My Jackson FD-E Adventure

Saturday I got home after watching the Tennessee Wrestling State Championships to a surprise on the porch. Normally, I am excited because I get a tackle warehouse or something I was not expecting to be shipped to my house. Upon further review, in the dark I see two boxes sitting on the porch. I thought it was a mistake. How could I be so lucky to get 2 boxes on a Saturday, knowing I ordered my FD-E on Thursday late to where I did not think I could get it Saturday? Immediately I thought it was a mistake.

Like most of you, I do not carry a flashlight. So I pull my iPhone out of my pocket and turn the camera on to see the JK logo on the side of the box. Immediately, I yell out a huge YES! 10:30 at night living in the country you can get away with this without waking up the neighbors or having someone look at you weird, but you may scare the hell out of a dog or deer.

I bring the boxes inside and begin tearing them apart like a kid at Christmas. I shredded the boxes open and lay everything out. I get everything setup and battery on the charger ready go fishing.

Hitting the Water

Like most fishing trips, I wake up prior to my alarm going off. I load the car up and take off to Kentucky Lake. Knowing we had wind I was skeptical about going to the main lake due to the gusts causing white caps. At the ramp, I pulled the FD-E out and messed with it making sure I did not mess anything up or not have it set right in the drive. First time through, immediately get it popped in and take off.

I jet across the cove to look at a main lake point that dumps into a channel swing. I turn on my depth finder and get setup ready to go. I am taking off to the spot to check the area out. I spear a few waves on the way and just amazed that I was not trying to manually power through the waves but sitting just reading my graph and looking for fish.

As I am looking at my maps I make a decision to run to the back of the creek just to look around. But really it was to see the speed of the Big Rig FD consistently with me being a fat guy who carries the kitchen sink in tackle.

Speed!

I get turned and get moving at an average of 4.1 mph for the entire 1.78 mile trip to the back of the creek. Upon arriving, I decide to just pedal around due to wanting to conserve battery life because I was planning another long trip to a creek on Lake Barkley during the afternoon. I find nothing but Asian carp and birds watching laughing at me for the continued skunk I have not be able to shake this year on Kentucky Lake.

I make a quick switch back to the FD-E and make another trip out to the main lake area that I was banking on to hold fish. This time I had to go through heavy wake because the wind had picked up causing plenty of white caps. Normally that does not bother me because I am not worried about getting wet and like the challenges of catching fish in wake. But this is also the winter time so I did not want to get wet and cold.

Once I was able to get a window to go I had to adjust the speed to stay dry but also stay off the shore. Instead of going full speed I cut the speed down to keep me moving forward without spearing waves and getting soaked. It took a little time to get used to the motions so I did not fall out, but once I got it figured out it was easy to get dialed in.

Switching it Up!

It took me 10 minutes to get to my spot and 30 seconds switch from power to pedal so I could get back to fishing. I ended my Kentucky Lake trip with my first bass of 2020 on Kentucky Lake with an 18 inch large mouth. I spent an hour fishing this particular area until the wind gusts increased causing the lake to flirt with that unsafe range for me in the winter time. Another 30 seconds to switch back to power I was off and back to the ramp. When I got to the ramp I decided I was going to give up on pre-fishing for a club tournament and head to a spot that was a 2 mile pedal for some fun fishing in the backwaters of Lake Barkley.

I made the trip and unloaded. It took me 17 minutes to get to the spot I wanted to go. (I added another 10 minutes to the trip because I forgot my rain jacket in the car and it started raining). This particular spot on Barkley is known to be very very deep and very clear. I was able to get in and enjoy the time.

When the sun went down, I had to zoom back to the ramp. I switched back over to the FD-E and took off and ended my day.
A few take aways that I definitely like is the ability to switch back and forth quickly from Power to Pedal.

The simplicity of the FD-E and the storability of it.
The speed for my Big Rig FD with all the extra weight in it.

Thanks for reading guys and I hope to see you on the water!

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