Lively1

My 14 yr old daughter wants to start deer hunting (has already gotten her hunter safety certificate). Would the Savage 220 be a good starter gun for her? (We live in southern zone, would be hunting woods and fields).

Did some further reading. Check valves aren't recommended on centrifugal pumps as they have trouble working against the pressure of the water caught in the outlet hose. True or not?

Aha, you mean a check valve on the outlet hose so once the water exits the pump, it stays in the hose vs. running back down into the bilge.. I see how that could help. Should it be installed close to the pump where the hose is horizontal, or further away where the hose becomes more vertical?

I have a Bayliner 1850 open bow with I/O. I installed an float switch under the engine to turn on the bilge pump if there is significant rain while I'm not there, which it does. The problem is, when the water is nearly all gone, the pump pushes water part way up the discharge pipe, and the water runs back down again and pump kicks in again to clear it.. etc etc etc. Until the battery is discharged. The float switch is an inexpensive one (Attwood or Five Oceans or such), but it does turn the pump off when I manually cycle it. How can I get the switch to turn off and stay off until the water comes up another inch or two? I don't need to get every last drop out, I just want it to keep the water level below the bottom of the engine. Would a new higher quality float switch help? Would elevating the switch an inch or two help? (It's flat on the floor of the motor well now). I considered putting a drain in the bottom of the motor box that I could open from inside the boat (since I keep it on a lift out of the water), but several people told me to think twice about that. Thanks as always.

None of the half dozen or so lake trout I caught on Keuka this year had minnows of any kind in them. I took the mush that was in their gut, put it in a bowl with a little water, and it was either Mysis shrimp or very small zooplankton. And the flesh was a nice orange color.

I researched this topic about a year and a half ago, to get a decent finder for jigging trout in Keuka. Here's what I found: - a 50 or 77 Khz transducer will work better in deep water than a 200 Khz one - more pixels in the screen is better - bigger screens are better than smaller ones - color is a no brainer (almost all are color now anyway) - the newer Chirp units provide higher resolution but only to a certain depth. won't help you see structure in 120 FOW - an integrated map/chart plotter feature really isn't needed on a smaller lake.. Navionics for your smartphone costs $5 and is all you need to mark waypoints. Based on that I bought a Garmin for less than $200 and am very happy with it. If you are fishing shallower for walleye as well as deep for lake trout, something like this might be a reasonable choice: Garmin echo 551dv with DownVu Sonar

When I go out early there is often dew on the windshield and although I wipe it off with a towel, once under way it keeps re-forming on the glass until things warm up. Would Rain-X or similar to prevent this? Boat doesn't have wipers..

Funny I lost a dipsey flasher n fly my last time out on Keuka.

Is it bow mount or transom? Does it have a foot pedal or other remote control? Model number? Shaft length?

I tried a Cabelas trolling bag last week on my 18' runabout and it worked well - slowed me down to 1.7 mph. I hung it off the front quarter rail and it ran beside the back end of the boat. But it makes me a little nervous when the bag sometimes ends up under the hull instead of off the side. If the line ever parted it be in the prop in a split second. But I can't see running them off the back behind the prop, they would be in the way of the fishing lines etc. Any one else see this as a problem?

FYI my vet told me 70 percent of deer ticks sampled recently in the Southern Tier tested positive for Lyme disease. I was shocked, thought it was just a few percent.

So I was out this morning having a grand old time and my trolling motor quit working. That is, the prop doesn't turn but the directional motor to turn it this way and that does work. (It's an older bow mount with foot pedal deal.) Looking it over, cleaned the connector plug which had some corrosion hoping it would solve the issue, but it didn't. Then I noticed, wait a minute.. the shaft is cracked. And bent a little. Must be from when it caught on a dock post backing out a month ago.. Maybe thats where all the water is coming from that drains out the head of the unit after its stowed and I am cruising to the next fishing spot.. So.. I'm guessing I need a replacement shaft.. but what else? Is the motor possibly damaged by water in the shaft? Or water running out the top of the shaft into the head? How do I figure out what to fix and what to replace? Or maybe its time to just upgrade to a nice new one with iPilot? (after I win the lottery)..

Thanks guys. Your comments make me realize I might as well bite the bullet and rewire all the accessories to the other (deep-cycle) battery. I was planning on doing it sooner or later.. it might solve the fishfinder issue at the same time. All the accessories are fed from a fuse box with one power lead coming in. Question: Can I just move the red power lead from the cranking battery to the trolling motor battery (only), or do I also need to move the ground wire (black side) from wherever it is connected now, to somewhere else (like the black/neg terminal of the trolling motor battery)? Thanks

My Garmin 551C is acting strange. I have two power cords, one for a battery pack for the canoe, and another hardwired to the boat cranking battery. It operates normally when connected to the battery pack, but won't turn on when plugged into the boat. This started a few weeks ago when I was out on the boat going along and it suddenly quit, and hasn't run since, in the boat.. But continues to operate fine from the other power source. I did wire in a float switch for the bilge pump and upgraded the radio a few days before this happened.. they both appear to be operating normally. The strange thing is, my voltmeter shows 14 volts across the pins on both plugs (boat and canoe), so I think the wiring to the unit is good; no blown fuses, shorted wires, etc. And I know the unit works OK. What should I check next?

I've read that down imaging only works to 40-50 feet depth. Has anyone found it useful for Finger Lakes bottom structure? (100' or deeper)?

Thanks for the replies everyone. Rather than screw around trying to figure out if something is wrong, or going through a whole 'nother selection process for a new one, I just ordered a second transducer, power cord, and base to fit my Garmin 551, so I can just use it on both boats. Was a around $100 for all the parts.

First foray out on Keuka today in my red canoe. My fish finder was showing depth and bottom ok, but zero fish. Finally to check it dropped a laker jig beside it, and it didn't show up. I then tried varying the sensitivity, narrow vs wide cone,, and a bunch of other settings, but no matter what my jig was invisible. This is an older unit WideEye 1993 vintage I use with my canoe, and was running off of a 12 volt battery pack (8 AA batteries in a clip). Anything basic to check out, or recommendations for a smaller replacement under $150-$200? Bought a new one for the big boat last year and I guess i'm spoiled now.

Check your PM in 5 min

Thanks for posting this! First time winterizing my boat, and having access to the correct service manual for my exact engine and sterndrive is really helpful.