Socal Bassman
03-14-2009, 10:20 PM
Planned on hitting up Perris and meeting up with the crew this morning. Well, turned out to be a rough start for me. Bassguy gives me a call and asks if I was there. I was just waking and looked over at the clock to see it was 7:15a.m. Oops! Teaches me to stay up late trying to find a way to install the new fishfinder. LOL. Loaded the gear into the car and was on my way. I arrived at Sail Cove a little over 8:00a.m., where Bassguy was waiting. He informed me that the gate leading to our usual parking lot at 11/12 was closed and his concerns about launching from Sail Cove with the thick fog. We couldn't even see the dam from the parking lot at Sail Cove. There were also a few tubers on the shore waiting to launch. Next, we decided to go check out the Bernasconi side. We hop in our vehicles and head out. Only to find out that the gate was closed. We turned back and headed over to 11/12, but decided not to launch there. So, back to Sail Cove we are. By the time we got our tubes set up and launched, it was already 10:00a.m. We figured the crew wasn't going to make it out today since we didn't see a sign of them anywhere this morning.
The conditions today was mostly cloudy and foggy in the morning and a bit chilly. Water temp was a constant 57*F - 58*F for most of the day with 59*F being the high, but not for long. Water clarity is stained with visibility down to about 2.5ft. Decided to first hit the deep water by Sail Cove with various baits with no love. Next, we decided to head over by the dam and try our luck there. As we make our way there, guess who shows up? Yep, our friends in the red and white open bow boat again. Back to slay some more bass. I didn't mind much because I saw that they were having a tough time too. Metered a lot of fish and baitfish in 28-40ft. of water, but none was falling for the underspins and blade baits I was throwing. With no luck out deep, we began targeting water in the 15-21ft. depth. Time goes by without a nibble. Bassguy starts joking (I think... LOL) saying if we skunk here, we're fishing the Goon next week. By now, it's 1:00p.m. and we're still fishless. After talking to a friendly shore fisherman out on the dam, he sparked an idea into my head. Although I didn't have the particular bait he was using, I had to reach deeeep down in the bag of tricks and employ an old school technique I like to call "the dam buster". Since the trusty dropshot and C-rig was not working, I figured it can't get any worse. Sorry, I can't divulge any details as to the type of bait or depth because I'd like to keep it quiet :Secret:. Yeah, I'm weird like that. :Big Grin:But, I will say this, keep the bait lively and fish really slow. As I slowly work the bait, I suddenly lose feel of the bottom. No tap, no thump, not even a tick, there was just nothing. Then, I noticed that there was a noticeable bow in my line. I quickly reeled down and when I felt pressure, I swung hard and FISH ON! The fish gave a pretty good fight for a little while, but eventually succumbed and I was able to land a chunky 2lb.7oz. fish. Whew! The skunk is off. After a couple false alarms, Bassguy was next and lands an identical 2lb.7oz. bass. The next two were mine as I land the big fish of the day at 3lb.3oz. and a dink, respectively. Called it a day at about 3:00p.m.
Now, on to a brief review about the Lowrance X510C. Since this is the first time I'm using it, this will just be just a generic review. First off, for those still contemplating between a monochrome (black and white) fishfinder and a color one. I would definitely have to say go color. It takes a lot of guesswork out of the equation. Don't get me wrong, I love my X96. It not only gets the job done, but it is also packed with features that are found in more expensive units. But there are times when I have to stop and say "what the heck is that?" Anyway, the 510C made it easier for me to differentiate the different bottom compositions and clearly showed rocks on the sandy bottom. Like the X96, the X510C is loaded with features which oughta keep me busy trying to figure out what each one does. The 480 x 480, 5" display is great and shows better detail than the 320 x 320, 5" display of the X96. I've heard about how it is sometimes hard to see the picture while wearing polarized glasses, but I didn't experience it once the whole time on the water. It is easily seen, even in direct sunlight. Although, water spots can get annoying and if you try to wipe it off, it leaves streaks on the screen; which is more annoying than looking at just one or two water spots. My only real gripe so far is it seems to be a little on the slow side when using the Auto Depth Range. If I'm in 40ft. of water then move up to 20ft. of water, it still shows 40ft. on the depth bar and since I am now in 20ft., I get a double echo. Again, since this is the first time I've used it, I pretty much kept everything in the default factory settings for most of the day. I'll have to play with it a little bit more the next time out. Currently, this is how I have it set:
Sensitivity: 80%
Ping speed: 50%
Scroll speed: 75%
Surface noise rejection: LOW
Noise rejection: LOW
Auto Depth Range: ON
Thinking of just using the manual mode instead of the Auto Depth Range since it is pretty simple to adjust manually. Any of you out there with this unit or similar have any other suggestions on what I might want to consider changing?
Here are some pics. Sorry for the quality of the pics, but I left the camera at home and just used my Blackberry. Maybe Bassguy will post some on here.
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/Socal_Bassman/Perris314091.jpg
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/Socal_Bassman/Perris314092.jpg
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/Socal_Bassman/Perris314093.jpg
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/Socal_Bassman/Perris314094.jpg
:LOL::LOL::LOL:
The conditions today was mostly cloudy and foggy in the morning and a bit chilly. Water temp was a constant 57*F - 58*F for most of the day with 59*F being the high, but not for long. Water clarity is stained with visibility down to about 2.5ft. Decided to first hit the deep water by Sail Cove with various baits with no love. Next, we decided to head over by the dam and try our luck there. As we make our way there, guess who shows up? Yep, our friends in the red and white open bow boat again. Back to slay some more bass. I didn't mind much because I saw that they were having a tough time too. Metered a lot of fish and baitfish in 28-40ft. of water, but none was falling for the underspins and blade baits I was throwing. With no luck out deep, we began targeting water in the 15-21ft. depth. Time goes by without a nibble. Bassguy starts joking (I think... LOL) saying if we skunk here, we're fishing the Goon next week. By now, it's 1:00p.m. and we're still fishless. After talking to a friendly shore fisherman out on the dam, he sparked an idea into my head. Although I didn't have the particular bait he was using, I had to reach deeeep down in the bag of tricks and employ an old school technique I like to call "the dam buster". Since the trusty dropshot and C-rig was not working, I figured it can't get any worse. Sorry, I can't divulge any details as to the type of bait or depth because I'd like to keep it quiet :Secret:. Yeah, I'm weird like that. :Big Grin:But, I will say this, keep the bait lively and fish really slow. As I slowly work the bait, I suddenly lose feel of the bottom. No tap, no thump, not even a tick, there was just nothing. Then, I noticed that there was a noticeable bow in my line. I quickly reeled down and when I felt pressure, I swung hard and FISH ON! The fish gave a pretty good fight for a little while, but eventually succumbed and I was able to land a chunky 2lb.7oz. fish. Whew! The skunk is off. After a couple false alarms, Bassguy was next and lands an identical 2lb.7oz. bass. The next two were mine as I land the big fish of the day at 3lb.3oz. and a dink, respectively. Called it a day at about 3:00p.m.
Now, on to a brief review about the Lowrance X510C. Since this is the first time I'm using it, this will just be just a generic review. First off, for those still contemplating between a monochrome (black and white) fishfinder and a color one. I would definitely have to say go color. It takes a lot of guesswork out of the equation. Don't get me wrong, I love my X96. It not only gets the job done, but it is also packed with features that are found in more expensive units. But there are times when I have to stop and say "what the heck is that?" Anyway, the 510C made it easier for me to differentiate the different bottom compositions and clearly showed rocks on the sandy bottom. Like the X96, the X510C is loaded with features which oughta keep me busy trying to figure out what each one does. The 480 x 480, 5" display is great and shows better detail than the 320 x 320, 5" display of the X96. I've heard about how it is sometimes hard to see the picture while wearing polarized glasses, but I didn't experience it once the whole time on the water. It is easily seen, even in direct sunlight. Although, water spots can get annoying and if you try to wipe it off, it leaves streaks on the screen; which is more annoying than looking at just one or two water spots. My only real gripe so far is it seems to be a little on the slow side when using the Auto Depth Range. If I'm in 40ft. of water then move up to 20ft. of water, it still shows 40ft. on the depth bar and since I am now in 20ft., I get a double echo. Again, since this is the first time I've used it, I pretty much kept everything in the default factory settings for most of the day. I'll have to play with it a little bit more the next time out. Currently, this is how I have it set:
Sensitivity: 80%
Ping speed: 50%
Scroll speed: 75%
Surface noise rejection: LOW
Noise rejection: LOW
Auto Depth Range: ON
Thinking of just using the manual mode instead of the Auto Depth Range since it is pretty simple to adjust manually. Any of you out there with this unit or similar have any other suggestions on what I might want to consider changing?
Here are some pics. Sorry for the quality of the pics, but I left the camera at home and just used my Blackberry. Maybe Bassguy will post some on here.
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/Socal_Bassman/Perris314091.jpg
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/Socal_Bassman/Perris314092.jpg
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/Socal_Bassman/Perris314093.jpg
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/Socal_Bassman/Perris314094.jpg
:LOL::LOL::LOL: