7-5-14 Report

[nathanhooper]

Took the "new to me" boat on on the water this morning. Wanted to see how it ran in the daylight before I did much fishing from it. She ran great. Got the motor too high, but I'll fix that another day. Got out of the water and couldn't get the motor up high enough. Tilt trim ram seal is shot...great....

Decided to do a little old school engineering. Found an old manual outboard lifter that I built and headed to work to fix her up to work on the old evinrude. It's the kind you hook into the back of the cowl and get a good foot hold on the transom and lean back. Not ideal...but it worked. Fixed a cable so it would jump out of the water in reverse.

Anyways...wife said she wanted fish tacos and asked me to thaw some fish in the freezer. I said that fish wouldn't be good for that, I should go get some. She said she was headed to town and would just grab some frozen...

Well, I decided I needed to see how the new ride would fish so grabbed my youngest, he helped me this last month fixing the boat up, and headed to Indian creek. Boy oh boy, sure do know why they invited tilt trim now.

Anyways, got on the water about 8 and trolled the strip for a few hours. Didn't get the water temp, but the fish were holding at around. 25-30 feet. Three eyes and a white in the boat and I figured we would be eating some good fish tacos tomorrow.

All came on crankbaits trolled long lining at 150' or so back. Lost a few after hookup. And while bringing in the last one of the night had a house boat decide it would come close to have a look I guess. I could hear the wave coming, just never thought it would be that big. My boy said he nearly wet his pants when water started coming overboard. Guess that's what I get for going out on a holiday weekend.

Good stuff though. Be eating good tomorrow and got the first trip done on the new rig. If you see me, I'm the one driving around with a big grin on the homemade center console now.

Oh, forgot, I was fishin Indian creek area. Great fireworks show. Couldn't get my boy to focus on the rods...

[kjackson]

Good report. Thanks.

What boat are you driving, in case I see you out there?

[nathanhooper]

It's a white 16' center console. Used to be blue, and I only painted the top half of it. It was an old wide open boat that I took and built a big front casting deck with an old 30 gallon cooler for a live well(now I can really stack the whites in there).

Put on a rear deck as well. I was just going to do a cooler in the back and put a seat on it, but this worked out better. I'll see if I can get a few good pictures of it.

[nathanhooper]

This is the new ride

[Feathers and Fins]

Nice looking rig

[kjackson]

Thanks-- I'll look for you. I like what you've done with the boat.

[J-Doc]

Cool mods. Fiberglass?

I bet I know a few things about that motor. And if you need an Evinrude expert, call fishinwrench. Affordable and you won't find a higher qualified outboard tech that knows those motors better than Glen and he's affordable and will make sure you're fixed up. Worth the drive and he'll take you fishing too. :-)

[nathanhooper]

Thanks guys. It is a lot friendlier to trolling than my other. What I'm really looking forward to is that big front deck and a fly rod in hand. Crazy thing is that boat and rebuild was around $600-$700. The outboard is from my old boat. Cheap way to find out if I like a CC setup over the traditional side ones. I figure it should last long enough to save up for a new boat one of these days.

[nathanhooper]

No fiberglass. Couldn't afford it at the time. It's 2 part epoxy paint though. Should last for a good amount of time as long as I keep it covered. Can't say i won't keep an eye out for one like it, except maybe a tad longer, and do a complete redo using only fiberglass and aluminum. I think I could rebuild one using those for around $1500.

I sure like that evinrude. I'm no motor expert, but that thing is nice for its age. They say them things can take a beating and keep on going. It's not given me much trouble at all.

[nathanhooper]

I might have to give him a shout. I need one little ole seal for my TT unit and don't want to have to get a whole kit.