First day of the Gatherodeo.I hooked up with Muskalungee and we hit the river in his jetboat about 0530hrs.Also Ogbudha,Reb9,Lyall,and his buddy Mike were campaigning in jets too.After we launch everyone headed upriver and than split up.

Muskalungee and I stopped below some rocks with decent flow around them and started fishin'.Well..we caught a few but weren't too please with the spot so we decided to move.That's when we found the jet wouldn't start for us.We tried to contact Ogbudha for help but the cell phone wasn't getting through.We mad the most of it and used the trolling motor to move behind an island and less current where we continued to fish and catch them too.We were using tubes,suspending jerkbaits,buzzbaits,spinnerbaits,grubs,and just about everything we threw was getting bit.We were also catching Largemouth Bass,Sunfish,and Catfish,besides our main quarry "Smallmouth Bass". We tried the motor again after I rubbed a fish on it and muttered some choice words,it started.We moved to another pile of rocks with decent current flow and started fishing again.Well...after applying ourselves there and catch what we could catch we decided to move again.Once again,the motor would not cooperate and we tried to call for assistance with no luck.A few moments afterward,Lyall and Mike come cruising up,and we explained what the problem was.We had already done what we could to attempt to remedy the problem,checked fuel line,checked and changed sparkplugs,and such.They offered what advice they could and we checked this out but..no go.We limped around and kept fishin,and catchin'too.Than off in the distance upriver appeared our little fishin' buddy (Ogbudha) ,and his partner(Reb9).We tried some semophore signaling with the engine cowl,and eventually got his attention and he came back down to assist us.The problem turned out to be not venting the gas tank.Once that was done the motor never missed a beat for the rest of the day. Once we got the ability to move around.We did,and hit an assortment of different spots and caught fish from them all.It was mostly jerkbaits,tubes and a smattering of buzzbait being the dominate lures.I managed to finally and with verification hook and land and double.That is hook two fish on one lure at the same time. The big fish of the day turned out to be a Catfish about 17" long that Mike got.Smallmouth wise we each got a few 15-16" fish.Most of them were 6-12",and between us totaled almost one hundred Smallies landed. to be continued...