Mount Live Scope 34 on Pole?? or older Trolling motor that has cable steering?

[Dingaling man]

Mount Live Scope 34 on Pole?? or my older Trolling motor that has cable steering on my 1998 Triton Bass Boat

 

I fish lake Ontario Smallmouth Bass all summer and 70% fishing the 5ft to 25ft and 30% deeper 

The steering cable has some slack and play which worries me at slower speeds, drifting and sitting still or bigger waves,

anyone have this set up opinions

thanks, J.

 

[WIGuide]

What kind of pole were you thinking? Fixed, hand controlled, or an electronic model?  If you were thinking like a separate pole mount, the constant stowing and deploying I think would be a pain unless the pole mount was mounted to the TM. Having it on the TM shaft allows hand free control with the draw back of always having to move with the TM.

 

Side note with the slop in the TM steering. You can usually adjust the cable tensioners to get rid of that. It could also indicate that your cables have stretched a little which is what happens shortly before they completely break. 

[GPtimes2]

I surprised anyone would want their livescope pointing attached to their trolling motor pointing.

Two different needs. One is to control and move the boat and the other is to look for fish, structure, or just look around.

I am also surprised at the number of people that go out in a boat and fish all day worry about moving a pole 2 or ten times. Or reaching over and changing it's direction. I hope that doesn't offend anyone. I am 64, retired, and consider myself moderately lazy. But when I fish for 6 to 10 hours, I feel like I worked all day anyway. Either casting all day, still fishing with 2 anchors out (and moving 5 times), or trolling with a pole in my hand all day (don't like to miss those light hits), the transducer pole doesn't add enough effort to mention.

[Dingaling man]

5 hours ago, WIGuide said:

What kind of pole were you thinking? Fixed, hand controlled, or an electronic model?  If you were thinking like a separate pole mount, the constant stowing and deploying I think would be a pain unless the pole mount was mounted to the TM. Having it on the TM shaft allows hand free control with the draw back of always having to move with the TM.

 

Side note with the slop in the TM steering. You can usually adjust the cable tensioners to get rid of that. It could also indicate that your cables have stretched a little which is what happens shortly before they completely break. 

I was thinking hand controlled, I do lots of drifts when the waves are big so I figured I would have worry about the trolling motor but still have no clue

[Smokinal]

I've been wanting to add FFS to my boat and have been doing some homework on how I would want it mounted too.

I agree with GPtimes2 in that I would not want it mounted to my TM shaft. I use spotlock and that pretty much keeps you nose into the wind; I would want to look around as I'm locked in place...that's just me though.

Honestly, I've seen some very clever home-made mounts out of PVC that would allow you to mount it to the TM but have it hand adjustable. Sounds kinda ghetto but if done nicely, with a decent paint job after, could look respectable and function as you want it to.

 

Some examples here

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=custom+livescope+mount

 

[HenryPF]

10 hours ago, Dingaling man said:

Mount Live Scope 34 on Pole?? or my older Trolling motor that has cable steering on my 1998 Triton Bass Boat

 

If your trolling motor doesn't not have spot lock on it, stick it on the trolling motor unless you are holding a spot manually with your trolling motor.

 

6 hours ago, GPtimes2 said:

I am also surprised at the number of people that go out in a boat and fish all day worry about moving a pole 2 or ten times.

 

Deploying and redeploying a FFS on a stick sucks, it was not moving it around. Moving it around when you need two hands to cast/reel is the issue, specifically for precise presentation.

 

For instance, you can let the trolling motor auto follow a contour line/drift, cast, reel, cast, reel, etc. and use your foot to scan the area all at the same time.

 

Also for people who sit and fish - some may have a wide boat in the front and you have to LEAN over to move the pole which is another reason I went electric.

[WIGuide]

15 hours ago, Dingaling man said:

I was thinking hand controlled, I do lots of drifts when the waves are big so I figured I would have worry about the trolling motor but still have no clue

If you do a lot of drifting you might want to just look at putting it on the tm shaft and getting one of the G-Force Troll perfect accessories for your tm. Even in the big waves it should stay whatever direction you point it then you don't have any other mounts or anything to worry about.

 

Ideally, a motorized turret that mounts to the tm is probably the best, but in my opinion they haven't come out with the perfect one yet. Minn-kota is close with theirs and having the ability to control the ff independent of the trolling motor, to mirror the trolling motor movement, and the ability to lock onto a target and let it control itself independent of boat and tm movements. From the early reports it sounds like it's good, but there are some bugs that need to be worked out with it. 

[txchaser]

I spent 15 hours or so on a friends boat over the last few weekends fishing almost exclusively with livescope. Granted it was a late winter suspended pattern, but we were never on the spotlock once.

Mindful of wind direction and speed for sure, mostly pointed into the wind. 

 

Maybe smallies are really different and you spend a lot of time just locked on to them and they are still though. 

 

But the more I think about having it on a hand controlled mount, I can't see it being very usable for largemouth bass. Many of them were moving around a lot. Probably fine on crappie. 

 

I thought I was going to put it on a separate mount too. But I can't see it now. Dude there was way too much stuff going on to mess with another thing, especially with your hands. A motorized one, maybe, but then you are a bit handicapped when you are moving around hunting.

 

Best news is neither choice is permanent.

 

[HenryPF]

Why don't you try the this in order, find the one you like best.

 

1. Trolling motor - cost? Electrical tape (all mounting hardware comes in the box to begin with)

 

2. PVC homemade stick mount - cost? $20.

Don't use no fancy RAM mounts. Just PVC, block of wood, 2 screws to mount to wood and your tackle bag on said wood piece to keep it from falling off the side of the boat. Deploy/redeploy super easy then.

 

Hate those two?

 

3. Motorized - the only option - $650+