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.

 

[yoderjac]

Went crappie fishing today. Boat did fine and all the electronics worked well. I did not catch much. A few small crappie and bluegill. I think I like the braided line. Casts pretty well, easier to untangle (so far), and highly visible.

 

[swat1018]

Braid is great, but it's so limp sometimes it finds ways to tie itself around the tip of your rod. My favorite for spinning rods is Fireline.

 

[yoderjac]

Braid is great, but it's so limp sometimes it finds ways to tie itself around the tip of your rod. My favorite for spinning rods is Fireline.

You're right. I did notice that a couple times today, but not enough to be a real problem. I remember Berkley Fireline from years ago.

 

[yoderjac]

I went fishing again today at a different lake than yesterday and learned a lot! This lake is considered "low productivity" by our DWR, so they lime and fertilize it every few years to increase carrying capacity. The down side is water clarity is very low. It is full of algae blooms and vegetative growth. Yesterday, I could see a small crappie jig on a 1/64 oz head. Today, I had a hard time seeing a large bodied crappie jig on a 1/8 oz head. It was there, but you could not distinguish it from the "noise" created by the growth.

The next thing I learned is that you can catch catfish on a crappie jig. I've never done that before. Catfishing was always a stink-bait affair, just casting out and waiting. And tonight was the first time I filleted a catfish.

The crappie were not biting. I had to switch to a larger bodied jig to keep small bluegills from hitting it. I started catching bass on it. The first one was small. The second bass was huge by my standards. I never did see it, but it fought like a bass. It took line off my spool like there was no drag set. I was using an ultralight crappie road and reel with 4lb test leader. Unfortunately, by the time I got him near the boat, I had floated over a metal crib. He went right for it and I was afraid he was going to wrap the line around it. So I grabbed the line with my hand to stop him from pulling line and tried to horse him. He broke the line!

This lake has some big bass in it. There is a slot limit of 16" - 24" where you can't keep the bass and you can only keep 1 bass over 24" per day. I'm not sure if I could have kept that fish anyway, but it takes quite a fish to snap 4lb test line.

 

[yoderjac]

Well, not luck during youth day at our farm. My neighbor brought his 7 year old and 11 year old to hunt and his 16 year old to watch. Dad and big brother took the little guy and I took the 11 year old. They did see a doe, but the 7 year old could not get a shot at it. The 11 year old and I had a family flock of turkey pass by us but did not see a deer.

They are hunting at home tonight, so I'm getting ready to go fishing tomorrow. It looks like they are calling for potential hurricane remnant rain on Tuesday, so I'll go out fishing tomorrow and then play it by ear based on the weather. Next Saturday, our Archery season opens, so I'll spend one day making sure my equipment is ready to go. I won't be able to hunt opening day as I'm a teaching Hunter Education class, but I hope to get out hunting at the farm.

 

[yoderjac]

Headed out fishing today. It is delightful to have all the electronics and boat performing well. There was little wind today, so I had an opportunity to use the Megalive 2 to target fish. I ended up catching a mix bag of catfish, bass, bluegill, and crappie. It was a fun day!

 

[yoderjac]

I went fishing again today. Boat and electronics worked great. I caught some crappie and a nice catfish and lost an even bigger catfish when it wrapped my line around my megalive2 pole and snapped it.

 

[yoderjac]

The more I use braid, the more I like it. I'm slowly gaining experience tying the fluorocarbon leader on with an FG knot. My first on failed on a snag when I had to snap the line. The second one held up and my next snag broke just below the FG knot. I had fluorocarbon on my bass spinning rod. I lost enough line to snags over time that I decided to replace the line today. I used braid. Even with electrical tape around the spool, it wanted to spin around the spool. It took me a while to get it started. I did not back it with fluorocarbon or mono. Eventually, I got it started. That gave me another opportunity to try an FG know. This was much easier than on my crappie road, I think because the mono was heavier. On both rods, I used 10 lb test braid, but on the crappie rod, I used 4lb test fluorocarbon. I used 8 lb test fluorocarbon on the bass rod.

Perhaps the heavier line is just easier for my vision and dexterity level these days.

 

[swat1018]

The more I use braid, the more I like it. I'm slowly gaining experience tying the fluorocarbon leader on with an FG knot. My first on failed on a snag when I had to snap the line. The second one held up and my next snag broke just below the FG knot. I had fluorocarbon on my bass spinning rod. I lost enough line to snags over time that I decided to replace the line today. I used braid. Even with electrical tape around the spool, it wanted to spin around the spool. It took me a while to get it started. I did not back it with fluorocarbon or mono. Eventually, I got it started. That gave me another opportunity to try an FG know. This was much easier than on my crappie road, I think because the mono was heavier. On both rods, I used 10 lb test braid, but on the crappie rod, I used 4lb test fluorocarbon. I used 8 lb test fluorocarbon on the bass rod.

Perhaps the heavier line is just easier for my vision and dexterity level these days.

I'd try to learn the double uni-knot, if you don't use it. I've been fighting 20+ pound salmon for 10 days, and it always passes the test.

 

[yoderjac]

I'd try to learn the double uni-knot, if you don't use it. I've been fighting 20+ pound salmon for 10 days, and it always passes the test.

I may have to look into that one. So far, the only one I've tried for leader is FG. It is supposed to hold up better for casting, but that was just something I saw on youtube, so who knows.

 

[yoderjac]

I taught Hunter Ed yesterday on the opening day of archery. This morning I got a text from the neighbor boy who harvested his first deer with a bow this morning. I had given him my Mathews Switchback a year or two ago and set it up for him. At the time I had to drop the poundage, but I'm sure he is shooting it at its peak weight of 70lbs now. Last year he hit one but could not recover it. Unfortunately, I was still working and was in the city and could not come help him blood trail at the time. Today, he did it all by himself from shot through processing. I could not have been happier!

I decided to run to the farm this afternoon for a crossbow hunt. I shot a nice doe that was 106 lbs live weight, nice size for here. She stepped between the time my brain said squeeze the trigger and when the arrow arrived. I had a rock solid rest from the stand. It looked like I hit her a bit back but at a good angle for quartering away. I mentally marked the place she left the field. I could not see my arrow in the field from the stand and I was using an illuminated nock. I only waited about 10 minutes and got down.

No blood, No arrow, Nothing. She did a small loop before leaving the field, so there was plenty of time for blood, but I found none. While the shot seemed good, I'm now thinking possible paunch shot, so I headed back to camp. When I went back to look for her later on, I entered the thick woods. The pines had been thinned a year or two ago and there was a lot of thick undergrowth. My FLIR was useless .

Even with no blood, I entered the woods on the trajectory I last saw her. After slowly and painstakingly looking for blood, finally after 30 yards, I found one spot with blood and paunch particles. I decided that my shot angle was probably good enough to at least hit the liver, so I decided to keep looking. I continued on that same trajectory for about 50 more yards painstakingly looking for blood and found none. I decided to head back to the place I had marked blood and try again. I walked back parallel to the path I had come in on but about 15 yards off to one side. I almost tripped over her. I really got lucky finding her.

After dressing her, I was able to reconstruct what happened. The entry wound was definitely back and paunch guts were coming out clogging up that wound. However she moved during impact, caused the arrow to exit high in the chest even though I was shooting at a pretty good downward angle. I did have a pass-thru but instead of sticking in the ground in the field, it likely flew off into the the thick ground cover in the woods. The arrow did get her lungs. She did not run far, but all of the blood pooled in her chest. It just gushed out when I dressed her. I was very fortunate to recover her.

The next couple days are supposed to be hot again, so I think I'll go fishing instead of hunting.

 

[yoderjac]

Well my fishing trip today as well as my last one were unsuccessful. I'm not sure if it is me or just changes in the season. Nothing was biting. The bites I did have were mostly short strikes. I did run into on issue. I plugged stuff into the charger when I got home and the trolling motor battery was not charging. It didn't take long to figure it out. The 8 gauge wire crimp had failed on the charger adapter I built. I did it before I had a ratcheting crimper and evidently I was not strong enough to do it manually. I ordered a couple more 8 gauge butt connectors. That shouldn't take too long to fix.

I ran the trolling motor about 5 hours today while fishing. It still has 91% charge, so I'm sure I can fish again tomorrow if I want to.

Last week, I changed hitches on my truck for the boat/equipment trailer. While the trailer was level, the swing jack did not have enough room to swing down. The new hitch raises the hitch ball a couple inches giving the jack room to swing. Today, I noticed that with the slight change in trailer angle, the rollers I installed could be a little higher. I think they could go an inch. Given the bracket I built, it should be easy to raise them a little at a time by adding washers. Once I find the height that works best, I'll do something more permanent than washers.

 

[yoderjac]

What a difference a day makes. I went fishing instead of hunting today because they were calling for a hot one. Clouds moved in and it never got that hot, so I could have gone hunting this evening. It turned out to be a good fishing day. It started out windy so my plan was to focus on mapping the lake. I purchased Autochart PC Pro and have been playing with it. After about an hour of trolling and recording, I stopped to fish. They started biting and I caught some bass and crappie. I finally hooked a big crappie. It was at least 12" compared to the largest one I previously caught for the lake was about 9 1/2. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of trying to lift it into the boat instead of using a net, so I'll never know just how big it was.

They are calling for rain tomorrow, so my plan is to make it a butchering day.

 

[yoderjac]

Today is butchering day, but I did make one small improvement to the boat. If you go back and look at the Megalive 2 DIY pole I built, you can see I used a fish finder head mount to attach it to the boat. The only issue I have with that is that, under the stress of driving with the pole in the water, the mount works its way down and rests on the rod holder. There is no real issue in terms of the pole or its operation, but there is not enough room for rod eyelets to pass under it. I have to lift it to insert or remove a rod.

I came up with an easy solution today. The same electrical conduit I used for the pole itself has a flared end that was about the right diameter for the job. I cut a section out with an angle grinder. There is just enough flex for it to snap over the rod holder. The pole is currently in the stowed position in the picture, but it rests nicely on the conduit when deployed and rod eyelets can easily pass through the conduit covering it.

 

[yoderjac]

I'm slowly making small improvements to the boat and trailer. Today, I raised the rollers I put on the trailer by an inch.

I simply cut a piece of 1x1 square tubing and used it as a standoff for the existing brackets.