Unusual Bluegill What Happen to This Fish?

This is a very unusual looking bluegill. I got this image the other day from one of my buddies at the gym. He knew I loved to catch bluegill on the fly. He told me he had never seen a fish in this kind of shape. We were trying to figure out just what happen to this particular gill. One theory was the fish could have got caught in some type of net when it was small and develop the cut in its back from the pressure of the net string over the a period of time. I thought it was worth sharing. I told my buddies that you guys might be able to figure out what happen to this fish. You might say that this is the crossword puzzle of the day.

Pelican Raider Boat Stabilizer

Got a comment from Mel over at Blog Cabin Angler about the post I did on the Pelican Raider Boat. He wanted to know how the boat handled in the wind. I forgot to mention in the Pelican Raider post that there are some problems with the boat as far as wind is concerned. I was having problems last year keeping the back of the boat straight and parallel with the bank on windy days. Of course I could control the front of the boat because of the trolling motor. So I started to think about a way I could control the back of the boat, and came up with what I call my stabilizer. By utilizing an old trolling motor mount minus the motor, I solved the wind problem.

I attached a 12 gauge piece of sheet metal at the base of the shaft of the trolling motor mount. I used my band saw and made a cut l ft. up on the shaft and inserted the piece of sheet metal up through the slit and secured the metal with two 1/4" bolts----enter the finished stabilizer which now holds the boat straight in line and parallel with the bank. Surprising what a little ingenuity can do for you.