It’s been a long winter especially for those of us who are passionate about fishing. Collin and I have been busy this winter not only doing maintenance on the boat, gear, and tackle but a number of upgrades and improvements we are very excited about. We are hoping to be done by the end of march and have the Karen Lynn back in the water at Cape Ann Marina in Gloucester for Spring ground fish charters. Here are some highlights of our winter projects on the Karen Lynn.
New Live Bait Well/Brine Tank/Ice Box Combo:
Gone are the blue and green plastic bonar insulated boxes from our deck that in the words of one of our clients, “gives the KL that Xmas tree look”. We are replacing the two boxes with a custom 200 Gallon Baitwell and a super insulated Ice Box that will hold 600 pounds of ice for 7-10 days that we built this winter. Additional it will double as an insulated brine tank for Blue Fin. We think the 200 gallon Live Well will give us a crucial edge next year for Blue Fin Tuna as the class of fish at the bank in 2008 should be much bigger and as BFT get close to giant size, get harder to troll up with plastic. We also think that brining our catch is a seawater/kosher slat/ice mix really preserves the fish and is critical if you want sashimi grade bluefin.
OLD LIVEWELL AND ICE BOX
NEW COMBO UNIT ALMOST FINISHED
(200 gal livewell on left)
New Furuno Advanced Technology Sounder
We decided after a lot of back and forth to pony up to the bar and put the broad new Furuno FCV-1150 Broadband Digital Sounder into the Karen Lynn. This unit is incredible and represents a significant leap forward in technology for sounders. Thanks to Jon at Voyager Marine Electronics, we got hooked up with the Tech Guys at Airmar and we have two new transducers going into the Karen Lynn that will really compliment the 1150 sounder, but we are not allowed to disclose information about them at this time. All I can say is if we can’t find the fish with this rig, we should change jobs quickly!
FURUNO FCV-1150 SOUNDER
“LOOK BACK” GAIN ADJUSTMENT~ AWESOME FEATURE!
Other Upgrades on the Karen Lynn
Some of the other things we are doing this winter include:
-New Tuna Door in Transom
-Monitor for Holding Tank and Fresh Water
-New Bait Aeration system designed for 200 Gallon Tank
-Lots of Misc Electrical Upgrades
-New Covers on Bunks
-Deck Camera and DVR to Video hookup’s!
-An Emergency Tiller to Steer the boat in case we blow a hydraulic hose
-Electric Heat in Wheelhouse and Cabin for those late November Nights Off Chatham
We will post an update with more pictures next week.
Jim and Collin
Karen Lynn Charters