Bilge….auto or manual

Auto when fishing in the rain or when trailering w/ the plug in (which you shouldnt do – yet many do). Manual if you think you have water in the bilge that you want to pump out while sitting in the driver seat. Then turn it off once the water is out.

I put it in auto everytime the boat hits the water, its piece of mind for the drain plug, or if there is a livewell hose/pump failure, and if im fishing in the rain and put the boat on the trailer and forget to pull the plug for the drive home the bilge wont fill up with water. Took a little while to remember to hit the switch but now it is second nature, drop boat in water, turn engine on, turn graphs on, hit bilge switch to auto… everytime.

That was something I noticed last time I was a marshal. It had rained during the night and my pro had not covered his boat. He started the day with a wet butt from sitting on the carpet. Then, when we went to take off, he said the boat felt “heavy.” I looked back and saw that the bilge pumps were pumping water out. If it had been me, I would have known that there was water in the bilge from the rain and gone ahead and put it on manual to pump it out. He just let it run until the auto turned off. Not sure about his boat but mine holds a pretty good amount of water before the auto kicks on. Im like Ward, I turn mine on fairly often throughout the day just to check.Jim EbarbMany, LA (Toledo Bend Lake)2004 Cougar/ 225 OptimaxHumminbird Helix 12 Chirp SI on BalzOut Mount at bowLowrance HDS 7 at bowHumminbird Helix 12 Mega SI on Ram Mount at ConsoleLowrance HDS 8 in dash at console