New AT Technicat Bait Boat Fleet launched!

We are very excited to announce the launch of our new fleet of Angling Technics Bait Boats. As guests over the year's are aware, we have had a long term relationship with AT for the 12+ years Cherry Lakes has been open. Phil and Dee Fry sold the business late last year to Gavin Price and David Orr, and I am delighted to say we have continued with our close relationship with the new owners and the team led by Suzi Rosewell in their Kemble factory.

The new team at AT have been busy working to shake up the company and update the product range, and as a result I sense there are a lot of new products in the pipeline.

The withdrawal of the old Graphic handset (which to be honest was always a bit of a problem because all the handsets worked off the same frequency and often our guests would have to wait their turn to use their boat, otherwise they got a scrambled reader on the echo sounder), and the introduction of the new AT Technicat with the Toslon 640 Echo sounder and GPS Bait Boat, has been the catalyst for us to overhaul our bait boat offering.

We have purchased 6 new Boats from AT and so far they have done well under testing. I am confident they will prove as robust and reliable as the original Technicat boats. This represents a significant 5 figure investment for us.

All of these Bait Boats will be powered by Lithium batteries. So far these batteries have lasted throughout guests 3 and 4 day sessions with plenty of power to spare. So much better than the old lead-acid batteries.

The Toslon 640 Fish Finder with GPS is a major upgrade on our previous Fulcrum graphic handsets.

As an echo sounder, as you can see from the picture above, it gives the angler a much better image of the change in depths and the nature of the bottom. It also identifies any Carp under the bait boat and indicates the depth of the fish. Whilst I do not worry about seeing Carp under the boat, it is always good to do so, and especially in the winter. The echo sounder and fish finder functionality is easy to use.

The opportunity to use GPS, to ensure the angler returns to the same baited spot throughout the day and night, is brand new functionality for our guests. I personally see that using the GPS is a major advantage, and I know it has helped me catch more Carp.

The Toslon 640 has the ability to log 50+ marks (called Waypoints), which is far more than our guests are ever going to need. The Toslon has a dynamic 'arrow indicator' which tells the user which direction the boat is travelling in relative to his marked fishing position. Whilst I tend to use 'line of sight' during the day, this feature is great even on the darkest nights when I use it totally to get back to my marked spot.

In the image above you can see the 'arrow direction finder' and it is telling us that the boat is within 2 meters of the target mark. Even more helpful, the Toslon 640 will make an audible series of bleeps telling you that you have arrived within 2 meters of your mark. Time to drop the rig and bait!

Any guests hiring the Boat with the Toslon 640 will need to spend a few minutes familiarising themselves with this new kit. For those reasonably comfortable with smart phones and other technology, using the Tolson should not be a problem. For guests who find new technology and buttons a bit more challenging, we have developed some very easy to follow instructions. Using these instructions will enable guests to use the GPS functionality until it becomes familiar to them.

The new Bait Boat also comes with a much improved on/off switch and a battery voltage meter.

The other major new addition to our Bait Boat offering is the 'Spreader'. This standalone piece of kit fits onto the Technicat as detailed in the photo above. We have videos showing the Spreader in action in the Bait Boat page within the Fishing section of this website. These are well worth watching.

The Spreader has the ability to spread feed such as boilies and pellets in a radius around the boat. It has 10 different speeds at which it can quickly rotate. The faster the speed the further it spreads the feed around the boat. This is a great piece of kit, because it avoids your feed from just being located in one location. I think sometimes, especially when the Carp are finicky, they are suspicious of mounds of bait, but will be less intimidated by a spread of bait.

The Spreader comes with its own independent handset and is easy to use.

For the eagle eyed of you, as a bit of fun, Simon has named all of the new boats in the fleet. This one is called HMS Rodbender!

Full details about your hiring options and prices, can also be found on the Bait Boat page of the website.

I have included a couple of photos of my good friend Neil Ash, who took advantage of a vacant Grebe Lodge this weekend, to catch two absolute stunners, both caught whilst using a Bait Boat. The lead photo above is of a 39-08 Fully Scaled Mirror, slightly bigger than the 37-06 Common pictured immediately above. Well done Neil.