Well, that's my code for someone and it's making me miserable.  Non-stop micromanaging and tapping "their" watch every time I get out of my chair to do something.

Needless to say, someone is going to break... Me or the Penguin... but I expect the sun to start finally shining when it does.

Thank god it's Friday...

My wife realized we need to be a little tight on the purse strings this year, so we decided to stay local.  I was thinking about maybe some camping up in the mountains, but my wife like Glamping over camping.
Before I knew it, she had a floating cabin booked for 3 nights at the puddles.  Even though it is really close, I'm looking forward to some chilling, boozing, fishing and grilling out on the deck in a few weeks.

Maybe time to Carp fish!

Last minute I saw there was a night event going on.  I was thinking about heading down after work, but the Emperor Penguin at work is unwieldy.
I had dinner and was planning to head down when a beer and digesting food in my belly decided for the recliner instead. 

Thursday nights are a weird night to have night fishing, but the park is open to 11:30 so will definitely hit the next one.  Maybe if I can get enough advance, I'll get Homa to cook up some kabobs and we can catch up some cats?  I'm pretty sure it'll only be Homa and Squatch, but the invite will be open if you want to join in. 

I'll keep you posted.

Quote from: sasquatch on July 06, 2026, 07:25:31 PMGlad to hear the console is tight. Hope the other stuff is minor.

Me too....

I thought about hitting LJ in the morning to test out the boat fix.  On the morning of the 4th, I finished sealing up the seams and was ready for it to dry by my shakedown run.  I actually flipped past the news and saw hours and hours of lines and too many people down at the beach, so I decided to opt for a little lake fishing.  With the boat sitting for 3 months, something is always bound to freezer up or not work and with the guys working on my center console, they were also bound to potentially break something without knowing since this boat has a bunch of little intricacies.

I headed out to Jennings and there were a few boats dropping in.  No sweat as I wasn't on a timeline.

The lake was beautiful but awfully warm and sunny.  First thing I noticed was my newly installed bait pump was on but not pumping so I guess I have a air leak in the line somewhere.  I did get it to go so I know it works, but air is getting in somewhere.

Second was the trolling motor.  I would occasionally get the spot lock to work, but the motor wasn't responding.  I think I have a loose wire somewhere not giving it 24V of power since it turns left no matter which arrow I hit on the remote and then just beeps and does nothing. 

In any case, that makes fishing pretty damn tough in this lake.

I cruised around a bit and only saw 5 bass total all morning.  I hooked the first one for all of 1 second and had another appear out of the blue when I was ripping my bait in to cast again.  Other than that, they didn't want anything to do with my creature bait or anything else I put in front of their face.

I moved around and found a big submerged brush pile with what looked like fish on it.  There was no wind, so I knew I could cast there for a bit. 
A few casts in and I hooked a small bass but he wasn't big enough to pop the worm hook out of the creature bait.  I switched to a night crawler and went to fly line it in his face when a swarm of bluegill came up of all sizes!  I was going to keep a few but decided to just release as I caught well over a dozen before that little bass decided he didn't want all of the bluegill feeding without him and I got a little 11" bass on the crawler. 

Then I see explosions out in the middle of the lake!  They looked like stripers, but definitely weren't largemouth!
I metered some big fish and tried everything but no luck.  The lake is in an apparent shad spawn as there were tons of wiggles with eyes out there all over the lake.  I even started trolling but nothing.
I called it quits when I started burning to a crisp and found out the lake has Wipers in it.  I do remember a picture with someone catching one a few years back, but apparently there are still a population in there that like the mid water column.

Looks like I have a new target when I finally get the trolling motor and bait pump situation resolved.  At least the center console seems rigid and safe again!

I'll get pics up later, but I'm here at work at the moment.

Thanks for reading!

Quote from: jrodda on July 01, 2026, 08:19:10 PM

Quote from: Latimeria on July 01, 2026, 07:11:30 AMWell Koga sent me some AZ bass plastics from 5150 so I'll have to try them out.  To be honest, they look like great little baits!

The little 2.5" swimbaits? I've caught a few on those from him, solid play.

6" dropshot worms.  Good freshwater bass stuff

I really do love all of that old west sort of look in those towns and BTW... That is a LOT of JERKY!

I just felt like seeing what everyone's plans were for the holiday...  Feel free to add your own answer.  lol

Well Koga sent me some AZ bass plastics from 5150 so I'll have to try them out.  To be honest, they look like great little baits!

Any updates?

The boats in the driveway and the console seems pretty legit!  All I have to do is put a bead of silicone around the console and it should all be good!  I normally would never take it out on a big holiday weekend like this, but I'm jonesing hard.

Quote from: Dark_Knight_9C1 on June 29, 2026, 03:33:20 PMThat was some good catching. Great conditions.

Also heard Carp. I'll be hitting Big Bear Lake for some this holiday weekend.

- Keith

The carp I saw jumping out of the water might have body armor they were so big.  I'll be renting some cabins in a few weeks and will be sure to try and catch one of those bruisers!

Well, I found a "buddy of a buddy" willing to fix the boat.  Unfortunately, the supplies he had me order too a week+ to get here since it could only be shipped via ground transportation. I feel like they might have skimped a bit, but was assured it will be good for another 16 years.  All I have to do is throw a bead of silicone around some of the edges. 

I'm picking it up today and running it home during my lunch break.  My boatless driveway has been a sorrowful sight these last few weeks.  Now I only hope to get out there and catch something, although the deepwater rockfishing will be closed by the time I launch it.

Dude, I have to make time to get up there.  That looks like such a cool place to spend some down time and fishing!  The hardest part will be talking my wife into it since she always wants to use vacation where there are warm beaches and palm trees.

Some really cool stops along the way!  I love seeing that old stuff and makes me feel like I should bring my metal detector up there.

BTW... Just buy her the 'Toon already!   lol