EricM, ANOTHER DISASTER (and a 52 lb fish), blue cat, 4-27-15

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EricM

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 24, 2007
Messages
8,593
Location
Harrison, TN
Well,Spurhunter must have been on my side of town.

I loaded up and hit the road for a bit of early fishing (still dark!). I had gone quite a ways when a sheriff lit me up. I was pretty sure that I hadn't done anything wrong for several hours so I pulled over. He got me out of the truck and showed me that my MinnKota trolling motor had self-deployed and was throwing sparks all over the place. emoBang emoBang Guess I was lucky that Tennessee has legal fireworks or I would have gotten a ticket. I felt sufficiently foolish and thanked the man for stopping me.

The skeg on the trolling motor was completely ground off, the aluminum cap and the steel housing were ground flat, and the plastic propeller was partly ground off. I really, really hoped that the housing wouldn't leak, since that would involve the purchase of a new trolling motor, and the cost of my fish per pound is already awfully high. I checked the locking system and it worked fine, so I must not have gotten it locked yesterday. Somehow probably Spurhunter's fault.

Well, I needed to test the newly design-altered trolling motor, so I went ahead and launched. It actually worked, but at a setting of 4-1/2 (of 10) the lopsided prop vibrated enough that the unit would shut itself down. It was, however, enough to control my drift until the wind got too strong.

The only fish caught today was a 52 pound blue cat (yes, on the 6 pound test line). Yesterday it took me just short of 2 hours to land a 55 pounder. Today I managed to boat the 52 in only 40 minutes. Amazing how different two fish that are just about the same size will fight. I did break off a second fish (I did not cut off any line and re-tie), but I think I will blame Spurhunter for that too...............

I met Jimbow of the forum and his daughter at the ramp, and before he found out about today's foolishness he commented about Spur's and my luck, so that worked out about perfectly too.

Today's pics: the disaster, the reaction to the disaster, and another great fish.
 

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Eek! emoEek

That could have been a whole lot worse than it was! (the trolling motor part)

The fishing part couldn't have been much better. emoWorthy

Yea, I tell clients all the time that every catfish has its own personality (and level of strength). Sort of like people I guess. Some of you are old and fat while others of us are sleek, muscled specimens of health and vitality. emoBigsmile (written while awaiting a call back from my chiropractor).
 
emoAngler emoBadLanguage we all always have good days, some are just better than others.......... emoGeezer emoUSA
 
What a goober!!! At least all I did was bend mine from it deploying at 40MPH going down the lake. You got 99 problems and one of them is a tore up T-motor.
 
Oh my! Definitely a Spurhunter jinx was riding with you this AM. A new TM would only run about 1800 or so. emoBigsmile emoGeezer
 
Only you could just brush off "52 pound blue cat (yes, on the 6 pound test line)" to tell about the trolling motor disaster....WOW ....What a beast (the fish the fish the fish my friend)
Sorry about the trolling motor tho...still want to give you massive credit for that Beast!..You are amazing Eric! emoWorthy emoWorthy emoApplause emoApplause
 
Spur would have said......"I was trying to figure out a way to reduce some weight on my boat, so I thought if I started at the trolling motor, you know, modify it some"..... emoPoke emoPoke
 
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