Andy135

Just looked them up and the Hook series doesn't have any networking capability so I guess connecting to a VHF is moot. As for a chart card, I use Navionics for navigation and CMap Reveal for sea floor cartography. Either would be fine to get you up & running.

Connect your VHF to your plotter for GPS info so that your VHF can send DSC alerts if it's DSC capable.

This is a bit like the petrol vs diesel debate; everyone has their own point of view and there isn't really a right or wrong answer. Personally I'm a Lowrance user, and I've had their kit on each of my boats. I like their user interface, which I find very intuitive to use out of the box. I also like their side scanning transducers and the detailed images they can produce. Lastly I like their wide range of peripheral kit e.g. their Point 1 electronic compass and GPS module, or their VHF's. There's an inherent advantage in using nav and comms kit from the same supplier as it all integrates and works seamlessly together. Garmin and other manufacturers will do the same, so it may be helpful to consider what other kit you might want later down the line and make a decision based on the full range of kit available, with one eye on later integration with other products from that range. The Hook Reveal is a decent bit of kit for the money. Can't remember if it is a standalone unit or whether it has network ports or wifi connectivity. These will be helpful if/when you decide to connect your plotter to a VHF, or a second plotter for example, so worth checking before you buy.

Second place! How on earth did that happen?!?!

That'll do... 😱😱😱👍

Wow. Glad it's on the mend. How long did they say it would take to grow back?

Looks like Leo is putting it to good use. How did he fish it? Mid water or bumped along the bottom?

Good work the pair of you! Those Fiiish Black Minnows are killers for bass. Well done 🎣👍

Nice. Stick up a catch report please 👍

How's the recovery going? Is it healing ok/still painful at all?

They are indeed well rounded fish. Very good condition. Top fishing 👍

They are very good sized fish. Well done the pair of you 👍

Yes, I missed the BBQ and the tinned fish too. Having seen some YT vids of people trying (and failing) to eat it, I think we dodged a bullet there!

Well, the pics look great! Thanks for sharing. That mullet looks amazing 👍

Hi Dave, Good to see you here. I saw that you joined the ECA fishing WhatsApp a while back. Hope all is well? Boat looks good. For CMap Reveal, select the chart pane on your Simrad, then go to the Menu and select Options, Chart Options, High Resolution Bathymetrics (if I remember correctly). This should enable the Reveal layer.

Yep, that would be a fail! 🤢

Always enjoy your reports with their detailed sea conditions. Good write up of a very worthwhile trip to top up the bait freezer. 177 mackerel?! Where are you going to keep them all? 👍

What he said ☝️

I've thought of giving it a try but as you say, we'd be covering the same ground so we'd be relying on passing trade, similar to hanging a string of feathers over the side but with more effort.

Throw in a Goldschlager shot glass and you have yourself a deal.

I reckon 16 pint glasses, a half pint and two shot glasses.

Looking forward to reading all about it 🎣👍

Earlier in the season, this chap fell to a finger length strip of squid, pennelled using size 4 hooks, with a white pop-up above the top hook. I found that pennel rigging the squid strip with the lower hook at the tail end of the bait did well for picking up fish instead of getting half the bait nibbled off.

My guess is that the build quality is variable, so some owners have a decent one that runs/is reliable, and others got one that doesn't/isn't. It seems that they are using a design "borrowed" from Yamaha, but are clearly not a Yamaha. As I have no first hand experience of Parsun I can't give you a fact-based opinion - instead I'll just say that the idea of rewarding a company that rips off the design of another company doesn't sit well with me, even before getting into the question of reliability, service engineer availability etc.