Gun Porn

Sig P238

Pic to post elsewhere.

Charleston On Lanier 9.18.17

    Now that the storms have finally calmed down I was itching to get back out on the water. I got with my buddy Jim and we put in at Charleston Park to hunt some Stripers. I actually brought my GoPro along on the trip but it was having some issues connecting with my remote so I missed some early morning topwater action. Throwing a small white Spook, I had one hit at it three times but I was messing with the camera and missed it, Grrrr. Jim had a topwater strike and miss as well. As the water temperature drops the action should pick up in the next 2-3 weeks.

    Not much luck on the downline or trolling. It could have something to do with the lake starting to turn over. Reports told me the bite would be tough right now. Here are a couple shots of bubbles from lake turnover....

    Water temps started around 76 early in the day and got up to 79 at times. We fished with Bluebacks and jigged on occasion with bucktails. We fished Six Mile, The Dam and Old Federal.

    We both managed a catfish though. Jim did not get a picture of his....

We had an awesome lunch at Pig Tales and dinner ended up being Gordons LOL Can't catch Em' Buy Em' LOL

More Kayak Trailer Work.

    Well, my annual Bear Island trip is coming up in October and I wanted to take the smaller trailer to haul my kayak.  My bud in NC also likes for me to haul his canoe so I decided to add an upper level to make this happen.

    Basically, I just notched the top lip of the trailer and welded in the 1-inch uprights. I also welded them at the bottom. Once those were in place I welded in 3/4-inch cross bars. I bought the cross bars at a different store and I thought I picked up the same size. I think they will work fine though. I may weld some support on if it gives me trouble. Most kayaks and canoes rarely break the 100-pound mark so this should work since that weight will be spread out to 4 locations on the bars.

    Once it was all together I primed and painted the whole set up. I also ordered tube caps for the 4 uprights to smooth off the top as well as prevent rain from getting in the tubes.

    I can't wait to see how it does on the trip up to NC. If it works out well I may decide not to sell it after all. As of now, it's still for sale (after I'm back from NC :)) )

G3 Odds & Ends

    So I added LEDs and a rod holder to the G3. I put a three-rod holder on the front deck face so that guest would have options for their rods. As it is now, my trolling rigs take up the T-Top holders and my casting rods usually use up the side holders. This left only the ledge on the side for laying their rods. This would put them at risk of being broken or sliding out the back!

    I put one on the YETI as well!

I also added two 16.5 strips of green LED lights under the gunwale on each side for night fishing. They were actually about a foot too long so I cut them and can reuse the two sections elsewhere. One will probably go under the console or I will light up the storage bins at the front.
 
    There were openings at each front corner to route the wires in and I used a tape to fish them over to the hole for the trolling motor plug. from there I ran a positive and negative through a conduit to the starboard storage bin. If you unscrew the bin and lift it out, you have access to the original interior light mounted to the front panel there. I unhooked that light and plugged the LED leads into that harness. This allowed me to use the interior light switch on the console to power the lights.

Here are links to the new toys....

3 Rod Holder

YETI Holster

LEDs

I Got Nothing... but Ducks.

    Put in at East bank on Thursday with my friend Jim. We mainly fished the lower end. We went to the Dam then up to Lanier Island Bridge. From there we shot over to Big Creek. Noting, so we headed to Young Deer, West Bank and ended up back at the dam.

    We had a couple pull downs and a lot of lookers but they just would not bite. We fished Bluebacks as well as jigged Captain Mac Bucktails and Ben Parker spoons. I even ventured into a pack of guide boats... nothing.

Here are some ducks we fed a Blueback to...

Maybe next time....

Predator to Litte Ridge 8.16.2017

    I had not been out in the kayak for a few months so when my buddy Jim asked if I wanted to go I was all in.

    We met at Little Ridge Park at about 8 am and unloaded. I had never used this boat ramp before and it turned out to be pretty nice.. and free! The only issue was the dock was beached from the low lake level. That would make dealing with a boat challenging but doable. Luckily we only had out kayaks so no dock needed!

    We worked our way around  the docks for a while, only landing a dink each.

    Then we headed out to deeper water in search of schooling fish. We marked lots of bait and a few fish here and there but could not get anything to take the bait. Mostly we just trolled around talking and enjoying the day on the water.

    Around 12:30 the sun really started to beat down so we called it a day and loaded up.

    Another great day of fishing on the books!

Lights On The G3

    Since adding the t-top, I needed to relocate the anchor light from the stern to the top of the t-top. The existing light pole was a bit short once the top was added. It was also in the way back there with all of the rod holders. Adding a light to the top also allowed me to remove the holders for the pole lights (anchor and red/green navigation) running along the port side. These holders kept me from using that space for standing or placing rods up out of the way.

You can see how  the light laid before I removed the holders (low left in the picture)...

    I went with an Aqua Signal LED light. I decided on a taller light (19.5") so that I could also add a flag. The top came with three mounting plates so I installed the two small ones front and back for mounting the lights and fold down anchor light pole. I drilled the mounting holes before mounting it to the top. Once I had the plate mounted I used a soldering iron to make corresponding holes in the top fabric. I then put one gorilla sealant to the bottom of the light bracket and installed it on the top.

    From what I have seen in my night test, it looks like a very nice light.

    I did run into a problem with the flag. If I have rods in the holders while under way, the flag risks getting hooked while waving between the rods. I think I will pick up a few lure covers to cure this.

    Speaking of rod holders... I finally got my other two holders for Stryker for a total of 4. They look great. I also changed the angle from 40 to 30 degrees to stand them up just a little straighter.

    Since I had to run wires for the anchor light I went ahead and picked up two small LED lights from Walmart. The ones I sued were labeled as truck accent lights. They are small round lights that stick on. I  think they have 2 LEDs in them and they have a domed lens that makes them somewhat directional. I put one in the front of the top and one at the back. This lights up the entire area under the top very well.

Here is a shot with the flash on. Note how the flash lit up the defective material on the cord I used on the t-top in addition to the original lacing.

    I ran the wires in plastic conduit and secured the conduit with camo Gorilla Tape rather than zip ties so that the top material would not be subjected to fraying form rubbing on the plastic. I did use ties on the uprights leading down to the console.

    At the console I wired in a trailer plug. This allows me to unhook the harness when I take the top of to get into my garage. I have one space left on the plug for another accessories if needed. I wired up the other side of the plug and dropped it down through one of the rod holder holes on the console rather than drilling another hole. Tapping into a ground and power source where easy for the lights. I just had to put a blade on the power wire and tap into the last open switch on my new panel. As for the Anchor light, I tapped into the existing anchor light switch on the panel. This was probably the harder part of the install... finding out which wire was the one for that light. Once found, I tapped into to it and now I can still run the back light if I ever feel the need and I still use the original switch for the new light up top.  Win Win!

     I rarely fish at night but I look forward to trying these lights out. I hope to add flood/spot LEDs on the t-top at some point for lighting up docks etc while night fishing.