Spring is Right Around the Corner! 2/6/18
by Capt Juls on 02/06/18The 2018 fishing season is approaching, and I'm getting everything ready. The new Ranger 621, powered by a shiny new 300 ETEC G2, is waiting patienly in a heated storage space at Dubbert's Marine, here in Port Clinton.
The EZEESteps arrived yesterday, and were installed, or at least most of it. I was short 2 U-Bolts, so those should be here on Wednesday, so I can finish installing them. :)
The three Humminbirds have been installed, and two of them are on a cool new Bass Boat Technologies "Double Stack" mount, that feels rock solid, so I'm really happy with that install. I wanted to do the software updates for the units, but when I turned the boat's power on, I found the batteries were dead. So, I plugged in the Minn Kota 4 bank charger overnight, and went back yesterday to do the updates. Unfortunately, I found that two of the brand new Interstate 31 series Marine AGM's were bad, so I got on the phone to the local Interstate battery dealer over in Sandusky to see if they had any to swap out. They needed to be ordered in, so I'll be picking those up on Wednesday too.
I ran the same batteries last year with no issues, so hopefully, the two that get swapped out will be problem free the rest of the sesaon too...deep sigh....stupid batteries.
I found a curious thing that I have never seen happen in the 18 Rangers I have owned over the years, and I want to mention it, in case it happens to someone else. One of the two bad batteries was the one that the keypad was hooked up to, and because it didn't have enough amps flowing, the keypad started doing this "blinking thing" with all the buttons on the keypad. Onc side would flash all the buttons on and off and then the other side woud flash on and off. So, when I replace the battery, that should fix that issue. So, if you see your keypad flashing like that....check your battery!
I'm just so happy that this year I stored it in heated storage, so I could work on it during these brutally cold days. Otherwise, I wouldn't have found these issues until a warmer day, when I could uncover the boat and hop in it. But, by then, I would be scrambling to get it all done in time to hit the water. Now, I know that by the time there's open water, this beautiful machine will be in tip top shape to do the job its intended to do for me...and, that makes me happy. :)
I still have plenty of dates open in May through September, so if you're looking to do some walleye fishing or perch fishing on Lake Erie's Western Basin this season, give me a call or email me and I'll get you in the book!
With an estimated 100 plus million walleye in the lake this year, and all those short fish we were catching last year that will be legal now, it should be a ton of fun! Don't wait too long though, because once I start blogging about the fun days on the water, it won't take long to fill up the calendar....woot! woot!
Come on Spring!!
Stay tuned....
Capt Juls
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