stinger

My vote goes to Torpedo trolling wire 19-strand. May cost a little more but well worth it.

Good idea. The dielectric grease will keep the contacts from corroding yet will not affect the electrical continuity of the circuits. Keep protective caps on exposed plugs/sockets so dust & dirt don't stick to the grease.

Great video. Gets the blood pumping on these cold January days waiting for spring.

If you want to play with a DIY project this winter try this if your boat doesn't have a foam filled hull liner. Get a piece of PVC pipe that is big enough diameter for your existing transducer will fit in. Cut one end of the pipe the same angle as your hull and mount the transducer in it so that it shoots straight down without hitting the hull when the pipe is mounted in the hull. Silicone the pipe to the hull. Fill the pipe with water when you are ready to try it out. If you like the results then you are good to go otherwise move on to some other setup. I did this with a 19' fiberglass runabout back in the 90's when I fished Oneida Lake and it worked just fine. I mounted it half way between the bow & transom because back them we would drift for walleye and the boat would drift perpendicular to the line of drift. Any fish marks were pretty much under the boat as we drifted along jigging or dragging nightwalkers. This setup also held bottom as we were on plane tooling along to our fishing spots.

I have a new in the box Furuno 520 IHD, P79 Plastic In- Hull Transducer for sale if you are interested.

I use the Sufix 27lb lead core. Running six colors and using a Smart Troll probe and a 2 3/4" spoon @ 2.1 mph gps it runs 38'-40'. Say 6.3'-6.6' per color.

I pull both batteries and store them in my garage. I usually put the charger on them a couple times during the winter just because it's easy. I use this charger. Doesn't take a college degree. 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 525Reviews AIMTOM Smart Battery Charger 4 Amp 6/12V Fully Automatic Maintainer 8-Stage Charging Process for Car, Truck, Motorcycle, Boat, RV, SUV, ATV Fits SLA, Wet, MF, Gel, VRLA, AGM, EFB, Lion Batteries

I need help looking for a cure for this condition. Recently my engine idle started to go up to 1,700 - 1,800 rpm. Docking was a bear. Normal idle speed is 800 rpm. The power head was made by Yamaha back then. I took it my dealer and they replaced the IAC valve (idle air control valve ) with a third party after market part. Mercury stopped making it and the Yamaha part was over $400.00. The engine idle speed is now down to about 1,100 rpm. Much more manageable when trying to dock but would like to get it down even more. My dealer said that there is no idle adjustment on that engine because it’s Electronic Fuel Injected and idle is controlled by a computer. They will try to get in touch with the Mercury Tech’s to see how to remedy the problem but I haven’t heard back from them yet. I’m sure that there are other Mercury 115 Four stroke EFI engines that have had this problem so I’m throwing this out there to see if anyone has had this problem and how they handled it.

As of Wednesday the fleas were still pretty heavy. Will stay that way until the water starts to cool in a few weeks. I use 20lb Cortland Flea Flicker and the lines are clean until you get to the leader swivel. Flea attachments on the downrigger cables are hit and miss depending on the areas you troll through. A lot of guys complain about using Flea Flicker line. From my experience it works better than any other flea line out there hands down. I just overlay about 120'-130' on my reels while the fleas are active.