Fishing "blind"

[ronaultmtd]

Big Mike and I met up in the dusky dark this morning for a 6 am launch in the Slower Lower...got on the water and powered up my Lowrance Hook2-7TS unit..Headed out to fish a specific line along a point and channel edge...got halfway there and the unit turned off...fairly familiar with the area so I opted to continue on instead of returning to the launch and try to troubleshoot the problem...I jiggled the wires but nothing...fishing blind is something I have not done in at least two years...no speed display, no depth, no side scan...it is really amazing how much you can get spoiled by having so much information on your screen...anyway, cadence of the mirage drive is almost muscle memory so I trusted I could get in the sweet spot of my trolling speed...did not take Big Mike long to show me how...he calls out fish on...nice frisky 15 inch redfish...then a 10.5 inch White Perch...me- nothing- only a few lizardfish nibbles...finally my rod doubles over with my first of five redfish on the day...i find a groove in one fairly short section of structure...Bill Connely's words echo in my mind- "never leave fish"...so I pound this section of water for the next hour and a half..one really nice speckled trout and six small ones...several small school stripers and one really strong 22 7/8 inch fish...I release everything so others can have as much fun as I did catching these...Mike tells me he has his Grandson's football game in the afternoon so he is headed back to the launch...I hang around for another half hour but the sun is full and the weekend warriors are out in full force throwing hundreds of feet of crab trot lines across the spots we were catching fish...time to recover and head north...tight lines...fishing blind ain't too bad!

P.S. got home and sprayed CRC electronics cleaner in the power receptacle in the head unit, cleaned the contacts and powered it up just fine!

[J.A. Veil]

Nice going Ron. You know your local waters very well and probably don't need the electronics anymore most of the time. Still, it is comforting to have them for some types of fishing. I have never had electronics on my Manta Ray 11 that I use on over 80% of my trips. With that basic kayak, I typically am fishing in spots I know well. My newer Falcon 11 has a 5" Hook2 unit that I use mainly for the GPS capabilities. It helps to set waypoints where I catch fish, then return through those spots again.

Congratulations on a successful catch today.

[Mark]

I fish blind in my kayaks (no electronics) all the time. But I really don't fish blind. Depth, structure, currents, time of year, species of interest, cloud cover, and most of all, experience, dictate where and what I cast. Even when I approach a completely new body of water, I have a sense of where fish will be based on the above parameters. I think any experienced angler does.

I learned to fish flies and lures while wading rivers and ponds. Prior to that I was bank angler soaking bait waiting for the fish to come to me. Everything I learned about finding fish while wading transferred nicely to kayak angling in fresh and tidal water with lures and flies.

Note that I avoid trolling. I just don't like to do it. I think kayak trollers are very skilled and I admire their tenacity. But I lose interest in it fast. I'd rather target fish by casting. I like to feel the strike of a fish in my hands, not rattling in my rod holders. I understand that avid kayak trollers use the tracking capabilities of their fish finders to mark successful trails. Maybe if I trolled, I would see value in a unit. But for shallow water kayak angling as I do it, I catch plenty of fish without one.

Now, I succumbed to having a fish finder on my first Revo. It was interesting at first. But I quickly lost interest in it -- something else to carry and manage. I felt it diverted me from fishing. I didn't like the the time it required to set it up and to deal with its finicky issues, charging the battery, cleaning the terminal connections. The only thing I liked about it was its GPS capabilities that told me how far I traveled. (I can estimate that now with Google Earth before or after a trip.)

So, I think a fish finder will mainly validate what a good angler already knows or suspects. But I don't think having one in your kayak is a guarantee that you will catch more fish.

[ronaultmtd]

Analogies...blind is a metaphor...the grassbeds of southern Maryland waters are fish havens...from the shore line out to five or six feet of depth sometimes has huge thick grass beds and is not always apparent from looking at the surface of the water, especially with the glare of sun or darkness from cloud cover...side scan sonar is a tool for finding the edges of grassbeds...a tool, just like any other tool..trolling from a kayak covers thousands of yards of non productive waters you other wise would fan cast searching with your favorite lure...I find trolling to be one very productive way to identify lures, colors and speed of retrieve fish tell me what they want. Much of the time I stop trolling once I locate any concentration of fish and cast to them...much of my success (if there is such of a thing in angling) is adapting to conditions I encounter from trip to trip...no two fishing trips even to the same location is the same. Versatility is a virtue...this old dog can learn new tricks...

[dsaavedra]

Ron, I have the same exact fish finder as you, and I have the power and transducer cables "permanently" installed in my Hobie using the factory thru-hull wiring options (they are removable but it would require tools and some time), as I suspect you might as well. Do you do anything to protect the male ends of the power and transducer cable from the elements when not plugged in to the fish finder? I worry about them corroding since they are just hanging out in the open humid air, getting wet when I wash the kayak, etc. I fashioned some rubber caps for them but worry the caps might actually trap salt and moisture in and do more harm than good. I'm not sure what to do other than hope Lowrance had the forethought to anticipate this situation and use gold or some other non-corrosive metal for the electrical connections.

[ronaultmtd]

Dave- I am lucky to have plenty of storage space inside my equipment barn so I do not remove my Lowrance unit from my kayak. I keep the cables attached and charge the Dakota battery in place...the fewer disconnects- the fewer places for failures...

[Mark]

Dave,

There are various anticorrosive products you can use on your pins.

I used dialectic grease when I had a fish finder.

[dsaavedra]

Dave,

There are various anticorrosive products you can use on your pins.

I used dialectic grease when I had a fish finder.

Dielectric grease is a good idea... I'll pick some up tomorrow.

[goldenyearspa12]

i tried dielectric grease on the pin connectors and could not get them to connect. might have used too much . tried unsucessfuly to clean the excess grease to no avail. every time i tried to connect it would pop out. tried everything from wd-40 to q-tips nothing worked. eventually i replaced the power and transducer lines, that crc cleaner may have been a better option. apparently grease got into the tiny female part of the connector holes, which is nearly impossible to get out. someone please correct me if wrong. thanks. oh by the way on vacation all week point lookout area, so far 1 15 inch speckled trout in 2 days. never been to piney point may give it a try, any advice would be great. met the redskins condition coach fishing the point , he should soon be a new member of our site.

[Mark]

i tried dielectric grease on the pin connectors and could not get them to connect. might have used too much . tried unsucessfuly to clean the excess grease to no avail. every time i tried to connect it would pop out. tried everything from wd-40 to q-tips nothing worked. eventually i replaced the power and transducer lines, that crc cleaner may have been a better option. apparently grease got into the tiny female part of the connector holes, which is nearly impossible to get out. someone please correct me if wrong. thanks. oh by the way on vacation all week point lookout area, so far 1 15 inch speckled trout in 2 days. never been to piney point may give it a try, any advice would be great. met the redskins condition coach fishing the point , he should soon be a new member of our site.

Interesting. I never had the issue. I did use it sparingly and my connectors had a screw lock which ensured a secure fit.

[ski357]

Ron-nice report. I met up with my buddy yesterday at high tide and we launch and got after them. My buddy Mike managed to land his first slot red (24") and then managed to pull up a 19" speckled trout. The red was only one we saw yesterday. Mike has a fish finder and I feel it helped him find the drop off where he got his red. We were fishing a new to us section of water. I still managed to find fish without electronics, but he definitely had better luck. Got a few smaller trout, rockfish up to 21", some white perch, small blues, and lizard fish. We were trolling jigheads and paddle tails. A couple of times we did see breaking fish and were casting spoons to them, but the breaking fish were generally too far away from us to get to quickly. Wind was a bit stiff when we launched, but settled down towards sunset. A great day on the water.

[Red_Beard]

I fish blind in my kayaks (no electronics) all the time. But I really don't fish blind. Depth, structure, currents, time of year, species of interest, cloud cover, and most of all, experience, dictate where and what I cast. Even when I approach a completely new body of water, I have a sense of where fish will be based on the above parameters. I think any experienced angler does.

I learned to fish flies and lures while wading rivers and ponds. Prior to that I was bank angler soaking bait waiting for the fish to come to me. Everything I learned about finding fish while wading transferred nicely to kayak angling in fresh and tidal water with lures and flies.

Note that I avoid trolling. I just don't like to do it. I think kayak trollers are very skilled and I admire their tenacity. But I lose interest in it fast. I'd rather target fish by casting. I like to feel the strike of a fish in my hands, not rattling in my rod holders. I understand that avid kayak trollers use the tracking capabilities of their fish finders to mark successful trails. Maybe if I trolled, I would see value in a unit. But for shallow water kayak angling as I do it, I catch plenty of fish without one.

Now, I succumbed to having a fish finder on my first Revo. It was interesting at first. But I quickly lost interest in it -- something else to carry and manage. I felt it diverted me from fishing. I didn't like the the time it required to set it up and to deal with its finicky issues, charging the battery, cleaning the terminal connections. The only thing I liked about it was its GPS capabilities that told me how far I traveled. (I can estimate that now with Google Earth before or after a trip.)

So, I think a fish finder will mainly validate what a good angler already knows or suspects. But I don't think having one in your kayak is a guarantee that you will catch more fish.

Mark, you may want to consider bringing the Revo to Triadelphia next Saturday then. The fish may move shallow in the next week, but they've been deep. Having a depth finder to see the submerged trees and breaks on the bottom can be invaluable there.

[Mark]

Mark, you may want to consider bringing the Revo to Triadelphia next Saturday then. The fish may move shallow in the next week, but they've been deep. Having a depth finder to see the submerged trees and breaks on the bottom can be invaluable there.

Thanks Cliff.

I'll consider it. Temperatures are finally moderating so maybe the fish will move shallower. I hope so. I don't fish fish deep water no matter what kayak I use. I don't even carry tackle to do so. The deep fish need not fear me! But I do get acquainted often with those that venture to shallow water. That's the fishing I enjoy the most. Fortunately for me, plenty of predatory fish like skinny water most of the time.

[dsaavedra]

i tried dielectric grease on the pin connectors and could not get them to connect. might have used too much . tried unsucessfuly to clean the excess grease to no avail. every time i tried to connect it would pop out. tried everything from wd-40 to q-tips nothing worked. eventually i replaced the power and transducer lines, that crc cleaner may have been a better option. apparently grease got into the tiny female part of the connector holes, which is nearly impossible to get out. someone please correct me if wrong. thanks. oh by the way on vacation all week point lookout area, so far 1 15 inch speckled trout in 2 days. never been to piney point may give it a try, any advice would be great. met the redskins condition coach fishing the point , he should soon be a new member of our site.

After some reading, I see that dielectric grease is actually an insulator and not meant to be put directly on the mating surfaces of electrical connections. It's supposed to be put around gaskets, seals, and boots of electrical connections to keep moisture away from the connection. It also prevents arcing and "voltage leaking".

There is stuff called "electrical contact grease" or "conductive grease" that is meant to go directly on the mating surfaces of connections but boy is that stuff expensive. Looks hard to find too.

[Mark]

Dave,

https://thelostanchovy.com/five-tips...uipment%20List