Mikeyman104

12 hours ago, Gill-T said:

I fish with clothes on mostly. 

Anyone else catch the "mostly" there? lol

Make sure you got sun screen on the right places then 

Dumb things I do to catch more fish according to my wife: bought a boat, riggers, poles, lures, gear, fish finder, etc.

The above doesn't necessarily equate to more fish for me though, so I'll prove her wrong [emoji1787]

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Awesome work man. I've enjoyed following this build and looks great so far. Just hope you're able to get it out and enjoy it soon [emoji38]

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I will sometimes run both batteries at the same time but I make sure to keep an eye on my gauge so I don't end up with 2 dead batteries. Worst case scenario I can pull start my kicker and charge a battery with that alternator


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Start by replacing that battery and strongly consider putting in a battery switch and a 2nd "house" battery (Deep cycle). Start the boat on battery 1 (cranking) and then switch to battery 2 while trolling. This way you will never be left stranded, if you kill the house battery your starting battery will still be good. This would be a safety concern for me, especially if your kicker doesn't have a charging system. If weather kicks up out there and your only battery is dead it could put you in a very dangerous situation.

Glad to hear everyone is safe. Hope you can get the boat you want and get back on the water.

Just think: not much you could have done about hitting an unseen/unmarked object in the water but you did an awesome job making sure everyone was safe.

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Thanks for the feedback folks!

Didn't know there was a difference and just thought a marine battery was a marine battery. Looked up the part number and looks like its a starting/cranking battery so that might be the issue?

I'll give the water level a check too.

Not sure of the age. It came with the boat when I got it two years ago.

Thanks again!

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Over the weekend I took my boat out and the main motor, which runs off a single battery, starts right up fine. It runs for about 15 min to get to our spot and then i shut if off and run a kicker. After about 6 hours of fishing, and running a helix 5 and 2 electric big jons off the same battery, the main motor will barely turn over from the same battery and not be able to start. 

I wouldn't think the riggers would drain a battery like that, but i'm not sure if it's a power consumption issue or if the battery is just getting old and needs replacing? Also, just had the battery on the charger at 2 amps for about 30 hours and its still not up to 100%. That typical as well? 

Thanks! Still learning, but lots of fun. 

Saw you've been doing well there too! Seems to be a nice little fishery

Had a good day on Owasco yesterday. Trolled the east side of the lake and found pretty good action around 90ish feet. Ended up boating 11 lakers total, which is by far the best day trolling this noob has had yet. Between me and a buddy we ended up keeping 5. Biggest was around 5lbs and caught everything on a gambler death trap and some cowbells. Dont have a fish hawk but best surfice speed for us was around 2.4. Also a first for me was on two separate occasions we just set a line and put it in a rod holder and then immediately had a bite. That was pretty cool and all around fun day.

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As Kevin said, the bass elite guys been drop shooting smallies with good results. Heard them say they were fishing anywhere from 10-40' hitting structure

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Thanks for the report. I've fished there a couple times and had similar results to what you posted above. Best I've ever done there is early summer and got into some gar. The place just looks and feels like it should do better.

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If you're coming from lake george, oswego might be a touch closer. Any particular reason you were looking at bay bridge in sodus? What type/size of boat would you be bringing? 

Just ordered a death trap the other day. First year with riggers and still loading up on gear. Haven't used it yet but stoked to give it a try

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Bass is probably going to be your best bet. Lots of shoals and islands near Clayton that have some good smallies. Pike fishing is pretty good on the shoals down that way too. At the head of carelton near featherbed shoals I've heard of folks catching some muskys but they are few and far between. Also would see boats trolling near Wolf. I assumed they were after eyes but not really sure and think you have to stay out of Canadian waters for now. Beautiful area up there but can get windy.

Random note: would recommend Wood Boat Brewery in Clayton. Also a new brewery in cape but haven't hit it up yet.

Best of luck and hope it's a successful trip

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Went out for a couple hours this evening. Only got a 16' boat so didn't get out far but made it to 80 fow. Was marking decent amount of bait but couldn't get any takes.

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I fished there today from about 10-2, but only got a couple of small lakers on spoons. Was out in deeper water with riggers but by the sounds of it I shoulda tried shallower. Beauty of a day to be on the water though

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Took the riggers on their first run yesterday. Launched out of Mexico point and went to about 40' of water. Setting everything up solo while trying to steer is gonna take some getting used to cause it was pretty messy looking, but we'll get there. Looked out to about 80' but nothing. Ended up finding fish and bait in front of Selkirk but couldn't buy a bite. Overall good learning experience.

Today went down to owasco for an evening trip out. Launched from Emerson and trolled the east side. Had a buddy with me to made setting up easier. Ended up going 4/5 with 2 Lakers and 2 brown. Most over 100-120 fow and 30-40 down. A stinger with a copper back had 3/5 hits.

Riggers are working good and looking forward to getting back out to use them again.

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Wow you guys are crushing it! Good stuff!

Well they are wired in. Used 10 ga wire and just wired right from the battery to a fuse block then to an old receptacle I found laying around. We're also in the process of having the kitchen redone so I stole a receptacle box from that and ordered a cover for it. The fuse block is just velcro'd to the side of the boat so might have to find a little better solution for that. Should be alright for now though.

Used a sharpie to put a mark on the cord and the receptacle to help remember how to plug them in correctly to make sure they go the right way.

Hopefully be able to give them a test run soon! Thanks all for the assistance

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Mikeyman   A word of caution...I have 2 Big Jon captain packs down riggers with swivel bases mounted on gimbals to use in my rear rod holders.  I do it this way to quickly remove the riggers and store in the cabin.  Last year as I was removing them from the cabin to place in the rod holders I suddenly had the gimbal and half the swivel base in one hand and the rigger and the top half of the swivel in the other hand.  There is a 1 1/4 inch pin that the swivel rotates on.  That pin is steel and it snapped like a piece of plastic.  I couldn't believe it.  If it had snapped while in the rod holder it would of been a $800 rigger on the bottom of the lake.  Big Jon said they never seen anything like that and they made good on the repair but that's besides the point.  I now run tag lines to the riggers.  If it happens again at least they won't go far.

Thanks all,

Ideally I should wire them with the fuse box I put in last year. To do that though I would have to run new wire from the battery to the busbar/fuse block because currently it's too small (16ga) to accommodate the riggers. Hate running wire especially on a center console, but this would probably be the safest and cleanest looking install.

I was hoping to keep it simple with the plugs already on the riggers so I might just get an inline fuse, receptacle and wire right to the battery.

I at least know now that I'll need some fusing in there so I appreciate the help! I'll keep ya posted on the progress and thanks again.

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Thanks all for the responses.

I'm not good with electrical but I at least knew enough to not plug them into one of my garage outlets. That sucks for your buddy that he had to find out the hard way.

Electrical is not my strong point so these may be dumb questions, but the big jons do have push button breaker on them. This mean I still have to add a fuse to the circuit? Would a GFCI receptacle be sufficient? Tried to find the specs on these motors and think they pull about 8 amps.

PS - had a teacher back in high school tell me "there's no such thing as a dumb question, however if there were, that would certainly qualify" lol

Thanks again for all the assistance with this project!

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Well got 'um mounted and they aren't the prettiest but they are on. Just got to wire them up now.

Could I use just a receptacle?

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Thanks all,

Ended up getting some gimbal mounts from a fellow LOU member (thanks nysrx01) and plan on using a board to span across the two. Probably a 1x6?

One of my gimbal mounts is really crooked. It just be a matter of rotating it a bit to level it out or I was thinking of using a piece of wood as a wedge to go between the mount and the board.

Thanks again all for the responses.

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