FS14 -The Ana Marie

[glossieblack]

Happy birthday OQ.

[OrangeQuest]

Happy birthday OQ.

Thank you GB. Hope you guys are enjoying your latest adventure...from the photos, it looks like you are!

Our kayak company, like most of them here in Houston, has closed its doors and is moving to a new storage unit and going to try opening at a new venue. Over the weekend I had a gathering on the lake to say goodbye to a talented group of young adults, and a birthday party for me.

While waiting for all to show up, we enjoyed just cruising the lake and checking the conditions. Little more wind than was forecast but nothing too bad and there were a lot of boats with it being a perfect, sunny day. I had to keep a close eye on all the faster boats.

A few jet skiers cruising past us.



Then we got a text, and the rest of our party was at the docks waiting for us. Since there were more passengers than Ana Marie could carry safely, I brought a big canoe to tow to the other side of the lake where a lot of families drop anchor and let the kids play in the shallow water. So that was our game plan.
We went across the lake with four people in the canoe and 4 people in the Ana Marie. Lots of music playing as some enjoyed the refreshing water. We were all using the boat as a swim platform, climbing in, jumping off. The bilge pump even kicked in a few times from all the water we were bringing on board.


Here a 10-year-old family member of an employee using a fender as a floatie.... don't do this at home.


Snapped this one at some point and got a nice angle, as the shy teens don't like their face being shown in pics that may show up on the web.

But it was a great symbol of the fun day we had on the water.
It was getting late, the wind picked up a little more and the seas were a little rougher as we had to battle a head wind to get where we were going. The people in the canoe were bouncing the front of it causing water to come in, see the guy in the back bailing water with a little bottle. The person in the middle got scared.


We all made it safely and the Ana Marie did very well as I pushed her past her limits.

[OrangeQuest]

I don't have any updated pictures. I really enjoy being only a few miles from the bay now and exploring the bayous along the northern end of it. The Ana Marie looks a little odd amongst all the bay boats, airboats, and Jon boats. There are even a number of those marsh boats with air-cooled outboards. But as expected, the little skiff gets a lot of compliments at the boat ramp. Even had a game warden stop me to get a better look at her. We passed the "safety" inspection with no problems.

I was doing a maintenance inspection and noticed that I didn't adjust my throttle cable correctly. The motor was never reaching WOT. I thought when I connected the cables that I had full movement but may have just been in a rush to get her in the water and fired up the first time. I don't know how I missed it. There was a notice about not moving the shifter without the motor running so I must of only checked that it had a slight amount of slack in neutral. That is the only EXCUSE I can think of but I will stick with that.

I have only tested it once since correcting the issue. The throttle doesn't need to travel as much after going into gear to get a response from it and has a slightly better hole shot. I was solo but was reaching 5800 RPMs and up to 27 mph, verse 5200-5400 RPM. 6000RPM is the rev limit for the motor, so happy with those numbers. The bayou to and from the bay was glass smooth so they are good numbers. The bay was not so smooth and once on the bay it was a very wet ride but still fun to just get on the water.

My excuse to get out on the bay is to go fishing. The only thing I have been doing is feeding the hard heads, gaff tops, a few croakers and sand trout feeding off my shrimp. I was hoping to get a little action from the bull red runs right now but closest I came was a 4-foot gar on fresh cut bait that did a few tail walks while reeling it in. Real excitement was trying to get the hook out of the toothy monster with hook remover to short to reach the hook. I use hooks that rust so cut the leader. But I can safely state that only fish blood has been on the deck since finished building her.
BTW What is the going rate for a quart of live shrimp? Here at the only bait shop for 30 miles, it is $22.00 per quart!! Cheaper to go to the fish market and get peeled shrimp to eat! That cut into the beer budget! For that price I was expecting the shrimp to be trained to bring the reds straight into the boat! It has been fun to just toss the rods in the boat, drive the few miles to the ramp and spend a few hours claiming I am fishing.

[OrangeQuest]

I am still kicking the tires on the Ana Marie. Trinity bay is a little rougher than the bayous and lake that I have been cruising on. The Bay has a very active fishing and hunting community close to where I live but a lot of marshes and shallow water skiffs. The bayou where I enter the bay stacks up with boats drifting across the grass beds on both sides of the mouth. They stop just shy of the current coming out of the bayou, always has a few sand bars that just pop up, with a regular deep channel.

I have been exploring increasingly more of the bay and after my first experience with an early wind increase, I am a little more alert to wind changes. Also learning where Ana Marie likes the throttle in rough seas and the angles we are hitting them. Right rpms then we are not taking a pounding, lot of spray off the bow and the wind then blows it--BRRR! But I will take the spray over a pounding anytime if I am dressed right.

I started trying to fish again. I started out catching a lot of saltwater catfish but moving towards more trout, (dink speckle trout, sand trout and silver trout) with a few croakers mixed in. I go solo and from time to time take a friend with some of his family. Ana Marie's design gives four fishing persons (PC, correct?) enough room to cast, for the most part. Live shrimp is to expensive so do a lot of fresh dead but keep trying to switch to plastics.

So I will be moving to the west side of Galveston Bay, which connects to Trinity Bay, and very close to Houston Ship Channel But there are also smaller, more sheltered bays too. Which, I will be cruising the more sheltered areas.

[jbo_c]

Funny how fish in one place don’t act the same as fish in another. Always takes a little time to learn how to fish new water. - for me, anyway.

Jbo