Cayuga Lake out of Myers Park 9/14 AM
I’ve been off the water for around 12 days due to some issues on both of my boats. It is rare that something like that ever happens, but it was a perfect storm. My 2013 Crestliner is running great but I had an issue with the trolling motor mount/bow of the boat that needs to be taken care of. Not the end of the world, so I figured I would just run my 2002 FishHawk. Unfortunately my old trusty Yamaha motor finally “gave up the ghost” and is in need of a major repair – the head gasket is shot. Instead of dropping megabucks on a major repair, I figured it was time to re-power.
BTW, I didn’t mind having nearly two weeks off during the middle of the summer. It felt great!
I was able to get a great deal from Quinn and the guys at Silver Lake Marine on a brand new 2018 Mercury 115 hp 4 stroke. They happened to have it in stock and within 4 days I was ready to roll! All the fuel lines were replaced, ignition, kill switch and throttle as well. So it’s almost like having a new boat. I will now start saving up for the boat (sans motor) that will eventually replace my 2002 Fish Hawk.
It felt like a nearly a month since I’d been out on the water. The last trip was with the Hermans and part of the reason we didn’t do better (though we did ok) was that the Yamaha was actiing up and I didn’t want to push the issue so we stayed close to Taughannock Park. Today was “break-in” day for the new motor. I picked Charlie and Mike up from Taughannock at 8 am and it was off to the races. Fishing was fantastic with the guys landing 22 lakers. Three browns were also lost boatside due to various mishaps. The incredible thing was the size of the lakers. Half of them were over 28″ long and up to 33″. They are still feeding heavily. We had very hot fishing the whole time we were out – from 8 am until around 12:15 pm. I expect good action over the weekend. The fronts are what tend to slow things down.