Fat Trout

Understand. Regardless. The choice is the at the captains discression. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Situation dependent. I towed a 24 ft boat who had no steering capability on lake Ontario ...didnt know the steering part until i was committed. I was an 18 ft boat. When i came to port that boat swung back and forth wildly at slow speed. It was all i could do to maintain control. I have many regrets from that scenario and im not even explaining the half of that 2 hour hair raising scenario. I came really close to putting my crew in harms way and plowing that boat into others. Im still willing to help but im going to grade the scenario. Ill respond to life emergencies but towing for a guy with an questionably maintained boat (my situation)....yeah im gonna think that one out. im also very able to call towboat US for people. Which is my plan for myself which i have already set up if i have issues. As captain of my boat im responsible for my boat and crew and others at my discression. That was the lesson that i learned. Consider that before tossing too many universal..."you must do" stones. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Thats why ya put the whole 1000ft on there [emoji28] Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

New boat is a magnet!

Realized I was double posting.....so edited. The memory was that crazy lol.

I know someone who said they got "spun" by something on one of those water spout days back in the late 90's. 180 deg plus boat movement while trolling.... lines in a cluster but otherwise OK as it apparently didn't set hard on them and moved on. I've only ever seen them on the water as what looked like skinny trees on the horizon....too close even then. Yikes on your 92 incident! I give lake O a wide berth on funky days....no thank you. I've had enough pants pooping moments, I hear water spout in the forecast and i'm at the dock.

Normal Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

I agree downriggers are too fast I'm pretty sure that's exactly how I lost my last downrigger ball Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

dare I ask how you relocated your probe and ball? I've dumped a downrigger ball or 2 with a bad cable spot but have managed to avoid dumping a probe (so far).

hard to argue with that logic

We all overthink lol. My downrigger balls on my sonar appear higher than they really are, not a ton but a good 5 ft I'd say. With 10#ers its definitely better but they will vary more than heavier and especially when you are going with a current and need to boost top speed to make down speed where you want it. knowing you are going with a current is exactly why the X2 would be a benefit. If I'm fishing to fish on bottom I'm not afraid to put the cable out at bottom depth on the chart.

It doesn't sound bad (x2 that is). In all honesty I have my fixed X4d transducer right next to my lowrance HDS total scan transducer (within 6" of each other) and no issue with 83khz or 200khz or medium chirp operation. I understand the Fish hawk operates at 70khz. I don't see prices getting cheaper (unfortunately). If you can run 10lb balls it would help. At 2.5 your blowback with could be 25 ft of depth @ 100 ft believe it or not esp with 8lb balls don't change your game, just some data for you

Tks for the reply. Jumping happens a little on my X4D when its really deep I don't mind it because you generally know what's crap and whats the real number so your getting what you need. Your dealing with a depth, blowback and random interference. Blow back in the case of the X2 is because the cable isn't a straight line, rather its a bow so the deeper you go the transducer on the cable is probably pointing to the rear of the probe more. Sounds cool though. If you can touch 100ft + with that thing thats great. Pricey but I can understand the transom/transducer issue for mounting. I also can't believe what the X4 and X4D have gotten to for price these days either.

I have an X4D so really I'm only asking out of curiosity. How deep have you found that transducer to work? Any limitations? There was a time when I was in @Low Baller shoes and was just winging it without a probe but I'm curious if that smaller transducer pushes enough power to get to lets say 100ft or so.

Unfortunately this seems to be a question with no great answer. Im going to fish usual areas for this time of year and hope for the best. Im not really interested in running to extreme deep water Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Same here. I'll be out unless the wind keeps me in. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

@Tall Tails is pretty much saying it. For the east end in the corner (ie Mexico / Pulaski) a west or northwest wind plows all the surface water into the bay...it hits the inshore area and the surface water displaces the bottom water pushing the bottom water OUT toward the center of the lake. The harder the wind and longer the more it pushes warm water IN on top and cold water OUT....to the north and west to varying degrees making the thermocline deeper and deepr. The faster it happens and stops (or varies) the more unstable and you can find pockets of temp up/down a bit as you move out from shore. To the contrast East winds, south east winds, north east winds, south winds will do the reverse.....the more east/west you have the more impact in Mexico bay itself....South winds impact Oswego and west of Oswego more quickly due to their close proximity to deep water directly to the north but there are some other variables and I won't begin to try to understand the exact dynamic from Fairhaven and on as a northwest or north wind pushes surface water in but it "squirts" out to the east / west depending on direct wind angle angle depth contours and the obvious "corner" that there is etc. I've been doing this long enough that I'm use to it (in Mexico bay) but its not universal and its always a challenge. I feel like Mexico Bay is more dramatically impacted some years given the more shallow lake contours and I have had years fishing really deep and some not as much. This year things have been deeper but not nearly as bad as some years. Last year and the year before were particularly "good" with shallower general thermocline depths....80 ft...hey great. So much so my 16# downrigger balls collected a little dust. This year I'm running them much more but I'm still not yet at the extremes I've seen years where I have 160ft of cable out to get to temp. I'd love to avoid the 16# downrigger balls but unfortunately I have them for a reason. I'll edit to add on that to me...in mexico bay, "flipped" is when you have ice cubes and dead bass damn near on the beach. It fortunately doesn't happen that often (in Mexico bay) but when it does its noticable and generally not good. It seems that an inshore "flip" happens a bit more often to the west.

Better than most the Las few days and if you think thats super slow you haven't been fishing mexico long enough [emoji28] Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Its a fish under your boat heading in your general direction of travel Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

I have one auto inflatable for myself since I fish solo at times and a couple of regular ones that I have for anybody I might come on board or I guess as a backup for me I just need to make them more available and I need to make myself wear the inflatable one more often if you watch for sales the auto inflate one sometimes you can find a decent price Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Whistles and light sticks being added next time im at my boat! Im gonna bungee a vest behind each of my front two seats and cargo the spares along the side Sent from my Pixel 2 using Lake Ontario United mobile app