Another mishap

[176champion]

Here's what the gentleman said that was on the boat on facebook...

The champion that we were in is an older model 210 . The boat had been completely restored and came directly from the shop to the water with no test time on it at all . We are not sure what caused the water to pour in and the ins. Adjuster is investigating that now . We are sure that it wasn't the conditions we were in! Brandon Lovelace and I have about 30 yrs total experience fishing rayburn . We knew what the weather was going to do so we put in at Mill Creek and idled around to the road bed . We fished til 2 and was going to idle back to mill creek . It was rough but we planned and left plenty of time to to idle the swells back . Brandon just happened to look back and see water coming up out of the back box lid . We hadn't taken any water in on the deck of the boat at all .

[fishinwrench]

That doesn't make sense.  If water was high enough to seep out of a hatch lid then it sure should have been coming up out of the floor drain.  

Did that really say 8' swells?  Good God man, even figuring in the exaggeration factor of those waves... it's time to go home !!!   A team with 30 years of boating experience shoulda known better. That's no way to treat a freshly restored rig.    If those boys are hoping for a nice insurance settlement then they'd be better off not talking anymore.  

[Ham]

The worst waves I've ever personally been in were on Sam Rayburn. Springtime trip I took with cajunangler in his Cajun Ricky Green Fisjing Machine. He did a great job getting us back across the lake safely, but I did not enjoy a minute of it at all and hope never to have to deal with those kinds of waves ever again. 

I have a hard time guessing how big the waves were from trough to peak. 6-8 foot would not be an exaggeration. The boat was disappear down in the trough and there would be a wall of water on all sides of the boat much higher than my head. Pretty creepy. 

[Sore Thumbs]

I've been in waves like that twice. Once on Falcon and another at Stockton. It's scary. Both lakes run north and south so we all know how bad those get. 

[Cajunangler]

C'mon Ham.  Those were some good memories.   If you remember the water temps were probably in the lower 50's.  It would have been a very cold dip if things had gone wrong.  Rayburn and Toledo Bend can certainly offer some treacherous conditions but I'm ready to go back anytime.  At least we learned the advantage of trailering long distances to be on the "correct" side of the lake depending on wind direction and speed. 

[Hammer time]

Was on Lake Fork, another north/south lake in mid March 2008 with my son. Have been to Fork since 93 and over 40 times and know how the wind can blow. Sometimes it's so bad you just stay in the room and grumble because you can't launch. 

Anyways, we were staying at Oakridge that time, put in and went north up in Glade creek and was fishing spawning flats. We noticed the wind picking up but didn't think much about it as we were on fish and having a ball. Working our way back out we noticed several boats leaving only to return, hum, what's up? We idled out towards mainlake and seen why 8-10 ft rollers out of the south, wow, biggest waves I've ever seen. So we where stuck and just continued fishing for around 4 more hours till finally my son says dad that last boat that left didn't come back, so they made it, let's get out of here!

So idled out to mouth and seen a few more bigger boats go and make it south. My rig is a 19'6" Nitro and not a big 20 plus like many we seen make the treacherous ride. 

We decieded to put all gear up lock all lids and bilge on make a run. 6-8ft rollers came straight at us, got rig straight against them and had the scariest ride ever but made back under both bridges and in our cove. Put boat on bank and waited it out till we could safety load on trailer and go to our room. What a experience!!

[Sore Thumbs]

Mother Nature can humble you in a hurry.

[Ham]

3 hours ago, Cajunangler said:

C'mon Ham.  Those were some good memories.   If you remember the water temps were probably in the lower 50's.  It would have been a very cold dip if things had gone wrong.  Rayburn and Toledo Bend can certainly offer some treacherous conditions but I'm ready to go back anytime.  At least we learned the advantage of trailering long distances to be on the "correct" side of the lake depending on wind direction and speed. 

You did a great job at the helm and we were smart enough to allow plenty of time to cross back to our launch area. If you remember, that was a lousy bite. Bluebird BS. We went extreme finesse to get the few bites we could. I think we Carolina rigged that roadbed before we left for the day and caught a few. 

Much easier to launch were you want to fish at Toldeo Bend than at Big Sam. I suggest we stick to Toledo Bend and shoot for getting you a 10 pounder in 2018.

 

[fishinwrench]

It occurred to me quite a few years back that NEVER, on a treacherous boat ride day, have I done well fishing.  In other words I've never had it pay off to cross a wicked stretch of water.   So I just don't do it anymore unless I have to, to get back home.

In my younger days I just had to prove (to whom, I have no idea) that I could do it, and I always managed to pull it off.  I've now decided, before luck runs out, to quit while I'm ahead. ?

Alot of people probably think that because I'm a boat & outboard wrench that I like to scream down the lake like a madman, pushing that boat to it's absolute limit.   Nope.  I don't even enjoy boat rides that much, and I especially dislike rough and sketchy ones.

[vernon]

8 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

It occurred to me quite a few years back that NEVER, on a treacherous boat ride day, have I done well fishing.  In other words I've never had it pay off to cross a wicked stretch of water.   So I just don't do it anymore unless I have to, to get back home.

In my younger days I just had to prove (to whom, I have no idea) that I could do it, and I always managed to pull it off.  I've now decided, before luck runs out, to quit while I'm ahead. ?

Alot of people probably think that because I'm a boat & outboard wrench that I like to scream down the lake like a madman, pushing that boat to it's absolute limit.   Nope.  I don't even enjoy boat rides that much, and I especially dislike rough and sketchy ones.

You're my hero.  And that's not sarcasm in the least.

Now, Zona would think you're a little school girl though.  You just don't WANT it bad enough.  You have to be willing to put it ALL on the line if you ever expect to catch a fish.