The fishfinding starts with SONAR. Your device generates a sound wave and sends it through the water. At first, the sound wave is very narrow, but as it travels it spread out much like the light from a flashlight does.

And just like light will reflect of a shiny surface, the sound wave will bounce off anything it encounters in the water. Hopefully it’s a school of fish – but it could be debris or vegetation. When the sound wave bounces off the object it will change directions and return to your fishfinder.

With the returned signal, your fish finder can compute how far away the object is. If the signal did not hit anything it will continue to the bottom. Soft bottom (mud or plants) will absorb most of the sound. Hard, rocky bottoms will bounce more of the sound back. Your fishfinder can tell the difference and give you a fairly accurate measure of both depth and bottom composition.

That’s the basic method of action.

If it’s that simple though, why are there so many different kinds of fishfinders sold? That’s because there are all kinds of upgrades, tweaks, and extras manufactures use to make the detection more accurate.
For example the sound wave travels in a cone shape. This cone is measures in degrees. Common measurements are around 20 degrees. The larger the degree here, the wider and broader the SONAR coverage.

What’s the right coverage for you? That depends on where you usually fish.

Let’s say your favorite lake is about 10 feet deep. With a beam angle of 20 degrees, your fishfinder will cover an area of only 3 and a half feet. As the water gets deeper the coverage would increase. You could also increase coverage with a wider cone in shallow water.

Some manufactures also use multiple beams for better “all around” coverage. A dual beam model might have a strong, narrow beam right under your boat, and a broader (but slightly weaker) beam spreading out more.

This leads to the next point: RMS power output. You’ll see this number thrown around a lot when reading fishfinder reviews.

In a perfect world, your fishfinder could just as easily find fish 10 feet under your boat, 20 feet to the right, and 200 feet down. But realistically, this would require a large amount of power and be overkill for most anglers. So to compromise and give you the best value possible, fishfinders have to make the best use of their available power and split it across all their sonar beams.

Taking a dual beam model for example: it might have both a 20 and 60 degree beam. The 20 degree beam will offer a cohesive look right under your boat. The 60 degree beam paints a much wider view – but would take exponentially more power to provide the same level of clarity the 20 degree beam provides. Why? Because the beam is larger and to provide clarity 200 feet away, it needs more “oomph” behind it.
If this unit has an RMS power rating of 150 watts, it could sound down to around 900feet. It would be a pretty good mix of up-close and faraway, without breaking the bank. In general the higher the RMS wattage on a fishfinder, the more expensive it will be, and the more accurate it will be.

Fishfinders: Exploring A High Tech Solution is a post from: Lunker Links

Trolling motors can be an incredibly helpful – even indispensable – fishing tool, as long as you have the right one for your boat. There’s nothing worse than an underpowered trolling motor, or a battery that dies half-way through a great day on the lake. With the large number of options and motors available, it can be difficult to know which motor to pick. In this guest post, we’ll discuss a few of the most important things to consider and understand when it comes to trolling motors.

Thrust

Trolling motors are rated by pounds of thrust, and the question of how much power is needed is likely the most common trolling motor question people have. Motors range in power for around 30 lbs of thrust for entry-level models to up to 100 lbs upper-end models designed for heavy, large boats.

The weight of the boat is the most important determinant of how much power is needed.   While boat length can be used as a proxy, boat weight is the best factor to use in order to accurately pick a motor with ample power.

A good rule of thumb is that you’ll want 2 lbs of thrust for every 100 lbs of boat weight. For example, for a 2,000 lbs boat, you’ll want a motor with at least 40 lbs or thrust (2000 / 100 * 2). When calculating, you’ll want to factor in the weight of a fully loaded boat with people, fuel and equipment.

If you’ll be relying on your trolling motor to perform frequently in strong winds or currents, you’ll want to get a stronger motor than otherwise indicated. The previously mentioned rule of thumb is a great baseline for calm water operations, but use in stronger waters will require more power.

Shaft Length

Shaft length often introduces confusion into the trolling motor selection process as many motors come with multiple options. Getting the shaft length right is important. If the shaft is too short, the trolling motor propeller won’t be properly submerged and power will suffer. If the shaft is too long, it makes trolling in shallow waters difficult.

The proper shaft length differs depending on whether a transom or bow mount motor is being used:

Transom Mount: 20” to 25” of the shaft should be submerged

Bow Mount: 25” to 30” of the shaft should be submerged

To determine the proper shaft length for your boat, you’ll need to measure the distance from the bow/transom to the waterline, and then add the previously mentioned “submersion factor”. For instance, if the distance from the bow mounting platform to the waterline in 20”, you’ll want a shaft length in the 45” to 50” range ( 20” plus 25” to 30” submersion factor).

It’s always a good idea to err on the long side (vs the short side) when it comes to shaft length. While you can usually raise the depth of the propeller/shaft with the motor’s sleeve adjustment, it’s impossible to lengthen a shaft that’s too short.

Battery Life

One thing you want to make sure of before pulling the trigger on a new motor is that it has enough power to last all day! Nothing is more frustrating than running out of power when you still want to fish. There are two important things to know when it comes to estimating battery life – battery ratings and amps drawn.

Trolling motors use 12 volt marine batteries, which are rated by amp hours. An 80 amp hour rated battery is capable of delivery a total of 80 amp hours of power on a single charge. This could either be 80 amps delivered for 1 hour, or 20 amps delivered for 4 hours.

While it can sometimes be difficult to find, manufacturers (and good retailers) will be able to tell you how much power a motor draws at maximum speed. A trolling motor that pulled 50 amps at top speed would run for about 2 hours using a 100 amp hour battery before running out of power. Approximating, you could assume the motor would run for about 4 hours at medium speed (pulling 25 amps) and around 14 hours at slow speeds (pulling 7 amps).

A few suggestions to get the most run time possible:

• At a minimum, get a battery rate for at least 100 amp hours

• Variable speed motors are more efficient that fixed speed motors, and will run longer

• Purchasing a more powerful motor than you need will extend your run time. While a 50 lbs motor may draw 50 amps at top speed, an 80 lbs motor may only require 35 amps to produce the same 50 lbs of thrust

• Make sure you never let your battery become completely depleted as this will significantly shorten it’s life and ability to hold a charge.

• Once you have an idea of the thrust rating and shaft length you want, you can start looking at individual motors. The two most popular manufacturers or fishing trolling motors are Minn Kota and MotorGuide. While Minn Kota is better known and more popular, MotorGuide usually offers a little bit more motor for the money.

Specific Models

With dozens of different motors available, we’ve recommend a few of our favorite motors in different categories:

Best Value – Bow Mount

It doesn’t have many bells and whistles, but the Edge series from Minn Kota is a well-built bow mount motor at a really affordable price point. While MotorGuide usually offers more value, the Minn Kota Edge series beats out MotorGuide’s comparable Freshwater bow mount line in terms of bang-for-the-buck. Edge only offers thrust up to 70 lbs, so this isn’t a great choice for larger boats.

Best Value – Transom Mount

For the money, you can’t beat the VariMax line from MotorGuide. The entry-level transom mount motors are priced similarly to Minn Kota’s Endura line, but also include variable speed motors and battery life indicators (Endura offers neither). Stepping up to similar variable speed models within the Minn Kota line-up will cost $50 to $100 more.

Best Features

Trolling motors have evolved with the times, and now offer some pretty amazing features. The Minn Kota PowerDrive V2 and Terrova series offer AutoPilot, wireless steering and GPS technology. The AutoPilot feature lets the operator set a course, and the motor stays on it without continual control or monitoring. CoPilot is an accessory that offers complete wireless motor control. The Minn Kota i-Pilot accessory uses a built-in GPS to control motor speed and direction, making it possible to re-trace routes or stay in place despite winds and waves. These features are also available on the Minn Kota Riptide ST and SP series, which are similar saltwater version motors.

Best Built

It may not boast fancy Minn Kota i-Pilot technology or wireless control, but the Fortrex line is built like a tank and designed to last. Using heavy-duty materials and single-pivots, the Minn Kota motor is designed to be used, abused, and counted on.

Understanding Trolling Motors is a post from: Lunker Links

The lack of winter snow left the water   levels down further than we expected but the walleye were holed up and when you got on them, you REALLY got on them. The weather was great and the only real rain we got came overnight. We were predominantly jig fishing, with our jigs hooked weedless because of all the timber, and tipped with a night crawler. Pink, white, and pink and white were the favorite colors again this year. But there were times… many of them… where it didn’t matter what you dropped over the side.

(Steve) We were fishing? The last time we were up here I barely remember anything. It’s sort of a blur. This year’s trip was nothing short of amazing. As Dave said, the weather was perfect, in some cases almost too perfect. We found ourselves hoping for a little wind to get the walleye chop up and running. Note to self, be careful what you wish for, we do a lot of back trolling and 1 foot waves hitting the back of a boat going backwards tends to fill the back of the boat with water pretty fast. If only my bailing bucket hadn’t mysteriously vanished.

hehehehe… The bailing bucket ended up in the back of MY boat where it belonged. It was the first year I had a ‘leaker’ so I’m not complaining. I suppose there was a reason it was on shore, upside down, and without a motor.

This year we took along another Canadian newbie, Ted, to go fishing with us. Ted fishes a lot but had never seen or, or believed, the kind of fishing there is up there. His second catch he landed a 26″ fat walleye. I know that isn’t much for you Lake Erie fishermen, but up here that is a huge fish. The fishing was slow by Short Lake standards until the middle of day 2 when the winds finally picked and started driving walleye in to the now famous Osty Hole.

I went to school with Ted. He’s always smiling and laughing and it was a real pleasure he was able to join us. The Osty Hole… the water was only 3-5 foot deep and what was once the structure we fished in years prior was now islands. But when the wind was right, the walleye were stacked in there.

That started the first of several runs where you could barely get your line in the water before you hooked a fish. Much of the video we have posted was shot there and in a 15 minute span 6 of us caught more than 40 fish.

Yeah and that wasn’t the only “hot spot”. Many of the group had their favorite spots and caught more fish than they have in many years. One such spot was my favorite and Ted and I hit it late one afternoon. The amount of fish was simply insane. We couldn’t count past 5 before we were hooked up with a walleye. Ted was in the front of the boat (letting his beer get warm because he couldn’t keep the walleye off his line) and at one point looked at me and said… “I’m not using night crawlers anymore, they’re too far away.” We’d have stayed there longer but we figured 40+ walleye each was plenty that afternoon. That and we ran out of beer.

This was the first time I had fished a lake with water far lower than we had ever seen before. It was eye opening to see the details of the underwater structure we had been fishing. Assuming that the water is up next year, we will have a huge advantage against the walleye and all their little hiding places. The other eye opening aspect was all of the new hidden danger. What used to be high speed travel channels were now opportunities to do serious harm to both boat and boater so all travel was kept at a slow place while we relearned the routes.

Definitely. Water was down 4-6 feet in my estimation. Amazing what “pops up” when it’s down that much. Fortunately the fishing was great in many spots within 15-20 minutes of camp so we didn’t have to relearn a lot.

We also saw more wildlife this year than in years previous. Moose, ducks, geese, a few bear, even a beaver building a new hutch to replace the one that is sure to become the mother-in-law’s quarters since it is now out of water. But mostly we were entertained by a trio of snowshoe hares that decided that our camp site was the perfect place to have a high speed game of tag.

And for the record, at 3am, on a moonless night, while half asleep, trying to ‘relieve yourself’ behind a tree, it’s very hard to tell just how big something is when you hear its footsteps racing up behind you. All I have to say is that rabbit was wrong.. Dead wrong..

lol… Next time wake me up so I can grab the camera… film at 11.

Don’t Be Afraid Little Duck-Walleye Fishing Short Lake is a post from: Lunker Links

How To Fillet a Walleye is a post from: Lunker Links

USGA Real Time Water Data

While sitting in the truck yesterday, looking at the frozen St. Joe River and then seeing all that water coming over the Elkhart dam, I got to wondering if there was a way to check water levels of the river near me. And no, that rock strike that tore apart my prop and bent the drive shaft on my boat had NOTHING to do with my curiosity. Nothing!

While do some searching I stumbled across our old friends as the USGS and their real time water data charts. While not “exactly” real time, most of the data is between 1 and 4 hours old. That’s real time enough for me. And since you can create custom charts, and they show historical data you can plan your next river adventure to match your favorite fishing conditions.

You start by clicking the state you will be fishing in and then you can pull up all of the rivers in that state. Select where you plan to fish, in this case I’m thinking downtown Chicago could be a lot of fun on the Chicago River.

The things that are most obvious and useful are the gauge height and discharge rate. The gauge height is based on the height above or below the set gauge or zero point. A 0 gauge does not mean no water, just that the water is at the level the USGS decided was a good average point. A gauge height of 10′ could be flood stage levels in many places, while a gauge height of 3′ could just be a very high water level.

The discharge rate is the volume of water moving over a set point in cubic feet per second. This chart also shows you a historical average discharge rate so that you can compare water flow with historical averages. You might want to stay away from rivers flowing at 5 or 6 times their historical average.

So the next time you decide to hit the rivers for a little fishing, it may make sense to take a look at the USGS charts for the previous week to help you make your best fishing location choices.

USGS Real-Time Water Data is a post from: Lunker Links

First I wanted to update a previous post about the Fish-N-Fool knot.. I had previously said that I thought that the knot was hard to tie.. After tieing it on for a few days to test it out, it has gotten easier to tie, but I still struggle with it.. My fingers simply don’t move like they used to.. It also didn’t help that we were wearing gloves in 45 degree rain all day.. Take gloves off to tie, but gloves back on to fish..

On the plus side, and this is a huge plus for me, it did give me my first ever gunshot line break.. Unfortunately it was on a tree 10 feet under water and not a giant Northern.. I’ve had knots fail before in hung up situations, but the Fish-N-Fool held tough until the 14 pound mono I was using simply exploded.. That was actually pretty cool..

I’ll continue to tie this knot this year, along with my favorite Palomar, but I see this knot moving higher up on my need to get better at tieing it list..

Fish-N-Fool Knot pt. 2 is a post from: Lunker Links

Fortunately for me the guys at North American Fisherman Magazine are running knot wars again this year.. Each week a new test is run between two knots to determine which is the strongest.. Last year the Palomar won the battle as the strongest knot on three types of line.. this year it has already been pushed aside by a new leading knot, the Fish N Fool.. Personally, the fool looks too complicated to tie in a boat with rough water, I’ll stick with the Palomar, its pretty hard to screw up..

Check out the Knot Wars videos at the NAFM website.

Knot Wars is a post from: Lunker Links

What is barbless fishing?

Barbed vs Barbless Hooks

Barbless fishing is exactly what it sounds like, fishing with hooks that don’t have barbs. In most cases we take a normal hook and carefully squeeze the barb with a pair of pliers until the tip of the barb touches the hook. Done carefully you can modify your favorite hooks quickly and easily to start barbless fishing right away. There are also several manufacturers starting to embrace barbless fishing.

Why Fish Barbless?

There are many reasons to consider fishing barbless. And for the sport fisherman practicing CPR there are very few reasons to not fish barbless.

It’s better for the fish

Fishing barbless makes hook removal easier on the fish. Most hook ups leave you with a hook that is right on the lip and easy to remove. But we have all had that aggressive, larger, fish gulp your lure all the way to it’s belly. Or that smaller fish biting off more than he can chew and have the hook come out in a strange location, near an eye or similar place. This is when barbless hooks really shine. It’s easier to remove the hook and does far less damage to the fish in the process.

Then you have the fly fishing for certain types of trout that really need to be handled with care. When you fish them barbless you don’t even need to touch them to remove the hook. Even better for the fish.

It’s better for you

Ever get a hook jammed in your thumb trying to unhook a fish? How about sit on a hook in the boat? There are only two kinds of fishermen, those that have been hooked, and those that are about to be hooked.

With a barbless hook you no longer have to try some trick to remove the hook. Or make a long drive to the ER, and heaven forbid getting deep hooked out in the wilderness. A barbless hook comes out just about as easily as it went in.

Even better that saving a thumb though is the easy release. When fishing particularly slimy fish like Northern there is nothing worse that losing control of the fish and getting covered in slime and having it all over the bottom of your boat. With a barbless hook all you need to do is reach out with your hook pliers and give the hook a little shake. Instant release without even taking the fish out of the water.

Better Hook Ups

Yes, I said it, better hook ups with fish. All things being equal, it takes less pressure to push a barbless hook through the lip of a fish than it does to push a barb through. Instead of ripping the hook out of the fishes mouth trying to drive the barb through, you can hit just a little softer and sink the hook right in.

Fishing barbless is an easy transition for most fishmen. The only thing that you need to change with your technique is to keep constant pressure on the line. You don’t need to drag the fish to the boat, but you do need to keep your line tight the entire time you are reeling in. Any slack at all and you stand a real chance of losing your fish.

Will you miss more fish? Probably. Is it a better way to fish for the sport fisherman? I think so. So start mashing those hooks and taking better care of the fish out there. Who knows, the thumb you save may be your own.

Fishing Barbless is a post from: Lunker Links