Not my best day of fishing but I learned a few new things. Since it is a new year, I thought it was time to try other areas and other equipment. I mounted out-drive stabilizer fins on my 8hp extra-long shaft kicker motor for longer runs on the lake. Thought I would troll with this also. Previously without the fins, it was a joke with the bow way up in the air. The boat planed beautifully with the new fins but would not troll below 1.8mph. I was able to reduce the speed to 1.5-1.8mph by zigzagging the boat. I tried out a new/used Scotty 1060 manual downrigger for the first time. I found that 2’/revolution was recklessly fast deployment! This was complicated by the outboard motor abruptly turning the boat every time I took a hand off the tiller! Ok. Finally fishing… Last year I went straight to the weather buoy, circled it, then headed north. I always caught fish. Armed with home made wedding rings, gods tooth lures and worms for tipping. I decided to fish the south end near the creek, south cove and the sunken forest. Unfortunately, I rarely saw a fish on the finder. There were a few near the creek. None in south cove. Maybe I didn’t go in shallow enough…? Interesting group of buoys just out of the cove and a large group of birds there, but I did not dare troll through for risk of a snag. There appeared to be a few spots in the sunken forest with large schools in session. Would be fun to jig there another time. I finally made it to the weather buoy where seagulls and boats were plentiful. Saw some fish at 30 and 60’ but ran out of time to secure any. Happy Fishing!


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