Wayne P.

I've done it so often it seems like a short trip.

Yes, I live on the Northwest side of C'ville near Fashion Square Mall. I use Rt. 20 and Rt.15 to get there. It is 78 miles from my house to the Rt. 701 ramp. It takes less than 1 1/2 hours. I have to go all the way through the middle of C'ville to get on the South side, plus the low speed limit in Scottsville, and Dillwyn.

30# superline

http://www.stratoswear.com/detail.aspx?ID=98

I do too except for about 15-20 minutes of the whole day with the 9.9 outboard. I go there to fish, not ride around.

Describe your boat and its capablilites. As I mentioned before there is no one-size-fits-all for transducers and mounting. The standared transducer is just that "standard". Some applications take different solutions. A mis-applied transducer is just as likely to fail no matter who installs it or how many times it is mis-applied.

I use the Speed Clips also for heavy cranks, but use the Fast-Lock clips for small jerkbaits because of the weight difference.

I have a couple of the umbrella hats, LOL. I like those when it is raining so I don't have to use the rain jacket hood that makes my neck tired. Not too good on a windy day though. I made a PVC pipe umbrella holder for my boat that just slips over the seat pedistal. I sized it to fit a golf umbrella and have an adaptor to fit a beach umbrella too that is 7' diameter (haven't used that yet). For your boat type, if you have a flat place to attach a pipe flange, mount that and then screw a section of PVC into it to hold the umbrella. Adaptors for different PVC sizes and types are available at Lowes or Home Depot. Put a bolt through the pipe to limit how far into the pipe that the umbrella handle goes. I used my umbrella and holder yesterday when fishing during the mid-day period.

The circuit breaker has two connection points (usually a couple of #8 or #10 machine screws). One of those connects to the positive post of the battery (a short (about 1") solid copper bar is best) and the other point hooks to the positive wire of the trolling motor. The purpose of the circuit breaker is to protect the wire and/motor so it doesn't overheat and cause a fire when the motor draws more amps than the wires can support. These are the more common ones: http://www.wiringproducts.com/contents/en-us/d60.html You can spend 10 times that much for the Minnkota version if you want to.

If there are no maps of any kind available for your lake, it probably is not on any map software that is preloaded or memory card based for any Sonar/GPS unit of any brand. One of the best sources of lake map software is Navionics. Check their website for the region you are in and there will be a list of waters that are included for each region. Mapping is not a necessary function of GPS units. Mapping is just overlayed on a GPS plotter screen so the position of waypoints, routes, and tracks have a visible reference. The GPS functions the same with or without any mapping software. If you state what water you are referring to, maybe someone that has GPS mapping for that area can let you know if they have that water on their unit's map software. One of the lakes I fish a lot has no mapping of any kind available, but I have over 50 GPS waypoints for that water. I have those by being on the water and saving those postions. My Chart view shows I am on land when I am there. You can make your own topo map of that lake by using acmemapper. Just find the lake and print the Land Topo and Satellite views. I print the Satellite view on plain paper, print the Topo view on clear translucent paper, put one on top of the other and have a lake topo map. Just don't change the scale between views. Here is one I did of part of a lake:

Humminbird has the Fishing Buddy series which is all self-contained. Most mfg have a suction cup transducer mount for a regular sonar unit. Just need a power source. You can purchase a Eagle Cuda 300 or similar size unit for less than $100. Mount that to a board and use a suction cup mount for the transducer. Put battery clips on the power cord to use the trolling motor battery. Another option for the transducer mount is just use the transom mount bracket with a hose clamp to attach the transducer to the trolling motor.

Bank fishing: Chris Green Lake, Walnut Creek Lake, Fluvanna Ruritan Lake, Beaver Creek Lake, Ragged Mountain Res., Lake Orange are a few.

Depending on the depth, you will pick up stuff that is not directly under the transducer, but you won't know how far or which direction. Some of the units can use the Quad Beam transducer (aka poor man's Side Imaging) and that setup will show which side a return is on. You can check each unit's accessories on the Humminbird web site to determine what units can use that transducer. You can also just look at the transducer listing to see what units will work with each tranducer.

I can get to the home page with AOL, but when I select Fishing Forums and one of the topics, I get this "The web address you entered could not be found[more information]You were trying to go to http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/forum/10-bass-boating-canoeing-tubing-and-more/ CloseThe error could be the result of a variety of things, from typing errors in the web address to DNS issues with the requested web address. Check the web address for typing errors or check your internet connection to ensure other web addresses are accessible. Did you mean: bassresource "

I use them when the pattern involves a slow horizontal presentation, usually above vegetation and/or cool water. The only trailer I use is the Zoom twin tail trailer.

If he is having the same screwed up access to this site's forums as I am. He may have not figured it out. I can't get to it thru the AOL server. I have to use IE. It is the only site I visit that requires that path.

This is an idea of what I was looking for except there were no bass near these schools of shad. I took this screen shot from a recording I did as I was leaving the upper end and going to the mid-lake area to check some thermocline points. I changed the settings somewhat to clean up the image-normally I have it set to highlight the fish better. I was following the creek channel at this point.

The older units in the same size and the newer ones in the 800 and 900 series are somewhat less bright. I guess you have read about all that stuff, LOL

Nope, wasn't me. I have a Tracker PT 170 TX with a 9.9 4-stroke. I left the dock and immediately went out to the middle of the lake where the Briery Creek channel is to check for the thermocline depth. After that I went uplake past the powerline until the creek channel ledge was at that depth. The only conversation going on was me discribing what the sonar unit was showing. My boat is set up like this:

Yes, I do know the lake quite well (20 years of experience) but I fish Sandy River the same way or any other man made lake. It has nothing to do with the lake itself, it's being familiar with seasonal patterns and fish behavior.

Weren't you guys there Friday? I was there Thursday from 8:30AM until 5:30PM. I launched at the 701 ramp. My truck was the red Colorado with the Tracker trailer. All the boats I saw on the lake were not fishing the correct pattern, most were fishing the bank and one was fishing in the trees not far from the ramp in water that was too deep. I mentioned to my friend that those boats were not where the fish were, then I showed him where they were. When I left the ramp, I went out to the middle of the lake to check the thermocline level. That determined where I would even attempt to find the fish.

There was a combination of two patterns. We didn't fish deeper than the thermocline (around 16'). Plus only fished where there were shad schools and bass that were not in the middle of the creek channel (had to be on the ledge or just off the ledge) or they had to be close on the bottom at the thermocline level on points. I used my electronics to determine those. I only tried one area that did not have those elements and didn't get a hit there, every other place was productive. Most were caught with the weedless wacky rigged finesse worm. We didn't catch any over 4#.

Where on the lake did you try everything? I took a former co-worker there yesterday to show him how to bass fish on a lake (he has only fished rivers and hasn't had any bass catching luck). He said he would like to catch at least one bass. I told him as we were driving to the lake that he would probably catch one on the first cast (he did--with a Tx rigged finesse worm). He caught 15 bass, 1 shell cracker, and one catfish. He had several others get off due to lack of hook setting experience. I caught 21 bass. We caught the most during mid-day and caught them at every location we tried but one and that one didn't match the pattern (was just checking some odd stuff).

There is no Humminbird 500 series Side Imaging unit, some in that model range have Down Imaging and 2D sonar. The least expensive Side Imaging unit is the Humminbird 798. The 2011 year model is 798ci HD SI-it retails for around $1000.00---SI/DI/2D. You can find them for a few hundred less by doing an internet search for that model.