Tennessee Boy

Most of my ancestors migrated from North Carolina to middle Tennessee in the early 1800s. In the family lore the move was usually referred to as coming over the mountains. Every time I cross the mountains between Tennessee and North Carolina on I40 I imagine what it would have been like to move all your belongings over those mountains with horses and buggies. It’s a rugged landscape and I’m always impressed that they were even able to build I40 through that terrain. About 20 years ago I worked on a 6 month project in North Carolina and a hurricane took out a small section of I40 which made my trips home a nightmare. One lane was closed for months. I can only imagine how difficult the recovery from this hurricane will be. Take a look at Google maps and you will see all of the roads that are closed. You can’t start rebuilding until you can get a truck in with the necessary building materials. It’s gonna be a long haul for many.

It’s turning the trolling motor that messes up side imaging. If you intentionally go straight it will work fine. The same thing happens with the transducer on the transom if you are making tight turns in the boat. It’s the position of the transducer not the quality of the image.

I’m not sure sharing real world experiences on this topic is allowed on this forum. 😆 Your experiences line up with mine on the few occasions when I’ve had to fish without FFS for various reasons.

It feels wrong to put a 12 volt and a 24 volt lifePo4 lithium battery in series but I can’t think of a reason why it would not be okay. To get the best results you would want the batteries to use the same cells internally. I’ve never seen a manufacturer that listed what cells their batteries contain so that would be difficult. You would also want the BMSs in both batteries to have the same current limits for optimum results. You would need a 12 volt and 24 volt charger which would be more inconvenient than a single 36 volt charger.

I can’t vouch for the authenticity of the video I posted. It looks like a beaver to me but so does the guy in the beaver costume at Buc-ee’s. 😆

Check your manual or the Internet to see how many amps your unit pulls. Measure the length of wire you will be running to the battery and double it to account for the wire from the battery to the unit and back. Take these numbers and use a wire gauge chart like the one below to determine the size wire you need. The smaller your wire the more voltage drop you will have. Personally I would go with the 3% voltage drop number. It’s also good to have a little extra capacity to accommodate your next big upgrade. http://assets.***.com/files/resources/newsletter/images/DC_wire_selection_chartlg.jpg

It’s a personal choice. I would take the Zillion and I would throw away the Invisx and spool it with mono because line is the only thing between me and the fish. 😀

I’d loose them within a month. 😲

Here's what I would do. I would find something on the water that you can see on MEGA 360 and above the water. I would pull up as close as possible to it and mark a waypoint with all of you fish finders. I would then pull off of it a little and create a waypoint using 360. Then I would drop a waypoint (or two) using side imaging. Pull up the coordinates of all of these way points and record them somehow. Go home and use one of the many online tools that will calculate the distance between coordinates. Being a math geek I would probably graph them all on graph paper. This will tell you the maximum distance between the two most distant waypoints. I would hope they would all be within 15 feet but that might be a little optimistic. This actually sound fun. I might have to try it myself. 😃

All of the inputs that go into calculating a waypoint using side imaging have some error and when all the math is done those errors get multiplied. If you’re consistently seeing errors over 50 feet then something is definitely off. I’m using all Hummingbird stuff and I do see some inconsistencies but the brush pile is always within the 360 range. Are the position fixes of the two Garmin units constantly different?

Can you post some screenshots?

Is the same laydown appearing in multiple locations during one sweep of the 360 beam?

There is no problem running cables 20 ft. These units are installed on much larger boats without issues. I would put the transducer on the transom. It was designed for that. I wouldn’t want to have to put the trolling motor down to use side imaging. Also side imaging will go crazy every time you turn the trolling motor if the transducer is mounted on the TM. Put the bigger head unit where it best meets your needs. Some people spend most of their time graphing at the console, others spend more time with the trolling motor down. It’s a personal preference.

I’m not really following you. Do you have a lot of experience using 360? It might help if you posted some screenshots.

Same here. I try my best to release them unharmed, especially the big ones. When I kill one I celebrate with the turtles that get an easy meal. I celebrate that the lake’s limited resources will be a little less limited, which will benefit other fish. One day I’ll get gut hooked. I’ll be food for the worms and someone else will take my tackle and go fishing. It’s the circle of life.

French fries are my favorite vegetable.

Google monitors everything you do through your android phone, gmail, google maps, Chrome browser and your search history. It knows you better than your family knows you. It gives you the search results it knows you want to receive. If you don’t like the results it’s your own fault. 😆

There are many controlled experiments that confirm bass do learn to avoid lures. In his book Knowing Bass, Dr Keith Jones shared some research he did at Berkeley. Groups of six bass were allowed to freely strike at a minnow bait for five minutes. During their first exposure to the lure they hit the bait on average a combined 24 times. They were then separated into two groups. The first group was retested 2 weeks later and they hit the lure on average a little over 2 times. The second group was tested 3 months later and hit the lure more than the first group (about 4 times) but still far less than when originally tested. These bass were not hooked but still learned and remembered that the minnow bait was not food.

I service them myself. I keep all of the parts I have left over after I reassemble them. I hope to make a new reel from these parts someday. 😆

I thought this was a very interesting discussion on how MLF anglers might adjust to the new rules.

Ask yourself this question. In the B.A.S.S. tournament on Toledo Bend this year why were so many anglers bunched up in one creek? During the tournament @Catt was on here talking about how much he liked that creek. Did they scope out all 186,000 acres of the lake and all find the same fish in the same creek? or did they get local knowledge from locals like @Catt? 8 of the top 10 on the final day.

If I caught 4 bass in 10 cast I would not be looking to change anything after a 5 minute lull. I would make sure I had hit every ell grass clumps in the area. I might make a few cast with a slower presentation like a Texas rig but if something is working I keep working it. Maybe after an hour lull I might look for a similar spot as @gulfcaptain suggested.

You should change insurance companies. 😆 The stuff that matters from a fans prospective for the BPT IMHO. Limit of two FFS transducer and 360 counts as FFS. You can only use them in one of the three periods during the day. You must declare that you will be using it before the period begins. I didn’t read the stuff for the other MLF trails.

Everyone uses technology differently so these restrictions will affect each angler differently. The MLF restrictions would have the greatest impact on the way I fish compared to NPFL. I would much rather fish all day with only 360 than 1/3 of the day with 360 and FFS.