codybuehler

Seemed like it. 2 of them were at the dock and seemed just fine. The 3rd was in the ambulance pretty quickly but walked to it with some help. Right from them it sounded like they had a wave come over the front, then a second one came over shortly after and that was that. Not sure how long they were in the water after that but I can’t imagine it was super long with the traffic around there. I believe they were in from Vermont and unfortunately their truck keys went with the boat. I wish I got the guys number who got them out and to shore. They lost some gear that they had to cut to get them out of the water. I feel like they deserve some stuff to replace what they let go.

Fish were the same today. lake was rough. Found a debris field of floating stuff. 3 guys in a 20’ Rinker got swamped and the boat is gone. All 3 got picked up just before we got to the spot and made it to the dock at Mexico. We pulled in just as they did to an ambulance just pulling up. Big props to the guys in the green cuddy who got them out safe!

Anyone in the “fleet” off the salmon river mouth catching anything? I’m all alone north of you all around 125’. It’s been a steady pick of everything but lakers on dipseys and downriggers. Riggers at 100’ and dipseys out 285 on 3 setting. Mag spoons and flasher/flies. Flashers typical green, spoons black, silver, purple, green, whatever it seems is working. Salmon are all between 10-20lbs, steelhead are 4-6lb and the one brown was 4 or so. lost one on the dipsey that was the fast drag pull I’ve ever seen. Shredded the fly leader and gone. Never was able to turn it around.

Pretty normal level. Water temps are 53-48 degrees. We found a mixed bag of fish in the shallow south end and along the shallow edges out to 60fow. Flatlines out 160’ with rapalas and riggers with small spoons back 75’ and down 8 feet all took fish today. They liked the j-9 firetiger rapala and silver spoons the best. No salmon though. Brown, laker and rainbows. And one jumbo perch.

Hi. I have a few of these Dakota batteries. Here’s some insight I can share. I have 2 12v 100ah in series for my trolling motor, 2 of their starting batteries on a switch for starting and house loads and I also have a 100ah for an isolated circuit for my fishfinder (I was getting alternator noise from the house battery). First off, the price. The things aren’t cheap. There are a few other companies on the market now that perform the same at less than half the cost. AmpereTime and Powerqueen are two that I’ve spoken with people who have them and no issues. I can’t speak longevity with them because they both only have 1 season with them. They pick on me that they could buy 2 sets for the price I paid for one. The good: they way outperform lead acids I used to use. With my trolling motor, I set it on 4-4.5 speed setting and use the Ipilot to steer with my kicker pushing. The leads I could get 12-15 hours MAX and would have to keep upping the speed setting as the day went as the voltage lowered. With the lithiums, it’s constant voltage so I never have to up the speed to account for the voltage drop. Also the good, if it’s an issue is weight. With my whole bunch of these things I save around 75 lbs compared to lead. The not so good: Charging. When you buy these they come with a small 10a charger. There’s a reason. They charge at 14.4volts. Most other companies lithium chargers (NOCO!) charge at 14.2v. The not their brand chargers will never charge them to full, so you have to use their chargers. they come free like I said, or they have a 4x10a on board one that’s ~$300. First season I used these I had one of the trolling batteries shut off. They all have a safety circuit and it decided something was up and that was that. I was pretty novice with how these worked and attempted to call customer support. No answer. I finally internet searched it and to reset these you “flash” the terminals with another 12v source. It worked! I had emailed Dakota before I googled it and it was a day or 2 before they responded via email to tell me the same thing. I haven’t had an issue with THOSE batteries since. now for the cranking batteries. They are tiny and light, but have 1000CCA’s and 65aH reserve. When they work, they work. But! First one I ever bought right out of the box wouldn’t go above 12.6volts. Tried multiple chargers and no change. Mailed it back (which is a nightmare because it have to be FedEx hazardous ground to Seattle and costs around $60, on you) and it had a bad cell or an issues with the battery monitor system (BMS). They never really said which is was, but did mail a new one no problem, if you can wait for the essentially 2 week turnaround. As I’m sitting here typing this, I have a second cranking battery in a box waiting to be shipped back. This one just randomly shut off and shows 4volts at the terminals. Can’t reset it or charge it at all. I tried to ship it through my local FedEx hazardous goods place and they wouldn’t ship it out (even though they sent the last one?) I’ll have to figure it out. I did call the companies help line on this one and someone did answer the phone and chat for a while. No questions they wanted it back to fix my issue. It would be nice if I could wander into the local marine shop and just trade it in for another, but here I am. finally to end my novel here, is the safety aspect of it. I have never heard of a Dakota battery ever going inferno on anyone. But they are lithium and a quick search online shows you what’s possible. They have the BMS to shut them off but there’s still a real possibility they could ignite that’s far for exciting than if a lead acid shorts out. My plan is to jump in and pull the drain plug. Haha If there’s anything else you’d like to know from what I’ve experienced, feel free to reach out. I have no affiliation with Dakota beyond a customer who (probably) was dumb enough to spend the money. cheers.

Spoons were 50’ back. Flasher, around 20’. I also use light leaders. I was running 15lb test. Up’d it to 20lb for spoons and 25lb for flashers this year. Haven’t noticed a decline in hits yet. All flouro carbon.