Breaking in the Duracraft

[SeaRay]

After finally getting most of the things installed on my new/old boat I took it to Murray today along with one of my fishing buds, Jeff. He and one of my other buds and I decided awhile back to learn how to fish for Shellcrackers on Lake Murray. While Murray is not regarded as a hot crappie lake, it is considered to be one of the best Shellcracker lakes in the state so we decided we needed to learn to fish for them so we hired Brad Taylor as our guide. We had scheduled a Friday in May several weeks ago. Who would have thought that we would face 20 to 30 MPH winds and a cold front? Needless to say fishing was tough but we learned a good deal about how to target Shellcrackers.
So, today Jeff and I set out around 6:30 to try our luck.



We set up at 10 FOW on a point that dropped into deeper water and fished on the bottom with wigglers and blue worms. It was not long before we got some action along with the Osprey in the tree in front of us.
We ended up with 16 nice keepers averaging around 10 to 13 inches. We culled about 50 Shellcrackers to get the 16 along with about a dozen Channel Cats that would have been excellent eating as well. We were too lazy to fool with cleaning them.

We called it a day around 11:30 and headed in. Here is a live well and a bucket shot just for Butch.


I was pleased with how the boat performed. I still have to get some rod storage figured out and a couple more minor items but it is getting there. The weather was mild and overcast which made for a great day on the water.