desmobob

Took a break from fly fishing for striped bass on Cape Cod and went out on a whale watch...

Another comment I should have added: I ran mine on the standard Interstate-brand combination starting/deep cycle battery that my Pro 170 came equipped to run the trolling motor with. I did some marathon fishing days with it, and I don't remember ever running out of juice.

I don't think you'll be the least bit unhappy! Mine performed like a champ for seven years. And even when it finally gave up the ghost, it did so gradually for the last few weeks, giving me the chance to read and research on what might be a good replacement. I did almost buy another one. Take a look at the arrangement of the wiring and how the wires are bundled/tied back near where they connect to the terminals in the foot control. Mine weren't quite tied back to where they didn't interfere with each other and/or moving parts. Still, it took about five years before it created an issue.

I have the same boat/trolling motor (Bass Tracker Pro 170), one year newer. I think the Edge does OK except in windy conditions, but I was frustrated by its 5-speed selection. It finally died after seven years of good service and I replaced it with a 55lb. MotorGuide X3 Digital which has a variable speed control. I am much happier with it. The only problem I ever had with the Edge was with the wiring in the foot control. A wire was rubbing an eventually, the insulation wore through and shorted things out. No damage done and an easy fix.

There's only one real way to learn! Dive right in! ? Best of luck to you with whatever you choose to buy.

I bought a Bass Tracker Pro 170 back in 2014 and was very uneasy about it, knowing it was entry level and low-budget. Eight years later, I have no complaints and consider it an excellent bang-for-the-buck boat purchase. When I've run into other Pro 170 owners at the ramp or on the water, they have had very positive experiences, too. But it's always a crap shoot... are the new ones built to the same specs and quality control of the older ones? It takes years for a product to build a reputation but it can still get changed for better or worse afterward. Internet reviews are helpful but the accepted belief regarding them is that most satisfied people don't bother to post reviews while the majority of unhappy people do.

There is a good walleye population in my local lake. I'm not a meat hunter and very rarely keep any fish other than maybe some yellow perch in the winter when ice fishing. But if I get a by-catch walleye, the odds are good I will empty the gear out of the live well (which I normally use for storage) and it will go home for eating. Your state is a dream destination for freezer-filling anglers! To get back on topic, here's an "other species" catch photo of a fish that bit my spinnerbait. Hey! It's a walleye! ?

I know it's just semantics, but I look at it from a slightly different direction and don't single out walleye anglers: a certain percentage of all fishermen are meat hunters. If you're fishing for food, you probably target the tastiest fish... walleyes, yellow perch, etc. I don't know if this is even relevant to the conversation! ?

I have a couple different brands of the "stick the worm inside, then roll the ring off onto it" type tools. They work great. When I was fishing Senkos a LOT, I even bought a nasal speculum to see if it would be handier than the popular tools (it wasn't, in my opinion).

I solo paddle my 17'6" Bell Northwind tandem by kneeling just behind the thwart and heeling the boat to port. (This is even more advantageous than paddling stern-first and sitting in what used to be the bow seat. The Northwind has an asymmetrical hull.) The seat in my Bell Magic 16' solo canoe is just aft of center. That's where you generally want the weight to be for good paddling.

Find yourself a copy of Bill Mason's book, "Path of the Paddle". It's the ultimate guide to canoeing and paddling.

I don't have a good photo of it, but this is the same mount system with my Lowrance attached to it. The other option that wouldn't interfere with rowing has a sort of "shelf" that the unit mounts on. It would be positioned on the inboard side of the pontoon, down next to my left leg, instead of up on top like the one I have now. My Scadden Raptor is very large and there's plenty of space on either side of my legs when I'm in it. I don't know if you'd have room for that type mount with your tube. I'm thinking you might be better off mounting it on the lid of one of the hard boxes on your tube. The guys at FishfinderMounts.com will certainly help you get the best set-up for your tube. This is my Raptor:

I went the cheapest route and put together my system from their individual parts. I just toss the battery into a side pocket of my kick boat (Scadden Raptor Light Speed X). BUT... my unit does get in the way of rowing and I would have been better off getting the mount that places the unit inboard of the pontoon instead of on top of it. There's plenty of room for it in my Raptor. I may change out that part of my system later on. But, then again, I may not... I actually get a sore neck from spending so much time looking down at the screen sometimes, depending on where I'm fishing/what I'm fishing for. If it was mounted even lower on the side of the pontoon, that situation would be worse. (Just another bit of griping from an angler frustrated with getting older!)

I use a Striker Plus 5cv on my tube... wonderful unit and no problems with battery life using a Bioenno 12V 9Ah LiFePO4 battery. My mount is from Fishfindermounts.com. I use the same Garmin in a Garmin portable pack for ice fishing in the winter with a cheap lead-acid battery and can easily fish two days on one charge. Oh... you're going to have so much fun! I think summertime float tube fishing (especially with a fly rod for panfish) is one of the most relaxing things a person can do!

He picked up a 16' Grumman with a 15HP Suzuki outboard. He wants to buy some kind of cover for it... neither of us can think of the correct term to describe the thin strips of wood that fit in sockets on each side of the gunwale and then bow upward to lift the cover for water to run off. Can you help me with a name for these parts and a source? Feeling embarrassingly un-nautical, Bob

Here's a screenshot... I can't click on it right now as it's not currently showing. It's one of the banner ads that rotates on the top of some pages.

Scam banner ads? This "You have (1) Gift!" ad links to a "free vacuum cleaner" deal supposedly from Dyson. You merely send them the shipping cost up front and then they send you a free vacuum worth big bucks. Sure! Admin, you might want to check this one out. I don't think they're legit...

I was a big fan of George Dickel Rye. I tried it after seeing it finish very high up in a couple of comparison taste tests and was amazed how good it was for a normally-priced booze. I read a little about it and found that it was distilled from 100% rye that Dickel grew themselves. But then, I couldn't find it anywhere for a very long time! It's on the shelves again and it just doesn't taste as good as it used to. I read the fine print and it's not the same product! Now, it's distilled in Indiana... and that pretty much tells me it's coming from Midwest Grain Products instead of Dickel's own distillery. I'm very sad... My friends know how much I liked it and I was gifted couple of bottles for my birthday recently. I sure wish it was the old stuff!

5 grams of fentanyl would probably kill every bass in the lake! I think anesthesiologists use something like 10 micrograms to knock you out... ?

I use DuckDuckGo! as my browser's search engine and if you type in any units of measurement like as "grams to ounces" a converter comes up immediately, as well as links to many conversion web pages.

https://www.unitconverters.net/weight-and-mass/grams-to-ounces.htm 5 Grams is a little over 1/8 ounce (around 5/32?)... 15 grams is a tiny bit over 1/2.

They're a lot of fun on a 5wt fly rod. ? The lake also has a heck of a smallmouth fishery as well as some largemouths.

When I was about 50, my blood pressure started rising at a fast rate. I was very healthy, walking about six hours a day in my job as a USPS mail carrier (all walking routes at my post office with no vehicle back then) plus lots of bicycling. On weekends I was doing a lot of hiking and backpacking. I was probably in the best shape of my life! The doc was surprised about my BP problem and sent me to a cardiologist. He checked me out thoroughly, found nothing out of the ordinary but said he had a hunch... and then he sent me for a sleep study. Turns out I had acute sleep apnea. The doc also noted that my mom had hypertension and it can be congenital. A CPAP machine and Enalapril brought my blood pressure numbers back into line. I also take Simvastatin for cholesterol. The doc switched me to Lipitor (Atorvastatin) a couple of months ago but I had a couple of terrible vertigo attacks (thank God I wasn't driving at the time!) and was experiencing some really annoying memory issues so I'm off that and back to Simvastatin again. Several people I've talked to have had issues with Atorvastatin. I did a lot of reading about it and I believe it's a bad drug.

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