DMS
11-16-2013, 08:36 PM
Lulu and I were back at Castaic today with the updated boat which I picked up yesterday. We were about the 4th boat in line with some dam plunkers sans boat in front of us too. We launched and just headed to the bait spot and immediately got action... unfortunately, pretty much straight dinks
We pretty much ran through a couple pounds of dines and 2 mackerel and had 4 that were the size of the ones from May/June.
I tried some of the squid from last weekend and couldn't get anything to chew it. I tried a whole one for a while... At least the baby stripers didn't clean me out.
The mackerel stayed on the hook well enough to keep from just being cleaned out.
Anyway, I figure we caught 20-30 of those little guys before we got tired of getting pounded by the wind.
Oh, and I watched lake patrol through all the bass club tourney guys out of no no land.
It was pretty tough getting my front anchor off the bank with the wind, but finally managed.
Headed to the other side and tried the cannon balls over the humps for nada until it was time to head for the barn.
It sure felt different than last weekend.
A couple things... I really enjoyed the 4 new rod holders on the boat. Now there are holders just about anywhere you want to set your rod down. I'm pretty happy about the new bimini with a slider. It is a taller model that I will actually be able to fish under and it covers more of the boat too. I can leave it folded back when not in use as the other one needed to go forward and it blocked a seat. It is pretty tight around the down rigger bases, and the motors, but it seems to allow everything to work.
The new fish finder (Lowrance HDS Gen 2) is really cool. I have to learn it, but it has the structure scan sonar. I seem to have something going on with Battery 1 now. At the boatyard, when they were showing it to me, the power died and in lowering the unit, I could tell battery 1 was not giving power. I plugged in the charger, but it just says "ready", not "charging". This morning the battery certainly was not charged. I switched over from battery 2 while running, but didn't have enough time to fully charge it and it dropped out. Battery 2 seems fine and probably is enough, but I have to figure it out. I noticed that it has been a while since the charger showed "charging", but I figured with using the boat every weekend, that it stayed charged. I will have to call the boat yard back... I hate to pull everything out again... wish it was a quick fix as I bet I have a charger and/or a battery problem. The batteries are only 1 year old. Anyone have any ideas from experience?
I also got the big engine serviced and I had 2 leaky fuel pumps. The prior owner had lug keys on both spares and the main wheels... and he didn't give me the key, so they got sawed off. Service the bearings, new bunkers, fix the tail light (yes my rig got hit in the lot 2 weekends in a row.. truck once and taillight of the trailer next).
One other thing was that there seems to be a lot more water in the floor when I pulled the drain. Don't know if I missed splashing from the well or ??? I figure the transducers couldn't cause it. Maybe just extra splash today, but it didn't seem that wet. The boat has really not had much water in it in previous trips, so I'm a bit concerned. Not that what came out was anything close to sinking... I just want to see it dry down there.
The only familiar face today was Jim from Fishin' Fools on a club tourney. I saw him get booted out of no no land.
I feel that the new fish finder will help me really zero on on things. I could see the depth of the cannon balls over the humps with fish. I'm trying to dial them in for the right depth.
DMS
We pretty much ran through a couple pounds of dines and 2 mackerel and had 4 that were the size of the ones from May/June.
I tried some of the squid from last weekend and couldn't get anything to chew it. I tried a whole one for a while... At least the baby stripers didn't clean me out.
The mackerel stayed on the hook well enough to keep from just being cleaned out.
Anyway, I figure we caught 20-30 of those little guys before we got tired of getting pounded by the wind.
Oh, and I watched lake patrol through all the bass club tourney guys out of no no land.
It was pretty tough getting my front anchor off the bank with the wind, but finally managed.
Headed to the other side and tried the cannon balls over the humps for nada until it was time to head for the barn.
It sure felt different than last weekend.
A couple things... I really enjoyed the 4 new rod holders on the boat. Now there are holders just about anywhere you want to set your rod down. I'm pretty happy about the new bimini with a slider. It is a taller model that I will actually be able to fish under and it covers more of the boat too. I can leave it folded back when not in use as the other one needed to go forward and it blocked a seat. It is pretty tight around the down rigger bases, and the motors, but it seems to allow everything to work.
The new fish finder (Lowrance HDS Gen 2) is really cool. I have to learn it, but it has the structure scan sonar. I seem to have something going on with Battery 1 now. At the boatyard, when they were showing it to me, the power died and in lowering the unit, I could tell battery 1 was not giving power. I plugged in the charger, but it just says "ready", not "charging". This morning the battery certainly was not charged. I switched over from battery 2 while running, but didn't have enough time to fully charge it and it dropped out. Battery 2 seems fine and probably is enough, but I have to figure it out. I noticed that it has been a while since the charger showed "charging", but I figured with using the boat every weekend, that it stayed charged. I will have to call the boat yard back... I hate to pull everything out again... wish it was a quick fix as I bet I have a charger and/or a battery problem. The batteries are only 1 year old. Anyone have any ideas from experience?
I also got the big engine serviced and I had 2 leaky fuel pumps. The prior owner had lug keys on both spares and the main wheels... and he didn't give me the key, so they got sawed off. Service the bearings, new bunkers, fix the tail light (yes my rig got hit in the lot 2 weekends in a row.. truck once and taillight of the trailer next).
One other thing was that there seems to be a lot more water in the floor when I pulled the drain. Don't know if I missed splashing from the well or ??? I figure the transducers couldn't cause it. Maybe just extra splash today, but it didn't seem that wet. The boat has really not had much water in it in previous trips, so I'm a bit concerned. Not that what came out was anything close to sinking... I just want to see it dry down there.
The only familiar face today was Jim from Fishin' Fools on a club tourney. I saw him get booted out of no no land.
I feel that the new fish finder will help me really zero on on things. I could see the depth of the cannon balls over the humps with fish. I'm trying to dial them in for the right depth.
DMS