Took my daughter fishing yesterday, in spite of how overcast it was in the morning. We picked-up just 2 dozen (very big) BB, but brought plenty of drinks, some lunch, some old bread for ducks/geese, and lots of snacks (very important). Launched at Long Hollow. Water temp was 83 to start with (around 9am). Wind wasn't bad at first, but picked up as the day progressed.

First thing she wanted to do was to feed some geese that happened to be near the dock. There were so many geese, I had to get a picture:


Since the camera was out, I took a shot of the new trolling motor. It was an absolute pleasure to operate. I was in "nerd-vanna" with the remote strapped to my wrist like a watch. I never even broke-out the foot pedal. I hope I'm never be without autopilot and copilot again:


After searching for a good 45 minutes, I decided I wasn't going to find a school. We were tired of looking and decided to drop the lines in about 80 feet of water, near timber, where the graph was indicating a fish or two, near Vann Tavern. At 11:14am, FISH ON! Go get it, girl!! She fought it all the way in:


It's her new personal best at 31 inches and 8.5 pounds. Seems a bit long for that weight (or light for that length). The linecounter reel showed it came from 60 feet, but the line wasn't straight down. The graph indicated the bait (or maybe the weight) was more like 50 feet deep. I switched from 1.5-ounce weights to 3 ounce weights to help keep them straighter down. Our leaders were 7 to 8 feet long.

What a great day. We only got rained on after we headed back to the ramp (from near the dam), but it quit raining before we got there.

Some nice folks were at Long Hollow, and were of course delighted to take a picture of her and I together with her catch:


It's funny how lots of people have no idea there's fish that big (and 4 times that big) in Lanier. One lady asked me, "Is it real?" LOL. I just said, "Oh, yea.". In her defense, it had been on ice for 4 hours, making it stiff and perhaps a bit fake looking.

One fish... hmmm... Again, it's so amazing how much better one fish is than zero fish. Either way, spending a day on the lake with your daughter is priceless.

Not sure what time you hit the water, but if you put in at Long Hollow, you were sure close to fish if it was early in the morning.

Great job catching anyway. Good report. Congrats on getting the new trolling motor, you'll never want to go back.

Oops, just re read your report. You started at 9. Sorry for not paying attention.

Way to go Charles. Always great to see children catch fish. Keep an eye out for HelpKidsFish coming soon. Keep fishing for those great stripers on Lanier.

Those sure are some good pictures! Way to put your daughter on the fish Charles!

thanks for the great report! Congratulations also on having a great and fun day with your daughter, that truly is pricelesss, Im sure she'll never ever forget it. The "is it real"? question is kind of priceless too......

Fantastic Day Charles! First thing is what a great day you and your daughter must of had not even to mention the giant fish she caught and won't soon forget. The time spent with dad one on one shall not be forgotten by either one of you and you can't buy that kind of quality time together.

I also wanted to say what a great report, and one that was very fun to read. A big Congrats for the both of you, and may there be plent more.

Oh yea! I can't wait to get a C/P TM for my boat (did it come ready to go?)

Thanks for all the kind words, folks. It really was a great day. We high-fived and "woo-hoo"d. She gave me a big hug, too. Then, she called her Mom to tell her she beat her record!

Dan D -- the TM didn't exactly come ready to go. I replaced the 40-amp circuit breaker with Minn Kota's 60-amp (additional purchase). I also replaced the plug and receptacle, but since it shuts-off when stowed, you could just straight-wire it. Had to go buy some electrical connectors for 6-guage wire. The CoPilot feature was an option I purchased, and was simple to install. I chose the Terrova model, because I wanted the 2 extra buttons on the remote, and I liked the foot control better. I doubt I'll ever use the foot control, though... probably just stow it in the boat in case the remote dies. The install wasn't easy, but wasn't too bad either. Getting to the underneath to hold the nuts while screwing the bolts in was quite difficult by myself... could have used help, but was determined to git-r-dun. Good thing I have long skinny arms. Cabela's offers the PowerDrive model with CoPilot and no foot pedal, for a good value.

Nice job, sure looks like she had a good time, nothing better than the smile on a kids face.

Great job Charles, looks like she was in hog heaven. Did you have a chance to test out the auto pilot? My remote also has the 2 extra buttons although I'm not sure how they're used. I'll need to send for the manual, thanks for the info.