Getting Ready for the Fall Fishing Season (9/22/12)

In my neck of the woods, the fall is the coveted time of year for trout fishing. The fish are fattening up for the winter and the bite is on!

Labor Day weekend is my signal that it's time to get ready for the fall season. This one was no exception. I completely re-wired my boat and finally got all the features on my electronics working properly. I had sacraficed pulling wire for going fishing so many of the features didn't work. It's was almost like opening up Christmas presents when I fired it all up last night.

Over the next couple of weekends I'll be going through all my gear, cleaning my rods, cleaning and lubing my reels, replacing line and gear as needed, get the truck serviced, service my trailer, service my motor, etc.. Some of the gear will get put away and some of the put away stuff needs to come out and be double checked. I have this bad habit of robbing from gear that's not in use and this is the time of year when I replace all that stuff.

Why use Labor day as the marker? Well, it wasn't really planned to begin with, but over time and as I started fishing more it kind of made sense to start using a plan instead of putting things off until the last minute.I

Labor Day Weekend made sense to me since Oct 1st to July 1st is when I do the most fishing. August is usually pretty slack. Having a 3 day holiday makes it easier to get the big job done (if there is one). All the other little stuff can get done in the evenings that follow when they're still warm enough to work out in the garage and shop.

Officially, fall begins 9/22 this year and so do the Christmas adds so watch them closely and you can get some really good deals on gear! This years fall tip: It's cheaper to buy current Minn-Kota products from the Minn-Kota online store than any other reseller of their products.

Re: Getting Ready for the Fall Fishing Season (9/22/12)

Nice to hear from someone who isn't putting their boat to bed. Like you I find fall fishing to be some of the best for the year.

Re: Getting Ready for the Fall Fishing Season (9/22/12)

Fall???

We even put the boat in on the river during the winter, Have to take a snow shovel with!!

Re: Getting Ready for the Fall Fishing Season (9/22/12)

Teamster said:

Fall???

We even put the boat in on the river during the winter, Have to take a snow shovel with!!

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Half the time you guys get more snow than we do up here. Winters have been very sad lately.

As far as fall fishing, I wont put my boat away for another month and a half, at least. Bring on the big bruiser fall muskies!

Re: Getting Ready for the Fall Fishing Season (9/22/12)

We even put the boat in on the river during the winter, Have to take a snow shovel with!!

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Oct 1st to July 1st is when I do the most fishing

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Thanks for reminding me, I need to get that Warn winch I've been eyeing at the off road truck candy store. I've been using a come-along and a snatch block when the ramps are too icy or covered to deep in snow. That way adds a good hour to launch and retrieve. The winch will have it done in no time. Humm, maybe I should wait and take ngt along so he can experience the joys of launching a boat in the snow with a come-along. Whadda ya think Eric?... Trust me it sux but we don't drive 6 hours to just sit and look at a frozen ramp.

Re: Getting Ready for the Fall Fishing Season (9/22/12)

Got home tonight and finished wiring the last lighted instrument, the all too important compass. Earlier today I ordered a Minn-Kota MK 345D 3 bank charger. I paid 404.49 on the Minn-Kota website and it shipped today. Every place else I shopped was at least 5.00 higher. That's the price of a steelhead float bobber and I'd rather have the cash for that than give it to someone else.

Your probably wondering why I bought the expensive Minn-Kota charger rather than just continuing to use my Shumacher digital charger that I paid 100.00 for? Well, it's like this, first I've always wanted a really good onboard charger and the one I bought is known to be the best. I've had Pro Mariners and Guests and they're good but the Minn-Kota is better, no BS, no excuses, I really did buy it mainly because I just wanted it.

Second, when I use the Shumacher I have to connect it to one battery and the battery switch has to be in the on position or all three batteries wont charge. The ACR will not switch without power and when the switch is on there is a small load and suprisingly it's enough to slow the charge rate to a crawl. If my two Group 29 house batteries are at 40% it can take over 10 hours to charge them to 100%. It was that way before and remains that way after the re-wiring so I no it's something I would have to live with.

With the Minn-Kota (or any other tripple bank charger) each battery is charged independently and the battery switch can be left in the off position because the leads on the charger are connected directly to each of the battery terminals. The Minn-Kota can be left plugged in all the time and it will float the batteries once they are at 100%. All I have to do is make sure the electroylte level is maintained once every 30 days.

In my opinion, the onboard charger is a a great fishing boat add-on and if I didn't already buy it, it would be at the top of my Christmas wish list. Might want to start leaving hints around the house. Christmas is just around the corner.

Re: Getting Ready for the Fall Fishing Season (9/22/12)

I do the boat and tackle tuneup twice a year, at the beginning of Spring and Fall.

Fall is actually the best time of year for fishing, especially for Crappie. They're more predictable with the fairly stable weather patterns and there's a lot less people and boats on the water... all the more for me!

I'll fish the entire Winter and it's extremely rare to have to worry about a frozen ramp let alone snow.

I say bring on the football games and hunting seasons and get those knuckleheads off of my lake!!!

Re: Getting Ready for the Fall Fishing Season (9/22/12)

I say bring on the football games and hunting seasons and get those knuckleheads off of my lake!!!

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Ahmen, need I say more? We've got boat in deer and pig hunting going on at Lake Sonoma. I bow hunt occasionally. I can't wait until Nov 16th so I can knock the coon population down around my neighborhood. But hey, this is about fishing not hunting so we better end the hunting discussion.

Re: Getting Ready for the Fall Fishing Season (9/22/12)

Hey J - I have access to the Rock Pile Ranch Property if you want to go hunt.

Re: Getting Ready for the Fall Fishing Season (9/22/12)

Fishing for schoolies is decent in October but things don't get rolling until the big fish show up around Thanksgiving. Huge schools of baitfish with big stripers crashing them and only a couple of boats insight. Thank goodness for Bambi and football season

Hoping for a repeat of last winter. The warm weather kept the Blue Tuna from migrating further south. Acres upon acres of big Stripers with #100-150 class Bluefin mixed in with them. Bluefin Tuna on #30 class tackle yee-haw…………..