JEM Watercraft

Bass are not natural to our waters ... however courtesy of America's colonial past there is a man-made lake not 2 hours from our place that was stocked and still has a thriving population of big mouth bass. The lake is nestle high up in some mountains so there are lots of nooks and crannies to explore and fish in. Actually, it was after our first visit there, not 4 weeks ago, that we decided we had to have a canoe. This is going to be FUN.

We just finished painting the Muskoka. The inside is all white and the outside is "thalo" green. It was obviously a rush job so no fairing rough finish all the way ... it is our son's boat after all. I promise to do a better finish on the second one which is for our daughter.

Hi Louis,

From what I gather, the US Bass are not only similar to Aussie Bass but the same tactics work on em too. Most of mine are caught on US made lures. I would try trolling small (50mm) hard body minnow type lures along the edges of the weed beds. Dark colours especially purple work well here.

Small surface poppers also account for a lot of fish and make for some very exciting fishing on light gear.

The New Guinea Black Bass are a different proposition altogether and are seen as the holy grail of kayak fishermen round here.

Are you guys talking about the largest member of the Sun Fish Family that we have here in Florida , the Large Mouth Bass.
"O" By the way also some great (Tucker , for Mick ) Food ( for us normal folks) when fried , steamed or poached in some orange juice ( Fresh not the processed junk they call orange juice ) Also ......not half bad smoked if you can keep the paper lit.



Chuck.

I think that is what Louis is talking about. Our Bass are a little different but also very good to eat. Your techniques and tackle work just as well on our fish.


This, is a New Guinea Black Bass

Unfortunately we don't have freshwater fish like that here in NZ, shame they didn't bring them over with the trout and salmon in the 1880s.One of NZ's more famous fisherman [Sam Mossman] has been fishing in the amazon and the fishing there looks incredible.

Here's one fish I'm glad they never tried to introduce here,

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mI71Hsy_PaU

I've never seen anything like that in freshwater.

We made our schedule. Everyone at our messabout were all praises. I did not get a single "wish it were this way". The most often heard comment was that it was very stable and that it had beautiful lines. This was despite our hurry hurry hurry paint job. It was in such a big hurry that the epoxy paint apparently did have enough time to harden and came off with the tiedown lines use to secure it to the top our dingy. Over the next few weeks we'll strip the paint, fair her properly with epoxy putty and finally give her a good spray paint job. Oh we'll also put nice seats.

Matt asked me to give a critique of sorts but I'm not experienced enough to really say anything except she sure looks pretty. Anyway, I asked my buddies to give their comments and here is what I've gotten so far:

My rave review: We took her out upwind as far as Kay Liling Resort and she handled very well. For her size she was light to paddle. With such a wide beam it is very stable and at no point did I feel we would tip over, even when I was standing up!

My beef: I would keep hitting the thumb of my lower paddling hand on the uppermost chine as I'd pull the paddle on the downward stroke. Using oars may not be such a bad idea; you won't have to worry about your thumbs. smile.gif

Simply Loved it. despite being a rushed job, the workmanship was great. loved the slotted gunwales. Marte and I were the first ones to take it out and she tracked very well, and she was solid on the water too, she'd definately make for a great fishing boat.

Some pictures from our messabout, with the owner and a friend:





With me and the owner, my 6 year old son:


By the way Matt, the owner wants oars on it. Is this a good idea? How can it best be done?

Very,very cool.It's photos like yours that are making me think a canoe is the way to get my son out on the water rather thana double kayak.Well done.

I'm glad Raumati it gives you ideas. Just one thing: please make sure your kid is wearing a PFD. These pictures were taken not 10 feet from the shoreline, though even that is really no excuse for our not have worn PFDs. Actually, later in the day I capsized in our 13 foot dingy with my kid and boy was I glad we all had PFDs on.

Matt, the fellow who used the Muskoka with a trolling motor which we mounted on the transom said it was a bit difficult to tiller, a tiller extension is a good idea. Any ideas how to do this? How about putting a motor mount on the side?

Tiller extentions are pretty easy to make with some PVC pipe.

You could also do a side mount with no trouble either.

lncc63 wrote: By the way Matt, the owner wants oars on it. Is this a good idea? How can it best be done?

You could do some oars but you'll have to do hand-over-hand rowing because the boat isn't that wide. I'd glue on a 10" x 10" pad in the oar lock area to help absorb some of the flexing forces from rowing.

Or you could fashion some sort of removable thwart that extends out wider and place the oar locks at the ends of the thwart.