Gary and I were fun fishing during the Spring River Ratz Open Tournament. We stopped at Furnace Bay first and things were kinda slow. We heard last week that 25# were pulled in this bay which won the tnx. I wouldn't have believed this since we only pulled 2 fish. Gary scored his first bass on a blue-purple T-rigged worm off a laydown. Then we went into this shallow area that didn't seem to be underwater in normal conditions. I caught a 2.5# bass on a white/chartreuse spinnerbait. This lure was modified with a #5 hammered nickel willow blade. This fish came off a fallen semi-sunken tree. We tried one more area in the bay and there wasn't anything happening. Then we went to the mouth of the Suskie by the railroad bridge with the sunken pilings. Right off I had a bass on the line with the Rebel craw crankbait, but it got off. I was cussing. The treble hooks have got to be changed out. Gary caught 2 more from the same general area on the Rebel craw. He had Gamakatsu trebles on his crankbait. I realized that I could've scored at least 5 more pounds in the Conowingo tnx if I had good trebles. I thought it was all about technique that I lost the 2-3 fish I had on. But after some research I realized it must be the hooks. I brushed my finger on the crankbait with the old hooks and my finger just slid by. I got a whole host of trebles from Dick's including the Gammies, Mustad KVD, and SureSet. For one thing, just increasing the treble one size up made a huge difference. With just a plain set of Eagle Claw #4 my finger was being stuck about half the time. Gammies and KVD faired better, but the KVD seemed the most consistent.

At the weigh-in the winners of the Open were fishing in Furnace Bay and pulled 25#. They said that they were using spinnerbaits and they pulled their limit by 7:30 and culled the rest of the time. Gary admitted there was one place we didn't try in the Bay.

A couple weeks ago I was fishing with Gary in the Conowingo tournament with the River Ratz. I learned a lot from this one tournament. Gary was using Spike-it to tip his plastics. He probably caught 6 good sized bass within half an hour. He also replaced his hooks on his Rebel craw crankbait. Bass were killing the cranks all day long. It was so good that one time we both caught a bass at the same time. I caught 3 bass before I started to lose them. I'm thinking it may have started when I lost one bass by trying to turn the bass into the net. It probably did something to the hook or the bait. I brought another to the boat only to lose that one too. There was yet another that I lost early in the fight. So I lost at least 2 fish and another that neither of us saw. That was a potential 9 pounds, or 6 pounds according to the paper.

I went out again with Tom later in the day since the fishing was so good. We went over to where Gary and I were fishing and Tom was slaying them! He caught a 19" bass before we left for Broad Creek where he caught his double limit to win the tnx. I only managed to catch a baby smallie and what looked like a 2# largemouth which got off. At Broad Creek, Tom caught some more. Within 2 hours, he caught about 7 bass.

Dan and I went fishing on the Bush on the friday afterwards. Right from the start, Dan's overheat alarm on his engine kept sounding off. He took off the weed guard and somehow the engine was working better. We went over to the boat works and there I caught a 3-4 bass on a watermelon jig with a Zoom watermelon Fat Albert 2 tail trailer. I was eating sunflower seeds and probably wasn't paying attention to the line. This bass ate the jig! There was a lot of blood coming out and I ended up cutting the line and letting her go. She seemed to be OK and would probably survive. then we went further into the Bush and fished this small cove with a dock. I caught one 2-8 bass on a tree stump with a BPS Tournament 4" Mag tube in Roadkill (greenpumpkin/red flake) rigged on a 3/8 oz jighead. An hour later I had another bass on a 5" green pumpkin/black flk wacky rig. This bass got off but we both saw it and had the potential of being a 4# bass. It caught me by surprise and I didn't give a hard enough hook set. All the fish I caught that day I used Chartreuse Spike-it Garlic Extra Salty.

Right before Tennessee, we had the pleasure of having 2 major branches of our pear tree fall right in front of our cars. All I had was a handsaw and loppers. I tried borrowing my neighbor's chainsaw from across the street but they wouldn't answer the door. I got it cleared out about 2 to 3 hours later. The tree has got to go. The branches didn't break because of the storm; it broke because it is infested with carpenter ants.

The fishing in TN is getting better and better every year. I took the canoe down this year and tried different lures which all caught, or at least got the attention, of bass. I got some action each and every day on Senkos, frogs, skirted jigs, spinnerbaits, and buzzbaits. I found a fallen tree in the lake and it held a lot of bass. I had a huge bass one a chartreuse spinnerbait. When it jumped and shook the hook off it looked like it could've been 2 ft long. Not only that this fish mangled my spinnerbait; it bent the spinner wire forward. The one I'm holding tied my personal best; 20 inches, caught on a black buzz bait when it was still dark out.


After we came back I went fishing on post and at the pond. No luck on post, but I caught what possibly could've broken my personal record. This fish took my green pumpkin seed Bass Pro Tnx Series Humpin' Frog to the bottom of the pond and tried to tangle my line on something. I had to move to get the fish free and finally I got it to surface. I landed the bass and tried to take a picture of it next to my rod with my cellphone. I thought I saved the picture, but I lost the file. I guestimate that this bass would've between 21" and 23". I've got to get a good scale and start recording this shit. There is this online tournament that I'm thinking of entering. This would actually get me serious about taking down these numbers.

while i'm waiting for the deadliest catch premiere

Some other things I want to tell you about...

While tearing apart my boat I needed a specialized tool to take out the livewells. This would be in the form of a spanner wrench, which I probably will never use again once I get the livewell tanks back in. This tool costs about $30 at Sears.com. So I found one on eBay and saved $20.

Once I got the livewells/seats out I realized the deck was divided from the front and rear; probably the only way to get a 9ft continuous deck. This is great news. All I have to do is just take out the rear 4ft to gain full access to all the stuff under the deck. I'm expecting the seat mounting plate hardware will need to be replaced. I tried to take out the bolts but I think the nuts, or whatever is holding the bolt in, is rusted thru. Once I take out the rear deck I'll find out.

The other thing I found is the chair pedestal doesn't fit in the forward mount. I'm gonna have to open it up somehow. What's annoying is that it's on the forward deck which is longer and more of a PITA to replace if I can't open up the hole.

The Homecoming

So I actually got my boat home on Mar 27. It has been in the shop since the 7th having work done on the motor and trailer. This whole thing has been one surprise after another. I'm used to the way cars are handled; same day service and the labor rate is not $100/hr! I swear, if I could help it, no one else will ever work on my boat; I'm impatient and just not that rich!

When I got it home I nearly got run over by my own boat. So I planned on driving it halfway up the driveway, unhitch it, and finesse it into my garage. My wife was busy and my 5 y/o son was eager to help. So I had him take the tire chocks out with me ready to push the boat up the driveway. Well, gravity works! The boat pushed me back so hard that it pushed me out of my shoes and I ended up fighting the boat all the way down the driveway in my socks! I ended up just having the boat sit in my driveway because it won't fit in my garage afterall.

I kinda felt overwhelmed after having the time to look over the boat more closely. I found holes in the transom and I think the guy I bought it from tried to patch them up with Marine-Tex-White, which is the wrong version for aluminum. There are a lot of holes, like about 10! Carpeting needed to be replaced and the electrical is mess! I really didn't know where to begin. Also needs to be painted. ugh!!!

So I figure to get this riverworthy I'd have to patch the transom, make sense of the electrical, put new carpeting down, and paint the front end enough to get my registration stickers on. On second thought, forget painting. I'll do that next year.

Hi everyone!
Just got a new (to me) boat and fixing it up in time to hit the summer bass! I really want to have this boat with me when I go to my inlaws lakehouse in TN. Tennessee has got to be the bass capital, at least in the US.

More to come, plus pics of the boat as it progresses to a bass huntin' machine!