Tennessee Boy

I've been hoping someone will come out with floating sinkers. 😆

So my mind is spinning. (That's usually a bad thing) If every sound from my boat is being transmitted down the line and is being listened to by the fish, it's basically sensitivity in reverse. It makes sense that rod sensitivity would play an important role in that process. So I should buy the least sensitive rod I can find to dampen the sound and keep the fish from knowing everything I say and do. 😆

You could just upload the kml files to ChatGPT and tell it to do it. The only downside to doing that is ChatGPT will know where to find you when AI takes over the world. 😆

Put all of your kml files in a single folder and ask ChatGPT to write a PowerShell (assuming you're using Windows) script to combine all of the files in that folder into a single GPX file. If you get any errors just tell ChatGPT what the error says and it should be able to help. It should give you something like this using the folder you give it. # Merge all KML files in the current directory into a single GPX. # Requires: gpsbabel in your PATH # Collect .kml files $kmlFiles = Get-ChildItem -File -Filter *.kml if (-not $kmlFiles) { Write-Error "No .kml files found in $(Get-Location)." exit 1 } # Build GPSBabel -f arguments safely $inputArgs = @() foreach ($f in $kmlFiles) { $inputArgs += @('-f', $f.FullName) } # Output file (change if you want a different name/path) $out = Join-Path (Get-Location) 'combined.gpx' # Run GPSBabel & gpsbabel -i kml @inputArgs -o gpx -F $out if ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0) { Write-Host "Created $out from $($kmlFiles.Count) KML file(s)." } else { Write-Error "gpsbabel failed with exit code $LASTEXITCODE" }

There are a lot of ways that I can think of to do what you want. None of them are simple. There may be better ways that I'm not aware of such as app that will do exactly what you want. Here are two ways that I just tested to combine waypoints from multiple files into a single GPX file. From there you can use GPS Babel to convert it to the file types needed for each fish finder. You can decide if ether of these methods is something you would be comfortable doing. First way I uploaded two GPX files to ChatGPT (AI platform) and ask it to combine the waypoints in each to a single GPX file. It created a file that I download-I examined the file- it looked good but I did not test it on a fish finder. Second way A .gpx file is an XML text file. You can open it with any text editor. The text below is from a gpx file with two waypoints. The text between "<wpt" and "</wpt>" defines a waypoint. If you cut and paste these waypoint snippets into a single gpx file and you will have all of your waypoints in a single file. I haven't tried doing this to move data between Humminbird and Lowrance. There may be details like the color of the waypoint, the group name, etc that might not work exactly as you would hope across fish finders but I'm confident it will work well. I've looked at a lot of XML files in my career so I'm very familiar with them. I don't think it's too difficult to understand the format of the file but you may disagree. For example, <name>wpt0001</name> defines the name of the waypoint. XML files are used for lots of things and there are many editors you can download that will help you edit them. You have to be careful not to mess up the format. For example, making a typo and leaving out the / when editing <name>wpt001</name> would break everything. Using a specialized XML editor should keep you from making mistakes like that. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> <gpx xmlns="http://www.topographix.com/GPX/1/1" xmlns:h="http://www.humminbird.com" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" version="1.1" creator="Humminbird" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1 http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1/gpx.xsd"> <wpt lat="36.28333128947579" lon="-86.50296136736871"> <ele>NULL</ele> <time>2025-06-16T22:39:56.903Z</time> <name>wpt0001</name> <sym>Waypoint</sym> <extensions> <h:uniqueid>46035160705522</h:uniqueid> <h:group>My Data</h:group> <h:edited>2025-06-16T22:40:08.947Z</h:edited> <h:visible>true</h:visible> <h:mob>false</h:mob> <h:spotlock>false</h:spotlock> <h:creator></h:creator> <h:viewas>IconAndName</h:viewas> <h:color>Yellow</h:color> <h:radiustoggle>false</h:radiustoggle> <h:radiussafety>false</h:radiussafety> <h:radius>0.0</h:radius> <h:depth>0.0</h:depth> <h:temperature>0.0</h:temperature> <h:cursordepth>0.0</h:cursordepth> <h:version>2</h:version> <h:desc></h:desc> </extensions> </wpt> <wpt lat="36.28335438947579" lon="-86.502961367456871"> <ele>NULL</ele> <time>2025-06-16T22:39:56.903Z</time> <name>wpt0001</name> <sym>Waypoint</sym> <extensions> <h:uniqueid>46035160705522</h:uniqueid> <h:group>My Data</h:group> <h:edited>2025-06-16T22:40:08.947Z</h:edited> <h:visible>true</h:visible> <h:mob>false</h:mob> <h:spotlock>false</h:spotlock> <h:creator></h:creator> <h:viewas>IconAndName</h:viewas> <h:color>Yellow</h:color> <h:radiustoggle>false</h:radiustoggle> <h:radiussafety>false</h:radiussafety> <h:radius>0.0</h:radius> <h:depth>0.0</h:depth> <h:temperature>0.0</h:temperature> <h:cursordepth>0.0</h:cursordepth> <h:version>2</h:version> <h:desc></h:desc> </extensions> </wpt> <extensions></extensions></gpx>

Do you have multiple files or multiple waypoints in one file?

@Motoboss I'm impressed. 👍

I set my drag based on the line and rod I'm using. If I'm fishing in heavy weeds with 60# braid and a heavy action rod, then my line and rod can handle locking down the drag so that's what I do.

Prayers sent for your mom. 🙏

There are things you are not supposed to talk about online. 🤣

No. Assuming you don’t wrap the wires in thick insulation to hold in the heat you are not going to start a fire running a 55 lb thrust trolling motor on 4 gauge wire. I would be much more concerned about making sure your connections are sound as far a safety is concerned. I’m not saying you should not go with 2 gauge. I just want you to understand your options. I’m running a 24 volt 80 lb thrust Ultrex on the 6 gauge wire that was installed at the factory. It works fine. If they had offered the option to upgrade to 2 gauge for say $500 I would have done it. Not because I need it but just so I would never have to think about wire size when buying a trolling motor in the future. Running wire under the deck of bass boat is a pain. You may want to go big the first time. I don’t know all of the things you need to consider for a kayak. If you can easily run the wire and having a big stiff wires in your kayak is not a problem then you might want to go with 2 gauge. Running on high for a long time is something you might do in a kayak that I never do in my boat. The current that a trolling motor pulls drop off quickly as you back off from the maximum speed. On 7.5 my TM pulls half the current that it does on 10. Minn Kota say the maximum current for my TM is 56 amp. Every time I’ve checked it with an amp meter I get 41 amps. So you really only need to be concerned when you’re running at 10 for a long time. All of this stuff can be calculated to give you a good estimate of voltage drop and heat generation. I’m not an electrical engineer but I did minor in engineering and took several EE courses. The math required to figure out trolling motor wiring is electrical circuits 101. 😀

Just to put things into prospective, a $100,000 21 ft Ranger Comanche Z521R comes with 6 gauge wire installed at the factory. Granted it comes with a 36V trolling motor so it can deliver 3 times the power with the same amount of current but it's still running around 50 amps at top speed. I get that bigger is always better but it's also thicker, stiffer, heavier, and more expensive. I've never wired a kayak. I don't know where you run the wire or how much space you have. It's probably much easier than a bass boat. Just know that the difference in performance between 2 gauge and 4 gauge will be minuscule and probably unnoticable.

I wish the OP could tell us how his trolling motor and wiring choices worked out. Unfortunately, he has not been here in over 7 years. 😀

I'm retired. Before that I was a software developer.. So I guess you could say it was my calling. Now I just do it for fun. 😆

I agree the most important thing by far is to be able to locate fish. As far as techniques are concerned, I'm in the camp that you need to be really good at the techniques you use. You can win a tournament with only one technique. You can't win them all on the same technique but no one wins them all. Being mediocre at many techniques might get you in the top 50 most of the time but it's not a winning strategy in my opinion. When I'm on fish I feel like I'm dialed into where the fish are, what they're doing, and how I can use my skills to catch them. It's never about finding the right lure or techique. That's the way I approach the sport. YMMV.

I'm not sure what advice to give you. I think winter fishing requires more confidence. You don't see fish jumping everywhere. You don't see lots of other anglers around. You're just out there alone and it's much more quiet than it was last summer. You might start to ask yourself why you're there when everyone else has left. I personally love winter fishing. I've had days when I've caught a lot of fish but mostly I seem to catch fewer fish but bigger fish. I just try to enjoy the peacefulness of a jetski free lake and wait patiently for the big ones to bite.

You got people saying you're a bad person because you fish. You got people who say you're a bad person if you don't practice catch and release. You got people who say you're a bad person if you use live bait. It's impossible to please everyone so why try? I just try to respect everyone's opinions and I'll discuss it with them if they're reasonable.

Here is a link to a wire size guide I always use. https://www.***.com/resources/1437 I would not go with 8 gauge. It all comes down to how much voltage drop will you see in your wiring and are you willing to pay to reduce that voltage drop. I did the math and at 50 amps I got 0.4 volt drop with 6 gauge and 0.25 volt drop with 4 gauge. So are you willing to pay the extra money to run 4 gauge to get 0.15 more volts to the trolling motor. That's a little than 1% less voltage to the motor and 1% more heat in the wire when you are running it at top speed. I would think being in a kayak you would spend more time with the trolling motor on max than a boater so it might be worth the money to go with 4 gauge. I would go with tinned copper marine wire.

Beautiful dog. Very sorry for your loss.

@Team9nine The guy in the picture you posted looks like the guy on Bass Talk Live that they call BTC. I have not tried to find the video where he is talking about these numbers but I will look for it. They had the guy who does the numbers for MLF on Bass Talk Live so I'm guessing he got his numbers from him and they should be good numbers. Here are my numbers, they are off by a little. My numbers show some discrepancies in the MLF numbers that I'm not sure how they addressed in his numbers. My Numbers Bass Caught During FFS Periods: 5431 (Matches his number) Bass Caught During FFS Periods using FFS: 4355 (3 less than his number) Bass Caught in Non-FFS Periods not using FFS: 11555 (2 more than his number) Bass Caught in Non-FFS Periods using FFS: 75. (He doesn't show this number) So you are probably wondering why fish were caught using FFS during non FFS periods. I wondered the same thing. The MLF website clearly shows this. One example: Stage 3-Day 1 Luke Clausen's FFS period was period 2. His first fish at 6:55AM (in Period 1) is shown as using FFS. I assume the official entered it wrong. I don't think Clausen was cheating. I see a lot of what appears to be errors in the extra information they enter about each catch. It doesn't affect the outcome so they are probably not as diligent when entering it. I wish they would put more effort into getting that stuff right - it's a gold mine of good info - I just wish I had more trust in its accuracy. No it would be hard to quantify when they stop fishing. They usually keep scouting more spots and may make a few cast in the process. They also might start fishing again if they start feeling less confident in where they stand. @Team9nine I FORGOT MENTION THAT I NOTICED WHEN JACOB WHEELER GAVE YOU A SHOUTOUT DURING HIS VICTORY SPEECH ON SUNDAY!

I will run the numbers to see if my information matches his. I’m not home now but will post my results later. Starting in 2024 the officials recorded with each fish if in their opinion FFS was used. MLF did not make this into available until after the 2025 season began. I captured this info but did not use it in any of these calculations. It seems that each official does it differently. It’s still interesting information though. There is a lot of noise in all of this data. I counted every fish caught during an FFS as using FFS. Clearly many anglers take their FFS period but don’t use it. Also, there are tournaments like Stage 2 where a large portion of the field made long runs before they started fishing. This was done during non FFS periods. Then there are anglers that stop fishing if they are confident they have made it to the next round. All of this affects the numbers. Being a data geek I love this kind of stuff.

I'm a computer geek and I've written some software to parse the sonar recording files from my Solix units. The recordings from a Helix and Solix are not compatible either but the differences between the two are trivial. I don't know for sure but I would bet that the same data format used in the recordings are what is sent over the network to other units. Compatibility between different models is not a high priority for Humminbird.

You can network a Solix and Helix together but they cannot share sonar data. The screen shots have to be from the transducer connected to the Helix. Good catch on the interference stopping in one picture. Trolling motor is likely the source. I'm pretty sure the cable will connect directly to the Solix. Only the Helix requires an adapter.

This is what I would do to troubleshoot. My guess is something is causing the interference. When you are seeing the interference, start turning stuff off to see if that makes the interference go away. First switch off the trolling motor. Then the other head unit. Then MEGA live. My guess is the interference is coming from the trolling motor. If possible, I would move the Solix up front and see if the symptoms go away. That would tell you it's the Helix.