Forgot the battery today, but fishing as good as yesterday even with no sonar or tm
Can't believe I left the charge battery at home! That meant a lot of rowing and guessing depth from memory. But one thing about not having sonar is casting to areas shallow and deep I probably wouldn't have, as well as staying longer is areas rather than back troll too fast away from them. Granted, it was a pain to use the anchor more to prevent drifting away from areas I found fish in, but that's the price I had to pay when rewarded with 8 of so fish in the same spots - shallow and deep.
The only thing I couldn't find was the mid lake hump which held fish last week, but other areas proved decent with a lot more to check out in the days that follow.
Advantages:
I needed the exercise; the boat was much lighter without the battery and tm and easy to get up to a tm speed of 2 or 3 with the wind. I usually row most of the day anyway to preserve battery power and then use the tm on the way back or at full speed if I hear thunder. The tm also helps back trolling into the wind to maintain position, but not crucial.
I may leave the tm home and take the sonar with a small motorcycle battery like I do at a local lake too weedy to use a tm.
Sometimes a bit of good comes from a bad start. At least the fishing was decent after 10 am.