB so they may be better to eat than LMB which grow slower and accumulate more toxins in their flesh over time.

Fishingmickey is 100%right, as long as the battery stays at (or above) 12 volts (~50% capacity) your electronics will work. Your voltage readings are very low. BTW, from the bulk of what I read draining them to below 11.9 or so shortens their life substantially. I used to keep my electronics on the same battery as my trolling motor and every time I goosed the TM or bogged down in weeds the electronics would crap out. Since you're on a house battery like I am, to keep the battery up longer use only LED lighting because they use far less power than filament lamps, charge phones at home (cell chargers can take 2+ amp charge rates) and if you're a vape smoker charge them at home also. I guess you're charging more than one battery at home / on the dock and you did not mention how old the batteries are or what type of charger you're using? All important to know because different battery technologies need differing charge profiles and one battery can be getting an insufficient charge while another boils away or charges just fine.

After writing the comments above, I took a look at my rod rack and noted that there was only one other rod I rarely use which is a 7' med/hvy and I broke down this morning and ordered two more of the 6' heavy Ugly Stik rods. I also realized another benefit of the shorter rod, it actually does fit in the rear cab of my truck without bending it worrying if it will spring open and get caught in a closing door which has happened in the past ?

I have one of these ugly stick USSP601H (18-20 lb line up to a 1 oz. lure) rods and I bought it because it is one piece, has a heavy action and is very short (6') compared to other brand heavy rods which go 7' and longer. Multi piece rods are OK for compact transportation but I have no problems transporting it in the back of my truck and the one piece has one less likely part that can fail. The problem I have with 7'+ rods is they're forward heavy which necessitates the reel seat being moved forward which makes the handle LONGER to try and balance them better. This may be OK in the surf using a 2 hand cast, setting the hook and fighting 30 pound+ fish but not so good for freshwater in a bass boat or the shoreline casting all day with one hand. The ugly stick 6' heavy has very good balance balance using my RD reels with its short handle, plenty of power for the biggest snakehead or bass and it's nimble enough to cast all day. The 6 (+1) guides are rather spartan and I'm not sure how long they'd hold up long term but at ~$50 it's a rod which has held up perfectly (reel seat, handle and guides) so far in the two very hard fished seasons I have used it. I need to buy some more before some bean counter at Shakespeare decides to discontinue them.

After living in So. Florida so long with fishing 24/7/365, I completely forgot that some states / countries have closed seasons due to regulations or weather, I remember your pain. It's a good time to clean/repair/upgrade/organize gear that we (at least me) are too busy / slovenly during the season to attend to. PS. A couple of plugs for living in Florida... Besides no closed fishing seasons, fishermen at or over 65 are not required to buy fishing licenses, we have no firearm registration, you can grow tropical (mango, starfruit, jakfruit, oranges etc.) fruits, there are no need of winter clothes, or need for dry heat in the winter. ?

I had a HUGE Ray Jefferson telescan. It was a color CRT model that barely fit on my console. It is like the one in the pic below. It's not mine, I guess the guy that bought serial number two kept a pic of his ?

It's actually a nice neighborhood with some outside influences that have an entitlement attitude and know where the pickings are good... which I do my best to thwart. My burglary 10 years ago was by two 20 something female druggies from a VERY upscale affluent area who drove up in a new Volvo to clean me out ? Go figure.

My old 8 channel video system was state of the art (installed AFTER a burglary) 10 years ago but new tech with inexpensive cameras and DVR's came along recently. WOW these new plug and play (Siamese RG cable compatible) TVI 2Mp cameras are several levels in clarity better than the older cameras... sharper image, richer color saturation, and better night vision are all benefits of the TVI cameras. The new DVR is also backward compatible to the older video transmission standards and you can implement two new TVI cameras at a time in critical areas while keeping the older cameras in pairs operational. So far the police (they know of and LIKE my system) have proven beyond a doubt who was stealing mail from the mailboxes in the street with a recording provided by me with the thief stealing MY mail (his attorney claimed he found the mail in the street) red handed, a search for a lost little girl was narrowed by my searching my street (one of three possible directions they needed to search) for her to pass by before she got lost, a car that side swiped a neighbors car was identified, and I've caught fruit and orchid thieves on my property and my dog convinced them that stealing was unprofitable. So far it's paid big dividends to me and my neighbors. For those of you who have businesses, work in public places, or own a private system you should all recommend or consider upgrading your systems. Cost is minimal (~$25 to on the high side $35 per camera, and at most $150 for a 8-16 ch DVR) and removal and replacement / installation is a snap.