danrnsmyth, South Holston, Smallmouth, 12/09/19, solo

[danrnsmyth]

Took a day of vacation Monday to try to figure out how to catch a smallmouth in 40 ft of gin clean water and put a little break in time on the new outboard on the Ranger i have restored. I rode around watching the electronics looking for fish off points and such and marked a couple of what I thought might be small schools of smallmouth in about 27 fow. I tied on a very tiny plastic "minner" called a damiki after I found my reading glasses so I could see how to tie a knot w in some fluro that seemed thinner than what little hair I have left. sO after about 30 minutes of twitching that little minner on their noses I had two nice crappie and a white bass. Finally figured out this type of fishing is not my strength not sure what a school of smallmouth would look like on the screen anyway
so I tied on a spinnerbait on some man sized line and caught three in the back of pockets burning a spinnerbait . Water temp was 54 and those three were not in five feet of water.

 

[Smalliefan2]

Sounds like a good trip. How is that "new" boat, now that the restoration is finished ?

 

[danrnsmyth]

I have been pleased, I liked those old 390 series hulls and after Glenn's tips I got the EFI running pretty smooth, but I wanted to have a four stroke under warranty and paid for before I retire and sold the mercury and was told there was a waiting list on the Mercury Pro XS and found a new 175 hp yamaha sho about 4K cheaper and a six year warranty under their fall sales campaign. What I can say is that it is smooth and quiet, hopefully a little better on fuel and don't know about any top end speed yet but I would think 55 to 60 which is enough for me, and yes I plan on spending a couple of weeks on Champlain.