Fishing Update

Wow - its been awhile since I have written anything in the blog. Things have been busy even with the Covid 19 restrictions.
Andy Greene and I have been fishing Lake James quite a bit. We have been fortunate enough to win a couple and make a check a couple more times. I've really enjoyed fishing James - you feel like you have the chance for a big smallmouth on any cast. This past weekend we won with 18.15 and caught pre-spawn, spawning, and post spawn fish. Fish are all over the map on stages right now.
Well, I guess I have come full circle. The first Ranger my dad bought for me to fish out of was in 1979 and it was a charcoal gray/silver metal flake Ranger 235V. Over the years I have owned I think 7 Rangers and all but two have been the same white color scheme. Well I have moved my Z519 and picked up a Z520C yesterday in charcoal, black, and silver. I am 58 years old and this will be my last boat purchase. I have kept a boat for 20 years before and if I am able to fish at 78 then this one should still do the job. The boat is perfect and I look forward to breaking it in tomorrow. I may add a Panoptix to it sometime before winter but that is the only upgrade I think I will do.
I will post pics tomorrow evening. I picked the boat up in Martinsville Virginia yesterday. I can't say enough about Sandi, Trent, and the gentleman in rigging who I think is Justin. Things were as smooth as possible and they made the experience perfect. I got home late afternoon and had to start getting everything loaded. Finished that up today as well as doing the paperwork for the boat in Spindale (shout out the the folks there as well today - smooth as silk) and then went back to the shop and tied jigs.
Speaking of jigs,,,I have reopened L&M Custom Lures. I tied jigs from the late 80s until about 2014. I got out of it due to time constraints and I was tired of smelling lead. I have found a head supplier and I still have a large amount of the original brown square rubber. I posted in a couple of forums earlier this week that I was tying again and there response has been higher than I expected for such a short amount of time. At this time I am only tying the brown and brown with different accents. If I get the demand I will add the old Tequila color at some point but that will be in silicone. Those are the only options I plan to offer. There are a lot of great silicone jigs on the market, notably Jody Wright's Katch-Her-Lures. He makes great jigs and has a strong business. Check his jigs out as well.
I will post a recap of the boat break in tomorrow night. Tight Lines...