Thread: Highlights from our Louisiana adventure

Got home at 3am this morning and figured I'd give a run down of our trip. We got to Louisiana on Friday after noon/ evening and first thing Saturday we hauled the boat out of the shed and installed the new electronics, an Elite 7 Ti. Later we had a crawfish boil with about 10 people coming over to eat with us. We were able to see some old friends and meet several new ones.

Sunday was a wash out with heavy rains all day so a trip to Academy then a drive to Farmerville to look at the lake filled the day. A beef roast for dinner wrapped things up nicely.

Monday we tried fishing D'arbonne and stuck it out a good long time but the fish didn't cooperate. We ended with 3, one that was 1-10. Weather was cold, 38, and windy.

Tuesday we headed to Poverty Point with the promise of better weather and it was warmer, 48, but still windy. We fished the canals on the south end and the trees on the north end and caught two hybrid stripers.

Wednesday we went to Caney Lake. We found fish in the deep water 36'-40', just out from the dam . We kept 16 with 5 being in the pound+ range. The weather was perfect and the new sonar unit was amazing. I love the down scan feature.

Thursday we went back to Caney and were trying to beat the rain they had predicted for the afternoon. The wind was crazy, going from fairly calm to whistling and shifting back and forth. It made spider rigging tough in that deep of water but we still managed to catch 11 crappie with a bigger average than Wednesday.

Wednesday we noticed some water in the storage compartment and had to run the bilge a couple of times and Thursday it was worse. Friday morning we crawled under the boat and found that where the keel sets on the skid , the keel had worn through on the bottom, which allowed it to twist, loosening a couple of rivets. We confirmed it with a quick stop at D'arbonne. dropping the boat in the water and checking inside the tunnel with a flashlight. I have a guy that will replace the rivets, I will covert the skid to a roller and I'm contacting a friend of Steve's to rebuilt the keel. Hopefully we'll be ready for the Detroit River in a month.

When we were fishing Caney, we were visited by a raft of loons. I counted 11 at one time but it was hard to be sure with them diving. Regardless how many, it was pretty cool.

It was a great trip and, despite the weather, we managed to catch a few fish.

Steve, I didn't want to bother him on the week end. I'll give him a call tomorrow. It looks like I have two rivets that loosened and one of those pulled through. Jeffs son works on choppers for the national guard can give me a hand replacing them. What seemed like a tragedy on Thursday doesn't look as bad today. Thanks for your help.