jbmaine

From what everyone says, My understanding is that during the Summer SM move around a lot. On one of the lakes I fish there is a small Island ( about 15 ft. in diameter) that rapidly drops off to around 25 foot depth on two sides. This summer these drop-offs have yielded 2-4 SM on just about every trip. I'll fish it, catch what I can, then move on when the fishing dies down. What I'm wondering is, because it's proven to be a good SM spot, should I keep fishing it even after the action dies down, with the idea that sooner or later more SM will move into the area? Maybe instead of chasing them all over the lake, wait and let them come to you? Do you think this would be a viable idea? Thanks Jim

Thanks, this was tight from the get go, manual didn't help much and I might have been OK except Garmin rep said it should pop back out. My wife noticed it was leaving marks on the card the first time I tried it.

I was catching fish on jitterbugs and crazy crawlers 50+ years ago ( still have a couple from back then ). worked then, work now.

Still picking up deep water smallies. Nothing huge but the largest was 2.8. Boy do they fight!!!!

I've had a echomap chirp 73 since early spring and have loved it. Today I thought I'd try mapping one of our favorite lakes. Tried to put the memory card in and it seemed like an awful tight fit. Pulled it out, comfirmed it was orientated correctly and tried again. Still seemed like something wasn't right. Read thru the manual, didn't say much about it. No matter how far I put it in I still got the message insert memory card. So I called garmin. Explained what was happening. He asked was the card in all the way? I said if I put it in anymore I'm not sure I could get it out. He said when you insert the card, to get it out, push it in some more and it will pop back out. I tried, and now it's stuck in the reader, flush, with no way to get it out. He said it sounds like there is a problem with the reader and they will fix it under warranty. At first I thought I lucked out, he said they would just do a swap with a new unit, but then he checked, said they didn't have one to send me, and I would have to send this one in for repair. Then he said He would E-mail me a shipping label. Turn around will probably be around two weeks. O'well, stuff happens. Just got home, checked my E-mail, they sent it, but with the wrong name. I'm now waiting for Garmin to call me back to get a shipping label with the right name on it. Other than that it was a great day.

It happened to our favorite lake. One spring it got really flooded. That summer it was crazy thick with floating weeds and by the next year the fishing had gone from 10-15 bass a trip to just about zip.

Spinner baits on spinning rods work just great. Tues. morning I was throwing a chartreuse spinner bait in 7 ft of water. Let it hit bottom and retrieved just fast enough to keep it off the bottom. Caught this one and a few more.

Had the same thing happen to me a couple of weeks ago. Water started boiling ( like heavy rain) Threw a paddle tail into it and caught yellow perch after yellow perch. Looks like a school of yellow perch had a school of minnows surrounded and were having a feeding frenzy.

Yep, it was a chain pickerel, I would love to catch a northern, never have.

I don't target pickerel, but they can be fun to catch. If you fish waters that have pickerel, you will catch them from time to time, that's just the way it is. Larger ones put up a good fight. Nothing wrong with that.

To me it's all about waste. Hard to get ticked at someone who kills a fish to eat, when you buy fish to eat at the grocery store. Easy to get ticked at someone who kills a fish just to show it off, then throws it away.

I'll check that out. Thanks

Sounds like a set screw. Is the screw or the hole or both stripped? Please include a pic. It would help in giving you the best advise.

Can you give us a pic of what's stripped? With more info it could be an easy fix.

Ya, it's been a strange summer for sure. Thanks for the input everyone

Yesterday we fished an area about the size of a football field. 7-12 ft. depth, weedy bottom. Weather was very overcast, drizzly. We caught several fish and had more hits and misses. Went thru the same area later in the day and came up with zip. The only difference was by then the sun had come out. I'm assuming the sun had spooked the fish and turned them off. However I'm wondering if in a 3 hr span, could all the fish have vacated that area? Do bass ( LM) move that much in a short time span? Thanks Jim

Thanks, that's just what I needed

Hi all, I have a Garmin echo map chirp 73. Could someone tell an old electronics dummy Exactly! what card thingy I need to make maps/charts with this unit. I read the manual but am still confused. Thanks Jim

They would not leave the spinner bait alone today. Caught fat little dinks up to much better ones.

Bubbles in a lake could be from all the above mentioned...………………………… bubbles from a bath tub...… well that's a different story?

The last SM I caught was on a ned rig in about 25 feet of water. He bent my medium rod over more than I thought it would go, took about 20FT. of line, and when he finally decided to come up, shot out of the water like a rocket. When I got him in the boat he weighted 1.12. Have yet to catch a LM that size that was anywhere near that feisty.

Generally speaking SM fight much better than LM, kind of like sedan VS sports car.

I bet you'll love it. We have a Lund Fury XL and couldn't be happier.

I like a rage tail toad. Keep your rod tip up with a steady retrieve and they will run on the surface, slow down and they will run sub surface. I've caught a lot of fish on them just under the surface and /or stopping and let it sink.

RICHF- Great looking fish. The second picture, the one where you're kneeling. Watch out for that evil looking blue thing at the end of the dock. That's well documented as the fastest spreading invasive species known to man, and bad news to fisherman everywhere.?