Fishing (Not Necessarily ''Catching Fish'')

[seajaycecil@yahoo.com]

Willa and I love to fish. I have put a rack on the cap on top of the Ford Rainger that we pull behind the

coach and on this ''rack'' we haul a 'Portable Boat'. (I wont mention the name but it folds up and

is a wondeful fishing boat)

Anyhow, we have a five horse power motor to go on it and we will ''go fishing'' at the drop of a sinker. We

haul the boat most everywhere we go and we have fished in it from the Gulf of Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico

and most places in between that the water is deep enough to float the boat.

The boat weighs just 64 pounds so it is easy to slide up on the rack on the truck especially if I can get

some young folks to do it for me.

We winter in Florida and the boat is a must have. We always stay at state and county parks that are on the

water and we launch the boat and go ''catch supper''. Up on the Alaska Highway we spent a week at Muncho

Lake. We caught ''cut throat trout'' by the bucket full. Most of them were carefully un-hooked and released

but we did invite several for supper. Yummie.....

Out in Montana there is a little town called Ennis. West of town there is a ''city park'' on Lake Ennis. In this

lake is some of the biggest brown and rainbow trout I have ever caught. The browns were two pound and the

rainbows were three to three and a half pounds. The park is ''rough camping'' but it is wonderful. There are about four

waterfront campsights and two of them are ''handycap'' sights.

Down in Florida we stayed in a county park. E.G. SIMMONS is the name and its on the gulf side close to Tampa.

We launched the boat and went out into the bay fishing. Not much was biteing except the ''hammer head sharks''

We caught hammer heads from a foot long to three feet long. They were a blast and we released them by cutting

off the end of the hook and carefully putting them back in the water. These sharks have the most beautiful eyes. The

color is a gold/silvergray. They are fun to catch but always be careful with sharks because they will ''seek revenge

on your finger'' if you are foolish.

Lots of places you dont even need a boat to fish. Florida has preserved a lot of the old bridges going down to the

keys and they make excellent fishing piers and they are free to use.

Anyhow, try fishing. Lots of campgrounds have fishin' lakes and they are free and you dont need a license.

Be safe on the road .........

God bless this Nation .........

Seajay the sailor man .......

[Guest Wayne77590]

Sounds like a fish story to me!

Porta-Bote - you have the 8 footer model at 64 pounds. I have the 10 footer model and it has not seen water yet. I have the 5 hp Nissan to go with it, and it has never been fired.

Anyone want to buy?????

[seajaycecil@yahoo.com]

Yoooooh Marine. That is what I have and its the best fishing combination for use with a motor home. If i didnt

already have an outfit I would buy yours in a second.

Watts the matter Marine. You aint scared of a little deep water are you. For ten cents Ill teach you to navigate

so you can find your way back home.

Be safe Marine.

Seajay the sailor man ...............

[Chunkybeastracin@aol.com]

I was just reading through some of the old posts and cant resist reading about fish stories. I get jealous when I hear about people going fishing with their boats, first of all I dont have one and secondly, when I fish I hook up my snowmobile behind the RV and go ice fishing in bitter cold, but its still fun. I never caught anything worth bragging about but not for a lack of trying.

[mountainkowboy@verizon.net]

We were looking at an inflatable for our moho and using a Kota trolling motor on it. We just got into fly fishing and love it. We suck at it, but we still have fun.

[Guest Wayne77590]

Follow-up:

Seajay,

One of these days, when I'm rich like you and Willa, I'll spend the money on a rack for the top of the Saturn Vue, then we can have boat races.

Where do you put the motor when you are haulin' down the highway? I could put the seat down and carry it in the back of the Vue, but what to do when we want to take the pooch riding to look at cows.

Also, where to put the motor when you get to a CG. I guess you could shackle it to a tree, pole or tire.

[seajaycecil@yahoo.com]

SHUX. I lost my reply and now I gotta start over ....

To the guy and gal looking at the inflatable boat, SEE BELOW ...

Before you go the downs for the inflatable get in touch with Wayne the Marine. He has a ''port a boat'' just like mine and it is a fine piece of equipment He also has a motor that is brand new .. Mine is fifteen years old and it DOES NOT LEAK A DROP. I have used mine hundreds of times and would not leave home without it. Name a place with water and we have probably fished there.

To Wayne the Marine. We carry the boat assembled on top of the cap on the pick up truck. I welded up a ''frame'' to put it on and we leave it assembled with the ''seats'' and transom still inside the boat. I ''stretch it out'' with a combination of ropes attached to the bow and one across the transom of the boat. We hauled it all the way to Alaska and back to NC like that. I am tooooooooo lazy to take it apart and put it together, so I just leave it assembled. Come to think of it, I believe it has been ''put together'' since '05. No problem hauling it. When we get to the campground/lake I simply back up to the edge of the water and slide it off the back of the truck, stand it up on the transom and ''kick it over'' into the water ... BOOM ... SPLASH... I put the motor on and all the ''stuff inside'' and go fishin'.

In 15 years no one has ever stolen so much as a sinker out of the boat. I often leave it ''in the water'' tied to a tree with all my fishin stuff inside and the motor on the back ... NO PROBLEM ... YET.

No one bothers anything in the boat. My biggest concern is that they will take the whole outfit. It would be so easy to simply untie it and 'sail away. Hasn't happend yet and I hope it never does.

My idea is this: If you are in a campground and you can't leave your stuff out, YOU ARE IN THE WRONG CAMPGROUND.

Seajay the sailor man.

[seajaycecil@yahoo.com]

To Chuck and Ruth: The inflatable has many advantages for use with a motorhome. Its light and you can carry it almost anywhere you have room for a folded package. It is easy to use as long as you have an electric air pump like you use to pump up a air matress. You can pump it up by ''foot'' if it's not too big. The real downside of inflatables is that you better watch out for sharp objects, rocks, trees, submurged stuff, shells of about any kind, and FISH HOOKS. The main disatvantage is that they can go flat or at least leave a trail of bubbles when you hit something.

If you get ''seriously interested in a good boat, get in touch with Wayne the Marine. he has a ''Port a Boat'' that folds up to about 4 inches thick and is easy to carry on the side of a coach. You put the seats and transom in your compartment with the motor. I have one that is 15 years old. It is a fine craft and it DOES NOT LEAK ONE DROP. Wayne has a new motor to go along with his boat.

Seajay the sailor man

[lmsooter]

We were looking at an inflatable for our moho and using a Kota trolling motor on it. We just got into fly fishing and love it. We suck at it, but we still have fun.

It is always great to someone getting into flyfishing. My father-in-law got me started on the Conejos river in southern Colorado almost 39 years ago. It is the only equipment I use now. I sucked at first but with some practice it becomes natural and you don't even think about it. Good luck with a fun and challenging sport.

[pianodan]

I tried fly fishing in my youth when my family moved to Colorado (I was a senior in High school). Back then I was moderately successful. I think I must have had better coordination then. Now when I attempt it I usually manage to wrap myself up quite well or imbed the fly's hook somewhere on my body. I no longer fly fish, any skills I had with it got lost due to sea water saturation and catching fish with large fishing poles somwhere around San Diego. So, now that I live in Minnesnowta, the land of 10,000+ lakes, I use my 14 ft aluminum boat, take along a container of worms and and one of leeches, and I always bring home a limit of something.

When the water is hard like it is now, I don't fish. I tried that a couple of times, and I usually came home slightly under the weather, and had no fish to show.

Hey, SEAJAY, buddy, just keep on haranguing that grunt, he would feel unwanted if you quit.

[seajaycecil@yahoo.com]

Here is why I do not ''FLY FISH''.......

we were in cody wyoming. we were heading out for yellowstone but i wanted to go trout fishing while in cody.

there are many trout tackle shops in cody so i told willa that i was going to look into some trout fishing. she said she was going to hang out at the van and enjoy some reading. I got in the tracker and headed out looking for a tackle shop.

I stopped at ‘’bobs trout shop’ and went up to the counter.

‘’I want to go trout fishing. what do i need’’

bob started setting tackle on the counter.

here is the short list of items he suggested

2 pc flyrod . split bamboo hand made signature series $229.00

1 fly reel . all ball bearing, auto rewind, chrome $199.00

100 feet of floating fly line with tapered leader $ 50.00

one set of chest waders, lined for warmpth $129.00

one plaid shirt with deep top pockets $ 40,00

the list went on including a gps unit, bear spray a map of local rivers, bug spray, a fishing hat, a fishing vest, a hand made creel to hold the fish i catch, a hand made net for lifting the fish out of the water and lots of other ‘’stuff’’ that i have forgotten now.

bottom line, the total was little less than a grand without the fishing license.

I told bob i would get back with him on this and i sneaked out of the store.

i drove down the street to the local wal mart and went to the fishing department.

i asked some kid if they had a ‘’trout fishing’’ outfit and he showed me to isle 15. there it was.. the complete ensemble for trout fishing.

it included everything you needed from the 6 piece imitation bamboo fly rod with genuine plastic reel and line, fishing vest and hat. a set of chest waders made from the reinforced 6 mill polly complete with suspenders. a large box of imitation flies that are hand made by people in china. a map of some foreign country, a compass, a giant ¾ ounce bottle of bug/bear spray. all a man could need to go trout fishing ………. $59.95 plus tax.

i asked the kid if he knew a place i could go fishing if i bought this outfit. he said he sure did . he said his friend knew a guy that was distantly related to a man that had a ranch that had a river that was just teeming with trout. he could give me the directions.

i bought the $59.95 outfit and listened carefully to the instructions. he mentioned that the owner of this land liked coors beer and those ‘’sweet sixteen donuts’’ and it might be a good idea to carry some to give to him.

i bought the kit and headed out. you have to remember that this kid was not real accurate with his instructions to this fishing spot. i followed as best i could but i am sure i made a couple of wrong turns but i finally arrived at a gate. i opened the gate and proceeded down a dirt road thru another gate and toward a hill. excitement was overwhelming and i pressed on toward the edge of the hill .. i didn’t realize that the other side of the hill was a cliff. by the time i realized that this was a very steep drop off it was too late. i bumped over the edge and did a wild slide down the other side toward the river. with all the wheels locked on the tracker and panic in my eyes i approached the river at breakneck speed. lumps and bumps and many ‘cow pies’ later i arrived at the bottom of the hill with a cotton wood tree jammed against the front of the car.. one broken head light and a bent bumper no matter, i was on the madison river . during my ride down the hill the bumps had made the Coors beer pop out of the pack. one of them had ruptured and did a fish tale all over the tracker spraying everything with beer. the sweet sixteen bag of donuts had also ruptured and donuts were kinda scattered all over the tracker.

no matter i was on the ‘Madison river’ and in trout heaven.

when i got out of the tracker several cows came walking along the river bank toward me. this distracted me and i stepped into a fresh pile of cow poop. i said shux … i went in over my shoe top and my sock and my sneaker installY turned green. i said shux. i went to the back of the tracker and got out my fishing kit. i opened it and put the six piece imitation bamboo fly rod together. one of the sections kept falling out so i took some duct tape and taped the rod together at all the joints. i said shux. i got the reel out and discovered that one of the attachment tabs was missing so i taped the reel to the rod and installed the line. i didn’t know that the line had to be treated with wax in order to float. i put the tapered leader on the regular line but i got it backwards with the heavy end forward. i said shux ….

i took out the fishing vest and discovered it was the size that would fit a person about half as big as me. i put the vest on and when i touched my hands together in front of me the vest ripped up the back. at least it fit better now. the hat was a size 6 which is way too small for me but i put the string under my chin and that sorta held the hat on my head so long as i did not look down.

i reached for the waders and found that the had a hole in the left leg. i said shux … out came the duct tape again and i put a silver ‘’x’’ over the hole. i slid my left foot (the one with the cow poo on the shoe) into the wader and it slid right in all the way to the bottom. no problem except the clear plastic now had cow poo from the knee down. …. i propped myself against the tracker and slid my right leg into the waders. the only problem was that my right sneaker was very dry and it kinda stuck in the right leg of the waders about a foot from the bottom. i pushed hard to get the shoe in wader, lost my balance, my hat fell off my head and i fell over putting my hand in a large fresh cow pie to stop my fall. i wiped as much of the cow poo off my hand on the side of the tracker…. i said shux again…. i got back up and finally got my right shoe into the waders without tearing the material. i put the suspenders over my shoulders and found they were way too short. i adjusted them all the way out and they were still too short. i pulled the waders way up till the crotch was cutting into me and got the suspenders attached. i leaned over to pick up my hat and it felt like someone had castrated me with a rope.

i took the flyrod and ‘’fished up’’ my hat and got out the flies. i popped open the package and dropped about half the flies on the ground. i took the ones that didn’t hit the ground on to the fishing hat. i put the hat back on my head and put the string under my chin. i picked one of the best looking flies on the leader. i reached into the package and pulled out the genuine plastic fish creel and my machine made dip net,

i was ready for the river. i decided it would be a good idea to have a bite to eat before going fishing so i opened the door of the tracker and found a beer and some of the cleanest donuts and flopped in the seat for a snack.

the cows had been watching this whole procedure with great interest. i think they though i was going to feed them or something.

it should be understood that when you fish for trout you should get into the river and fish down stream so you don’t frighten the fish.

it should also be understood that even thought the water looks nice it is usually moving faster than it appears and that it usually is running over slick rocks.

anyhow, i grabbed my trusty six piece rod with the taped joints and the genuine plastic fishing reel that was taped to the handle of my genuine imitation split bamboo flyrod and my genuine hand tied Chinese made fishing fly and i approached the Madison river with all the determination of a bull fighter going into combat.

i looked over the embankment and found that the ‘’river’’ was about three feet down from the to of the embankment. i grabbed the cotton wood tree that i had smashed into with the tracker. i kinda swung one leg down to the river and hung onto a limb while i got the other foot into the water.

the water was about two foot deep and running about three hundred miles per hour. i said shux …..

when i finally got my courage up i turned loose of the limb. the rock i was standing on was very slick and i lost traction with my right foot. it slid over the side of the rock … i said shux….

things kinda went into slow motion about then.

when i lost my footing i jammed the genuine imitation split bamboo fly rod down on the bottom of the river for support. this was almost worthless because the rod bent and separated at one of the taped joints. both feet went up in the air and i fell butt first into water that was just slightly above freezing. the waders instantly filled with water, i lost my hat and wallowed around breaking the fishing rod in at least four pieces. in the process i managed to stick the hook in the fly in my left thumb…… i said darn and shux and oh fudge …

i wallowed around and finally found a flat spot on the bottom of the river and when i stood up the waders were full of water and i looked like bozo the clown. the weight of the water overcame the strength of the plastic and the waders exploded in the crotch. there i stood with the suspenders still over my shoulders in a set of blown out waders. i said heck and shux. i stumbled and waded out of the current finding a low place to crawl out of the river.

my fly rod was gone. my hat was gone, my waders were busted and i had a hook in my thumb. i crawled out on the bank and sat down. it was about that time that i noticed a man on a horse about twenty feet from me.

‘’ do you know you are trespassing mister?’’

‘’ old man McKinney don’t allow no fishin in this river mister. of course no one could accuse you of actually fishing’’ ‘’you seemed to be mostly stumbling around like someone from back east’’

i asked him if he would like a donut and a beer and he said he wasnt interested. he did tell me that he would help me get the tracker off the cottonwood tree and show me the way off the ranch.

i got the hook out of my thumb and the cowboy hooked his horse to the tracker and i managed to get back on the dirt road and headed out toward the motor home.

since then I have done no more fly fishing ......

Seajay the sailor man

[Guest Wayne77590]

Great story!

And not even a mention of how a Marine could have done it better.

[lmsooter]

Seajay,

I now understand why you do not flyfish. I love you stories! We must meet you someday. Maybe in Albuquerque if you are there.

[seajaycecil@yahoo.com]

First of all, Thanks for the compliment. Most folks just wish I would either shut up or simply ''go away."

If you enjoy my stories, go to Destinations/Attractions forum and click on page 2 ... scroll down to the bottom of the page to my posting called NORTH TO ALASKA and I have entered some stories that are written in ''satire'' but based on actual expierences I have had while traveling these past 15 years.

Seajay the sailor man.

P.S.: If you like my stuff send me an e-mail and I can send you many pages of my ''expierences while motorhoming." This is open to any one interested ... no charge for this, guys.

[NWJeeper]

SEAJAY,

Bass fishin' isn't much cheaper. In the last year I have spent:

$17,000, '98 Skeeter bass boat

$200 Kistler rod

$200 assorted reels

$300 at a minimum for more baits and lures.

$180 life jackets for boat

And probably more that I have selectively erased from my memory to lessen the pain. (kinda like when I gas up the motorhome each time).

The worst thing is when my wife lost 3 of my best lures to the cost of about $60 AND out-fished me at one lake last summer. HUMPF!!!

It sure is fun though!

[BillCox]

HI folks, my wife, Carol, retired in March and now we are planning some longer trips around the country.  I want to get back to fishing and since we can't tow a boat, I am asking if anyone has a favorite boat or method of carrying one.  We put a heavy duty rack on top of the Wrangler and planned to get another Gheenoe the next time we are in Florida.  Now I'm taking a second look at inflatables or folding boat.  There are too many choices out there and I hope to hear from someone who has one.  I want something that can take a regular motor under 10hp.  We only stay 3-4 days when we stop so it has to be easy to set up and take down. 

[hermanmullins]

Bill, 

Welcome to the Forum.

A few years back I saw a rack for cars to carry a John Boat on top of a car. What I remember was that it was mounted in the receiver hitch. It had a fixture that you connected the stern of the boat to the fixture. you then lifted the bow up and it folded over the top of the vehicle and on to a post mount on the front of the vehicle. The boat was secured to the rear on the fixture and to the post in the front. The boat was upside down and would not collect water in case of rain. You might try looking at Cabela's or Bass Pro's. Hope this helps. If not you could take up golf.

 

Herman 

[manholt]

Instead of a 10hp gas, get an electric...even with battery, it's a lot lighter!  55fp of thrust is plenty big for your needs...

[rsbilledwards]

I guess you should know huh Carl?  Boats and motors right up your alley way. I bought a 15 year old Old Town Kevlar Canoe a few months ago  that had never been in the water. It just hung under a porch is as wet as it ever got. Since I do not have paddlein stamina any longer bought a Min Kota for it. Should push it 10 or 15 knots maybe. A lot of relaxing to be done.

 

BillEdwards

[manholt]

Bill E.  With a cooler, fishing pole and umbrella...sounds good to me!  The pole is for the look!   Oh.  Bring a paddle, life west and make that 2 coolers....

[hermanmullins]

Carl,

Life West, is that anything like Life East?????

Herman

[manholt]

Herman, I'm thinking about a little wine, "vest", dumb spell check missed it !  It was not me!  

[wayne77590]

Maybe to much wine!

[rsbilledwards]

And he is supposed to be the "Big Boat "guy like fast big boats. Neither one knows how they want to say what they meant to say. The old part catches up every once in a while .Happens to me too and no wine beer or other liquid refreshment needed.

BillE 

[manholt]

Senior moment...I'm sticking to it ! 

Wayne, I said "I'm thinking about a little wine". 

Bill E.  Do you have any pictures of your Canoe and 356 Porsche?