Bow down to the mighty fish and ski alter

[Rich Stern]

This past weekend was our first real chance to wring out the Sprint 207FS, bought last August. It was a treat. We fished, tubed, kneeboarded, cruised, rescued some stranded boaters on a very dark, moonless night, practiced diving off the back deck, and did lots of swimming in quiet coves. Great fun.



The boat is everything I imagined it would be. The 200 Johnson is thirsty, but it's powerful and dependable. Had no problems kneeboarding with a full load of gas and 5 people in the boat. The wake was actually nicer than I thought it would be. A bit rough directly behind the boat, but nice troughs to the left and right of the prop wake, with enough height to make jumps interesting.



Fishing on Hartwell was good, not great. We had a established a nice pattern on top using weightless trick-sized pearl flukes (thanks, Dan J...from your teachings), but toward the end of the weekend, the carp were in the mood for love in the backs of coves, and that chased many of the bass to deeper locations. Jeanne boated the most fish (of course), including a nice 3 pounder, a decent fish for that area. I was happy to land a few keepers and then go back to bed.



Hope y'all had a good weekend, too.

 

[Brian Ingersoll]

nice top hear the project is deemed a success

 

[Greg Meyer]

great!

 

[Ethan Book]

Rich,



Sounds like a great boat. I remember you thinking about some sort of rod storage in the the front. Did you ever decide to do that or come up with a plan? I loved watching the progress of your work last fall!



Ethan

 

[William H. (Bill) Barham]

Glad you had fun with the boat Rich and that it was everything you wanted and hoped it would be.. Did you get some champagne and christen it?



Uncle Billy

 

[Rich Stern]

Thanks guys.



Bill, does fish blood count? Or maybe some spilled coffee from Dunkin Donuts?



Ethan, that's the last thing left on the list. I still can't quite make up my mind how I want to do it, but this weekend's diverse use gave me more to think about how I have stuff arranged and where the rods should live.

 

[Teri C.]

Rich, I haven't been keeping up like I used to. I didn't know you bought a new boat or is this the one you were fixing up. Glad you like the fish and ski. I wouldn't buy anything but a fish and ski. It suites my needs very well except for that dang cutout in the middle of the front deck. I need to make a fill in for it but never get around to it.



Fish on!

 

[Rich Stern]

Teri, this was the fixer-upper.



How's your battery drain problem?

 

[Teri C.]

I haven't done much boating lately. Last time I used it I charged the cranking battery overnight so it fired right up. I am pretty sure the bilge runs without the master power switch being on and that is causing the drain. When I put the lift down, the bilge kicks on without the power and starts draining the water.

 

[Rich Stern]

If the bilge pump is disconnected, the water will accumlate and start to put too much weight on the lift. Unless you can get the drain plug out, you really need it to be wired that way.

 

[TrepMan]

Rich - Great to hear Project Sprint is going well. The Nitro, as you know, has a great home in Canton, and we need to hook up one evening this summer on Allatonna. Maybe if you focused more on fishing and less on kneeboarding you'd catch up with Jeanne!!! LOL



Hey, how about July 18th or 19th say 5pm till dark on Allatoona, you could drive your old boat? Or i'd be happy to run up to Lanier and fish out of the Sprint.



Drop me an email, Beka and the boys will be at her sisters.

 

[Rich Stern]

Michael, sounds good.