[Daniel_Gig]

Awesome trip, hope it works out for you. Venice wasn’t bad last weekend, very little floating debris compared to spring.

Planning for Venice on GED is tougher than most places, it seems like it has to combine 20 different imagines to cover a 2 sq mile area. Idk why that is, I can only assume it has to do with the river changing. Then on the historical time slider, there isn’t a ton of dates to select. I know none of that helps you, just ranting about GED

[Daniel_Gig]

First off, thank you to @ShooterMcGrabbin for putting this trip together and inviting me. We have been trying to fish with each other since last winter. We both made so many genuine attempts to fish together, but it never lined up, it was great to finally go out. It was awesome getting to fish Venice with someone who has experience there.

I’m disappointed in myself for getting sea sick in 3’ of water, within walking distance from shore. So pretty much after 3 trout, I was chumming the water or trying not to chum the water (laying on the seat with my eyes closed lol). <font face=”inherit”> But didn’t get sick 2-3 miles out in the swells. Didn’t get sick the rest of the trip so that was great. It’s so hard to persevere when you legit feel like </font>you’re<font face=”inherit”> dying inside lol. In hindsight, I took the Dramamine too late on day one. Lesson learned there. </font>

Anyways great trip, great time, can’t wait to do it again

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[Daniel_Gig]

Nature…. That is the main reason. Silence. The sound of birds flying over head on a dead calm morning. Too much to list. .

[Daniel_Gig]

Cant wait! Should be interesting if nothing else lol .

[Daniel_Gig]

So Im wrapping up my gelcoat repairs and installed my new seat. I still have one more area to fix, but I want to see how these spots hold up (wanna see if they discolor or anything) before I tackle the last area on the keel that will require me to get the boat off the trailer. Anyways, even though it took me a few long days working on it with lots of sweating, it came out pretty good considering I knew pretty much nothing about it before starting.

If anyone ever has to use gelcoat patch paste, something no one told me was instead of trying to measure the parts out equally in a cup, you can use a digital scale to measure it much more accurately.

Anyways, here’s some before and after photos of the bigger spots

Cost wise: I’m probably in for about $300 in materials and tools. so definitely cheaper than paying someone

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 4 days ago by  Daniel_Gig.

[Daniel_Gig]

I don’t have a recommendation on anyone to do the boat rewire. I do have someone who i would avoid. I hate to blast businesses, but i would avoid the marine electronics place in Slidell (at least on the rewire). I had him tie up some loose ends on my boats wiring, and while the work he did was good, it ended up being WAY over the budget. Lucky for him i had the money otherwise he would’ve been “un fixing” things lol.

I would say whatever you do, and whoever does it, you sit down with them and have a detailed plan drawn up on what you want done, the budget, and have them detail everything they plan on doing, a materials list, etc. And i would make it clear that they need to communicate any changes BEFORE doing it. ( i thought i made it clear to my guy, but it was all in vain).

[Daniel_Gig]

there seems to be a misconception or confusion on vibrio. I know most of you guys know, but It isn’t limited to bay St. louis, or any other area, it isn’t new. There isn’t more of it. Its always there in the summer months. Its simply in the news right now because so many people are getting it.

[Daniel_Gig]

Your winter months are lacking lol

We are going to put some blue on those months from December-march

[Daniel_Gig]

Im a union guy, rarely will i say this, but yeah f*ck those handful of jobs. When ive seen them working, none look local to me anyways…

• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 3 days ago by  Daniel_Gig.

[Daniel_Gig]

I would do it similar to this post. I like to go out when the sun is setting that way i can still navigate with some light before total darkness sets in. Although, the bite doesnt normally really fire up till later, like midnight.

Be super cautious, gps will show you what is stationary usually, but it wont show a floating tree or a boater with no lights on. So go slow. Devin has a video on fishing that area at night.

One other thing, be respectful of peoples property. If you pull up to a dock, and the owner is out there, dont fish it. And if anyone is confrontational, be polite and move on. Some homeowners are super nice and polite, some will cut the lights off if they see you out there, and others will come out cursing you and throwing stuff at you. My decision is usually just to move on. They live there, have put a bunch of money into their docks, and im just some guy chasing fish around. They dont own the water, so you can legally fish these docks, but being nice and polite goes A LONG WAY. Respect their property, and they are usually cool.

[Daniel_Gig]

Do it. The hardest part is having the confidence to start. That patch paste repair kit i mentioned, its all color matched to your manufacturers gelcoat color… Time consuming, yes, but totally doable. Worst case scenario, you screw it up, and have to pay someone anyways… Cant lose lol

[Daniel_Gig]

thats my worst nightmare… if anything on my fuel system goes bad, the way its situated on the boat, ill be cutting out the floor…

[Daniel_Gig]

Dude forget running to Breton sound when you cant swim… I know older guys i’ve worked with who lived in New Orleans during Katrina, but cant swim. If i couldn’t swim before Katrina, after watching people get rescued off their roof, my ass would’ve gone straight to the YMCA and signed up for some classes. When my son was born, the first thing i wanted him to learn, was how to swim. Now, he will be 3 years old next month, and he’s been swimming like a fish for the last 18 months…

• This reply was modified 4 weeks, 1 day ago by  Daniel_Gig.

[Daniel_Gig]

lol Devin… thats funny. When i crashed the first time racing my motorcycle, i remember waking up in an ER in alabama where the track was, thinking ” i hope it was a spectacular crash..”. Instead ill forever be disappointed with the crash, not because i injured myself, or damaged my bike, but because it wasnt even a cool crash lol

[Daniel_Gig]

As someone who commutes from Slidell to New Orleans, i was thanking god when Covid first hit… (as crazy as that sounds) i could go from Slidell, all the way to uptown in less than 30 mins. Pre Covid that was like 1 1/2 hour drive… It reminded me of post Katrina. It was beautiful… But then the tackle shops didnt have a 7′ Medium rod anywhere and thats when it starting sucking lol