Been Inspired By Dan

[aaron otto]

After having watched a video from this site where Dave Genz talked about being simple with your ice-shack. Emphasizing if it was too much to take you will end up not going at all. This hit home for me. Partially because I try very hard to get my kids out on the ice with me. This in turn means carrying a lot of extra gear. Dan shared with me his Vexilar Rig. He had it in a post a while back I will try and find and ad to this thread. His is tricked out. Dan inspired me to try and do something similar on a budget. My goal was to build a light simple rig that was everything I needed outside my rod, and drill to get in the car and just go.

So here it is:

Step 1: FL 18 Vexliar. I bought this one for full retail price from Vexilar. Truly because the guys over there are so good to work with and they're local. If you want to save a couple bucks - I've seen them on Craig's list for 50% of retail as well in a lot of online sites listed for very reasonable prices.

Step 2: Went to the local hardware store and got Velcro for $1.99. Then applied the velcro to the supplied tackle box( Tackle box full of Plastics- thanks to this site!)

Step 3: Applied the other end of the Velcro (not sure if Velcro has mail and female ends?) to two tackle boxes: My Panfish to-go-box, and something I have adopted from my fly-angling life. A box designated to weights, floats (called strike indicators in fly fishing), and misc. The Strike Indicators were replaced with connectors and slip bobber-set-ups in this set.

Step 4: Went to Cabella's Bargain Cave. I had made the decision to go with Garmin even though popular choice had led me to Hummingbird. Bottom line was my car has an in-dash Garmin system already and allowed me to blue-tooth waypoints back and forth as well as share software for mapping.

Step 5: Searched online for a Lithium Battery. Found all the electronics including the GPS and mount bellow 60% of retail. Got the battery for close to $50.00. Found it as high as $130.00 in the local Auto-Parts Store.

Step 6: I punched a couple holes for the marine mount that goes with the Vexilar in the bottom of the battery compartment of the Carrying unit for the vexilar. Then disassembled the Garmin Mounting unit in order to offset the screws in the back allowing more room of movement and ease of access to the handheld. This came purely from working with different positions manually until I found what fit best and was easiest to access.

Most conveniently the battery actually fits perfectly with notches built into the back of the Battery compartment. Only additional security I did was velcro the back of the unit to the inside of the plastic Vexliar container. Most likely not necessary, but wanted to be extra safe.

You can see photo-left the battery in position. I will be field testing this unit this weekend, but plan on leaving it on before I go to bed. Would like to see if it can make it close to 8 hours running both the Vexilar and the GPS unit. According to the package it will run 12 hours with the drain the Vex puts on it. We will see.

Figuring that if I would have done the discount route on the Vex there would still be $700 bucks in the total package. Pretty stiff cost still, but in the end my hopes are to have a very nice portable fish locating machine that doesn't bog a guy down with extra gear not really needed. Besides it's a few pounds lighter due to removal of the standard battery. Hopefully someone will see this and it inspires them too to try and do something new with their fish finding set-up.

Going to try and do the fish house next, not very skilled when it comes to woodwork- so we will see.

[Trev]

Great idea. I also totally agree with the idea that you should always try to find ways to make it easier to get out and hunt and fish. in the summer my boat is always connected to my Sunburban.

[DTro]

Thats awesome!

Thanks for sharing

[aaron otto]

Thanks guys can't claim any credit saw it on Dan's set-up and watched pretty much every video this site has and I could find on u-tube.

When Mr. Genz talked about how he organizes stuff it really hit a chord with me. Just wish I had the DIY skills to build modifications like they can.

[Crappyfisherman]

Thanks Aaron you are a great guy and a fun fishing partner.

[rundrave]

nice work and great write up. This has me thinking now...thanks for sharing

[Sifty]

Great idea.

Sifty

[aaron otto]

little update: the Vex has been running for 12 hours straight on one charge of that Lithium battery.

[Crappyfisherman]

Aaron, I tested mine in the freezer.Ran it for 12 hours.Lithium batteries don't like cold most are rated to work at -5 or above.

The other thing to watch out for is they read 100% charge until

they go dead so you have no warning when they get low.

[mrklean]

great idea thanks

[Gordie]

Great idea

[aaron otto]

Thanks guys.

Dan that is good to know. I'm going to buy another one to run the lights in my flip over. (Battery).

So question does anyone know if the 1/2 power is available on fl-18? Watched the video on Ice Fishing Today with guys fishing Gills in Weeds. Using 1/2 power to cut out weed interference on Vex.

He was using a 20. Looked and couldn't find the feature on the 18.

Plz someone say yes on 18 that it's there.... wife is all over me for how much I've spent in the last two months on ice fishing. Can't help myself this site has helped me so much to get to fish faster than ever before over hard water... ugh I have an addiction.

[Crappyfisherman]

1/2 power would be your LP(low power) and LP Zoom, left side of the middle knob on your FL18. Use that setting in shallow water or for shooting though weeds. Set your gain so you can just see your jig solid green in shallow water 10 ft. or less most of the time. In weeds set your gain so you see as few weeds as possible but still see your jig.It will depend on what type of bottom, hard or soft.

[aaron otto]

Thanks Dan! LP - DUH should have figured that out.

[Eric_Kruger]

how did this end up working out for you? Im interested in trying one of these batteries this winter...

[Tod Todd]

Awesome post with lots of good information

[Kevan Paul]

I love it. Thanks Guys. I'm Ready For ICE!