Finally I get to go fishing..

T

Thudpucker

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After a very long summer drought. No water to fish in.:(
And then a cold windy winter, still with no water.
But now, finally we have some water.
The Resivours are full.:)

I had three days of nice weather to work on my stuff, and might have been in the water today but for some houshold chores.
So tomorrow I'll use the morning chill (35 Degrees forcast) to get hooked up and by Noon it should be up to 60 degrees or so.
Finally.... I'll get out.
Catfishing, test my sliding rowing seat, and maybe even some slow trolling with a white curly tail jig.:D
 
Catfishing in the middle of the day? I always thought catfishing was done at night with smelly chicken entrails.

G
 
Down here catfishing is good at night, but also early to mid morning too. You can catch them downstream of locks and water control structures all day and night too.
 
Well I made it back. It was a "Swimmingly succussful" trip.
I got one small White Bass (Striper) When I opend her up to see what she'd been eating...nothing in her stomach!

I fell in the boat a couple times. I fell out of the boat twice.
My Sliding Rowing seat was a great success, but not without some further need of engineering. It caused me to fall backwards and I was stuck! I'm no longer young and willowy, I was stuck lying on my back in the front of my boat. The wind finally drifted me into the beach and I could grab some brush to help me up.

Being the first time out in almost a year, I didnt' have some things ready, or at least not as ready as I thought.
Fishing was slow. Windy and a Hi-pressure day.
One couple of guys got three Cats, two Crappie and another Striper like mine.

I got home this evening, a bit chilly, soaked, and pretty happy. She had Fried Catfish waiting on me.
Boy you cant end a day of fishing any better than that!
 
Geeeeez Thud, you sure paint an ...adventuresome... picture! Congratulations on getting out and and getting a WB and success, sort of, of the slider, but how the heck did you fall out of the boat?? And get back in??

Hope you have even more fun next sortie, in a safer, painless kind of way!

Darn. Now for some reason I can't get the vision of a turtle on it's back out of my head.
 
Sandy your question brings to mind some points to ponder:
Water Temp.
Out in the Pacific I would never have been in this situation. The water is too cold to be monkeying around where a person might fall into that chilly water. It wouldn't be long till you needed help.
Down here the water is very warm. Not quite like bath water, but easy enough to deal with.
I didn't worry too much over falling in. That was probably a bad mistake.

I fell out of the boat the first time because its a light aluminum skiff and I got too much weight over the side on the Bow end. I was near the beach and went to step out of the boat, but got too much weight over the side and the boat just slid out from underneath me.

The second time, later in the day, I had folded the seat back down and I was sitting up on the seat back of that slider and it fell over with me.

Then I was in a pile, upside down in the very bow of that little skiff.
When I finally got hold of the edge and rolled over to one side to get up, I had too much weight on the side of the pointy end of the boat.
The gunnel was under water and the boat was filling up fast.

I had to make a decision at that point.
So I rolled on out of the boat to keep from sinking the boat, or flipping the boat over on top of me.
I just hung onto the boat and kicked it over to the beach. I bailed it out and got back in. This time I made up my mind to stuff that seat up in the bow and forget using it in any way.

That brings up two more points. Us old guys should wear the PFD all the time. You never know....

The second point you put me to mind of:
Getting back into the boat when you fall overboard where you cant get to the beach?
I dont think I could have done that without help.
I certainly would have lost all my fishing gear by tipping the boat enough for me to tumble back inside.
There isnt enough room along side the motor to come in over the transome.
Boy, that would have been a bad scene.
I guess I'll have to get a Teen ager down to the lake and have him flip out of the boat.
Then I'll watch him and see how he gets back into the boat. I'll have him try different ways. Then, if I'm up to it, I'll try it. It might be nice to know if I could do it or not.

Somehow my Cell phone never got drowned yesterday. I guess that is another thing to think of. That Cell Phone sould be in some kind of floating and water proof arrangment. Probably there is already something like that on the market. I'll have to look into that.

My wife told me to sell that boat. I guess she still likes me a little bit. Or maybe my Life insurance is not gonna pay off when I die from an incident brought on by terminal stupidity.
 
Thud, that is just way too much fun to have in just one day. You should really spead this stuff out. Kidding aside , I'm really glad but not surprised you were able to sort yourself out to get out of these predicaments.

The pfd is certainly a darn good idea, pretty important for situations you wisely have contemplated . Up here in the cooler NE I wear a really comfy Mustang Bomber float coat a major % of the time, but never felt very comfortable wearing either of the 2 auto-inflatables I've been given.

Having been in & out & back in azillion times swimming from my old 13' Grumman long ago, I think there will be a great difference between how a spry teenager can get back into a skiff and the success of one "who used to be spryer". A teenager can often haul himself over the side quickly enough so relatively little water is shipped, though there is still some concern for flipping. The best way to have least chance of flipping or even shippng water is generally over the bow , counterweighted by the engine at the stern, but except for jonboat skiffs this usually increased height to pull up & over is likely to be beyond the capability of muscles past their prime.
That PFD is key. Then in warmish water you can backstroke or drift with the boat until you reach shallower water as long as your boat has a painter you can reach to hold onto. Preferably with a hand loop already tied into it, maybe even a clip for attaching to a PFD. You also might be able to configure a well-secured usable boarding ladder setup over the bow you could reach and flip into position? The kind with real steps not rope would be best.

Depending on your cell provider , there are waterproof cell phones like the GzOne (Verizon) : http://estore.vzwshop.com/gzone/ and there are plenty of water resistant containers for cells, even tightly-sealed Ziplocs. They say as long as the cell phone is not on when it goes in the water, & left off, it can usually be saved by agitating well in a bucket of fresh water and leaving in the sun for days or in the oven on lowest setting for a few hours with battery out, to thoroughly dry out, Never had to try it though. Yet.

"My wife told me to sell that boat. I guess she still likes me a little bit." Loved that part. :D :D
 
Thud, Next time please take some pictures, maybe mount a web cam on the bow.
 
quote:
Originally posted by jmas

Thud, Next time please take some pictures, maybe mount a web cam on the bow.

Click to expand...

Not on your life! I'd be the star of YouTube for weeks at a time.

Sandy you have wisdom borne of experience.
While in Ketchikan I watched the Coasties demonstrating some survival tecniques.
They jumped in wearing those Mustang suits. Boy that was neat. If I were working on something I'd like one of those on me all the time.

They also 'Fell' out of a skiff and got back into it.
Getting back into a skiff wearing a Mustang suit is next to impossible. Doing anything while wearing a Mustang suit is next to impossible.

Wearing an inflatable coat its also damn near impossible. (I gave my Inflatable coat away because it was like wearing a suit of armor that caused me to sweat inside it)

A life preserver was easier but it caught on stuff and he had a heckuva a time. It took him a couple of try's.
By the time he got into the skiff, it was nearly swamped and he was shivvering so badly he was almost helpless.
This is a young healthy Coastie! An old guy like me or a smaller woman wouldnt ever make it.

The skiff was empty, but it did have an outboard on the stern. Those coasties went in over the rear quarter and as you said, like a teenager, they almost lept out of the water and over the side.
I do not think I would have made the second try. I'd have been way too cold to function by that time.

One more thing, I saw, was the floatation in the skiff caused it to stay upright even when swamped. Everything made since '72' is supposed to act like that when fully loaded.

That's good. I've been in that situation and you warm up kinda quickly when your bailing.
I've always had my bail bucket on a tether since my nephew lost one overside. My current Bailer is a big Laundry Soap Container with the bottom cut out. Whatta bailer! It's almost a half gallon at a time.

I laughed at your tale of the old Grumman and catching a trailing painter.
In my mind I saw a kid swimming to catch up with a Canoe that was going off with the wind and the tide was holding the swimmer back.
A big voice coming down out of the clouds saying: "How long can you tread water?"

I spent the morning taking things out of the little skiff and transfering all that stuff to my 15' Jon boat with the 48" bottom.
No more fighting it for me. I'll be able to stand up and walk around in this one and I'll have to learn to depend on the motors. I give up being young. Now I'm accepting being old!
 
Sounds like a fun, uneventful day, LOL.
First of all, I will buy the web cam if you will install it, use it and then post ALL the highlights. I need a smile every now and then.
Second, if you are not going to wear a life jacket, at least put several of the square throw-ables in the boat, one in each seat as a seat cushion as long as you do not attach them ( I can picture Thuddie tying them to the seats with fishing line and electric wire. )
Third, the ziploc bag for the cell phone is a great idea, its CHEAP too. I have a box of them on my boat. always put my valuables in them on every trip.
And my last question is: How did the live well ever work out?

A turtle on its back, good one Sandy. I keep hearing the old commercial," Help, I have fallen and I cant get up!"
 
quote:
I give up being young. Now I'm accepting being(getting older) old!

Click to expand...


Thud, I know what you mean, but some of those "Hard Bodies" walking around the supermarket still look good to me.(From an art prospective naturally)
 
MudKatt, My first trip off the beach (I was six or so) was in a wooden rowing skiff near Bremerton Washington.
I was visiting from the Farm in Southern MO. I'd never dreamed of so much water.
I had the Cushion on my Chest with my arms through the straps. My Uncle just lauged and told me to sit on it.

I dont get in that boat without donning the good snap-clasp life vest. I have three. Three Cushions too.
We all go fishing together. I guess I could make a Raft out of all that flotsome if I could catch it all!
The Snap-clasp vests are better for a lot of reasons.

The live well is in the boat I just transferrd everything to. The pump is working and the minnows are doing fine.
I'm sorry to say, the winter just didnt let up and I never got back to sealing up that live well with the Marine GOOP. But I will. It holds about 3/4 of its water.

When I see some of those young guys at the ramp I get so angry. Where'd my youth go? Why did I have to move so far away from my old fishing partners? What's wrong with this picture?
Jmas is right about Getting older as opposed to being old. I'll let y'all know what its like when I get there!
 
Hey Thud, next time you're thinking of about those young-..er guys at the ramp ,just remember there are a heck of us (uh, ageless folks) still up in the chilly north who are jealous as heck of your fishing and boating antics down there because most of our fish are still way down south, it's freezing at least at night and the boat is a month away from floating. We're counting on you to keep racking up our vicarious boating adventures, but please try hard to keep it all onboard so you don't hear the loud Cosby voice with ***THAT*** question!

HOWWWWW LOOOONNGGGGG CANNNNN YOUUUUUUU STAAAAAAAAYYYYY INNNNN THHHEEE BOOOOOOOAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTT????
 
OK, I'm gonna try real hard to STAY IN THE BOAT next time I go.

One of the gal's at the Senior Center offered to go fishing with me, but she didnt have a pole.
I said: "what were you going to do? Jump in and chase em' down with your bare hands?"
Then I thought about my most recent trip and said: "Only one of us can be out of the boat at a time!"

"..it's freezing at least at night and the boat is a month away from floating."
Sandy, Does that mean if you fell out of the boat, that you'd land on something hard and hurt yourself? Get snow down the back of your neck? You'd have to drill a hole to get some water to walk in?
Brrrrr that's gotta make for some serious cabin fever.
 
"Only one of us can be out of the boat at a time!" Good plan! :D

No snow or ice here now and thankfully darn little this winter, but the boat is stored on the hard at a boatyard just across Vineyard Sound over in America and if I fell out of it I would get dirt & gravel down my neck after putting a wonderous hurt on myself. Cabin fever yes, but up here it's described as the "winter shack nasties" and it applies to early Spring as well. The cure is a weeks away as noted , but at least I did get out somewhat in the ~39*water last week to rake up a family limit of 1/2 bu. (300+) littleneck and cherrystone quahogs and gave away almost half for Easter get-togethers. Delicious people-bait! Gotta be quick to catch a q-hog.
 
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