Scherbacj

My boat came with a Lowrance graph with the Active Imaging 3-in-1 Transducer and I used that for a couple weeks, but my Buddy had an extra Active Imaging HD transducer with the higher frequencies which is supposed to have better images, right? Well I have been using the HD and when I set it to use the higher frequencies I don’t get a better image, in fact I get a much darker image. I guess there is less “clutter” in the water column, but the images of the bottom seem much worse. Am I misunderstanding this? I thought the higher frequencies give better detail? When I turn the AIHD x-ducer to the lower frequencies it looks better, but still worse than the standard AI 3-in-1. Is it a bad transducer? For clarity I am running HDS Pro graphs and I have leveled the x-ducer to the angle while idling at appx 3mph. Nothing else changed, just the x-ducer. What am I missing?

I installed my Smartcraft Connect (the new Vesselview Mobil) and everything works fine, but even after I turned off the ignition the bottom light was still on/flashing. That light was flashing before I got my phone connected, so I closed out the app, and it still didn’t turn off. Does that normally stay on? I worry about it draining my battery? I know it’s a small light and everything, but still, if that thing flashes all the time it will eventually drain the battery, so I am trying to determine if that is normal? Unfortunately I couldn’t wait around forever to see if it would stop because it was getting dark and I needed to finish loading up and hooking up the boat, so I only saw it for a few minutes after turning off the ignition.

I think I figured it out. It sounds like the Vessel View Mobile was discontinued and replaced by the Smartcraft Connect Module. It does the same thing. So you can only use it if your cell phone has reception? That kinda sucks because a lot of the lakes I go to don’t have reception a lot of places when on the water. I mostly want it to track the hours, confirm my RPM’s, etc. but if I can’t use when I’m on the water it doesn’t do much good. I might look into the full Vessel View Link which integrates with my graphs. It doesn’t make sense why the Mobile won’t integrate with the graphs since they also have Bluetooth and WiFi.

I am looking to add Vessel View Mobile to my 75HP 4-Stroke, but it seems to be out of stock or maybe discontinued? but it looks like the Smart Craft Connect is the same price and does pretty much the same thing, does anyone know the difference? Are there advantages to one or the other? Will either of those connect with my Lowrance graphs? or can I only do that with the full Vessel View Link?

What did you use it for? Did it work well for a lot of techniques? I can’t afford to have 20 rods that do 1 thing each which is why I am trying to have like 5-6 nice rods that do a lot of things.

I’m looking at upgrading my Medium or Medium Light casting rod and am having trouble deciding. I’m looking for a bit of a multi-purpose rod, but will probably use it most for Finesse Swimbaits(3”-4” range), Underspins, 1/4oz Chatterbaits, light t-rigs, Topwaters and jerkbaits. Looking at around 1/8-5/8oz lure range and I generally use braid to fluorocarbon leader. At first I was thinking Megabass Diablo Spec R, but even though they call it a Medium “do all” rod the line/lure ratings feel too high. My Med Hvy Victory has the same lure ratings. I was looking at the Cashion Icon Topwater/Jerkbait Rod since it claims to have a bit of a parabolic action, but the Micro Guides worry me since I use a leader. I have also considered the Shimano Curado Med Light or maybe even the Expride since everyone raves about them. I currently have a very old Fenwick HMX Med/Fast and it just doesn’t do it for me anymore with Poor sensitivity, heavy, etc. So, I’m open to advice and suggestions. Looking to stay around the $200-$225 range but could be convinced to go up to $300 if it’s worth it, like going Expride over Curado if it’s a true leap in quality.

I didn’t even know that Willow Springs had LMB & SMB until a couple years ago. Until I got the boat it didn’t matter much because if I was fishing those lakes it was with my dad and walking the bank long distances and trying to catch bass doesn’t play well with his old body, but I look forward to being able to fish for them now. Your remark about the Spin Cast reel makes me smile because I haven’t used one in so long even though my personal best was caught on an old Zebco 33 and a crudely repaired no name pole my grandpa gave me. Even better, it was caught beside my buddies using $300-$400 combos because their parents were tournament fishers. The good old Zebco 33 were bomb proof. In fact, I recently snagged a pole from the bottom of the lake that was covered in years of sediment and algae, it had a Zebco 33 on it & my dad cleaned it up and oiled it and got it working again just for fun. Getting back to the original topic, I guess I shouldn’t have been that shocked because I watch a video that said they had success in the winter by fishing both extremes, meaning less than 8ft of water or over 40ft depth, and that on either one the fish will hold next to cover that absorbs heat like large rocks instead of timber or brush piles. And that is exactly where all the fish I caught were at, less than 8ft of water & next to large rocks but NOT big rock walls. I guess the big rock walls don’t cause as much of a warm bubble as a large rock that is sort of seperated from the bank/rock walls where it creates a small area of temp change. I guess I should have seared his observations into my brain a little better so I remembered it on the water instead of 2 days after. Either way, I appreciate the advice & input of everyone and it’s good to confirm/be reminded that there really isn’t a “formula” for catching bass on any water at any place in the world at any time.

The other thing that made last weekend more fun was they were letting water in, so from one week to the next the lake was up 10 feet, and they are going to continue until Wednesday at about 2ft a day. The weeks previous I knew fish were chasing bait up creek, but after they let the water in, the bait was GONE! I didn’t see any bait all day. That also makes the “knowing your waters” a little harder, this lake can go from 40ft below full pool to 10ft below full pool in pretty short time. I’ve been marking the cover I can see because it had been down 40ft so when the water goes up, I’ll have a better idea of where things are. And yes, knowing your waters is great, but I’ve only had my boat for 2 months, haven’t had time for that yet, that’s why I was trying to follow some of the “guidelines” of bass fishing.

For those with a lot more experience than me, do winter rules really apply everywhere? I live in AZ, last weekend the water temps were 55-60F, I started off following the advice for Winter fishing and wasn’t finding any bait, hi or low, so I threw it out the window, went far up the creek channel to shallow water and started casting at cover on the bank and caught a bunch of fish when everyone else didn’t. Only a couple were decent size, but when everyone else caught a couple, I caught close to 20 in a 1/8 mile stretch of bank that everything said fish shouldn’t be there. So my questions is, do seasonal changes apply across the board? Yes, the water is colder, but it doesn’t match up to most peoples winter water temps. If my waters never get down that cold, will fish really go deep? I thought it was the change in temp that controlled their movements more than the overall water temp, but from what I have seen the last couple weeks, the fish aren’t all going deep and slowing down. Will it only happen below a certain water temp regardless of how slow that change comes?

I guess I should add, my thinking is that I would use the HDS10 for most things, but when I use the FFS I would put it on the HDS10 and would then use the Elite FS7 for my chart & DI instead of doing a split screen. That way I have the largest view possible for the FFS. Doing it this way would also allow me to use the HDS10 for DI and use the FS7 for the chart instead of using the split screen.

I am trying to figure out how to setup my 2 HDS Pro 10’s with and Elite FS 7 and Active Target 2. Obviously I don’t have enough Ethernet ports to do it without the NEP-2, my question is does it matter where I plug each thing in at on the NEP-2? Why do they put one Ethernet port on one side and 4 on the other? Are the all connected together? Or is the single side the “In” and the other side the “Out”? My other option would be to hook-up the HDS Pro 10 & Elite FS7 at the Bow along with the Active Target 2, and then have the HDS 10 at the console not connected via Ethernet but still connected via NMEA2000 so it could control the Ghost if needed? Maybe I will try that first before I spend the $300 on the NEP-2 because I doubt I will need to look at AT2 at the console very often. I guess they wouldn’t share waypoints that way, but can’t I save waypoints to the SD Card and transfer them that way?

It’s a Lowe Stinger 178. I do not have vessel view.

I have a 75HP Mercury 4-stroke that currently has a 4 blade Spitfire 13.4” x 15P propeller and am getting about 5,000 to 5,100RPM at WOT and only getting about 33-34MPH top speed. I would like to pickup a little more top end speed so I was thinking about trying a Turning Point 13.25” x 17P 4 blade hoping that slightly smaller diameter will make up for the increased pitch and keep me around 5,000RPM but wanted to ask the pros if I am thinking about this properly? I am new to boating but currently the boat seems to get up on plane just fine and stays on plane even at lower RPM so other than wanting a bit more top end the current prop seems good all around so I don’t think a huge change is necessary. I also did a prop slip calculation and currently only have 6% slip so I am in the proper range there. I worry that trying a 3 blade would make it harder to get on plane. I welcome any advice/input. P.S.-Do the add on/oversized cavitation plates really do anything?

Yes, it’s a different hub system. I’m obviously not an expert, but from what I have seen you might have a FloTorq 3 or 4 Hub system whereas I have a FloTorq 2. The only reason I used the torque wrench was to make sure it was done properly since I didn’t do the initial install. As it turns out, the torque wrench wasn’t very helpful anyhow because when I reached the suggested torque the nut and locking tabs were nowhere near lined up so if I had just tightened the nut until I felt it was tight and then lined it up, I probably would have ended up in the same place.

I knew the lower number was gear ratio, but I didn’t know what the two on top meant, but that makes sense, the tooth count of each gear. thanks!