BucksBasser

Pulling in large balls of line on a crankbait. I really wouldn't mind if there was a $10 lure attached. Why are people so lazy to just throw this in the lake? It's also a nuisance getting wound around the trolling motor prop. My other peeve is people who don't know how to tie knots I keep a set of those little knot tying cards in the boat and make sure any anglers I invite are told to use it. My rule is you get one free knot tie from the captain (me) and after that it's ten dollars a knot. Only exception is little kids.

Your right. At times you could almost cross the lake jumping from kayak to kayak.

PAFBC largely views PA as a trout state. I will say the only times I've had my licensed checked is on Nockamixon. And I spend 50 days a year on trout streams. If you want fishing pressure you should come east to the Nock. On a summer Sunday there may be 100 boats out and maybe another 50 kayaks. On 1400 acres. Now that I'm retired I mainly fish there on weekdays. Then the issue is wind. Lake is largely east/west so it can really rip. My second favorite lake in PA is Sayer. There power boaters are an issue but lots of bass.

They don't smell the contamination. They taste it. It can be a factor with slow moving baits that a bass inhales before you set the hook. Not on moving baits like crankbaits and spinner baits. And yes, you can chum bass with certain scents.

Some people call anything north of Harrisburg the northern Susquehanna and others call the North branch the northern part of the river. Still others call either of the branches above Sunbury the northern part of the river. For my money (arguably) the best stretch for smallies is Harrisburg to Duncannon.

I just had the same situation and went with the Garmin ECHOmap Ultra 106sv from BP. So far I like the unit.

I'd put one one the power cord of the sonar and another one on the power cable to the motor towards the motor end of the cable. In fact I'd make sure there was two one the transducer cable. One towards the transducer and one towards the sonar unit. It's obviously being radiated into the sonar system. As Tom suggested, it's better to identify the source and fix it there. But sometimes that's elusive and you have to attack where it's getting into the sonar system.

Correct, I'm not a competitive angler. I don't expect PA to ban it. I mentioned in other posts I'm a just retired engineering manager who developed many technology products for Motorola. So I understand the technology and I'm very informed on where microelectronics is advancing. My guess is that within 5 years you will see products that combine FFS, sidescan, and high def down imaging into a single transducer system. You will be able to see everything within 75 feet of your boat in minute detail. It could really be done today but the costs wouldn't work for 95% of the market.

Most of us have had a "Wiley Coyote" episode. I've had a few. Probably because I often push the limits getting into fishing and hunting locations. So here is one of mine. Aside from bass fishing on lakes with traditional gear I do a lot of fly fishing. In PA we have a nice mix of bass lakes, smallie rivers, and mountain trout streams. In the winter when lakes are iced up and rivers are a bit dicey I often fish trout streams back in what passes for mountains in this area. I've always had 4x4 trucks fairly well outfitted for back country roads in winter conditions. So one January I decided to head back into a state forest to hit a nice stream that holds native brook trout. To get there I turn off a busy state highway directly onto a forest road that almost immediately climbed up the mountain gaining probably 1500 feet over a couple miles. Straight up the hill. There was 8 inches of snow on the ground and a couple inches of ice and packet snow on the road (normally gravel) but the old RAM took her well. At least for the first half mile or so. All of a sudden I lost traction and started sliding backwards. Breaks did nothing. Trying to steer out of the ruts and hit some softer snow did nothing. It was as if I was on rails gaining speed backwards down the hill. I thought about jumping but was afraid the door might catch me so scratched that idea. All I could think of was sliding on out onto the state highway and getting T-boned. As I got to about 50 yards of the highway I slouched down and braced for impact. Truck may have been going 20 MPH by this point. All of a sudden the truck ground to a stop about 20 feet from going out on the highway. Turns out in my attempts to stop the truck I had put the parking brake on and the truck stopped on some exposed gravel where cars on the highway had sprayed salt as they passed. Needless to say I return back to the house and didn't venture into mountains again for a month. I figured GOD wasn't going to provide another lifeline for a while. In a few days I'll relate another tale that happened in the mountains while fly fishing the year before.

I don't remember seeing many. But that was the second trip with a new unit so maybe I didn't have it dialed in.

As far as PA goes, I'm confident the PAFBC biologists are already factoring that in as they continually monitor lakes around the state. For over 25 years I've called a couple times a year to ask about various lakes I am planning trips to that year. They always seem to have a handle on things. Most times confirming what I've already researched about a lake but sometimes mentioning issues and suggestions on nearby lakes where I might have better success. I've also had contacts with other biologists while working trout stream improvements with TU. This gives me confidence in these professionals guidance to the state fisheries commission. In PA? Were they released?

I think a lot of people are missing Ben's point. He is saying that Covid caused a huge spike in demand at the same time the mom and pops struggled. So many sold out and now we are on the back side of the demand curve. People can say that the trends to big corps was going on for years but no one can deny that the Covid period caused major inflection points in how many businesses operated. (At the time I was managing a number of projects in Chinese factories. So I certainly had a front seat to the disruption.)

Interestingly I tuned in on Saturday. Largely because I'm anxious to get out but my boat is in winter storage until next week. I hadn't watched a live tournament in years. It used to be boring to me. Largely because of poor camera work and video production. What I saw Saturday was much more entertaining than in the past. I watched for a few hours. It's possible that my cabin fever up here in the NE with all the rain recently was a factor.

Current system is a mix of equipment. Low end Hummingbird sidefinder on rear and older Lowrance 2d on bow through trolling motor transducer. I'm going to pull it all out and start new. Some may be repurposed to kayaks. Trolling motor is an older Minn Kota, I think early Terrova with an older transducer. I'm not sure the transducer is compatible with current units. Still works great so I my not upgrade.

I've run both SLA and lithium. Both work but I've recently moved to all lithium. Short term, SLA is cheap. Will last a few years. LiFePo is more expensive but probably last more than ten years.

I've fished Lake Erie. No FFS. So clear I could see 25 feet or so down and no visible fish. But drag a Carolina rig through there and we would pull up six pounders one after another. I'd be very interested to see that on FFS.

All sonar technologies are going to increase in resolution to where you can see the fish in full detail. Where do you draw a line? Assuming you do. Do you ban all sonar? The technology will outpace any regulations that are put against it. As of now statistical studies do not show any negative impact to fish populations for recreational fishing. If it does in the future state fishery agencies can simply adjust seasonal and catch limits to address. IMHO environmental and other impacts have much more impact on fisheries than sonar.

I'll be stopping by Cabela's next week with intention to buy a FFS system. What should I get? Most electronics on the boat is 7 years old so I will probably scrap and put an all new system onboard. Thinking sideview on transom and FFS on trolling with two monitors, front and aft. Ability to see either from either position. Suggestions? I'm leaning Garimin.

Punxsutawney Phil is usually wrong. BTW my daughter attended IUP and her freshman year at Punxsutawney. It's more of a drinking event than anything else and I suspect Phil imbibed as well. I'm going to get a FFS unit. I'll report if I see Phil underwater at Yellow Creek.

Are there any ferrites on the power cord to the sonar unit?

How does that jive with ML juicing the ball up to increase HR production in recent years? Or golf allowing improved club head groves and large drivers back in the 90's?

I might be old but I would consider myself tech savvy. 48 years as engineer at Motorola including 34 as engineering manager of a design department. Now that I'm retired I want to use this stuff I spent decades developing without some 2nd tier pro angler telling me what I can do. And if he tries to tell me this crap about tradition I'll remind him I was fishing many years with a cane poll before he was conceived. That I spent many decades working as a volunteer with TU. And that I routinely fish from my kayak that has no electronics. Hey Tn my reply to your post has promoted me to minnow. I feel blessed. Thanks. Now I hope some young gun with FFS doesn't out me to that 8lber lurking beyond the rock.

So true. At least some old guys. This old guy is now thinking of getting FFS because it seems to be a great learning/teaching tool.

If you want to catch bass you should be fishing in water that actually has bass. If you want to fish from my boat you don't hook the captain with an errant crankbait cast. Always set the parking brake when exiting the truck on the boat ramp.

The is a small PAFBC lake in central PA named Walker Lake. It's a small, man made, reservoir for fishing and flood control. Prior to being damned there was a small quarry into a hillside on the edge of what is not the lake. The wall they were quarrying now forms a cliff on the lake edge with about 20' of water along the edge. Checking it out from shore I noticed a small ledge just above the water line running across the cliff. The ledge varies from 6" to 18" wide and some places eroded away to nothing. Figuring there was rock rubble underwater at the base I decided to venture out on the ledge to see if it held fish. This was in April and the water still quite cold. To move out on the ledge I had to face the rock wall and inch along with my face against the cliff. About 30 yards out, as I stepped across a gap in the ledge, I looked forward to see a large snake in a hole about 8" from my face. My weight was shifted to keep going so there was no way to turn back without taking a swim in the cold water. I was wearing a ball cap so I titled my head down in case the snake struck and continued out to a wider spot on the ledge. I caught a couple small bass from the underwater rock piles but I couldn't concentrate knowing I had to return with a snake at eye level. Then I got an idea. I tied a senko on my line. No hook. Just a knot around the senko. When I got to the spot with the snake I dangled it in front of the hole. The snake launched out striking the senko and plunged down into the water. I muttered " sorry bub, but your better suited to swim today than I am". And returned to my truck.