Maiden Voyage 10/15

I dropped the Outback into Collins Lake Tuesday for its maiden voyage.  I love it.  Paddling is OK but peddling is way better when trolling.  Fish Junky joined me in his PA 12.  When we arrived the lake was super low and the white caps were churning things up pretty good.  We launched at the ramp and slogged out to find some fish.  Boy the boat performed great.  I could almost go to sleep in it.  It's like riding a recumbent bike.  We ended the day with 3 bass and 3 trout between the two boats.  The FF did however not function as I had hoped.  I glued the transducer inside the hull with Marine Goop and I don't think there were any bubbles in it when I set it.  I went through the manual and tried resetting to default and a few other things but no cigar.   The downrigger worked great but the Shuttle Hawk needs some practice.  Check out the photos and I you have an opinion on what's happening with the FF please yell out.   A few photos for your approval...

Yours truly with new ride.



Fish Junky on the prowl.



FF screen with vertical bars.  This happened only sometimes.



Sometimes the screen would be like this but the depth that appeared on the top was not correct.  At the time of this photo the boat was in about 55 feet of water according to Junkys FF.

Congrats on the maiden voyage. I can't help with the ff,but with the shuttle hawk just raise your rod tip until it is inline with the dr and the shuttle hawk will dive perfect everytime.

WTG on maiden voyage kokoloco. Congrats on the catch.

Jedmo

looking good bro!

My FF gets weird lines when I forget to put water in it. I think it is either not attached to the hull very well, or there is a lot of air bubbles under it. That is why I use a water bath in foam. Never fails, unless you forget water, which you know instantly.

My FF gets weird lines when I forget to put water in it. I think it is either not attached to the hull very well, or there is a lot of air bubbles under it. That is why I use a water bath in foam. Never fails, unless you forget water, which you know instantly.

+1

My FF gets weird lines when I forget to put water in it. I think it is either not attached to the hull very well, or there is a lot of air bubbles under it. That is why I use a water bath in foam. Never fails, unless you forget water, which you know instantly.

+1

yeah I would've went with the water bath not very many people glue the transducer anymore

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congrats on the maiden voyage. looks like you had a blast.

vin

Great to see you enjoying the new boat,  anytime I've had FF problems it's been from the transducer position.  I've never used a water bath method, always glued in or a scupper mount.

Glued transducers come loose pretty easy sometimes as polyethylene is hard to glue to.

There's a product called Lexel that sticks to poly really well, but it's pretty unforgiving as once in place that transducer isn't coming off, (in my experience anyhow).

My FF gets weird lines when I forget to put water in it. I think it is either not attached to the hull very well, or there is a lot of air bubbles under it. That is why I use a water bath in foam. Never fails, unless you forget water, which you know instantly.

+1

yeah I would've went with the water bath not very many people glue the transducer anymore

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Really? I was under the impression that more people glue it in place. Btw, in my Adventure, I experimented with a water bath vs glued-down. I couldn't detect any difference between the ff results, so I went with the glued-in approach, since it's one less thing to deal with.

When mine started doing the same thing - depth from 0feet to 200feet, and or no usable screen I went to the pool noddle/water bath (3 years ago) and havn't had a problem since.

Great report. The trick with hopping in the trans is to heat the goop in warm water so it's nice and runny, but a water bath is the best. Just a handful of water before you launch and it's good all day.

Mine works good in water. I can see a1/16 oz weight and my small minnow at 60' or more. Two separates targets at 60'. I use a pretty high power HB.

I gooped mine in and have never regretted it.  I just forgot to put water in too many times before deciding to glue it.  There are benefits to being retired, like mid-week fishing but I think the memory thing goes along with it.  I'm going to install a new FF this week and plan to goop the transducer again.  A dive weight on top and about 24 hours for the goop to cure and I should be good to go. 

I pulled the transducer and low and behold there was a huge gap in the middle with no goop at all.  Now how did I do that?      Well I'm waiting for the goop to cure on my water method foam holder.  Thought I'd give it a try.  Thanks for all the advise.  I really appreciated it.