Since I have been boating I have wanted a trolling motor. For convenience and for safety. My grandma had mentioned that she had an old one in her basment that I was welcome to check out and see if it still worked.  All it needed was a 12 volt battery and it was alive.

I was very surprised with how the little trolling motor was able to move the boat. It actually cruised around without any trouble as long as i wasn’t trying to use it in the river and fight the current. I played with it for several hours the first day i had it in the water.

What I like most about trolling is being able to stand on the front of the boat and slowly jig and cast and be able to cover more water. I have found that it is very useful when the fish are not biting in the area I start to fish. Before having the trolling motor i would have to pull up anchor and try to start the gas motor. Now i almost never use an anchor i just float around and when I get in a shallow area or too close to shore or a tree I can just slowly move out of the way.

Trolling disturbs the water a lot less and I think it greatly increases the chances of not scaring away the fish.

Most of the time i really dislike catching this kind of fish.

It didn’t bother me catching this one. It actually wasn’t as slimy and stinky as a sucker typically is. It was a lot of fun reeling in. I had cast a worm way down stream about as far as i could. When it sucked up my worm the rod bent pretty good.  Made me remember that it is pretty important to secure the pole to the boat and not take my eyes off it too long. The current is so fast that its a a chore to pull a good sized fish into the current.

Jason and I were able to do a little boating and fishing this morning. We started out around 10:00 AM trying to decide if the boat motor would run. I decided to dry pull it and make sure it wasn’t screwed up and it fired off first pull. So we loaded the boat up and connected it to my truck put it in the water and all went great.

We headed upstream so that if the motor decided not to work we could use the current to get us close to the boat launch. I really didn’t want to paddle it back AGAIN ! ! !

We decided to stop at a spot where the surface water was smooth and glass like. Then we dropped anchor and tried to decide what bait to use. I set up my first pole with chicken liver and cast it out. Then I cast for a few mins with a twister but with the current as strong as it was casting was not working well. So I baited that pole up with a worm.

It didn’t take long and both Jason and I had bites. I caught the first fish a good sized catfish you can see it in the first picture kinda. Jason is as good at taking pictures as he is at catching fish. So the pix didn’t turn out the best. hehe.

Then after I knew the liver worked I wanted to try some stinky shrimp that has been sealed up and sitting in the garage for about a week or longer. Wow, was that shrimp rank ! ! ! We both did have bites on the shrimp but i think it was the smaller cats just nibbling or something like that maybe they couldn’t fit their mouths over the shrimp.

When we used worms it seams that the sheep head gobble them up so i prefer to not use worms at all.

After fishing that spot for a couple hours we decided we wanted to try a spot in calmer water near what we call the PIT. On the way to the PIT we headed under the train bridge and we both knew it was shallow but didn’t realize how shallow in some places it was. I was driving and the boat was at a slow almost idol and it jerked up. I knew right away i had hit a rock or the bottom or something so as quick as I could think I tilted the motor up so it was just barley in the water.

Well that didn’t do the trick the damage was already done. We had sheered the sheer pin. Jason has delt with changing the pin in the water multiple times but it was my first time to replace one without dry land under my feet.

We accomplished it ! ! It wasn’t as difficult as it could have been but it still wasn’t all that easy either. So after all that we decided to head back to the boat launch and take the boat out for the day. I think we will try to go again very soon.

This one was fun to catch. I caught it on my first cast after putting on a yellow twister. Just flipped it about 10 feet from the dock then gave it a little wiggle and there he was. I had forgotten how fast they dart through the water once i set the hook. Its hard to believe how fast they can run. ? Swim ?

I caught this small mouth bass casting a yellow and Green Twister with a light yellow head. it hit almost as soon as the lure hit the water I must have cast right on top of its head.  Its a lot of line out and have to reel any fish a long way in.

I always fun catching them this way.