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.
No comments:
Post a Comment