NO MOTOR bass outing

Well, the part I need to fix my motor did not come in this week. Funny thing is the gaskets I ordered from FLORIDA showed up on MONDAY. Apparently, when I called the Marina on Thursday and ordered the part they didn't order it until Saturday. When they ordered the part they were informed by the supplier, that they have a 5-day delay on orders, so when my part will get here is anyone's guess. Of course, the marina in question didn't inform me of either of these problems, needless to say, I am very less than happy. In the meantime, I am on the hunt for a part from anyone else that would get here faster, screw those guys.
Luckily I have another motor that does push my boat at about 10 mph so.... a fishing I did go. I went to a local mud hole lake that I have done well on in the past just to try and wet a line. I hooked up a couple bass on my slop frog pole but couldn't get the hookup. After I lost a couple bass I got a toss back pole ready, so when I lost the next one I would have a go-to. That did it..

I missed 2 bass from under the tree behind me, so I threw back with a plastic craw and caught one of them. No skunk today.....
Anyone have an exhaust plate part #8197791 for a 1994 120hp Force, and can ship to IN, in time for Monday's delivery?

Women and Motors

They'll both cause you problems and cost you money. More about that at the end of this...
Started off the week at Lake James which is kinda the snooty lake in the area. Lotsa high dollar houses, for fisherman that means get off the lake by noon or meet the wrath of the pleasure boater/jet skier/waterskier. They will tear up that lake like it's their own with no regard for anyone else on it. Of course, I started early and got in 5 or so hours of fishing before the wavemakers hit. I was after the elusive pike but ended up catching alot of cookie-cutter bass. I couldn't manage to pick up a decent largemouth but I ended up catching over a dozen this size.

 They were small but feisty.
 Then there was the weekly trip to Erie, I launched the boat and started out of Catawba I noticed a bit of water dribbling out of the cable hole in the cowling. Thought it was odd but didn't give it too much thought. Off we go to catch my limit of walleye...

While I was trolling the Ferry boat traffic goes back and forth to and from the Islands. There's 2 or 3 of the big slow high wave Ferries that carry cars and trucks, then there's this beast that carries people only. I sure would like to know how fast it goes.

 Once my walleye limit was reached (10:30) I headed over to the closest Island, which was actually the one in the above picture, to fish for some smallmouth. When I fired up the motor I again noticed some water coming out from the cable hole in the cowling Hmmm I should look at that. I fished it for a half hour or so but all I picked up was a couple goo's.

These nasty things fight hard I was hooked up with this guy for 6 minutes before I got it to the boat. I should've weighed it but I'm guessing he went 4 or 5 pounds, I just wanted to get him back.

Once I was done with the goo's of Green Island I took the cowling off and fired up the motor. A fountainesk arc of water shot out of the top of the motor. The stream was fairly thin, like the width of a super soaker, and shot up about 4 inches over the motor. Well crap, that's not supposed to do that, and what do you do when something like that happens? That's right button it up, race it in, and hope for the best. Well, it made it in the mile or so I was out, doing 30 mph the whole way. When I got back to town I went straight over to the marina near the house. Found out it was an exhaust seal and on my motor, there's 2 of them, and they're going to run me 35 bucks for the pair. That's not too bad, but the best news is they're back-ordered until the 24th of June. So once everything starts opening up I gotta look and see if I can get one sooner or next week's trip is probably off.

Da Da Double up

Due to the bad weather this spring I missed alot of fishing so I'm going to try and make up some of those lost days. Starting with this week, I mowed, shopped, and gassed up on Monday just so I could go out a couple of times this week.

Day 1: I have had a hankerin' for some poor man's lobster- you know pike boiled in Mt. Dew. So I headed to Hamilton which is where I have done well on pike in the spring. This is not spring and I couldn't move a pike but I was able to land a couple bass in the short time I was out.

This pic doesn't do this fish justice, it was a super nice chunky bass.

I only spent a couple hours and catching these guys was just fun. The bad news was I was kinda lax with limiting my sun exposure and got a little too much sun on my forearms. I am going to be a little more proactive with sun protection from here on out.

Day 2: I switched gears and headed back over to Erie for another great day of trolling. This time out it definitely was a harder fish, I kinda thought it would be with the barometric pressure dropping out. It took me until 1:30 to catch my limit of walleye but I also caught at least 8 gaspergoo's (freshwater drum) and boy do they fight. You can definitely tell the difference between a goo and a walleye.

I didn't get a good pic cause I really wasn't set up and I just wanted them back and get the lure fishing again for taget species.

Here's a pic from last year.

Then that same bandit caught a couple shorts....

I also caught a small white bass on this same lure. So after a couple goo's and a couple shorts, I retired this lure for the day in the hope of putting more desirable fish in the boat. Which eventually did happen, leading to this pic.

Still rollin' solo, all my buddies were busy with stuff again this week. By the time they can cut free and get out the easy fishing limit days will be numbered. Too bad for them.... I'm still eating well.

Normally I hate seeing pics of food so I don't print alot of them, but damn was this good.

went out for supper today...

Took me a minute to find 'em but when I did it didn't take long to hit limit. Packed up and headed home by 10:30.