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I've been fishing in my TD-inspired motorized fishing tube all season and loving it. I've taken it out about once a week since April.
I like the little Togiak tube, Minkota motor, and Lead Acid battery combo for 2 hour trips, but it's time for some improvements -- and some other alternatives have caught my eye.
First, some experimentation. From the beginning I was planning to use 11.1V Lithium Ion Polymer batteries (which I use for large RC planes) in place of the Lead Acid. The change will lighten my battery weight from about 35 lbs down to 6lbs for the same ~30Ahr of life.
11.1V lithium packs have almost the identical operating voltage range (12.6V charged, 9V dead) as Lead Acid, so the change won't harm motor or fish finder.
I ran my first experiment this week with three 5Ahr 11.1V Lithium packs wired in parallel (for a total of 15Ahr). The results were fantastic.
Charging and monitoring lithiums is much different than Lead Acid... I won't go into details but one thing that helps me is my fish finder is running off my motor power and has an input voltage display on screen.... so I have a fuel gauge to monitor my batteries and ensure I don't damage them.
Also, Saturday up at Strawberry I ran into two guys fishing with those cool pedal fishing canoes. I was super impressed with how quickly those moved with the pedal power. I'm definitely going to be saving my pennies for one of those.
Question though... how stable are they in rough water? I've had my tube out in white caps and not felt threatened... not sure the canoe would handle the same...
I'll post some pics later of my wiring harness and battery packs for my tube.
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If you were at CCE on Saturday, it was probably me you saw in the kayak. It's called a Hobie Mirage Drive Kayak. I've only seen a couple around here, but they are extremely popular on both coasts. They are really unbelievable when it comes to fishing. My model is the Outback. It is very stable once you get used to them, and I have had it in some pretty knarly weather. They were actually made for surf fishing in the ocean, so that should speak to it's stability. It really has completely chaged my approach to boat fishing. They are very efficient, fast with the pedal drive (relatively speaking), and what's really nice is they are infinitely customizable to whatever style of fishing you prefer. Mine has a Humminbird FF, anchor, drift sock, and tons of storage. They are very maneuverable, and easy to transport. They make a model above mine called the Pro Angler. That thing is awesome. Too much $ for me, and quite a bit heavier, but their seat is more comfortable, and it is that much more stable. If you want you can research them more at hobie.com. They have patented the mirage drive, and you can't believe how easy it is to run it hands free and fish.
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I've seen these and they look amazing. Two quick questions:
1st.How do you steer and do they react quickly to direction changes?
2nd.If you overshoot a targeted school of fish, can you simply pedal in reverse to back up or do you have to turn the entire craft around?
I would love to have one of these and stick it to our over-taxed State who feels they need to tax you for even an electric motor. You guys who own these need to band together in case the State wants to tax watercraft with mechanized drives.
Thanks.
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The kayak has a rudder on the back that you manipulate with a little lever where you rest your left or right hand. Very easy to do. No reverse, but they turn on a dime so it's no big deal to turn around. You can also raise and lower the rudder from two pull strings by your seat. So, as you get in really shallow water, you just raise the rudder from your seat, pull up the mirage drive from your seat, beach it, and get out. Very well thought out boats. I hear you on the tax thing. What's funny is they now make electric motors for them that go in the same opening as the mirage drive. They are really nice. The kayak is my go to boat when I go alone. Trolling is awesome in them too. I put the rod in my RAM rod holder, pedal, and wait for the strike. I've seen guys in California catch huge yellowfin tuna out of these set ups. There really is no limit to what you can set them up to do.
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google:
North Fork Outdoors Outlaw Avenger
or:
North Fork Outdoors Outlaw Renegade
you will never look back
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FIN POWER! Probably the ONLY thing missing from that Hobie, but I can't imagine not having that little subtle feature.
I will see that Avenger and that Renegade and say PREDATOR! 8' long and 14 lbs.
6X6 as a fly fisher and I understand trolling, can you switch the peddling direction? In other words I go backwards with line in front being dragged.
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They have the Pro Angler on display at Scheels, it is fully decked out. It,s about $5000. I like the support option so you can stand up to cast if you want.
Maybe my wife will bye me one.
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I understand the fly fishing thing. No you wouldn't be able to do that, but some of the fish I have caught at Strawberry were caught on my fly rod with bugger. I'll cast in front, turn the rudder left or right, and strip it through the desired location. Not ideal, but it works good enough. Definitely di  vantages and advantages to each set up. Those NF frameless pontoons are nice too. For me, I love the Hobie on still water. To each their own I guess. I have a pic from Saturday, but it's not that good.
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[quote 6x6]I understand the fly fishing thing. No you wouldn't be able to do that, but some of the fish I have caught at Strawberry were caught on my fly rod with bugger. I'll cast in front, turn the rudder left or right, and strip it through the desired location. Not ideal, but it works good enough. Definitely divantages and advantages to each set up. Those NF frameless pontoons are nice too. For me, I love the Hobie on still water. To each their own I guess. I have a pic from Saturday, but it's not that good.[/quote]
Absolutely, however I still haven't found the di vantage to the Frameless.[  ]
I do drool over some of those fancy Kayaks, however I was thinking more for rivers.
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Cool! We were in the 40HP BayHawk. Was it you my dad asked about the "work out" and was told it's not much exercise because they work so well?
I've drooled over the one set up at Scheels more than once. That is a NICE set up.
I've also been to hobie.com to shop for them. I've seen just the mirage drives on sale for around $500.... maybe after I'm done paying for kids' college....
Back to the wire harness.
Here's a picture of the three battery harness I use. The alligator clips hook to the motor wires and my sonar.
[inline "Battery Harness.JPG"]
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The picture features three 5500mAh (5.5Ahr) batteries. These are small enough to fit in one of the zipper compartments in my tube.
Another three be stored on the opposite side in and can be connected up when the first three are depleted. Generally I'll use a slightly smaller (and less expensive) battery for this application. The ones I have are overkill for the tube.
The white piece in the center is a bit of car bumper foam I used as a spacer to keep the connections far enough apart that they cannot short.
I generally get 100 cycles on the batteries before I notice degradation of life -- and that is in applications that drain the battery in 10-15 minutes.
I anticipate the boat batteries will last three years -- the normal shelf life of lithiums.
By next spring I anticipate I'll be carrying around 45Ahrs worth of packs. That's enough to troll on my fast troll setting (3 on the MinnKota C30) for a constant 3+ hours or my slow troll setting 2 for almost five.
The 45Ahr batteries will be around 7.5lbs.
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How much are each of those batteries? Interesting.
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![[Image: SV400363.jpg]](http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c170/RockyRaab/Kayak/SV400363.jpg)
That's me in my Hobie Pro Angler 14 - trolling a fly, btw. I think it was the first one in Utah and there are still only one or two others. Fantastic boat, designed expressly for fishing.
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But you are going forward right? I have tried going forward dragging my line behind, missed a lot more fish, and the trying to set the hook from the side instead of straight up.
Like I said, on a river they would be sweet as heck because you want to see where you are going. But Stillwater, I like that I can move a fin so slightly to stay on the fish,
specially in the wind.
I looked at that one at Scheels too and all the bells and whistles....but I already have those on my pontoon LOL
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Where did you buy the batteries, was thinking how they might work on my toon.
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For my tube batteries I'll be looking for 5000mAh 3s packs (that's three cells in series for 11.1V). I can normally find them on sale for around $30.
I usually buy from one of these two sources (both have US stock)
http://www.hobbypartz.com/skylipo3s20c.html
or
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store...duct=14842
They offer some batteries of the same size for less money, but I've found the very low cost brands do not hold up for nearly as long.
If you are going to launch into Lithiums, you will need a dedicated charger as well. The ones that are $50 and capable of charging up to 5A are worth while. Anything lower than that I'd avoid.
Care must be taken when charging because Lithium-based batteries can flame spectacularly --- although so can Lead Acids but they are more robust.
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Thanks for posting that up. An attractive alternative for sure! And that price is sweet.
I am still old school and use the heavier batteries, but I can get a couple days on one charge.
But with the price you have posted you could get a couple set ups for the same price as the bigger battery...just a question of equal time on the water and of course, the room and muscle for the bigger[ ]
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Thanks I'll see what I can find
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Sids sport in SLC has sold these for more years than I can remember. I've looked at them years ago but didn't think I'd use them enough here to get my money's worth. Now if I lived on the ocean I'd get one for sure. They handle rough seas very well. Even my son at about 11 years old had no problems with 3-4 ft waves that sidelined almost all the other yaks. We tucked in behind some islands and into some channels and cleaned up on the fish.
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