Doug Wynn

Good morning from my new fishing platform, the Skeeter Solera 205.

For 10 years my clients and I enjoyed the great product line from Excel Boats. The folks at Excel were great to work with and had an eager ear to listen to my input. We had a great working relationship. As I, and many of my long time clients, have gotten a few more years on us, my needs in a fishing platform changed. I decided I needed a different boat design than Excel offered.

I left Excel on great terms and still have a relationship with their owner and management. They build a great boat! I have had several inquiries as to why I left. Some were thinking about buying new boats and were puzzled by my leaving. I assured them they would do well buying from Excel. Their new crappie boats have a bunch of great features.

I have had a tough winter but I’m putting it behind me. I bought the Skeeter from a family in northern Illinois in early December. It was 6 months old and had just over 50 hours on the 250 Yamaha SHO. I hated leaving Suzuki outboards after 10 years. Skeeter Boats is owned by Yamaha. I drove in 8 inches of snow to pick the boat up. My plans were to replace all the electronics, batteries, trolling motor, etc. As I was getting my shopping list together, my Mom got sick and I barely touched the boat until after her death in mid-January. Weather then played a role in my being so late getting back on the water.

Wednesday was my first serious fishing trip with Cuz Rickie. We spent quite a while doing all the calibrations and getting all the Humminbird electronics talking to each other in the same language. It takes a while to acclimate to a new boat and how it handles with the trolling motor in the wind as well as running above plane speeds. I’ll be tweaking things for a while.

Rickie and I tried out the Mega Live2 and found some small fish eager to follow everything we put in their neighborhood. Following wasn’t what we were interested in. The big crappie mostly ignored us.

With new rod holders, we put out a couple of rods apiece with Crappie Magnets on FinSpin jigs. We found big crappie and even a couple of giant Yellow Perch willing to hammer our offerings. Since neither of us needed any fillets, we released everything we caught.

I made three trips to Lake Erie last year as well as several trips to Dale Hollow and the Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers for walleyes and sauger. My freezer is stocked and Miss Vicki has acquired a taste for the walleyes. I am looking forward to her July retirement and us taking some time to share the boat in water she has never fished.

Prior to the rain now hitting my windows, the lake was in great shape in both lack of trash and color. The surface temp is hanging in the low to mid 50s. Since the calendar shows we are still a month from the seasonal TVA lake elevation increase, any rise in lake level will be quickly dropped back to current winter pool levels. This up and down is famous for floating trash and tree debris off the banks and into our fishing areas. It’s now time to keep your head on a swivel and avoid floating gremlins.

Crappie are being caught by slow trolling both jigs and minnows as well as those using Livescope. Most areas are seeing the annual migration toward shallower structure. We caught our fish Wednesday in 8-10 feet. Most crappie chasers were in 12-20 feet around natural and man-made structure.

The upcoming storm system and heavy rains are sure to slow the bite but it will improve as water conditions improve. It always does.

Be careful out there. Make sure your boat is in top shape and ready for the water BEFORE you back it down the ramps that are useable at low water levels. You will be the least popular guy around if you cause others to have to wait while you try to figure out why your boat won’t start. Get it ready at home.

Welcome to our slice of Heaven