St Patrick’s Day First ‘Ski

[TWiles]

My Btother in Law Brandon has accompanied me on several muskie escapades while visiting from Memphis.  This was another occasion where it felt like another fruitless venture. First off, we nearly killed the Crawdad...had to patch her up with Flex Tape and FlexSeal to save the morning.
I managed to catch a smaller male, but the bite was a little tough without much following.
Just about leaving time, when the sun rose high, Brandon had a hot fish follow in, and got her to eat on a couple turns of a figure eight. 
A glorious bite, with headshakes and churning chaos in the bright water.
It was a great first catch to witness.

[gaspergou]

Nice feesh! What's the best way to patch a crawdad, can you melt shavings or a stick into the gap like on a poly yak? Almost seems like a harder, thinner, more brittle material.

[Bfish]

There's foam between the plastic sheets, right?  And I believe it is more PVC like than poly.  I am thinking a "kevlar" patch, like a royalex canoe, but with different epoxy, so that it sticks to pvc.

[TWiles]

Old Crawdads are a RAM brand high density Polyethylene.  For repairs, I get a Kayak repair kit with wire mesh.  Basically have to melt sheets of plastic into the boat hull.  It’s messy, and the toxic fumes suck.  I use a KC welder soldering iron to melt and spread the plastic.

[Steve H]

Good looking Musky!