I loaded up the Rabid Rig (my boat) and drug it down to my buddy’s house Wednesday afternoon for some Thursday fun in the salt. Thrusday morning reveille came at 0430 and with a quick glance at the weather radar, we realize we were not about to hit the water as early as we wanted to. The radar was loaded with bright yellow, orange, green and even some purple. The decision was made to give it another hour or two and check it again. Well, that proved to be a good move because the severe weather had moved through the area and was showing signs of breaking up and becoming more “scattered” so we unplugged the boat, fired up the pick’em up truck and headed for Remley’s. We pulled into a fairly empty parking, pulled into a parking space to prep the boat, and then splashed the boat. We were underway and headed towards our first spot at 0810. We headed out to Castle P to give the mackies a shot. We got there and were greeted by a pretty fierce NE wind that was gettin’ it. Had to be 15-20 but the weatherman forecasted 5-10. Anyway, we get into position and see mackies busting the surface almost immediately. The problem was, aside from the bottom of a birdcage smell coming from the “bird sanctuary” that is Castl P, the wind was wreaking havoc on our presentations and our ability to hold the boat into position. We fought the elements for a few minutes, with no hook ups, and decided to concede the ground the winds so very badly didn’t want us on and headed to a different spot further up the river. We got to our next spot with roughly two hours left in the outgoing tide. We started working the area with artificials. My buddy was throwing a topwater bait and I was throwing a Strike King square bill crankbait (I’ve had success with this bait in this spot before and I love throwing crankbaits). Within minutes of fishing our second spot, I had a couple of reds come unbuttoned on my crankbait. Seeing the fish were eating the bait, I stuck with it and it paid off. First fish in the boat was a FAT 20" butterball of a redfish. After a
Sounds like a great day! Did you buddy catch the flounder on his topwater plug?
1994 Hewes Redfisher 18, 2004 Yamaha 150 VMAX
Malibu X-Factor Kayak
No, he caught the flounder on a DOA shrimp.
God bless the “ignore” function.
Bangstick, in what way did the TM seize up?? Drive motor or steering??? Any thing that might have been preventable if known beforehand ??? I try to do pm on any known potential trouble spots/issues…
Sounded like a fun day,just hate it ended as it did:frowning_face:
George McDonald ; MAD Charleston
[http://www.militaryappreciationday.org
When you see “Old Glory” waving in the breeze, know that it is the dying breaths of our fallen hero’s that makes it wave.
author unknown
Drive motor. It worked fine all day but we turned it off to sit on a spot and when we turned it back on, the prop wouldn’t spin. While examining things, I forgot to turn the power off and I noticed the motor getting warm so I know it was getting power. To further complicate things, several months ago, I installed a G-Force Eliminator prop nut (to minimize vibration…and it worked like a champ). This piece is simply screwed on by hand and only tightened “hand tight.” I’ve had it off and on countless times (to clean any debris) but when I tried to unscrew it, it wouldn’t budge. When we got it back to the house, we used a pair of channel locks to try to take it off. We managed to get the prop nut to spin. It was still very difficult to spin but it wasn’t actually backing out. I have a repair center fairly close to my house so I’m going to pay him a visit.
God bless the “ignore” function.
Bangstick;; how about posting the findings on your TM when you find out… Possibly help others to prevent similar issue…
thanks
George McDonald ; MAD Charleston
[http://www.militaryappreciationday.org
When you see “Old Glory” waving in the breeze, know that it is the dying breaths of our fallen hero’s that makes it wave.
author unknown
Bangstick, i’m really curious about the square bill and the setup you used. I have been looking for a bait caster to use in the salt but have not found a low profile one i like, any suggestions? Also curious as to bait color, doesn’t have to be specific but was wondering if you are throwing typical dirty water patterns or more baitfish imitations that would be considered clear water baits. Thanks in advance for any help.
Paulg96,I used the all and I have settled on a costal by Dawia!
Thanks Boatpoor! I have never used a Diawa so i’ll try to find one to check out. Have you used the Abu Garcia Orra? Or the Lews Inshore?
Will do, GW.
Paul, I’ve been using Quantum reels forever and a day. On this trip, I used a Quantum Smoke PT Speed Freak (8.1:1) baitcaster spooled with 17lb test Sunline FC Sniper fluorocarbon. I would alternate between two crankbaits depending on the depth we were in. The crankbait I was using was a Strike King KVD 1.5 (dives 3-5 feet) and a KVD 1.5S (dive 1-3 feet). The color was Natural Shad. It’s a true baitfish “color.” It’s actually a photo overlay and not a “paint” but we won’t go into all of that. I paired that with an ALX “Dream” rod. It’s a 7’ medium action rod with a soft tip.
Don’t get too hung up on “inshore” reels. The Smoke baitcaster I was using was not Quantum’s “inshore” model. I ALWAYS give my boat and my rods and reels a thorough freshwater wash down after EVERY trip to the salt and have yet to have a “freshwater” reel fail on me.
God bless the “ignore” function.
Bangstick, thanks for the info! Curious as to why you don’t spool with braid and use a fluoro leader?
quote:
Originally posted by PaulG96Bangstick, thanks for the info! Curious as to why you don’t spool with braid and use a fluoro leader?
Depends on what I’m doing. I don’t have separate gear for salt and fresh. I use the same gear for both. When I’m crankbait fishing, I always use straight fluorocarbon. Always have. When using baitcasters in general, I either use straight braid (for topwater or flipping) or I use straight fluorocarbon (for everything else). Now when using spinning gear, I use braid as my main line with fluorocarbon leaders. I use considerably lighter line (pound test) on my spinning gear so the advantages of braid (small diameter with high pound test) makes it perfect for my spinning setups. I’ll use anywhere from 10-20 pound test fluorocarbon leaders, depending on what I’m doing or how finicky the fish are being.
God bless the “ignore” function.
Nice report as always Bangstick. Sorry to hear about the technical issues.
Update: I wasn’t able to outsmart my trolling motor issue so I took it to The Crappie Hole in Chapin. After I described the issue and after a 15 second silent stare, he gave his guestimation as to what the issue was. The first problem was getting the prop nut off. As I mentioned, I replaced the OEM prop nut with a G-Force prop nut. For anyone curious, these prop nuts do what they advertise. If you have an unruly vibration in your trolling motor (like I did), get yourself one of the G-Force prop nuts (make sure you get the one specifically for your size/brand of trolling motor). You won’t be disappointed. Back to the repair…After several failed attempts to unscrew the prop nut, the decision was made to cut it off. After 2 minutes of work with a cutting bit, we managed to get the prop nut to unscrew. Prop nut off, pull the prop off and “tink”…the sheared off pin falls out. New pin installed, cleaned prop re-installed, new G-Force prop nut installed, quick test of the TM and $20 later, we’re good to go and back in action. Apparently I sheared the pin off and that allowed the prop to slide towards the trolling motor housing, creating a vacuum seal that caused the prop to “seize” up. Remember that “guestimation” I referenced earlier? Well, he was spot on.
This was a big relief because I just knew this was going to cost me big bucks and possibly a new trolling motor. One of the few times I was glad to be wrong. Lol!
Hopefully this can help someone if they find themselves in this unfortunate position.
I’m already working on getting back to the salt to finish what we started that day since the day was cut short because of mechanical issues. I will have my revenge!
God bless the “ignore” function.
That’s great news on the TM fix! Never thaught that could happen without one heck of a hit on a solid object!
We “bumped” bottom a few times but no more than normal (this particular area is chock full of debris and cover under the water). Luckily, the pin did it’s job and spared the mechanism itself. Guess that’s why it’s a “sacrificial” part.
God bless the “ignore” function.
Thanks for sharing the fix!
Mark Ingle
NauticStar 1810 Merc 90
Appreciate the follow up as to the FIX and possible cause;;good to know
in advance;;;Thanks again!
George McDonald ; MAD Charleston
[http://www.militaryappreciationday.org
When you see “Old Glory” waving in the breeze, know that it is the dying breaths of our fallen hero’s that makes it wave.
author unknown
How come the gforce prop nut wouldn’t come off?
Good question, Reeldawg. We managed to get the prop nut to “spin” but it wouldn’t back out. So we used a cutting bit to cut into the G-force prop nut and then whacked on it with a punch and a hammer. It finally broke loose (we went through two bits so apparently they use some serious top notch grade aluminum) and we were able to unscrew it by hand after that. The threads looked fine so we really don’t know why it wouldn’t come off. I put a new one on and have had it on and off several times since then so we’ll see.
God bless the “ignore” function.