FsnMachine

can someone explane to me how one finds the thermocline whith a fish finder? :(

I just recived the hsd 5 and was wondering if somone can direct me on how to find the thermocline using this unit. In past yeas i would just have fish id on and see what it did but this year i want to play a lot more with the finder.

Any other advice i can get using the hds5 would be great

Thanks

First turn off the fish ID. You want to learn to read the marks and not let the finder interprit what it sees. Then you may ned to play with the sensitivity but you will see the thermocline as a false bottom. It will look like a bottom line say at 60 feet and yet you see your hard bottom line at say 200 feet. It varies from a faint line to looking like bottom.

If they are paralleled, it doesn't matter where you hook up. (As long as you don't hook black to red or vice versa.)

Agreed Correct.

I want to ad a 2 bank charger to my boat. My two batteries are wired in series, should i hook the charger to both batteries or hook the leads to just one? If I hook to both will it fight itself being they are wired in series?

If it is a 24 volt charger hook it across both.

The first year I ran wire I just used my dipsy rods. The following year I added Torpedo twili tops. I was not real pleased with it. The twili tops are Ok but the Walker dipsy rods are real soft on the ends which gives a nice feel but with the added weight on the end it was just to bouncy when deploying etc. I may end up putting them on a different dipsy rod with a little stockier end. This year I just changed a couple wire rods over to Shimano Tolora roller rods and can't wait to get out to and try them.

I have a Ranger Salmon net with the extendable pole. Its been great and its actually my second one. If someone wants one I can give you the GPS coodinates for my first one. You just need to figure out how to snag it out of the bottom of Lake Erie. Oooppps. It was actually a buddy of mine that dropped it off my boat.

Be careful not to over grease. Look at the springs. If the plate and zerk that the spring pushes against is way in and the spring is not compressed you can add grease as you watch the spring and plate move out. Don't let the plate travel enough to totally compress the spring. It's very easy to blow the seals by over greasing. When I first got my boat the previous owner over greased and I had a brake drum partially filled with grease. I had to do a brake job as well as replace bearing and seals.

Yes I pump them up till the plate just starts to compress or push on the spring.

Maybe you should try a Torpedo Diver instead. It will give you the same results but are more streamlined than a 1 LB ball and won't cause near as much drag.

I have some friends that have had islanders and I was hesitant to considered one myself. I do like my heavy Fiberglass 22 foot. the islanders are pulled by much lighter tow vehicle and cost less on gas to operate so there are a lot of advantages. Why not consider an islander which might be easier to get your hands on one. Anyway the trips I have taken on them have been good. They bob around more like a marshmellow and you get a rougher ride than you would in my 4000 LB plus boat but I did not feel unsafe. And they have enough power on 4 cylinder.

Regardless of dia. and depth. It has a feel far superior to braid. You will feel every shake and move of the fish. No stretch at all. I use a 19 strand 30 lb wire which is less prone to kinking etc over 7 strand

I looked at all of these at the Ultimate sport show this past weekend and couldn't see any difference between them other than the finish. I know traxtec and Bert's can be interchanged, i don't know about cannon. I personally have Bert's.

All three are interchangable. Just finished different. I happen to have Traxstech and kind of like that finish but have bought a few extra used pieces as well that don't have the same finish but couldn't beat the price.

I had to fix my gas tank last year including cutting out a section of floor. I used exterior grade plywood but it all got coated and covered with Fiberglass resin. Hopefully I have no access for moisture. Then I covered it with a one peice rubber commercial flooring ( like they use in buses etc). I wrapped it up the walls and seal all edge. The water that gets on top should have no place but into the bilge.

That is a short shaft. Sorry to say it is not likely going to work.

As per the previous replies. Go with 30 to 50 lb braid not mono. Stretchy mono can be a frustrating experience when trying to trip a diver.

I have a pair of the Amish buggy bags. Actually its the beefy buggy bags which for a few bucks more are even heavier. I have them both pretied and attached to cleats so I can throw them over the side or pull the dump line to get them out of the way should a fish take a run under the boat. I did re prop the boat to slow it down and only use them now with a stiff wind on my backside.

Hey I like the boat. I had, but sold last spring an SS200. That boat and I had a lot of memories and caught a lot of nice fish. I sold it to get something just a little bigger plus the ss200 had an OMC outdrive which treated us fine but didn't want trouble.

I was using my Walker 10 foot dipsy rods with wire and it work OK. Last year I put twili tops on them and don't like it. The twili tops are to heavy on the end of the soft Wlker rod with too much bounce. Sometimes in rough water the twili will flip up and you need to stop reeling to flip down.I fished a tournament last fall on a friends boat. He uses all wire and all twili tops nad I was sick of them after 2 12 hour days. Anyway I like the feel of the Walker rods but not with twili tops. I picked up a couple of Tolora roller rods for the up coming season and can't wait to try them.

I run sliders all the time any sea conditions. I run sliders that are 3 -4 foot long and never have tangles. I only have three riggers on my boat and the beam is 10 foot. I did run four riggers on my old boat that had a 8 foot beam. If the lake was rough I only ran two sliders to help prevent tangles. I use blacks releases and sharpen all hooks even on new spoons. I rarely loose fish on sliders. If I start getting short hits I speed up a little and the hook will catch them. I do put alot of bend in my rigger rods. I usually run my sliders free so they are around half the depth of cannon ball. I do not run a slider on a SWR, or a line with a spin doctor and fly. Those are the only setups when I do not have three sliders. Watch the hook on the lower lure when netting. I have never been hooked but had some close calls. Most of the time when two fish are caught I think one was hitching a ride. Rarely do I catch 2 nice fish at the same time on the same pole. Pay attention to the rod tips and you will see when you have a hitch hiker. Sometimes a small hitch hiker will turn off the bite on your whole spread.

Yes I hear you on the hitchhikers. We will often get a small walleye or perch (lake erie) Coho or Pink (lake huron) for a hitchhiker. I am not sure what happened in the pic I posted. It is a fair size Walleye and it was not drowned from hitchhiking but rahther fresh and fiesty. I have a Charter Captain friend who will start pulling his rigger lines of the clips to trigger strikes when the bite is off and it does work. And it does go to show that a change in action of the bait will trigger a strike when you have followers.

I do also as you said load up or put a lot of bend on my rods as well.

One factor I would consider with the free slider is your ability to net the fish. When you get a fish on the slider you will only be able to reel up till the main spoon gets to the eyes of the rod. Now if you have an 8 foot slider you will need to be able to lift the rod or walk back far enough to be able to net the fish. I use about 6 feet for free sliders on my boat. On Erie we sometimes get double headers with a Rainbow on the slider and a walleye on the main spoon. You need to be able to net both as well so you won't want to long a slider. You will have to be able to net the fish on the main first lift up and reel up and then be able to scoop the second fish. It's fun the first time you try it. Well for that mater its always fun. Here is a double header from last August on Erie. Can't wait to get back on the open water.

HDS units are the same way.

Yes I had hoped and assumed that was a feature they would carry forward to the new products.

I have a Lowrance 522C and you can use split screen, But you can also change the size of each side too. You can have you GPS 3" and your sonar 2".

Another one this week at the Port Huron Sarnia Border. An Indiana company charged.

http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3009657

Keep me updated on what you do, I received an I pad for 25yrs of service , right now its just an extra computer, with some fun apps.

and a place to put my pictures.

Will do but likely something that may take a while.

My stuff all comes off the tracks and goes in the garage. Yea its take some time.

I have been just looking into this myself. I had also been talking to a Navionics rep at a boating show. He suggested we may want to try thr app for Ipad's. Since the new Ipad is now out I may consider this as I could also take onto the boat and would be more portable that a laptop. So rather than look at a pc app I may consider the Ipad app INAVX. You can then allo download ENC or RNC rasters from NoAA as well as buy the Navionics maps.

I currently use Lowrance on the boat and as a handheld with the Canada Premiere chip and a Great Lakes chip.

I thought this might be a rinky dink solution on an Ipad but any googling so far seems to point out that this is a respected and used solution in the sailing communities. I even told my wife it may be only good for use in the cuddy in adverse weather but I also see they make weather poof cases for this purpose.

Anybody else know more about this?

My wife goes fishing with me so she knows that the many type of fishing we do all need different stuff. She also understands the different changeups required so she usually does not mind when i say I need something for .....