Jump to content

codybuehler

Members
  • Posts

    295
  • Joined

  • Last visited

1 Follower

About codybuehler

  • Birthday 01/18/1985

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Not Telling
  • Location
    Bloomsburg, PA
  • Boat Name
    Gipsy Danger

Contact Methods

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

codybuehler's Achievements

47

Reputation

  1. Hi. I have a few of these Dakota batteries. Here’s some insight I can share. I have 2 12v 100ah in series for my trolling motor, 2 of their starting batteries on a switch for starting and house loads and I also have a 100ah for an isolated circuit for my fishfinder (I was getting alternator noise from the house battery). First off, the price. The things aren’t cheap. There are a few other companies on the market now that perform the same at less than half the cost. AmpereTime and Powerqueen are two that I’ve spoken with people who have them and no issues. I can’t speak longevity with them because they both only have 1 season with them. They pick on me that they could buy 2 sets for the price I paid for one. The good: they way outperform lead acids I used to use. With my trolling motor, I set it on 4-4.5 speed setting and use the Ipilot to steer with my kicker pushing. The leads I could get 12-15 hours MAX and would have to keep upping the speed setting as the day went as the voltage lowered. With the lithiums, it’s constant voltage so I never have to up the speed to account for the voltage drop. Also the good, if it’s an issue is weight. With my whole bunch of these things I save around 75 lbs compared to lead. The not so good: Charging. When you buy these they come with a small 10a charger. There’s a reason. They charge at 14.4volts. Most other companies lithium chargers (NOCO!) charge at 14.2v. The not their brand chargers will never charge them to full, so you have to use their chargers. they come free like I said, or they have a 4x10a on board one that’s ~$300. First season I used these I had one of the trolling batteries shut off. They all have a safety circuit and it decided something was up and that was that. I was pretty novice with how these worked and attempted to call customer support. No answer. I finally internet searched it and to reset these you “flash” the terminals with another 12v source. It worked! I had emailed Dakota before I googled it and it was a day or 2 before they responded via email to tell me the same thing. I haven’t had an issue with THOSE batteries since. now for the cranking batteries. They are tiny and light, but have 1000CCA’s and 65aH reserve. When they work, they work. But! First one I ever bought right out of the box wouldn’t go above 12.6volts. Tried multiple chargers and no change. Mailed it back (which is a nightmare because it have to be FedEx hazardous ground to Seattle and costs around $60, on you) and it had a bad cell or an issues with the battery monitor system (BMS). They never really said which is was, but did mail a new one no problem, if you can wait for the essentially 2 week turnaround. As I’m sitting here typing this, I have a second cranking battery in a box waiting to be shipped back. This one just randomly shut off and shows 4volts at the terminals. Can’t reset it or charge it at all. I tried to ship it through my local FedEx hazardous goods place and they wouldn’t ship it out (even though they sent the last one?) I’ll have to figure it out. I did call the companies help line on this one and someone did answer the phone and chat for a while. No questions they wanted it back to fix my issue. It would be nice if I could wander into the local marine shop and just trade it in for another, but here I am. finally to end my novel here, is the safety aspect of it. I have never heard of a Dakota battery ever going inferno on anyone. But they are lithium and a quick search online shows you what’s possible. They have the BMS to shut them off but there’s still a real possibility they could ignite that’s far for exciting than if a lead acid shorts out. My plan is to jump in and pull the drain plug. Haha If there’s anything else you’d like to know from what I’ve experienced, feel free to reach out. I have no affiliation with Dakota beyond a customer who (probably) was dumb enough to spend the money. cheers.
  2. I’m no gene expert, but it seems like this is like the small farm pond closed genetics scenario but on a much larger and slower scale. If a farm pond has small fish, we go to a different pond with bucket biologist mindsets and introduce a couple new larger fish to the sick pond. Within a couple years you’ll start seeing healthier and larger fish. Maybe the king size now is the eventual outcome no matter how you dope the gene pool? The 20’s, maybe 30 lb fish you see now is exactly ideal for the climate, population and biomass they have? Every closed community, people and wild animals alike, eventually find their happy genetics based on their environment. Introduce something new and it could be amazing or devastating. A few years ago down here in PA, the Fish and Boat commission conducted an “experiment” with the general public about whether people wanted more smaller trout stocked into streams or less larger trophy sized fish. The majority chose bigger fish with hopes of catching something they would only dream of. It didn’t go over well. You remember the one fish that was trophy class, but you also remember the days your arms are tired from reeling so many fish in. I haven’t been fishing that lake as long as most of you have been, but I can remember when 25-30lbs what average, now it’s the big ones!
  3. Spoons were 50’ back. Flasher, around 20’. I also use light leaders. I was running 15lb test. Up’d it to 20lb for spoons and 25lb for flashers this year. Haven’t noticed a decline in hits yet. All flouro carbon.
  4. Sure do! Everyone I assume is pretty hush hush right now with the LOC derby and whatnot. I have a firm belief that you can put someone right on top of the hungriest fish and tell them exactly what to do that’s worked 1000 times before and it still doesn’t mean the fish will cooperate. Case in point-what works day one doesn’t mean it will work day two!
  5. Hi all! We were at Mexico 7/19 and 7/20. Thought I would share some insights here. Wednesday morning we were pretty much solo 90-130FOW between Mexico launch and the plants. Most other boats were out deeper in front of or past the plants. Did morning and afternoon. Steady fish all day, but not crazy. 7 for 12. Only landed kings. The rest were either small fish or knock offs. Skippies all the way up to 13lbs. The morning was any variation of spoon that had black, silver or glow. Not sure of the name, but the best one was black edges, glow center and a red dot on the bottom. No flasher or meat bites, all spoons. Afternoon the fish went tropical and only went after brighter spoons. Mixed veggies or blue, all UV I believe. Didn’t touch the black and glow spoons from the morning. Took one on a two face flasher and similar color Atomik fly. Dipseys out 225 on 3, riggers down 84’, 10 color leadcore all took fish. 300 and 400 weighted steels got nothing. Speed was 2.3-2.6 at the probe. Lots of suspended fish 65-70’ down but zero hits from those except the couple on the leadcore. Thursday was the opposite. Same area, no hits. Wandered east and north, then back west, one small brown on a glow bloody nose spoon 84’ down on the rigger. Two knock offs besides that on the same rigger. Glow bloody nose and green uv alewife colors. Saw lots of suspended fish in the 65-70’ down range, some bait. Fleas were very minimal. Sea Flee line made them an afterthought. Leadcore had no fleas all day; dipsey wire, steel and downriggers had a few but nothing crazy at all. temp was 75-80’ down most places, the more East I went, the lower it got. This was my friends first trip like this that wasn’t a 6 hour charter. He was ready to head home after 3/4 of the way through day 1. Haha We released the smaller salmon and kept a few of the bigger ones. He was pretty pleased for a few fish in the freezer for home. It was also my first use of the weighted steel instead of copper. I’m not sure I’ll ever use copper again. What a difference! It didn’t catch any fish, but I also wasn’t fighting with the copper when the spool spun a fraction of an RPM faster than it was going out. Amazing stuff. I have had lots of luck with copper, but I have always felt like it hates me and enjoy my suffering no matter how careful I was.
  6. Great! I’ll be giving you a call later today or tomorrow. Thank you!!
  7. Shark style downrigger weight -12lb. I bought on here from a user named BikiniBottom and loved them. Sadly, one went to the bottom of Cayuga Lake near the yacht club on Monday when a swivel failed. Does anyone know if he still makes them or how to get in touch? His profile says he hasn’t checked this site for some time. or does anyone have a weight similar to his they would like to part with? I’ll pay shipping and whatever else if needed. Thanks in advance!
  8. Water temp as of yesterday was 56deg yesterday and 43deg on the bottom in 20’. Picked a few average fish from there. Try water temp rose over 10 degrees during this heat wave we just had. Slowed the fish up considerably. 6-10boats out yesterday when I was there and no one stuck together much. Seemed like a lot of fishing and not a lot of catching.
  9. For sure! One of the most expensive fish that I’ve ever been part of. He’s getting a replica for Christmas this year. Haha
  10. Had to share this one. South East end of Cayuga in 18FOW. Flatline Rapala BX jointed minnow in blueback herring back 160’. The smaller one, maybe 4” long? Somewhere out front around the house that says Moneysunk on the front. No secrets here! I release nearly all the silvers I catch, barring injury, in the thoughts that one day “I’ll get them when they are bigger!” Well, the 8th was the day. 13.95lbs, 31” long, 18.5” girth. Unfortunately, couldn’t be release. She clobbered that lure and tore up her gills. She was spawned out already, but had around 10 alewives in all forms of digestion and possibly a couple gobies in her belly. What a fish for Cayuga! (cropped out my father in laws face because I didn’t ask him to post this) We also boated a respectable 7.5lb rainbow. 20 minutes before this fish and a few average fish all day. Couldn’t be happier!
  11. Hi all. Looking for some advice on Cayuga for the fall. I have no issues finding Lakers. Doesn’t seem like anyone does. I’m having trouble getting anything but Lakers. Spring and early summer I can find salmon and rainbows, but August-September I have issues getting them. Anyone have any advice on where to look? I chase bait and temps all over the place and still can’t get away from lake trout. Thanks!
  12. We also fished there Friday afternoon. 50 feet down was 62 degrees. 80 down was still 53-54 degrees. Pulled a couple Lakers out from the deep rods but the grass and weeds were outrageous. I think I even saw an 8 foot 4x4 floating along at one point. Nice to see a rainbow go back in. Good work! Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United
  13. Well done! The curse of that kind of leak also is the more water that comes in, the lower the boat sits in the water, and the more the water comes in. Glad you sealed it up! Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United
  14. The only thing I could figure was that battery wasn’t quite as charged as the other one and the balance was off somehow. Tech support was pretty generic. I’m not an electrician by trade but work with it everyday I’m at work. And it’s DC. 2 wires. Simple enough! Haha
  15. Eh, drill and rivet! Haha! Gives you a reason to buy a new cheap tool and learn a new skill. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United
×
×
  • Create New...