Fished Strawberry today and was able to test out my new Lowrance HDS 5 fish finder and MinnKota Terrova electric trolling motor. I have been fishing all spring and summer without a fish finder or electric trolling motor. Sure had fun playing with the toys and even caught a few fish.
Because of last minute installation of the trolling motor, we got a late start. I actually finished wiring the motor to the boat on the lake. We launched at about 11am. Water temp. (according to the new finder) was 48 F. After playing around with the finder and trolling motor for about an hour or so we decided to get serious about fishing. We cruised the shoreline (on auto-pilot of course) and cast 3" white tube jigs tipped with minnows toward shore. Catching was fairly steady once we found a hot spot. Strikes usually occurred right at or near shore. Although I had one fish go after my jig right as I was lifting it out of the water at the boat. Despite the windy conditions, we had a good day on the water.
I hope we get another warm spell after this next storm. I'm excited for ice fishing but I would like to play with my new boat toys many more times before it gets wintry.
Attached are photos of a fat 18"+ rainbow and a 20" cutthroat.
[signature]
i bought a 36 volt 101 Terrova auto pilot. arent they the [url "mailto:S#@t"]S#@t[/url]. i also did a onboard four bank charger. i have been running a 787 humming bird and im having problems with interferance from my electric motor when i mount it up front. but im gonna up grade this next year to a 798 cisi i want to learn that side image. but having 36 volts and those trolling motors have a built in maximizer. those things will troll for days. i can get 2.8 per hour out of mine with the 24 footer. but the auto pilot is ideal for working in the wind. How many miles per out do you get with your outfit and what size of boat to you have.
Pikeman
Go fish !!!!
[signature]
[#000000]
[#000000]Hookngrinin [/#000000]
I just got the MinnKota Terrova 101 plus a 510C Lowrance. The trolling motor is going to take some getting use to after using the cable drive. I love the auto-pilot also. On MinnKota's web-site they are advertising a GPS add-on "Ipilot" for $400 that will keep you within 5 ft.
Of a set point.
Looks like you had a great day fishing. I did exactly what you did today "Sunday" same lure and everything but we did try others and ended up with one. Wind was blowing and it was COLD.
[/#000000]
[signature]
Pikeman
What kind of interferance are you having?
I have the Terrova 101 on a 21" fish and ski and can hit 3.6 mph. And you are right, they are easy on the battery.
[signature]
PIKEMAN I bought the 24 volt Terrova 80 and put it on my 18' open bow Sea Ray. Friday was the first time I used the motor. It had no problems moving the boat and holding us on track to where we wanted to go. I didn't test it for max speed. I was using it at about half speed to get into position and then very low speed to track along the shoreline.
As far as the interference with your finder, when I set my sonar up, the manual said to be sure to connect the finder to the cranking battery and not the batteries used for the electric trolling motor or you will get interference.
The 787 Humminbird is a very nice unit I also looked at the Humminbird side imaging units. The 798c SI with side imaging would be a great unit. It's amazing what the new units can do. I really like the idea of having GPS and sonar together in one unit then add side imaging and now you have the ultimate unit.
[signature]
According to Johnsons out doors you will have interference if you run it to your same batteries. So I run my wires down to my crank battery. Still no help. Johnsons sent me a couple of interference rings to set on the line still no help. I can't even get the minnikota rep to go for a ride to show him. The interference is when the power is on, the screen has three colors shading it . Hard to describe but it is definitly not right. Alot of money invested in some thing that does not work right. Pikeman go fish.
[signature]
Isolate your Fish-Finders power and Transducer from your 36 V power cables.
Can't you simulate the problem with the boat on the trailer? If not have you thought of taking a picture of your screen when you have the problem?
[signature]
i guess i could run the cables down the opposite side of the boat and then across the inboard to the battery because i havent done that yet yes i did take pictures of my screen with my digtal camera and i had them for about 8 months but i didnt have anyone that had a concern to see them not even the people at jonsons outdoors so i deleted them
Pikeman
Go fish !!!!!!
[signature]
That really sucks, I had problems with my new #727. Got a new cable that didn't work, sent it in and it came back alittle better but still isn't right so I put it on the back of the boat and bought a Lowrance for up front. Customer Service just sucks every where and you would think they would be climbing all over you because of how slow everthing is. You did try [url "mailto:cservice@johnsonoutdoors.com"]cservice@johnsonoutdoors.com[/url]
right?
Well try seperating your runs, we would have simular problems at work. The main thing would be the transducer but not knowing excatly how the Maximizer works the 12 volt power line for the Fish Finder might not be a bad idea
[signature]