Went out today with my neighbor, Fireman Bob, in his new boat. Our 3rd trip out, 1 shake-down trip, 2nd fishing trip. Couple 3 trailers in the lot. On the water at 7:00 am. This would have been a 5 star day but we suffered a fuel supply issue as we idled away from State Park. Tried a couple on the water fixes to no avail. Thought about bagging it for a minute or two, but Bob suggested we just start fishing and use the bow mount exclusively. He had me at fishing!
Started off shallow (less than 20 ft) at first, Had one fish come play using a lime/chartruese Old Goat in 2.44 with Kokabow flasher. Other rod was nada with a Double Whammy and fake crawler. Trolled out to buoy area switching out rigs every 1/2 hour or so. Finally found the winning combo of Sling Blades with Needlefish behind them on 5 ft. flouro leaders. Blades were UV in silver or red with lure colors being firetiger or brass/red stripe/clown pattern. Some stink added to lures. Both worked very well for the rest of the time on the water, with a double or two and another double to end the day at 1:30. Most of the action took place south and a little west of the buoy as we found consistent marks on the sonar and bait that never moved out of the area. Some of the fish were puking up mini-minnows as we released them. 50 feet back and 20-40 feet on the balls.
We tried to practice compassionate catching due to the warm water temps. Kinda lost count but we had around 12-15 fish allow us to practice CPR on them. Size range was 14" to the big girl at 20.5" All went away in very good shape except for the real big girl who put up a sensational struggle but wore herself out too much trying to do her escape act. Tried reviving her for quite a few minutes but she wouldn't respond. Ended up putting her out and slipping her into our cold food bag. Really wanted her to go back and make more babies. Fillets for Bob and family.
As we had no propulsion other than the electric, we headed back to the launch and made it to within 500 yards of dock before the lithiums quit on us. Had an excellent tow in from a fellow boater who had obviously done this many times. Thanks a bunch!
Can't wait to get the fuel issue fixed and get back out there.

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