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Steelie wrote:

What baits were using on the riggers Steve? Were thin fins/fish taking any hits? I am looking forward to getting up there. Too bad for me I have to get a new starting battery for the boat. The Cabela brand battery that came with the boat did not last very long. Any suggestions on whose to buy?

My experience with Cabelas batteries has been pretty good. While there are some differences here and there with quality and design, the majority of batteries are manufactured by just a select few companies. The way the battery is treated is much more important than than its overall quality believe it or not (not that quality inst important as well).

The single largest battery killer is letting it discharge too much too often - at least for a starting battery. If you routinely let the battery get to say 50% capacity because your using alot of electronics etc without charging/running the engine then your battery will be toast in short order. It can only handle so many deeper discharge cycles. Conversely, the second biggest killer of batteries is not letting it fully charge. So if the battery gets alot of use on the water, then the outboard is run and its charging for 15 minutes and you go back to discharging - that is a double loss scenario.

Make sure its always on the charger when out of the water.

If you never let the battery get past 90% capacity and always charge her full - that battery should have some ridiculously great life to it. Often times just the nature of our sport hurts our batteries. when I go perch fishing, I know I am killing my battery life as I am running electronics and the radio, etc then after some time fire up the outboard and move - rinse and repeat. This is why boats often experience batteries not lasting nearly as long as cars. You should probably expect 2-5 years of life, and this will ultimately depend on how its charged and discharged, assuming you did not have a defective battery to begin with.

Deep cycle batteries have a completely different set of rules.

Sorry for the thread hijack and small novel - back to Steves excellent day early Coho fishing!

Nice job guys!

Just awesome, thanks for the report....