Barrett's Farm Pond, 6/9/2022

 After a hot day helping some friends and working outside, we headed to Bunn NC at visited Barrett's Farm Ponds. We put the Jon boat in at pond # 2, and fished a bit. We caught several small bass, and the bite picked up as nightfall approached. There was a light breeze as the temps dropped to the low 80's. We enjoyed the water until dark, and putzed about the pond looking for the deepest areas for future reference. Here's some pics and a short video...

Much of the head end of the pond runs in the 6-8' range in the middle, the larger part of the pond consistantly runs 12-14 ft. About 200ft from the dam, in the middle (across from the spillway), there's an area that is 14-16'...and just west of center hit 17-1/2'! Pretty decent depth for a large farm pond!

Atkinson's Mill Pond, 6/5/2022

 Debbie and I loaded up our gear and headed over to Atkinson's Mill Pond this morning. It's located just east of Clayton on hwy 42, and is open to the public 7 days/week. They have a crude ramp, but it's free and easy to get to. This is one of the last remaining water powered grain mills in NC, built in 1757, when NC was just a colony! The mill pond is fed from Cattail Creek and Little River, and has a variety of fish. You can travel up stream for miles. The weather was great...temps in low 80's, light breeze, and Carolina blue skies. Here's a few pics and a little vid. 

Boddies Mill Pond, 5/30/2022

After a long hiatus, Debbie and I are finally back out and on the water. We headed over to Boddies Mill Pond near Nashville NC, and it was a beautiful morning to be on the water! Debbie immediately picked up a small bass from the lilly pads near the dam. We began to work our way around the pond and up Big Peachtree creek. The big catch of the day was Debbie's 2lb 14oz LMB out in deep water in the channel. She was using a Watermelon and Pearl 5" Yum Dinger stick bait, 2O WS hook, 12lb mono, her new Zebco Bullet-MG reel, and a Gx2 6' rod. Here's a few pics... 

 

 

New Bullet!

 We love our Zebco Bullet reels. I hear folks say, all the time, "pushbutton reels are for beginners and kids". Not so, and they've never tried one of these. It has 9 sealed ball bearing assemblies, and even uses them in the line pickups for the oscillating spool. It casts a mile like a bait cast reel, has a tremendous retrieve rate of almost 30" per revolution of the handle (similar to about a 7.5:1 bait cast retrieve rate), and the ball bearing pickups allow the use of braid with no problems. We fish all day, not a single blow-up. I can't say enough good stuff about them. 

Anyway, we recently picked up one of the new Bullet  MG reels....same reel but with a lighter magnesium construction. After one day of use, I can say that there will be more of these in our lineup!

New Jon Boat Seats & Bait Lights...

 While doing some updates to the Jon Boat, I recalled all the back pain I had when we were out on the boat more than a couple of hours. I felt like I needed better seating with more back support. Debbie got on the Cabela's website and found the seats we had been looking at in their store, recently. She got those ordered up, and they arrived in no time flat! I removed the old seats, added additional fasteners through the 2x6 riser I had installed previously to raise the seats, and installed the new seats. WOW, what a difference they made! 

While at it, I replaced the old LED bait lights that were on the front of the lower seat frames. They're only about $5 at Ace hardware, and lasted almost 6 years. Very bright, and help when doing a bit of night fishing. 

 

 

Jon Boat Trailer Adjustments and Updates...

The parts all came in and it was time to get the new-to-us trailer updated and adjusted, and get the Jon Boat on it. I readjusted the front winch location, moved the spare tire bracket, readjusted the carpeted rails for the boat to rest on, installed new wheels/tires, packed the wheel hubs with grease and painted them, installed new LED lighting, installed a new Reese tongue jack and wheel, and repaired a ground wire issues in the wiring harness. It turned out great and I can now move the boat around with one hand. All together, I guess we have about $500 in the whole trailer project, and it'll now alow us to sell that all-aluminum Triton MC trailer and get it out of the yard :-)

 

 

 

Sealing the covers...

 This is why the Jon boat was half full of water when I pull the cover back... I forgot to seal / waterproof the cover last fall! Just like a tent, anywhere the cover touches something, water will run right through if not sealed. I grabbed a few cans of tent waterproofing from Walmart, and treated both the Jon boat and Bass boat covers. Just put the cover on the boat, spray until wet, and let dry. We had some storms the very next day and all was dry inside. Yay!