06-08-2004, 03:26 PM
I was ,unfortunately, up there Saturday. For the first time in 5 years, I got skunked at the Gorge. With the number of fish and fish species, I thought it to be impossible, but it happened none the less. There was one 25lb. and two 35lb. macks weighed in Friday that were jigged out of Antelope Flats. I marked a few good fish at about 80 feet. Big boys sitting alone on the bottom around seemingly no structure. We threw everything but the tackle box at them and got one good bite that I missed the hookset on. New pole, new linecounter reel, new fireline = drag set just a little too loose and line buried itself as I applied thumb pressure to compensate for the drag = lost fish.
Shortly after, we decided to motor over to the humps in Linwood, this is when the fun started. My main motor, with a small crack from Starvation in the lower unit, had lost all of the gear oil and would not stay in gear. OK, let's just run around on the trolling motor. Starts fine, but won't run at full power under load, OK get the tools. OH SH$%!, for the first time in 5 years, I left the tools home. So off we go at 1/2 snails pace (speed didn't even register on the Garmin) trolled into Linwood, taking about an hour to gete there. Marked a few good fish there too at about 80 feet, on what appeared to be no structure. We tried to jig them with just a little less success than we had seen before.
Enough of this stuff, let's head for a shoreline and catch some Smallies. None to be found, anywhere we tried. OK, let's catch some rainbows. We tried worms under bubbles in the back of a couple of bays. We trolled anywhere from 5 to 45 feet down for them. I swear it was just my turn to have a BBAADD day! We finally just gave up about 6:00 and crawled our way back to the boat ramp where I got the main motor to stay in gear long enough to load the boat.
On top of all of that; I don't have a top on the boat, and even with spf 30 and more than a half a gallon of liquid, I got burned to a crisp and somewhat dehydrated. I might just have to get the motor welded and come back up this weekend just to proove to myself that I can still catch a fish up there.
I got home and pulled everything apart to see what the @#$ was going on with the motors. The main motor just needs a small weld (1 to 1.5 inch) that my girlfriends family said they can weld, no troubles. Hopefully, there was no further damage than that. The trolling motor had just gotten a small piece of gunk caught in the gap of one of the the spark plugs. I added Sea Foam to this tank to clean everything out, and it must have been doing it's job. I'm glad I looked in there though. I also had a pinhole leak in the line from the pump to the carb, so I replaced that line while I was in there. Should be good to go next trip. Oh, I also took one of my vehicle tool kits and put in under the drivers seat of the boat. Don't know why I hadn't done that already. DOH!
Good luck up there, and I might just show up. If I do. I'll be in an ancient 16' red/white boat with a BFT sticker dead center, top of the windshield. I'll be on channel 12.
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Shortly after, we decided to motor over to the humps in Linwood, this is when the fun started. My main motor, with a small crack from Starvation in the lower unit, had lost all of the gear oil and would not stay in gear. OK, let's just run around on the trolling motor. Starts fine, but won't run at full power under load, OK get the tools. OH SH$%!, for the first time in 5 years, I left the tools home. So off we go at 1/2 snails pace (speed didn't even register on the Garmin) trolled into Linwood, taking about an hour to gete there. Marked a few good fish there too at about 80 feet, on what appeared to be no structure. We tried to jig them with just a little less success than we had seen before.
Enough of this stuff, let's head for a shoreline and catch some Smallies. None to be found, anywhere we tried. OK, let's catch some rainbows. We tried worms under bubbles in the back of a couple of bays. We trolled anywhere from 5 to 45 feet down for them. I swear it was just my turn to have a BBAADD day! We finally just gave up about 6:00 and crawled our way back to the boat ramp where I got the main motor to stay in gear long enough to load the boat.
On top of all of that; I don't have a top on the boat, and even with spf 30 and more than a half a gallon of liquid, I got burned to a crisp and somewhat dehydrated. I might just have to get the motor welded and come back up this weekend just to proove to myself that I can still catch a fish up there.
I got home and pulled everything apart to see what the @#$ was going on with the motors. The main motor just needs a small weld (1 to 1.5 inch) that my girlfriends family said they can weld, no troubles. Hopefully, there was no further damage than that. The trolling motor had just gotten a small piece of gunk caught in the gap of one of the the spark plugs. I added Sea Foam to this tank to clean everything out, and it must have been doing it's job. I'm glad I looked in there though. I also had a pinhole leak in the line from the pump to the carb, so I replaced that line while I was in there. Should be good to go next trip. Oh, I also took one of my vehicle tool kits and put in under the drivers seat of the boat. Don't know why I hadn't done that already. DOH!
Good luck up there, and I might just show up. If I do. I'll be in an ancient 16' red/white boat with a BFT sticker dead center, top of the windshield. I'll be on channel 12.
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