A grand adventure and two dougheads

[HTHM]

The chance had finally come again; I can go chasing wallyies on Erie, WITH MY WIFES PERMISSION nonetheless! Morning/early afternoon job is done; hook up the boat, and off to Fishmasters I go.

At the launch I make an appointment to price a bathroom, get the boat in the water and surprise surprise! the motor starts on the first pull. Well this is gonna be a great afternoon from the looks of it. Off I go to my favorite drift, worm up, and drift the channel, nothin doin, so after about an hour I set off to the lake. The plan was to go to the Hogsback and get some smallies, I couldn't find it, (a theme to be repeated later), and so I decided to flat line a deep diving minnow bait with a string of flashers on it. 2 - 3 miles out in 60 FOW I am marking the occasional fish but no takers.

As we all know time on the water is not just about reeling them in, I was able to watch a spectacular sunset over the lake. Did you know that when the sun goes down the light disappears?? Well I just found that out tonight, make back to the river no problem at all, start going up river and all of a sudden the river looks MUCH different, no problem I think to myself, I have been up and down here so many times I can do it blindfolded. (I can't) About 1/4 of the way in I notice my feet are getting wet. Look down and there is about 4 inches of water in my bilge, my boat has a habit of having spray come in at WOT and on the 25 minute run to the river I got a LOT of water in the boat. So I stop letting the motor idle, (big mistake), and bail out the bilge. Did I mention it was dark and the river looks different? Well somehow I ended up facing the wrong way and got disorientated, OK I got ....l..ll....lo.....lost, (hard to say that). So I started motoring along, and well that doesn't look right.... Did you know that there are sections of the grand that are less than 2 feet deep? I know that now. Fortunately I was watching my depth finder and did not get hung up, but I did do some paddling.

Here is where the second dough head part comes in, (in case you didn't figure it out yet, I am the first dough head), ....as I was trying to extricate myself from this situation, another boater goes by, laughs, and ignored my 3 blasts on the whistle, and keeps on going. Needsless to say I was annoyed.

I learned some things tonight:

1) when in a situation, remain calm

2) I need to fix the mike on my VHF

3) Don't boat after dark unless you have a GPS and full lights

4) The have a WORKING flashlight rule in the regs, is a REALLY good one!

5) My blackberry has a GPS function, that is how I got back to the dock.

6) Most importantly; always remain aware of your boats movements and watch your depthfinder.

7) It would be very nice if there was more light at Fishmasters.

[Cookslav]

I feel your pain LOL!....

 

First time I ever ran my boat out at long point I was with my uncle whom "knows" the bay inside and out....or so he said

Fishing was decent, and we wanted to stay out a bit later but I didn't have a good spot light, just a basic flash light.

He says "no problem you can follow me later"

 

We he neglects to mention he has NO light....

And that night the Long point Park lights were out.....

ya....you think we could find the chanell back to the launch....nope

If you've been there you know how difficult the shore line is to read being completely choked with Reeds, and only being a foot deep if your not in the channel.

With lighting starting to flash out on the big lake and waves starting to kick up I ended up pulling my motor up, and running the trolling motor in as close as I could to shore and ended up yelling to a group by a camp fire...they could barely hear me, but we ended up getting onto the radio, and they saved us.

One gentleman parked his truck in the launch with his highbeams pointed strait out into the bay giving us a path to follow and ultimatly leading us back into the channel that leads to the Launch.

 

A "GOOD" light is worth its wieght in gold, and in our situation...GPS would have been a potential life saver.

Now I have a spot light, and GPS...no screwing around, no taking anyone else's word.

I'll cover my own butt.

 

Cheers,

[Twocoda]

thats it ...prepare for the worst and hope you never need to utilize the preparation....side note ...its also 110 bucks if that flashlight doesnt turn on when asked to turn it on by Ontarios Finest...expensive batteries to say the least

[dave524]

You really want a challenge at Long Point, try hunting the Waterfowl Management Unit, imagine trying to find your camoflaged duck blind in the middle of a marsh in the predaylight hours. I haven't hunting there since the age of GPS, but I would hope that someone had the brilliant idea to provide coordinates for all the blinds now.

Edited September 20, 2009 by dave524

[Greencoachdog]

There's a million candlepower spotlight on my boat for use during nondaylight hours... I kinda like it. There's also a "canned air" horn on my boat for emergency signals, it can be heard for miles!... you may want to consider purchasing one.

 

Is your drain plug internal or external?... if it's internal you can pull it while under power and all the water will drain out by itself... but remember to replace it before you stop!

Edited September 20, 2009 by GCD

[solopaddler]

Quite a story Albert, glad it turned out okay! (btw I just got your phone message late on Sat. )