When it rains it poors. Boy you can say that again. I have had some of those days too! Good to see you got to fish and made it back home.

It's sure been hot this last week. I was getting up at 4 am to avoid the heat. Didnt' fish that much be did get out and do some scouting for wildlife and check out where all the other fisherman were fishing. LOL Not finding any new spots but seeing people fishing the spots that I already knew about. Hey it's a public lake and I can't stop anyone from fishing. There's plenty of crappie for everyone. And I turn all my bass back to the water asap. Just good to see that other's have figured out the same spots and are cathing fish there too. I can't fish 24/7 so someone else might as well fish those spots.

I fished a few days ago and noticed that my trolling motor seemed low on battery power. I have a Optima Blue top Trolling motor battery that I got back in Nov 2003. Actually I purchased the D34M950 Optima Marine Deep Cycle battery for my trolling motor use. I purchased the 34M1050 Optima Starting Battery Blue Top at the same time.

This coming November these batteries will be 4 years old.

I found out that the trolling battery's wing nut on the Ground Connection was loose. I tighten the wing nut back onto the battery terminal post and the trolling motor worked much better.

My Minn-kota All Terrain 50 lb thrust trolling motor runs all day long on the Optima Blue top D34M905 battery. Optima makes a slighly larger deep cycle blue top battery and I wish I had purchased that one at times. But so far I have never run out of battery juice while fishing on a 200 acre electric motor only lake. This lake now allows gas motors at idle speeds. This lake is the Blue grass, Loon and Otter Pits in the Blue Grass F&W area.

Always check the battery connection to make sure that they are tight. Make sure that the wiring connections are clean and free of rust or corrosion. I use some fine sandpaper on my terminal connectors to make sure that I have a good electrical connection.

I am hoping that my Optima Batteries last me a full six years. I use my Minn-Kota battery charger to charge up my Batteries as soon as I come home from a fishing trip.




Quote Originally Posted by bassmanic1 View Post
Hey guys ,
Took a days vacation and headed to Patoka Lake this morning early to beat the heat . Got half-way up the I-64 spur and had a trailer tire tread seperated but didnt see it until I got to the lake { luckily I made it on cord } , changed the tire and headed out to my favorite spot . Got there and put the trolling motor down - nothing . Batterys had been charged so either the motors bad or wiring is shot . Oh well , might as well fish . Caught one 15" bass on a red shad power worm but that was it . Water temp was 81 deg. Lake was down a bit but not much . No boat traffic to speak of which was nice . Got hot so I headed home . On the way my check engine light came on - boy when it rains its pours , but I made it home OK .