06-10-2010, 12:52 AM
I took my wife and son to Willard for the maiden voyage of our new to us craft. Got to the camp ground around 4:00 pm and set up camp. On the lake by 5:30 to see if it would float or sink, floated quite well, and the outboard even ran. We checked out the fish finder and trolled a few cranks around to no avail ( I think we were too interested in playing with the boat and fish finder to get serious about fishing ). We decided to troll back to the marina about 8:15 when some BOZO!!!! **??)(*&^&%^*$&%# in a wake board boat tried to broadside us, of the seven people on the boat no one was watching what was going on around them, at the last second with us screaming and yelling and honking the horn they powered down and turned almost swamping us. Needless to say we got off the lake. To much excitment for one evening. I took the hull numbers to the park ranger the next morning, I couldn't find one that evening.
Monday morning we were on the water by 7:00 am and trolled the west dike and the south dike and marked tons of fish at 15' and deeper. No bites I thought we were going to be skunked. It was almost noon and we had missed breakfast so we headed back to the north marina and camp for a late breakfast by way of freeway bay and my son nailed a 21 1/2" wiper ( yea the boat floats and catches fish ). After brunch or what ever and a short nap we went to hit the lake again and decided not to when we saw the breakers on the lake. We went for a drive to check out Mantua instead. It was raining so we didn't stay.
Tuesday was a super day the sky was clear the water was calm, on the water about 7:30 am motored over to freeway bay and started trolling 5 min into the first run wham I had a wiper on for a little while. I couldn't get it to the boat I would guess it was about 18" long. We trolled past the feed lot and wham I had another one on and boated this one. I had to let him go so he could grow a little more, he was only 12" long. Wemade several more runs past the feedlot and freeway bay with no more fish on. So we decided to troll back to the north marina and just as we passed Pelican Beach my son nailed another wiper this time an 18"er , so we decided to make another run through freeway bay and then go back for lunch. About half way through the run the motor started to load up, so we decided to head for the marina. The boat was going slower and slower and slower as we turned into the marina. About 20' or so from the dock the motor popped and stopped as we coasted to the dock my son yelled we are on fire. I grabbed the fire extingisher ( the one the ranger told me I didn't need because I had an outboard ) and put out the fire. We then pulled the peice of s***t on to the trailer with a rope and went back to camp to reflect on the events of our first boating experience.
I guess it was all good 2 life threatening events and 4 wipers on the line. 4 to 2 wipers win.
I took the boat down to Halstrom Marine where I got the motor and he had it up and running again within about 1 hr. No major damage. All I need to do now is get another not required fire extingisher and I am ready to try this again.
markeli
[signature]
Monday morning we were on the water by 7:00 am and trolled the west dike and the south dike and marked tons of fish at 15' and deeper. No bites I thought we were going to be skunked. It was almost noon and we had missed breakfast so we headed back to the north marina and camp for a late breakfast by way of freeway bay and my son nailed a 21 1/2" wiper ( yea the boat floats and catches fish ). After brunch or what ever and a short nap we went to hit the lake again and decided not to when we saw the breakers on the lake. We went for a drive to check out Mantua instead. It was raining so we didn't stay.
Tuesday was a super day the sky was clear the water was calm, on the water about 7:30 am motored over to freeway bay and started trolling 5 min into the first run wham I had a wiper on for a little while. I couldn't get it to the boat I would guess it was about 18" long. We trolled past the feed lot and wham I had another one on and boated this one. I had to let him go so he could grow a little more, he was only 12" long. Wemade several more runs past the feedlot and freeway bay with no more fish on. So we decided to troll back to the north marina and just as we passed Pelican Beach my son nailed another wiper this time an 18"er , so we decided to make another run through freeway bay and then go back for lunch. About half way through the run the motor started to load up, so we decided to head for the marina. The boat was going slower and slower and slower as we turned into the marina. About 20' or so from the dock the motor popped and stopped as we coasted to the dock my son yelled we are on fire. I grabbed the fire extingisher ( the one the ranger told me I didn't need because I had an outboard ) and put out the fire. We then pulled the peice of s***t on to the trailer with a rope and went back to camp to reflect on the events of our first boating experience.
I guess it was all good 2 life threatening events and 4 wipers on the line. 4 to 2 wipers win.
I took the boat down to Halstrom Marine where I got the motor and he had it up and running again within about 1 hr. No major damage. All I need to do now is get another not required fire extingisher and I am ready to try this again.
markeli
[signature]