Put the tube out on Athens today. It is much too early for the slabs and even crappie but I put a fish finder made especially for float tubes on my rig and I wanted to test it out. I went to some of my usual places because I am really familiar with them and could check what the fish finder says in the way of structure and depth and compare it to what I know is there. The eqpt seemed to work just fine. Water was cold though, fish finder said it was 54 degrees.

I was tossing Bobby Garland Baby Shad in BlueGrass and also pieces of crawler on a small jig head. Those are pretty much my go to rigs on Athens. The crappie love the Bobby Garlands and the slabs love them some crawler. But I blanked on both crappie and gills. All I took for the day was this thing:


About 2 1/2 pounds, give or take a few ounces either way. Chunky fish and full of fight but not the thump I was hoping to find. All in all a good day on the water. I'll be back in Athens in mid-March for spring break and the crappie should be hitting then. Life is good.

Cheers Y'All

Great post Flags and nice bass!

what fish finder did you buy? Nice bass.

Plus #1. Totally Agree!

Nice bass Flags. Solid post.

HawkEye Fish Trax. Small unit powered by 4 AAA batteries. Attaches via an adjustable strap. Has both visual and audio to let you know when fish are there. I dont need it for Athens since I pretty much know that lake. I bought it for walleye on Meredith. Walleye like ledges and rocky points so this should help me find them.

Thanks. I will check it out. TPWD claims about 90 percent of walleye are caught between April and early June. So maybe you will have some luck soon.

+2

Hopping in 54 degree water...shrinkage for sure

Nice post Flags. Looks like you have had a pretty good winter. Will not belong until the Bluegill start to play.

Timely post for me. I'm a New B to electronics. You say it has a strap to fix it to your tube? If you fixed it so the transducer points to the side, rather than down, would it act like a side finder? How long do the batteries last?

The unit attaches to the tube via a strap but there is a transducer on about a 6 ft lead and the transducer has a float. I let out about 2 ft of lead and had the transducer about 6 inches under the float so it was beside the tube. The instructions say the batteries should last 150 hrs and then should be replaced. I think the rig will work well on Meredith.

Thanks for the feedback. So the transponder normally points downward, and shows what is under the boat. If you taped it to a pole so it pointed horizontally, would it show you what is to the side of the boat?

The transducer shows what is under the transducer so if you placed it on a pole away from the boat then it will show what is below that spot.

Sorry, I am not making my meaning clear. Normally the transducer is pointed down. But if you pointed the transducer sideways, would it work like a side=finding unit? Or maybe the transducer lacks a direction?