MrGiggles

Nice work, it's shaping up to be a nice spring, all we need is a couple warm rains to really kick it in gear.

Likely just a lipo battery with an inverter. They seem to keep the specifics under wraps and only give a 1000w/hr rating. Given that, you could put 250 watts into your batteries for 4 hours (at 12v that would be 20ish amps divided into however many batteries you have) with it. May or may not be enough to top up your trolling batteries, would depend on how many you have and how depleted they are. I was going to suggest a 100ah lipo battery, inverter, and a solar charger, which you could just plug your onboard charger into. It would also allow you to run some simple lighting or other electrical circuits in the building. The Jackery does two out of three and is conveniently packaged, plus has other uses, not a bad choice. You could save some efficiency losses by cutting out the DC-AC-DC conversions, but I don't know how you could do it in a way that would allow you to charge each battery individually in a convenient, neat manner. A multi-bank solar charger would be what you want, but I'm not that familiar with solar setups.

I was a little curious too. They're saying a 4 ounce difference between the first and second weigh ins. A 1/2" steel ball bearing would weigh about three tenths of an ounce. 3/4" would be about an ounce if my math is right. Sure seems like a stretch for just those two ball bearings to amount to 4 ounces.

I used to go about once a week but have been down to maybe once a month here lately. Another job and side projects are to blame. Fishing is on the back burner now. And to be completely honest, I feel like I burned myself out on it. Some time away helped.

Main lake is clear as a bell and still about 40*. Crappie bite is still good, still a lot of short fish though.

End of February at the earliest, and you will pick up stragglers through the beginning of April typically. Early can be bang or bust but your chances of catching the big fish are much higher. Spawn fishing can be bang or bust in general though. I've never had any luck with jerkbaits, usually just cast a 1/8 or 1/16 crappie jig with a good size swimming minnow type plastic. Slow retrieve. It's no big secret, this time of year there'll usually be a dozen or more boats around every point by the dam at dusk.

Oddly enough I've had several vehicles come in with misfires, hard starting, in general running like crap. Pull the plugs and you could just about pass a pencil through the gap, originals with 100k+ miles on them. They last so long people don't really think about them anymore, but they do wear out. It also doesn't help that manufacturers seem to be playing a never-ending game of "where can I hide this where nobody would find it," so changing them is labor intensive. I also had a run-in one time with some fake Denso iridiums from Amazon. The electrodes completely eroded within about 3 months time, those plugs should've lasted 50k miles or more. Don't buy parts from Amazon. I had a commercial pressure washer come in once with a 13hp Honda, would run for about a minute and shut down like clockwork. Went through the fuel system, had good spark when it quit, was just about to pull my hair out when I decided to try a different plug. Fixed, ran like a champ.

I went out tonight. Had a couple whites, half a dozen short crappie, three keepers, and two keeper walleye. All on deep main lake brush, #5 jigging rap. I did chase schools of shad for a while and caught the whites doing that.

I think my dad is still a little upset with me for dropping his Stanley thermos. Found out the hard way that they're lined with glass.

Stopped by Walmart yesterday in Warsaw, they had a bunch of coolers on clearance. Most were 50% off. I grabbed one of the 25qt soft coolers for 50 bucks, hard to beat. If you're in need, might want to stop by.

I usually start with about two rod lengths, gives you a dozen or so reties.

I may give that FG knot a try. Been using the alberto forever, but tends to snag in the guides, especially with lighter jigs. Very annoying and I haven't found a solution yet.

Even the gravel was bad this morning. Solid sheets. From what I've seen 13 has been moving along pretty well but the side roads are still bad. Tried to leave for work (post office) but decided to just stay in, not worth it. Our trucks wouldn't make it anyway. Triple mail tomorrow but better than being upside down in a ditch. It's melting off pretty quickly already, still lightly raining here off an on. At this rate I'd expect it to be mostly gone early afternoon.

1. Make a mid-tier product. 2. Market it to the yuppies and middle class soccer moms as an exclusive premium brand, a status symbol if you will. 3. Profit. I think Stanley is really giving them a run for their money now, the guys in their marketing department need a raise. Never would've expected the maker of grandpa's thermos to have such an impact on the giant cup industry. I was given a Yeti tumbler, it's nice enough I guess, the finish is pretty durable, but the lid leaks if you tip it over. What's the point of having a lid if the darn thing leaks?? I also never understood the concept of a cup that will keep something hot or cold for hours on end. Is it just an accessory? Must not be very thirsty if the cup stays full all day.

I tend to do a lot of hail mary sits where the wind may or may not be right. They are so variable and swirly here in hill country that I've found trying to plan around them is almost a waste of time, and if the wind is perfect for you, the big buck is probably not gonna show if he is nose-blind. It's incredible how a buck will bed and use the prevailing/thermal winds to cover nearly all directions. Just about impossible to get the jump on one.

You won't convince me. Their nose is insane. Nothing short of sitting in a bubble with remote ventilation is going to fool it. I don't believe in Scentloks activated charcoal BS, but they make some killer wind/waterproof gear so they've got that going for them at least. 😆

I'd be most worried about the cheap batteries from Amazon/ebay. Any other no-name chinese electronic on there is pretty much guaranteed to be garbage, the BMS in those batteries is likely to be no different.

This is an important detail. The picture I posted earlier was a little misleading and no fault of the battery, the shop that installed the haybed didn't put any protection on the wiring for that third battery. It rubbed through and touched the hydraulic unit on the left side. Was quite a show. The crazier part, since the ground wires on that rig apparently weren't very conductive, it cooked the brake lines and many of the smaller ground wires in the harness during the meltdown.

I'd suspect floods have a lot to do with transplanting fish. All bodies of water are connected one way or another.

The big downside to running a single 24v is that it prevents you from running any of the common marine onboard chargers. Chargers like the Noco have a lithium setting and will charge them without an issue. Two 100ah's are more than enough. Those 31s you were running were probably close to 100ah, but you only had 50-60 available since you shouldn't run them below ~50%. Lithiums can be discharged near 100%.

https://bass-archives.com/rebel-and-cordell-boats/ Bet it didn't take too long to suck down that 12 gallon gas tank.

In addition to those Valence lithiums for the trolling motor, I have a 12ah Wieze(?) lithium for front graphs and electronics. Aside from being a touch small for longer trips, it's been in there for a couple years now and still works well. I have a Noco charger that takes care of all three. I've got two of those Valence batteries sitting on the shelf, at some point in the future I may use one of them as a house/electronics battery, but it would require some pretty extensive rewiring so it's not a priority right now.

They're not all the same. Many brands have been disassembled and tested by Youtubers, do some research before you buy. I have Valence (used batteries salvaged from medical equipment) lithiums. A buddy has Ionics and likes them. I think prices have fallen enough now that it's a pretty easy decision. Huge weight savings, way longer lifespan, more capacity (can discharge them nearly 100%,) and pretty much no drop in performance as they discharge.

The little Rude is ticking along perfectly, but I've had a dead battery twice now so it seems to have a current draw somewhere. Any thoughts @fishinwrench? I figured I would just put my meter in series and start unplugging stuff, the rectifier being the prime suspect. It does charge and everything electrical seems to work fine. I checked the gauges on the water today and they are wired correctly and not staying on. I haven't changed any accessory wiring in the boat so that shouldn't be a problem.