June F3 Tourney-Boat issues...

Headed out Friday evening for a couple of hours just to check a couple of last minute spots for Saturday's club event on the Hick. Everything was fine until the power trim failed to work right before I pulled out of the lake- ouch.

I was able to nurse the boat on to the trailer, and I called my friend Herschel to see if he would let me use his boat on Saturday. He said sure and even drove up to KY along with me to pick up his boat. We did not get back to Nashville until close to midnight, but I had a boat and could fish Saturday.

I met my partner at the ramp at 5 am, and we blasted off upriver to a major community hole. Much to my surprise, it was unoccupied. The current was ripping, and bait was everywhere. I knew we had a shot to smash them early. My non-boater caught three keepersfairly quickly on a crankbait, and I nabbed one 2 lb keeper, but I lost two solid weigh fish on the plug. The fish were just slapping at the bait. After about thirty minutes, the current went slack, and the fish quit biting.

Next, we headed down lake to a marina to catch a quick limit. We proceeded to catch around 25 fish in around 45 minutes on a wacky worm. No big ones, but the limit was secured for me by7:30 am. Now it was time to move out off the bank and try to upgrade my catch for the rest of the day. We still had five hours, and my confidence was extremely high.

Then, on the next spot, I noticed that the trolling motor was really slowing down. By 8:00, it was basically useless. The batteries were almost completely dead. My friend had not been on his boat in months, and since we did not get back to the house until midnight, I was not able to get a good charge on the deep cycles. Buzz kill! The bad news was made worse by the fact that the wind was less than a whisper, so drifting areas was not possible. We would pull up on a ledge, and the boat would just not budge.

We ended up catching around 6 more fish after 8:30 with no trolling motor, but it was nearly impossible to fish that way.

The good news is that I managed 9 1/2 pounds which is a decent OHL limit. I think I finished 3rd for the day, and I only gave up a handful of my points lead in the Angler of the Year race.

I'd love to know what we could have done with a full day of actual fishing, but such is life.

Until next time.

RBK