Ok, after the Friday disappointment with my motor I made a few more adjustments and headed to Campbell Lake for additional testing. In that I don’t seem to be able to get anywhere near a body of water and not pester the local aquatic population I had a couple of rods in the boat just in case. When I arrived at the lake around 8:00 or 9:00 and there were a few rigs in the parking lot and one other boat getting ready to launch. I was in the water in short order and had my boat on plane shortly thereafter. Hmmm, all was running as it should so I decided to troll around for a bit and see if I could replicate my motor problems.

Utilizing my two-rod endorsement I setup both rods with a small Rapala and ran them about 60’ behind the boat. I was trolling between 1.0 and 1.7 MPH and just lazily working my way around the lake. I was kicking back munching on snap peas thinking how peaceful it was when just like that both rods went bendo. Thinking "oh crap" I just snagged on something when I realized that the snags were heading different directions. Snapping out of my Zen like trance I got to work and grabbed the rod that was attached to the acrobatic fish. After an extended battle I slid the net under my feisty nemesis. The other rod was still doing a fish dance and the fish was in the middle of an extended run when I picked the rod up and started to work on number two. This fish never jumped but was a bulldog of a fish, stubborn all the way to the waiting net. Number two was in the net and I hadn’t really started fishing yet... Number three came a short while later and put up a very strange fight.

The fish hit and after an extended run turned 180 and started jumping like a dolphin straight back at the boat. It must have came out of the water 8 or 9 times. Although I was able to keep tension on the line, somehow the fish had rolled so that the line was lassoed around his pectoral and dorsal fins. Where I don’t usually take the motor out of gear when I am fighting a fish I couldn’t gain any ground on my tied up friend and pulled it out of gear. Now the fish was all around the boat before I had it tired enough to net. It was crazy times in the old Lund and there were now 3 very nice rainbow in the box. From there I continued my away around the lake and by the time I had trolled about 2/3rds of the way around the lake I had my 5 fish limit in the ice chest. Pretty darn good fishing for a test ride… The fish ranged from 17-23” and were 2 to right around 5 pounds. I was running a silver/gold Rapala on one rod and a rainbow colored Rapala off the other. Other than that nothing special to add, no scent, no bait just putt’n along in 8’ water on a beautiful day.

The boat was doing the putting along thing ok so after the gear was stowed away it was time for the moment of truth. I gradually hit the throttle and holy smackers the boat went right up on plane. I ran it at 5,500 RPM lapping the lake for about ½ hour and the motor purred just along like it was new. After the problems up at Cavanaugh on Friday, when I got home I had drained the VST, added another ½ can of Seafoam and ran the motor in the drive way for 30 or 40 minutes. I guess that more testing will be on tap, well testing and fishing; but maybe, just maybe my motor problems are resolved.

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