TyeeTanic

Chas, they obviously can last longer, but I have been told they can go after 5 years. Also they might mark, but not work as well as they used to. Also my info is specifically for Lowrance units. Not sure how much it differs with other brands. Finally I've also heard that it depends on whether you leave your boat in the water or haul in/haul out frequently (the later can lead to earlier probe failure). For my situation, it is difficult (costly) to haul my boat out of the water, so I don't want to be caught finding out I have a problem mid season. I'd rather just change the probe every 5 years. The haul alone would cost me more than several transducers. If it's easy for a person to haul their boat out of the water, then I wouldn't be changing them out until I have sufficient evidence the transducer is failing.

You should change your transducer every 5 years.

I agree there are way too many variables to say one setup is the best. Firstly, I have multiple setups ready to go, so we can switch them out and zero in on works better on any particular day. The ready setups are favorite combinations that work well, when they work. There is a general trend in regards to colors vs. depth. Reds/orange are good higher in the water column, where silvers and blues work best deeper. Green is in the middle, and purple can be used full range. I generally like to start by knowing where the temperature is (42 - 48F) and then putting lines at 42F, in the thermocline and just above. Depending on where they are in terms of depth will decide which colors get used. I then put a spread off flies and meats out (either real meat or artificial, like an MC Rocket). I generally like my meat rigs deeper (don't ask me why, just had more success with them that way), and also on bigger flashers (11"). As you work the fish, you will see what color and setup works better on a particular day. Every fish caught, the color, bait type, speed, direction, depth is registered to highlight a working pattern. We start switching SOME of the setups over to more of the same to increase bites, BUT that sometimes doesn't work. Sometimes one setup brings the fish in, but they then fall back and hit something else. So if you change out the one setup that isn't taking hits, but it was the initial attractor, guess what? bite shuts down. So (a) don't change too much too fast, and (b) play devils advocate to try and figure out why bite went from good to bad (many things including cloud cover, ambient temp, etc.). Some of my favorite setups: - chrome frog spin doctor, frog dipsey, screamer fly - bloody death spin doctor and fly, with matching purple dipsey - hawg wild spin doctor and fly, with orange dipsey - black dipsey, big silver 11" flasher/paddle, silver/glow MC Rocket or cut bait - carmel dolphin spin doctor and fly, with green or yellow dipsey - black dipsey, police siren 11" flasher/paddle, with purple/glow MC Rocket or cut bait - blue dipsey, blue/silver 8" paddle, with mirage fly - wonderbread dipsey, wonderbread spin doctor and white/glow fly Anyhow, I have 24 setups ready to go - dipsey, attractor and bait, all in pouches. So it's easy to switch out and try different things. Having a basic knowledge of where to start, a game plan to change things out, and attention to detail is the trick. Have fun!

Exactly. And the battery ... this was the biggest disappointment. I was told I could get 4 hours out of a battery. No way, only about 2 to 2.5 hours. So get an extra battery or even better a battery pack. Don't forget to download the app for your phone, it is great to use to setup the camera via live stream - but once it is setup, switch off the camera wifi as it chews up the power.

Yankee I haven't heard of any major problems. Mine has been very reliable and battery life is amazing. After 6 hours of trolling normally the battery is still 80%. What problems have you heard about?? On the issue with tournaments, they can't stay in the dark ages forever. Technology is moving fast and it will be a fatal mistake to exclude it from tourneys. If someone wants to communicate they can use DSC, so what are they going to do have everyone remove their radios??? That's why we have observers, the technology is there, and they can oversee that its use is fair and within the rules.

Smart troll is working on a probe with down speed. The current probes give down temp and depth, where the X4D does all three. Once smart troll adds the speed to their probes, I think it will be the most versatile system out there.

To help answer original posters question, I have the smart troll and it is a good system. Easy to use, versatile and reliable. What I like is I can have a probe on my downrigger ND another on my dipsey line to know exactly where my lines are and temp. You can also move the probes to another boat with the transducer installed. Smart troll is coming out with the speed probe this year which will close the gap on all other systems. It will be a superior option once this probe is available.

Taloras are great rods. Get Getting with the roller guides. 45D reels are a bit big for 1000ft of wire. The line counters will be inaccurate. Have you bought them already? If If not, get the CV 30D reels.

90% of the time we leave the rods in the water, even in tournaments. When you hit a fish, there's a greater chance that other fish will hit. You may be in a good zone, and getting that extra fish could win the tournament. We do however watch our lines and pull those that could threaten landing a big fish. We never reel in all the lines, that's totally not necessary, especially if you're rigger lines are still down.

I'd go for a raven. You're close enough to the canadian boarder to get one.

Oh, and I've bought stuff from this site, and always been treated great.

Gambler I get what you are saying, but I for one can tell you I am not a pro member and give a lot of advice on this site. I don't always have the time to put reports on all three forums I follow, but I do answer a lot of technical questions. I don't think you want to cut that contribution out. And like Mortigan says, after enough use, there's a good reason to go Pro. If we can't see the benefits, then it's harder to sell the Pro status.

I had a snap off unfortunately with the albright knot this year. Lost a good 4 oz torpedo and spoon. It seems the wire cut into the leader right where the wire clinches - which on the provided link would be on the very right of the knot. I managed to find a micro swivel that fits trough my rod eyelets and reel guide. So now I have the wire and leader tied to the swivel. Haven't had a problem yet. As for a twilli tip - yes, as a minimum you need something on the top guide of the rod to either prevent sawing through the eyelet with the wire, or damaging the wire via kinks. The other eyelets are fine.

Last year the following colors were beasts for me: - purple thunder or bloody death fly - hawg wild - chrome froggy, spotted frog patterns This year: - purple didn't work at all on spoons. Only had a few hits on the bloody death fly. - hawg wild was 100% dead on spoon and fly - hammertime and mirage crinkle flies took a lot of hits - blue and white spoons took a lot of hits - probably by far the best colour for us was chartreuse - spoons, flies and meat. A very, very strange year. It was difficult to hone in on the working bait/color from one day to the next. Weather never stabilized, so it was changing from day to day - last year a color would stick for at least a week or two once we figured out the program. Not this year.

Great, great video! That's the way to enjoy life bud. You're girl has a real talent there, good way to package up the memories!

Okuma Convector 30D is a good starting point - great value for money, and about the lowest quality I'd accept. Shimano Tekota after that.