jbmaine

will do!

As some of you know I had an issue with my Garmin Echomap Chirp 73 ( See Garmin malfunction ). They asked me to send it into them, which I did. Tracking shows they received it yesterday. I called this A.M. to see if they had looked at it yet. The customer service rep put me on hold while he checked into it. He came back and said this unit was not considered repairable, and they would send me a replacement, but as they didn't have any more of the non plus units to send, they would replace it with one of the newer plus units. From what he said these use the same transducer, power cable etc. so all I have to do is mount the new cradle, plug everything in, and I'll be good to go. Even better, they are overnighting it so I'll have it tomorrow. Can't ask any more than that. It's nice to see a company that still has good customer service.

Thanks, I couldn't get it to come up.

This isn't new but I chuckle every time I see it. Sorry, Can't copy the link, but look up Haynes baked bean astronaut commercial .

whoops!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In this weather why not just wear shorts?

Not at all, but you might get hung up more often. Have you tried casting to the outside of this fallen timber? Maybe drawing the fish out? Or top water, over the tree. If you cast into it and feel you start to get hung up ( like in a fork of the tree) try slacking off a bit then a fast jerk to hop it over.

I assume you are fishing from shore? Can you wade out a bit to give you more room to cast?

Are you fishing from shore or boat? If you can, try to get closer so you are bring your bait up thru it, rather than horizontally dragging thru it.

We own both, and watch them a couple times a year. My dad was in WW2, and I am always in awe of what he, and all who served went thru. Who ever coined the phrase " The Greatest Generation " was spot on.

As long as public water is open to the public, then there will be days that make you mutter not so nice things at times. I look at it as waves, wakes, noise, etc. as a fact of life. Even with common courtesy from everyone there are inconveniences you have to put up with. What annoys me is when a few ( insert swear words here ) feel their right to use the water supersedes everyone else's. If you are fishing a cove and there are , say, jet skiers running circles on the main lake you will get noise, waves, that's just the way it is. But if those same jet skiers race into the cove and decide to use you as a pylon for their race, well, that's just wrong. At that point I'll just move ,and take down their numbers to call the marine patrol. Really, what else are you going to do. Same with everyone else. As in all of life's situations, most people will try to do the right thing, but the few that don't, there's only so much that you can do. Yes, it ticks you off, but if you let their actions ruin your day, then you've let them win, in more ways than one.

I have a smaller multi species Lund so I can't comment on your specifics, but we looked at many boats before choosing a Lund. Hands down Lund had the best fit, form, finish, and attention to detail.

I have several jitterbugs, crazy crawlers, hulla poppers, spoons, etc that I used when I was a kid, 50-60 years ago. I'll never use them now. To many memories.

The lake is 900+ acres with a max depth of 40+ feet. In many places the bottom goes up and down like a roller coaster. I tried mapping the lake to find more sharp drop offs, as apposed to gradual changes in depth, but had an issue with my Garmin. When I get it back I'll try mapping the lake again. Right now the only sharp drop off I know for a fact is the spot I mentioned above. Ultimately I plan on having several areas identified to hit during the summer. Also there is bait fish everywhere. It's a real healthy lake.

I just read thieves made off with the Swedish crown jewels. They escaped in a small boat, the police couldn't catch them. I bet it was a LUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

I use them for depth, water temp, finding structure, you name it. I'm spending more time this year hunting for SM and I'd be lost with out it.

Thanks for the input everyone. The quest continues.

From what everyone says, My understanding is that during the Summer SM move around a lot. On one of the lakes I fish there is a small Island ( about 15 ft. in diameter) that rapidly drops off to around 25 foot depth on two sides. This summer these drop-offs have yielded 2-4 SM on just about every trip. I'll fish it, catch what I can, then move on when the fishing dies down. What I'm wondering is, because it's proven to be a good SM spot, should I keep fishing it even after the action dies down, with the idea that sooner or later more SM will move into the area? Maybe instead of chasing them all over the lake, wait and let them come to you? Do you think this would be a viable idea? Thanks Jim

Thanks, this was tight from the get go, manual didn't help much and I might have been OK except Garmin rep said it should pop back out. My wife noticed it was leaving marks on the card the first time I tried it.

I was catching fish on jitterbugs and crazy crawlers 50+ years ago ( still have a couple from back then ). worked then, work now.

Still picking up deep water smallies. Nothing huge but the largest was 2.8. Boy do they fight!!!!

I've had a echomap chirp 73 since early spring and have loved it. Today I thought I'd try mapping one of our favorite lakes. Tried to put the memory card in and it seemed like an awful tight fit. Pulled it out, comfirmed it was orientated correctly and tried again. Still seemed like something wasn't right. Read thru the manual, didn't say much about it. No matter how far I put it in I still got the message insert memory card. So I called garmin. Explained what was happening. He asked was the card in all the way? I said if I put it in anymore I'm not sure I could get it out. He said when you insert the card, to get it out, push it in some more and it will pop back out. I tried, and now it's stuck in the reader, flush, with no way to get it out. He said it sounds like there is a problem with the reader and they will fix it under warranty. At first I thought I lucked out, he said they would just do a swap with a new unit, but then he checked, said they didn't have one to send me, and I would have to send this one in for repair. Then he said He would E-mail me a shipping label. Turn around will probably be around two weeks. O'well, stuff happens. Just got home, checked my E-mail, they sent it, but with the wrong name. I'm now waiting for Garmin to call me back to get a shipping label with the right name on it. Other than that it was a great day.

It happened to our favorite lake. One spring it got really flooded. That summer it was crazy thick with floating weeds and by the next year the fishing had gone from 10-15 bass a trip to just about zip.

Spinner baits on spinning rods work just great. Tues. morning I was throwing a chartreuse spinner bait in 7 ft of water. Let it hit bottom and retrieved just fast enough to keep it off the bottom. Caught this one and a few more.

Had the same thing happen to me a couple of weeks ago. Water started boiling ( like heavy rain) Threw a paddle tail into it and caught yellow perch after yellow perch. Looks like a school of yellow perch had a school of minnows surrounded and were having a feeding frenzy.