) to get a new lower unit. Big shout out to Greg and Richard at C&C Marine. Although I didn't make it to the WWN #4, the boat was ready the following day. The wifey, dog and I arrived during the lunch hour and had to wait a little bit, but it was worth it. (The wifey has to inspect everything new that goes on the boat. 
) The drive back and put away was uneventful. In the meantime, the week before the lower unit went out I get contacted by Stickbait who is inquiring about partner status. Sure, I say let's do it, but then the lower unit conks out so he has to wait until this week. After contacting him it's a go.
Now in order to arrive and get a decent launch, to avoid the mess, I'll leave around 8:30 am, which after picking up the boat and ice (the cold kind
) and gas usually puts me there around 11AM, but as the sky starts to darken (is that the cloud? 
) I'll leave an hour earlier because I removed all my bow electronics before dropping the boat off. I'm patting myself on the back.........Why you may ask, because I took pictures of the connections BEFORE disconnecting them so it would be easy to plug them back in. Or so I thought. I keep forgetting about that cloud that follows me. I was even smart enough to wrap tape around the group that went to a certain unit. Of course that was 2 weeks ago. Puzzled I look at the group with the tape and can't remember which unit it went to. 
Oh No! Crap here we go again. Ok this goes here I think and this goes there and yellow and red, black, crap the pictures don't tell me which unit its photographed...just the connections. What a dumb idiot. OK all connections made no come those stupid a$$ locks. The trolling motor mount is in the way because your screwdriver is too long. Crap! After an hour of guessing and futzing, I'm on the road. Arriving at Ladds around 10:40 I find I'm boat #5. I text Stickbait to let him know, and join the pow wow. When "Pops" arrives I thank him as he sent me a PM that he had an extra lower unit he'd sell me that should fit my motor. Well me being me, I don't "log in" everyday and when I saw his PM it was a couple of days old. I explained that it was covered under warranty, but was grateful he contacted me. (you know of course that if insurance or warranty had expired I wouldn't have been able to find one like that in 1000 miles)OK so "stick" shows up and we load the boat. He's travelin light, but with all his Delta experience.... I get it.We chat about where to go as I have 2 areas that can produce with crappy tides. He too has some areas. Only trouble is mine are about 60 miles from one another and his too. And away we go. First stop, and I turn on the HDS and no sonar reading. Getting water temp, time etc. just no bottom reading I get hung in a weed patch
and am going to try and get it loose, when "Stick yells get the net this is a good one" and a 3 1/2 slips into the net. The problem, the wind is pushing us away from where I'm hung, the rod is almost over the side and the boat is ready to wash up on the island. Ok finally got out of that mess, but ruined the spot. Spot 2 No luck, so big run to spot 3. I have stick working the bank out and I'm working the outside edge. We get a few small keepers, but not enough to weigh in so into the drink they go. (reminds me of the 2 fishermen who see this floating object go by and one picks it up and while rubbing it dry (watch it guys
) out pops a genie. He tell them they only have 1 wish, so before the other guy can say a word the guy says wish this lake was made of beer........ POOF the lake went to beer. The other fisherman says Oh Great1 Now we have to pee in the boat.) Finally I get one 4 1/2 when the wind picks up, then another about 3. We see Angelo and AJ so I'm pretty sure we're in a good area. The wind is blowin good and the fish are getting active. The pattern seems to be tule points on the drop, so we skip ahead to the next point and so forth. Its now about 6:30 we have 4 for about 12. Move to spot #4 produces another 4. Bubba says we have 16. Stick wants to try an area he's familiar with so off we go on a long ride. A stop on the way yielded nothing. Stick suggest we stop at an area I suggested earlier. Next thing ya know we have another 3 which culls our small 2 1/2. Bubba says we have 16.3. I'm thinkin I don't know. There seemed like a lot of boats and usually when I catch them so does everyone else. It's a black cloud sorta thing. Ok, so talking to a few guys I hear there are several 20+ bags, but we get in line anyway. We're near the end of the line. 2 boats left behind us, Richard weighs the fish and away we go to wait for the results. I'm still not confident. When we arrive at the scales, Richard and Gerry are weighing their fish. They have a 6lbr with a total weight of................wait I can't see it there's a cloud covering my head. 16.34 for 9th place with 67 boats. Oh yeah our weight 16.32 
.Congratulations to Obedie and Clint with 24.50, followed by Dean and Adrian with 21.09 1st BF 7.88, the ever present and successful Christian and Mark with 21.00 and Goodman and Goodman with 20.07, weights then drop to 18 and 17 16. Disappointed but had fun with Stick. Looks like we'll do it again next week. 10:39 pm and I head out. Get back to the Barn at 12:30am. Long day, but fun. Will head over Friday to see if I can figure out what's wrong.
TL
FE
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