Happy Ending - just sharing
Posted: March 5th, 2014, 9:16 am
It's usually Luc who posts, but I thought we should share an experience from last Saturday. First the fishing report, he'll follow with a couple of pictures. He's become quite skilled at site fishing, and I have to admit to becoming a little "hooked" on it myself. We've come a long way from drowning shrimp in a deep hole, or off some beach.
While Saturday was a long day based on the action, and it never really got warm, our patience was rewarded with 3 overslot reds, 2 of which we each landed throwing at a wake, and the 3rd spotted and hooked up in a group in very skinny water. Prior to that, we learned of some very shallow spots on the east flats, where he poled his heart out just to keep us from spending a very long time in one place.
We've been on hundreds of trips since we bacame boaters, and though I'll hopefully never really feel overconfident, we do feel "experienced". We learned another new lesson Saturday that we thought worth sharing, hoping others can avoid a similar scare.
We were bow end into a dead end creek, in the Mitzi, tide rushing in behind us, Luc on the platform trying to hold our position, me at the controls. We both agreed, reverse was the way to start getting out of there - not a good idea with the tide rushing in, and all the weight in the back of the very low riding skiff.
Before we realized it, the prop had dug in, and water was rushing over the stern, quickly filling the boat. There was a very brief moment when I thought it was gone, then, in sheer panic mode, we luckily did several right things that saved the boat - he moved to the front, I hit forward and we turned on the bilge pump. Water stopped coming in, and started going out. A little scary to realize how much trouble we got in "just like that".
We weren't in danger of drowning, but we could have been stranded in a very isolated spot (see photos), with a boat full of water, sitting on the bottom. Would not have been good at all. Fortunately, our luck was not limited to our fishing.
Hopefully Luc can add a couple of photos of the better part of our day. In the end, no real harm, and a lesson learned.
While Saturday was a long day based on the action, and it never really got warm, our patience was rewarded with 3 overslot reds, 2 of which we each landed throwing at a wake, and the 3rd spotted and hooked up in a group in very skinny water. Prior to that, we learned of some very shallow spots on the east flats, where he poled his heart out just to keep us from spending a very long time in one place.
We've been on hundreds of trips since we bacame boaters, and though I'll hopefully never really feel overconfident, we do feel "experienced". We learned another new lesson Saturday that we thought worth sharing, hoping others can avoid a similar scare.
We were bow end into a dead end creek, in the Mitzi, tide rushing in behind us, Luc on the platform trying to hold our position, me at the controls. We both agreed, reverse was the way to start getting out of there - not a good idea with the tide rushing in, and all the weight in the back of the very low riding skiff.
Before we realized it, the prop had dug in, and water was rushing over the stern, quickly filling the boat. There was a very brief moment when I thought it was gone, then, in sheer panic mode, we luckily did several right things that saved the boat - he moved to the front, I hit forward and we turned on the bilge pump. Water stopped coming in, and started going out. A little scary to realize how much trouble we got in "just like that".
We weren't in danger of drowning, but we could have been stranded in a very isolated spot (see photos), with a boat full of water, sitting on the bottom. Would not have been good at all. Fortunately, our luck was not limited to our fishing.
Hopefully Luc can add a couple of photos of the better part of our day. In the end, no real harm, and a lesson learned.
Was able to keep the canoe from sinking, but only by holding it up and muck walking it over to the grassline and emptying out the water we took on. Day I don't think I'll ever forget.