Fairy Stone State Park VA

Just got back from a camping trip to Fairy Stone in VA. Park was pretty nice, nice beach and lake, boat rentals, very nice hiking. The lake has some nice fish, I caught two large mouth bass in the 4-6lb range.

Only potential negative, some of the campsites were tight. That is often the case in older state parks, they were built for tents and small campers, but it was still a nice trip and I would return.

This was the first run with my kayak with a motor, wow it was so much better than paddling! Little 30lb Minn Kota did a great job pushing my H10 Ascend. Was finally able to focus on fishing and not paddling to maintain location or getting to the next spot.

 

a few more

 

link to the park

https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/fairy-stone

 

Sounds like an awesome time. I camped there a few years ago. Really nice park

 

Nice! I have an Ascend 10 myself. How did you mount your Minn Kota?

 

You can certainly build/mod your own and there are some good ideas out on youtube. I had planned on doing my own and even purchased aluminum square tube and stainless steel hardware to install it. But for ease of use and the ability to quickly remove the mount, I used this one, https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/bass-pro-shops-canoe-motor-mount?searchTerm=canoe motor mount

It is for a canoe. But since the H10 is a hybrid, this mount fits on the hull support behind where the chair is. I have to slightly angle it, hooked to that middle rear support bar and then on the left in the corner where the hull and the rear support bar meet. It has worked very well. I use one of the new lightweight lithium 24 series deep cycle batteries, which is easily 75% lighter than a normal deep cycle. So instead of a 40# battery, I would guess mine is under 10#. The H10 has 400# capacity, so using a regular deep cycle battery would be possible too.

Battery/box sits on starboard side in that back area, trolling motor on my left (port). Works really well and the kayak seems more stable with the motor and battery addition. Next time I go out I will try and remember to take a picture of it rigged up.

This past weekend was the first time trying out the motor. Man what a difference- I can now focus on fishing instead of working my ass off constantly paddling. I pulled out the paddle maybe twice, to get out of branches and logs, otherwise, it was a motor driven weekend.

 

Thanks Frank! Yeah, it's good to still have a paddle handy.

 

Here are a couple pics of how that motor mount fits. does sit a little off due to design of my kayak but it is very secure and has worked beautifully.

 

Thanks for the update! I should be able rig that up the same setup on my Ascend. Quite nifty.

 

It really is. you will need some sort of blocks as pictured, gives that other edge something to bite and the mount is strong, easy and quick to put on or take off.

This past weekend I was towing around a friend using my motor when she got tired of paddling. So it is strong enough to hold the motor at full power even towing another kayak and person. Also, the kayak is a lot more stable with the motor and battery. I did however splurge on one of the new super light 24 series lithium deep cycle batteries, so it at most probably weights 8-10lbs instead of the 40-50lbs of a lead acid.