bobby b.

What can you tell me about the duck hunting - is that for divers or puddle ducks?

Hardwired but I was thinking on going with the batteries on this new install which will happen this afternoon the reason being that I had had the bluetooth connect lost once and to re-bluetooth you need to uinplug/replug during the process and on my setup I would need to dismount the pedal but with the batteries I think this could be done more easily. I do like the whole Garmin stuff just been a little unlucky with the trolling motor. On a different topic, I see you have been to Beaver lately trolling, is the courtesy dock useable? How are you dealing with clean up regarding zebra mussels?

So in the interest of full disclosure, I went out to day knowing that I would need to use the handheld or graph to adjust speed but thinking that really is not a problem as I would just leave it on 3 bars. To my surprise the speed adjusting wheel on the foot pedal worked BUT AFTER 3 HOURS IT QUITE AGAIN. This tells me that this issue is probably mechanical as it so part rattling loose or heating up over time or from the sun. I will get the new pedal tonight and will likely put it on tonight.

I noticed this as well using the handheld - I found that the Trolling motor control panel setup on the Console graph works better for fine adjustments - I also played with saving a track first and using it to troll - also I note that it holds a constant speed very well for trolling - I've had no trouble with battery life on the troller and I'm using ordinary priced ProGuide lead acid batteries - I have had problems with the Livescope draining my starting battery. Overall I still like my whole Garmin setup just wish the trolling motor would stop breaking.

As indicated in other posts, I'm on my third Force motor in 16 months since I got the new boat. It has been working well for about 3-4 weeks since the 3rd install by professionals. Yesterday around Noon, the foot pedal showed an error on the graph indicating I needed to contact Garmin Support. Before calling I investigated myself determining that everything worked other that I could not adjust the speed on the pedal - I could adjust speed from the handheld and from the graph. Called Garmin and new Pedal will be here Monday. I will likely install this myself but will contact Garmin if any software install is required. Reimbursable charge to my credit card - $466. I noted that retail on the Pedal is $330 with the cable. So everything other than the mount will be new (or refurbished). I'm now thinking this thing is unreliable (at least for me) and also what I will do when the warranty is over in 2 1/2 years from now. Maybe Garmin will figure it out by then. Because I like the Livescope and the Graphs, I could get a different brand of troller with the universal 2D transducer since I basically just use the 2D and Livescope on the Bow.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the car manufacturers stopped using interference engines some years back. Are Outboards generally interference engines and if so why?

Wrench - pls explain your comment?\ Thx Bobby

The guys at Branson West Marine can fix your motor.

I'm so old I generally don't remember yesterday, my watch tells me what day it is, but I do recall the fella that day telling me where old man Asher grew cane - Ashercane. I think it is where Walnut Springs is today. I enjoyed floating and talking to him that day. We were both in metal jon boats - I still use that boat today for duck hunting.

Dutch - Thanks

When I retired here in 2016 I was floating the James and meet a local guy and we floated and fished down to Walnut Springs. He was telling me the names of various locations - Blunks, McCord Bend, Ashercane, etc. I don't recall Carrs and I don't see any reference on any maps. Where is Carr's and where does the name come from? Thanks

Fished out of Mill Creek Ramp from 7 - 11 today. One rig at the ramp when I got there, 2 when I returned. Just a couple wake boats - looks like we got our lake back. Only caught 5 Spots and one short walleye. The locations that produced a week ago (25 - 30 fow on the bottom of gravel points) were still loaded with fish but they were not very interested even when I put a crawler right in front off them. WT dropped to 80 deg. Didn't bother with pics as the Spots were just short but fat. Bobby

Global warming😁

As long as it stretched past 18 inch - I don't keep/eat any fish even the accidental crappie except for these Walters - ate it last night.

Got back out this morning - 7 am - 9 am - pretty good morning (at least for me) - caught about 15 - 1 short SM - 1 keeper LM - 10 plus keeper or near keeper Spots - and 2 walleye (one 18 inch) - started out with nightcrawlers trying for a walleye and got 2 in a row - also tried a treble hook drop shot thing with 3 pearl shad shaped worms (didn't have any tiny flukes) mentioned in thread yesterday and it worked immediately. Stayed on one gravel point all morning in about 25fow. Things slowed a bit about 9 am but I think there were more to catch on this point but it got too hot. Bobby

I am a retired engineer - some of us engineers (not me) believed that if it can be done (ya know, really cool) then lets do it - in the latter years most companies adopted a philosophy of life cycle cost/issue - the problem is you just can immediately see what those software engineers are doing. I still like the Garmin stuff but there was a boat in the shop where my recent work was being done that was getting an all new Lowrance setup graphs, troller and Active Target. The power supply to the Active Target is huge and can't be put under the front deck but rather in one of the forward compartments - it will be interesting to see how it all turns out - the trolling motor moved smoother than the Force.

Football jig and crawlers - I did catch a big bluegill on a crawler today which is the clue to leave - funny, as I was reeling up to leave I saw (on the Live Scope) about 25 gills appear out of nowhere and follow the remaining piece of crawler up toward the surface.

I got my 3rd Force installed Saturday morning and all seems well. In talking allot to the Garmin Techs particularly about my units and experiences we concluded the following is likely: my first unit operated without incident for about one year - it's failure may have been caused by improperly upgrading the software - Garmin is experiencing issues when the software upgrades multi versions - in my case it went from 3.0 to 3.5 to 4.0 also issues when upgrades include the troller, the foot pedal, and the handheld unit. - which may have been the deal with my 2nd unit. 4.0 also may have issues. As advised by the techs, we did not upgrade the software - it came with 3.0 and there it stays for now./ Bobby

Fished for a couple hours this morning 7 - 9 am - launched at Mill Creek - about 6 rigs there when I arrived. Caught 6 keepers - no shorts - but keepers just barely - one SM the rest were Spots. WT 84 deg - fished two gravel points with 5 of the 6 coming from one spot- fish were in about 25 fow near the bottom. Although I marked lots of fish directly under the boat, the one that bit came quickly at the bait from a distance - love that Live Scope. Bobby

Randy, can you tell me which circuit board is to be replaced - the motherboard in the servo or the ebox (the device on the mount where you turn it on). I asked this because I just received my replacement motor (less than 20 hours after trouble shooting yesterday with the Garmin Tech.) which will be installed thus Saturday by the pros and it just occurred to me that the replacements that Garmin send do not include the ebox. Being curious I call the Garmin tech and after some decision and me not wanting to wear out my welcome at my dealer with troller replacements, Gamin is sending a new ebox to be installed with the motor. So the question is - Could some of this trouble be in the ebox rather than the motherboard which is why I asked you which board. Bobby

Randy, is that a Force troller? If so I did not know that the motor was repairable - can you tell us the cost of that repair? Bobby

So as reported my 1st Garmin Force troller (new one year old) failed about a month ago and was quickly replaced by Garmin and worked perfectly about two weeks ago (two short morning trips in a row). Went out of Baxter early yesterday morning to try walleye trolling and nada on the troller. Was on the phone with Garmin first thing this morning and yep its done. Again Garmin with excellent customer service will have a new unit at my house tomorrow by end of day and it will be installed by the pros this weekend. PS to Bill B. - The troller was setup by the pros and worked fine for two days - I DID NOT TOUCH the software!

too late I just did a transfer myself - left 2 million though for other.

The built in transducer on the Force would not be compatible with other makes of graph. The Echomap Ultra series would be the graph to get. It can be bought without transducer. If you are only going to have one bow graph and getting the Panoptix later, I would recommend the 12 inch screen. I can adequately read a quad screen split with the 12 in. screen.

Travis and Arch, I have rebuilt car engine and built PCs from scratch and could replace the troller in a heart beat. The problem is that doing so adversely effects the warranty. I spent an hour on the phone this afternoon with the area Garmin area rep. arguing about the meaning of their 12 page warranty which is on line. He admitted that the way they setup the warranty was to promote/help the authorized installers/service folks and to discourage owner and nonauthorized dealer installs. He also admits that Active Captain sucks. The mechanical installation is a "piece of cake" but the software can be troublesome. He also believes that the so called "bricking" of the unit during a software upgrade like what happened to me is all but impossible and that there was something else wrong with my unit thus Garmin was so eager to replace it and in fact will be looking at it in the lab when it goes back. I asked since Active Captain may be part of the trouble why did Garmin not add an SD card in the Force like their graphs and like their competitors. He said adding an SD slot would reduce the waterproof rating to an IP 6(?) and the coastal users would not accept that and Garmin caters to this clientele. More to follow in future days likely.