WaterChap, Chick, Bass, 10/27/18, solo

[FishNews]

Fished the Hooker TX out off HBSP. Blasted off with another club out of KY that was also running a Tx with even more boats. Between that and the BFL, I was a little worried, but I didn’t feel any pressure. There probably was pressure wherever the fish were!<br /><br />I had my motor serviced by Silvertalon a few days ago. Replaced the impeller and straightened the prop a tiny bit. My boat now make half as much noise, runs twice as smooth and goes 5 mph faster. I have a 91 90hp Evinrude and I gave it to Glen with a top end of 35. Now it’s 40. No idea what he did that would have made that much difference, but wowers!<br /><br />Caught one largemouth, 2.5lbs. Lots of tiny white bass. Tried up Wolftever and around the park. The wind was pretty bad. At one point I got too deep in the grass and had to pull my trolling motor up to clear it. While I was clearing it the wind was blowing me hard into the bank. So I realized, “This is why people have push poles.” I got on my knees and paddled my boat out of the grass, dropped the trolling motor and kept getting blown back, even at 5. It is a 70lb thrust motor. I realized my batts were almost dead from fighting the wind. I was blown back towards the shore. So I had to paddle again, this time far enough to drop my motor. I realized, “This is why people have lithium batteries.” I tried drifting like I used to do in lagoons on the coast, but the boat was moving too fast in the wind. Third thought, “This is why people have Talons.”<br /><br />If any of you were in the two other boats in the slough, I was happy to provide the entertainment!<br /><br />It was getting closer to weigh in so I thought I’d try a few more protected spots. Gunning there I heard a knocking and saw my transducer flopping behind the boat and every few seconds popping out into my motor. Unbelievably, it still works. <br /><br />I went in a little earlier than everyone else, and was a little discouraged. But it turned out that I didn’t do too bad comparatively. It seemed like tough fishing for everyone.