Shake’in it down again

The motor got new plugs and is idling again, so it is time to go fishing with the daughter.

The common thought on going fishing is that you wake up at oh my goodness in the morning and get out the door when it is still dark. The boat hits the water just as the sun comes up. This way, goes the theory, you have your presentation in front of them right as they are looking for breakfast.

We didn’t do this.

Well, she’s six and not a morning person. Heck, I’m not a morning person either. I figured we’d hit the water about 10ish and shake out the boat a little, then find a nice shady spot to fish for bluegills.

We got up and got the morning chores done. She took care of her stuff a little faster than usual. I think she was excited to go fishing with me. I tell ya, that warms my heart like few things can. Right about the time we planned to leave, we had to run out to the store and get some ice for the cooler. While at the store we also got some boat snacks because boat snacks rock.

I got the boat hooked up and we were on the road at about 10AM. The drive over to the lake was an easy 45 minutes. Along the way we talked about some of the rules and my expectations for her behavior. She agreed fully and seemed to grasp that I was being serious about being safe on the boat.

The marina was a little busy and there was a line for the ramp. I got in line and we ran in to pay the ramp fee and pick up some bait. Since it was going to be pan fishing, I got my trusty wax worms. We were back out in enough time to move forward one boat in the line.

At the next wait point, I got the boat prepped to go in the water. I transferred the poles, tackle, snacks, cooler, and everything else needed on the water. The rear straps got undone, the drain plug was verified that it was in, and the boat was test started (briefly!).

Most of the people using the ramp were pulling bass boats out of the water. I guess the morning fishing was done and they were going to go about the rest of their day. There was a large pontoon boat and a jetski that launched right before us.

Launch time! I got the daughter in the boat, so she could experience it. She had her life jacket on and was all smiles. I swung the trailer around and got the boat to the waters edge so I could undo the safety chain and spool out a little winch strap. I didn’t want the boat to float away on me. The boat gently rose off the trailer as I backed into the water. I stopped when the trailer fenders just reached the surface.

My girl was still all smiles as I got in the boat and started it up. Once I was happy with how the engine was running, I went up and unhooked the winch strap to free the boat. A little maneuvering got us over to the launch/load docks. It took a couple of moments to tie up and go park the truck and trailer.

Ok, now the moment of truth. How will the boat do today? My daughter wanted to go fishing right away, but agreed that we could do a couple of speed passes, just to see what it was like. I can’t say the motor ran great, but it did run. Once I got things trimmed, we hit 35 MPH, which was ok by me. More importantly, the motor kept running at idle.

Time to go fishing. My little girl needed to catch her very first fish and I needed to make it happen. I pulled off into the nearest cove and dropped the trolling motor to bring us in. I found a shady spot to anchor so we could get the poles set up properly and baited. Once set up and a last moment talk about not hooking me or herself, she did her first cast into the water.

She did a good one, at about 10 feet, no snags on the boat or any of the close by trees. We had practiced a couple of weeks earlier and that really paid off. I also cast out near her, partially so I could see how the fish were biting, and well, because I really enjoy fishing. We stayed in that spot for about 15 minutes with no nibbles. I was worried she would lose interest, but she stuck with it. I told her “that’s why they call it fishing and not catching” and she giggled.

We moved around the cove, but got nothing, not even a nibble. I asked her if she wanted to move to another part of the lake and she agreed. Off we went on a half hour trip to the top part of the lake. The boat ran a little rough in idle, but not horrible. It ran pretty well when I opened it up.

There was a shady spot and we stopped for lunch for a bit. My girl wanted to get back to fishing, but I was firm about it. We needed to eat and hydrate. I discovered something I should have known before; chocolate boat snacks are a bad idea Well, duh. She tried to eat a melted KitKat anyway. It was messy.

A quick meal and some Powerade and we were back it. We tried several more spots and while I got a couple, she didn’t. Still, she didn’t want to quit. I did notice her casts were not going quite as far and she was having some issues getting a good cast. I ended up redoing her setup by cutting off about 5 feet of line and replacing the clip-on foam stick bobber she had with a slip bobber held in place with a tie-on bobber stop. She wanted it set up like mine.

Her next cast was a thing of beauty. It looked like she’d been fishing for years! Talk about a proud daddy moment! Sadly, no fish. No nibbles.

I asked her if she wanted to try another spot, and she agreed. I fired up the motor and we puttered another couple of minutes up the lake. I’d heard that this was a panfish area, but that was in the spring. Perhaps we might get some luck.

Once we got there, I found a spot that had some shade for us, but left a sunny and shady area open to the water between the boat and the shore. I gave it a little test, and a fish hit my bait as soon as it hit the water. Perhaps this was the spot!

She cast in the same spot that I did. The bobber bounced a couple of times and I told her to reel in her fish. She wasn’t quite fast enough to get the hook set in the fish’s mouth. It took her bait, though. I re-baited her hook (too icky for her!), and gave her some pointers on what to do. Watch the bobber, take the slack out of the line, keep the rod tip down so you can set the hook by raising the rod. She nodded and cast again.

The bobber bounced twice, then dropped under the water. She gave the rod a yank and started reeling. There was something on there! Oh boy, here we go, first fish! She pulled it up out of the water.

It was a nice little pumkinseed sunfish! More important was the smile on her face and the pride I was feeling for her. There will only ever be one first fish. I was so happy for her. It is said that sometimes you get to experience the joy and wonder of the world through your child’s eyes. You get to live it all again. They might be on to something there.

Finally, this was the spot, and she went on to catch several more and a couple of sticks. I was catching a few also, and she was counting them and comparing to what she was doing. How about that? She’s got the fishing competitive spirit already! Perhaps we can have a competition next time we go out.

It was getting late in the day and I mentioned that we should head home. She wanted to stay and keep fishing. Ok, I told her that we could for another half hour, but then we had to go. The sun would be setting soon. I let her fish as I drank another Powerade. Dehydration isn’t any fun, and it was in the low 90’s that day.

I think next time she will need to bait her own hook, and perhaps take her own fish off. We will see how that goes.

It was about 6PM and we had at least a half hour ride back to the marina, much of it at idle (no wake). She helped me stow what needed to be stowed and was ready to go home. It was a pretty good day.

The anchor came up and I started to move us away from the shore with the trolling motor. I got us pointed in the right direction, then we just stopped moving. What the heck? The troller kept running and I could move us side to side, but could not go forward. The motor was still down a bit, so something must have snagged it.

I raised the motor a bit and was able to move out to the main channel with the trolling motor. Then, I brought up the troller and lowered the main. It didn’t want to start. Well, it had been a couple of hours since it ran last, perhaps it needed to be primed again. A couple of squeezes of the priming bulb, and fuel was back at the engine.

It started, but only with some throttle. I let it run for a bit then put it to idle. It started to sputter. Well, now this is a problem. My issue from last time is back. I was not happy, and was getting worried we might not get back to the marina.

One more try and I got the motor started with a high throttle. I quickly dropped the throttle lever and tossed it into forward gear, with some throttle. The engine started to fade, then picked up some RPMs. At least it was running and we were moving.

This motor was running like it was too rich. At full throttle, it was making some power and we were moving, but at maybe 10 MPH. It was producing a lot of smoke, which had the odor of two-cycle oil and SeaFoam.

The no wake areas were difficult, as I couldn’t let the engine idle or it would die. If it died, I wasn’t sure I’d get it started again. I kept pushing on towards the marina. There was a cloud of blue-white smoke and a bit of a wake behind me. Sorry people!

We finally made it to the marina, and I tried to put the motor in idle/neutral. It died. Well, that’s it. I’m putting this thing on the trailer with no motor again. Well, crap.

I dropped the trolling motor and aimed for the fine gravel beach next to the boat ramp. I figured I could tie a rope on the boat and swing it over to the trailer. It would be easier than trying to do this from the launch/load docks. That trolling motor got us some good speed and I yanked it up just before we beached. I don’t like the sound of gravel on the hull, but it wasn’t the first time this boat had done it. I figured a few more scratches would build some more character.

The anchor was sitting on the deck near the bow, so I heaved it up onto the beach and climbed out of the boat. Once on the ground, I lifted the front of the boat and moved it a little further up the beach. There was a steel cable there for securing some rental boats, so I wrapped the anchor line around it. Hopefully the boat wouldn’t go anywhere.

My girl and I really needed to use the facilities, so that was the first order of business. We had not used the bathroom all day, which is kind of not a good thing. Note to self, make sure we drink some water on the way home. Other note, make sure we drink more when we are on the water.

The second order of business was getting the boat trailer in the water. For safety, I had my girl stay in the truck as I got the boat loaded. She wasn’t happy, but I gave her a couple of Slim-Jim’s and some water and she was occupied.

I had watched a couple of videos on how to trailer a boat that wasn’t running, so I had gone out that day prepared for it. There was a bag with 75 feet of brand-new poly rope, which I opened and tied one end to the bow eye. The other end, I tied to the trailer. Why poly? Well, for one, it floats. That makes it a little easier to get if it falls in the water.

With the anchor back on the boat, I gave the thing a big shove and let the rope play out in my hands. It wasn’t enough of a shove and the boat started to veer off away from the ramp. Well, crap. I waded into the water a bit next to the trailer and gave the rope a good pull. The boat headed towards me and I caught it. It almost knocked me over on the slick boat ramp, but I stayed upright and swung it around so it pointed strait out from the ramp.

One more big shove and out the boat went, right behind the trailer. I stepped to the other side of the trailer and started pulling the boat, and it drifted into line with the trailer, then started going past it. A quick hop to the other side of the trailer and another pull got it strait into the bunks. A couple more tugs got it close enough for me to attach the winch strap. I winched it up a bit and untied the poly rope. The rope went into the boat.

As I was winching the boat on the rest of the way, I heard somebody further up the ramp say, “I wasn’t sure how that was going to work out for you, but it looks like you might have done this before”. It was one of the marina guys from inside. I guess he watched a bit of it on the CCTV camera and came out to lend a hand. I told him it was my first time using a rope to get the boat on the trailer, but I’d seen it done on the Internet. He nodded, “Well, I’ve had to fetch more than one boat out of here when they lost it. Looks like you did it right.”

I proceeded to get in the truck to pull out, and I heard a scraping sound as the boat came up out of the water. The the marina guy yelled, “Your motor’s dragging on the ramp!”. Oops, I got out and pushed the button on the boat to raise the motor. I guess I lost my recently acquired good boat guy credit with that one. Oh well.

Well, it was time to secure things for the trip home. I pulled off into the parking area and started with hooking up the back straps and pulling the drain plug. There was a good gush of water, but not enough to concern me. My daughter got into the boat and moved stuff to the edges so I could put them in the truck. I noticed the boat was not all the way on the trailer, by about 2 inches, so I figured the new 2000 pound winch aught to be able to pull it up. I grabbed the handle and gave it a good tug….in the wrong direction. The little dog that prevents the winch from turning jumped the teeth and stopped engaging. Well, now, that’s a problem. I turned it the right way, and the boat didn’t budge. The winch was not going to keep the boat on the trailer and it wasn’t going to pull it up on any further.

That part of the winch that holds the dog can be taken apart with a couple of wrenches. Good news is that I had an adjustable wrench to remove the boat plug, bad news is I didn’t have the other wrench. I keep a small tool kit in the truck and started looking for it when another boater came up and said, “Hey, your lower is leaking oil.”

Sure enough, there was blue oil leaking out between the prop and the lower part of the motor. That means the seals have gone bad and will need replacement. It happens, but why oh why did it have to happen now? Good news is the oil was not milky colored, so no water had gotten into the lower.

Since the guy was being helpful, I asked if he had a wrench I could borrow for a couple of minutes. He said he didn’t, but he had some locking pliers I could use, and went to get them. It took about 2 minutes to get the winch fixed and I turned to give them back to him. He was gone.

Being me, I wanted to return this guy’s tool. He was kind enough to let me use it, the least I could do was give it back. I waited for a moment and looked around. Oh, there he was down at the ramp loading his boat. That was going to take a few minutes. I might was well finish getting ready to go.

My girl and I gave it one last check to make sure the boat was empty and ready for the road. I plugged in the trailer lights and they were working. The sun was going down, and would be dark before we got home. I got her in her seat and gave her another snack and some water as the guy pulled up next to us with his dripping boat. I handed him the pliers and thanked him for the help. He mentioned it was easy to replace the seals and he had done it on his Evinrude last year. He said, “You probably have some fishing line wrapped up in there. Good luck!”

Off home we went. My girl and I chatted about our day, and she really wants to do it again. I asked her if we could skip the part with the boat not working and she agreed. She wan’t happy when I said that I’d have to get the boat fixed up again before we could fish that lake, but perhaps we could fish at another lake and do it from the shore. She perked up a bit at that.