Fishing With Dad

What an awesome day of fishing!

    My Dad made it down from Virginia for a visit so we just had to go out on the boat for some fishing.

We got the boat out and ready the day before. I think Dad liked the boat!

    We started the day geting a couple dozen Bluebacks from Buford Dam Bait & Tackle and headed for East Bank. We trolled around hunting Stripers in the area for a while then decided to have lunch at Pig Tales.  We did mark fihsas well as a lot of bait.

    After lunch we headed down to Six Mile to try our luck. We finished up and headed back to the ramp.

    We managed some Spots but no luck on the Stripers. Maybe next time Dad!

Transducer Issues & Other Goodies

    As most of you may know, the new MEGA transducers do not read well with any sort of speed. Although there have been a handful claiming they read at speeds of 45+ mph. I lost bottom around 5-10.

    After some research, I learned that I should be able to use a splitter and a "high speed" transducer along with the MEGA transducer to get readings at speed. I had the transducer (XNT 9 SI 180 T) from my Helix 7 just lying around so i thought I would give it a try. I use to get readings at 20-25+ on it when it was on the transom.

    I also wanted to add on a transducer mounting board to reduce the holes in my transom. I went with one from Amazon. HERE IS THE LINK .  First, I tried to just glue the board to the transom with 5200. I did get to fish a while before it broke lose!

That did not hold so I ended up having to use screws. The board came predrilled but did not include the screws. One other note, the board needed to be just a little thicker as my MEGA screws would have still reached the transom. I used a shorter screw.

    Once I got the transducer installed I took the boat out and used the "coin trick" to level my MEGA transducer. So far it seems to be  getting good pictures. I now get readings at faster speeds but nothing to write home about. I need to fine tune the 180 T.  HERE IS THE COIN TRICK

    Once I got it where I was happy, I added silicon to the cap in the mount to reduce water spray onto the motor. That is working fine so far. Previously it was spraying way up on the motor where the trim button is.

    While I was waiting for the 5200 to set (7days) I went ahead and replaced the tail lights with LED lights. One of the old ones was corroded and had stopped working. I had a side marker out as well so I swapped it for LED. Eventually I weill replace them all.

I also added retractable straps, they are so much better/faster than the old style!

     I managed to put a freind on fish before the 5200 broke lose and we called it a day.

  

We did get to have lunch at Pig Tales before heading to the ramp!

   

Kerr Lake Tournament 2019

    I had a blast this year in North Carolina fishing with friends on Kerr Lake. We held it on May 14th.

     This year we had three categories. Bass (2 total lengths), Catfish, & Striper with payouts for each. I took the Bass category, Erin took the Catfish ( she would have got BAss too if she could have caught just one more) and no one got a Striper this year so a third of the winnings went to the house. We had about 15 show up. Thanks for having us Steve!

    I arrived on Tuesday to hang out and pre-fish. The tournament was on Saturday and I left for home on Monday.

Remember you can click on the pictures to view them full size!

Got my home away from home all set up in the back of my truck. It was very comfortable with my cot, mattress, and fan! I made a screen for the back hatch so I could leave the door open.

 My cot was a Kelty Low with my Exped SynMat 7 on top. I put my old Navy blanket on top of that but it turned out to sleep too hot with that so I took it off.

     Once I got settled in I did some dock and bank fishing. I did not put the boat in the water straight away. I managed a nice catfish and a bunch of Perch that were later used for bait. We let the largest ones go back to swim again.

     People trickled in for the next couple of days then it was time for the tournament!  Steve and I partnered up in my boat and started the day hunting Bass. We pretty much stuck to flukes and lizards with an occasional wacky worm. We both got a small one then moved to troll for Striper and Cats.

    That small Bass I pretty much had counted out shored up the win when I got this nice Bass trolling live perch!

Check out this big fish that showed up on the finder! Note the bait ball as well. Probably a big Catfish...

Here are some fish Erin and Jim got throughout the day...

Winners counting their money :))

Jim and Dan went out for a while and got some cats...

Tim got a cat off of the dock as well!

  Ray and his Army buddy, Steve, paired up for tournament day in Steves sweet center console.

    Of course, there was a lot of partying in the evenings! I packed a bar and everyone brought a variety of beverage! There was plenty for everyone!

Thanks to Jim for the nice bourbons!

    Steve even made some Beer Can Chickens for our after tournament dinner!

    Sunday was hot and laid back. We all kinda did our own thing!

    The battery crapped out on my truck while I was there so I had to go get a new one Sunday. At least the parts guy installed it for me! I do not have any pictures of that so here is my cooler on the dock. LOL

I can not wait until next year!