Technology

New LiFePo4 batteries in the Ranger

For the last 20 years technology has really influenced the fishing world.  In my collection of early 1980's In-fisherman magazines feature articles and ad's that seem prehistoric with flashers, Color C Lector, temperature probes, it's almost funny.  Over the years most of these devices were part of my arsenal as in the early 80's I built my first Heathkit flasher, followed up by a Humminbird Super 60, then their Super 30 model.  When the first paper graphs came out the first one on my boat was a King 1060, amazing detail.  This was replaced with a state of the art Lowrance X15B, a 4 inch paper graph that I still have remnants of some of the fish I graphed on Lake Mille Lacs.  I started working with a company called Genetron that made highly sophisticated video (CRT tube) graphs, adapted from the pacific northwest, even in the embedded software manual, it talked about it's ability to sense the air bladder of halibut.  I simply traded manufactured parts for new units and still have one on my shelf.  Even though there were LCD units out there, they paled in comparison to the detail shown on the Genetron's.  Eventually the color LCD technologies caught up with the resolution of video and with current microprocessor and memory capability the graphs today are quite sophisticated, even at the small screen level.  Well all this takes power and even with the largest AGM style batteries, it would often happen that the battery would not provide enough power and then have enough left to start my motor.  Luckily the Ranger has a battery switch in it to allow one to turn the power off and switch in a trolling motor battery giving enough power to essential jump the dead battery and start the outboard.  Well today's technology provides at least solution for this in the form of Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePo4) batteries.  Like modern devices that have lithium ion batteries, unlike lead acid type batteries such as my AGM's, they should only be discharged to 40% or it will significantly affect the battery life, their 100AH rating is more like 60.  Also AH (Amp Hour) ratings are based on a 20 hour load, so the 100 AH is based on a 5 amp load.  Well if you take all the electronics in the boat they pull around 8 amps, which effectively drops the AH reading to about 60 - 65 so the real amount of power available is maybe 35AH before you cause any premature damage to the battery.  Li FePo4 batteries however can be discharge to 10% without damage and whether it be 5 amps of 10 amps, it doesn't degrade the power ratings of the battery.  Deciding to pull the trigger on replacing all of my batteries, the cost is higher but the benefits will outweigh those costs in the long run as these batteries will last the rest of my life.  The bonus is the LiFePo4 batteries are about 50% lighter and have an 8 year warranty.  In one single move I lost 150# out of the boat, which is significant.  As well I am not worried anymore about running out of power.  In addition each battery has a built in Bluetooth communications path to a downloadable app on my phone.  It's easy to simply see each batteries condition, state of charge, and anything related to the battery.  They received their first test on Lake Erie and were very effective.  The secret is their built in Battery Management System (BMS) which allows the battery to look like a standard battery to everything that is hooked to it.  I can use my existing onboard Minnkota MK460PC charger to charge them, no need for anything special.  The real test will be in two weeks when our 48th annual Leech Lake Opener takes place.

Lowrance HDS 7

This week I helped my friend Adam Mayerich install his Lowrance HDS7 into the dash of a new to him Ranger 1850 Reata, a nice boat.  He bought it from a fellow Team Walleye guy but there was a lot to do so I decided to help.  Last week I gave him a great deal on my good but not new Interstate Series 31 AGM's that I took out of my boat.  They are definitely better than what he had in it as they were pretty well done for.  We also finished our strategy on onboard chargers and installed them.   Installing the HDS7 was interesting for sure as there was an HDS5 in the dash and there was barely room for the 7.  Deciding to make a spacer so the unit would sit into the dash better, using a 1/4 inch ABS sheet, we cut out the appropriate spacer then used it to mark the dash, the cutting began.  Using a Dremel tool we were able to make the cut large enough to allow the depthfinder to set almost flush with the dash.  There were some concerns about cutting too much from the bottom however after Adam ran to the hardware store to get 1 1/2 inch #6 stainless steel screws it came together pretty good.  The vinyl on the dash that was loose tightened right up. The gap in the bottom of the dash became solid once secured by the depthfinder.  It looked pretty good. 

PENN 310GT2LC

One thing that I have been trying to do is replace the line counter reel that got stepped on in the boat when we were out on Erie.  The line counter broke off..  Having 2 set ups, these reels are used for lead line trolling.  The reel was a PENN 310GT2LC, one that my luck is unavailable these days.  The nice thing about this reel is that 1 complete spool of Suffix 832 lead line fits perfectly (all 10 Colors) on the reel, which is nice when having another guy in the boat, I can just tell him how much line and what color as they are both the same.  I know, you could simply just user the line counter but it is more illustrative with the exact setups.  So the manual says line capacity is 325 yards of 15# mono.  I picked up their new model that holds 320 yards of 15# mono yet it will only fit 8 colors.  I can make it work but it bothers me.  Having spook with PENN's Service department, they told me to send it in and they would take a look at it.  With a little luck they can fix it as the reel is just like new.  I guess time will tell, but it sure would be nice to be able to have matching reels again on my lead line setups.  I should know in a couple of weeks.  Leech Lake fishing opener is 2 weeks away and there is alot to do yet.  Clean the boat,  extract the carpeting, make sure all the live bait, jig, crankbaits for Leech are in the boat.  It's a busy couple of weeks for sure.

Lake Erie, Part 2

Steve First Fish, an nice walleye

The last post left off with my friend Kevin and his family leaving early Tuesday morning back to Wisconsin for his father-in-law's funeral.  In the meantime Steve, Mark, and I stayed to fish the rest of the time as we knew Ben was coming back Wednesday evening as he had left his boat behind the house.  Waking up on Tuesday the Aiona's were gone and the weather forecast  stated there predicting 25 mph by the afternoon, creating a difficult fishing situation.  We decided to head out and fish until the wind became uncomfortable.  After heading to the Muzurik Landing on Marblehead, we launched the boat and while Steve and Mark parked the car, I proceeded to input the waypoint Ben sent me via his phone, about 5 miles away through the channel between Marblehead and Kelley's Island.  We had fished a few miles north of that point on Monday so we were familiar with the location.  The wind had picked up a little but blowing from the Southeast so we positioned ourselves upwind from that waypoint and started setting up our trolling pattern.  As before we fished 3 planer boards on each side of the boat, using line counter reels to set the depths of the Bandits, we followed the advice, 70 feet back on the outside boards, 60 on the middle boards, 50 on the inside boards.  The strategy was to troll with the wind making the fishing experience easier.  Once a fish is hooked up, the real work begins, of course there is the guy fighting the fish, the second guy is responsible for the net and removing the planer board from the line.  In the meantime one guy has to stay on the steering wheel to make certain the boat stays on track so the remaining lines do not become tangled.  This was made much more difficult by two issues, first was the battery in the remote control for the kicker motor was dead.  This was checked out before we left but apparently it was just enough to work.  Secondly an attempt to engage the front electric trolling motor did not work either as the motor did not respond when deployed.  Therefore on Tuesday the only real source of steering was using the main outboard used as a rudder, steering by turning the steering wheel.. Mark had caught the first fish on Monday so it was Steve's turn and it wasn't long before one of the boards started dancing.  He reeled in our first fish of the day, a nice 24 inch walleye, into the livewell.  Resetting the boards it wasn't long before it was my turn to reel a fish in.  Steve on the motor, Mark successfully got the fish in the boat, 2 in the livewell. As the morning went on the wind shifted and as predicted started to increase.  After successfully landing 6 walleyes in the boat the waves continued to grow, enough to decide to call it quits.  It was a good move.  Although not that far from the landing the wind limited our speed to about 8 mph as we carefully negotiated the now 5 to 6 foot waves.  Finally getting back to the landing which is protected by a breaker wall, I dropped off Steve and Mark to get the truck and trailer.  There was a Coast Guard team that had just loaded their boat and once the Ranger was on the trailer they came over to do a boat inspection.  I welcomed the oportunity however the first question was to see my registration, something I never have!  Luckily Mark had come over before the trip and found it on a shelf and had me put it in the boat.  The inspection went well so we headed home to clean fish.  Admittedly it takes time to clean these big fish and Ben had brought his vacuum packer so we packaged the fish and sat down to reflect on the day.

Wednesday's catch, 14 walleyes at over 63 pounds

Wednesday proved to be a calmer day on the water.  Talking to Ben, he suggested I reset the trolling motor by disconnecting the power for 30 seconds.  I did that Tuesday afternoon and voila, the motor now responded.  As well we stopped at the Walmart to get a battery for the kicker remote steering, that now worked.  Third was a stop at Fisherman's Central, a wonderful sports shop on our way to the landing, and picked up some Bandits in blue/chrome, another Rotten Fruit pattern, an interesting blue green chrome Bandit called The Generator (later figured out you could add lighted glow stick in the bait), and an interesting color called Humble Bee ( a golden, perch type bait).  Once on the water and back to the spot the wind had changed 90 degrees from Tuesday so we did the same thing, went upwind from our previous point and started trolling downwind.  Tuesday gave us a chance to dial in our presentations and with some Bandits in new colors, we were determined to do better.  The wind was calmer, the kicker motor remote was working, the Motorguide was operating perfect, we were set up.  While Steve and Mark set up the lines, it was my job to get our navigation methodology set up.  Setting the kicker speed at 1.5 mph, I put the Motorguide down and engaged the heading lock to keep the boat on a specific track, then engaged the cruise control at 1.6 mph and amazingly the boat was now being completely controlled by the devices that should do their job.  No longer was it required to have someone always trying to steer the boat.   Looking at our tracks on the GPS, it was amazing how straight they were.  With the navigation system set we could now concentrate on fishing much more effectively.  With assuming we had 12 in the livewell, and 4 each (it was really 6 walleyes each), we  had lost 4 other fish in tangles or line failures, we finally caught one more deciding to let it go as the livewell was already ridiculously full.  Upon returning to the house, it was discovered we had 14 walleyes, still legal, but figuring the hookups and the one we released, we had 19 fish for the day.  Steve weighed the fish and it was over 63 pounds, and if you see the picture, not one was smaller than the 5 gallon pail was deep.  It took 3 trips with the pail to transfer these walleyes from the livewell to the cleaning shed.  Admittedly I've caught more walleye but never the average size as these.

From Wednesday's catch

After going to the Irish Pub downtown Port Clinton for supper, we headed back.  Ben, Heather, and Jared arrived earlier than we anticipated, about 11:30.  Thursday was supposed to be very windy with small craft warnings, so we decided to stay off the water.  Ben, on the other hand was anxious to get out after missing 2 days, they headed to the landing, noticed the waves coming over the breakwater but decided to try it anyway.  They got out about a mile before coming to their senses and headed back.  Sitting in the house drinking coffee, Ben came in admitting it was pretty rough.  After settling down, we decided to drive to the Bass Pro Shops in Toledo, 40 minutes away.  Once there Jared was looking for lure making stuff and the clerk commented that Jan's Netcraft was only 15 minutes away and they carry all sorts of these types of items.  Jan's Netcraft was around when we were kids and loved getting their catalog and buying lure making items to make our own lures.  It was interesting to find they were still in business so Jared loaded up on plastic worm and paddle tail molds along with molding plastic and an injector.  He was in business!  He really reminds me of my younger years with his grandpa.  On the way back there was a Costco so with my membership we stopped and bought some steaks for Thursday night's meal.  Friday was our last day, it actually was pretty nice but as we discussed that evening, lack of waves did not allow the baits the action that riding up and down creates.  It was pretty easy fishing as we mastered the trolling motor, lure setting functions well.  We  found an area were a number of fish that were fooled by our presentation.  We were marking fish however after reviewing the day we decided that the fish had moved.  Coming back to the landing, it was the first time in the week we were able to travel in the boat at a reasonable speed.  With 8 in the livewell we ended out trip with 29 kept walleyes, about 4.5 pounds average.  Things learned, these fish usually are staging to spawn as these fish were post spawn, and often they are in large schools of a mile or larger in diameter.  Slow down, 1.4 - 1.6 mph is a perfect speed as the water temp was never over 44 degrees.  Don't assume anything as 70 feet back with a Bandit is about 17 feet down in 40 feet of water.  These fish suspend and I believe will come up a long way to hit the slower moving, noisy and flashy bait.  I think it's also  important to have a wide spread on your planer boards to cover more area.  The charters use larger planer board tactics that put 18 lures over a 200 foot spread, that's alot of coverage.  Pay attention to where the charters are fishing as they are good at helping each other.  These fish can be fickle however once they turn on it's amazing.

Jared's 30 incher

As far as Ben and his family, they stayed through the weekend leaving Monday.  We left Saturday morning retracing our route that we followed on the way there.  Ben went fishing that day and throughout the day would phone us with updates.  They fished more east of where we fished on Friday and did well catching their limit of 18 walleyes.  I wanted to get a picture of Jared with his 30 inch fish.  I have had Jared fish with me in my wheel house earlier this year and he is definitely fishing crazy.  On Friday he caught this 30+ inch spawned out walleye, he was bound and determined to have it mounted.  I swore he was going to cry when his dad put a knife to it!  As well we got a nice spawned out female on Friday, signaling that the spawn was on.  It was a great trip, one that taught us a lot about trolling for walleyes, and one that we can only hope Ben will invite us again next spring.  Like stated earlier, unlike Canada where a good day is 80 walleyes in the boat for 3 guys, here 18 walleyes encompasses quite a bit of work and the average size is significantly larger, as we never caught a fish under 22 inches.  One definitely needs a boat to handle the water as the wind can come up pretty fast.  Also it is amazing how long it took to clean these large walleyes.  Definitely a trip of a lifetime and even if you take a charter, it was well worth it!!

Getting Caught Up, Lake Erie, Part 1

Mark with the first Lake Erie Walleye of our trip.

In January my good friend Kevin and his son Ben floated by going out to Lake Erie the end of March.  They had found a house near Port Clinton, Ohio that we could rent but they had to act upon it soon.  Our friend Gary Barneson was a district manager for Secura Insurance in Appleton Wisconsin years ago and he had an agent who's son was a Tournament Walleye fisherman.  Kevin and Gary met his son out there and the rest is history.  Ben was out last year with his Ranger 618T with a 90 hp (crazy) but now that he has purchased a new Ranger 620FS like mine, he was anxious to go.  I checked with my brother Steve and friend Mark Applen to see if they would be interested as we are all retired and have time.  Mark's first response was...."This is a bucket list trip, I'm in!!"  Steve didn't take long to commit as well so I told Ben to count on us, I'll bring my boat for us and will meet up with you and drive out.  After settling the rental property, we had our dates set, leave Saturday, March 28 and return the following Saturday, spending a week out there.  Ben stated that one needed a week as the likelihood of getting blown off the lake a couple of days was really high so staying a week would assure some quality fishing time.  He was correct as we arrived Saturday evening around 7:30, the forecast for Sunday was high winds and small craft warnings (that meant us!).  Sunday was spent going over the different landings, stopping to buy food for the week, and checking out the local sporting goods store called Fisherman's Central.  Port Clinton is definitely a tourist town as there are a great number of campgrounds and resorts to stay and enjoy the region.  We went out to Catawba Island to check out some things there and discovered a local winery.  Stopping in it was very nice and had a good process for trying their wines, unfortunately their tastes and mine didn't fit very well.  With Monday's weather looking better we got up and headed to Muzurik Public Boat Landing on Marblehead Point.  Just north of this is Kelley's Island were we intended to fish the area around there.  Although I have fished planer boards in the past on Lake Mille Lacs, because we can fish up to 3 lines each, our strategy was to fish 3 planer boars off of each side, each at varying depths to try and figure out a strategy.  The initial word is at that time of year the big females have yet to spawn and they are staged in certain areas getting ready to spawn.  The key is to find the area they are staging at then troll through these schools with deep diving crankbaits with the Bandit Walleye Deep being the bait of choice.  One soon learns why.  

Bandit Deep Walleye in Rotten Fruit color

Although we were normally fishing in 30 - 40 feet of water, these walleyes are generally suspended off the structures and these Bandits run pretty consistent.  Therefore using one type of bait, it becomes a lot easier to remember how deep you are running the lures and which ones are hot and which ones are not!  Also these baits have a nice rattle chamber in them and as they go through the water they are constantly making noise which attracts the wallleyes.  At 70 feet of line out they are running about 15 - 17 feet deep.  This one called Rotten Fruit was responsible for the first walleye caught in the boat, the largest walleye I had ever seen and because Mark had the first line, he brought in his personal best.  This walleye looked about 32 inches but it was really only about 29 and weighed over 9 pounds.  This was our only fish for the day and even though Ben had 8 for the day, we were never very far from him and kept true to what we were told, look for clear water, look for marks on you depth finder, But with only one fish, we hadn't really developed a pattern and as we soon found out, it is important to figure out where the walleyes were staging.  We also had 4 more days to go and even if we only caught one fish, that fish was absolutely the biggest walleye I'd ever seen! We figured it would take a few days to get things dialed in and that wasn't too far from reality.

Picture of my graph with all the fish

There are two interesting twists to the Lake Erie story.  The sad aspect was that Kevin's father-in-law, Richard Myren, was in put into Hospice before we left as at the age of 89 his cancer had finally taken over.  With hospice one never knows however as we drove down on Saturday Kevin received a call that Richard had died that morning.  Kevin, Ben, Heather and Jared were looking at options but in the end decided to drive home on Tuesday as the funeral was set for Wednesday.   He left his boat and they took off early Tuesday morning, an 8 hour drive back.  The second interesting aspect was in the house next door to us were a group of guys from North Dakota doing a segment for a show called Fish Addictions.  They gave us a lot of tips including a waypoint we should checkout as they stated they had found a school over a mile in length and did really well on Blue Chrome Bandits 50 - 70 feet back.  They also left Tuesday morning so Ben got the picture of the waypoint and sent it to me.  That's a great place to end part 1 and a great place to start the next post.  Fish Addictions has a website and posted this article on their blog which really says it all!  https://www.fishaddictions.com/post/5-tips-for-erie.  And here is the Fish Additions video that they shot a couple of days before they lefthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pauhRYLOl0&list=PLkmn3I-Vc-vpDhw-tAeX6962aDaOyroa5&index=12  it's definitely worth watching.  Next week you can see how we did after meeting these guys!

Getting caught up, part 1

Steve's First Nice Walleye

Well, you'd think one would have enough time to document everything however it seems that time just flies these days.  So I have 2 fishing trips under the belt and haven't reported on wither on  of them so better later than never!  On March 12th the plan was to have my brother Steve pick up my friend Bill from California, who was staying in a hotel near the airport then meet me at the p ole shed, transfer the stuff to my truck and head to Springsteel Island on Lake of the Woods for one last ice fishing trip with the wheelhouse before bringing it home.  Bill had never stayed on the ice while fishing so this was going to be a special trip, however on Thursday, March 11 Springsteel's Facebook page announced that due to the warm weather, they were no longer allowing wheel houses on the ice.  Well, I called Steve to figure out plan B, we would bring our portables with then stay in the wheelhouse that was parked in the driveway of my friend Dave Johnsons house on the resort.  Bill was OK with this so ahead we went.  Arriving at 2:30 we meet up with Mark Mayerich and his cousin Greg and brother-in-law Gary, the news about the ice made them reserve a room in Roseau.  In the meantime my friends from Eleva, Kevin, Ben, and Jared Aiona were out on the ice already so we paid the access fee and headed out.  Unlike a month ago there was no snow on the ice except for a few thin patches.  4 miles out there was a heave starting so we stayed on the west side of that.  Finding an area where it wouldn't be so slippery we drilled 6 holes and started fishing.  It was comfortable out, some wind but we sat behind the truck.  My brother Steve got the first nice fish, a 23 inch walleye, anything over 19.5 had to be let go so down the hole it went.  We got another few fish before sunset and overall it was a nice beginning to our trip.  Driving back that night to sleep in the wheel house, the ice didn't seem too bad yet the prediction was for temperatures to be in the mid 50's on Saturday and that could really cause issues on the ice.

Ben's Nice Northern

Saturday came and we decided to fish  the same area again, about as deep as we could find without going over the heave.  It was nice out so we decided to fish outside again.  Ben and Kevin had their Ranger so they were more mobile and tried a number of different spots closer in at around 18 feet.  Being a couple miles away it wasn't too easy to see them but we did get their coordinates.  Because they were closer to shore and shallower, this set up for the possibility to catch some nice northerns as there were many ice fisherman specifically targeting northern pike.  Ben hooked into this dandy jigging for walleyes.  In the mean time we stayed in that 24 feet of water and Bill caught a dandy perch, close to 14 inches.  As well my friend Bruce Wiley had planned on flying up Saturday morning.  Dave Johnson drove a truck up that he planned to leave at his cabin so Bruce volunteered to fly him back home on Sunday.  2 hours verses 6 1/2 hours driving.   Dave and Bruce found us on the ice to see what we had.  It was nothing to brag about so Dave decided to take some walleyes out of the freezer and we would have walleye at the bar later that night.  We had a couple, Ben and Kevin had a few but with 12 in our group it was good that he had some fish that he could contribute.  The resort does a great job of making a fish fry, deep fried walleye, cole slaw, beans, and fried potatoes, a regular shore lunch.  they were very accommodating for me using my gluten free fish coating, it was a lot of fun and a good experience for my friend Bill to see how we do it in Northern Minnesota. Sunday was colder and more wind so we set up out hub houses with a heater and fished inside.  It was nice and comfortable, not that it was bad outside, in the low 40's but the wind wasn't very nice.  In the meantime Mark, Gary, and Greg, who was right next to us made lunch including chili and marinated venison chops, exceptionally good.  At about 4 we packed up and headed to where Kevin and Ben were fishing in the shallower water.  Getting set up it took about an hour then the fish turned on.  bound and determined to catch a fish on a Slab Rap, my wish finally came true as I got 5 fish on that lure.  My goal is to become more proficient with it, hoping to try this type of bait on opener at Leech Lake this year.  By sundown the  bite died almost instantly so we packed up.  the plan in the morning was to hook up and head south.  Kevin and Ben decided to fish in the morning so we did not touch base before we left.  In hindsight I think they could have let houses out as the ice seemed pretty firm and even the high temperatures on Saturday had little effect on the ice.  Oh well we had fun.  with no DirecTV we watch a movie each night, Friday was The Big White, a Robin Williams movie, Saturday was The Founder, about Ray Kroch and McDonalds, a very good movie, then Sunday was The Man  Who Shot Liberty Valence, the first movie John Wayne called anyone Pilgrim (Jimmy Steward).  We enjoyed some great wine, some very nice scotch, Bill had an experience that he'll never forget and I got my wheel house home.  Lot's accomplished!  My next couple posts will be on my latest trip to Lake Erie, very interesting.  Also I installed 4 new Lithium batteries in my boat, that is another interesting story.