JEM Watercraft

Sorry I didn't get pics, but did finally get the boat out and had a blast. Pics may not have worked anyway as my photobucket account seems to be gone and I will have to restock and reload to my posts??

I also got a great start on my flyfishing - decided to leave all fishing gear at home other than my flyrod. I probably caught 30 fish: 1 smallish smallie, 2 nice bream, 3 rock bass and a couple dozen beautiful little pumpkinseeds about 3-4" long. No big fish but I am hooked.

The boat handled great. Only thing that was a little different was it wouldn't necessarily track with the current, in turns, etc, the boat tended to glide or skim across the top and I had to steer more than just put the nose in the current, line it up and let it pull me. Not bad just a little different than what I am used to.

One more side note, at the put in I had the following brief, but very satisfying conversation:

guy at put in: "Did you make that?"
me: "yep"
him: "Cool."

I made it for me to admire not others, but that was cool.

Might as well get use to folks looking , they sure will and then comes the questions. But what the heck , even the fish liked it and wanted a closer look.

Chuck.

Might as well get use to folks looking , they sure will and then comes the questions.

I had the same "problem" the last time I had my Pirogue out. I ended up talking to someone for about 20 minutes and referred him to this site. The only reason it was a "problem" is that, with three little ones, my fishing time is brief and doesn't occur very often.

I also got a great start on my flyfishing - decided to leave all fishing gear at home other than my flyrod. I probably caught 30 fish: 1 smallish smallie, 2 nice bream, 3 rock bass and a couple dozen beautiful little pumpkinseeds about 3-4" long. No big fish but I am hooked.

Now you got me interested in trying fly fishing.

Great report. Glad you got some quality time in your new boat. Lots of satisfaction in paddling around in something you built and then loading it up with fish you catch, then getting unsolicited praise (no matter how brief) on your craft.

Kinda makes you strut even when you're sitting.

Awesome report. I haven't claimed my boat to have been slimed yet. The only fish to date I've caught in it was a 3" long bream and even though he fell off in the boat, I still won't count him...

Not much of a report so I didn't want to start a new topic but here is a quick update on my touring pirogue. 3 trips now and I am lovin this boat more every time. Still not used to the way it planes across the current, but not sure that I don't like it, just gotta get used to it.

Anyway, here are a few pics:

(Kinda) in the water, this was a solo trip:



This was a good test of the paddling of theTP, this point is about a 30 min steady paddle upstream to get to one of my favorite smallie spots. Much of the current further down was decent and the boat moved upstream just fine.

You may notice in the pic I drilled holes thru the gunwales/hull about every 15". I have some concerns about water damage but I coated the holes well with epoxy to seal. Very functional in terms of tying on small gear bag, water bottle, etc and helping to tie boat down for transport. I debated about it for a long time wondering what that would do to the looks but after doing it, I am satisfied with the results.


Didn't get any smallies (probably just my rookieness with the fly rod) but I did catch a catfish and several of these:



Another great day - a couple of hours with just me, the fish and my home made boat. This boat is definitely my favorite.

Nice looking bluegill, Slider; I bet he fried up nice.

RE: Holes for cargo tie down. When (not if) you build your next boat, consider a ventilated gunnel. I did mine like this. I clamped a strip of plywood along side the gunnel, and marked the curved line of the edge with a pencil. I cut it out so I had a 3" wide strip of 1/8" plywood for an inwhale. But - I didn't glue it directly to the gunnel. I made spacers to go in between.

These spacers serve several purposes. First is, they make a boat stronger because it now has a box beam along each gunnel. Secondly, they ventilate the gunnel so you can empty out water when back on shore by simply tipping the boat up on its side. Thirdly, you have cargo tie down spots all along the boat.

Spacers can be made from stock about 1/4" to 3/8" thick. I cut mine into isosceles triangles, 45-45-90. This means you start with a strip of wood, say 1/4" thick X 1" wide by many' long. Carefully mark down the strip with a zig zag line from edge to edge that defines the triangles. Cut them out and sand all corners and edges smooth. I also drilled a hole in the center of each one to make it lighter - SPAM retentive here. I glued my spacers with the 90 degree angle hidden, IE: spacers along the top edge of my inwhale had the 90 degree angle pointing down, and the hypotenuse along the top edge. Spacers along the bottom edge of the inwhale were opposite. Spacing of these can be aligned point to point, or staggered.

Congrats on the slime. Very nice looking boat.
On the holes go back and drill them a little bigger then fill with epoxy/woodflour mix. Once that is cured re-drill with a slightly smaller bit so the wood is protected all the way around by a fillet of sorts. It will last a lot longer than simply coating with epoxy.

I like that idea. I intended to do slotted gunnels, then when I got close to done, I started trimming options, partially for weight but mostly I was ready to get done and floating.