Misty IV

I have an Islander 221 and have (4) Cannons mounted on the transom of my boat. I use the Traxstech mount system with a backing plate under each mount. Very solid and durable. For a kicker mount, I have a Garelick bracket. I steer the kicker through my main steering system with an EZ-Steer kit.

Great video! Always nice to see kids fishing with a huge smile on their face!

Nice job! Sometimes the solo trips are more fun than when you have people onboard [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

I have an Islander221 with the 4.3L V-6 and I go through maybe 10 gallons during an average full day of fishing. That includes running out to the fishing grounds and back in to port.

We saw a ton of them floating Saturday off of Oswego during the LSR Challenge. It was really weird, as they appeared out of nowhere and were located in a small area covering about 1/2 mile. The seagulls were having a party!!! But, as we trolled through that area, the copper rods got busy!!!

And, of course, the battery cannot be replaced without sending it to Raymarine. How convenient. Oh well, guess I'll have to bite the bullet and send it in to them. Hope they can turn it around fairly quickly. Pain not having waypoint capabilities to return to my "hot spots". Thanks for all the replies and help!

I called Raymarine tech support and they offered me the following suggestion. Hold in the "Clear" button while I push the "Power" button. Release both buttons when the unit turns on. When it comes to the start-up screen, press the "Enter" key twice and he said that should correct the issue. It will erase all my waypoints, as this is the Master Reset function, but I should be good to go. Going to try it this weekend and see if it rectifies the issue.

The other thing it started doing early in the season is it would connect to the satellites and give me correct coordinates, but the map would put me over Africa and not over Lake Ontario. I would have to physically scroll up and over to Lake Ontario and when I got to where I should be, the icon of the boat was there over the open water. The unit does have the Navionics card for Lake Ontario in it. Looks like I'm making a call to Raymarine.

This weekend, I was running without my Raymarine RC425 GPS Chartplotter because of an error code. It worked fine 3 weeks ago, but when I powered it on this weekend, it froze-up and gave me the following information on the screen: * CODE = 00008001 * * ADDR = C0013F54 * <> PRESS [POWER] TO TURN OFF I tried turning it off and on a few times, even disconnected the plugs and reattached them with no change. I did a quick search on Gooogle, but not coming up with any definite answers. Power and grounds are fine. All connections tight. Can anyone shed some light on this before I call Raymarine direct? Thanks!

Beautiful fish! Nice job!!

As of last week, the lake was OVER the standardized levels the IJC approved back in 1958. If memory serves me, the high level is somewhere around 247 feet and it is well over that mark. At our house, the lake is normally about 10 feet away from our breakwall. 2 weeks ago, the water was maybe 6 inches away. The big gale storm had waves coming over our wall and crashing on our front lawn. All around us, homes without any form of protection suffered property damage. My neighbor had a section of his wall pulled away by the waves. There is no sign of the lake level going down. If they don't do something soon, the eastern shore will suffer catastrophic damage in any more storms, especially the 3-day blows we are so used to.

For those interested, this is the style of solenoid I use. It has a rubberized coating to help protect it from the harsh environment associated with the lake and being on a boat getting bounced around. http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=109396&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=10109&subdeptNum=10598&classNum=11289

Excellent report & glad you retrieved your rod!! I, too, was surprised there weren't more boats on the water over the holiday weekend. There were plenty of wave runners off our shoreline and saw a few boats out deep, but definitely not what I would have expected.

I agree with Chris. 100 hours on an engine that spends a lot of its time trolling is not overkill. I follow that maintenance schedule with my 4.3 MerCruiser, as well, and I think it is money well spent. Ask L&M about it, and he will definitely steer you in the right direction. Pretty sure he will agree with the 100 hours. As a side note, last season at the end of the year, I sent a sample of my oil into Blackstone Labs to be evaluated for wear. Granted, this batch only had about 50 hours on it, but I always change my oil before I put the boat away for the winter. I use the MerCruiser 25W-40 oil and Blackstone reported back they found no unusual wear and did base the report on about 75% trolling, 25% under power. They suggested I go to a 75 hour OCI. Again, I only had 50 hours on that sample because of when I changed it last. I'm going to send in a sample this season at my 100hr mark and see what they have to say about it.

It is fully automatic. I ran a commercial grade constant-duty solenoid between the 2 batteries. Ran a 6 gauge power line from the (+) post of the main battery to one side of the solenoid. Off the other side of the solenoid, I ran a 6 gauge wire to the (+) post of the deep-cycle battery. The (2) remaining posts on the solenoid are the ground and the trigger. The trigger is run to the wire that has (+) when the ignition key is in the "on" position. Essentially, when the key is turned to "on" or "run", the solenoid is energized, allowing power to flow through the solenoid and to the deep cycle battery, hence the alternator is charging both batteries. When I turn the key to "off", the solenoid is open, stopping power from flowing through it to the deep cycle battery. Pretty simple concept. You could use a battery isolator to do the same thing, but this way was WAY less expensive and I've had no issues with it in the 4 years I've been doing it this way. Deep cycle is fully charged by the time I am done running out to the fishing grounds and has yet to die on me after 6-8 hours of fishing with everything on, including running the electric Cannons up and down all day long.

Another vote for Interstate! I have my boat wired up that I have a dedicated starting battery for the engine and a deep-cycle for ALL electronics. When the main engine is running, the deep-cycle is being charged. As soon as I shut the main engine down, the two batteries are isolated so the electronics are drawing solely off the deep-cycle. This ensures that the main battery will remain charged and always be able to start the engine.

Wow, ain't that the truth?

I use the same pump for my boat and it works great!! I got mine at a West Marine and paid about the same for it as Northern offers it at.

All great ideas and thoughts!! Thanks for all your input so far. I later found out that my niece was really tired, but wasn't showing it. She wanted to go take a nap at the house. My girlfriend's daughter, on the other hand, was interested, but had a hard time adjusting to the change in fishing techniques. I explained to her that trolling is a science (a class she loves in school) and her eyebrows perked-up. Next time we head up to the house, we'll try it again. I'll definitely add some of the ideas and thoughts you've all shared to keep her interested, should the bite be slow. She did steer the boat the last time, which she enjoyed doing, so I'll definitely allow her to continue doing that. Awesome replies!! Keep them coming!!

Thanks!!!

Does anyone know the date for this year's Little Salmon River Challenge? I know it is typically the last Saturday in July, but have not been able to confirm. Anyone have thoughts? Thanks!

There is one at Mike's Marina on the Little Salmon River. It was on Craigslist about a month ago, but I don't see it listed there anymore. As of this past Monday, it was still sitting at Mike's on the CR-40 side. It looks to be in pretty good shape.

Any thoughts on how to keep kids interested in trolling? I had my girlfriend's 10y/o daughter and my 7y/o niece on the boat this weekend. They are used to sitting at a pond with a bobber on the end of their line, watching for it to disappear under the water. They seemed to be interested in all the gear on the boat and the much larger reels than they are used to, but after maybe 10 minutes of trolling for browns, the 10y/o asks "When are we going to start fishing?". I explained to them that this is how it is done on the lake, to which they started entertaining themselves other ways. Any thoughts on how to keep them interested? When we got back to the house later, I offered to take them down to the creek to fish and they were all smiles. Help!?!?!?!

My brother went up to the house for the weekend on Thursday. He called me to say just how high the water level is. Normally, the edge of the lake is a good 20 feet from our rip-rap stones. He said it "might" be 3 feet from the stone! God help the shoreline communities if we get a good 3-day Gale Force storm.....