mr 580

Walkarounds make a great family boat, I 've been running one for 20+ years. Cuddy is great to store your gear. You can run a kicker with an I/O by tieing the the two motors together. I 've had both I/O and outboard, outboard allows for more cockpit space and I think is easier to service. If you are looking out of state be sure to watch for boats that have been in saltwater. I would suggest you decide on power choice and size before you lock in on brand. Important to have a vehicle big enough to move it around too. Have fun looking, should be some decent rides in your price range.

Seaswhirl was also on my "short" list when I decided to update two years ago. Instead found a Pro-Line 25 Walk hardtop new leftover w/225 Evinrude ETEC. Have been real pleased with both the boat and the ETEC. The Proline handles well in the rough stuff and the hardtop provides alot of storage and protection. I have fished with a friend in a 19' Seaswhirl. It's a heavy boat, but for Lake O I like more length to bridge the waves. My advice decide what you want , stay away from the salt, and try to keep it in your budget. Have fun looking!

Long Point has a nice multiple ramp along with fuel. Another good ramp is at the Fish Hatchery @ Pendergast Point on the other side of the Lake. As far as finding panfish-get along the edge of any of the weedlines in 12' to 14' foot of water with some nightcrawlers and the kids should catch plenty of yellow perch, white perch and sunfish. If you don't find them in one place, just move. Usually a nightcrawler gets bit before it hits bottom. Have fun!

I have a 2008 Venture trailer that I checked after seeing your photo. My trailer has one piece formed crossmembers with no welds other than to attach the mounting plates which bolt to the aluminum frame. There's no reason that a fabricated crossmember shouldn't be fine, but it has to have decent welds. I'll certainly be paying close attention to my running gear. Hope you get a satisfactory response from your dealer and Venture.

The download process is very simple. I updated my Lowrance GPS last summer and it went very smooth. Put my mapping chip in and the updated maps worked fine. Sounds like you have everything you need with the card reader and SD card. Good luck!

You can use a short shaft kicker with an i/o if you use a kicker bracket with a long enough stroke to get the motor down in the water enough. I ran a short shaft Honda with a Merc i/o for years. Only issue with short shaft was that it come out of the water if things got rough. A long shaft is a better choice and what I run currently. If you're buying a motor buy a long shaft, but if you have a short shaft and a tight budget you can make it work. Hope this helps.

Charity shoal is off the mouth of the St. Lawrence. Cape Vincent is a good access point, but have a Canadian license. Usually you don't see alot of bites, but when you do hook up it's a good one. Plugs off riggers and dipsey's have done it for me in that area.

Went 3 for 7. Lost some fish with some green guys on the rods. Best depth was forty down on riggers and 130 on a 3 with the divers. Good temp down 40. Stayed in 50 to 85 FOW. Nothing special-steady pick.

Have been running the Light Bite Slide Divers this season on my Power Pro Dipsey's- I use 50 ft of 30 lb Big game leader from the Power Pro. The Light Bite's have worked well on Lake Erie for eyes. Takes a little tuning to get to trip right but they end the problem of dragging shakers. I've used the original slide divers on my wire dipseys for three years and like them to the point I don't run the regular dipsey's anymore.

I'm running a 9.9 Yamaha kicker on a Proline 25 Walk with a Stainless Marine integrated swim platform that carries a 225hp ETEC. Used a bracket from Adventure Marine on the west coast to mount the kicker on. 9.9 pushes the boat fine. Agree that you would need to be sure your swim platform could carry a kicker. Once you've fished with a kicker, it would be hard to go back to trolling with a big motor. Good luck getting setup.

Lowrance website provides manual's on line and some basic trouble shooting. I had a problem with my Lowrance GPS locating satellites this spring after I'd moved the unit to a new boat. I called Lowrance service after double checking my wiring and installation. Lowrance diagnosed as a bad antenna and a replacement antenna cured the problem. Hope this helps.

I run an 8 hp on my 17 foot Lund and it trolls nice both slow and fast. Suggest you look for something with an alternator so you can charge your battery as you troll.