thompsm7

I love the Fish Hawk X4 but they all have their pros and cons. I didn't want to replace my downrigger cable, so I couldn't use the Cannon. That said, I had to mount a tri-ducer so the probe could communicate with the head unit. You'll get a range of opinions but in general the newer Cannon or Fish Hawk will both be solid. It just depends on if you want a tri-ducer or if you want to change your downrigger cable.

Get wingers for the outside riggers... You'll hardly ever have tangles. Run the middle riggers deep and the outside riggers with wingers shallower. We figure that at 100 feet down, the wingers run about 15 feet shallower than the riggers without wingers. You lose around 10 feet of depth on blow back, and probably another 15 with the wingers. I simply subtract 20-25 feet on the wingers and that's where I estimate the weights are actually running in the water column. The only time you'll need to be careful is when/if you try to run all four riggers with paddles and flies. Keep your leads short (10 feet) and you should be fine. I was trying to run mine with long leads and getting tangles. I shortened them up, and ended up catching more fish and having little to no tangles.

We've had a lot of success with the black 12 lb shark weights. Mine are bare in the nose from running them on the bottom for lake trout, but that doesn't seem to make a difference. I wouldn't really worry about touching them up that much... I would worry more about getting a probe so you know your speed and temp. At 100+ feet down you have a lot of current that changes constantly. We see a .5-1.0 mph difference in speed from the ball to the surface. The probe is by far the best investment you can make.

Drowned island is about 2000 feet off the beach just South of Black Pond. Coming out of the Stony Creek launch, turn South after you pass the rocks and you'll run into it. That area can either be great, or if there's no warm water it seems to shut right off. We fished that two weeks ago and ran off the beach in 5-6 fow. We did pretty well considering there was nothing happening deeper. Seems like they hang in the cobble rock and not so much over the sand.

We've had great luck with the Yamaha 4-strokes. They are quiet and seem to run and run without issue.

They may be moving away from it. I bought mine from West Marine (link below). Like I said, it has great detail and I've had great success on Lake Ontario with the 1' contours. Billy V was the charter boat captain that recommended it on his blog in Feb 2011, and he included pictures (link below). Bill has provided a lot of great info on electronics... I now have a Humminbird 957c and Airmar B60 thru-hull transducer because of his recommendations and love them both! http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... sku=618558 http://myblog.billyvsportfishing.com/

Take a look at the Navionics Fish'n Chip for the Great Lakes. It has a ton of detail and should work with your Raymarine. [ Post made via iPhone ]

Thanks for the feedback guys.... Does anyone have experience with the Si-Tex Mechanical Dashboard Drive (seems to compete with the Raymarine SPX-5R)? I'm being told by a very good marina that the Si-Tex is more reliable and the price is close to the SPX-5R. I am curious if it handles waves okay (meaning the computer learns and doesn't do "crazy ivans"... After all, a 23' boat on Lake Ontario isn't very big and I get tossed around quite a bit.

Any insights on the benefits of going with the B164 (1kW) vs the B60 (600w)? I notice the B60 has a 45 degree 50kHz cone vs the B164 which has a 22 degree 50Hz cone. I'm assuming that the wider cone would track downrigger balls better? The reason I'm so interested is I am dropping off my boat to put a B60 transducer in it this weekend. Many thanks for the input.

I've been convinced by several of my friends, that my married life will improve 10x if I install an autopilot on my boat... Yes, most of you understand exactly what I'm saying here. All jokes aside, I'm finding it hard to decide on what type/brand/price point I need to be looking so I'll set up the scenario. I'm a weekend fisherman with a 23' Celebrity walkaround. The boat has a Mercruiser 305/Alpha One outdrive with hydraulic assist steering. I've got a Garmin chartplotter, so I can use NMEA to navigate to way points. Given that I only fish about 50-75 hours a year, what's the best autopilot for me? Here are a few questions I couldn't resolve with my hours of research: - Drive Unit... Should I go with a wheel pilot like Raymarine X-5? Sterndrive or cable type drive? Hydraulic pump? - Brand... I've heard mixed reviews on Raymarine. Not much feedback on Simrad or Garmin. - Cost... What should I be looking to pay? Bottom line, I need the boat to go in a straight line in 3-4 footers without spinning my downrigger lines into a pretzel. Any additional features will be nice, but let's start with the straight line? Thanks in advance for your feedback.

I'm in if you are interested... PM me and we can work something out. [ Post made via iPhone ]

This week there are plenty of lakers in the shipping lanes with a few kings scattered throughout that area. You will probably be just as likely to catch Kings going to the finger and trolling Southeast toward the power plant. We found a few kings down 115 over 150-200 trolling southeast from the fingert. Hope this helps.

Great job Tim!

On other benefit I feel is that in rougher water, my boat (23' walkaround) seems to track a little straighter and is more stable with the Buggy Bags. This may just be my perception, but big water doesn't seem to toss us around as much now. Does anyone else get that?

I had a trolling plate and hated it. I had a lot of interference in my depth finder from the turbulence. I moved to the Beefy Buggy Bags from Amish Outfitters and they are great. They are extremely tough and slow your boat way down. If I use two bags, I can drop do 1.5mph for lakers. They also have great customer service...

Awesome... How do you like the thru hull? I have been considering a thru hull Airmar B60 for my Humminbird but want to make sure its worth the extra money. I found mine still has some electrical interference I need to fix, but if the thru hull is really that much better, I certainly want it..

I have a Humminbird 957c sonar. If I get a Fish Hawk X4 is there any chance the X4 triducer will interfere with my sonar? I would like to get a downrigger temp/speed sensor but certainly don't want to give up the performance of my Humminbird. I saw on their website that they recommend not using the 50Hz setting if you are seeing interference. Thanks in advance for your input.

We were at the shipping lanes on Saturday. The lake was relatively flat and we had to just run two downriggers because we couldn't keep the poles in the water. 125 feet down - chartreuse/chrome cowbells with bumble bee spin.

For sale: Garmin GPSMAP 440 - Has coastal depth charts for Great Lakes. Contours and depths are very helpful and accurate. Used six times in 2009 chasing kings/steelhead out of Henderson Harbor. $400 I leave my tracks and waypoints where we caught kings. $350 I'll clear my waypoints and tracks. Cover Included Henderson Harbor Shipping Lane Kings

Okay... I now own a HB957 NVB. The information provided by Billy V and Gray Ghost has been extremely helpful and really answered the questions I've compiled over two years fishing the Henderson Harbor area of Lake Ontario. I can't wait to get the system installed and start fishing for browns in the spring. Obviously I still have a lot to learn about HB finders, but they seem user-friendly enough that I'm confident this was a good purchase for the boat.

PM sent

I bought a Humminbird 957c w/Navionic Value Bundle and I love it. The detail on the lake is good and the transducer has a 60 degree beam that will catch downrigger balls that are blowing back. My friend uses an 1197c with the same mapping software and he loves it. We've really enjoyed Humminbird... A huge change from the old Walmart type bass boat finders they used to make!

I too am a weekend warrior.... Here's my take, and the more experienced people can correct me where I go awry: GPS - I bought a Garmin GPSMAP 440 w/Costal maps for $475 from Anchor Express. I ran it all 2009 season and loved it. The maps have NOAA depths for the lake and some contours that give you a good idea of the lake bottom. The maps are not the best out there, but I can find the shipping lanes without any issue. With the entry level Garmins like I have, be sure to go with COASTAL maps, as the Lake map doesn't have depth info for Lake Ontario. Fish Finder - I've got to replace my 13 year old Lowrance finder. I see the following features being critical to ensuring you have good value for your fish finder: 50/200kHz dual frequency transducer (better for tracking downriggers than 83/200kHz), high power (500W rms minimum),color screen (because everyone is doing it & it seems color should help distinguish targets), and solar display (viewable in bright sunlight). These are completely subjective and I only have two years on Lake Ontario, so this is where the seasoned fishermen can help reprioritize. I have the following options: - Lowrance HDS-5x (no chart plotter) w/50/200 ducer - $550 @ Anchor Express - Furuno FCV620 w/50/200 ducer - $833 from Anchor Express - Humminbird 778c w/83/200 ducer - $434 from Anchor Express Looking at the pictures above, if the Humminbird 778 can track downrigger balls like that with the 83/200 ducer its obviously the best value and it will track the ball and mark fish. The 1157 in the picture has 1000W rms while the 778 has 500W. I don't know how much difference there would be, but I assume it would be noticeable. The Lowrance HDS-5x has the same power output as the HDS-10 so it probably has more power than the Humminbird 778 (yes I understand Lowrance has some sort of digital rating so its not apples to apples). Any insights on 50/200 vs 83/200 and sonar output power would be great. My own experience is that I love having the GPS and finder on at the same time. When we're fishing the shipping lanes, its important that we can see where the wall is, while watching depth/marking fish. A smaller screen like 5" wouldn't be very user friendly in that application. If it were me, I would want a minimum of 8" so I can split the screen and have enough screen to see what I just went over (or hopefully what is following my downrigger ball). If I was going to get a combo it would be the Humminbird 958c with Navionics Value Bundle (NVB) for $1300 from Anchor Express. Its very similar to the 1157 in output power/transducer. If you can sacrifice the 500W rms and the smaller screen, the 788ci Combo w/NVB for $730. Hopefully the veterans can help clear some of this up.... There are ways to get something without breaking the bank, its just prioritizing features. For me GPS its depth/contours and finder its the ability to track downriggers and read fish deep (250 feet). Thanks in advance for any input!

This is a great thread. I'm almost sold on Humminbird.... How would the 957/958 with NVB and 50/200kHz transducer work for Lake Ontario? How much detail is on the maps? How will it track the downrigger? Also, if that does work, where is the best place to get good pricing it?

I'm looking at buying Shark Cannon Balls for my boat. Does anyone have experience with them? How do you like them? Thanks for the input... Cabin fever is getting the better of me so I'm going to start buying fishing gear!!!