1mainiac

Well Raymarine left me mad due to a couple of their reps attitudes Simrad is a solid unit but a little scary as they changed ownership and talked of dropping the cable steering line but the Ray unit is the easiest install if you can remove the steering wheel. Whichj you also have to do with the Simrad system but with the Ray unit you have to be able to reuse the componets with the Simrad if you damage the steering box pulling the wheel it don't matter because you are replaceing it anyhow with their unit. All of the Simrad goes behind the dash except for the control head which is nice but requires a lot of space behind the dash. My steering wheel and throttle are very close to each other so raising the wheel to put the AP under it might help with the Ray system. I don't have enough room behind the dash for the Simrad without cutting into the bulkhead in the head so that kinda ruled it out for me. Mariners Center told me about 1700 for the new Ray system with the ST70 head as they can package it that way but don't stock it that way. Of all the systems I have researched the Garmin wins but requires Hyd steering and costs more because the Simrad is behind the dash it may be a bit quieter as the motor is behind the dash versus above the dash under the wheel on the Ray unit. I think either of them will do a fine job and most of it will come down to how well you program your plotter for many of the cool things to happen. I really don't think I would ever use anything other than a lazy S trolling pattern but who knows if you know there are fish there a Cloverleaf pattern might be productive many of the other patterns are basic search and rescue patterns which I guess you could also use for fishing. But for me I fish shorthanded with my wife a lot so just being able to step away and set gear or net would be great and not yelling at my wife to drive straight could save my marraige who knows. She is aware I can be a complete Ass when fishing if things don't go right but she watches Deadlest Catch all the time so she knows I am not the only boat captain with a attitude.

You know I am in Nick see you there as long as the water is deep enough for me to get in and out I will fish it.

Nope here is the base system http://www.wmjmarine.com/c32626.html The drive motor is mounted under the steering wheel you remove the steering wheel install the drive motor assy and a stub shaft and put the wheel on the stub shaft. mount the course computer and Fluxgate compass and control head it comes with a ST 6002 I believe if you want to have the trolling patterns built in you need to upgrade to the ST 70 control head. My issue is I will be nearly at max boat size for the unit so not sure how well it will handle being maxed out it's entire life. Call Mariners Center they have them in stock and have sold several this year the only issue anyone has had was not being able to remove the steering wheel due to corrosion on a Ranger bass boat.

Ah yes the angry porcupine fishing approach I have done that as well it is amazing how much gear you can pull behind one boat and still not catch fish some days. And other days you can't even get the gear set cause you are too busy catching fish.

The Raymarine system does not require any steering changes you remove the steering wheel mount the unit on the steering shaft attach the steering wheel to the unit and mount the course computer fluxgate compass and control panel and wire them all together. It is a very simple setup my one issue is my boat is very close to maximum rated size for the system so I am concerned with how well it will work on a bigger boat. it is a rework of the old Sport Pilot which was discontinued several years ago but many still use and like. If you want trolling patterns you need the ST70 control unit with it. If you have the standard Morse single cable the Simrad should mount and work fine if you have the room under the dash for the unit to fit. No matter how you look at it either of them will be cheaper than going to Hyd steering. And once you convert to Hyd steering most of the AP's cost more as well but you get lots more options with Hyd steering. The biggest advantage to Hyd steering is the steering control is much better as the rudder cannot move there is no play in the steering so when driving you don't spend all day chasing the slack in the cable and when you let go of the wheel it won't change course. My cable steering drives me nuts when I am trimming the boat at speed as once I get it trimmed and up on step it wants to change direction back and forth with the slack in the cable setup this usually has me cussing at it untill I finally get the steering and trim all in sync then I am fine. Either of the units will talk to your plotter just fine as long as the GPS has NEMA output so that is really not a issue. All of them will be better than yelling at your friends and family all day to keep the boat on course. In talking with my Raymarine guy at Mariners Center he said the new X5 unit will back troll and stay on course which is one of the things that delayed release. All of them even the Hyd units have similar problems with mouinting the componets and electrical interference issues. I am waiting on the sale of a couple of toys I no longer need to buy one and I may end up with the Raymarine unit.

Went out for what turned out to be a evening cruise in the slop tonight not going to call it a fishing trip cause we never got lines set. Weather report said NE winds 10 to 15 mph 1 to 2 ft waves hit the lake to find NW winds 15 to 20 plus and waves closer to 3 to 5 ft. So headed out into the cement mixer with my brother and his girlfriends kid quartering into the waves not a fun trip and a bit wet at times. Perhaps I should learn to slow down but I just wanted to get out and fish. So my wife was not enjoying the boat ride and said I should take her back to the dock several times in a language I won't use here I finally backed off and tried to set up in 115 ft and while the wife was better the kid my brother brought was now a pale green. I went to set some lines and he went to feed the gophers the waves kept tripping my dipseys and I watched Vince run in and called him on the radio he said he had 2 fish and most of his charter was green and chumming so he was done for the day. I put it up for a vote and we decided to just call it a evening boat ride. So where do I sign up to be a weatherman apparently it requires very little skill read a few charts and make a good guess and even if you are totally wrong you still get paid. Any how not sure if I will try and get out tomorrow or not the forecast is good if you can believe it not sure if I can believe it though.

Well I have been down this road for over 2 years you have 2 basic choices depending on how much you want to spend and keep the cable steering. First choice is a Simrad AP 12R or AP14R which may require you to change your steering cable as well but other than that and the 10 in clearance it needs behind the wheel ( which my boat lacks) it is a straight forward install remove all the current stuff and replace it with theirs install the fluxgate compass and course computer run a couple of tests and take it out in open water and let it learn your boat. Second choice is a Raymarine X5 Smart Pilot which mounts under your steering wheel and is also a straight forward install which most people can do themselves if you want trolling patterns you need to upgrade to a ST70 head which will push the price up just past 1700 bucks. This system was packaged into my boat purchase last Feb however RayMarine kept changing the release date and eventually made me so mad I demanded my money back in Aug last year. Now it is out and I no longer have the extra money plus I am still unsure if I want one after the way they treated me last year. I really want to switch my boat over to Hyd steering and go with the Garmin GHP 10 which will end up costing me close to 4 grand but is a system I really like for several reasons the Shadow Drive being one of the most important as it allows you to grab the wheel and make corrections without shutting down the AP so if something goes wrong you don't have to remember which button to push to steer the boat something that concerns me if my wife ever had to take over in a emergency the last thing I would want is her or anyone else not knowing how to take over the boat. With the Garmin you can make course changes any time from the wheel or from the control panel and if you hold a steady course for 60 sec and let go it maintains the new heading this I think would be very handy for fishing as you can make quick adjustments when a fish is at the back of the boat without messing up the AP or shutting it off.

Very Nice Don

Nice job Nick and thanks for picking up the tourney and doing a nice job of running it. Now that you have the new boat broke in and a win as well I will be planning on out fishing you the rest of the way LOL. Gotta make sure we don't let Mike win his first tourney Sat so have been working on my game plan parts to fix the broken rigger should be here tommorrow. Relined a couple of reels tonight and modified my rod trees to fit in my tracks so may try and use them Sat.

Very nice setup mark

Loosen the drags and add a snubber most people have no idea how much force they are putting on the fish with the leverage added by the rod. Take your rod and hook the line to a pull scale and load it up till the drag lets go and see how hard you are pulling on it. now remember zero stretch so when the fish bangs on it there is no give which rips the hole bigger making it easier to spit the hook.

One suggestion from my experience the one issue I have had is with the cable bunching on the spool and chafeing the coating off. This has been a real problem since I moved it to my outside riggers. I am thinking that this year I will run it on non coated cable and live with it not working very much below 100 ft down. So make sure you wind it on tight and watch it so it does not bunch up in one spot on the spool.

I am going for lighter action gear every year I have a set of Blue Diaond 10ft roller rods for my wire divers have not even got them wet yet have used 9ft Classic mooching rods for my braid divers for several years and like them fine. On my riggers I am running much lighter gear with 2 medium light rods setup with 14lb 2 meduim action rods with 20lb and still have a couple of medium heavy rods with 30 for harbor patrol. As the heavier rods get replaced with lighter rods they become core rods or end up in a yard sale.

Well I was in the Coast Guard from 76 to 80 so going full throttle in the slop is nothing new to me the wife on the other hand prefers a more mellow ride. We were barely up on plane but the look on my wifes face was clear she was not impressed the second or 3rd time we were airborn had it not been for Jay and Brian being with us she would have made me turn back in this morning. She did however hang in there pretty good and did not complain. She also got a nice fish on her personal lure even though she ripped the hook off on the rigger so while a bigger box would have been nice it was still a good day. For those who were out there this morning I have been full throttle in a 17ft Whaler on SAR calls in worse weather with no padding on the seats. That is a bone jarring ride ran all the way from Manistee to Portage lake in 4 to 6 ft waves with the throttle pinned one time we were so beat up we had the guys bring the truck and trailer up to get us neither of us wanted to ride back in the boat. Worst of all it was a test call our CO knew we would be out on harbor patrol so had a call come in for a sinking boat in Portage lake since he was at Portage lake he did not know we had decided to use the Whaler for patrol and to get water samples. He was expecting to see the big boat coming into the channel not 2 nuts going full out in a Whaler.

Well as usual the weatherman had no idea what would happen. Hit the end of the channel to find a very sloppy 3 to 5 ft wave set hit the throttles and headed out till the wife complained a 26ft boat is not a airplane and we should slow down and stay in the water. Set up in 60 ft on a SW troll and was into fish we were 2 for 5 before we got 6 lines set and hit 80ft where it slowed to a stop. by the time we hit 90 ft I had broken one of my riggers and our second fish was a magic trick and some skilled netting by Jay. When the fish got to the back of the boat it went nuts and my wife tried to pull it back away from the Port rigger as Jay netted it the spoon came out and we lost it sort of then Jay yells he sees it and nets it but he cant get it in the boat it is hooked to the rigger cable. So I let Brian or Dee drive and climb back there and sort out the magic trick part. Got a hold of the fish and unhooked him and tossed him in the box now just got to untangle the mess. here's the magic trick when my wife pulled the fish to the net the lure hit the rigger cable which opened the split ring to the hook and the spoon popped off leaving the split ring on the rigger cable with the fish hooked to it. Never seen anything like that happen in 40 years on Lake MI. We wasted some time re running where we caught the first 2 fish and headed out SW again. Picked up a couple more around 110ft but was getting close to time to pull lines so made a choice to run back thru the bait ball out front instead of running any further out heard Nick and Catfish getting fish out deep but by then we were committed to the troll and lived with the decision for 5th place. Lake was laying down nicely when we ran in I still had a good day blooper broken gear and all flatter water would have been nice. Nice meeting everyone today looking forward to Mikes event next weekend.

The one that has a fish on it is always my favorite. It does not matter to me anymore how much I paid for my gearor what other people think of it as long as it works and has a fish on it it's my favorite one. It sucks just as bad to lose a fish on a 20 dollar pole as it does on a 400 dollar pole however it hurts much less to break a 20 dollar pole.

I suppose that would help if you fiber-glassed them in, kinda takes away from the quick cheap and easy idea though. I have used PVC in lots of applications over the years outside in sunlight it always gets brittle and breaks it was never intended to be a structural support material it has always been a conduit material. As such the Gray conduit pipe is UV protected but again lacks any real strength so back to the same problem it will break sooner or later do you want your fishiing pole in it when it breaks?

I have tried a lot of releases and really like pinch pads did not care for dragging shakers or having the ball spin on the way down and tangle the release. So I went back to the blacks above the ball no more tangles but still had shaker issues so I fixed the blacks so they will not open and run Off Shore releases behind them. Now I am pretty happy after running this a full season last year with no issues the Blacks spins freely above the ball or probe and does not tangle. The short cable between the Blacks and the pinch pad allows movement to detect shakers and still allows me to torque the rods down I can change pads to adjust the setup on the fly so I am pretty happy with it. Will be setting all my riggers up this way this year.

Winds have died big time here in Muskegon current report is for 1 to 2 ft will be ready to go in the morning.

I know of a few being used to hold extra rods but nobody uses them to pull lines for long they get brittle and break way too fast to risk your gear on.

Sunday will be fine was already planning on fishing it anyhow just which port had planned on Muskegon Sun morn but Port Sheldon will be fine.

I know I hear from a lot of guys how much they love em I just got tired of having em swim around my other riggers. I won't put the entire blame on them cause it was mostly due to poor boat driving and changing currents. When I get a auto pilot or someone else who can set gear I may try them again. But like a lot of other things people either love em or hate em.

I know but wife was wanting a smooth first trip out so the reports had her scared to begin with then seeing all the lightning finished her off. When she saw that the report was good for Sun afternoon she was ready to fish unfortunatly the actual weather did not follow the report for either day. Sat was supposed to be lumpy and get worse and you had a few decent hours to fish Sun was supposed to be flat all day and blew up shortly before we hit the lake. Go figure

Took the wife out to fish this evening Wave report was wrong as usual the report said calm to 1 ft. When I left it was 2 to 4 with some 3 to 5's mixed in. So we never made it past 40 ft before she was ready to come back in. Oh well her day not gonna have fun with her complaining about the weather so turned back in. Marked some decent size fish inside the arms so did harbor patrol for a little over a hour and wife caught her first fish of the year a 25 in pike so she was happy. I had her drive around Muskegon Lake for a bit to get comfortable with driving the boat again and she drove it all the way to the launch but made me dock it. Almost no boats out and very little radio traffic but still no skunks this year. Hopefully weather is better next weekend at Port Sheldon.

I never liked my pancakes so I don't have em any more out deep it is 15 lb balls off the back and 12 lb on the side riggers cause they won't take the 15 lb balls.