EricM, ANOTHER DISASTER (and a 52 lb fish), blue cat, 4-27-15

[FishNews]

Well,Spurhunter must have been on my side of town.<br /><br />I loaded up and hit the road for a bit of early fishing (still dark!). I had gone quite a ways when a sheriff lit me up. I was pretty sure that I hadn't done anything wrong for several hours so I pulled over. He got me out of the truck and showed me that my MinnKota trolling motor had self-deployed and was throwing sparks all over the place. emoBang emoBang Guess I was lucky that Tennessee has legal fireworks or I would have gotten a ticket. I felt sufficiently foolish and thanked the man for stopping me.<br /><br />The skeg on the trolling motor was completely ground off, the aluminum cap and the steel housing were ground flat, and the plastic propeller was partly ground off. I really, really hoped that the housing wouldn't leak, since that would involve the purchase of a new trolling motor, and the cost of my fish per pound is already awfully high. I checked the locking system and it worked fine, so I must not have gotten it locked yesterday. Somehow probably Spurhunter's fault.<br /><br />Well, I needed to test the newly design-altered trolling motor, so I went ahead and launched. It actually worked, but at a setting of 4-1/2 (of 10) the lopsided prop vibrated enough that the unit would shut itself down. It was, however, enough to control my drift until the wind got too strong. <br /><br />The only fish caught today was a 52 pound blue cat (yes, on the 6 pound test line). Yesterday it took me just short of 2 hours to land a 55 pounder. Today I managed to boat the 52 in only 40 minutes. Amazing how different two fish that are just about the same size will fight. I did break off a second fish (I did not cut off any line and re-tie), but I think I will blame Spurhunter for that too...............<br /><br />I met Jimbow of the forum and his daughter at the ramp, and before he found out about today's foolishness he commented about Spur's and my luck, so that worked out about perfectly too.<br /><br />Today's pics: the disaster, the reaction to the disaster, and another great fish.<br />