Playing hide and seek with corrosion is not a fun game

 Well!  The batteries on the trolling motor haven't been holding a charge....after less than a half hour of use, they die...they should last for 3-4 hours at least!!  Our first set of batteries lasted over 6 years, and this set was less than a year old!

They've been plugged in overnight and still read dead this morning, so we took them to the parts store to have them checked.  One had bad cells and the other one is borderline bad...so rather than spank it and put it in the corner to think about its behavior, we decide to replace both batteries.

Dale has been wanting to get plastic boxes for the batteries to keep them out of the weather and salt water.  So we bought the boxes along with the 2 new batteries.

We had unhooked the myriad of tangled cables, and marked them all so we knew how to hook everything back up.

Then we removed the old trays that held the old batteries, cleaned all the dirt and sand that had been hiding underneath, and filled the old screw holes with silicon.

We had to figure out where the new boxes would go, because they need a little more room than the little trays. We had to hook up the cables again to make sure we had enough clearance.  When I started putting things together, I noticed that one of the cables had busted almost all the way...it was being held on by only a little piece of the plastic sheath!

I was looking at the wire, and I saw that it was corroded...so I cut a little piece off so I could put a new end on...and...more corrosion!  I kept cutting off little pieces...I showed Dale, and he took over cutting off little pieces...and we had to cut off almost 3 inches to get to good wire!  Finally, I got to put the new end on...and moved on to other cables...When I moved another wire, I felt a tiny "snap" and there went another wire!!  We looked at a couple more wires, and they were all breaking and totally corroded!

Now, mind you, we've learned a lot about corrosion and rust since we got to Rockport last October, and a wonderful product called CorrosionX, which is my new best friend...but this didn't happen just in the last 6 months...this is years of corrosion making its way up the wires, inside the plastic sheathing so we couldn't have seen it or known it was there.

So now we're wondering if that's why these batteries only lasted a year...we've never had batteries die so quickly!

But here's the difficult part...all of the broken wires are from the battery charger...and they're hard-wired to the charger...so I don't know if they're replaceable, or if we're going to be in the market for a new charger now, too!  

I guess it's time to start researching charger repair....and we definitely won't be using the trolling motor until we get it fixed or replaced...Oh, well...you know what BOAT stands for, don't you?

Break Out Another Thousand!!

1 Fish...2 Fish...Redfish...Black Drum!

So we went out again on Monday because the weather was supposed to be nice (remember, I said "supposed") with calm winds.  We decided to go out earlier than usual for us because it was supposed to get a little windy and rainy in the afternoon.

We got up and got ready and when we got outside it was FOGGY!!  Years ago I listened to a morning radio show on B100 called the B Morning Zoo...they had Kermit the Frog give the morning fog report...and he reported the amount of fog at 1 to 5 "Piggers"...so when we went out to go fishing on Monday morning, I would have to say it was about a 4 pigger!  Pretty foggy....

As we launched the fog was starting to clear a little...maybe down to a 2 or 2 1/2 pigger...so we plugged in our navigation lights and started out down the ICW.  The foggy morning was quiet and calm, and the sight of a shrimp boat heading past us was pretty majestic.

And there were dolphins hanging around our fishing area, which usually means there's fish nearby!  (And they're such talented dolphins...they swim sideways!)

The spot we had picked wasn't far, so we got there pretty quickly.  We were using frozen shrimp and FishBites, a packaged scented bait that we had heard was working pretty well for Black drum and Redfish right now.

We fished the first spot for about a half hour and caught a couple of small fish, but nothing we could keep.  So we moved to another spot...and no bites there...We moved a couple more times during the morning, trying to find "the" spot.

As the morning progressed, the fog cleared, but the sky was looking pretty ominous and dark.  It started sprinkling and the wind picked up a little...I'm not too opposed to fishing in the rain, but I'm really not fond of fishing in the rain with the wind blowing, too...and the dogs are really not fond of it!!  Samson was giving me dirty looks the whole time...

But even though the weather was kinda crappy, we fished on, because that's how we roll...we're either hard-core or crazy...you decide which one!

So we picked one more spot...the one where Dale had caught his first keeper Black Drum, across the ICW from where we were currently fishing.  The reason we hadn't gone there in the first place was that we had lost a bunch of tackle there because there are oyster beds right where we were fishing and we were trying to bottom fish because the Drum were staying deep, in about 5 feet of water.

(Now before we got here, we had only fished mountain lakes that were 30-300 feet deep...and when we got here, we got told that the fish were deep and to fish in the deeper waters...so one day, I asked what is considered "deep" here and was told that down here, 4 feet is deep!  Everything is relative...)

So we went across the ICW to that spot and tossed in a couple of lines...after a few minutes, Dale's line went ZING! and his rod bent over...he reeled in a nice big Redfish, but when we tried to net it, it spit out the hook and it went flying right past my head!  But it missed me "by that much"!!  Oh, well...you can't catch 'em all...and at least he got to see it.

Then about 5 minutes later, he reeled in because his line had gone slack and he wanted to check his bait.  As he reeled, all of a sudden, it took off and spooled some yardage!  He reeled, the fish fought...it was a great battle!  Dale finally won, and we netted a nice 21", 5 lb Black Drum!  

Then about 10 minutes later, he reeled in a 20 3/4" Redfish!  The Redfish put up a good fight, too! 

A little while later, Dale's pole bent over...he grabbed it and it ran his line out fast...it must have been really big because it took his line and before he knew it, his line snapped!  It took his leader and all! 

I still hadn't caught anything keepable, but I wasn't giving up...I got caught up a couple of times on the oysters, but the nice little pinfish would grab my bait and try to run with it...they weren't big enough to get hooked, but they would move my tackle off the oysters and get me unstuck!  If only they would quit stealing my shrimp!!

After the pinfish got my line loose from the oysters, I cast one more time into the 5 foot water...and...BAM! something grabbed my line and started running!!  The fight was on!  I reeled...it ran, spooling my line...I reeled some more...and finally I got the nice Black Drum to the boat where Dale netted it.  It was my first Black Drum and was about 20 1/2", 5 lbs.

We fished for a little while longer but the wind was getting pretty strong so we decided to head for home...what happened next is for another post...I think I'll call it "The boater's Walk of Shame" although it doesn't involve walking at all...

Fishing, Finding, and Catching

 So I never really thought about it before, but there's a huge difference between "fishing," "finding," and "catching".  

Take the last few weeks, for instance.  We had that nasty cold spell that killed a bunch of fish here.  And ever since, we haven't done very good.

We've gone "fishing" multiple times.  We see others coming back with lots of nice fish, and lots of posts about people getting lots of nice fish...but we haven't been getting anything, often not even getting a bite!

People tell us "we limited out here" or "they were killing it there"...but when we go "here" or "there," do we come home with any fish?  Not a one.  It gets pretty frustrating sometimes...

But just being out on the water "fishing" outweighs the lack of "catching".  (Although, catching is definitely more fun than just fishing.)  

Like last week...we were told about a spot where we had never fished before, where the person who told us about it and his friend had limited out on large Black Drum 2 days in a row.  We scoped out the area on Google Earth, and picked out our areas to go.  It was about an hours' drive to the launch, so we got up before daybreak and headed out.  We launched the boat, got to the area, and started fishing.  It was a great day, although it was kind of windy.  We fished all of the guts (that's what they call dug-out channels here).  No bites.  We fished deep...down to 10 feet deep...No bites.  We fished shallow...about 1 foot of water...No bites.  We fished every depth in between...No bites.  But when we got back to the marina there was a guide taking pictures of his 3 clients and their 12 nice Black Drum!  I asked them how deep they were fishing when they caught their fish, and they told me they were caught in 7 feet of water...we had fished all over that depth, and deeper, and shallower...oh, well...it was a good day "fishing".

I've realized that "finding" is a big part of "fishing" because if you can't find them to fish for them, you can't "catch" them!  And I am becoming convinced that "finding" is the hardest part of fishing.  You have to know a lot about the fish that you want to catch...behavior, feeding habits, general physiology...there's a lot that goes into it.  

Now, the guides know how to find the fish...they know where they'll be on a given day at a given time.  They consider the tides, temperature, wind, location...lots of stuff...and it's because they do this every day.  It's their livelihood...it's how they feed their families...they have to find the fish.

We've had guides tell us exactly where to go, exactly when to be there, and exactly what to use to catch the fish....and we went there, and did what we were told, and didn't get a single bite!  We were even where others were catching fish right next to us!

Maybe you're thinking about now that I'm whining about not "catching" lots of big fish...but I'm not really.  Fishing is fun! (unless you're in the middle of Diamond Lake during a massive Midge hatch, but that's a nightmare for another time)  Even when we're not catching the big ones...although catching the big ones is REALLY fun!

So after reading a bunch of posts on a local fishing page, we decided to go out this last Tuesday for a while.  We were betting that since it's still been cool, the fish we wanted would be kind of deep.  We headed down the ICW to a gut only a few hundred yards away from the marina.  We tossed in our lines and BAM! we started catching fish!  I caught a couple of small Redfish, and Dale caught a keeper Black Drum!  This was our first Black Drum!  We were excited!  He caught another small drum and a small redfish...and just as fast as it started, it ended...we didn't catch any more fish...

I watch tons of videos from pros and great fisher-people, and one consistent theme is that if you are in a spot for over 20 minutes and not getting bites, you need to move to a new spot.  So we moved to a new spot...and...nothing...we moved around a couple more times...and...nothing...But at least we were catching some fish again!

We've also been told that "catching" here during the colder months can be difficult...so I don't feel bad at all...I've talked to people here who have "fished" here all their lives and still don't "catch" much.  I know we'll do better when we come back in October for next winter season...the boat is all set up, we know more techniques, we know more about the behavior of our target fish...

All I can say is...our next season is going to be epic!!

Here's a pic of Dale with his Black Drum...it looks really small in the picture, but it's almost 16"...