Bill Babler

Great tip Wrench. I've not had a sealed battery boil over but I'm sure it could happen, I've just not had it. Didn't know why it worked but it really makes a difference in performance and I'm guessing longevity as mine have loved me a vey,vey long time. Thanks.

Lithium are not designed for cranking. They are deep cycle Trolling motor. Any 50 plus amp charger will work. They don't even make the one I have anymore. The Garmin are way to picky on power. Just shut off the warning. If it gets to 11.2 they drive you nuts. Your poor start is a different animal. Don't know why it would but you can add an additional battery to your boat functions to keep the cranked up. Mine is no problem all day with 4 graphs and a ProGuide series 31 110 AH.

I don't think contrast is the same as gain or sensitivity. They have both settings on my Garmin and my Lowrance units and they are different. Might be the same on the bird, I just don't know. Bobby go to the top color palette and try Rusted Steel. It is totally amazing. It distinguishes between hard and soft bottom and the fish are amazingly bright. It is so easy to see them in trees as the limbs are a totally different color than the fish. You can also see them RIGHT ON THE BOTTOM as they are a different color than the bottom. It also distinguishes the size of the fish so much you can see the different sizes by ounces in a school. This is all new, you may have it. When I put on the new 126sv ultra last week the tech told me about it. It was preprogrammed into the new unit. You can also get it thru an update. Game changer.

I have Minn Kota, on my aluminum boat, and I'm not switching to Lithium I'm going to stay with the AGM that are not broken. As fast as stuff is changing right now, I would not be to froggy to change anything if its all working. Lowrance already has a new upgrade for Active Target. Has not been out a year. Just got a flyer today. It's Live 360, I mentioned Garmin was working on it last week in a thread Dutch posted, well here it is.

The ones I bought are $950.00 @ tax included. I will tell you Minn Kota has had a problem with Lithium power. Their trolling motors are very sensitive to a high charged battery, they have a protective device in the motor to prevent it from burning up from excess voltage. No problem with the AGM that comes in at 13.3v but for sure a problem with a lithium that is coming in at 13.7 or .8. I think Minn Kota suggests 12.8 as maximum voltage regardless if it is a 12/24/36. Size motor. This can be remedied by finishing your charge at 80%. If you do fully charge it you can bleed off the charge till the motor thinks it is safe. You can also buy a lithium charge system that you can program to finish the charge at 12.8 The brushless motors don't have to worry about it, so no problem. I will also say and I bet Minn Kota is on the cusp of a 24/36 in a brushless. That said paying for 2 lithium instead if 3 is a total plus and still getting the same performance. For about 5 or 6 years Minn Kota was simple ruling this market. I don't think they were sitting on their laurels but they got passed in overdrive. Going to be really cool to see what they have in store, in the one up world.

Kidney Stones and Dog bites. Your starting the year in fine form. They say bad luck comes in threes. Hope not for your sake. 😇😇😇

Man that's tremendous. Thanks for the post

Spoke to our regional Minn Kota, Hummingbird Rep. today. He is on the road but said he would get me the info tomorrow, so I should have some good tweaks to post. Probably one of the finest guys I have ever worked with. Knows his stuff inside out.

Its called a Speed Charge. I bought it at O'Reilly. I think at the time it was $99. It throws a 60 amp charge. I think I mis-said 50 amp, but its 60 amp. When your AGM reaches 13.6v it kicks off and you move to the next battery. Never takes over 10-15 minutes per battery, and man can you tell the difference. You do this after your batteries have said full from your onboard 10/15 amp charger.

Wow, what a day. Thanks Jeff, great action and report.

Everyone can do what they feel is best, but time after time and year after year those Pro-Guide series 31AGM 110AH will last longer and out preform anything out there for boat functions and cranking They are magnificent deep cycle trollers too, if your not going the Lithium route. If you do go that way at 26 pounds and 2500 rejuvenates your blowing most every other Lithium trolling motor battery completely away.

That split with the ClearVu and the 2D is insane. Enlarge it and look at the detail on the ClearVu. Might not be able to catch em but you can for sure see what's down there. That K is a Toad. Dock if you can figure how and where those shad disappear to let us know. Thanks again. Super morning.

Dutch called it.

Dutch, Set your forward range at no more than 50'. Set your bottom depth on auto so no matter the depth it should shoot a picture. I'm not for sure of the angles or adjustments on your mega live transducer as far as picture. My Garmin has at least 6 settings, not counting Perspective. You must have the correct angle on that. If you don't it totally will not work. Once you have that, set your gain and sensitivity where your screen shows some grain. Get a spoon or a big bait and start pitching it out there and watch for it. As you learn it you can start taking out some of the grain in the picture till its clear, but you can still see your target. Also you need a friendly color palette that works well with your eyes. Shoot some pictures of your screen and post them. We'll get you going. With the live scope I can try 6 different transducer angles and as my rep. said if you don't have that outside part right the adjustment part on the inside will never be right. I will tell you the Garmin and the Lowrance are not set it and forget it. Mine needs slight easy tuning at almost every stop depending in depth. Bobby can chime in as I'm betting he has got his live scope dialed in better than mine. I'll get in touch with the Hummingbird guy and post a piece on what he says. There should be some models on the web, if its set up correctly to show you how to tune it in. Should have you peeking under docks and looking at fish in no time. Good Luck.

The Garmin tech that installed my new graphs said it was the cleanest 4 year old boat he had ever seen, hands down. Check out that carpet on a 4 year old boat. I bought a cheap steam cleaner and clean it with that. The steamer would also work good in the bilge if it was a mess.

I use CLR and a rag. Wipe it all out, clean the hoses and wires. Then I go over it with a spray car polish, very lite and wipe it off. I usually do it when I'm giving my AGM batteries a boost with the 50 AMP charger. Just takes a couple of minutes, unless you let it get yucky to start If so, just spray the CLR and let it sit for a minute or two and then go after it.

1-11-22 Golden, Mo. Hopefully we are about to snatch a glimpse of Spring in the up coming weeks from the doldrums of really a pretty lite Winter.  Lots of you are winding up a successful hunting season and maybe starting to think about taking a peek in that bass boat that has been sitting since October.  This boat is pretty thirsty, for electricity.  Some of you like myself may have had Santa bring a trinket for the boat in the way of some new electronics.   That's what I'm here to talk about today.  Nothing is more maddening than lack of or no power when its time to fish. With the demand for power ever increasing due to increased numbers of electronics, making sure your ready when the time is right is right now. ( Sounds like an ED commercial.) I've used Battery Outfitters for my entire source of outdoor power since the 90's. They are local, friendly and extremely knowledgeable.  Yesterday I changed out my series 31 AGM 110AH that I've had from my previous Phoenix. These batteries had in excess of 1000 charges. These are 24 month batteries Pro-Guide series.  That's right, at least 1000 rejuvenation.  As those of you that know me, you know I'm a neat freak. My bilge including batteries is cleaned at least once a week. The terminals are kept shiny clean and the boat is stored in a climate controlled environment. Batteries are recharged after every usage.  All my compartments are kept clean and dry.  Notice the empty battery tray.   Lane Shumaker, owner of Battery Outfitters told me from the first batteries that I ever purchased from him, to regenerate my deep cell trolling motor batteries with a 50 AMP charge after each 10 charges from the on board either 10 or 15 AMP charge system. I have done this religiously.   Usually I do this every two weeks. Takes about an hour to do 4 batteries It is totally uncommon to get that many rejuvenations, but I earned them with how I took care of the batteries. I did not expect that and really, that is the best I have done as I usually sell the boat and don't bring them to the new boat.  Pro-Guide series 31 AGM's are extremely good batteries.  Besides power demands just like Champ I needed and wanted to cut some weight. My New Years resolution was to drop some weight off the bass chaser.   Me too.  Yesterday with the guidance of Payton Shumaker, Director of Operations for Battery Outfitters, I did just that, to the tune of 140 pounds out of my bilge.  That's an entire wife removed from boat weight.  The new series 31AGM 114AH Pro-Guide, at 68 pounds is handling my cranking, electronics and boat functions.  A pair of the new 12V 100AH Pro-Guide series 31M100 lithium's are handling my Garmin Force. With a total weight for both batteries at a puny 52 pounds.  The Force and the Ghosts are brushless and both are 24/36V either or. With 24 volts of Lithium io-ion power 2,  12v. Batteries will run either motor 2 to 3 days of hard fishing in most any conditions, with out a charge.  There are several companies that beat Pro-Guide to the table in the Lithium market, but Payton yesterday showed me cut aways of why the Pro-Guide is at the top of the quality market.  First being the reinforcement of the case, the entire battery is built to be wave and boat pounded. The core is totally solid with a encapsulated case to keep the interior of the battery extremely stable. The BMS (Battery Management System) are the brains of the Lithium are located at the top of the battery in a cellular vault. This provides even further shock management and also is a sealed window to access the BMS for service tech's.  This trial and error research and development actions cost 10's of thousands of dollars to provide the best trolling motor Lithium battery on the market.  To try and tell you how fortunate we are to have this homegrown, Missouri company in our back yard would be to difficult for this country boy.  Battery Outfitters has stores all over Missouri and Arkansas. If you need to repower or just want to lighten the load, give them a shout.  You will be treated just like the rest of us Table Rock River Rats that depend on them for every outdoor battery we own.  Good Luck.  View full article

Congrats Willy fish, your Dogs won the Natty. Don't care what they are saying on TV, injuries are part of the game, you all earned it.

In all my years I’ve only seen a couple. Catch one every other cast on Lake O.

It strictly depends on the 2D signal you are currently receiving from the unit. Unless you are either turning the unit off or putting it in standby every time you move, you are putting lots of hours in that transducer. If you continually have to raise the gain/sensitivity that is a pretty good indicator. My Gen2 touch has its best picture at about 73%. That can change with depth, but that's a pretty telling number. Maybe Dockit will chime in because he is shooting a beautiful picture. I think his units are brand new however. Hope this helped a little.

Don't ya just love jerk bait fish. Nice tip Fish24/7. I'm ready to try something else also. The deep fish are starting to recognize who is fishing by how the bait is presented.

I have a collection of custom painted by Buster Loving and Tim Hughes. Busters also have a bill modification. I may have as many as 30. Still throw them at times.

New rumor out today that Caleb Williams the OU Quarterback that's in the transfer Portal may be going to Georgia. 2 year NIL deal for 4 million dollars, per year. I think someone here mentioned scholarships. These 4 and 5 star kids have scolleys offers running out the kazoo. For 4 and 5 star athletes, college scholarships are as easy to come by as a McDonald's cheeseburger. Amateur athletics as we have known it are gone forever. Scholarships are not the lure for top athletes. Cuba Gooding Jr. said it the best. "Show me the money." Just heard all SEC Defensive Lineman from Missouri is in the Portal. Freshman d line man of the year going to LSU ON A 1.5 MIL PER YEAR NIL deal. This is getting stupid. Projecting by next year its going to be in the 30 to 50 million for these P5 schools to be competitive in the NIL market. That's not even near NFL money, but it's seems impossible. Lots of these kids will be multimillionares before the even get to the league. If they do.

I fished yesterday, messing with the new Garmin's Santa brought. Found tons of shad and quite a few fish. Only caught 6 as I just could not get them to bite. A single or 2 up in the water column, you might as well forget that as they run like scared deer. Dimiki on the bottom in a cluster was it for me. Would not touch a spoon or Ice bait. Bites were extremely lite. I would have missed several in that cold without the panoptic live scope. From Cow Creek to Long Creek these deep fish have had baits on them now for going on 3 months and they have just about had a dose. Bout time for me to pick up the jerker or A-Rig and change up.