Let's go fishin

[ncboman]

:cool1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FFIN5FK1RM&feature=related

[Bill Gunn]

No secret any more... You can see the cut bait at 4:24 by the head of the cat he brought in.

I was out crappie fishing in the spring a few years ago in a lake by me. The crappies weren't biting, but suddenly the cats started. I took a bunch of the biggest minnows I had, and set them out in the sun (to get 'em "Catfish Stinky"), and went home with 18 between 3 to 5 pounds. I was catching them on a St Croix 6'6" light rod with 4# test line, and they didn't want to be in my boat !!!
I remember it was right when that song "I'm gonna miss her" by Brad Paisley came out. They played it a couple times on the radio while I was fishing, and once right when he sang:
"Oh, lookie there, I've got a bite"..... I got one... big smiles that day!!

I like catfish fishing, but I don't do enough of it. I get to wrapped up in Walleyes, and Perch.
I went to the hospital last week for a check-up for my liver (had a transplant 4 years ago). They told me that my blood readings are above super, and there's no reason I shouldn't live a full life expectancy (72 - 77 ??). Thats the good news (I was figurin' about 4-5 more years at best)... The bad news is that I decided that if I'm gonna live that long, I need a bigger boat ! CACHING goes the cash register !!
I like the Lund I have a lot...

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/2652330/155616661.jpg

This boat is 16'9" & 11 years old, and the main motor is 14, & the 4 hp kicker is 38 years old (I rebuilt it last year) so there's really not much trade-in value. I'll keep it for fishing for perch, and fishing the small lakes.
I want to get one around 19' or so to take the 4 foot waves on Erie without bustin' my guts.

I'm looking at the Starcraft Fishmaster 196..

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/2652330/383240466.jpg

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/2652330/383240464.jpg

or the Crestliner Sportfish 1950 or 2150..

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/2652330/383240465.jpg

Either boat I'd put on a 150 Merc, and a 9.9 hp kicker for trolling.


I'm in no hurry though, and I'm going to spend this summer catching rides in each boat to see how they fish. 2 of my friends have those exact boats, and they like them a lot. So far I like the Starcraft, but I won't be doing any ordering until next winter when the prices come back down.

[Bushman]

NC, those boys are talkin Southern. Do you talk like that too?

Bill, once you get much over 19' you start looking for a crew to go with you and help launch and help pay for gas. My Lake Michigan fishing buddy started with a 20' outboard then went to a 25' inboard then went to a 32' twin inboard. That last boat used so much gas that those fish got real expensive per pound. Another buddy has a 45 footer with twin 454's in it and I've never seen it leave the dock. It sounds great idling though. When it does go somewhere, he kind of fishes his way there at low rpm's. Why don't you just leave your captain's hat home and crew with the buddies with the bigger boats? Gas is still going to be cheaper than a boat payment.

[Bill Gunn]

I know what your saying, my brother has a 36 footer with twin 350's.
It leaves the dock MAYBE twice a summer. It costs about $1700.00 for a fill-up with marina gas prices !!

Running a 150 out to where I fish, then using the 9.9 to troll all day isn't to hard on the wallet.
That is one reason I love that Lund, fish all day and NEVER put 10 gallons in it, usually about 3 to 5 gallons (it holds 20).

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

These two pics don't show to much of the boat. It's an Xpress 1756 with a 50 hp Yamaha. I've got a 27 gal built in tank so I'm good for a little over 150 miles. It won't take 4' waves very well and a slight chop will go ahead and bring out any potential back problems you're developing. I can still handle it by myself, even if I run aground. It will run in 10" of water as long as you don't stop or slow down. It's as big as I want to get.

Alan

[Bill Gunn]

Before I use to fish Erie a lot, I use to be into carp shooting big time. We would hunt them from Michigan to New York, and up into Ontario, and I had a 14' Sylvan flat bottom.

What a wild ride that thing was. In this picture it's wearing a 35 Merc. (which was 10 HP over rating) but I ended up with 2 different Merc. 50's on it over the years.

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/2652330/144497626.jpg

The 2,000 watts of lighting for night shooting, and the platforms all were removable for a regular day of catfish, Crappie or perch fishing.

It would do 51 mph with a 15" pitched prop, which is way to fast for a flat bottom boat . Up on the St Lawrence River near Ingside Ontario, I hit a submerged road (about 5" of flat water covered the road when they built a dam and flooded it) at WAY over 40 mph. Very high negative "G's" were pulled that day, but somehow we stayed in the boat !!

You can't run flat bottom, or bass boats on Erie when it kicks up.
Remember the "RedMan All-American Championship Tournament" they use to have? They (RedMan) would give the contestants all the identical boats to fish out of. They were beautiful BIG bass boats.
The Lake Erie area around Buffalo NY is inundated with very big (7 pound not hard to find) small mouth bass. By the time the tournament was over, about 1/2 the boats were trash. Entire transoms torn off, motors gone, and interiors trashed. It was a very expensive lesson for RedMan, and they never came back.
A couple years ago they had another bass tournament out of Buffalo, here's what was left of one of the boats...

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/2652330/383265356.jpg

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/2652330/383265362.jpg

Deep V's Rule on Erie.
4 footers are an every day thing. I was out on Erie fishing (my one and ONLY "PWT" walleye tournament) . On the 3rd day the waves suddenly came up and we were in honest 14 footers 8 miles out (yes.... it's pucker time, that's why they have those big fancy upholstery buttons on some boat seats, their something to get some suction on) . Almost all boats were deep v's, but one guy had a "Ranger" type boat. The wind caught the bow, and flipped the boat, and one guy almost died. The waves got up to 16 feet by the end of the day (24 footers happen)!! That's one reason I don't fish tourney's. I HATE it when someone tells me when I have to fish !!

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

Deep V's Rule on Erie.
4 footers are an every day thing. I was out on Erie fishing (my one and ONLY "PWT" walleye tournament) . On the 3rd day the waves suddenly came up and we were in honest 14 footers 8 miles out (yes.... it's pucker time, that's why they have those big fancy upholstery buttons on some boat seats, their something to get some suction on) . Almost all boats were deep v's, but one guy had a "Ranger" type boat. The wind caught the bow, and flipped the boat, and one guy almost died. The waves got up to 16 feet by the end of the day (24 footers happen)!! That's one reason I don't fish tourney's. I HATE it when someone tells me when I have to fish !!

I don't go anywhere (on purpose) that there are 4 footers. 14, 16, or 24 footers!? NO fricking way! There is no part of that that I would call fun. No one in the boat with me would call it fun either. They would refer to it as, "That time we got vomit all over us and almost died!"

Alan

[Bill Gunn]

Right now I head in if it gets over 2 to 3 feet. It's to tough to run in 4's and 5's for my cut up guts, and it does cause me severe back pains.
Thats why I like the 19 degree dead rise of the Starcraft 196 hull.
I have friends that fish in 5+ foot waves a lot. Believe it or not, even though they do sometimes get hurt, they put up with it for tournament fishing (another reason I don't).
Nobody (that I ever heard of) ever fishes in waves over 6 feet. It would beat any boat to death in short order.
My neighbor got caught out in a storm on Erie in Ohio in his riveted 16' aluminum boat when they hit a wave head on, it literally unzipped a 2 foot line of rivets on the boat. They made it in, but he bought a 24' fiberglass right after that.
Nobody plans on being out on the water when a storm hits, but at this end of the lake the winds have 250 miles of open water in the North West direction (our prevailing wind direction in this area) to build up monstrous waves if a sudden storm builds up. You need a boat that will get you back to shore in an emergency, and fishes comfortably in regular water (here up to 4'). Even my wife has fished in 4's in a 20' boat, and even though she liked to fish a lot, she HATES (fears) to be in water !!
Catching 8 pound walleyes makes it fun...

[Bushman]

Waves were always the problem when I drove my buddy's charter boat. I always liked the upper deck flying bridge to drive from, but it got to wagging pretty good in a blow. Weakest thing aboard were always the people trying to fish. It just wasn't fun in big waves. I remember one salmon that was above the boat in a wave. Around here used tri-hulls are almost free for the asking. The last time that I went to the landfill, someone had brought them a used tri-hull. That is the trouble with big water and weekend fishermen. Weekends only come once a week and lots of those MN. guys would be over here in Lake Michigan out 15-20 miles off shore trolling with a 16' Mr. Pike Lund. More than once we pulled guys in or they would ride our stern to get out of the waves. A good hull design means more than the motor imo. Do you guys in Lake Erie use out riggers or just planing boards? We always went to the out riggers when it got rough or big double planer boards would sometimes hold.

[Bill Gunn]

A good hull design means more than the motor imo. Do you guys in Lake Erie use out riggers or just planing boards? We always went to the out riggers when it got rough or big double planer boards would sometimes hold.

I agree with the hull design...

I have a set of 16' outriggers that are sometimes a lot of fun to use. If I'm fishing with greenhorns, they love them because of all the visual action when you get a good hit, and see that rigger bend back 4 or 5 feet before it releases ( Loud "WHACK" !!!), and flexes back to the straight position.
I haven't used them in a while though. When I fish alone I either run lead (7 colors, and 6 oz. of weight to get down 65'), or dipsy's set on "3" with about 175' of line out. If I have one other guy in the boat I run the lead & the dipsy's.
Sometimes I run the "Church" inline planer boards to get the lead line out from the boat, but I don't like to run boards unless I have to. They waste to much time if a 2 pounder hits the lure, and swims along with the board for an hour before you know their on.
The older boats run the big boards with a mast, & a lot of the guides still run them, but most guys have gotten away from big boards and down riggers for walleyes. Lead line and snap weights will get you down to where ever you want to go & inline boards get you out, with a lot less hassle. I started running 16 oz snap weights, using a chart out of Precision Trolling Big Water 2nd Edition.
I can get down 75 feet, with only about 100 or so feet of line. So far it works good.

Even the guys running up to 8 lines (I never run more than 4) are using in-lines, and staggering them.

On Lake Ontario, where almost all the fishing is for Salmon, lakers, and steelhead, the still run a lot of down riggers, and big boards.

[ncboman]

Shallow water waves are a lot different than deep water waves.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

I know. Shallow water waves jar my spine and pulverize my teeth into powder. Deep water waves make me throw up. As I have gotten older I have come to accept the fact that I am a flatlander and a flatwater fisherman. This motion sickness thing is really strange. As long as I'm driving the vehicle or the boat, it's not a problem. If the boat is big enough and it is under way, I have no problem. In inland bay or lake chop, I have no problem. If I have to ride as a passenger, or if the boat stops or is at anchor on open water, death can't come soon enough. I can take toxic levels of dramamine or munch on ginger for days without effect. I bought some of those little arm bands that put pressure on your inner forearm and they seem to help a little bit.

I used to force myself to go out in the Gulf, chumming as I'd go, but any more it's just not worth it. The boat I have now will absolutely NOT handle waves of any kind comfortably, but it will run in calf deep water to get me to places you can only see on Google Earth. Gets me out too!

Alan