07-11-2009, 02:34 AM
I took Katie today to see if she could catch some fish, and to see if the Eagle Fishmark 480 is any good.
First Katie's day. We launched at 7:00am sharp. Katie was dragging a worm with a bobber to find trout. I started to drag for cats, and tossed a jig.
Fishing was WAY slower than a month ago. Water temp was 68 at launch and got to 74 by 4:00pm. Katies first fish was a little cat but he gave her a good fight on her ultra light.
Her next fish put a BIG bend in her pole. I hurried over to see what she had thinking man I hope that is a cat. It was a southern Idaho Wipper.
She got a lot of fish today including another Southern Idaho wipper. In total I think she got 8 or 10 fish. She had a load of fun, and wants to go try for bass and walleye next.
Now for the Eagle 480. I borowed a friends 480 about a week ago fir a couple of hours. I didn't get to test it super well but I liked what I saw. I ordered me one and installed it on the fish finder system I made for the Lying Larry (aka Cuda 300".
Well first off I can say that the 480 is a LOT better unit. When I hit this lake a month ago I got a TON of fales fish signals. To the point I went to raw mode, and adjusted the sensitivity and in all the FF didn't work here that well.
Also I was getting the mulitple vertical lines I see when I am over or around Basalt rock. In shallow water over basalt I would get depth signals that would say 180' in water I could touch bottom with a flipper.
Today with the 480 There were times I would see fish on the finder drop a hook and it was fish on. I didn't get to use it over 15' today. Time will tell how good it works in deeper water but from what I saw today it was a good change. The bottom of the lake has some weeds starting to grow. I could see fish in the weeds. Some of the places I fished today were VERY shallow, and had Basalt. Basalt caused the 300 to wig out. In fact this area was so bad with the 300 I could hardly use it. In the one picture the basalt is less than 3 foot down, and the 480 didn't wig out. The Cuda would have had a stroke. In this same spot I always shut off the 300 because I was afraid it would break it down the way it was acting.
For a first try I say it was a good test. The basalt was no problem at all. It saw fish that I caught, and I fished all day, 9 hours, and only dropped 1/10th of a volt.
I am going to try it out at Salmon dam, or maybe other spots on the snake for cats.
Time will tell but I like it so far.
Back to fishing. Katie had a good day but I didn't get skunked. I didn't get any cats over 14" today. I did get a ton of them but we turned them all loose to grow up. Katie got the biggest fish, I got the smallest, a perch about 3" long. In all today was a good day with my daughter. Ron
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First Katie's day. We launched at 7:00am sharp. Katie was dragging a worm with a bobber to find trout. I started to drag for cats, and tossed a jig.
Fishing was WAY slower than a month ago. Water temp was 68 at launch and got to 74 by 4:00pm. Katies first fish was a little cat but he gave her a good fight on her ultra light.
Her next fish put a BIG bend in her pole. I hurried over to see what she had thinking man I hope that is a cat. It was a southern Idaho Wipper.
She got a lot of fish today including another Southern Idaho wipper. In total I think she got 8 or 10 fish. She had a load of fun, and wants to go try for bass and walleye next.
Now for the Eagle 480. I borowed a friends 480 about a week ago fir a couple of hours. I didn't get to test it super well but I liked what I saw. I ordered me one and installed it on the fish finder system I made for the Lying Larry (aka Cuda 300".
Well first off I can say that the 480 is a LOT better unit. When I hit this lake a month ago I got a TON of fales fish signals. To the point I went to raw mode, and adjusted the sensitivity and in all the FF didn't work here that well.
Also I was getting the mulitple vertical lines I see when I am over or around Basalt rock. In shallow water over basalt I would get depth signals that would say 180' in water I could touch bottom with a flipper.
Today with the 480 There were times I would see fish on the finder drop a hook and it was fish on. I didn't get to use it over 15' today. Time will tell how good it works in deeper water but from what I saw today it was a good change. The bottom of the lake has some weeds starting to grow. I could see fish in the weeds. Some of the places I fished today were VERY shallow, and had Basalt. Basalt caused the 300 to wig out. In fact this area was so bad with the 300 I could hardly use it. In the one picture the basalt is less than 3 foot down, and the 480 didn't wig out. The Cuda would have had a stroke. In this same spot I always shut off the 300 because I was afraid it would break it down the way it was acting.
For a first try I say it was a good test. The basalt was no problem at all. It saw fish that I caught, and I fished all day, 9 hours, and only dropped 1/10th of a volt.
I am going to try it out at Salmon dam, or maybe other spots on the snake for cats.
Time will tell but I like it so far.
Back to fishing. Katie had a good day but I didn't get skunked. I didn't get any cats over 14" today. I did get a ton of them but we turned them all loose to grow up. Katie got the biggest fish, I got the smallest, a perch about 3" long. In all today was a good day with my daughter. Ron
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