Other I broke Christmas tradition and went fishing

[Todd in NY]

My son and I took our 16ft Sears tin boat to Lake Bonaparte to fish for brown trout December 25th. Marked a good number of fish from 15' down to 50', surface temp was 40.5 degrees, fished with dipsy divers from 20ft to 35ft, trolled a deep diving crankbait 150ft behind the boat, tried yellow bird planer boards, even drift fished with various lures all to no avail. Wind was very light to none, air temp was 44 degrees and heavy overcast with a few sprinkles of rain. Trolled with a Minn Kota trolling motor.

 

It was a great day, even though we didn't catch anything. I couldn't make out any definitive thermocline on the FF no matter how I adjusted the sensitivity. There were schools of small fish feeding on the surface but couldn't determine what they were (my FF has down imaging, and those fish wouldn't take any bait either).

 

A major accomplishment for me was this was my first time using the 1973 25hp Evinrude that came with this boat. I had a local shop service the motor 2 weeks ago, which included rebuilding the carb and replacing the water pump. She pushed us along at 20mph and runs like a champ! I couldn't be happier with this boat and motor, which is the package I just bought on black Friday last month.

[bandrus1]

cool!

[Lew]

Any day on the water is a good day Todd, so whens the bigger boat in the budget?

[Todd in NY]

Lew, my "bigger" boat is winterized. Its the 19ft Sea Nymph center console in my avatar. I might be in the market for a 22ft boat with a cuddy next year, so I'm keeping my eyes open for the right deal. My Sea Nymph handles Lake O really well, so its hard to convince myself I "need" a bigger boat. We took this 16ft boat out because its super easy to winterize that little 25hp motor. I ran all the fuel out of the carb before we pulled the boat out of the water, so now I just have to fog the cylinders.