After a long, long time of working and waiting and a little bit of dough my boat project finally came to fruition on lake Zumbro, April 17, 2010. It is a day that I won’t soon forget and neither will my fishing partners.
After the three years of working to get my purchase on the water it was an unexplainable feeling to finally back it down the boat ramp; see some before and after pics below. After the boat was safely floating in the water the next thing I had to worry about was if a 50 horse motor could get it on plane. Two group 29 batteries, extra wood construction, a battery charger, a larger trolling motor and a live well full of water added a LOT of new weight up front but were still no match for the motor. 
The boat topped out at 27mph… life is good. A more in-depth project post will come at a later date – on to the fishing.
Although Doug was meant to be on the maiden voyage trip some unfortunate circumstances kept him off the water. I am extremely bummed that we weren’t able to meet up especially since he played a big part in the boat project. My family joined me in his place and we had a blast.
The water temp was 60 degrees and the wind was blowing. Once everyone’s rods were set up with what they wanted to use, we got our lures wet and started catching right away. Holly picked a flu-flu, Trinity picked a mini-mite and I chose to use a culprit tassel tail. Holly knows her baits because she was on fire 
. It didn’t take long for Trinity to have me change his lure to the flu-flu after Holly horsed in a 13″er. Soon, we were all catching fish and enjoying the sunny, breezy day. In about two hours from now we’ll be munching on fresh crappie for lunch. 
With the temps getting closer to where they need to be for the spawn I would imagine things will keep heating up.
Not only did I get to fish from a new boat but I got to try my new 80# iPilot Terrova and x67c too. The x67c isn’t the latest and greatest but it does a really great job showing changes in the substrate which made a difference on this outing. And its ability to clearly show schools of fish and allow me to say “watch your rod” helped tremendously. The iPilot is a great fishing tool. Record a track makes concentrating on fishing a breeze and spot lock does a great job keeping the boat in one spot in wind and waves. I may need to play with cruise control a bit more since I had a little trouble with that feature but the GPS speed readout on the remote was awesome to have for manual operation. Thanks to Wade from JollyAnn for putting those tools in my boat for a much more reasonable price than I could get elsewhere 
All said and done, the maiden voyage was well worth the wait… I can’t wait to get out again.
Chris
Nice boats guys. Enjoy. 
