FISH & BOAT, February 2019- P51 Tackle Rat - “Salt and Pepper” Iwas flipping through a few old I have a couple of spots I fish where fishing photos the other day and you need to be rigged and ready to Fish and Boat noticed my salt and pepper hair go. Quite often those first few casts was becoming more salt than pep- can land you a great fish. Despite per. One could easily be depressed by telling my deckie for the day to be this, or you could take the positiveout of it. Personally, I will find thepositive in most things life throwsmy way.The benefit is that from all that saltrigged and ready to go, I still haveguys rigging up whilst I am fightinga fish one or two casts in.By now you may have realised thatthe Tackle Rat has changed a little. comes experience. You can learn in a The new editor, Anthony Gomes, with ‘T’ RAT variety of ways - watching, listening, has changed the format a little. It doing and making mistakes. Knowl- will be more about tips and tricks Flash as a rat with a gold hat! edge gained from making mistakes and general day to day fishing obser- can quite often be the best and most vations made whilst gaining all this rewarding. extra “salt”. I’m 100% behind the New Lowrance Live 16” on the helm and 12” Live unit on the bow. I am guilty of leaving the bungs change and hope you enjoy it as well. out, flipping the boat on the high- Anybody who knows me will real- way, losing rods out the back of the ise I am a major fan of the Lowrance boat, destroying props in the shal- sounders and trying out the new lows, showing the wrong personHDS Live units in Sydney at the your favourite fishing spot and the media release day only cemented my list goes on. We have all done it, and thoughts on these awesome sound- even the most expensive mistake ers. So much so I ended up upgrad- should be looked at as a valuable ing my two old units for a HDS Live learning experience. 16” on the console and a HDS Live A good mate of mine was in the12” on the bow. army in transport/logistics and Purchasing a new unit can be only something he did whilst prepping a part of the cost involved in getting for a fishing trip really stuck in my these sounders up and running on mind. We were loaded, ready toyour boat. Marine electrical, instal- go fishing and he started walking lation and modification costs can all around the boat trailer checking add to the bottom line. everything. I’m sure the team at Lowrance have He explained that making a mis- looked at this factor and helped the take in the army can land you in a fisherman out. The changeover was world of pain. The “walk around” effortless. Basically, I just unhooked was his way of checking that every- the old sounders/brackets and bolt- thing was secured and where it was ed on the new ones. I left one of the supposed to be. old units on the boat and plugged I have adopted the “walk around” the new Live unit into the existing ritual for my fishing trips now as network. Instantly all my existing well and suggest you might take this GPS marks transferred across to the on board too. Take a couple of min- new Live unit. Talk about a smooth and flipped the sidescan views from ramp. Luckily the tide was in our utes to check the trailer and boat be- install! left to right in the menu. The rea- favour, and we used the Motorguide fore you leave home and before leav- Power cables, Ethernet, NMEAson for this was because I was ledto make our way back to the ramp. ing the ramp. Lights, safety chain, and transducer were all compatible, to believe that the sonar crystals are The motor had been recently serv- tow ball latch, tie downs, life jackets, all except for the 83/200 skimmer near the cable end of the transducer iced and was, unfortunately, one of wheel bearing, tyres, bungs take only transducer. To be honest, I didn’t and I had more chance of getting a those things that no amount of salt a few minutes to look at before you actually need this 83/200 skimmer, good reading at speed for the sonar. and pepper can prepare you for. depart. but it was perfectly mounted on my A little luck and experience saw the There will be more on the Live Spend a bit of time the night be- transom and picked up fish and read transducer mounted perfectly first units in future issues. Even writ- fore checking over your fishing gear. the bottom at speeds of 70kph. All go. I contemplated leaving the 3D ing this article I am smiling like a Final installation. New Checking lines and changing lead- that was required to keep this leg- transducer on, but the initial tests Cheshire Cat thinking about future 3-1 Transducer beside ers can mean the difference between acy transducer was a 7 pin to 9 pin saw great results. I think there was testing. the 83/200 sonar trans- landing that fish or standing on the adaptor. I mounted the new Active probably a 50% improvement with Anyway, embrace and enjoy your ducer on transom saver. deck swearing like a trooper. Image 3-1 transducer on backwards the new Active Image 3-1 trans-very own serving of salt and pepper. ducer. Installing a plastic transom saver Another valuable experience and an on my new boat 2 years ago virtually expensive learning curve. future-proofed my transom for years to come. The thick plastic block prevents the need to drill masses of holes in your transom as technology develops and new transducers be- come available. Instead, the plastic Inset: Some- takes the new holes with each new times a transducer. little vehicle At the time of writing this, I was check can hoping to have tested the Live units save those out thoroughly. Unfortunately, a unwanted small clip on the outboard gear 67kph and picking up structure from a perfectlyshifting cable let go 2 mins from roadside mounted 3-1 transducer. the boat ramp. I did manage a few repairs. screenshots on the way back to the