I had to make a trip to Scofield to meet up with a contractor at 10:00 so of course I had to throw in my tube.
I didn’t get on the water until 11:30 and fished until 4:00 using my usual fly gear, fast sinking line and size 6 & 8 bead head leeches in brown, white, pond olive and crystal buggers in brown/orange/pearl. I launched at the boat ramp in Madsen Bay since the wind was starting to kick up from the west and it is a little more sheltered along the west shore.
The best method was casting out about 55’ of line and paddling long enough to get the fly to the bottom and then stripping it back in. There is quite a bit of algae in the water column so the visibility in the water is only about 4’ so the quick movements of stripping the fly in gets their attention. I was fishing in 12’ - 20’ deep water most of the day and some of the fish would hit the fly as soon as it started to rise and others were not hitting until the fly was near the surface. The water temperature is 50-52 degrees so the chubs are not a bother, I did not hook one all day.
The fishing was good the first hour and then it died for a couple of hours but after 2:30 until I left it was hot.
I picked up a couple of rainbows, six tiger trout and the rest were cutthroats. Some of the cutthroats have grown enough to have made it to the slot.
The reservoir level is still pretty good for Scofield at 46% full. There were a lot of folks out fishing because of the great weather and from what I saw, most of them were catching some fish.
Great report, good the hear the chubs are leaving you alone there and the trout are still doing good. Scofield is for sure on the rebound, now if those big trout start showing up, that will signal a big rebound.
I guess it depends on how much money you want to spend but my remote went out on mine and I just goggled it and found one, that was like new for $125. Maybe the problem you were having was an issue with your remote control :-/ All those options are great that you mentioned but I can’t say I’ve used much more than spot lock and the auto pilot to steer the boat. I will say the I was fishing with Old Coot years ago, at the Gorge and he did use one of those features, to go from one waypoint to another, seemed cool but I never tried it on my system.
Obi hooked me up with a replacement remote, I went to try it and nothing worked, then I remembered I took the batteries for my boat in the garage to charge them… Should work great when I get the power back in place… But the remote issue was not due to the batteries, it has been that way since last summer, I just got around to trying to fix it now… Thanks Shawn I appreciate it very much… Later Jeff
So, when I bought my new boat it came with a Powerdrive 12v. Before I received the boat from the dealer, I ordered the part to upgrade the Minn Kota to have a handheld remote, spot lock, headings, etc. I do not use my trolling motor to communicate with my finders, but I ONLY use the remote and not the foot pedal. It was worth every dime to upgrade it with GPS capability, but mine was only $400. I thought about upgrading to a Terrova with 24v and 80lbs of thrust, but honestly, I’m glad I didn’t. The 55lbs of thrust is plenty for my boat and I don’t fish in any wind that anyone would need 80lbs of thrust. If it is that windy, I head for the ramp. Anyway, it sounds as if you solved your problem, but if you want to upgrade, I think the cost is worth it.
I ordered the upgrade to spot lock and remote on my Minkota PD-V2.
Great customer support and my conversion slapped right on.
Would order from them again if needed.
Thanks for those updates, sounds like you found kits cheaper than I did… Now I have a remote working I probably won’t do the update until it dies, but I like the idea of updating to better/more capable motor without the full price of a new system… I had almost talked myself into the link system… ya know just $200 more and the design creep keeps going… I think if I’d figure out paths and way points I could do almost the same thing, just not off of maps… I have a few places I’d really like to set a path and then be able to fish while the boat drives right where you need it to be… Don’t know if those spots would be any better, but they sound like it on paper… Anyway thanks for the tips… Jeff
Thanks for the replies. The Advanced GPS sounds good. The YouTube video was good. Buying from Blue Water might happen.
Quick update: Just pulled the trigger on the GPS upgrade with the heading sensor in a package deal for $620.
I would shy away from the self-deploy/stow motor. Went fishing with my friend who has an Ulterra. After fishing with the Ulterra for a few hours we decided to move, the dang motor was showing that it was “stowed” and yet it was still in the water. He worked on it for about 20 minutes. There was no manual override to stow the motor. We went as far as unhooking the motor from power, shutting the remote off/on, etc. Not sure what he did but it finally decided to stow. But that would have not been fun if the weather was bad and we needed to get going quickly. I would have thought there should be some type of manual “stow” feature just in case something like this happened. Maybe there is??? But we sure could not find it. That episode has convinced me to stay clear of the auto stow/deploy motors.
