13owhunter

Lots of good info on this thread and LOTS of people on here that are willing to help.  Next time you go out, share some details (in a new thread) of what you used, how you did etc. The more details the better.  This is very technical fishing and there is a learning curve.

For me, confidence was a big one my first couple of seasons.  I changed things up a lot and tended to overthink things.  I now have a pretty good bag of tricks that I am confident in. 

If you are running 12 foot dipsey leads that should be fine.

Some good advice above.  I second the salmon school.  Ive done the last two and picked up some good info each time. How long are your leaders on your dipseys? I ran 6 foot leads for a season and they didnt catch fish for me.  I switched to very long leaders and it has made a world of difference.

I have two cheap lithium batteries and one charges "weird" sometimes.  It charges faster than it should every once in awhile.  Really not sure if it is the charger or battery.  If I unplug it for an hour and plug it back in it charges normally.  This caused significantly lower run time until i figured it out.

When I was troubleshooting the issue, I picked up two cheap LCD voltage displays from amazon so I could see the voltage when charging and using them. They use hardly any power. May be worth picking some up so you can monitor voltage on the water.  Like it was mentioned above, if one battery has more capacity then the other, the lower one will die real quick.

I hope they throw the book at this guy.  Cant fathom the reasoning behind wanting to do something like this.....

I use an app called Windfinder.  It has some cool features but like anything else out there is giving you an estimate for future dates/times.  I have found it to be pretty good at giving me an idea of what's going to happen throughout the day.  Interested in what other folks have to say on this.

Standard rings with a twilly tip will work fine.  I would be concerned that a shorter rod doesnt have enough forgiveness for a diver especially a large one.  Big advantage in running a longer leader with a longer rod as well as working fish around riggers, outboards etc.  A short one will work fine I'm sure but most of the rods specifically designed for wire divers are  9 or better.  I think all of mine are 10 footers.

Most of my shorter freshwater rods designed for trolling dont have near enough backbone for a diver. If you have some heavier ones they should work fine.  If you arent sure, run your TDR.  At least if something goes wrong you arent out an expensive rod.

Airmar P66 is not listed as compatible on Garmins site but works fine (you just need to set it up manually)  I believe that has the widest cone out there.  Looks like it may be similar to the B117 you listed but its not very expensive if you didnt need a through hull.  I love mine and am using it with an adapter cable with a 93sv along with a gt54 for HD and side imaging.

I can see someone running out of fuel due to a faulty gas gauge.  My gas gauge is pretty sketchy. It tells me weather Im full or not full.  In between that it kinda works if I slosh fuel around but i do not trust it at all.   While I agree you shouldnt be out on the lake not knowing your fuel level, its a mistake many smart people have made.  (for the record I have not)  =0)

I had the same issue the first time i fired it up this season.  I had spider webs/eggs? in the hole.  Ill be putting blue painters tape over the hole when I store it next season.  Weed eater line is a good idea.

I run 32# copper on Daiwa 57Lc3bs which is pretty much the same size.  Like it was mentioned above, you can get over 200 yards of cheap 50# braid and 300 ft of 32# copper on there.  You can probably get close to 300 yards of backer if you went down to 40# and ran a thinner braid like power pro.

When I dont know the exact capacity, I fill one reel the hard way putting the copper on first and then filling up with braid to just over 100% and then taking it off, transferring it to another spool with a drill and winding it back on braid first.  I use a clamp on line counter when the braid goes on so I have a reference for future reels.  This is not fun but I really dont like reels that arent full nor do I like running 286 feet of copper because I put too much backer on.

Mentioning a warm or cold weather oil seems strange to me.  Almost every modern engine uses multiweight oil which I would think just about any common flavor should do fine in 35 degree weather.  Wonder if your oil pressure sensor is just a bit sensitive....  

If you got a bunch of water in there and think the thermostat will take care of the problem, it would be a good idea to do a second oil change after one trip to make sure you get it all out.  Personally, I would do a third after another couple more trips just to check it.    You could also change it, get it up to temp and run for a bit on muffs or barrel and then change again right after.  No reason not to run cheap dino oil for this purpose.

I foresee using mine in forward mode in shallow water or perspective mode in really shallow water.  I think there would be some usefulness in identifying a good target ahead of time and stopping to cast or jig.  I have a small boat and that is feasible.  If you had a big boat running a ton of rods it wouldnt make any sense. While I have limited experience with this, Im not sure there is a whole lot of value in using it in forward mode for deep water trolling especially if you only have one live sonar unit.  Probably need a second live sonar unit to get enough time with it to really answer your question.  Better yet, get one for each corner of the boat!

Some good advice above.  Hope it is a simple fix!  I dont think it was mentioned already but dont run it with milky oil.  That could cause significant damage.  If you change it and it is milky after one or two trips, I would think there is something else wrong.  Doubt a couple of trips would add enough water via condensation to turn the oil milky.  The oil in my old 4 stroke kicker looks perfectly normal after running in cold water barely above idle.  This is a good reminder to everyone to check their oil before every trip!

Headed out of Sandy this morning around 11 for the first trip of the season and it was one for the books.  Started in about 15fow and got on browns pretty quick.  Caught a bunch on spoons and stick baits.  Was pulling one and 2 colors on boards, a couple of flatlines and the riggers.  I made a bunch of changes to the boat and added live scope that I have on a portable transom mount.  I didnt have it set correctly for the first  hour and then shortly after I figured it out, the one color started screaming with a nice king going airborne behind the boat.  Not 5 seconds after the king hit the deck, my starboard side rigger took off to another screamer.  15 minutes later and the second king hit the deck.  This one was pretty big around 17#s.  Real nice fight on light gear.   At this point i saw several blips on the live scope right off the bottom in about 30fow.   We had most of the spread in already and there were fish under the boat so I hit spot lock and threw on some casting spoons on spinning rods.  My casting spoon hit the bottom and i jigged it all of two times and was hooked up again.   This fish was a bit smaller probably around 8 or 9#s but i caught a spring king jigging which was pretty epic. 

This was my first time using live scope and it was pretty unimpressive most of the day as there wasnt much to look at.  I am using the LVS32 in down mode on the transom and not the PS30.  What it did tell me was that there were kings under the boat.  My 2d sonar had a couple of blips but nothing to get excited and certainly not the 10-20 big marks swimming around at one point.  The decision to spot lock and jig a spoon was 100% based on the livescope intel.  I did not see the fish or my spoon on the screen at the time for what its worth.  We spent the next hour looking for the kings, saw a few more but thats it.  I believe we caught 15+ browns, the three kings and lost what was probably a coho behind the boat.  3 or 4 browns were 3-5#s and the rest of them were lil guys.  Old boat ran great and it turned into a really nice day on the water.  Doesnt get much better!

This whole thing is really just a good excuse to sneak out of work early and drink beer on the deck.

I need to get out to Erie this year.  I have never fished it.  Meant to make the trip last year but I am 15 minutes away from Sandy and we had great fishing last year so was hard to make a decision to drive an hour to fish unknown water.

I run torpedo divers on braid from time to time.  Same concept as a pump handle but they have a lot less drag than a round ball and they come with a dive chart so you have a pretty good idea where you are running at.  You can get pretty deep with the big ones.

This post pushed me over the edge to try and paint a few myself.  I have absolutely zero artistic ability and have never used an airbrush but "trouty" patterns seem to be a good place to start.  At the very least I am impressed by the quality of the cheap blanks.  They seem almost as good as some of the name brands.  Going to give it a go this weekend.  Ive watched a few videos so Im dangerous at this point.

Is there a go-to glow paint?  Seems like whats out there has mixed reviews.  Thanks!

Those are good rods.  I am guessing they use an Okuma blank.  I would guess the blue diamond blank but the FishUSA ones are shiny and the new blue diamond rods are not.  Someone on here will probably know the answer. While I haven't fished with them, I have handled that exact rod and I think you'd be happy with the results.  Really lots of good options out there that wont break the bank.  

PM sent.  

Kicker down for sure.  I would not trust mine tilted up at all.  She's old and there's a good amount of leverage on the bracket in the up position.  I use  a pull tight strapped to a cleat and around the bracket for the steering arm.  A ratchet strap around the whole thing would be better.

Is that that "XR" model or a different flavor of the lvs32?  The XR one is pricy...

Does anyone on here have any firsthand experience with an lvs32 on a turret?

To answer the OP - the PS30 is the transom mount transducer that most folks are using for dedicated trolling applications.  Its easy to setup as far as I understand.  Bolt it on, run the power cable and hookup ethernet to your compatible garmin graph.

I have been second guessing getting a PS30 in favor of a LVS32/34 to give me the ability to "aim" it.  Knowing that the PS30 is preferred for trolling, will the LVS32 still give me the ability to see what is going on with one or two riggers on a 19ft boat? I see bass pro has them on sale for $999 right now.  If this give me most of the ability of the PS30 and has the flexibility to aim it in other scenarios this may be the one for me.  If I could point it at a diver instead of the riggers that would be even better. Any reason I cant hack off the motor on an old transom mount trolling motor and use that to mount the transducer on so I can aim it and stow when under power?  Seems like that would be sturdy and I have one laying around.

Thank you!

New outboards may have you crying at the price tag, but there is significant upside.  Outboards these days are reliable and fuel efficient, run great at low RPMs all day etc.  They are also easy to maintain and should last longer than you need it to with regular maintenance.  I have much respect for the two strokes of old but there isnt any advantage to them if you cant get parts because you know they will need them.  Dont care how overbuilt it is, anything that isnt metal WILL start to break down and need replaced.

Good luck!