This time of year drives me nuts!

[Ray Clark]

After a long winter of no fishing (I'm not an ice fisherman!) I want to get the boat in the water. I've already test-run the outboard in the driveway and the new casting deck fits great. I need to try out the new Helix 7 I installed a couple months ago, and the tackle in the fishing cabinet seems to be screaming at me every time I go out to the shop building.

However, the wind is just ferocious, and it lasts for weeks on end. My boat is light and when I'm fishing alone it's "sporty" to recover when I'm by myself. We've had exactly two days in the past 30 when the wind wasn't gusting to at least 25 mph; many days have seen gusts to 40. I was committed elsewhere on the two non-windy days. The next 10 days will be just as windy.

Argh!

That is all. I now return you to your previously scheduled morning coffee.

 

[FuzzyGrub]

That sux! Even in a bigger boat, that kinda wind makes fishing difficult. It can push warmer water into the bays, that can turn on the fishing in the spring, though.

Any ponds (tanks in IA?) you can fish? While it doesn't scratch the boating itch, scratching the fishing one, maybe worth it. I would.

 

[airshot]

I did manage a short shake down cruise to check out the boat/ motor and the new trailer rollers on friday. About a 45 minute run out to the big lake and back in. Everything performed perfectly which makes waiting even more difficult. After that nice warm spell, it has become cold and windy again. Finnished up getting the fishing gear ready to go, got kind of lazy, wasn't expecting that week of super nice weather and procrastinated on getting the gear ready.

 

[FuzzyGrub]

Cold here today, with some snow flakes in the air. Friday suppose to be in the 80's. Rollercoaster.

 

[gillhunter]

I'm in a similar situation. Been a very wet spring here and we don't fish in the rain anymore. Looks like Sunday maybe reasonable. We'll see.

 

[Tin Man]

I feel for you Ray!!

Out West here in CA (I live in the desert), we've had one of the, if not the, wettest winters I can remember. We need it, just not all at one time! Our reservoirs and lakes are mostly full (my local reservoirs is being filled as we speak and should be full by the end of the year or early 2024). Others nearby are also being filled.
This filling is in preparation for Nor Cal mountains Spring run off.

It was also cold for us (low 40s highs 50's) most mornings/days since November 2022. It's now starting to feel like Spring (70's-80's)! New boat is on the way, Spring is in the air, and Stripers are calling!! Life is GREAT (for now)!

 

[LDUBS]

Yep, the weather out here in Northern California is good and the lakes are full. This year so far has been hard to get out. Seems like there is always something going on to keep me off the water. In fact, I'm driving down to Los Angeles for 5 days tomorrow to spoil, (er, I mean babysit) the grandkids so their parents can do a. mini vacation. Going to try to hit the lake later next week.

BTW, RayClark, my oldest son went to Luther College up in Decorah. I don't think there were too many attending from California. I was very happy with the education he received there.

 

[JL8Jeff]

I've been out 7 times in the last 2 weeks but like you said, the wind has been annoying for the last 3 months! It's really not worth fighting the wind, especially if the water is cold. Every time I try to go out on my mountain bike, we have 10-20 mph winds which make for a tough ride. I try to play golf and the wind makes it tough to judge any shot. If you try to have a beer and cigar in the back yard, the wind makes it tough to keep the cigar lit!

 

[Ray Clark]

Yep, the weather out here in Northern California is good and the lakes are full. This year so far has been hard to get out. Seems like there is always something going on to keep me off the water. In fact, I'm driving down to Los Angeles for 5 days tomorrow to spoil, (er, I mean babysit) the grandkids so their parents can do a. mini vacation. Going to try to hit the lake later next week.

BTW, RayClark, my oldest son went to Luther College up in Decorah. I don't think there were too many attending from California. I was very happy with the education he received there.

Decorah...diagonally across the State from me, a 5-5 1/2 hour drive. I want to get up there and fly fish some of the trout streams in that part of the state.

 

[LaqueRatt]

Just do some shore fishing. That's what me and the grandson are doing. Too cold and windy to take the boats out. Plus the pier next to the ramp is still sitting on shore.

 

[Crazyboat]

Do you just want to get her in the water for a ride or do you want to fish? If just a ride, can you launch her from a spot where the wind will be at your back for a trip home, if so you'll be in a following sea and should make a soft trip home. Just a thought.

 

[Ray Clark]

Do you just want to get her in the water for a ride or do you want to fish? ...

Both.

I want to get the Helix 7 out and begin a shakedown to see if I have the transducer setup right and begin learning on it.

Crappie and bass should be moving into the shallows now, too.

Weather here has turned cold again as well. 42 degrees and windy is not a whole lot of fun...

 

[1960 yellowboat]

I'm in central Florida now, in the middle of the winter, the coldest it got was 40 for a few hors. today a high of 81/

 

[Ray Clark]

We have out of town guests coming in tomorrow and I thought I might cut the grass for the first time today. However, I refuse to mow if I need to wear my Carhartts as the snow is flyin' and the winds are screaming.

 

[airshot]

Do you just want to get her in the water for a ride or do you want to fish? If just a ride, can you launch her from a spot where the wind will be at your back for a trip home, if so you'll be in a following sea and should make a soft trip home. Just a thought.

That is what I did, in fact I do it every year. After getting the boat ready for the season, I try to make an early spring run, just a ride and check to make sure everything works. Drop the trolling motor for a quick run as well as firing up the kicker, check all the electronics etc. If no issues then I am ready for the season. Over my long boating career, I have learned that what might work fine in the driveway, might not work out in open water....so better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Ray Clark]

That is what I did, in fact I do it every year. After getting the boat ready for the season, I try to make an early spring run, just a ride and check to make sure everything works. Drop the trolling motor for a quick run as well as firing up the kicker, check all the electronics etc. If no issues then I am ready for the season. Over my long boating career, I have learned that what might work fine in the driveway, might not work out in open water....so better to be safe than sorry.

I keep saying I'm going to do it that way, but I don't.

I have a lake that's a 25 minute drive from here. Decent ramps, no speed restrictions, OK size-wise. I don't fish there because it's a lake in the city and has periodic e-coli contamination issues. But I did go there to splash this boat right after I got it, and also to do break in on the new outboard in 2021.

My regular fishing lakes are at least an hour away.

Last year, after I installed the new trolling motor mid-season, I thought I'd go over to that city lake and give it a shakedown. But then, I thought, I'd be missing on some fishing if I got there and the setup was great. No worries about the OB motor, and the new troller was just an easy setup. What could go wrong? So I made the hour drive. Splashed the boat. Deployed the motor. It responded to the foot pedal exactly once. I went into troubleshooting mode. Bad connection in the power supply where the cable from the battery links to the who-knows-how-old re-used quick disconnect. Not a hard problem to solve, but no way for me to make it right on the water with what I had on hand. I needed a new quick disconnect. I was so doggone mad that I packed up after 30 minutes and came home. A whole morning wasted.

Tuesday is beginning to look like a possibility. I'd like to go up to Prairie Rose. Fishing reports look promising, and I think I have a few suspect sites in the shallows where the crappie should be congregating, or down by the dam. I don't need to go to the close lake for a shakedown. I haven't done anything to the boat except hook the electricals to the new Helix 7, and it works fine in the machine shed where it's stored. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[airshot]

Oh....how many times have I said that !!!! Gremlins do there best work over a long winter storage!! Learned that many many moons ago!! A couple months back, my side by side suddenly had a completely flat tire ( new tires 6 months back) after sitting for a while ( no snow to play in)
Had no idea why, so just filled it back up, checked it every couple days, no problem. Still perfect to this day, so what made that tire go flat all by itself then stay full for over a month just sitting there, not moving?? Gremlins....what else could it be??

 

[Frank Landers]

I've been out 7 times in the last 2 weeks but like you said, the wind has been annoying for the last 3 months! It's really not worth fighting the wind, especially if the water is cold. Every time I try to go out on my mountain bike, we have 10-20 mph winds which make for a tough ride. I try to play golf and the wind makes it tough to judge any shot. If you try to have a beer and cigar in the back yard, the wind makes it tough to keep the cigar lit!

You poor thing. Sounds like you are having it rough. Fishing, golfing, beer drinking, back yard relaxing with a stogie.

 

[Ray Clark]

Well, I went fishing on Tuesday. Decent weather, but a little breezy. As stated before, the first outing of the year.

The Helix setup was just fine; now i need to get experienced with it.

Ran into one problem: A connection on the ProNav failed; it looked like there was no sealant/adhesive to hold the wire into the cannon plug. I couldn't control the TM with the fob, foot pedal, or phone app. Contacted ProNav since this unit is less than a year old; they said send it back for warranty repair. I shipped it yesterday morning. ProNav answered my online problem ticket submission within 15 minutes, so that was good.

What made the TM problem worse was that I didn't carry my anchor with me. So we got into fishing spots and tied off to the trees or branches sticking up out of the water. Gotta admit that the "old school spot lock" was a refreshing change.