Michigander

1999 Triton TR-21 with a Mercury 250 Pro XB on it. Got it with only 56 motor hours on it so it's basically new. I love this boat.

I have a 10' Viper that I got during a Black Friday sale. Due to my circumstances, everything has to be removable for transport and storage so nothing is hard mounted which is an interesting design challenge. I love fishing out of this thing.

Oh, I've had muskies steal all manner of lures from me in there. I have caught some nice fish and won some money there too but it seems like I am either loading the boat or I get skunked. Not much in between.

Thanks, man. I will certainly take you up on that offer. Look for a PM in April. Maybe you can give me some tips for Lake Ovid too, never been able to crack that nut despite the hours I have spent there.

I lived the johnboat in the truck bed life for years. It is fine but sucks if you don't have a fishing buddy available when you wanna hit the water. I have a kayak now and would never go back though.

Good on you for dedication! Your datasets must be robust! What do you find the most valuable amongst your information? Is there anything you wish you had kept track of in the early years that you didn't?

Yes, documenting non-success is also important to me. I'll have to add my mindset into the pre trip and post trip notes. Good advice! I'm curious what failed patterns I keep repeating without realizing it. Oh, that's not too bad at all! Be longer for me because I need to translate the data into a spreadsheet. LoL

I've seen a Hula Popper get dragged under the edge of the ice in such conditions. Anything is possible.

It's the computer work afterward that gets me. That's screen time I could be spending on my 3D printer software.

I know this to be true, I lived in Kansas for a few years.

Yeah, that's about the same depth rating as mine. I'm throwing mine into the water as soon as I find a section of unfrozen water I can drop vertically into. You were killing it out there, A-Jay! For their price, GoPros certainly do the deed. Hopefully my Akaso is similar. How far do you think it was from your console to your trolling motor shaft? I could see it during the underwater segment. 9 feet? I'd be satisfied with half that range.

Nice fish! Ever put that camera under water? 1. Yes, field research is expensive in precious time. I'm hoping that the efficiency gain from new knowledge will at least be a wash. 2. Good news, the bottom is the part I'm most interested in. 3. What was it when it wasn't bait? 4. Most of my lakes are annoyingly clear, so that should be fine. 5. Yes, got a collapsible hood system designed for that. 6. Hopefully, I don't come to the same conclusion...

Oh, what luxury I have purchased myself. Or torment if I end up hating their touch UI.

Eventually, I won't be strong enough to suppress the urge to get into rod building. I'm not there yet but I am firmly in the casual research phase. What I can't figure out is how you go about selecting a blank beyond "well, I know I want a 7'1" MH with a fast action". If you read the marketing info, they are all the lightest, strongest, most sensitive, nutritious, and incorporates the new hyperspun nanoweave non-Euclidian ultra mega flex blah blah blah. When I look through the technical documentation however, I see the various measurements and ratings which all make sense to me at a base level. But how do you know if a rod is going to load up in the appropriate place for the application you are designing the rod build for? Or have the other attributes you might be seeking?

I picked up the Akaso Ek7000 Pro a month ago: https://www.amazon.com/AKASO-Adjustable-Waterproof-Control-Accessories/dp/B07JR1XZ78 Didn't break the bank. Won't be able to put it through its paces until the warm times though.

Yeah, I think 8TB would do it. At least for a summer and then I could cut it down over the winter. Lolz

I think I have a pair of 128GB cards, so that would be fine. I don't fish for over 17 hours straight without taking lunch break so I could switch cards then to be safe. Gonna need a big external hard drive to store all this footage, lol.

Well that is quite interesting! had no idea, my image background is with still photography so the world of video is still new to me.

A VLOG is a really interesting idea. I just picked up a GOPro knockoff for my underwater explorations, so it would be on the boat anyway. Continuous feed probably wouldn't work because I don't want to waste precious fishing time changing cards and batteries every hour or so. But I think mine has a remote...

I use an Echomap 73cv. You can find them pretty cheap since they are two generations old now. No problems actually. You just set it to record and enjoy the maps. I would highly advise you to take 15 minutes and set up a color code for each of the depth lines. It's super tedious and not fun but having it is so invaluable. I did red for 0.1-1ft, orange for 1.1-2ft, yellow for 2.1-3ft, and so on out to deep blues and magenta for the deep deep. Doing this let's you just "see" the structure of the lake at a glance rather than trying to read a bunch of lines with little numbers over a grayish background. Also put a bigger SD card in there than you think you'll need.

Sorry man, from what I've seen, it's mostly enablers around here. LoL. Welcome to forum!

How is it in weedy lakes compared to a traditional t-rig?

Ooh, you have a fancy rig there!

Do you keep a fishing log? I am going to put an honest effort into doing it this year because I would really like to analyze the data over the winter. If you have, what data points did you feel were the most valuable to you when you referenced it at a future date? Is there anything you didn't record that you really wished you did? I know that I won't stop fishing to write in a book but I can record a voice memo and then transfer those recordings into a notebook at a later non-fishing time. Fishing Trip Location Time and Date Weather Conditions Water clarity and temp Level of boat traffic Individual catches Species Size/weight Lure Presentation Part of lake where caught Relevant cover or features Depth Wind level Time of catch Sun level What else would be good to know?

I bought a Go-Pro knockoff to give me a new perspective when I get back on the water this spring. I learned that I'll be able to transmit the live feed via wifi to my cell phone using some coax cable. I have an old laptop that I'm going to put Linux on and run an Android OS inside a VMware box for recording storage when I'm in the boat and need bigger screen. I haven't solved the camera pole puzzle yet. I want to be able to get that camera under docks, in bushes, and literally punch through weed mats to see what's going on in there. I also plan to catalog the crayfish colors at various depths so my jigs are exceptionally well matched. Seems super fun to me at least... Anyone played around with this? If so, what insights did you gain?