Utah Lake tomorrow morning 7/23/6

[FlyFishingMoose]

OK this will be my first fishing trip this year. Heading out to the west side of Utah lake south of Saratoga Springs. Hope it first outing is a good one. I've rigged my toon with a trolling motor and we'll see how it works out. UncleRay and my daughter will be tagging along too.
[signature]

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Good luck gang. Hope you hook up with "Moby Cat".[/#0000ff]
[signature]

[FlyFishingMoose]

Nice day, but not for fishing, Dakota & Ray only got a few bites and no fish. I had 2 bites and pulled up one nice channel 2lbs 16", Dakota's having it for lunch as we speak. Other than that the day sucked for us. 1) Ray's battery is dying so he could barely make steering speed. 2) My battery was strong but the toon would not run straight with the tolller on it, if I put it to go in a straight line I'd spin in circles to go forward I had to steer like I was heading to 45 degrees off, not a fun experiment, so we go back to the drawing board.
[signature]

[Playas44]

Were there lots of people out there?
How was the boat traffic?
[signature]

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Wow, when you don't get out much you would hope that everything would be better. At least you didn't get skunked, but didn't miss by much.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Tell Ray to check his gear more carefully. The wrong time to find out about a bad battery is when you need it to move your craft.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Dakota should have brought her horse. [/#0000ff]
[signature]

[FlyFishingMoose]

Ray kind of knew the battery was having problems before we went out it not holding a charge very well any longer, he's had it for at least 3-4 years, probably the continuous rechanging has taken its toll over the years. I just can't figure out why the toon wouldn't travel a straight line, its almost like it needed a running board or some shark fins under the toons, I don't know some engineering work needs to be done to fix this flaw.
[signature]

[lunkerhunter2]

I have the same problem.
[signature]

[BassAckward]

trial and error It toke me sometime to get the feel for my toon also. Don't worry I think you will get the hang of it. Oh big hint some toons prefer to go backwards and some forwards. Cbr's goes better backwards mine goes better forwards. Figure out what way you do best and then turn the head on your motor to what you need. If you need any instructions I will be going out in a couple of weeks.
[signature]

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Some toons really take some balancing to get them to run right. Weight distribution is the biggie. If you have the battery off center, etc. Sometimes just moving the motor mount a few inches one way or the other (to counteract torque) will make a difference. They are so light that it does not take much to mess up the line.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I have also seen something as simple as a transducer left in the water creating enough drag to throw off the track. Even worse is a fish basket...full or empty. Anything that creates drag on one side will pull the toon around.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]One other thing to check is the strapping on the air chambers. If you have them cinched up so that they do not ride exactly vertical, that could cause some water friction in the wrong direction. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I wonder if liposuction would help?[/#0000ff]
[signature]

[FlyFishingMoose]

All good questions to ponder, Using the trolling motor was an experiement and I jury rigged it aas best as I could. Most people have the trolling motor in the back I mounted it up from between my legs. It was much easier to deal with but couldn't figure out the straight line thing. I did notice that the toon was heavy towards the back, but when I sat down it appeared to float level. I didn't have much time to work with it, so I thought I'd just give it a try. Most of the other stuff I tried worked out, the battery mount was great it centered the battery's weight fine, but mounting an ice chest behind the battery may have been too much. since the toon isn't registered yet for a trolling motor, I just had to try to see if this was something I could live with, but right about now I like the oars, at least I could make a straight line traveling across the water.
[signature]