A plan for Friday August 28, 2015

Got a note from Pete that he would be working his restored Neptune on Lake Anna early Friday morning.  I can meet him near Stubbs Bridge on the water or maybe another location.  I will be doing the boating alone, so I might have to launch on Thursday evening and take a chance with gear sitting in the boat on the dock.

Need to fill the bait tank on Thursday with well water and add 3 cups of rock salt (need to buy at Lowe's - the blue bag-done) and a tablespoon of Calcium Chloride.  Maybe a tablespoon of Shad Keeper too.  The 2 liter soda bottles need to come in from the boat for freezing-done.  I'll try to keep the baits a bit cooler than 85 degrees.  Can't plan on everything going right as shit happens!

Thinking to get a bilge pump with 800 gallons/hour and different hose to fill the tank and empty from the lake - done.  The back up Rule 500 gallon/hour that is in the Creek Bank tank is too slow.  Got all the stuff for the bait tank and the guide-on lights.

No crew is available as Marcus is swamped at work and Bill Fowler is too distant for a day on the water.  So, it's a solo event.  Learned that I have to park the boat so there's no backing in the dark at the house.  Can't do anything about the boat ramp, but I have the stern LED spot light that I didn't use earlier.  I'll be sure to tie a line on the boat this time!  Yep, it worked out OK, but still difficult orientation.

I may add a night vision back up camera to the T for night backing.  The unit I use now doesn't have the transmission range to use on the boat and view in the cab.  The night vision camera/transmitter and receiver has much greater range.  Another project to accommodate my aged body!

Ruminating about past Kiptopeke fishing adventures.  Here is Ramrod (now deceased), Joy (barely able to hold a tiny striper), and my brother, Raymond.  Think this is about 2011, but could have been earlier.

In the previous year, first time on the bay, my daughter Debbie caught her 39 pounder, just shy of a citation.  Joy T Brew had the skunk.

Guess it's time to plan for 2015 fishing at Kiptopeke.  Will be different as I don't intend to stay the entire month.  Yet, it's early .  .  . and fishing on Lake Anna is supposed to be at it's peak.

                                       2 AM and on my way

Yep, nearly got stuff  ready by parking the boat so I could pull out of the driveway without backing.  Couldn't sleep and decided to get up and go at 2 AM.  Think it was more like 3 AM.  Wasn't a difficult path to follow up lake to the Stubbs Bridge.  Full moon!  Several boats at Stubbs and one thinking fisherman put his lamp in the only path I'm sure my T will pass.  No problem, I just motored through his bait.  Didn't see Pete, so I went on up to Dillards bridge.  Pete and buddy Ryan had two lamps hung and were hauling in hundreds of shad with each cast.

I filled my sorting bucket and added some rock salt.  Pete dumped a net full into the sorting tank.  In this case, the sorting tank is just a means to harden the baits a bit and get a lot of scales to drop to safe the bait tank filter chore.

Then into the Creek Bank tank.

I think some got injured on the way to the bait tank and croaked.  Just too many baits in the net before going into the tank.  Pete knows his stuff.  My tank was definitely over loaded.

Pete mentioned pulling boards before dawn.  I wasn't prepared.  Put my 1 ounce egg sinker down lines on the planer and it sank like a rock.  OK, take the sinker off and retie the line.  Yeah, right, NOT.  But, I got one out and immediately the depth changed from 20 to 3 feet.  Lost effort.  Besides, I couldn't see the planers in the dark anyway.  Need some kind of LED on the board or a means for Sturcture Scan to show the location.

No luck with boards.  Pete and crew mentioned Rose Valley.  I went to Marshall creek first, but nothing interesting on the echo.  Then up to Rose Valley.  Lots of what looked like stripers, but inactive.  Even Hemby was in the area.  Pete was on his way in and I left to get fuel.  Fueling at Lake Anna Marinas is another story, but on the water E-0 is about $3.50 and at Duke Oil in Mineral, it's $2.50 a gallon. Have to keep hauling 5 gallon fuel tanks.

Since the fuel location is right on the 208 bridge, I decided to go to the power plant.  Nothing there, so I went to the Dam.  Couldn't read my phone and Pete's phone wouldn't take calls.  When I did read my text, Pete was on stripers back at the fueling station area, High Point.  Damn!

Pete has the Neptune runnin fine!

and boating stripers .  .  .

And another, and another .  .  .
 

By the time I got back, all the striper action was over and just catfish were taking the shad.

During the entire day, I was plagued by the structure displaying "stopped".  Have to keep touching the "stop sonar" toggle on the lower right of the screen.  A pain!

Now noon and I decided to call it a day.

Hopefully Pete will have photos of his adventure and crew to add to this post.

For the end of this story,the following

At the ramp and exhausted.  Tie the boat up to the leeward side of the small dock.  The water is very low in the lake and stepping up or down to the boat is difficult for me.  Up the ramp and do the combination (very tiny numbers for my tired eyes) and let the heavy beam swing to the stop.  Then, back the trailer down the ramp and try to get it near touching the dock.  Learned from past that the trailer cannot be with water at the top of the fenders.  The ramp is very steep and there isn't any guide from the rear bunks .  Best to keep the rear bunks about half in the water regardless of the fender depth.  Power as high as possible and then crank the boat the rest of the way.

OK, boats on the trailer and the gate is closed and locked.  Hauled the boat to the Rockland Creek Estate home driveway and .  .  . left it for later.

Couple hours later, backed the boat to the front drainage ditch and pumped the bait tank water out of the tank.  Bagged the 3 or 4 dozen live baits and the dead into a bag for the freezer.  Bill Fowler, a fishing buddy in NC barters the baits for favors.  Nearly filled a gallon zip lock freezer bag.  Tank empty and filter dumped.  Surprising how many scales the baits lose, like a layer of silver on the filter.

My filters are from Wal-mart and sold as cushions to make chairs.  Can be costly, but I get about 4 filters from each package.  Just cut to size and slide into the filter holder.  Might be a new bait tank in the future as there are improvements since I got mine.

Trailer now parked off the driveway, bilge plug out, all electronics off, but the charge cord is still somewhere and useless!

In the house, I got a note from Mike smedley, "Team Old School".  He just returned from South Carolina and Sea Pro is back in business.   Mike just makes Striper Boating videos and displays equipment.  Sea Pro wants him in a new 24' 8" Sea Pro (no pictures available as it's still under wraps).  Mike says every issue about the 2004 and there abouts models has been resolved.  Awesome, as I love my Sea Pro!  Also, Mike mentioned the new Simrad GO7?  Damn, it's all moving so fast.   Unfortunately, I'm too old to think about a younger float.  But, them electronics are begging me to update to something more useful.

Guess it's time to start a plan for the next adventure on Lake Anna or Buggs Island.  In the meantime, the lights for the guide-ons are waiting for connections.  The back up camera?

 

And the spool was empty

Ready to travel to  Scottsburg and went to get my casting rod.  Whoops, where'd the toothache go. Or, where'd all the braid go.  Sure hope it didn't wrap on the prop.  No time to re-spool or check the prop. Will route through Mineral, VA to see about E-free fuel.  Duke Oil is supposed to retail.  Yep, $2.50 a gallon for 87 octane E-free.  Have high test too for just under $3 a gallon.  A great find for me.  My usual source off the water is a PURE station in South Boston, but the price is $2.75 a gallon.  Think the price on the lake at High Point Marina is at least $3.50 a gallon.

OK, got the spool filled with 15# braid and hope I can cast with the setup.   

Here's the anchor light mounted on the T with the LED spot hanging below.  I use the DRIFTMASTER 1" rod holder base.  Might have to change the anchor lamp to an LED as they are so bright and use so little power as only the rear half is now illuminated.

The new wiring for the anchor light was a real pain in the ass to install.  Simple to run the wires by following the old, but had to use the VOM to verify + and -.  The real killer of time was trying to get the new connectors on the rocker switch in the console.  Think it took a half day over two days to get the new wires on the right switch lugs. I had to rest a lot!  I used trailer light hook up wire this time because I think it might be weather proof , unlike the wire I just removed that corroded inside the insulation.

I plan to substitute this type of trailer light connector for the common cigarette lighter type used for my Sea Pro.  Afterall, I'm creating a supply of these connectors by using trailer hook up wire kits.  But, I'll try some dielectric spray or paste inside the cigarette lighter receptacles as a first solution.

AUGUST 22 days later, I'm back in Bumpass and I resumed work on the guide on post lights.  Tried several means to snake the new wire through the entire square tube.  But wait a minute, there's no way to get the end of the wire out of the square frame tube.  The square guide on tube slides inside the trailer frame.  Fer dumb on my part!  Think I saw the arrangement I have taken in the instructions?  OK, resumed fishing for the new wires with little success until I saw some weed wacker line.  That was stiff enough to slide between the PVC upright and the square post.  Sort of the same feeling when boating a striper.

Next trip to the boat, I'll use wire ties to hold the wire to the outside of the square guide on.  Can't complete the installation until I get some heat shrink connectors.

The new wires waiting to be connected to the existing trailer clearance light wiring.

The clear plastic allows the red LED to show from the rear and the orange LED to show from the front.

Stand by for the next thrilling Sea Pro maintenance project that may lead to a day of fishing?

OH me oh my, WHAT. HOW TO . . .

Just when I thought things were going so well .  .

I left the minnows in the bait tank on Tuesday and didn't know if they could survive.  The ambient temp is 85 degrees.  So, I dallied until about noon before I got my act together and headed for the boat.  No sense looking at the bait, just got what I needed for eats and water I thought I might need on the boat and headed for the launch.  Noticed that the automatic bilge was pumping water out of the bilge after the horrible rain storm that lasted much of the night.  Thought to take the bilge plug out, but the pump already did it's job, so why bother.  Not like Mel's deck boat that sat bow down for months in the rain.  Got the gate opened and backed the boat into the water.  Stopped at the right depth where I usually have to motor the boat off the trailer.  The boat slipped back and I stopped.  The truck always moves back a few inches. This time, it was enough to launch the boat.  I couldn't move fast enough to try and catch up with the boat before it cleared the end of the dock.  Why didn't I tie a line .  .  .  hind sight is always 100%.

There was a light wind that kept the boat moving.  Moving?  Well, the wind was blowing a second in one direction, then another, etc.  So, the boat kept going around in circles.  Never close enough to a dock where I could grab it.  Went to the truck for the rope that I always have on hand .  .  . nope, no rope.  Thought maybe someone across the water would come down and help, but that didn't happen.  Finally a steady wind pushed the boat down the channel and just right, it passed the pontoon on the right and into a vacant dock.  Got there just in time to hop (if that's possible for me) on board.

Also, checked the baits and found only one of the gizzards was left alive.  All the herring croaked.  Still had about 2 dozen shiners quite frisky.  Emptied the large cooler of ice and two catfish that got left uncleaned by exhausted fishermen.  Also dumped all the deceased baits from the bait tank in the open lake.  Pumped old water out of the tank and added some fresh lake water.  Whew, that help reduce the dead bait fragrance.
  
Once on board, I realized that I didn't have but vapors of fuel.  Motored to the fueling station and then up river into the Pamunky, but much further than when I was with Bill.  Put the gizzard down in what looked like larger marks, but nothing happened.  Back to Marshall Creek cove and kept the gizzard and a shiner in what looked again to be productive marks.  Nope, nothing!

The channel to the ramp is very narrow with boat motors protruding on one side and there isn't supposed to be anything docked on the adjacent sea wall.  Yeah, sure .  .  .  doesn't look difficult, but this is a "no wake area" and that means minimal steerage control for a large boat.  Today, it was jet ski.  Yesterday, it was swimmers.  In the past it's been huge inflatables.

Made it to the dock and got the trailer close enough so I could step from the gunnel to the dock.  Just barely due to my lack of agility.  For the next 30 minutes or so, I pumped the bait tank into the lake, dumped the remaining baits.  Emptied a small cooler from the previous days that had water with ice. And emptied the big cooler dregs.  The garbage was bagged.  Kept the trailer higher on the ramp and it made loading the boat much easier.  It centered and I was able to power it all the way to the bow stop.  The trip to the house was uneventful, thank God.  Had to spray with insect repellent when I  got on the boat to toss the trash bag and copy the screen shot files.  

Not sure why just going fishing has to be so exhausting.  This is supposed to be relaxing, isn't it?

THIS TIME I WAS READY, BUT . . .

OK, got on the water before dawn, meaning                                     DARK
And dark it was at 5 AM.  The plan called for departure at 4 AM, but one thing lead to another.  Conventional thought is to arrive at the Lake Anna bait location by 2 AM.  Not in my itinerary.  This was a new adventure with my buddy Bill Fowler up from Norlina, NC.  He arrived at Bumpass Sunday afternoon early enough to make it to Anna Cabana for dinner.  But first, Mel, my wife, had a full week of tasks for him to complete.  First, she had bumpers to mount on the dock.  Then there were new larger cleats to tie down her deck boat.

Yep, the broken cleat is still there, but the new one is holding fast!

 Only had one small problem.  Had to hammer the lag screws into the dock to get them started.  The first cleat went great, but was too close to the edge. The second, well, Bill missed the lag screw and broke one part of an older cleat.  His story is that he broke it purposefully so it wouldn't interfere with the new cleat.  Then, while continuing to hammer, he broke the new cleat.  Not sure this was intentional?  Had 3, so all was not lost.  Needed to take the broken one off, but needed a philips screw driver and it was back at the house.   No it wasn't, it was in the socket box .  .  .  Back to the first cleat and moved it to be more secure.   Yes, Bill worked his ass off and got it all done and still left time for dinner.  OK, Mel was happy with the conclusion of the project, but left before the job was complete.  She didn't see the broken cleats.  And now she's unhappy with the location of the bumpers and cleats and wants them moved again? :(  But, the deck boat is moored.  Ha, ha, Mel says no  rain so she left the cover off.

Really pleasant weather for the Anna Cabana event as the humidity was low and I had enough mosquito repellent to reduce bites.  This restaurant can be reached by boat or auto.  Has a limited menu, but every dish I've tried has been GREAT.

I was up at 4 the next morning but it takes me a long time to do meds and insulin, etc.  Then get the gear to the truck/boat that didn't happen Sunday evening.  I have a serpentine driveway and I park the boat trailer with an L to the left off the driveway.  Never tried backing such a long and tortuous path in the dark.  With Bill's flashlight assist, I made it to the street.  Never gave a thought to using the LED spot on the boat T top.  Then to the dock, another backing adventure to do the ramp.  Boat in the water and it was trying to rain. On the water, it was dark, really dark.  The new LED spots I put on the T worked great to make the pass down the narrow dock entry.  It's amazing how much light these LEDs put out yet use so little power.

Got the Simrad and Lowrance brightness turned down so I could see the GPS trail without being blinded by the light.  The GPS navigation tracks made on several past trips kept us in the safe area.
The green trace is a previous trail.  The purple lines are the channel or deep water in the chart.  The boat shows the current position with the estimated distance pointer ahead (red).  The trail color can be changed for each trip and/or previous trails removed or not displayed.  Yes, I do trust it in the dark or a storm even though Lowrance says "do not".

Lake Anna has many shoals that are not marked with lights, just a post or a floating buoy and they don't show in the dark.  Ya need a great navigation/chart in yer electronics.  Might be 10 tortuous miles from Rockland Creek where we were to get bait at the 208 bridge.

Jim Hemby ( www.blog.jimhemby.com ) was finishing his bait catching at the 208 bridge with 3 of the arches already lighted.  It's more or less traditional to hang a gas lantern from the bridge.  Looking at bridges around Lake Anna, you'll notice ropes hanging from pipes or what ever.  These ropes are not just trash hanging.  Most are used every morning about 4 AM to draw herring and gizzards.  Jim bellowed a greeting and asked if we needed help.  Of course we did, we needed a bait tank full of herring.  Never mind, it wouldn't do to ask, but would have accepted if offered.  Jim was getting ready to leave the scene by collecting his gear.

(This screen shot is of interest as it shows bridge pilings on both sides of the boat and the shadow where no sonar is returned.  Before the bridge pilings, it looks like an underwater road bed and older pilings from a previous bridge?)  The navigation chart is on the left of the split screen.

We were late and sunk the LED green in a vacant arch to attract baits.  Pete DeRosario made this one, but, decided that green doesn't work on Lake Anna.  It's about 30 inches and uses LED lamps.  I'm using it in hopes that he might be wrong as the green works so well on Buggs Island Lake.

It puts out an incredible amount of light to attact baits.

Hemby must have had a great catch as we couldn't draw even one gizzard.  Fortunately, Fish Tales was close and we got a few dozen shiners. The objective of the day had two tails.  First was to learn to cast net bait at Lake Anna, a bust for now.  Second was to adjust my electronics for a decent display of fish (striper) arches.  Not a lot to see with the HST wide angle ducer used with the Lowrance, but got it somewhat adjusted.  The Simrad with the TM150 shows tons of arches and must be gain reduced to almost nothing to show the nothing that the Lowrance shows?  Bill says "No Way" can there be as many fish in the lake as Chirp shows.

The split screen image displayed on the Simrad nss7 evo 2 using the TM150 transducer with medium chirp displays and incredible amount of arches.

Using the Lowrance HST wide angle ducer doesn't show much and the 4X is required to make much of what might be down there.  Navico representatives say I had too much colorline in the following screen shot.

OK, raining off and on, we went up river past Stubbs bridge

          (This is the underwater bridge up river a few yards from the new Stubb's Bridge)
 

 to the Pamunky and no stripers.  My rain coat was back at the house and Bill left his in his car?  Up the North Anna past the S curve to the Xmas tree, no stripers.  Then down to the dam area to see if I could find arches as during a few previous trips. Nope, but boated one 10 inch catfish?  Back to the power plant and the sky to the West blackened and obviously a heavy storm was moving our way.  Best to caution and we went to the dock.   Yeah, the sun came out and it was a great afternoon.

Took Mel's deck boat to the launch so it could be moored at our dock.  The bilge plug was out and I knew it would have water inside due to the storage angle.  At the ramp angle, the water was like a fire hydrant.  Called Mel and told her that her deck boat slipped off the trailer and sunk right on the ramp. Bill and I guessed every 5 minutes how much water was in the boat.  100 gallons, no 500 gallons, oh my gosh 1000 gallons that made full flow for nearly 30 minutes?  Suddenly, I realized that we didn't have a key for the boat.  Back to the house to search for the key.  Took several calls to Mel to get her to answer as to where the key was.  Bill got the boat started with some difficulty as it sat for 5 months, since the motor work.  Down the creek and back to the dock.  A half hour screwing with the cover snaps that hold the cover on the boat and it was ready to abandon to Mother Nature.

(photo to be here shortly)

I made the mistake of trying to walk the distance down the dock to the boat and back using my cane.  First stop was at a concrete bench that was too low to the ground.  I couldn't get up. I was exhausted when I got back to the truck and could hardly walk.

Home again and the trailer parked on the hill above the  house.  Bill picked up a 12 pak of Coors Ultra Light and that occupied the rest of the afternoon.  I was exhausted, but I couldn't resist a trip to Tim's for crab legs.

And then, it was Tuesday to be ready for another fish day, OH?

Nope, I told Bill I was exhausted and it wouldn't be another early rise.  Six AM would be OK to rise. He was unhappy, but we had a relaxed departure about 7:30 and were headed up lake by 8 AM.  The shiners were still doing fine, so we just dinked along looking for fish or bait on the sonars.  A great cool, but cloudy morning.  Perfect!  Tried Marshall Creek, already taken.  On up to Stubbs, but only great structure screen shots on the monitor as shown earlier.  Did a circle on the flat and up river into the Pamunky and under the Dillard Bridge.  No stripers to be found.  Hey, wait a minute - there be baits in 15-20 FOW!  After several casts, Bill got 3 gizzards. :(  Another half dozen casts and he hit a dozen herring.  Tried for a few more, but never could get on 'em.  Went back down river to look for stripers again.  Nothing!  No matter where we looked, they just weren't being recognized by Joy and Bill.  Decided to run up North Anna through the S turns and past the Xmas tree island.  Did the channel toward the bridge, nothing.

During this period of the lake tour, Bill and I worked with the Lowrance echo using the HST wide angle ducer.  Finally decided that nothing was on the monitor and reduced the sensitivity to show "nothing".  Adjusted the Simrad that was running medium chirp so the displays were similar "nothing".  Gotta find some stripers to do a real sensitivity adjustment.

OK, maybe take a look into Contrary.  Nothing there either.  Frustrated for the entire day and the blistering sun was out to tell us it was time to get off the water.  Bill wanted to head for Richmond before the commute traffic was intolerable.  Maybe on the road by 2 PM.  So, we did lunch and Bill was on the road.

Good thing we didn't stay the afternoon as the storm that came in was terrible.  Day turned to night and the rain .  .  .

Still have the cooler to clean and stow, the bait tank to empty (thought I might try a few hours in the morning with real bait if it survived).  Got the charge cord to the boat and likely a dozen other must do things along with copying the few screen shots I took.  Then came the terrible darkness at 4 PM and the torrential rain.

Yet, this was a tremendous fishing adventure as Bill came to fish with me.  There isn't anything that can make a fishing adventure better than having a best friend join.

A Plan for Friday , August 7 not 13!

Not sure why I want to change ducers?

The TM150 chirped by the Simrad nss7 evo 2 is displaying the fish images so well, I'm reluctant to go back to chirping the HST-USB wide angle ducer.  But, I'm certainly not happy with what the HST is doing for echo on the Lowrance HDS9 touch gen 2.  The plan for the next launch will be to connect the HST in place of the TM150 and do screen shots along the Rockland Creek channel as I did earlier with the 150.  If I feed the HST to the Simrad, I'll be chirping.  So far, I'm near blown away with the CHIRP display.

I'll have to wait for help to use the ducer through the Lowrance as I can't seem to get the fish arches.

The following screen shot is from my archives on Chesapeake Bay to show how long I've been struggling with my sonar display.  Never decided if this was bait or poor display of a striper.  Of course it's bait!  Likely I didn't have the TM150 chirping for this shot.

OK, so I didn't make it to the lake on Friday!  Now Sunday morning and I just got new guide ons installed on the trailer.  Instruction says that they are to be one inch from the rail?  Doesn't work for me right now and I did 4 inches.  Need some leeway for the rod holders and trolling motor.  I did the lube on the motor pivot (steering) and need to tighten a screw on the structure ducer.  Maybe it was vibrating and causing the noise spikes?

Why in the world would I choose to snell a hook?

There's gotta be some sense of it, but .  .  .

Well, there is a good reason in my mind and it has to do with big girl striper gill plates.  These girls can pull drag for more than a hundred yards in a heart beat.  Any knot attachment of leader to hook that leaves globs of unprotected line around the hook eye can be nicked by a gill plate.  Most of my hook ups are in the corner of the mouth.  The hook eye pulls back along the plates as the striper runs.  So, the snell affords more protection for the leader, plain and simple, as based on my experience.  This is striper fishing at it's best during the fall at Kiptopeke are in the lower Chesapeake Bay.

For smaller fish, almost any knot will suffice.  Unlikely that a snell is practical to tie on the water with cold fingers.  Thus, I snell hooks before the fishing adventure and stow them on plastic noodle tubes.   I load the hooks in a clockwise direction with a marked starting point.  Then, unload them in the reverse.  The long leader is coiled around the tube and the loop end is pressed into a slot cut in the bottom of the tube.  I can load about 6 tubes in a small lock top plastic box for the boat.  The gummy on each hook is to prevent the hook from looping back into the herring and shad baits.  For the big girls, I use eels hooked through the shout and the gummy is not needed.

I've used the old fashioned method for years without knowing or needing to change.  But, the fingers and the vision don't work well anymore.  The following video by Tom Richardson from the webb is expertly done and simple to follow.  Thanks Tom!

http://www.newenglandboating.com/fishing/video-quest-for-the-perfect-snell-knot.html

For months, I've researched and practiced snelling with a tool, with tubes, and I always go back to the old fashioned means described in the "quest for the perfect snell knot".  I have about a 90 percent success rate that produces the coils in the snell to be perfectly aligned.  But, the hook point on Gamakatsu circles makes the tie very difficult.  The line twists and catches on the hook point while I'm making the wraps.  Other times, the point is into my fingers.  Trying to show others is near impossible.  So, the above video does it.

Yet, I wanted a method that kept the point away from the line twist (it must twist as the coils are made around the shank of the hook).  OK, let's make the snell from the eye end of the hook.  It works!

1.  Tie a loop in the end of the leader.




2.  After ya tie the loop, cut the length of leader ya want plus about 15 inches for the snell.

3.  Feed the tag end through the hook eye and pull the leader loop to the eye.




4.  Make a huge loop so the tag end protrudes beyond the curve of the hook about 5 inches.




5.  Ya pinch the cross over of the line against the shank of the hook, leaving the eye as far as possible       from the pinch.  Be sure  the tag end is above the knuckles.




6.  As in Tom's video, it's difficult, but imperative that the line wrap start near the eye and the coils          wrap toward the curve without overlap on the hook shank.  Should be about 8 wraps, depending on the #s of the leader.




7.  Keeping the snell coil/wraps held tightly between the fingers (thumb and forefinger), hold the tag        end and also put the leader loop on a peg and pull until the mess of loops in the leader pass                  between yer finger/thumb pinch.  Yes, it feels like there's a tangle near the end of the pull, but it          usually pulls through.  Ya may have to fiddle with the loops that form to help them pass.

    Caution: The loops that form can gather and catch the hook to make a series of not wanted half           hitches.

   

8.  Pull the tag end and the loop simultaneously to tighten the snell and assure that it slides along the        shank to the hook eye.  The loop is still on the nail, isn't it?




9.  Trim the tag end and yer done.








Caution again:  If ya let the tag end fall into the loops (by not keeping it on top of yer hand or letting the loops that form when pulling the line under the wraps grab the hook) the result will be more like the "easy snell" where the leader is locked one or more times by a series of half hitches.  I don't like the lock and feed the line back out of the lock as many times as needed so the tag end exits the coils in a straight line along the shank.

Guess the next presentation will include some kind of video to explain my method, NOT.  Time to get back to making my sonar produce fish arches.  One day I'll have baits and actually fish?

More time on Lake Anna with electronics?

Wasn't the best day, nor the worst - but .  .  .
Made it to the lake again on this August 3, 2015.  Likely a great day to most as the boat traffic wasn't all that bad, sunny, light winds, clear skies, but forecast late afternoon T-storms.  I launched about 3 PM not intending to stay long, but wanted to look up river past the 208 bridge.  This bridge is considered mid-lake by the coastguard.  Also, I wanted to get screen shots along the way.  The plan was to get the Lowrance echo looking right on display.

The following shot is taken from the Simrad nss7 evo 2 as I'm motoring out of Rockland Creek.  Bottom lock 2X on the left and normal on the right.  The depth was much too deep, set at 60 feet.  Would have been better at 30.  The stacked arches on the right are supposed to be white perch.  The larger solo arches on the bottom are likely catfish.  Lots of other small fry in the shot.

Somewhat similar to the above shot, but this one shows lots of individual small fish arches and a bait ball in the center of the shot.

Still further out the creek toward the main channel, lots of stacked white perch and maybe catfish?

Out in the main lake now and the depth vs the display is more reasonable.  Seems like mostly stacked white perch.  Definitely not stripers of any size.

The following shot is at 20 mph and while interesting, likely still stacks of white perch.  Lots of individual marks (the orange vertical dashes).

In this shot, I'm slowing from 20 mph to about 3 mph.  Some larger fish, but unlikely stripers.

I might guess that the arches at 30 feet on the bottom to the right in the shot are dormant stripers.

This could be interesting, but more likely white perch as I slow from 20 mph to 3 mph.

 The magnificaiton makes this stack of likely white perch look massive!  Yet, I'd like to think it is dormant stripers tightly packed.

Well, that's enough of the Simrad chirping the TM150.  In my opinion, the detail is incredible.

Trying echo on the Lowrance HDS 9 touch gen 2 with the HST wide angle ducer didn't look good.  I would like more of the heavy center glow .  .  . 200 khz!  Maybe I have to try chirping the HST.  Reconnect the network cable, allow networking for both the Simrad and Lowrance?  Mapping sure would be useful when displayed on the Simrad as it is on the Lowrance. :)  Of course, with a Lowrance HDS 12 gen 3, I could have it all on one screen and eventually have 3D structure. :)  Yet, don't have the gold for such procurements.

Trying a different pallet at 83 khz.  The 4X might indicate these arches are quite small fish and unlikely stripers.

 The below shot might have given a lot more information if I had the depth adjusted properly.  Maybe I need to do an auto setting.  Obviously there's stuff in the water column as it's easy to differentiate between the interference.

Not sure why the interferrence is so intense below the boat on the right.  Still lots of stuff in the water that echo might identify.

 In the following shot, slowing from 22 mph to 3 mph.  The structure maintains bottom, but has too much garbage to be useful for me.  For info, the display is moving down so the new stuff is at the top and the history is at the bottom.  With a map of Lake Anna, it is simple to find where the boat is.

 The horizontal dashes are interferrence that I can't resolve.  Maybe a power line behind the dash.  The battery is isolated electrically for both hot and ground.  The same interference occurs with the start battery connection. However, this is a great structure shot as there is bait below the boat and obviously off to both sides.  Much too deep for cast net.  Yet, this might have been a small school of larger fish.  Only the echo knows for sure.  I'm thinking I should look at this area again.

Well, that's my water story for this trip.  Hurried back to the dock and called Mel to meet me.  Her arrival was just as I reached the dock.  She had a container of ice water to quench my thirst.  Held the boat to the tiny dock while I backed the trailer.  I've learned to keep the boat and trailer close enough so I can step without losing my balance.  Of course, I have my inflatable PFD on when ever I'm boating solo.  So, I get the boat on the trailer, Mel cranks the bow to the stop, and then pulls the trailer onto the lot.  Meanwhile, I take care of some stuff on the boat and climb off, Mel closes the gate and drives her Honda to the house.  Always great to have a spouse that helps with the boat and rushes to get dinner each evening.

I always forget something and today it was to reconnect the isolated battery charge line before I got off the boat.  Earlier, I remembered that I hadn't installed the bilge plug.  OK, I remembered that I put it in the previous day when I didn't get on the water.  Whew, need a written check list when I'm doing stuff solo.  I did record the screen shots to the storage media before I left the boat, likely a first! :) This is not a simple task per Navico engineering.  The Simrad water proof micro SD is hard for aged fingers to pull from the slot and maintain in possession.  Easy for the tiny gadget to drop to the floor, etc.  The Lowrance isn't much easier, except that the SD is standard size.  Still difficult to extract from the compartment.  Maybe I need a tool to help?

I've had trouble with the guide ons bending forward and back from minor collisions with the boat.  At home, when I was on the ground, I found that both are nearly broken off from cracks.  Need replacements before both fall off the trailer.  Better get them taken off the trailer today!  Did an on-line Overland order as the guide-ons were on sale.  Also ordered the LED lights for the top of the guide-ons.  I saw the clear lens, but also a picture of the lens with red rear and amber front.  Hope it comes with both.

Maybe get on the water tomorrow.  Need to make a trip early in the morning to view the differences in fish.  Or, go back to the dam area where I've seen some great display of something on echo that looks like inactive large stripers!  Might have to visit Fish Tales with my minnow bucket so I can have baits while headed toward the dam or dike 3.