I awakened this morning early and looked at the radar on my phone. It looked like I had enough time to go fishing at Monticello until 2:00 and take my hybrid trolling motor for a shakedown cruise. The linkage on my Motor Guide was worn badly and had a lot of slack in it. When you hit the button, it made a loud “cluck” when all the slack came out. A friend gave me a Minn Kota about the same size as mine. The head was broken but not to worry, I put the linkage on my boat and wrapped my Motor guide shaft with a piece of inner tube and put it on the Minn Kota linkage . Here is what it looked like:

It was solid as a rock. When I hit the button I had to look to make sure the motor was running.  If you want to change the depth of the motor it’s a little more difficult because I had to tape the inner tube to the shaft. Those little rubber anchors that hold the motor to the boat became very loose about mid morning and I thought the motor was in danger of coming off the boat. It took me a good while to get it all tightened down properly. I think it’s going to work well.

Now for fishing. The wind was forecast to be blowing hard this morning early and the weather man was right on. I had a plan to fish some favorite calm water but when I launched I saw some very close and proceeded to fish it with my Ribbit. After a few casts a good fish pounced on it and a 5 – 6 came in the boat. Just a few casts later a 5 – 0 scarfed up my Ribbit. It seemed it was going to be like days of old on Lake Monticello. But as usually happens they toned it down and after one more bite the Florida Bass went into hiding and did not come back out until noon. By then I had switched to a swimbait. The little fish were driving me crazy by biting but not holding on. I actually saw a better bass (3 lb estimated) when it hit. Today was the first time I have used that rod and reel in a long time. When I set the hook the line snapped due to a frozen drag. After it was loosened and some line pulled out it was fine but that fish was gone along with the bait. Early the big fish were behind the pads in the clear shallow water. You had to throw all the way to the bank to get a bite. They were only there early and left at the slightest sign of light. If I go again soon it will be ‘fo day. I ended up with 7 bass.

Here is why. I’ve been behind every tree.