The good and the bad.....mostly bad.

[3dkicker]

Made the long run yesterday to waiting fish. The Major had prefished last weekend and did well so we both ran our boats down river to catch some bass. Got to my area and had everything rigged up and ready to fish, put trolling motor down, stepped on switch to find nothing......no trolling motor. Checked connections to batteries and everything is fine. Both batteries fully charged. Checked plug and found full power bad switch??? I figured I could fish with the current the best I could and used a paddle for a good part of the day. Struggled to put 5 keepers in the livewell and missed two nice fish . Thunderstorm was approaching around 12:30 PM so I decided to play it safe and run towards weigh in. The river was rough but I had the motor trimmed up and I was skipping along nicely and then I started hitting some bigger waves so I tried to compensate and change direction....and lost horsepower. Took a beating until I could get out of the waves. Figured I had spun the hub so I idled over to shore and beached the boat. Switched props and tried to head up river....... Nope. 1100 rpm was all she could do. Called the Major for some help. Had to be towed in and was 30 minutes late. Took me 2.5 hours to make a 25 min trip. Got the boat out of the water and found that my transducer to my 798 was torn off the back of the boat. Half of the mounting bracket was missing .

So here's the good..... Still weighed 11.3 lbs and made top 5 for the day (I think).

[bamabassman]

dang smitty!!! sorry aobut the rig man. but looks like oyu did ok for the time oyu had. lisa and i did nothing as far as landing a single fish. too hot yesterday. too hot today too so i didn't even try to get out there. i'm gonna wait and hit the g'ville in a couple of weeks i hope.

hope oyu get the rig straightened out soon man.

[keithdog]

Thats a darn shame about your rig pal. Sounds a bit familiar with a couple stories from the Alabama get together. Thats amazing you placed that high though considering the problems you had, so congrats on that!

[Bassboss]

Sorry to hear about the trouble... ups and down of being a boat ower I guess, lol. Nice fish too, that last one is perdy.

[carolina-rig-01]

Sorry you had a rough day Smitty, but it sounds like you made the most out of it and congrats for that.

[Captmikestarrett]

It would be helpful to know why the reduced power?

Let us know would you?

Capt Mike

[3dkicker]

I'll get it looked at.....one day. Being part of the 9.2% and still looking makes it difficult to get it repaired.

Turns out the Major won the tournament with his 16+ lb bag. He would have placed 2nd in the BASS Weekend event if he had fished it. I ended up in 3rd, in the club tournament, only to be DQ'd for getting in late due to the engine problem.

[Top Tiger]

That's too bad about the boat boogerin up on you. Was there possibly a solid center to one of those waves you hit? How do you suppose the X-ducer came free?
Still, fish in the boat is better than no fish in the boat. Think how you'd feel if you'd been skunked. Time limit or not.

[3dkicker]

Didn't hit anything that I can recall or saw.

Second time that the X-ducer has been torn free in the waves on the river. I think the bracket used to secure the unit can't handle the stress placed on it between the waves and how my boat runs. I'll speak to them about some alternative ideas on how to mount it on the back of the boat.

Skunked might have been a severe blow.......may have not fished for a month or two

[Top Tiger]

Any options on mounting it inside and shooting through the hull?

[3dkicker]

That would have made more sense to me but with it being Side Scan I don't know if I can......have heard different things.

[doc]

You won't be able to shoot thru the hull with side imaging, but since you have a 798 (i have a 797) I'm assuming you had the same plastic mount for the transducer that I do. You can order a mount (and transducer for that matter) for one of their more expensive models, they are metal instead of plastic. I havn't done it but lots of folks do.

Or, you can order a jack plate mount, super sturdy, safer location, and they say it gives a better image.

I've read lost of posts on the HB forums about those cheap mounts and what you described (people loosing their transducers.) As soon as mine breaks I'm going with the Jackplate mount.