[PECo]

I went to Batterson Park Pond for the refloating of The Way More Better. NWDarkcloud (aka Bob) finally finished her refit and wanted her maiden voyage to be on calm waters. When I arrived at 9:45 am, Bob and JJay (aka Jason) were already at the ramp:



Jason took the front seat, because he had helped Bob with a lot of the modifications during the long, cold Winter. I promise that I won't make any Gilligan's Island references here :



And, no, Bob didn't run the big motor. He didn't even have a gas can in the boat. The motor was there so that he could check the balance of the boat after all of the modifications. I pedaled my Hobie Pro Angler, The Other Woman:



We enjoyed mostly sunny skies, air temperatures in the 60s and from dead calm to light winds all day. The water temperature varied quite a bit across the pond, but I saw a high of 63 degrees. The water was very clear. I could see the bottom 4-1/2 feet down in spots. After the Skipper and his Little Buddy headed off in The Way More Better , I headed up the northwest shore, trolling a Perch Rapala Shallow Shad Rap SSR07 behind me. When I got to the cove where Nude Dude hangs out (I said, "hangs out", get it? ), I threw an Emerald Pearl 2-1/2 inch Berkley Gulp! Minnow on a chartreuse 1/8 ounce round jighead. Although I spotted some fish in the shallows underneath the overhanging brush on the shore of the cove, I couldn't tell what they were. The water was crystal clear in the shallows and I could see that there weren't any other fish in the cove, so I decided to head toward the submerged island near the middle of the pond. I tried throwing the SSR07 and a white double colorado blade spinnerbait next to and over the weeds on the island, but soon decided to slow things down and, for the first time this year, I tied on a wacky rigged Senko:



I didn't get any action at the island, so I decided to check out the floating crew team dock at the beach. Nada. I intended to head into the northwest corner where a creek trickles into the pond through a culvert, but a fisherman in a canoe beat me to it. So I headed across the north shore toward the riprap wall and spillway dam. About 2/3 of the way across the north shore, I decided to drop my wacky Senko into the middle of a decent sized laydown. I felt it get picked up by a fish and when I set the hook, it took off sideways, dragging my 15 pound P-Line Fluoroclear line over the branches of the laydown. I was afraid that the fish would wrap the line over a branch, but was able to horse it up and out of the gap into which I had thrown the Senko:



Whoo Hoo! It was a 14 inch largemouth bass. I continued across the north shore, turned the corner and headed across the riprap wall to the spillway. Nada. By that time, it was12:30 pm and I was getting pretty hungry, so I called Bob to see whether he and Jason wanted to get off of the water and go get something to eat. Bob said he'd arrange something, so I decided to head all the way back across the pond to the northwest corner. I trolled a Perch Rapala Jointed Shad Rap JSR07 along the way, but didn't get any hits on it. When I got to the corner, I pulled out the wacky Senko. I got a hit on my first cast toward the culvert, but the fish dropped the Senko after I pulled it out about 15 feet. I moved closer to the culvert and soon boated a short largemouth bass. Several casts later, Rocky! :



Yo, Adrian! Oh, well, I guess that I had to catch a rock bass, sooner or later. Anyway, Bob told me that his wife, Crissy, would be bringing us some food from Wendy's to the field in the northeast corner, so I headed back across the north shore for an Impressionist picnic with Jason, Bob and Crissy:



Thanks for lunch, Crissy! After lunch, I headed back to the northwest corner, where I caught another short and another keeper largemouth bass, before heading down the northwest shore. I continued to bang the shore with the wacky Senko, but the bite remained slow. I picked up another keeper in the last cove before I made the turn toward the southwest corner. When I got to where the creek runs into the pond, I threw the wacky Senko into it and "Bam!", I got a hit. It was another small keeper. And It wasn't alone. The school was in and I was the Head Master. From 4:00 pm to 4:40 pm, I pulled 11 largemouth bass out of the mouth of the creek and most of them were small keepers. Here's what I'm pretty sure was my lunker:




I weighed only two fish all day and I only pulled out the scale in the first place because I just got it from "Keep America Fishing" (Thanks, again, Brian! ). My lunker weighed 1.63 pounds. Bob and Jason pulled into the corner in The Way More Better just before 5:00 pm, when I had to leave to pick up my wife at the Amtrak train station. All in all, I caught 16 largmouth bass, of which 11 or 12 were small keepers, and the one rock bass. My kayak fishing tournament bag would have been 70 inches (i.e., five 14 inchers). Now, I remember why I like wacky Senkos so much.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[sbehuniak09]

Nice day on the water! Bob, the boat is looking great!!
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The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad. ~A.K. Best

[Mase2020]

Nice Phil looks like a good day I am going to have to fish there eventually. Looks like your tourney ready

[Michael]

Sounds like a fun time! Happy to see a pic of a rock bass!

[Gee_Boog]

Nice to see good looking bass coming out of there, I live not to far from there and shore fished by the inlet of the brook/stream where you did your shredding. I have always had sub par results but I'm on shore. Great report too, good luck tight lines!

[NWDarkcloud]

As you can see Phil hit most of the fine points to the day except for the fish count our day was the same. We managed 1 LMB by the spillway on a wacky Senko.

and just before lunch I snagged about 60 feet of line off the botton with my spinnerbait had a perch on the end of it that i released (lucky fish).

Just before Phil took off to get his wife at train station we headed into his area where the school was hanging out as we entered the cove I cut the corner to tight and ran aground with my trolling motor (Blew the spot up propper) didnt take a single bite after that . We hung out enjoyed the day till about 7 ish .


The refit on the boat was Great wish I did it 10 year ago when I first thought of it. So much leg room I spent all day spinning around in my new chair .......
Way More Better than it use to be.....


Thanks to Jason for all the shop time he put in ......It realy helped in keeping the project rolling
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I Love to fish......Not a big fan of sitting in the boat alone ....the Conversation and the company make it perfect

[JJay]

It was nice to finally see the winter mods paid off and the Way More Better floating!

Beautiful day out!

[DirtyDawg10]

Nice job out there guys!

The boat looks great NWD! I think that with the new mods you should give it a new name. I vote for "See Snapper"