Break In Day

Spent daylight until about 12:30 today breaking in the new boat. I could not be happier with the performance...the driver just needs to get used to it. Every boat is different and this one needs very little trim to get the nose up good. Going to take some time to get everything dialed in but I put about 4 hours on it today and am very pleased thus far.
I also like the in dash Live on the bow. I had ordered BBT mounts for the console and bow but after fishing a little today I think I will leave the bow as it is. I might change my mind down the road but want to give it a try. The angle is about right and it is out of the way. The console is another story. You lose about 20% of your screen behind the steering wheel, or at least I do, being somewhat vertically challenged. I have to have the screen higher, especially with Look Ahead on.
I planned to have the GoPro going today but the cigarette lighter USB adapter I had didn't work. Must be a bad adapter because I got my charger out of my truck this afternoon and the outlet works fine.
Here are a couple of pics of the boat...

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...

Floating Worm Action

Back to Back @ James

Fished Lake James yesterday. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite lakes in the Carolinas to fish. Though I didn't catch any big ones this trip I boated quite a few. Here is a video of catches on back to back casts.

Lanier Practice

Fished Lanier yesterday for the first time in close to 20 years. The lake is currently 5.6 feet above full pool and that is down a couple of feet from a week ago.
Managed to catch a limit but not pleased with the size. Making a location and tactics change next week. Lanier is a huge lake and it takes several days to check different areas and there are always several ways to catch them. Just got to get the right ones...
Below is a pic of one of the few areas of rip rap I saw all day. The lake is so high unless you know where it is you won't know where it is. You can also see that most of the docks are not accessible from the bank.

Norman Recap

Fished the Anglers Choice inaugural NC Trail tournaments at Norman last weekend. We ended up with 10 and a half day one and 9 and a half day two. The frustrating thing is we were doing the right things but just couldn't get in the right areas or get our timing right. I spoke with several guys who did real well and a crank bait and chatterbait was the bait of choice. Andy had gotten on a good bite Friday but I guess the weather moved those fish off to deeper water and we couldn't find them.
Excellent run trail with fantastic payback for the entry with a chance to fish for a new Ranger in September.
Heading to Lake Lanier on Saturday to begin prefishing for the second stop on the PBC trail. Lake is 5.6 feet high and most ramps are closed. Should be an interesting trip!

Murray PBC Tournament Report

The tournament didn't turn out like I hoped but we had a good showing as far as points go. 115 boats will be fishing this trail and they will pay 11 places per tournament. A few less places than the normal 20% but if you get in the money you will get a good check.
We blasted off boat 7. Would have loved to have been in the last flight. Our check in time was 3:00, last flight was 4:15. Could have really used another hour to fish.
We ended up with 4 fish for 14 1/2 pounds.  Caught two good ones on our second stop, one about 10:00, and the final good one at about 12:00. We needed some sun but it didn't come out until late.
Final two flights moved us from top 10 to 24th. It took 20 lbs to win so we were one big bite away. Another keeper would have went a long way in the points as well.
Next week I will be at Norman practicing for the Anglers Choice tournament which is two weeks away. New trail for this area so hope to see a good turn out. I will report back next weekend on how practice goes.
Also want to put a plug in for the Ranger Z521C. My partner has that boat and we used it for the tournament. I ran the boat all day and was extremely impressed with the ride and power. Fully loaded we were able to hit 70 and the boat drove absolutely perfect.