New One Man Boat

[catscratch]

How'd you freeze fish in the past? I've only done them in water before. I've done the flash freezing thing with morels. It works for the delicate stuff, but it's a more work. As the kids leave the nest I can see the need to be able to pull a couple fillets out of the freezer without thawing a whole bag.

 

[swat1018]

I fillet hundreds of fish every year, I don't have time for all of that, especially when I see no up-side. If you want to vac pac them, why flash freeze? Not everything has to be so complicated.....

 

[yoderjac]

How'd you freeze fish in the past? I've only done them in water before. I've done the flash freezing thing with morels. It works for the delicate stuff, but it's a more work. As the kids leave the nest I can see the need to be able to pull a couple fillets out of the freezer without thawing a whole bag.

I tried freezing them in water and wasn't happy with it. Years ago, when I was young, we used to bread them and layer them on a cookie sheet with wax paper between. After they were frozen hard, mom would just put them in a ziplok bag and put them back in the freezer. We would then deep fry them. That method worked pretty well.

I avoid carbs with diabetes, so this method is similar without the breading. We just had a regular refrigerator/freezer back then. I now have a commercial freezer that holds 3-4 degrees very well. It is much faster to freeze stuff. I'm hoping to play around with air frying now that I'm getting back into fishing.

I'm sure others have techniques that work well for them. I enjoy playing around to see what method works best for me.

 

[yoderjac]

My latest addition to the trailer is a tool box. I considered a traditional tongue toolbox, but the position of the swing down jack is problematic for that. I decided to just buy a rectangular box and weld up a bracket for it on the side of the tongue without the jack. The box came in the other day. As I mocked it up for a bracket, I realize that I drive with the tailgate down so the boat is held in place on the trailer with the winch. With the tailgate down, I would limit my turning radius pretty significantly. I could envision the tailgate hitting the toolbox when backing up at and angle.

After looking at options, I think the box will fit well just sitting on the trailer.

I'll keep the pumps and some emergency tools in it.

I'm taking it easy today, just doing some small stuff. Back when I fished, mono was pretty much the only option for a spinning reel. I decided to go with fluorocarbon line for my bass rod and reel back when I got it. I have a cheap ultralight rod and reel combo I got from Wal-Mart for $20 back when friends first invited me to fish the river. I was having lots of knots and birds nests with the cheap mono that came on it. I was also having difficulty seeing the mono and I seemed to be missing a lot of crappie with it. So, for the first time, I decided to try braided line.

Today, I spooled 10lb high visibility braid on to that little Shakespeare reel. I put a 4 lb leader on it. It is probably way more than I need for crappie, but with my vision and lack of dexterity these days, I'm finding lighter line problematic to deal with when rigging.

I also brought the Xplore in and put all my settings back in. After dealing with stands and getting ready for youth day next week, I hope to get back out fishing!

 

[yoderjac]

No work on the boat or trailer today as I was working on repairing a box blind instead. The good news is that for the first time I saw the Kayak Terrova on sale. It was about $90 less than the list price. I'm now hopeful that I will see some bigger sales come the holidays. Time will tell.

I'm currently working with tech support on making sure I understand all the ins and outs. When I was working on the electronics with tech support they told me I would need a heading sensor to use the Jog feature on the Terrova. I watched a video where they showed how to calibrate the heading sensor with a Terrova using the larger remote with a display. I currently have a question pending regarding how it is calibrated with the Kayak Terrova since it only comes with the mini-remote.

I'm hoping to go fishing again tomorrow. I'm close to ready for youth day this weekend.