Maiden Voyage of My Sears 12 ' Jon Boat

I moved in my house in 1993. Bernie,  my next door neighbor had a jon boat in his back yard that after a few years you could tell he was never gonna use it. So, one day I ask him if he will sell it. No!.....I wait a few more years.....No! I am not gonna sell it he says. This went on for years.  It got to be amusing  that I would ask him to sell it just to irritate him. His wife(Doris) also told me that the day he dies that the first thing she is gonna do is to call me and have me drag it out of her yard. 
Well,  one day this year he asks me if I want it? 

I say "is this a trick question".

He said no,  I want it out of my yard. I think what he meant to say is Doris wants it out of her yard. Anyway, I ask him how much? and he says free.  I paid him a little bit as I didn't want it free but here are a few pictures of my new to me jon before and after. Rotted wood on both sides.

She wasn't in too bad of shape but all the wood in the transom was bad and she needed new paint.
I replaced the transom wood on the inside with poplar that I epoxy sealed and painted, and the wood on the out side of the transom I replaced with plastic and and outer piece of 3/16 aluminum. The plastic was a cutting board that I cut to fit. The outside of the boat I painted Huntergreen and the inside was a matte green.
This is a view of the cutting board and aluminum I used for the transom.

Per NC regulations this boat has to have a serial number which it didn't. They assigned it one and I had to attach it to the transom. I kept thinking how was I  gonna do that and one day it hit me.! Go to PetSmart and have the serial number engraved on a dog tag and put that on the back. Brilliant!  If you look closely above the right handle you can see the black tag.

I also needed a way to move this boat from my backyard to frontyard easily so I came up with this contraption. It is a piece of wood. 2- L brackets. 2 sheets of rubber. 2 eyebolts, 1 wheel,  1 nut and bolt, and 1 strap. I can strap this down in about 30 seconds and grab the 2 back handles and move the boat around like a wheelbarrow.

No leaks except for a small one where the drain plug is. Hopefully a new drain plug will fix that.

Very soon I will test it out with my old Sears Gamefisher 7 HP motor. update to follow.  Thanks Mack

ADDED: JULY 2013

Finally took the Jon out with my 2.5 mercury motor. The Sears 7 hp is in the shop. Here is a video of the 2.5 crusin Jordan Lake. 

http://www.youtube.com/edit?ns=1&video_id=OfpIYl9dBug

 

 

                                                              ADDED NOVEMBER 2013

 

Finally took the Jon out in September with the Sears 7 HP motor,  Watch her FLY!!!!!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXzNgGnDD94

 

 

 

 

ADDED: AUGUST 2013

 

Added 4 "Santee" Rodholders to my little Jon. These are just like Driftmasters.

 

 

 

 

 

Added February 2014-

 

I added a back seat to my little jon.  This seat I purchased at walmart and it attaches to the Jon by a strip of aluminum J-channel on the Jon and a J channel plate on the bottom of the seat (with added swivel).   This allows the seat to be removed or added easily by "dropping it into the channel. The seat can be adjusted either left , right, or center depending on conditions.   Here are a few pics

 

This is how you "drop" the seat in.

 

 

A good look at the channel.

 

A few more of the seat

Done for now............

 

 

Jug Fishing Jordan Lake

I finally made it out to Jordan Lake yesterday 08122012 for some jug fishing. I left worked at 6:05 and was on the water settin jugs at 6:45. This evening I would use 2 types of jugs. 1- pvc pool noodle jugs and the other 2- plastic bottles 1/2 painted white. Most droppers would be 5 ft.   If I were to fish Kerr Lake I would have some jugs set for 15 and 20 ' but 5' does good at Jordan. I used to use orange colored orange juice bottles but switched to these after seeing videos on you tube and  how well they worked and more importantly they take up less space. I made them right at 1 year ago when I was recovering from a surgery and could not get on the water. See this post for more info on these jugs.
 http://mackinncblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/catfish-jugs.html

My boat used today would be my Old Town 158 canoe solo sitting on the front seat but looking towards the stern. That way the canoe is more level and performs better....I baited the jugs with cut pieces of frozen bream soaked in garlic juice. Then I waited. At aprox 745 I was thinking I could of had  a nice relaxing night at home since I hadn't had so much as a nibble. But, a little while later it was as if someone had flipped a switch to "on"....I had to chase jugs and that means paddling.

Here are some of the jugs

Finally!...............Fish on!!!!!!!!!!

A nice channel cat......

I caught a lot of very small channel cats and then this nice White Catfish....

I left at 10 pm while the cats were still biting --got to wk (tommorow) but had an excellent time jug fishing Jordan Lake for a few hours........ Mack

#catfish

#jugfishing

Simple / Easy Drag Chain for Canoes

                              Simple / Easy Drag Chain for Canoes

I have been reluctant to drill holes in my canoe for a drag chain. Still,  I wanted my chain to work correctly and not be on the side so as I wouldn't tip over in fast water. One of the quickest ways to flip a canoe is to throw out an anchor or drag chain connected to the side(vs the bow or stern) . Well,  after my trip to the flint river I copied BlackwaterBills drag chain design as to how it is attached at the Bow or stern.....They copied my use of the Old Town 119 so hey I will copy their drag chain. lol.... This is one of the best modifications I have done to my Old Town 119 . This Design is simple and easy. Blackwaterbill and SeminoleSteve both use this design and have nothing but praise for it. First you need a Chain...18 inches or so of the heaviest stuff u can find, some rope, a cleat, 2 caribeaners, and some electrical ties......Most of the guys using this design also wrap the chain in duct tape and then put an old inner tube over the chain but I have chosen to leave it bare.  Note: They use a dog leash to spool the line and hold it but i chose to use the cam cleat.
Here are some pics.

I purchased this cleat at West Marine. You pull the rope up and to the inside and it unlocks the rope. You then pull it up and to the right and release the rope and the cleat bites down on the rope. Simple.  This cleat is mounted to the right and just ahead of my seat. I attached it to the gunnel with 2 stainless steel sheet metal screws.

Buy the above products here 

HARKEN Cam Cleat  https://amzn.to/3rRtBA1

Harken Flair lead https://amzn.to/3sKQowF

You also have to install a Black electrical tie around the handle in the stern and/or bow.

One caribeaner is attached to the electrical tie and the other is attached to the rope. You just run the rope through the other caribeaner. With this system you can have an electrical tie on the bow and stern handle . If you paddle up from the put in attach the rope and chain to the bow so when you come up to a hole you wish to fish you let the chain down. Then when you turn around and head back downstream, just stop and switch the rope and chain to the stern.  It is a very nice system, and you dont have to drill holes in your bow and stern.....Mack

**********you can see how well  this works is this video here on my YouTube Channel  

#oldtowncanoe

#dragchain

#canoe

#riverfishing

Fishing with "The General" on Friday the 13th

I started my Internet fishing on Georgiariverfishing.com and catfish1.  Todd "The General" was one of the first members there and now he has moved to the great state of NC.  We have talked several times on the phone about fishing and whatnot but finally worked our schedules out and made a trip on Friday the 13th!

Would it be a lucky day or a bad day on a North Carolina Piedmont River????

We launched right at 630 am and immediately got into some stripers hitting top water baits and Sebile swim baits. Here are a few pics..

We then shifted our focus to Bass and we had a good day .  Todd mainly used a buzzer while I used mainly a white spinnerbait, the Sebile swimbait, and a Bagleys Smallfry Bream. We each probaly caught 20-25 bass apiece with Todd getting the big one at 5-14. I lost a 4lber but caught 3 -3lbers.

I also caught 6 species on this trip.  10~Stripers, 25` Largemouth,  1 Channel cat, 20~ Redbreast,  1 Bluegill and 2 white perch.  This is the second time I have done that in a week.

Here are the channel cat , some nice Redbreast, and the small bluegill and white perch.

And a few more fish.

 A good day on the water with lots of fish caught. We also saw lots of wildlife including Bald Eagles, ospreys and Otters. Thanks for Going Todd. Mack

Hot Cats

Since it is so hot I decided to go to one of my favorite cat spots late and fish late....I Left the house at 4 and was on the water at 6.....Today I would be in my scanoe with my 55 lb thrust motor.....I headed upstream from the put in. The water was fairly swift and I did have to get out and pull through 2 rapids, but I made it to where I wanted to start . My first priority would be to catch bait......

I had a fairly hard time catching bait but by dark I had managed to get 3 greens, several redbreast and a few bream for bait.....Also caught 2 smallies and missed a nice one.....all bait caught on a beetle spin..

                                                                           Bait

The outfits today would be a Bantam 50 loaded with 20lb line on a black ugly stik (light cat outfit)and a Abu 6500 loaded with 30lb line on a white ugly stik(medium size cat outfit).....Hooks used were a 9/0 circle hook used on the 6500 and a 7/0 j hook on the Bantam 50. 2 of the Bream were used as cutbait sprayed with garlic juice and the rest would be used live. The bream would be kept alive in a Flow troll Bait bucket which you can see in the above picture just below the redbreast anal fin. You can see some of the fish in the bucket.

1st fish right at dark was the flathead that hit a small (4" green) on the 7/0 hook. Next fish was a blue that hit a bream head soaked in Garlic juice and the 3rd was also a blue that hit a live bream....both on the circle hook.

I did lose 2 nice fish and called it quits at 1230 am......Back home and finished cleaning fish at 330am.....

Nothing huge tonight but a few decent size cats....Highlight of the trip was right at 1030pm i hear some splashing in the water river left and shine my light there. 1 doe and 2little bitty fawns in the shallow water and they stayed there probably 30 minutes......Mack

"119 in the Shade"

Steve and myself made a trip down my home stretch of river on Friday June the 29th, 2012.
We got an early start at 6 am and finished the day at 1pm. Today was going to be 100 plus degrees and the fish were fairly active. I probably caught 10-12 bass , mostly on a white spinnerbait and lost 3 big ones 4 lbs or so,. Steve caught about he same but landed his 2 nice fish.  Most of his fish came off a swimbait.
Here is the first monster-

119 in the shade is referring to our Old town 119's

here is a "119 in the shade". 

Steve's best bass of the day.

The Redbreast were bedding and very aggressive today. I caught several of these on bass sized lures. 

Wildlife seen today was the usual ducks, herons and kingfishers but the highlight of the day was  2 otters who poked their heads way out of the water trying to fiqure out what Steve was. Mack