Maiden Voyage - what a start !!!

[JHbowhunter]

Maiden voyage of my "new" 2010 Carolina Skiff 198 DLV  with 115 Yamaha 4 stroke today...   Leonardo launch.   

Appreciated @Buck154 being there for the maiden voyage, my son needs more boating experience and had no idea how this boat would run.  We only had 15 rods and 200 lbs of tackle to put her to the test!  (I think that is accurate - btw).  

Boat totally slogged out of the hole shot - literally slowed to a crawl at full throttle...    I was heartbroken.  However as I backed off it started to run a bit smoother and just had to baby it for a while.  We finally got it up on plane around 3000-3500 RPM and motor was running smooth but give it any more and it would bog right down.  The couple I bought it from has been going through some cancer and it really has not been run much in last few years - certainly not at all in a year. 

So I am thinking hey " boat floats, motor runs good up to 3500 RPM, we can stay in this area by the Earle and just fluke all day. Boat started power up more and more as we got further out and finally got it up to even 5000 RPM but still could not bottom out it would bog. 

All of a sudden we were in bunker - typical bunker not thinking much of it except my Garmin Fishfinder was lit up with big fish top to bottom!    Now we were prepared for livelining, trolling and primarily fluke but thats not quite prime time yet. 

I went to idle and told Jake to grab the snag rod (17# mono - @Buck154 hates mono) and we quickly get a few bunker in the livewell.   Next cast Jake get bunker #3 as he starts to real in  - BIG FISH on the weighted treble!.  

(lesson learned #1) - dedicated rods with better line to bunker snagging. 

Anyway - after a long lengthy battle we boated a beast of a fish - 45" fat striped bass. It bottomed out all the scales we had at 30#, and my son "swears" based on what he curls it was 40#      Ok so high 30s maybe 40... lol 

Keep in mind, this is a mid-level 7' saltwater only Tsunami rod and equally as middlin' Okumo real with 17# mono that was at least 5 years old !   Thank god it at least had a 40# floro leader on it. 

Ok so basically 15 minutes into the maiden voyage, we had a 45" bass pushing near 40# in the boat and released!   Will never forget that as long as I live. 

We messed around with the bass in that area for a while but were getting every bunker sawed off by bluefish that were not big enough to finish the job. 

We ran out to middle of bay and saw quite a few boats  closer to SI - and all of a sudden saw bunker jumping and getting pushed.. I slowed down, the screen lit up and we got the few live bunkers we had in the water.     Started snagging with the one snag rod.   We got to experience some wild action for a while, although our hookup ratio sucked with 9/0 circle hooks. John got a nice 38"  on live bunker we watched it hit (after going like 0-5).      Then John  got a big 43" also on the weighted treble as he was trying to make bait.             Then Jake got a nice fish probably 40" on a live bunker after many missed run-offs as I was missing bass after bass myself.      Finally I was able to get solid on the smallest bass of the day - looked like a 33" fish... 

We ran all around the bay - hooked up with @MGHunter66 who had been doing well closer to shore further west on the flatties I think getting 3 keepers...     We got a few as he was leaving but no keepers.   Tried several random spots all the back to Leonardo but not much action on the fluke. We got maybe a dozen or more most were in that 16.5" to 17.75 range.  Dropped one keeper at the boat tried to lift it but nothing special. 

Just an awesome maiden voyage - very happy with boat we got to see how she handles in 25MPH winds and good chop and yes she can be wet at times just got to read the water but overall a very impressive ride for a shallow draft  and very stable on the drift.  

I know we ran some  miles (at least 30 all day) - most pleasing was 7 gallons of gas sipped!  By end of day motor was running great no issues.  (thankfully)

 

 

Edited June 7, 2020 by JHbowhunter

[BowhunterNJ]

Awesome trip Jacko, way to break in the new boat!

[Tuck]

Congrats.  Sounds like you put some good mojo in the new ride.  Best of luck

[rgw]

Awesome job, was thinking about running over to you today when all hell broke out on us

[Integracingsr]

Nice trip. Can’t beat a day on the boat with family, friends, and big fish to top it all off. 

[Buck154]

Was a good break-in maiden voyage for sure. Aas fun watching the bass smashing the bunker. We definitely covered good distance and only burned 7 gallons of gas is great. Congrats on the boat again and I can see there will be a lot of fish caught in her in the near future. 

[Farmshine]

That is awesome congrats!


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[rackemup]

Sounds like a great 1st trip! Many more fun days to come!!👍👍

[Zipper]

Congratulations Jack! Great job. Try some Sea Foam in your gas tank. You will see a difference in your performance.  Thank me later.

[JHbowhunter]

23 minutes ago, Zipper said:

Congratulations Jack! Great job. Try some Sea Foam in your gas tank. You will see a difference in your performance.  Thank me later.

I took possession of boat with 28 gallon tank and I immediately added 18 more gallons to fill it up.    I put some StarTron in it...   After about an hour of motor time, she really hit what seemed to be peak performance.    I just looked up the Seafoam - thanks for the tip!

Edited June 7, 2020 by JHbowhunter

[vdep217]

Awsome day

[Mallard1100]

9 minutes ago, JHbowhunter said:

I took possession of boat with 28 gallon tank and I immediately added 18 more gallons to fill it up.    I put some starbrite in it...   After about an hour of motor time, she really hit what seemed to be peak performance.    I just looked up the Seafoam - thanks for the tip!

I recommend running some Yamaha ring free, in addition to a stabilizer. It’s not cheap and I have been running it for years now with good success. I won’t fill a tank and run my outboard with out it. 

[formakos]

:Put some Seafoam in the tank and you will be amazed at the results!!!!!!!

[JHbowhunter]

7 minutes ago, Mallard1100 said:

I recommend running some Yamaha ring free, in addition to a stabilizer. It’s not cheap and I have been running it for years now with good success. I won’t fill a tank and run my outboard with out it. 

Ok just want to be careful - what is "enough". I add the StarTron.   Should I add Seafoam and Yamaha "ring free"?  

[Swamprat]

Congrats guys. 

Carolina skiffs won't win any races but they are solid boats especially if running in skinny water.  

Perfect boat for some of our backbays.