Sicarii

There is an attach image function, I can host them on photobucket. I don't want to do it without your permission but if you want them up I can do it pretty quick.

PM Sent. I can post some pics up if you send them to me as well.

I was catching some of those things kayak fishing last year. They are actually a lot of fun and fight pretty hard. They were hitting these rip-off Wally-Divers I got at Dick's.

Well it would be a record for me... nice deer!

Good shootin'! Those buggers are hard to hit!

I would love to! I am going to be out of town for a while starting tomorrow, I will shoot you a PM when I get back. Thanks for the offer. I have a friend who has a slip at Ibay, unforturnately he hates fishing... go figure! Do you find the surface temp helps with anything? And with the handheld GPS are you using paper charts or do you have waypoints or something plotted in?

Daybreak - Thanks so much for the offer. I would love to come out and check out the boat, but I'd like to do a charter even more. I am out of town this week and next but I will try to drum up some interest. Shouldn't have to twist too many arms! The boat looks beautiful all rigged up for fishing...

Thanks for the replies gentlemen! Shadster - I started off on this quest by talking to Grant Wooldridge. He sent me pricing on his models and was real great about answering questions and sending me literature for all his models. I really like the wooldridge boats and if money was not an issue I think they would be my first choice. They really are custom so you can get whatever your heart desires on the thing. However the issue with pricing is that, firstly they are expensive in base form compared to a HewesCraft/Alumaweld/Rogue (Pro Steelheader)/Raider. And secondly, they are very bare bones in base form and the options add up very quickly. So they seem to end up quite a bit above the "cheaper" plate boats in price although they are in line with the higher-end manufacturers like North River/Pacific Black Lab/Northwest Boats. Who knows, I might still go this way if I can get a good deal from Wooldridge. I'm sure the quality is worth the money. John E Powell - I just saw a post the other day on here about the Stanley boats. They do have some very interesting looking models. I am not sure how they price out in comparison or what hoops I might have to jump through to get a Canadian boat imported into the US. I like the look of the "Raised Deck" model a lot, and the Islander models look pretty bullet proof. I'll have to check these out. Patio - Thanks for the Ipad info. Cool video... I think mine does not have GPS after doing some research, it is an Ipad 3 but I didn't get the wifi add on so I think it doesn't have real GPS either. It does use triangulation and some other stuff to estimate but it isn't quite the same. However, an ipad mini or something is kind of cheap compared to a "real" chartplotter so I am still going to consider this option.

Your boat looks awesome and Clemens is the marina I have been working with. I think the Alaskan is really sweet but it will be out of my price range. If I go hewes I am thinking about the Pro V ET. I would love to hear about your experience doing this but maybe a pm is best. Did you go out to OR to see them?

Well i listed Braddock because that's where I most often go out... with my kayak... I don't know the depth situation there but the weeds are pretty close to the surface. I see a decent amount of boats going in and out, it looks like there are markers at the far end of the bay from the marina. The bay itself is not that deep, I have paddled out there and in a lot of places you can just get out and it is chest deep. I do notice many of the docks are in pretty rough shape and it seems like it is mostly vacant but that is from an outsider's perspective and I certainly don't want to disrespect anyone who keeps their boat there.

YodaMage - I don't mind the suggestion to go cheaper. I do understand the golf club analogy of course and it is true of any hobby. I do feel like there is a certain amount of equipment you must have for Ontario, my friend has a little 14 foot open boat with a 10 horse on it, and we have gone out on really flat days. But I really don't think this is enough to get into the game as it were... I appreciate all the opinions, and I can sift through the information/take advice with a grain of salt and all that. I'd rather hear someone's opinion, even if it isn't the "prevailing" opinion so thanks for offering it up.

As far as Thru-Hull goes, I will be sure and ask about having that pre-rigged or available. A couple of the models I am looking at have an offshore bracket with extra displacement and the bottom of the hull extends under the bracket. I think they are just hollow inside and have a little hatch hole at the top. Maybe I could put a thru-hull transducer through here? If not I would imagine it would have to be pre rigged because I am not going to want to take up the flooring to get inside. I'll take a look at the Airmar website and see if it has some mounting diagrams. As far as going to Portland, I might be crazy, but I have been out there and to Seattle for work and I saw a few of these boats. I really think they are cool for fishing and it doesn't seem like anyone makes a similar boat around here although I have no idea why not. SmokerCraft has a similar line called American Angler, but they are a bit too pricy for me. One of the marinas out there said they could get a boat as far as Indiana for an $1800 fee, so maybe that is an option as well. I think that is a bit high myself, but it would save a long trip. All the dealers I talked to up there said to come out to the Portland Boat show though, I guess it is pretty massive and the good deals are there...

OK I am going to look into the network approach. It seems like a good setup, and since the boat I am looking at is going to be pretty bare bones I think the additional monitoring of engine functions should be nice since I won't have guages for a lot of things. I see the fishhawk x4 needs a separate transducer. Will it interfere with the transducer needed for the fishfinder or are they operating on different frequencies? Also I have been looking at various types of sonar systems. Lowrance for instance has "Structure Scan" and some kind of high definition downscan and some of the other manufacturers have something similar. Is this stuff as nice as it looks and would you specifically make sure that the fishfinder you got had these features or are they more just toys and not necessary? Thanks for all the help, I think this will get me started in the right direction.

Thanks for the information guys, it is very helpful for me. K Gonefishin - I have an ipad and was looking at some of the Raymarine stuff that can do screensharing and control using an iPad as a secondary display. This might offset the price of a pricier raymarine chartplotter rather than buy 2 cheaper ones. I don't know if Raymarine are the only ones doing this, I didn't see any Lowrance products with this capability. Any thoughts on doing something like this? John E Powell - Thanks for this post, it is really helpful. When you say "black box fishfinder" do you mean that the fishfinder is a unit without a screen that then plugs into your chartplotter? So this would be sort of a more piecemeal approach, screen + fishfinder unit + transducer rather than a "Fishfinder" unit which is typically all this bundled together? This seems like a good way to go. I like the idea of using NMEA for engine monitoring as well. I am still curious about a probe system, would that connect as another network device? Adk 1 - I have a handheld garmin that I use for hunting as well. I guess that would basically still get me speed and location until I figure out something better. Also I sure hope to be able to go out a lot... if I buy a boat for the kind of money I'm thinking then I plan to spend every spare minute on the thing! I travel a lot for work, so large blocks of time are taken up. But any extra days I have I'd like to be out... that's the plan anyway...

I don't know too much about the probes, is this an add-on for a current fish finder or are they only stand-alone units?

I am looking to buy a boat during the off season for use next year salmon/trout fishing in Ontario. I am currently looking at Pacific Northwest style plate aluminum boats, maybe a Hewescraft, Wooldridge, North River, or Pro-Steelheader. I really like this style and I am seriously considering going to the Portland Boat show and bringing something back. I am wanting something in the 18-22 foot range with offshore bracket. I do a lot of electronics work for my job so I think I would end up installing the electronics myself. I am wondering what you guys consider necessary for a boat this size used for trolling on Ontario. I am thinking so far: Fixed-Mount VHF w/ Antenna Fishfinder/GPS Combo - midrange, thinking Lowrance HDS 5 or Raymarine Dragonfly? Stereo install (I do audio for a living, so I've got this one figured out!) Am I overlooking anything? Do I necessarily need temperature probe/downrigger speed capabilities right away or can I add them later if I need them? Is there any real reason to shell out for a higher end GPS/Fishfinder? Is there a difference between GPS and "Chartplotting"? I'm not sure I need or will be able to afford any kind of autopilot system... Any suggestions are welcome.