12-06-2015, 09:41 PM
[center]![[Image: winner.gif]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/winner.gif)
[/center]
Air temp was mid 30s at the ramp as the sky started to get some color and water temp was 59 at Boulder Harbor/Lake Mead, NV. Mid day temps with the sun and essentially no wind made me wish for some shorts... The drive home was into the 50s.
A rare trip... No Madison. She gave me the look and a little attitude Friday but allowed a guys trip [
] Took a couple guys out with me (Robert and his brother Jason) so a full boat or at least as full as I would ever want it to be. Robert went fishing with Madi and me a couple years ago.
The objective was to load out their freezer since mine is good to go after last weekend. Did our best but only a little over 40 made it to the livewell by the end of the day. All typical 2-3 pounders with nothing special enough to call for a picture. Not bad but I had hopes to get into a school of them like Madi and I did last week where it was double and triples happening left and right pushing that number more into the triple digits. Didn't happen/it was one here and one there action. Pretty steady. Couldn't complain. The weather and company was the best.
Bait... My best bait day to date. First swing nothing. Second swing... I almost couldn't pull/lift the net into the boat. Chocked full of nothing but premium sized Shads. Nothing small. Since that went so fast I spent a few more minutes casting just to be greedy. Several ones and twos and then another net almost as good as the first good one. Called it after less than 10 minutes as good to go fishing. We fished until almost sunset and never needed to go back for bait. Was super nice having the baitwell so chocked full and not having to be "conservative" on keeping a good lively one on the end of the line.
The fish are starting to go deeper. Not deeper like in 100s of feet but closer to the bottom. Not nearly as much found in the mid water column/suspended this trip. So a lot more of let the sinker hit the bottom then 3-6 turns of the handle up. (Bait 4-12 feet off bottom.) We fished in 30-120 feet of water. Occasionally getting some suspended mid way in the water column but most where closer to the bottom.
I never asked about fish finder knowledge, etc but after I pointed out to Jason on my Humminbird here is your weight, etc he started to use the Humminbird like a expert video game star. He had that baby figured out and kicked our tails for the most part all day. I had him set-up fishing out of the back of the boat with his line going down essentially directly under the transducer so he had the best view of what was happening irt his bait. He was able to call almost all of his catches before they happened. The rest of the time he watched the screen like a hawk and adjusted his depth to what was being seen real time. Works... He really caught 'em.
Jumper cables... Been in the sealed oem bag since I bought the boat 4 years ago. That bag is no longer sealed. Sure as heck about 10am we went to move and get click, click, click. Lesson learned... I rarely ever charge the rear battery since the big motors alternator does one heck of a good job of that. But last weekend Madi and I fished 8+ hours. 8+ hours of 3 500gph pumps running, 2 Humminbirds, etc. Only making the run to the wash and back so not a whole lot of big motor running time. I'd of almost prefered to use the trolling motor to get back to the marina over having to go through what it would of taken to get one of the batteries up front out and move it to the back to get the boat started... Would of been a MAJOR pain. So glad I had jumper cables... Got it started and did some scouting around plus let it idle for a while and it was good to go the rest of the day. I didn't run the livewell aerator or fresh water pump that much the rest of the day being conservative on the battery. Needless to say that battery is being fully charged right now. It was hurting.
So with that I had Jason move to the front of the boat several times through the day and I'd break out the fillet board and knock out what was in the livewell since the water wasn't being kept up to the freshest standards... I had plenty of gallon ziplocks and a cooler full of ice ready to receive the fresh fillets. Certainly makes the end of the day cleanup that much easier having the fish cleaning part already done.
Last weekend we had our first boat failure. The rear aerator pump kept blowing fuses. After mucho fun tearing the rear of the boat apart to find said pump mounted directly to the side of the livewell it ended up being a simple fix. The plastic prop on the Johnson 500gph pump had slipped/moved some on the shaft (press fit). Thus it was hitting the bottom of the housing and stalling out the motor. Moved/pressed it back up the shaft and was fine yesterday. At least for the 4 hours we ran it until I became battery conservative. The bonus to all of that fun was that I was able to install a 12 volt outlet back there that I had been wanting to do for the baitwell. Super duper nice having that verse running 10+ feet of wire to the dash for power.
Fun getting to the rear aerator pump...
![[Image: TrackerV175WT478.jpg]](http://www.outlawrc.com/stuff/fishing/Tracker%20175WT/RearLivewell/TrackerV175WT478.jpg)
New 12 volt outlet tucked under the corner.
![[Image: TrackerV175WT484.jpg]](http://www.outlawrc.com/stuff/fishing/Tracker%20175WT/Baitwell/TrackerV175WT484.jpg)
Speaking of baitwell... A update finally on the one I built several months back.
post is here:
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=947366;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;page=unread#unread"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/...d;page=unread#unread[/url]
Works for me []
We had bait in it from sun up to sun set with only a couple being tossed yesterday in the later part of the day. Zero fuss zero anything but do what it is suppose to do. Couldn't be happier. Only made one change to it from the previous weekend/first time using it and that was the water inlet line. I had it feeding to the bottom of the tank and pointing in a direction to make the water circulate clockwise. We lost more Shad than I cared for last weekend (smaller ones so might of been the main issue) so all I changed was shortening up that line to about half way down and drilled holes in it. So it still shoots water to the lower depths and directs it a pinch to the clockwise direction but also shoots some up in the upper portions of the tank in a clockwise pattern. Small change but made a difference! Now thinking about it I might of been able to just leave it going all the way to the bottom and just drill the holes... Would of done the same thing. Regardless happy with how this one works. It's simple, portable, small but yet 15 gallons, etc.
![[Image: TrackerV175WT486.jpg]](http://www.outlawrc.com/stuff/fishing/Tracker%20175WT/Baitwell/TrackerV175WT486.jpg)
![[Image: TrackerV175WT487.jpg]](http://www.outlawrc.com/stuff/fishing/Tracker%20175WT/Baitwell/TrackerV175WT487.jpg)
![[Image: TrackerV175WT490.jpg]](http://www.outlawrc.com/stuff/fishing/Tracker%20175WT/Baitwell/TrackerV175WT490.jpg)
Tom
[font "Times New Roman"] [/font][font "Times New Roman"] [/font]
[signature]
[/center] Air temp was mid 30s at the ramp as the sky started to get some color and water temp was 59 at Boulder Harbor/Lake Mead, NV. Mid day temps with the sun and essentially no wind made me wish for some shorts... The drive home was into the 50s.
A rare trip... No Madison. She gave me the look and a little attitude Friday but allowed a guys trip [
] Took a couple guys out with me (Robert and his brother Jason) so a full boat or at least as full as I would ever want it to be. Robert went fishing with Madi and me a couple years ago. The objective was to load out their freezer since mine is good to go after last weekend. Did our best but only a little over 40 made it to the livewell by the end of the day. All typical 2-3 pounders with nothing special enough to call for a picture. Not bad but I had hopes to get into a school of them like Madi and I did last week where it was double and triples happening left and right pushing that number more into the triple digits. Didn't happen/it was one here and one there action. Pretty steady. Couldn't complain. The weather and company was the best.
Bait... My best bait day to date. First swing nothing. Second swing... I almost couldn't pull/lift the net into the boat. Chocked full of nothing but premium sized Shads. Nothing small. Since that went so fast I spent a few more minutes casting just to be greedy. Several ones and twos and then another net almost as good as the first good one. Called it after less than 10 minutes as good to go fishing. We fished until almost sunset and never needed to go back for bait. Was super nice having the baitwell so chocked full and not having to be "conservative" on keeping a good lively one on the end of the line.
The fish are starting to go deeper. Not deeper like in 100s of feet but closer to the bottom. Not nearly as much found in the mid water column/suspended this trip. So a lot more of let the sinker hit the bottom then 3-6 turns of the handle up. (Bait 4-12 feet off bottom.) We fished in 30-120 feet of water. Occasionally getting some suspended mid way in the water column but most where closer to the bottom.
I never asked about fish finder knowledge, etc but after I pointed out to Jason on my Humminbird here is your weight, etc he started to use the Humminbird like a expert video game star. He had that baby figured out and kicked our tails for the most part all day. I had him set-up fishing out of the back of the boat with his line going down essentially directly under the transducer so he had the best view of what was happening irt his bait. He was able to call almost all of his catches before they happened. The rest of the time he watched the screen like a hawk and adjusted his depth to what was being seen real time. Works... He really caught 'em.
Jumper cables... Been in the sealed oem bag since I bought the boat 4 years ago. That bag is no longer sealed. Sure as heck about 10am we went to move and get click, click, click. Lesson learned... I rarely ever charge the rear battery since the big motors alternator does one heck of a good job of that. But last weekend Madi and I fished 8+ hours. 8+ hours of 3 500gph pumps running, 2 Humminbirds, etc. Only making the run to the wash and back so not a whole lot of big motor running time. I'd of almost prefered to use the trolling motor to get back to the marina over having to go through what it would of taken to get one of the batteries up front out and move it to the back to get the boat started... Would of been a MAJOR pain. So glad I had jumper cables... Got it started and did some scouting around plus let it idle for a while and it was good to go the rest of the day. I didn't run the livewell aerator or fresh water pump that much the rest of the day being conservative on the battery. Needless to say that battery is being fully charged right now. It was hurting.
So with that I had Jason move to the front of the boat several times through the day and I'd break out the fillet board and knock out what was in the livewell since the water wasn't being kept up to the freshest standards... I had plenty of gallon ziplocks and a cooler full of ice ready to receive the fresh fillets. Certainly makes the end of the day cleanup that much easier having the fish cleaning part already done.
Last weekend we had our first boat failure. The rear aerator pump kept blowing fuses. After mucho fun tearing the rear of the boat apart to find said pump mounted directly to the side of the livewell it ended up being a simple fix. The plastic prop on the Johnson 500gph pump had slipped/moved some on the shaft (press fit). Thus it was hitting the bottom of the housing and stalling out the motor. Moved/pressed it back up the shaft and was fine yesterday. At least for the 4 hours we ran it until I became battery conservative. The bonus to all of that fun was that I was able to install a 12 volt outlet back there that I had been wanting to do for the baitwell. Super duper nice having that verse running 10+ feet of wire to the dash for power.
Fun getting to the rear aerator pump...
New 12 volt outlet tucked under the corner.
Speaking of baitwell... A update finally on the one I built several months back.
post is here:
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=947366;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;page=unread#unread"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/...d;page=unread#unread[/url]
Works for me [
] We had bait in it from sun up to sun set with only a couple being tossed yesterday in the later part of the day. Zero fuss zero anything but do what it is suppose to do. Couldn't be happier. Only made one change to it from the previous weekend/first time using it and that was the water inlet line. I had it feeding to the bottom of the tank and pointing in a direction to make the water circulate clockwise. We lost more Shad than I cared for last weekend (smaller ones so might of been the main issue) so all I changed was shortening up that line to about half way down and drilled holes in it. So it still shoots water to the lower depths and directs it a pinch to the clockwise direction but also shoots some up in the upper portions of the tank in a clockwise pattern. Small change but made a difference! Now thinking about it I might of been able to just leave it going all the way to the bottom and just drill the holes... Would of done the same thing. Regardless happy with how this one works. It's simple, portable, small but yet 15 gallons, etc.
Tom
[font "Times New Roman"] [/font][font "Times New Roman"] [/font]
[signature]
]![[Image: TrackerV175WT238.jpg]](http://outlawrc.com/stuff/fishing/Tracker%20175WT/Batteries/TrackerV175WT238.jpg){kind=tracking}
![[Image: TrackerV175WT323.jpg]](http://outlawrc.com/stuff/fishing/Tracker%20175WT/Batteries/TrackerV175WT323.jpg){kind=tracking}
![[Image: LakeMead_09-19-15_012.jpg]](http://www.outlawrc.com/stuff/fishing/2015/Mead/LakeMead_09-19-15_012.jpg)
![[Image: 2544898_orig.jpg]](http://21cn5kfnjwy2cbxeu2zo2rck.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2015/11/2544898_orig.jpg)