# Avery bad trip!



## nlcatfish (Mar 21, 2005)

Sept 29th. I left the house with the boat around 9:30. I picked up about 18 decent size creek chubs. Then I put 2 gallon of gas for the boat motor. I then took off to the ramp on the Ohio side of the river west of Cincinnati.
10:30 I was moving down the river at good speed to a spot the held Shad & skipjacks. I noticed when I was getting closer to that spot the boat seemed be dragging. I was thrilled for shad were jumping all over the area. I pulled back on the throttle. Then a huge rush of water came from the back of the boat. It scared me a great deal for I thought the plug came off. I quickly knew I had to beach my boat and bail out the water! I did have the minnow bucket that had held the chubs; I used that to remove the water. When I got the water down to almost empty I checked the plug. It was still tight in place!

Then I realize I had a LEAK somewhere; so I tried to plug where the water was coming in on the deck. I kept on watching how high it got before I had to hit the beach and bail out the water. I had to do this about every quarter of a mile. I was really getting worn out from dipping that minnow bucket to get the water out of the boat. As I got further up river I realized I had to cross over to the Ohio side of the river. That is when I remembered there was a bilge pump on this boat. I flip it on and it WORKED, for I had never ever used it before. With that working I got the water to a low level that I did not worry about getting to the Ohio side. Once I got there I drained it down to a low level once again. I then made the final run up to the ramp at 12:20! 

Needless to say I was beat emotionally as well as physically by getting my boat back to the ramp. I still had no idea where the water came from, but got it loaded to the trailer and headed home.

I left the boat hitched to the car when I got home and put the tarp on it for the night. The next day I checked the boat and there were 2 gashes in the side. Only 1 was under the waterline; that was the one flooding the boat. I then called around to locate someone that did welding on aluminum boats. I did contact a guy so I took it to him the next morning. He did weld both of the holes that same day!

I then knew how I got the holes. The trip on the 26th I had used the Public landing ramp. There is NO way to tie up a boat there; and when all those pleasure boat were churning up the river the waves turned my boat sideways to the shore. I did not the strength to turn the boat straight; I decided to use the trailer to straighten it out. The problem was as I push with the trailer the big waves smashed the boat into the trailer. I had NO idea that any damage had taken place. Just another day of being cursed by the fishing gods.


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## BMustang (Jul 27, 2004)

nlcatfish said:


> Sept 29th. I left the house with the boat around 9:30. I picked up about 18 decent size creek chubs. Then I put 2 gallon of gas for the boat motor. I then took off to the ramp on the Ohio side of the river west of Cincinnati.
> 10:30 I was moving down the river at good speed to a spot the held Shad & skipjacks. I noticed when I was getting closer to that spot the boat seemed be dragging. I was thrilled for shad were jumping all over the area. I pulled back on the throttle. Then a huge rush of water came from the back of the boat. It scared me a great deal for I thought the plug came off. I quickly knew I had to beach my boat and bail out the water! I did have the minnow bucket that had held the chubs; I used that to remove the water. When I got the water down to almost empty I checked the plug. It was still tight in place!
> 
> Then I realize I had a LEAK somewhere; so I tried to plug where the water was coming in on the deck. I kept on watching how high it got before I had to hit the beach and bail out the water. I had to do this about every quarter of a mile. I was really getting worn out from dipping that minnow bucket to get the water out of the boat. As I got further up river I realized I had to cross over to the Ohio side of the river. That is when I remembered there was a bilge pump on this boat. I flip it on and it WORKED, for I had never ever used it before. With that working I got the water to a low level that I did not worry about getting to the Ohio side. Once I got there I drained it down to a low level once again. I then made the final run up to the ramp at 12:20!
> ...


Norb: Sometimes I think that you and I should have taken up golf.


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## nlcatfish (Mar 21, 2005)

BMustang said:


> Norb: Sometimes I think that you and I should have taken up golf.





BMustang said:


> Norb: Sometimes I think that you and I should have taken up golf.


I am not even good at that either.


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