digitroll

Next time out (two weeks from now possibly) I will make a short "You Tube" video demo with my Amish Outfitter bags and post that video on this thread.

I use 18" Amish bags for my 19' 9" 2013 Starcraft Fishmaster bowrider with a 150 Mercury 4 stroke. I personally don't believe dropping pitch to 15 from 19 makes a very big difference as it might shave off a few tenths from my experience. I run 3 mph without bags and one bag will get me down to 2.4 mph and 2 bags out will drop it to 2.0 mph. I love them. Great performance from my Simrad autopilot running bags in choppy water as well. The autopilot won't get lost from a gust of wind with bags out. Very easy breezy to put out and pull back in just ahead of the riggers.

That was my next question Tim...where to book a room. Good stuff and thanks! Ron

Sounds good... and hope to make it if I can get a crew together for the trip.

Tim, Always wanted to attend, but 8 hours travel time from Vermont in the dead of Winter can be a challenge. What is the cancellation policy ie refund of the $75 for this if weather makes it impossible to travel? It would be the same distance travelled for someone coming from Western side of Michigan.....450 miles.... Ron

SP5XR You Tube demo I made on 12/12/12:

Thanks for the offer. But, I took the X5 off my sold boat and want to put it on the new boat. If I was shopping for the first time for an AP I would consider the S1000 if I was using price point as the only reason. From the folks that have S1000's I have spoken too they run off the GPS signal and have to be run 3 mph or more to aquire a position before they will track and steer the boat. With the Fluxgate compass on the X5 its will steer in real time without waiting for a GPS feed to aquire under 3 mph or 2.5 kts. It also doesn't come with a ST 6002 control head $532 for the $835 price. The control head is easier to use then the 2/3's smaller remote that is provided with the S1000. There is a lot of value with the larger (52 year old eyes like mine) control head display and the $189 Fluxgate compass that comes with the price of an X5 which is advertised by Ray Marine specifically for trolling and I believe this is due to the fluxgate compass feed. The S1000 they have disclaimers from Ray: Troll at speeds as low as 1 knot (subject to environmental conditions) - operation below 2.5kts cannot be guaranteed, as adverse wind and tide conditions could prevail. We all like our AP's don't get me wrong. There are no bad AP's. The only bad thing is going without one once you have owned one. ST 6002 Control head standard part of X5 package: Fluxgate compass:

Frisco, Just sold my cable steered 19 ft alum. Sea Nymph SS195 boat and going to a new 2013 196 Fishmaster by Starcraft with Teleflex hydraulic steering. Ray marine techies gave the thumbs up to put the SP5XR 1.5 years old on the hydraulic steering. It's advertised specifically for trolling with cable or hydraulic steered boats (specifically due to the Fluxgate compass). I plan to troll with the new 2013 4 stroke 150 hp EFI Mercury (second season for this new release from Mercury). Nothing like it with a troll control RPM replacement gauge and smartcraft. Loved trolling with the 115 hp Mercury 4 stroke 2007 Baby Verado with troll control last 5 seasons on the sold boat. I could never go back to a kicker with todays technology driven outboards and EFI, but thats a whole thread by itself and I won't go there. Just sold my Honda kicker as well that's been idle for 5 years in a corner of the garage. Love the Fluxgate compass on demand (real time guided) steering with the X5 as I would hate to give it up the X5 as in my eyes it's flawless for trolling with a main engine for propulsion. When I get my new boat in March I am planning on putting the X5 on it in my man cave when I rig it. Please clarify "mechanical aspect" What does this mean? What issue did you have with the X5 on hydraulic that made you replace it with the Garmin? Does it just mean it's a mechanical drive by definition instead of a pump with a hydraulic system? Sent you a pm. if you want to answer privately.

Awesome!

Scott, I will give a yell on the radio or stop by at the campground on the way to Lazy C's camp nearby for our evening get together to eat. It was one of the roughest 5 days that I have ever fished out at the Bar in 7 years. We did get out Monday - Friday each am + the bonus Sunday evening shakedown after riding 8 hours towing the boat. We had some rough water especially on Friday our last day when it switched to the dreaded N/E in the afternoon. See you this Spring! Ron

Scott, We missed you at the motel last Spring during the LOC. Good to hear your alive and kicking! Tough Bar bite last year with 40 plus releases as we just couldn't hang on to much with our poorest 5 day showing since 2003 our first trip to the Bar. Are you going to be there this Spring? Ron

Lake Champlain March 4th Salmon spoon taping workshop "Big success" Please let me introduce myself: Ron aka "Digitroll" on our 1,100 member Pro Board forum site on Lake Champlain. We love to pursue Landlocked Salmon here on Champlain from March - January on open water trolling on our lake. With the lamprey control happening and the alewife invasion the fish now look like there on steriods! I love to fish Kings off the Niagara Bar every year during the Spring Loc tournament in NY on Lake Ontario. It's a 8 hour trip for us with the 19 ft Sea Nymph in tow from Vermont. Just wanted to share with everyone on LOU a unique tradition here in Vermont that started 3 years ago in my heated garage with a few die hard lure tapers that quickly grew to 20 the next year and this past winter 40 and 45 for the two workshops this Winter 2011 at my marine workplace in Williston, VT near Lake Champlain. Great way to beat the winter doldrums getting some of our forum faithful together for some food, stories, taping lures, and a chance at winning great product donated in a free raffle! I was curious if anyone was doing anything like this around Lake Ontario? We already have a spin-off workshop happening 2.5 hours north of us in Montreal, Quebec with our northern forum members. March 4, 2011 Workshop #2 Another incredible workshop in the books folks! In summary: Tonight on March 4th the bar was raised: We had 45 attend and the free drawing for 45 donated prizes worth $4,500! Everyone won something in the drawing! I want to thank the folks below that donated some incredible products and forum members as well! All-Star list of donors: LCI: All-Season pass certificate Tamiron Products: Tape U-Charters (Lite Bites): 3 Lite Bites with power rings and weights. Crazy Ivan Lures: Custom painted lure package. Onyx Outdoor clothing: Arctic shield pants / Arctic shield coat. Yasner Taxidermy: 2 certificates for two fish mounts. Great Lakes Angler magazine: 35 March issues. Fish Hawk: TD temp / depth digital portable gauge. Berts Custom Tackle: Two 17†tracks and two ratchet rod holders. Adventure Products: EGO S2 Ez Slider 48â€-60†net Cannon: Intelli Troll-Temp / Probe system. Fish 307: Custom salmon rod Navionics: Certificate for any Navionics SD chip. Marine Tech Products: Trollmaster Pro – III certificate Dockside: Net, two inline planers, 4 MI Lake trolls, 5 SeaGuar spools of Fluro line, 2- 0 Jensen dodgers, 2 Eagle claw salmon rods 8’6â€, 2 custom lure totes. Ques Tackle: Boga scale float Torpedo Divers: 4 Torpedo divers Dan Keating: Salmon videos Lowrance: HDS-5 Plattsburgh Rotary Tournament: 2 Certificates for the derby. Scotty: Downrigger Rob (Thorny): Seafood platter from Price Chopper! Gerry (Gecha): Custom scissor’s set The Old Fishing Hole: Ramel (JabberJaws): Many nice fishing accessories / gear! Vincent (Sleeps): 2 nights hotel stay in the NorthEast Kingdom. Randy (Surprise): Custom tied streamers. 45 Attendees: Thorny (Rob), In the office (Mark), Fathead (Jeremy), 4C's (Pat), Surprise (Randy), ShayedWinds (Don), LightnVariable (Jeff), Reelax (Matt), Salmonseeker1 (Don), Plantstone (Forrest), Gecha (Gerry), Dragnballs (Kevin), Voyager (Paul) Wind (Gary), Instigator (Reggie), , Bill Crenshaw, Tunamas (Scott), David Chavea, Salmon Eye (Paul), Heijac (Randy), Wally Andre (Andre), Crazy Ivan (Todd), Homewrecker (Dean), Scorpio (Bruce), Kamel (Kurt), Lazy C's (Mike), Madsierra (Eric), Salmon Slayer (Scott), Brian Pratt, Supercab (Judd), Marknfish (Mark), Flashpoint (Matt), Cas (Mike), Mike Morin, Cloudnine charters (Obie), JabberJaws (Ramel), Surf-N-Turf (Sean) Sleepswfishes (Vincent), Gary Tobler, Hawkeye (Bob), Digitroll (Ron), Dockside (Ben), Brian Gingras, Matt Buehrer, Michael Cowherd, Karl Hubbard, Final thanks too: Some of the forum members that helped me set up early before the event. Wally Andre, David and Gerry Chavea, and others that came early as well. ShayeDwinds (Don) for checking everyone in at the table and taking photo's of all 45 that won prizes. Thanks for keeping me straight Don for looking at the camera most of the 45 times as I handed off prizes for photo ops. Jim (Vt Home and Marine) my boss who let us use the site for the 5th workshop in the last two winters. His brother in law Gerry who lent us 25 chairs. And the forum members that made the trip from Montreal and NY to be with us tonight! As Randy say’s! “Fish on†for 2011. See you all on the water! Thanks all! Ron Photos: The entire prize table tonight: The food: 15 pizzas from Domino's and Thorny seafood spread: Thorny's seafood from Price Chopper: Don (ShayeDwinds) helping checking everyone in! Big crowd! Some pre-taping done before the party by ShayeD: Thorny talking about the finer features of the new redesigned 2011 Scotty electric that was on display to Randy and Jeremy: The Admiral and Reelax: 1957 vintage secret lures purchased by Fat head on display from E-Bay: Taping end of the showroom: Lowrance HDS-5 GPS/Sonar and Dan Keating videos fishing salmon part 1 and 2: Torpedo divers / 2 Rotary derby certificates / 2 fish mount cert. Doug Yasner: Andre and Gecha's donations (scissors / Scotty rigger) tonight from our friendly neighbors up north: Cannon Intelli Troll-Temp Probe system, Great Lakes Angler Magazines, Fish Hawk TD temp / depth portable device. Dockside's generous goodies! Free magazines from December / January / March from Great Lakes Angler. Also LCI / Torpedo divers brochures! Onyx Outdoor Products: Arctic shield pants and coat / Bert's Custom Tackle tracs + rod holders. Adventure Products net / Lite Bite Slide divers / Fish 307 custom salmon rod: Navionics certificate for any chip up to $200 in there catalog / LCI all-season pass / Trollmaster Pro-3: The old fishing hole in Morrisville Ramel (Jabber Jaws): Sleeps with da fishes 2 nights stay in the North East Kingdom / Crazy Ivan lures / Surprise streamers: Surprise and Crazy Ivan lures on Dockside lure caddies! We started off with the Daytona 500 prize the Lowrance HDS-5 GPS / Sonar first: Dean (Homewrecker) was one happy person! Supercab wins the Bert's custom tackle (tracks and rod holders): Kurt (Kamel) wins the Adventure product net! Mike (Lazy C's) wins the Navionics chip of his choice: Andre contributes the Scotty downrigger and Thorny wins it! Matt (Flashpoint) wins the Cannon Intelli probe system! Sleeps wins the TD Fish Hawk portable temp/depth: Bob (Hawkeye) wins the Onyx outdoor camo pants: Matt (Reelax) wins the Onyx outdoor camo jacket: I had to get in on the action and win one of the two Yasner fish mount certificates: Michael Cowherd winning the Trollmaster Pro III!!!!! Mark n Fish winning a Rotary derby pass! (4Cs) winning a Dan Keating video on Salmon! And finally! Phew! The one and only Crazy Ivan winning an All season pass from the LCI and Todd has the best chance at a 10 lb Salmon for the upcoming 2011 season!

Can you give me a phone number or link to Marathon to repair a back up probe that leaks. Thanks! Ron