ProGuide Batteries

[Bill Babler]

Battery topic got to long so I'm going to do a short quick post.  I and most guides here and also weekend tournament anglers have been using Pro guide batteries for year.  I have 4 in each of my boats.

AGM 31's in both boats.

Depending on the age and the number of charges, and I will usually put 600 to a 1000 charges on them before I change them out or usually get a new boat and repower.  

They most usually charge up to between 16 and 18 volts on a 12 volt battery.

They are the Gold Standard as far as I'm concerned.  These were put in my Phoenix in April of 2017

[Champ188]

I use the Pro Guide group 27 lead-acid batteries and have had zero issues in nearly 20 years. 

[EzFishN]

Still running mine after 2 1/2 years. However my first set went bad quickly from sitting outside, and in winter (boat went back to manufacturer for new paint). Luckily the battery shop pro rated them. As long as you keep them charged they seem to do well. 

[Bill Babler]

Like James I ran the 27 group for years with no problems, but with more electronics and bigger trolling motors I moved up the the group 31.  Might be over kill but no problems are good problems.

With all the new electronics I'm reading lots of guys going up to group 34 lithium just to support 4 twelve inch screens plus power poles, livewells, panoptix and mega 360 units.  It is totally out of hand.

Not hard at all to hit 30 grand and not even have a boat, motor or trailer in the mix.

[Bassmeister]

1 hour ago, Bill Babler said:

Like James I ran the 27 group for years with no problems, but with more electronics and bigger trolling motors I moved up the the group 31.  Might be over kill but no problems are good problems.

With all the new electronics I'm reading lots of guys going up to group 34 lithium just to support 4 twelve inch screens plus power poles, livewells, panoptix and mega 360 units.  It is totally out of hand.

Not hard at all to hit 30 grand and not even have a boat, motor or trailer in the mix.

Don’t forget the hydrowave and Ultrex lol. Tournament Fishing needs to do like golf. Limit the equipment to a manageable amount. Then you wouldn’t feel obligated to have 30 rods, 4 fish finders etc. It is so far beyond crazy it makes me want to downgrade everything and just have fun again.

[fishinwrench]

46 minutes ago, Bassmeister said:

Don’t forget the hydrowave and Ultrex lol. Tournament Fishing needs to do like golf. Limit the equipment to a manageable amount. Then you wouldn’t feel obligated to have 30 rods, 4 fish finders etc. It is so far beyond crazy it makes me want to downgrade everything and just have fun again.

Yeah, but the only reason for tournament fishing is the platform to sell.   It exists solely as an advertising campaign.  So by limiting what you can use, you limit what can be sold.   It has become quite an empire. Lots of mouths are being fed.  

I just wish they'd change the scoring format and stop shuffling bass around.  

[Seth]

I don't understand why guys go spend all that money on the graphs when they can't even understand what they are looking at. When I watch a video of something being used, I can tell you pretty quickly how it would benefit my style of fishing and whether it would be worth buying. So far, side imaging and the Ultrex are the only two items that I knew would instantly improve my fishing. Livescope and shallow water anchors would be handy in certain situations, but not enough to justify the expense for me. An extra graph at the console to be used as a dedicated mapping unit could be handy at times, but not enough to justify the expense for me. Maybe I'm just a tight wad......😁

[Bassmeister]

32 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

Yeah, but the only reason for tournament fishing is the platform to sell.   It exists solely as an advertising campaign.  So by limiting what you can use, you limit what can be sold.   It has become quite an empire. Lots of mouths are being fed.  

I just wish they'd change the scoring format and stop shuffling bass around.  

There’s absolutely no reason that our local tournaments can’t move to the kayak phone app method of scoring. And MLF seems to have solved the issue on the big tour. It’s absolutely nuts that we have these big livewells full of water and drive these fish around for 8 hours before releasing them to an area of lake they never knew existed. Then watch them float around bc they came out of 30 feet of water in July. Guess it helps J Morris sell livewell treatment so nothing with change. 

[Blll]

1 hour ago, Bassmeister said:

 Guess it helps J Morris sell livewell treatment so nothing with change. 

Isn't Bass Pro a sponsor of MLF? No live wells.

[Bassmeister]

2 hours ago, Blll said:

Isn't Bass Pro a sponsor of MLF? No live wells.

They also sponsor B.A.S.S. (Livewells). Bass Pro is a sponsor of MLF to exploit it for money. Just like everything else they do. This isn’t a moral issue for them.