Post by mwardncsu on Oct 12, 2014 20:30:46 GMT -5
Weather: Overcast, some fog/mist, temps in the upper 60s
Water: 69, visibility of a couple of feet
Techniques: Playing with the speeds on the trolling motor as well as sensitivity & noise reduction settings on the fish finder - oh, and a few "peanut" gizzards on downlines and a free line
I made the "smart" decision to tear into my trolling motor this past week to internally ground the motor in an effor to rid myself of some trolling-motor induced noise and also to run my TM-mounted transducer cable up the shaft of the TM since Yam planted that great idea into my head. "Smart" in that I am going to be gone all this coming week and next weekend by brother-in-law and a friend of his are coming down to fish with me so I better not screw anything up. Well...... you can guess where this story goes....
Last Sunday I tore the TM apart on the boat thinking I could quickly ground the motor - but decided before too long that it was not the place to do it and to pack it up and take it home. When loading everything off the boat (in the slip), I reached over to pick up my tool bag off the bow and something slid out of the bag into the lake - well - three things - one was a box of small screw drivers - that floated
, the other I realized later was a box of allen wrenches - those do NOT float 
, and I was not sure what the third was - thought it was a wrench or hammer - I had the motor back together (with the prop & coil out), but the coil was in my hands as well as the motor, so that's what counted - or so I thought.
I got it home I got the grounding done as well as running the xducer wire (Yam's install instructions were right on the money), but decided I was going to replace the o-rings and prop shaft seals since I had it open - can't hurt - right? The prop shaft seals were supposed to just pop right out from the "outside" with a flat-head screw-driver. Well - at least on my Riptide ST80, they do NOT just pop right out. The things were in there and in there good. Tore the seals up well beyond usefulness trying to get them out, so I was in for the long-haul. Called MinnKota and a repair place that I could get a hold of and both said they would just pop out - yeah... not. I broke down and posted over on Bass Boat Central in their trolling motor forum and a guy that is a sponsor there and repairs TM told me to get a flat "punch" and drive out the bushing from the seal side, and then I could drive out the seals to replace.
However, this was Friday during the day and I needed to head back to the lake Fri evening - had to get a TM on the boat and then get home Sat evening as I had plans at home Sunday and fly out Mon AM to California till next Friday. One of my buddies upgraded his TM from the ST80 to a ST101 a while back, and he still had his old 80 - so he told me I could borrow it till I got mine going. I drove over to get it from him, and while there we went to his shop and ended up getting the seals removed and replaced (as the guy on BBC instructed - guess those green-fish guys are useful for something
). Things were looking up - I could be at the lake about 11pm, have bait in the tank by midnight and fish Saturday AM, and be ready for next weekend.
Backup just in case mine let out the magic smoke when I powered it back up.....
Well, I get up to the lake, take my now repaired TM down to the boat and go to install it on the quick release mount. Quick-release in that it has a mounting bar that slides in / out to connect the motor base to the puck on the boat. A mounting bar made of stainless steel - you know what, I guess those don't float - and that turns out to be the third thing that fell into the lake the week before
So, I have a working TM but no way to secure it to the boat to get bait much less fish the next AM. Probably could have gotten bait with just the big motor I guess, but fishing was going to be out of the question unless I broke out the umbrella rigs - ain't no body got time for that!
I went to bed defeated, with plans to call around to see if any of the tackle shops / marinas had the quick-mount - or make a trip to Lowes for some 7" bolts or threaded rod & nuts to connect it back together. The next AM I thought about taking a dip in the lake to try and find it - thought it was only in 4'-5' of water, but when I went down to check it was more like 7'-8' and did not think it was too smart to go swimming in 69 degree water by myself. So, I made several calls which were all turning up blanks - then called Scott over at Smith Mountain Boat & Tackle in Penhook and sure enough he had an old TM that happened to have the quick-mount - he said come get the mounting bar and he'd see if he could order just that part from MinnKota to replace it and we'd figure it out later
An hour or so later I had the bar in hand and installed on the boat.
I spent the late morning playing around with the trolling motor & sonar - it does seem the grounding has removed most of the trolling-motor induced noise - and I can put the sonar in manual mode and crank the sensitivity up above 80 and still see the water column without a total black-out - and when I cut the TM on and off only the smallest bit shows - before this would have gone from a clear screen to blackout, even when the senstivity was set down in the low 70's. Sensitivity in the pic below is 82 - when I drop it to 79-80 the screen clears totally up with TM on or off....
My xducer cable routing was also working very well - props to one of our other forum members on the SML forum we have that did this 1st - involves routing/sanding out a slight impression in the existing shaft grove to allow the Lowrance xducer cable to fit between the shaft and the motor collar - the Humminbird cable is thinner and not an issue like this, but you have to make a little more room for the Lowrance.... but now I can spin the TM around and around until the main cable binds it up and the xducer cable won't snap like has happened twice already to me..... If you use a bow-mount xducer, this is a VERY recommended mod - works GREAT!
I was trying to decide if I should stay and fish the evening bite - the fog kept hanging in, but the wind was picking up a little and it had that post-front feeling setting up. I went and got lunch, hit a creek or two looking for big bait - which I did not find - but tossed a dozen or so small 2.5"-3" gizzards in the tank and then decided to head back home - saw a buddy on the water and stopped to talk with him a bit - sounded like it had been a slow morning for a lot of folks so I did not feel as bad now about getting the chance to sleep in. I stuck my head into one creek on the way back and saw several boats fishing towards the back and saw one hook-up so I decided I needed to, uh, put the TM/Sonar changes to the test on real fish - yeah, that's it... I put out some rods with the smallest 2.5" baby gizzards that I think I've ever fished in my life - pulled around for about an hour looking at a creek full of small bait while playing more with the sonar & TM - threw a swimbait a bit, talked with Brian/brcarls as he reeled in a monster white perch, threw a fluke on a jig-head a bit, hung it on a tree, retrived it by using my landing net to catch the log and pull it up and get my lure back, and then I reeled all my crap in and put the boat in the slip and called it a "successful shake-down cruise" - not a skunk - this was totally about confirming my trolling motor mods..... all in the interest of science you know..... 
SO, more or less salvaged what was looking to be a problem for next weekend. Thanks to Yam for the TM xducer cable ideas & for our collaboration on the grounding on Friday, to my buddy for loaning his TM as a backup and helping me get the seals replaced and then a BIG thanks to Scott @ Smith Mountain Boat & Tackle for helping with the quick mount bracket.....
Water: 69, visibility of a couple of feet
Techniques: Playing with the speeds on the trolling motor as well as sensitivity & noise reduction settings on the fish finder - oh, and a few "peanut" gizzards on downlines and a free line
I made the "smart" decision to tear into my trolling motor this past week to internally ground the motor in an effor to rid myself of some trolling-motor induced noise and also to run my TM-mounted transducer cable up the shaft of the TM since Yam planted that great idea into my head. "Smart" in that I am going to be gone all this coming week and next weekend by brother-in-law and a friend of his are coming down to fish with me so I better not screw anything up. Well...... you can guess where this story goes....
Last Sunday I tore the TM apart on the boat thinking I could quickly ground the motor - but decided before too long that it was not the place to do it and to pack it up and take it home. When loading everything off the boat (in the slip), I reached over to pick up my tool bag off the bow and something slid out of the bag into the lake - well - three things - one was a box of small screw drivers - that floated
, the other I realized later was a box of allen wrenches - those do NOT float 
, and I was not sure what the third was - thought it was a wrench or hammer - I had the motor back together (with the prop & coil out), but the coil was in my hands as well as the motor, so that's what counted - or so I thought.I got it home I got the grounding done as well as running the xducer wire (Yam's install instructions were right on the money), but decided I was going to replace the o-rings and prop shaft seals since I had it open - can't hurt - right? The prop shaft seals were supposed to just pop right out from the "outside" with a flat-head screw-driver. Well - at least on my Riptide ST80, they do NOT just pop right out. The things were in there and in there good. Tore the seals up well beyond usefulness trying to get them out, so I was in for the long-haul. Called MinnKota and a repair place that I could get a hold of and both said they would just pop out - yeah... not. I broke down and posted over on Bass Boat Central in their trolling motor forum and a guy that is a sponsor there and repairs TM told me to get a flat "punch" and drive out the bushing from the seal side, and then I could drive out the seals to replace.
However, this was Friday during the day and I needed to head back to the lake Fri evening - had to get a TM on the boat and then get home Sat evening as I had plans at home Sunday and fly out Mon AM to California till next Friday. One of my buddies upgraded his TM from the ST80 to a ST101 a while back, and he still had his old 80 - so he told me I could borrow it till I got mine going. I drove over to get it from him, and while there we went to his shop and ended up getting the seals removed and replaced (as the guy on BBC instructed - guess those green-fish guys are useful for something
). Things were looking up - I could be at the lake about 11pm, have bait in the tank by midnight and fish Saturday AM, and be ready for next weekend.Backup just in case mine let out the magic smoke when I powered it back up.....
Well, I get up to the lake, take my now repaired TM down to the boat and go to install it on the quick release mount. Quick-release in that it has a mounting bar that slides in / out to connect the motor base to the puck on the boat. A mounting bar made of stainless steel - you know what, I guess those don't float - and that turns out to be the third thing that fell into the lake the week before
So, I have a working TM but no way to secure it to the boat to get bait much less fish the next AM. Probably could have gotten bait with just the big motor I guess, but fishing was going to be out of the question unless I broke out the umbrella rigs - ain't no body got time for that!
I went to bed defeated, with plans to call around to see if any of the tackle shops / marinas had the quick-mount - or make a trip to Lowes for some 7" bolts or threaded rod & nuts to connect it back together. The next AM I thought about taking a dip in the lake to try and find it - thought it was only in 4'-5' of water, but when I went down to check it was more like 7'-8' and did not think it was too smart to go swimming in 69 degree water by myself. So, I made several calls which were all turning up blanks - then called Scott over at Smith Mountain Boat & Tackle in Penhook and sure enough he had an old TM that happened to have the quick-mount - he said come get the mounting bar and he'd see if he could order just that part from MinnKota to replace it and we'd figure it out later
An hour or so later I had the bar in hand and installed on the boat.I spent the late morning playing around with the trolling motor & sonar - it does seem the grounding has removed most of the trolling-motor induced noise - and I can put the sonar in manual mode and crank the sensitivity up above 80 and still see the water column without a total black-out - and when I cut the TM on and off only the smallest bit shows - before this would have gone from a clear screen to blackout, even when the senstivity was set down in the low 70's. Sensitivity in the pic below is 82 - when I drop it to 79-80 the screen clears totally up with TM on or off....
My xducer cable routing was also working very well - props to one of our other forum members on the SML forum we have that did this 1st - involves routing/sanding out a slight impression in the existing shaft grove to allow the Lowrance xducer cable to fit between the shaft and the motor collar - the Humminbird cable is thinner and not an issue like this, but you have to make a little more room for the Lowrance.... but now I can spin the TM around and around until the main cable binds it up and the xducer cable won't snap like has happened twice already to me..... If you use a bow-mount xducer, this is a VERY recommended mod - works GREAT!
I was trying to decide if I should stay and fish the evening bite - the fog kept hanging in, but the wind was picking up a little and it had that post-front feeling setting up. I went and got lunch, hit a creek or two looking for big bait - which I did not find - but tossed a dozen or so small 2.5"-3" gizzards in the tank and then decided to head back home - saw a buddy on the water and stopped to talk with him a bit - sounded like it had been a slow morning for a lot of folks so I did not feel as bad now about getting the chance to sleep in. I stuck my head into one creek on the way back and saw several boats fishing towards the back and saw one hook-up so I decided I needed to, uh, put the TM/Sonar changes to the test on real fish - yeah, that's it...
I put out some rods with the smallest 2.5" baby gizzards that I think I've ever fished in my life - pulled around for about an hour looking at a creek full of small bait while playing more with the sonar & TM - threw a swimbait a bit, talked with Brian/brcarls as he reeled in a monster white perch, threw a fluke on a jig-head a bit, hung it on a tree, retrived it by using my landing net to catch the log and pull it up and get my lure back, and then I reeled all my crap in and put the boat in the slip and called it a "successful shake-down cruise" - not a skunk - this was totally about confirming my trolling motor mods..... all in the interest of science you know..... 
SO, more or less salvaged what was looking to be a problem for next weekend. Thanks to Yam for the TM xducer cable ideas & for our collaboration on the grounding on Friday, to my buddy for loaning his TM as a backup and helping me get the seals replaced and then a BIG thanks to Scott @ Smith Mountain Boat & Tackle for helping with the quick mount bracket.....
