I like the boom being in place for fishing Erie. It delays the Perch spawn for more favorable conditions (less wind and warmer) . It also delays the Walleye spawn so that it is still going on when the season opens back up in May.
Hemlock water level was drained way down for the winter. South end is a bit of a hike to even get over water. Both lakes have decent ice. Canadice shore ice is pretty thin in places.
Yesterday on The Next Bite which was on the Discovery Channel ( if you have cable you should be able to look back on it) The show was on inland lake Laker fishing with forward facing sonar. It seemed informative and looked like a lot of fun.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrEbklDbJ5nrSMq3ceJzbkF;_ylu=c2VjA3NlYXJjaARzbGsDYnV0dG9u;_ylc=X1MDOTYwNjI4NTcEX3IDMgRmcgN5c2V0X2Nocl9zeWNfaHAEZnIyA3A6cyx2OmksbTpzYi10b3AEZ3ByaWQDQzZmNTdnUVRSTEc4Z2t1QXZMdGhuQQRuX3JzbHQDMARuX3N1Z2cDMARvcmlnaW4DaW1hZ2VzLnNlYXJjaC55YWhvby5jb20EcG9zAzAEcHFzdHIDBHBxc3RybAMwBHFzdHJsAzMwBHF1ZXJ5A2dpbWJhbCUyMG1vdW50JTIwdHJhY2slMjByb2QlMjBob2xkZXJzBHRfc3RtcAMxNzM4NDM1NzE4?p=gimbal+mount+track+rod+holders&fr=yset_chr_syc_hp&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Ai%2Cm%3Asb-top&ei=UTF-8&x=wrt Lots of options.
Did you change the frequency on your fishfinder to a lower setting for deeper water ? I know my old FishHawk didn't work well with a Humminbird ff the frequencies were to close and gave inaccurate readings. I see the X4D runs on 70kHz ?
My buddy and I launched out of SBH late Friday afternoon. Tinkered around for a couple hours then setup for the nearshore {troll} Walleye night bite. Started at dark Had my 6 by 10;45. We boated 15 by 12 and called it a night. The Aurora Borealis was awesome but the fishing was better !
I saw it was mentioned to pull trolling bags which I see is a popular on this site. I don't think I would like putting more drag on my boat or having something else to snag my line on or forget to take out before heading in at high speed. Couldn't you just swap out the high trust prop for a 3 blade prop or a prop with less pitch to get the rpms up and speed down ?
https://www.walleyecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96806#:~:text=The valves on the motor have'nt seated themselves,it at speed and they should seat themselves.
For my Big Jons I use a 110 outside receptacle with the covers on it which is mounted in the rear of my boat wired directly to the battery. Then I put 110 male plugs on the riggers and plug it into the receptacle. Then you only make 1 connection to the battery. Nice and easy to remove the riggers. Just make sure to use red and black wire so you hook your receptacle up right or they will run in reverse.
While Striper fishing in Raritan Bay at least 10 years ago. It was at night fishing with chunk bait. My buddy caught one that had to be pushing 5 ft. long (never knew that got anywhere that big) My buddy wrestled that thing in the back of the boat for about 20 min. trying to get his gear back. I was just happy it was on his line and not mine.
Checked my spoons I have 3 or 4 of the one in the bottom left . Mine don't have the black streak in the left side. someone must have customized that one also.