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.

Another afternoon in sweltering 95 heat . . .

OK, I launched the boat solo and went toward the                                   Dam.
Most things went OK after I mowed the weeds in the yard.  Got to the launch and the gate was open.  The gate doesn't keep the launch private anyway as Rockland Creek is a gated community?  Headed out the cove and the Simrad Chirping the 150 shows incredible amounts of small fish.  My objective today is to try the HST wide angle ducer in single frequency or chirp at 200 or 83.  Looked in a familiar area up river from the dam and found marks.

Don't have a clue what they are, but there were lots of fish!  Not sure what ducer I was using and may have networked the HST at 83 to the Simrad for this shot.

The next 2 shost must be the TM150 on Medium chirp of marks in the same general area.

Needless to say, I had my toothache in the water and hit bottom with it and started the jig.  After some time, I examined the toothache and recognized the manufacturers protective tubes on the hook points?  Yep, took a few minutes to get the toothache hook freed from the protective tubes.  Kept trying to motor back above the marks and let the wind drift me back, but only had one of something that may have been a snag.  Broke off just before the surface.  Likely a rope, etc.

The Lowrance structure kept going into pause, so I turned the networking off.  Still happened, so I disconnected the ethernet cable.  Must be something in the software that isn't set right.  Also, I see lots of dashes that extend beyond the bottom and are not fish marks.  Seem more like interferrence, but I'm not sure how or what.  The source battery for the electronics was isolated at the time and I disconnect the onboard charger so there can't be any feedback through the Trolling Motor.  Yet, I wasn't using the trolling motor?

Seems like there's a Gen 3 HDS12 in my dreams!

Well, I know the Simrad works just fine with either the

On the water again . . .

       Made it to the lake again, but on a Sun?
What a terrible day to try a water trip.  Friday was bad enough with horrendous boat traffic, but Sunday?  Beautiful weather and everyone wanted on the lake.  Even the Rockland Creek parking lot at the ramp was so full of parked cars that I could hardly manage the launch.  The newly taped back up camera on the topper window helped.  Again, I backed the trailer close enough to the dock to step across to the boat.  This day, I wasn't into fishing, though I did take one down rod and a casting rod along with my tackle box just in case.

Again, ran the TM 150 with medium chirp on the Simrad with the networking turned off.  Ran structure and navigation on the Lowrance.  I'm sure I can't run the HST-USBL wide angle transducer and the TM 150 simultaneously even though each is on a separate display.  Identical signals are involved.  Structure operates on a different frequency than the TM 150 or the HST wide angle (I call it broadband).

These shots were at various locations.  On some, I tried to toggle the coordinates in the screen shot by bringing the cursor on screen.  Then, toggling the "clear cursor" to go back to the active scan.

Lots of small fish in shallow water, some larger on the bottom in the above shot.  The lower shot shows much larger fish, but not deep enough to be stripers.  OTOH, could be fish feeding on a broken bait pod?  Surprised the surface temp is quite high at 89.1 degrees.

In the lower shot, the boat is slowing as there's too many marks in the column.  No clue as to what kind of fish, yet, in a depth zone that could be catfish or stripers.  Notice the drop in surface water temp.

More marks (lower shot) at higher speed and slowing to reveal what is obviously white perch due to the stacking. Some larger marks on the bottom are likely catfish.

The lower shot was made to show the GPS coordinates.  Pretty shallow and likely catfish.  Some stacking that might be white perch.

The lower shot may be feeding stripers as the depth seems right and the surface water temperature seems lower.

The lower shot was taken to show the GPS coordinates of the above shot.

I decided to shut the TM150 medium chirp off and see what the HST-USBL wide angle echo on the Lowrance HDS9 gen 2.  Obviously, I needed lots of tweaking to get arches that mean something.  However, I see some things I wasn't seeing with the TM 150.  The fish marks are on and show the depth of each fish.  I see the thermocline at 30 feet.  The shot is magnified (lower left says 2X) and the actual is shown in the narrow window to the right.  Other settings are shown in the far right window.

I think the above and below shots are consecutive with the lower showing the GPS coordinates.  Might have moved on a bit while trying to get the shot recorded.

Obviously a bait ball with GPS coordinates and magnified 2X.

Nothing needs no explaination in the above shot.  The lower shows what might be some pretty large fish?

Well, that's it for the report of the Sunday screen shots report.  Have to do a lot of tweaking on both units to make good use of the data.

At the dock, I got the boat tied up and backed the trailer close to the dock.  Could have stepped across and hauled the boat out, but Mel said to call for her help, so I did.  She arrived with a cup full of ice and a can of Lemon O Rita.  Took about two swallows to finish the liquid and then the trip to the house to devour the ice.  At the house, I looked in the SD card case and the micro for the Simrad wasn't in it.  Had to ask Mel to get the card from the desktop and bring it to me.  Wives are wonderful!  She puts up with a lot of my shit, that's for sure.

I might get the drain fitting on the bait tank resealed with caulk and fill it today with our well water.  I'll add a tablespoon of calcium chloride and 3 cups of rock salt, a tablespoon of "shad keeper" and let the aeration run over night.  Need to get an aquarium thermometer so I can compare the shiner temp with the bait tank.  Trying to keep several 2 liter bottles frozen to help with the bait tank temperature.  Yet, my diabetes insulin shipments contain many gel packs that I should be freezing to use as they should be much more efficient than water.  Maybe fill the 2 liter bottle?