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New One Man Boat
- Thread starter yoderjac
- Start date
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
It was 70 degrees today but the rest of the week is supposed to be cold, so I headed out to fish today. All the modifications worked great. I LOVE this Terrova. I never touched the foot pedal today. My intent was to fish for crappie, so I thought I'd try putting the Megalive 2 in landscape mode. Maybe I need more practice, but I had a hard time reading it and identifying fish. I eventually put it back in forward mode.
Things were slow at first. I was having a hard time finding crappie. I ended up going back to the spot I caught a few last time. I caught a couple there. When things slowed down, I decided to search for more fish. I had no luck. I was scanning shallow water flats and such. I finally gave up and headed back to the spot where I caught the fish.
About 3:30 in the afternoon things starting picking up. I ended up catching a bunch of crappie. They were mostly small, but some were larger than the crappie I had caught in the summer. Then, I started catching bass on my crappie jig. I caught one real nice bass. I had to measure him and through him back. He was 16 3/4 inches and there is a 16-24 inch slot limit on this lake. I kept the smaller bass as DWR is asking folks to take them.
It was a quite windy day, and spot-lock worked very well for me. It is a God-send with that raft. When I was using the old Edge on a windy day, I spent more time traying to maneuver the boat than fishing. It was hard to change jigs because when I was focused on tying one on, the boat could easily get blown into trouble. With spot-lock, there are no more issues like that.
When I was searching for fish, I used the "Follow Contour" feature for the first time. It worked pretty well and only got confused once.
Things were slow at first. I was having a hard time finding crappie. I ended up going back to the spot I caught a few last time. I caught a couple there. When things slowed down, I decided to search for more fish. I had no luck. I was scanning shallow water flats and such. I finally gave up and headed back to the spot where I caught the fish.
About 3:30 in the afternoon things starting picking up. I ended up catching a bunch of crappie. They were mostly small, but some were larger than the crappie I had caught in the summer. Then, I started catching bass on my crappie jig. I caught one real nice bass. I had to measure him and through him back. He was 16 3/4 inches and there is a 16-24 inch slot limit on this lake. I kept the smaller bass as DWR is asking folks to take them.
It was a quite windy day, and spot-lock worked very well for me. It is a God-send with that raft. When I was using the old Edge on a windy day, I spent more time traying to maneuver the boat than fishing. It was hard to change jigs because when I was focused on tying one on, the boat could easily get blown into trouble. With spot-lock, there are no more issues like that.
When I was searching for fish, I used the "Follow Contour" feature for the first time. It worked pretty well and only got confused once.
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
Two guys with an electric filet knife doesn’t take that long. On the other hand, I like to go with a guide about twice a year and let him filet mine.
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
Back when I used to fish, we used straight mono for everything except fly fishing. These days it seems most folks use braid with a fluorocarbon leader. What know do you guys use to tie the braid to the fluorocarbon? I first tried the FG knot. I found that difficult to tie. Perhaps I wasn't tying it correctly because I had some failures with the knot in the field.Two guys with an electric filet knife doesn’t take that long. On the other hand, I like to go with a guide about twice a year and let him filet mine.
Lately, I've been using the Crazy Alberto. I find that much easier to tie, and I'm sure I'm doing it right. One one of my crappie rigs, I got snagged and had to snap the line. When I did, I noticed it snapped right at the knot. Now that was a lot of pressure, more than any fish, but it did tell me the knot was the weak point.
I tied a new leader on today, again using the Crazy Alberto. Crappie don't seem to be sensitive to the line poundage. I have been using 4 lb test on my crappie rods, but I carry my bass rod with me too. When I switch to it for whatever reason, I see no difference in crappie response. So, this time, instead of using 4lb test, I switched to 8lb test like I have on the bass rod. I'm hoping that the slightly thicker fluorocarbon makes the knot stronger.
They are calling for warm weather on Thursday, so I'm hoping to get back out then.
catscratch
Well-Known Member
Refresh my memory... what fish finder are you running and can you see rock and brush clearly with it?
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
Cat, I have an Xplore 9 with a Megalive 2. I just updated the firmware on both of them. I can see rock and brush very clearly with the Megalive 2 in forward mode. Side scan from the Xplore 9 transducer is also good for identifying rock and stumps and such. You can see fish and the shadows the leave. I was able to clearly identify bluegill beds with it.
The way I generally use it is by making a trip around the lake with side scan turned on and I record it. When I get home, I play it back where I have good lighting and put waypoints on different structure. When I return to the lake to fish, I head to these areas and use the megalive 2 to identify fish and the details of the structure.
When I fished for crappie last summer, I used a different technique. I basically trolled using the Megalive 2 in forward mode to identify schools of fish. I would troll into the wind through the schools and then drift back through them with the wind. This was before I got the Terrova. I can now identify a school of crappie and use spot-lock to sit in place and cast to them.
catscratch
Well-Known Member
I'm considering getting and Eagle Eye 9 but really have no clue what I'm looking at with these things. I got a fish finder last year, a Lowrance Hook Reveal. I'm not real happy with it as I want to be able to see structure better. I don't care a whole lot about seeing fish, just want to see rocks and sticks on the bottom.
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
I can't speak to Lowrance as I've never used one. The last time I fished, before I retired, a basic fish finder was the latest technology and I had a hard time reading it, so I'm new to this tech. I decided to take fishing up again after I retired.
I started with a Hummingbird Helix. The model I had did not have networking, so it was not compatible with forward looking sonar like Megalive 2. It did have down imaging which was easier for me to read than regular sonar and higher resolution, but after doing some research, I decided I wanted to try the forward facing imaging. That is why I upgraded to the Xplore.
It was a big learning curve getting all the tech to work, but once I got it working, it has been great. The Xplore has regular sonar, down and side imaging built in. Through the network, it can also use the Megalive 2 sensor.
Just from a quick google, it appears the Eagle Eye 9 is sort of an entry-level all in one unit. It does have forward facing sonar, but has a narrow beam angle and less capable sensor than the higher end system. It is significantly less expensive since it is an all-in-one system.
I'm not sure how it compares in resolution to the Megalive 2. Before I bought mine, I went on line and watched a lot of videos. They gave me confidence that I would be able to identify different types of structure and such before I purchased it. You might want to do that with the Eagle Eye and see if you like it.
At least with the Humminbird, there were a bunch of instructional videos on youtube. Guys would go out and record there sonar and then come back home and put the Xplore 9 in playback mode. They would then talk about how to read it and what you were actually seeing. There were videos for down imaging, side imaging, and forward facing. I found these very helpful.
I'm still only using a fraction of the capability of this tech, but I'm catching more fish than ever before. I think there are a couple reasons. First, the only structure I could really identify in the past was structure along the shoreline that I could see with my eye. Second, even if I could identify a piece of structure under water with regular sonar, there was no way to mark it and go back to that spot. With todays tech, I can actually mark a waypoint when viewing the sonar image. I can touch the screen on the structure. The Xplore figures out where that structure is relative to where the boat is now and does not mark the current boat position but marks the actual structure. Now that I have the Terrova electric motor, I can tell it to go to that waypoint I marked and spot-lock right over the structure if I want. Third, with Megalive 2, I waste much fewer casts. You can't see fish that are tight to the bottom, but can easily see any that are suspended. I don't only cast to fish I see, I often cast to structure, but I know there are fish within casting distance.
I will say that actually watching fish react to your bait has been kind of iffy for me. I was able to pick up the larger crappy jigs I was using during the summer some of the time. I have not been able to use the smaller jigs I'm using in shallow water this spring. However, I seem to be able to pick up larger bass lures quite easily. So I'd say a lot depends on the lure you are using.
Hope this helps.
I started with a Hummingbird Helix. The model I had did not have networking, so it was not compatible with forward looking sonar like Megalive 2. It did have down imaging which was easier for me to read than regular sonar and higher resolution, but after doing some research, I decided I wanted to try the forward facing imaging. That is why I upgraded to the Xplore.
It was a big learning curve getting all the tech to work, but once I got it working, it has been great. The Xplore has regular sonar, down and side imaging built in. Through the network, it can also use the Megalive 2 sensor.
Just from a quick google, it appears the Eagle Eye 9 is sort of an entry-level all in one unit. It does have forward facing sonar, but has a narrow beam angle and less capable sensor than the higher end system. It is significantly less expensive since it is an all-in-one system.
I'm not sure how it compares in resolution to the Megalive 2. Before I bought mine, I went on line and watched a lot of videos. They gave me confidence that I would be able to identify different types of structure and such before I purchased it. You might want to do that with the Eagle Eye and see if you like it.
At least with the Humminbird, there were a bunch of instructional videos on youtube. Guys would go out and record there sonar and then come back home and put the Xplore 9 in playback mode. They would then talk about how to read it and what you were actually seeing. There were videos for down imaging, side imaging, and forward facing. I found these very helpful.
I'm still only using a fraction of the capability of this tech, but I'm catching more fish than ever before. I think there are a couple reasons. First, the only structure I could really identify in the past was structure along the shoreline that I could see with my eye. Second, even if I could identify a piece of structure under water with regular sonar, there was no way to mark it and go back to that spot. With todays tech, I can actually mark a waypoint when viewing the sonar image. I can touch the screen on the structure. The Xplore figures out where that structure is relative to where the boat is now and does not mark the current boat position but marks the actual structure. Now that I have the Terrova electric motor, I can tell it to go to that waypoint I marked and spot-lock right over the structure if I want. Third, with Megalive 2, I waste much fewer casts. You can't see fish that are tight to the bottom, but can easily see any that are suspended. I don't only cast to fish I see, I often cast to structure, but I know there are fish within casting distance.
I will say that actually watching fish react to your bait has been kind of iffy for me. I was able to pick up the larger crappy jigs I was using during the summer some of the time. I have not been able to use the smaller jigs I'm using in shallow water this spring. However, I seem to be able to pick up larger bass lures quite easily. So I'd say a lot depends on the lure you are using.
Hope this helps.
