Finally got it in water!!

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May 17, 2012
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Location
Seneca, WI
I bought a boat/trailer before Christmas, and then started modifying, adding lots of lights and a control panel to run everything..

Today was a good day.. :)

I hadn't had a chance to try the boat I bought and modified this winter.. I had added numerous LED lights, both inside and out, as well as mounting the Yamaha 15hp, trolling motor, battery, etc..
I got home from work and hooked up to the boat, stuck everything (almost, more later) in, checked lights and drove across town to my local boat ramp..

It's been a while since I've played the boat game, but the boat launched perfectly..

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The boat starts instantly and I took off up the river..

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As I headed upstream I remembered the one item I didn't add to the boat, being a life jacket. :eek: Since I'm a crazy man and a rebel, I said screw it and continued upstream, rather than get back in my truck and go back home to get a life jacket.. I lived on the edge and went up to where I was going to fish.. (I know, stupid, but I'm a good swimmer and the river's not overly wide or deep. The jacket is now in the boat.)

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This is a stream that comes into the main river.. It was a beautiful afternoon and I sat there and enjoyed a couple beers.. I wasn't expecting to actually catch anything, as I was out there just to give the boat a shakedown run, but...

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The skinny channel cat got tossed back in, and I caught another, BUT I also lost two larger fish.. I was using a small hook and a nightcrawler under a stick bobber because I really didn't have a clue what I might catch in this stream.. Next time, I'll be using a bigger hook and some different baits, as cold water channel cat would be pretty darn tasty!!!

I'm just glad the boat worked as well as it did... Actually it worked better than I could ask, stable and everything worked perfectly. :D And it loaded on the trailer with the first attempt, too.. :)
 
Thank you!! I'm looking forward to trying out my LED's.. The white strips on the inside are lights, three on each side, and I mounted one on each side on the outside, too. Mostly, I'm just happy to have a chance to relax out on the water, and maybe catch a few meals while I'm at it.. :D

Looking forward to hearing (and seeing) your first trip on the water!! :beer:
 
Nice looking build.
Also nice to catch a few especially when not trying. :LOL2:
We caught quite a few blue channel cats when I was in TN last week.
Thats a good looking spot. What river is that?
 
It's the Pecatonica River.

I went out again today and caught a 3# carp, 3 nice smallmouth, a nice 17" channel cat, and a dandy fat 22" channel cat..
 
It's good to finally be getting out. I keep forgetting to take a camera but I had both boats out yesterday with it being 80 degrees and sunny. I need to get my fishing license so I can start fishing. I was relaxing and floating down the river yesterdays and there were quite a few fish jumping.
 
This was the catfish that followed me home, yesterday..
Not sure where the beer bottles came from.. 8)

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Wow, we're farther south than you and the catfish have just barely started to bite here. So far about 98% of what's being caught here are under 2 lbs. Hoping the water will warm up so the bigger fish will get active. Nice catch.
 
JMichael said:
Wow, we're farther south than you and the catfish have just barely started to bite here. So far about 98% of what's being caught here are under 2 lbs. Hoping the water will warm up so the bigger fish will get active. Nice catch.


It's all about being a world class fisherman... :lol:

Naw, I was at the mouth of a creek that comes into the main river that's warmer than the main channel. And it was an hour before sunset and things got really busy between catfish and smallmouth. I've yet to try out the new LED lights in real action. I quit a bit early Saturday night so I could get trailered up, clean fish, and clean up everything before dark. Still in a bit of a shakedown run mode and it's been 5-6 years since owning a boat, other than a kayak or canoe.

Looking forward to getting back out and exploring more of the river.. :wink:
 
Here's a couple other photos of the boat.. The motor is a 86' Yamaha 15hp with very few hours.. I'm running a deep cycle Optima battery and set up the same plug end for everything to either run the trolling motor or charge the battery. The electrical box runs everything else (locator/bilge/LED lights (inside, outside, front, rear) and nav lights to keep it legal.)

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