140 Trips Taken In The Trophy In 2023

 I have slowly been working on a spreadsheet to keep track of how many trips I have taken with each of my two motors. This year I took 116 trips with the 1993 Johnson and 24 trips with the 2001 Johnson for a total of 140 trips in the Trophy this year. That is a fairly significant drop from the 162 trips I took last year and the 184 trips I took in 2021, both years on the 1993 Johnson. Motor issues depress me and I had those in 2023. Platte Lake freezing out was a factor as was a late Spring, and I fished into November the previous two years. I took 35 trips in July and 32 trips in June this year and only 31 trips in September and October combined. No trips in the Trophy this November so far this year and there probably won't be any. However, I'm not going to rule it out completely as that I am storing the boat here this winter and the forecast has taken a turn in a warmer direction.

2001 Johnson Back On The Trophy

Picture From 2019

 I don't know why I didn't have the motivation to get my motors switched once it was clear the the 1993 Johnson was not going to snap out of the loss of speed this time; I came to that realization around the end of last month. 

I didn't get the Trophy out of the lake until Sept. 16th.

I didn't get "My Other Johnson" switched until the 18th and didn't get it back in the lake until a day later.

I hope the 2001 Johnson's run this time is a lot longer than its first one, basically four months of fishing.

2001 Johnson On The Trophy

 

15" Shower Blows (Bone)

1993 Johnson in Pole Barn Waiting for Pete

Waiting out a rain delay

Todd and I got my 2001 Johnson onto a stand from where it had been sitting in the pole barn on June 1st. On June 2nd I got it running on the stand, Dad and I pulled the Trophy out of the water,  Steve and family arrived at the Lake Place and Todd had guests up so we didn't get the motors switched out until today.  That process went relatively smoothy other than me making a mess and getting frustrated when I switched the lower unit gear lube.  I had the Trophy heading down the road just after 7PM.  Todd dropped off Steve and Belle at the access just as it was my time to put in and went back to the back side of the Big Island with Dev, Mal, and Kristen.  We got the boat in and the motor worked as it should, so I drove over to Todd and the girls.  Mallory and Dev were paddling over to me in tubes when a thunderstorm started up just to the NW of the lake.  The girls got in my boat.  We brought the tubes to the pontoon, grabbed life jackets for the girls then skedaddled for the Lake Place. I dropped the girls off got things situated for fishing in the Trophy and took it for a quick spin around our bay.  Speed is comparable to the previous motor.  I then parked as we waited to see what the storm that was developing just to the South would do.  It rained for maybe 20 minutes.  Todd and I headed out at about 8:40PM or so.  He suggested we try the slop just to the West of the small island so that is where we went.  He got one small pike on Big Sexy and had a bigger pike come all the way out of the water and miss it.  I had a couple of pike like boils.  It was getting dark so I went to the south point of the small island.  That is where Todd caught the only bass off the night well past the time mosquitoes began harassing us.  We left shortly after    

Trophy On the Water

( Picture not from today)

I got the Trophy (Cyberfish's boat) out on the water today at Rock Lake. The engine started right up and I took it for a quick spin just to check everything out. The thing is I'm going to try hanging a different 25hp Johnson on the boat. This other 25 is almost 10 years newer and has rope start back up to the electric start. With the motor on the boat now, if the electric start fails for some reason you're pretty much hosed and I don't like that idea.

I also have work to do on the electric trolling motor, which wasn't even on the boat today.

Trailer lights worked!!!

Hopefully I will have the motor situations squared away by the end of this weekend.

No fishing today. I watched American Idol results instead. I hoped and figured it would be Scotty and Lauren. Haley never should have gone as far as she did with some of the other talent this season. James was robbed!!!