Tennessee Boy

There are plenty of portable battery charger available. The problem is how to power them when you’re off the grid. A small gas powered generator is probably your best bet and that’s not a very good one. If you only have one trolling motor battery, I would consider bringing an extra one.

A great weekend to not be on the water.

I cleaned it and unclogged the jet. It works fine now.

If it was me I would give it a try and do the math on the mileage to see if it’s worth it. You definitely don’t want it to sit for more than a couple of months. I loaned my power washer to someone who put E10 in it. It sat over the winter and would not start. I pulled the carburetor off and it looked like someone poured maple syrup in it.

Cool story. Congratulations James.

@TnRiver46 will find him for you. He’s a professional.?

Repurposing old baits works great but is not approved by the bait monkey. ?

I like to overthink things so I'll add a couple of points. 28 fish were caught. All things being equal you should each have caught 14 fish and any deviation from that would be purely the result of chance. Like flipping a coin 28 times. How may times would it be heads? According to my calculations (which I haven't double checked) there was about 1 in 56 chance that it was purely by chance that you caught 20 of the 28 fish. That's very low but if you fish often those kinds of unlikely results WILL happen. So it could be chance but probably is not. So did the weight make the difference? I personally think the weight on a Texas rig is very important. It affects the rate of fall which is huge and also how fast you can retrieve the bait. I think the biggest difference between the two presentations which no one has mentioned would be the angler. No two angler's fish the same way. Maybe you let the bait sit on the bottom longer before starting the retrieve. The difference may help him on some days and you on others. Mix in the roll that pure luck played and I wouldn't put too much faith in any lessons you might learn from that one day concerning how important 1/32 of an ounce was in your success.

When I added a lithium battery earlier this year I bought a charger that has a Bluetooth interface that tells me how many amp hour of charge it took to charge the battery. It also tells me the battery voltage at the beginning and end of the charge. You could also buy a shunt that will tell you how many amp hours you have used. Here’s one from a good company. There are also cheaper ones on the market. https://www.amazon.com/Victron-SmartShunt-500AMP-Bluetooth-Battery/dp/B0856PHNLX/

Around here, feeding times are not determined by the sun or moon. They are determined by the guy controlling the generator at the dam. ?

I bought my first house in 1993 and I thought I had won the lottery because my rate was only 6.75%. That was the lowest it had been in 20 years. For over 10 years they were over 10%. Rates have been extremely low for the last ten years, especially the last two. My current rate on a 30 year fixed is 2.75%. A lot of people are going to get hit hard as rates return to normal. https://www.valuepenguin.com/mortgages/historical-mortgage-rates

I enjoy the philosophical discussions the most. Is location or lure selection more important? Is sensitivity all in your head? I’m fascinated by some of the questions people ask. Some people spend a lot of time thinking about things that never cross my mind. Like what’s the best rod for my new reel?

I have no experience with Miller Tech but did look at their web site and was somewhat impressed. They use cylindrical cell which is good. I don’t think they are made in Amish country unless there are Amish in China. Their web site says: ”When creating our Millertech brand in 2015, we soon realized how easy it is to buy a lithium battery from China. But finding one that could meet our requirements was not so easy, which is why we created our own specific spec sheet that states every component that we require to be used in building our batteries. We use only Grade A cells from the top 3 manufacturers in China.” I purchased a lithium battery earlier this year and I went with Battle Born. Their batteries are engineered and assembled in the US. They do use cells from China because that's the only place they are made.

I only buy one of a lure to see if it works. If I have a good day with it, then I will buy a lifetime supply. I usually never catch another fish on it after that. ?

From St Croix’s Rodgeeks website: “Bass 4 Series - The RODgeeks Bass series is a collection of technique specific carbon fiber blanks that have been specially designed to meet the demands of hard core tournament bass fishermen. The actions are slightly slower than our other series in order to accommodate braided line, and a special reinforcing material is added that increases durability.” So they think the rod’s action should be “slightly” slower to accommodate braid. When I’ve measured the stretch in line, I found that both mono and floro stretch about 6% when loaded with 1/4 the line test. So 40 feet of #12 line will stretch 2.4 feet under 3 lbs of load. That’s where I would normally set my drag. The amount of bow in the line is probably more consequential in preventing a good hook set than stretch. To me it all comes down to being familiar with the equipment you’re using so you will know how hard to set the hook.

It happens. I know I can’t do anything about it so I put all of my effort into controlling my reaction when it happens.

I have two Humminbird Solix and did not see any changes in performance. The biggest problem I had was that one of them would often drop off the network when I cranked the motor. I used 8 gauge wire.

I added a lithium battery for electronics earlier this year because I was having issues due to the voltage drop when I cranked the motor. I improved the wiring at the same time. It was money well spent.

It looks like @everythingthatswims is the highest rated (by reputation) user on this site that has not visited the site in the last year. He was less than a pound from making it to the Bassmaster Classic.

Me: Excuse me, would ya'll mind bringing me my boat?

Many people say higher voltage will give you better image quality. I can say for sure that it’s not true with my Humminbirds. Having a second battery doesn’t necessarily give you higher voltage unless there are a lot of other things drawing power from the first battery. The biggest cause of voltage drop is undersized wiring. You need to determine if you have significant voltage drop between the battery and the fish finder. If so it might be a good idea to install new wiring. Is the fish finder run on your cranking battery?

What problems are you having with your unit? Are you seeing interference when the trolling motor is running?

It’s my understanding that the water being released must be “cleaner” than the water it is being released into. I don’t know how they measure cleanliness. I know there are some things they are not able to remove from waste water such as many prescription drugs that people flush down the toilet.

As others have said, the right depth is key. It will come with experience. We’ve all been there.

You can’t let people get to you. Climbing over from the passenger side would have been a lot easier.