Thread: April

Paul-Sounds like you're upper-level mgmt. values your cooking AND your job adeptness to cater to your DESIRES!!! Congrats on the win/win with wifey's job-score as well!

u2s

I realize that a new TM would make everything more enjoyable. I have carefully considered the various options and have chosen to wait some more.

I have seen the offerings of Minn Kota with their remote controls. They look very nice and it all seems so convenient.

Right now there are a lot of guys using MK motors that are switching to lithium batteries. In doing so they are wanting to get a longer lasting setup. Longer as in all day long and also in years of usage. Regular use of a regular battery leads to it become weaker and weaker, and eventually becoming useless. However, a good lithium battery will cost about $1,000, and I would need two of those. There are cheaper batteries I understand, but why bother ?

There is another way to get that same long life out of regular batteries, and that is to use a brushless motor. There are currently two available, Lowrance Ghost and Garmin Force. These offer longer run times which means that batteries will also last longer because they do not get discharged as fully. For what I do with my boat, I would not need to buy lithium batteries. There are two other very important benefits from these brushless motors. They offer more power and they offer quieter operation. For my style of trolling anything that makes less noise has got to be a help.

Problem….. these TMs cost $3500. That is a pile of dough. If I wait maybe someone will release a brushless motor that doesn’t cost so much. I can wait too long and miss out altogether. Dilemma. What to do ?

Last trip out I played around a little with altering the boat’s rudder. I set the hand controlled TM in a straight ahead alignment and then turned the steering wheel a little bit. In brisk winds this worked pretty well. I was able to crab along at an angle that kept the lines straight and untangled. I was happy enough I guess.

I understand that the remote control will maintain a straight course without need to adjust anything. That would be nice and most all good TMs will do that. I do not need spot lock as I move constantly. Like the pelican I am moving around looking for fish, not setting up on a good spot and waiting like the heron.

They add transducers to these motors as well and waiting just means I might end up with something new and cool. Waiting might mean that MK will figure out how to add gesturing to their remote controls. So I am waiting.

I watch my buddy with his remote control and he seems to be fiddling around fairly often. He wears it around his neck so as to keep it handy for more fiddling. It might be cool to be able to design a route and make a sandwich or take a nap or something. With Garmin selling their motors that makes MK want to up their game. A MK brushless motor would change everything, especially if it were cheaper by about a grand.


That other great upgrade- electronics- is also something I have carefully considered. I thought it might be cool if as I am trolling along I could spot schools of crappie up ahead and make course corrections so my jigs would glide above them. I suspect there are small schools here and there and as luck would have it I either pass over or pass by. Being able to adjust on the fly would be nice.

The problem is that the electronics don’t really do that…..yet. HB 360 looked cool but at speed ( 1.7 mph ) it has issues. It wants you to sit still. Also the fish appear as teeny tiny little white spots that I probably would not be too keen to try to spot while I am fishing. Death Scope is just too much for me to look at while trying to drive the boat and watch ten rods. I am just not that anal.

A friend of mine and I talked one day and I asked if he used fancy electronics. He said no. After 50 years I already know where the fish will be. I laughed so hard because I realized that he was right. He doesn’t need to stare at some TV screen. He just goes over that way and if they aren’t there, go over that way there. Makes sense.

I don’t have 50 years to gather in all what he has gathered in, but then again I don’t need to. I always said if I make fishing a hassle I won’t want to go. I want to get out and experience nature, look at God’s creations, discover and explore and if I catch some fish I am happy.

I digressed…… again.

Anyways I also talked to an old man about those planer boards. He saw me with six Off Shore Mini Planers behind my boat and giggled about that. Called them bobbers. I carefully explained that I wanted to present my lures to fish that were not frightened by a boat passing just over top of them. Most of my lakes are like ten feet deep at most. He said he caught fish right behind the engine, and while it was running.

Well that seemed crazy but then I started catching fish right next to the hull of the boat. Man that was crazy but now I fish two or four rods right in close and they do very well. I usually get my better fish on these rods. Not always but most times.

So I am not sure if a brushless motor would be less scary to a stupid fish or not. Would there be an advantage there to be had. Maybe so, maybe not. I suspect that as my 20’ Xpress boat passes along through the water that the fish are aware of it’s presence regardless of TM noises. They are not very bright I know, but some might be cagey and aware and get nervous and stuff. So maybe a quieter TM would be an advantage.

I will wait a little longer to buy a new TM.



I think about things as I go along. Trolling allows for this. Anyways I think about fish seeing jigs being trolled by them their entire lives and they never once bit one. Then suddenly one day they decide to do just that and they become dinner. Why is it that fifty jigs could not get them to bite but then suddenly one day everything changed for them. I have trolled over the same patches of water many times and do so because there are usually fish there. Surely they have seen me pass through before. Old school or new creation, the jigs are basically the same thing. I mean they don’t giggle to one another and say hey that guy is using a BG Shad in Sky Blue when he should be using a Mr Crappie shadpole in Mud Pie Green.

What actually triggers them to strike at a weird object that doesn’t really look or behave like everything else they eat ?

I guess when you are a fish lacking any other way to grab ahold of something you have to bite it. If fish had hands we would not likely hook them in the mouth. Call it curiosity that causes the fish to interact with that jig. We know people the same way. Had a shop foreman that could not walk up to a table without grabbing what was on it. You could heat a large ball bearing up and sit it on the table when you saw him coming, nothing doing he would grab it every time. I put bluing all over the backside of a part. He walks up and tells us we are not getting him this time. Low and behold he had it grabbed up before he left. Good thing he was a shop foreman and not a fish. He would have long since been fried

Micanopy- Does your ol' timer friend still rely on sending smoke-signals(even on the windy days) or did he finally splurge for a flip-phone?

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous. I got sunburned even through my shirt though. She and I toured the lake while trolling for crappie. The new setup worked flawlessly.


Here she is directing me as to where the fish are.



By moving all the rod holders to the back, that left the entire front open and available for her. I placed the tube there and she rode on it all day long. Now I need to get her a Bimini top to shield her from the Sun and keep her from getting burned. She was not hot enough to go for a swim, but when she is we will lash the tube to the front and let it ride alongside. I feel that would be safer than towing her behind the boat. The tube would appear to be part of the boat.

I made her snacks. For breakfast I made bacon, eggs, and toast. For on the boat she had grape tomatoes on bamboo skewers with mozzarella balls, a leaf of spinach, all dredged through a balsamic dressing. She attacked those and soon they were all gone. I also brought along meatballs that had a cranberry sauce and BBQ applied. Those were awesome and left over from the previous night’s wedding. I didn’t want to throw them away as they were too good. I made her a Bloody Mary to wash it all down. Poor thing.

She spent her day laughing at me and spotting alligators and birds from her new crows nest. We saw two eagles fighting, and we saw an eagle and an osprey kind of going at it. I say kind of because it was basically a one way affair. Them eagles are vicious and mean spirited. We saw several with fish in their evil clutches. We also saw a formation of military jets, with one of them eventually flying over top of us. I figured he was wanting to get a better look at what I had aboard.

For my part I was staying very busy taking fish off the line. Trouble was they were all smalls. Must have caught 15 or 20 of them. A few were game critters, too. One swallowed the jig whole and had to be extracted from his situation. All were freed to swim away and all did just that. Kind of nice not to have to clean fish when we got home. Here is the new setup.




Kind of hard to see but that is three rods out each side. The four in rocket tubes are behind the seat. It was very easy to manage them and I do not think they will be moved back up front anytime soon. I set the hand controlled TM in the straight forward alignment, adjusted for speed, and then steered the boat by turning the big engine with the steering wheel. Worked great, and a few times I changed speeds by shouting out instructions to my bride.

We stayed out about 4 hours I guess and when we got home we was tired. Early to bed for us as we have quite the week ahead of us. She has to work everyday and I will work a few days and spend the others getting the yard ready for guests. Lots to do like finish trimming trees and applying mulch and such. Have you seen the prices for mulch lately ? I also have to mow and straighten up/tidy up the garage.

I pick up the pig early Saturday morning from the cooler at work. I am also getting an order of Alligator Tail which I will cut into little pieces and deep fry. I will set up deep fried crappie filets as well. I plan to smoke chicken legs and the boss man gave me a huge ribeye and a strap of ribeye and I have to figure out what to do with that. Of course there needs to be vegetative debris about for those that graze and I have to discuss that with her for some ideas.

She has already decorated the house with balloons and such. Looks cool. She even found some Hawaian mask looking things to hang on the wall. She has lathes for folks to wear and we ordered 100 plastic roaches from Amazon. She plans to paint them gold and glue them to the lathes. She says it has to be swampy if we are to have a Swamp Luau. I have instructed folks to BYOB as I am so tired of buying beers I think folks will want, only to end up with nothing they want. Bunch of beer snobs I tell you.

Almost forgot. Check this out.





The cake maker had made this magnificent display only to have it come crashing down. I understand that the bride was inconsolable and weeped while hiding herself in an office. I always wondered what happens if the cake goes South on them before they can get at it. The good news is it wasn’t I who dislodged the stupid thing. How horrible. The florist just kind of nudged the table a little and KABOOM….there it went.

After I was certain that no one was coming to view any longer, broke out a small fork and sampled it. It was to die for.

If by ribeye strap you mean the cap. That is the best part in my opinion. Very forgiving on the grill. Plenty of inter muscular fat to keep it moist. Think you have your trolling figured out. I have used the big motor to help straighten the boat against the wind. Good looking rod holder setup

Thanks….it will do just fine. Four of them are adjustable for rod tip angle. I bought them from a man named Jesse in Alabama. I sent an email to him a few months back but he never responded. Wanted to get another pair. They originally had a long section that extended their reach and allowed me to adjust anyway I wanted. In the back however that length just made them unruly so I unscrewed the middle section and shortened them. The other two are Monsters and I beat the stems with a hammer to change the angle downwards.

Having the rod tips just up from the water’s surface helps keep the lines down in the water. This so the wind doesn’t get hold of them, and so that as I land a fish they swim over top of the lines and not into them. The old timers all rig their rods like that.

Yesterday I worked in the yard getting things ready for the party. I had cleared some small trees and underbrush, but never finished up the job. Finished it yesterday. Looks great and makes the yard look so much larger. I also cleared some on the other side of the fence near that area. That isn’t finished yet. Lots of trees to cut and limb up and underbrush to clear away. Like slash and burn in the jungle. That stuff is thick and the vines make it difficult to pull things. I use a pole saw, chain saw, lawn mower and the truck with a strap to do this. There are about 20 grand daddy live oaks on the property and I like to cut away the small stuff so they can be seen from the deck. Might be done by the time I die, too.

Then I setup the deck a little. I want to place the pig onto the railing for pictures and such. The wife is aghast as she fears that the flies will swarm. I fog for skeeters and that kills flies, too. I also dump the garbage regularly and that helps keep the population down. I rarely see a fly near my food when I eat on the deck. So everything should be fine. Flies are a huge turnoff when you have your plate in hand, going down the line choosing items, and the food is covered in flies. so we will set most of the food inside on the dining table and counters. Of course flies know how to get inside, but making her happy is my best job.

I went shopping for a few things. Olives and pickles for a platter. Lil Smokies and meatballs that will be cooked in a crockpot with BBQ sauce and cranberry sauce and some sugar. I got some pineapples for decoration around the pig. Chicken legs which I will french and drizzle in teriyaki sauce. I have some frozen shrimp already and some frozen scallops and some frozen crappie which I will deep fry with the gator tail. House of Autry breading and then they can get some of the nice looking cajun dipping sauce. I got dressings for the salad. Later in the week I will get some fruit and the fixings for salad. Buy some potato salad and some slaw. So I reckon that will be all that is needed. More than enough food for my little crew.

I did my taxes yesterday and got those people paid off. There went the new trolling motor. Guess they need that money to buy more bombs.

I work this week so needed to get this stuff done on my day off. I have early cooks this week which is great. Show up early, cook early, serve early, go home early. Those late night cooks see me home at about 11. Far too late for my taste. Why do people want to eat at 730, when they could eat at 600 ? The wife complains about me working late. Wants me home so she can watch me sleeping or some silly thing like that. I hope the clients order up some of the good stuff so I can bring home a fancy plate for her. The deserts always seem to get eaten even if I awaken her upon coming home. Dead sleep and then goodbye chocolate eclair.