February largemouth, 2/20

[ictalurus]

I didn't get to fish in the nice weather we had during the week, so I went today. I had been hoping to do some perch fishing, but all the wind we had on Saturday blew the water out of Allen's Fresh and the St. Mary's River. I settled on fishing for bass, pickerel, and crappie at St. Mary's Lake. I only caught a few little bass:





The first one I caught on a 3/8oz Cicada while jigging on some bottom marks:



The second one I caught trolling the Norman Little Deep N that Joe (Friday) gave me. I foul hooked a third bass that was about the same size as the first on the Cicada.

I tried jigging the Cicada and various curly tail grubs around standing timber for crappie but didn't have any hits. I also threw a variety of pickerel lures with no luck. The bass were super lethargic and didn't fight at all. All fish were caught in 15-20ft of water. I fished for crappie in 10-20ft of water and pickerel in 2-10ft. The water temp was just over 46*. So far, I've caught a fish in every month this year.

[surfdog]

very nice Bill. hows the new revo working for you?

little one need hooks too

[ictalurus]

I'm getting pretty used to it now. I use the pockets and cupholder the same way that I used the trays on the Outback. Lures in the cupholder get a little more tangled, but I think a lure wallet will handle that. I think I'll have room for a water bottle behind my seat even with my big fish bag. I figured out how to arrange my battery box, anchor, and dry bag in the center hatch so that everything fits pretty easily. I think I know where I'll add rod holders, but I need to take some pics from the inside to see which bases I can use. I keep forgetting to do that. I want to go with the 1.5" x 3" RAM base, but I'm not sure if the ends of the bolts and nuts will rub against the rudder cables. I'll probably add the cam cleat where you said.

[mmanolis2001]

Thanks for the report and nice job on the Bass. It looks like you switched out the FF mount you had on you last trip. That one looks nice. is it the same one you used on your outback?

[ictalurus]

Yeah, that's the one I had on my Outback. I made it almost entirely from scraps from work. I think I only paid for the bolts and a 45* joint. The base is a 3/4" thick piece of starboard with a hole cut into it to connect to the PVC pipe. The downside of using starboard is very few adhesives stick to it, so it's just friction-fit to the PVC. It holds up pretty well even in rough water.

[surfdog]

with the narrow mount ive had no problems after 2 seasons. the bolts dont protrude too much past the base flange and the cords have slack