First camping/boating combo trip went awesome!

[lugoismad]

Part of the reason I went with a smaller aluminum boat was so that I could tow it with my work car, and we could take both our boat and camper, when we go camping.

Finally put that plan in action this weekend. Last month I put a class II hitch on my civic and a tranny cooler.

Its been brutally hot around here, but we finally got a reprieve this weekend. I took a half day off work on Friday and we left at Noon for East Fork State park, near Cincinnati.

Made it there all in one piece. It was my wife's first time towing anything, besides me having her tow it around town on thursday evening.

Setup camp, then put the boat in the water.

(those are her toes, not mine!)

We took the kids for a cruise around the lake. I was really happy with how well they did on the small boat. We took them out out a 28' Pontoon in May, when we went down to Dale hollow, but they'd not been on anything smaller. And the pontoon had railing all around the sides. They were really well behaved and didn't try to go overboard.

My mom lives nearby and watched the girls for us on Saturday, and we went out fishing on the lake. Caught a couple nice catfish but no hybrid striper. I think I had one bite, I hooked into something that fought like crazy. Usually catfish fight downwards, striper run away from the boat to the side. This went way to the side and was strong as hell, it pulled a ton of line off my reel. I didn't play it enough and ripped the hook out - which makes me thing even more it was probably a striper with a delicate mouth, rather than a catfish.

Fish is always better when you catch it yourself.

Dredged it in flour/cornmeal mix and pan fried it.

 

[Johnny]

THAT my friend is what dreams are made of.
you and your family will remember that for a very long time
and hopefully, you can pull off a lot more just like it.

really glad your boat motor behaved itself for you !!!!

 

[lugoismad]

really glad your boat motor behaved itself for you !!!!

Like I said, it bogs slightly if you just punch if from a standstill, but as soon as you are up on plane, its fine.

Generally, I'm pretty easy with the throttle and just slowly take it up from idle over about 20-30 seconds.

There was one time yesterday when I had to gun it though. This jerk in a big 25 foot or so boat was towing his kids around in a tube. Which is fine! But he kept doing circles around me. Then another big boat came by, and the chop got pretty intense. I reeled everything in ASAP and gunned it to get out of there before I got swamped. I had a few waves come over the transom, enough to put a few gallons of water in the back and it was only getting worse.

I'm not going to spend a ton of time tuning that carb because I plan on upgrading to the 35 horse carb instead to get a few extra ponies out of it. Its a big lake, and it would be nice to get from the campers boat dock to the good fishing area a bit faster.

I'm actually really happy with how well the motor runs, to be honest. Its a year older than I am, and it starts up on the first bump every time. I've only had it die once, and that was because I started it and within about a second I shoved it into gear - I don't think I gave it enough time to get going before I tried to drop a load on it.

Theres a fishing hole everyone fishes at that lake, and I've seen a few other guys with even newer boats fight like heck to get their boat motors started. Theres no way I'd be comfortable out on a lake with an unreliable motor.

 

[Attwanl]

I like fishing and running around in my little Jon boat, and I like camping. Put them together sheer bliss. Makes me want to my gear together and go.

 

[lswoody]

Love camping and fishing!!! From March thru August try to go once a month but this year have only been able to go twice.

 

[Jim]

Great report! Awesome!

 

[richg99]

There you go again!....You've made us all jealous!

Great report. Keep it up.

richg99

 

[TNtroller]

I've given my wife the option of driving the Class C 31'r or pulling my boat so we could do something like this, I got a big fat NO. Souns like a good trip indeed.

 

[lugoismad]

I've given my wife the option of driving the Class C 31'r or pulling my boat so we could do something like this, I got a big fat NO. Souns like a good trip indeed.

Any reason you can't pull your boat with the class-C ? I see people around here do it all the time. I'd make sure to have a roller bunk trailer, so you don't have to back it as far in the water, though.