Ric66

Humminbird support was not helpful in telling me what I had to download- the HumminbirdPC download. Leave it to my wife to figure it, which she did and I was able to download the specific update for my unit. I hope to try it out on Sunday to see if it helps my unit stay connected to the bottom. Seems like its mostly Humminbird units that lose the bottom.

Love the Arima boats. Where did you buy it?

Probably is. But having trouble figuring out "You must have previously installed HumminbirdPC to your laptop" What is a "Humminbird AS PC3? Somehow I have to "attach the power cable to the new 8 AA batteries on the AS PC3" No idea what they're talking about. Hope support can clear this up. Are all depthfinders like this now? We have to keep updating them? I can see for GPS and mapping but just to find the bottom and hold on to it?

Nor mine. And I'm confused by the directions they give. I'm contacting support. I'll let you know how I make out

Anybody else have this problem? Happens in deep water- the reading will go from 233ft to 1ft, to 5ft, etc. Seems to happen mostly when the bottom is changing depth fairly quickly (was on Cayuga yesterday). This is the second Humminbird I've had do this. Ready to switch to different brand. I've changed and tried numerous settings- 83hz from 200 etc. I didn't install either of the transducers on the two different boats I've had. My current one was installed by the place I bought the boat.. My current model is Helix 5. Had it for about 3 years. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as this is very frustrating.

There are some great suggestions above, especially about the float switch for bilge pump. Definitely going to get that put in as well as DC charger for cell. After coming home fishing out of Sandy Cr last night and cleaning my fish, sat down and had a beer, then thought about the past two fishing accidents recently on Lake O. Don't know why but I wanted to watch that old movie Captains Courageous with Spencer Tracy. I think it explains why we fish.

Where did you buy this boat? Have been looking for Striper boats

Thanks. At least I'm getting a little better at it after losing a number of fish.

Heard weather report for one foot waves so decided to go out on Lake O around 3pm. Well, weather man's idea of one foot waves is different than mine I guess. Definitely larger than one footers out there. Ran around looking for bait but found very little. Set up in 250 feet of water with two dipsies with flasher and flies and one took a violent hit but he got off before I got to rod. Ran that one with a snubber figuring I had to keep the drag tighter than usual due to waves. Very hard to keep any kind of consistent speed. Things didn't seem to be calming down so ran toward shore and set up in 125ft and soon after the other dipsy took hit and fight was on. Was out 200 on two setting and it took another 200 off the reel. Took off on a few more runs then got it close to boat and it decided to tangle with my other dipsy but luckily was able to get it untangled fairly easily. Not easy fighting a king and netting it solo with arthritis acting up in my left arm but glad I was able to land it. Only saw a few other boats out there.

Bringing back a painful experience I had on Sunday. Took the wife and my son out on Lake O. Hit some very strong currents and ended up getting downrigger cable into prop. Was using a pancake weight for the first time. Learned the hard way that they tend to wander. Ended up losing my Fish Hawk probe. Just ordered another one. And that wasn't the worst of it. Couldn't get the wire off the prop so couldn't use the big motor. No problem, had the kicker. Kicker would start but would continuously stall out.Never had a problem with it before. Ended up having to get towed back to launch. Waiting to see how much my insurance will cover. Worst experience I've ever had on the water. But then I think of those guys who had their boats burned on I-Bay on the fourth. Guess its not so bad after all.

Not looking for a Ttop but more of a hardtop replacement for a convertible top.

I did tend to put it towards the back of the pad. I use flea flicker line which is very slick. To keep if from slipping I'd have to put it deep in the pad. I'd also get false releases. Difficult to find a happy medium with that line and the release. But I also think pinch pads tend to damage line which you don't get with the black releases. There must be some reason why black releases seem to be very popular.

I gave up using pinch pad releases after losing too much gear. I now only use Black releases. I wet the rubber band before I attach to my line (there are some youtube videos to show you how) and then I put the rubber band in the Black release. Yes, pinch pads are easier to use and I guess you could also put the rubber band in the pinch pad.

Second on Keating and Kings. Only my second year fishing on Ontario but learned a lot from his books and videos.

Thanks Les. I'm going to look into this. I've been meaning to look into some side curtains anyway.