First trip of the year, What else can go wrong?

[5150abf]

Been looking forward to going fishing for ,oh, 5 months now, I head off to the launch I use, 35-40 minute drive to a city park.

I get there and they have 4 barrels across the road but technically it doesn't say "road closed" so I assume some kids put them there(wink) and go around, get to the launch, prep and launch except the water in the river is REALLY high and the front tires of the truck are in a foot of water and the boat is still on the trailer so I pull out and bring the launch rope in the truck with me so I can launch and pull forward to get out of the truck.

Park the truck and jump in the boat which starts right up, sorta, sounds like it is running on one cylinder, I will let it warm up, no improvement, so I pop the hood, smells like gas, must be flooded.

Get it started and go to look at it and I had forgotten to put the pee hole back in the case after I painted it and it is spraying water all over inside the cowl, I push the thing back in the case and go to put the hose on, ploop, into the water with it, oh well, now the connector to the power pack is wet so I will run the engine and try to dry it out.(waited for the water to clear and found my pee hole on the bottom)

Running worse so I go back to try and dry out the plug and find an inch of gas in the bottom of the motor, ah ha!

Immediately start praying 'Please don't blow up, Please don't blow up", a half hour later,after running back and forth throwing the launch rope over my truck while running through 3'' of gooey old leaves I have it back on the trailer and pull it out, pump the bulb and gas is squirting from the bottom carb hose, I can fix that, so I get out my crappy 80 piece tool set I paid $15 dollars for and it has everything I need, even a zip tie, feelin pretty good now and am very glad I have that cheapo tool set.

This time I back it in as I don't have another unpowered trailering in me and fire it up, sorta, runs bad and smoking like a banshi, again off with the hood to find the timing advance arm had fallen out of the throttle linkage, took the plastic piece off the arm and promptly dropped it into the motor, got it back after some fishing around with a fillet knife, popped that back in and it fired right up and ran like it should.

Sat for 5 minutes confirming that it actually did run and locust weren't going to descend on me, oddly enough the rest of the night was great and the new wireless trolling motor is super cool and pulls like a freight train but I could have done without the 1 1/2 hour launch.

 

[idrownworms]

Re: First trip of the year, What else can go wrong?

35 minutes from Goshen, hmm not koskiosko county I hope. Several lakes are closed to all but canoes and rowboats due to high water. Thank you for absorbing all the bad luck the only problem I had the first time out was the wind, it took me two tries to line up the boat to get it on the trailer. Just remember the best stories come not from the perfect trips but rather from the troubles the worse the better.

jamie
boating is an adventure, not a destination

 

[Campylobacter]

Re: First trip of the year, What else can go wrong?

First trip out for me always gets a 5 min run on the muffs before I leave the driveway. (already been out twice in NC)

 

[capt sam]

Re: First trip of the year, What else can go wrong?

the ability to troubleshoot on the water is vital, it's one thing when your car breaks down it's a whole 'nother puppy when your boat breaks down. Good job on sticking with it.

 

[5150abf]

Re: First trip of the year, What else can go wrong?

idrownworms, I go the other way to the Elkhart hospital and fish the St Joe, we found a nice cathole over there.

I was gonna come home, I have never had a break down that was fixxable at the launch but I am glad I looked into it, I would have been bent if I came home and thats all that was wrong.

I normally do run it but the hose was still froze, nezt time I will put alittle more effort into checking it over.

I will be replacing all the gas lines inside the cowl too, they are pretty squishy and I got really lucky, I could have posted asking how to remove char from a hull.

 

[idrownworms]

Re: First trip of the year, What else can go wrong?

I went to Waldron lake today and the water was so high we didn't even attempt it and went to sylvan.
The water was so high on waldron I'm sure water was up to if not in some cottages. I'm surprised they didn't have that lake blocked off

 

[tavett]

Re: First trip of the year, What else can go wrong?

My day was nearly the same as yours. I got to the lake, my truck showed 1/8 tank of gas, backed boat into water, gas ran to rear of tank, and I literally ran out of gas on the ramp. Had to reload boat , pour a half cup of gas in carb, 1 ft at a time, bearly made it home , no gas stations open before noon in these parts. At the house, gashed my head on tag holder
while working on trailer. Youre not the only one with bad luck today.

It was second trip of the year.

 

[5150abf]

Re: First trip of the year, What else can go wrong?

you almost always get one or two trips that make life interesting, last year my truck threw a belt 5 minutes from the launch and on another trip the lug nuts on the trailer came loose, with a little ingenuity we made it home both times.

idrown, we ice fished Sylvan this year but I have never had the boat out on it, not really a lake guy but I would like to get the boat out on it to at least mark depth for ice fishing next year and a couple walleye wouldn't hurt my feelings either.

 

[idrownworms]

Re: First trip of the year, What else can go wrong?

The walleye are biting at the dam and you dont even need a boat.
Never tried fishing for ice but the patients at the insane asylum tend to break out in the winter and just sit on the ice, especially around the Gene Stratton Porter home
The ramp has plenty of parking except on the day of the fireworks then you can't hardly drive around town let alone park a truck with a trailer