New to me boat

[DDW_OR]

Just got a 1992 VIP Deckliner boat. 22 1/5 foot
200 hp
Boat has no owners manual
So do not know how big the fuel tank is

Going to add a kitchen in front of the console

Catch. Clean. Cook. Eat. Repeat.

Photos are too big to post from my IPhone

Will add next week

Trolling motor I am adding
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y5ejwRj9t1Q&pp=ygUSTWlubiBLb3RhIFVsdGVycmEg

[DDW_OR]

[DDW_OR]

Will remove the rear corner seat and put a swivel chair

[SawyerTed]

Looks like a great fishing platform!  You should enjoy that a lot!  Congratulations!

The Ultera trolling motor is awesome!   Are you going to network it with a chart plotter?   There are lots of features you can't use unless it's connected to a chart plotter.  I highly recommend it. 

[barbender]

Nice rig!

[DDW_OR]

Got the following coming in the mail 

Humminbird SOLIX 15 CHIRP MSI + G3.
And an older
Humminbird Solix 15 SI

Side scan sonar 
360 sonar 
5 port Ethernet 
Premium western states lake map
North America AutoChart Zero Lines Map Card- to map lakes that have no map

ULTERRA
112 pound thrust
BT i-Pilot Link - Bluetooth
Heading sensor
Universal Sonar 2
60 inch composite shaft

[SawyerTed]

It's so cool to set the depth contour you want to follow and set the speed on the trolling motor and just fish!  Not a lot of messing around with the trolling motor.  

I don't use that feature as much as Spot Lock and the Auto Pilot.  

It takes a little time to learn but once you do it's sweet!  

[DDW_OR]

In the future I will be adding two of the cannon optimum downrigger

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SmT1N5yhP_0&pp=ygUeY2Fubm9uIG9wdGltdW0gYm90dG9tIHRyYWNraW5n

[YellowHammer]

Sweet.  With all those electronics you'll be catching some fish, for sure.  What species are you targeting?  

[DDW_OR]

Bass
trout
walleye
whitefish
northerns
???

https://myfwp.mt.gov/fishMT/explore

https://fieldguide.mt.gov/displayOrders.aspx?class=Actinopterygii

[YellowHammer]

Hummingbird builds good stuff, 360 is a game changer, in the spring time, you'll be not only able to see the bream beads clearly, you'll be able to see the fish in the beds.  That's always fun.  I once got my tail whipped by a pro bass fisherman on one of my home spots on his practice day, he had 360 and was casting directly to specific bass, I was just blind casting.  He caught two keeper bass right under my nose, and so we started talking and I asked how many fish he caught that he sees on sonar before hand, and he said pretty much all of them them...So that's when I started down the electronics rabbit hole, and now, yes, if I don't see the fish hit, I'm surprised, even of it's 20 feet of water.  So instead of blind casting, see the fish, target the fish, and bomb them with casts instead of just randomly fishing dead water.     

Same thing with crappie, schools can't hide, and are easy to spot.  Catfish are also easy to identify.   

Actively tracking moving schools of fish on the electronics is one of the more difficult things to do, so every now and then, when I catch a fish, I will practice with it, put the trolling motor on high, tracking and following it like a bloodhound, as it swims away. 

At some point, you'll be able to see an active school and then track them across the lake, catching them as you go.  I've never done it with trout, but for stripers, bass, or any schooling fish, it is amazingly effective.

[SawyerTed]

Adjusted correctly, the 360 will even "see" your lure...

[caveman]

Congratulations on your new boat and the electronics.  I look forward to reading some fish stories and seeing some pictures.  My buddy took some of the ZMan Baits guys fishing a few weeks ago.  They were using some type of portable "Live Scope" sonar testing some of their baits for sonar return and lure effectiveness. They are supposed to send us a bunch of baits, but they haven't arrived yet.

I'm looking forward to using my skiff (it was 11 y/o when I got it in 1985) again since we got the nearly 40-year-old two stroke running properly last week.  I bought an out-of-date Garmin for it but haven't taken the time to learn how to use it yet, but it should be light years ahead of what I had on there, which was basically a flasher. 

Reading about you "YH" trailing released schoolies made me recall an idea I had years ago when we used to speck (crappie) fish a lot.  The idea came to me after a cane pole was snatched out of the boat by a rambunctious piscatorial denizen.  We let it swim around dragging the bamboo pole while we continued to use it as a landmark of where to fish for many more.  I've considered hooking one to a Coke bottle or another small buoy and follow it around.  Where I work now it probably would not work-DanG gators eat corks, buoys, solar lights that accidentally get knocked into the water and just about anything else.

True story on the solar light.  I knocked one off of the dock rail with the Bimini top a few weeks ago.  I could see it glowing 12' or so feet below the surface that night.  Last week, after getting in after dark, the light was way back in the pads on the surface about 30' from the sight of the crime.  I netted it and returned it to its place on the rail.  We saw a gator swimming around with it one evening with it in his mouth.

[DDW_OR]

.........  We saw a gator swimming around with it one evening with it in his mouth.

It's new toy

Or flashlight

[DDW_OR]

Thinking of a name for the boat
Which one do you like
Any other names


Fishful Thinking
Fishfull hunting
Fishing Fool
Fish trap

Money Pit
SS-Minnow
SS-Stingray
Fish-inator
Fishing Frenzy

[DDW_OR]

Well I got the Western States Map

Was surprised that a very large reservoir was not on it. Not even a dummy blue place holder 

hungry horse reservoir Is about 34 miles long with 170 miles of shoreline 

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/flathead/recarea/?recid=77701

The only good thing is I can make a map with the Hummingbird Solix fish finder 
So each time I go out I can expand the map. 

[Onthesauk]

I grew up in Kalispell, we use to run up along Hungryhorse and pick huckleberries.  I don't remember there ever being any launches on the lake but has been many years.

My Dad worked on the dam for a year, probably 1950.  Worked as a sandblaster on the bypass tunnel.

[YellowHammer]

Hungry Horse reservoir? Most all maps such as Navionics, Bluechart, Active Captain, Lakemaster, etc have very good apps for you IPhone, and generally consider them as an additional display and interface.  So you can get aftermarket, and even straight import of NOAA or GIS maps and you can use your phone in tandem with your chart display.  I mainly use Garmin and Lowrance, but also have a Humminbird and it's not unusual to have my IPhone in a cup holder on the dashboard running one mapping software while using a second brand unit on the dash.

Don't forget, Google Earth (not Google maps) also has aerial views and photographs, and can output coordinates in KMZ format, which is pretty universal. 

[SwampDonkey]

Nice rig there. I've never fished that way, was always from a canvas back canoe on rivers or wading.  It looks like some dry country from your yard picture. How far do you travel to get to your favorite fishing water?  

[YellowHammer]

I just checked it, beautiful lake, and yes it's not listed on the Humminbird list.  You might give them a call, see if they will add it, the data is available at the USGS.  

I found at least on iPhone app that will display it, and yes, if you do the active mapping on the unit, (I haven't done that on HB) then when you get home, the unit should automatically upload that to the server, and start to generate the map on the mapping servers and they will be sent (I am guessing with HB, I'm not real familiar with their mapping) back to your unit with anybody else uploading data.  So for example, on the Garmin, it's called "Community Edits."   

Once there are enough community edits or data uploads, the map server will correct for seasonal water levels, tides in the oceans, and other stuff, and then start sending it out as official map data.  Lowrance does the same thing, so I would assume HB would also.    

[DDW_OR]

https://www.gpsnauticalcharts.com/main/us_aa_mt_hungry_horse_reservoir_mt-hungry-horse-reservoir-nautical-chart.html