**Tarponjim bought hisself a new Assault from Dave Scadden. Wants to sell his Renegade. I expressed interest if’n I could get a test ride first. Flygoddess was kind enough to allow me temporary custody of her Renny so I tricked it out with PVC and put it on the water at Lindon this morning. **
LloydE and Parrmark showed up to laugh at the funny old man trying to launch a new craft for the first time. Ha. I got the last laugh. Got more and bigger fish too. Ha.
It was a bit of a “challenge” rigging up the new ride for the first time. But I took it slow and systematically and got it all together in reasonable amount of time (about a half hour). That was with a whole lot more PVC than Dave Scadden ever intended to be on one of his craft. And Joni will probably hear it whimpering when it gets back home. I loaded it up. But it worked very well.
The Renegade is a great hybrid between a large open front float tube and a pontoon. It is advertised as a “frameless” pontoon…and has a closed rear end like a big float tube. But it sits in the water and rides like the best of both worlds. Large load capacity but the “rocker” design allows for easy propulsion with either fins or the oars…which are mounted with a “rack and pinion” system. I only used the fins briefly today, just to check them out and make sure everything cleared.
I fabbed a super PVC motor mount (what else) for my 40# thrust Minnkota. Worked perfectly. More push than with the float tube because it rides higher in the water and does not plow it.
I made a PVC base so I could mount the modular and removable rod holders and tool rack from my float tube. They were secured to the Renegade using the tie down straps for the big side pockets.
Again, worked perfectly.
The only two “issues” I had were with my rigid apron and with my fish basket. After a short time on the water I have figured out what I need to do to make it dunky hory.
Fishing? Yeah, we done some of that too. Got a grundle of tiny tyke white bass just before daybreak under the lights off the end of the ramp. Spread those amongst our group to use for bait later. Didn’t really need them. We caught grundles more everywhere we went. A good spawn year for whities evidently and all the predators are dining well.
Was dismayed to find absolutely no water flow at the bubbleup. Nary a stray bubble. Lots of scattered white bass though. Only trouble was that most of them were aggravating little dinksters. I partially remedied that problem by upsizing. I caught some bigger fish on crankbaits. But, as you can see in one of the pics, the bitty whities also found a way to impale themselves on it.
**I then started throwing a tandem rig with two 3" twisters on 1/8 oz. heads. Constant tap tap tap from the little whities, with an occasional CHOMP from the bigger ones. Every once in a while I would bring it through a school of bigger fish and get doubles in the 11" - 13" range. **
I dragged around a small dead whitie on a bait rod while casting for the white bass. Had numerous “inquiries”. Some turned out to be other white bass…eating their young. Some paid the price. Others were cats. Caught 3…not quite enough for a smoker load. Others??? Not sure. I had one giganto fisho on for a few head shakes and then brought in the head and part of the body of my white bass bait…cut cleanly across the body. JAWS? I was already in a bigger boat.
All of us were catching plenty of white bass but I was the only one who scored any kitties. Parrmark had to leave in late morning for a prior commitment. LloydE headed in about 1 and I bagged it shortly thereafter. I didn’t get any more bites after I left the bubbleup…and I worked both white bass and minnows for quite a ways before deciding to get it up on plane and head for the harbor. Well…didn’t exactly get it up on plane, but that Renegade does move much faster than my Fat Cat with the same power.
Water levels are dropping a bit…about 2 1/2 feet down from the high water mark. Water temps ranged from 66 to almost 70. Still staying up there. Good clarity in the water today too…at least for Utah Lake. Calm all day. Only a slight ripple on the water a couple of times. Tough duty.