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View Full Version : What a cluster of a day! My hats off to T/O!



flyhigh123
09-29-2012, 09:45 PM
So with the exp i learned from T/O, i thought i'd give it a try with a friend with a rental.

The day was a tough one. Not one boil in sight all day trolling around. Not to say I would fish the boil, but no boil makes me think the fish aren't as actively feeding. I think the full moon filled up their bellies.

Trolled ski arm and picked up a double hook up both around 2 pounds. Gave me a nice fight since it was double the action.

This is where I give T/O props! Trolling is a tough mofo to learn. Looks easy, however very difficult. Get snagged up a few times on the rocks and end up looking like a noob with my head cut off and throwing into the mix a boat that i'm terrible at guiding.

Then I go to the fish arm and hope that things are gonna get better. On the way there, our damn boat springs a leak on the rubber bumper and we cant get the original to fit back in. With the boat flooding, shoes soaked, we head back to the bay. On the way to the bay, my friend moves to the front of the rental. The big shift of weight and full throttle, made the boat all loopy and started to sway back and forth uncontrolably due to my friend shifting his weight. he stands up to move to the back, and the boat swerves due to his shift in weight and almost falls out of the boat. barely catches the edge and doesnt flip over.

Unload the boat back at port and then we find out we are getting a new plug, not change of boat, so reload everything.

Start to troll fish arm, and we feel our luck has changed, we troll and BAM, one on. get it on board, and troll a few more minutes and get another. Things are really picking up. The troll started to slow down and we make it to the upper west side of the ski arm. Being the noobs that we are, we see a few bouys showing shallow. We try to avoid it and but still snagged the bottom. backed the boat and got it unhooked. We then retroll past the SAME exact area of shallow since we drifted back and my buddy gets stuck. LOL. at this point, i reel in my line, but the wind was blowing and the boat got turned around. The boat is set to barley idle. I'm trying get my line in and at that exact moment a large wake hits the back of the boat where i am trying to get the line in, the wake pushed the line into the boats propeller and that turned into a cluster. I lose my rig and shut off the engine as I need to get the line out of the prop. wake after wake soaks both of us as we clean out the prop. we drop anchor so we dont drift off. I finally get the line out of the prop, so we pull anchor and start pulling the motor cord. We drift and cant get the engine started. We then drift into the bouy and get tangled in that, where we spend another 10 minutes pushing away from the bouy. Finally free from the bouy, we start to drift into the middle of the lake as we try to start the engine. We drop anchor as the engine wont start. Both of us are tired and frustrated. We give up and see lifeguard boat, he gives us a few pointers but to no avail and we get the sad tow of shame back to port.

Once we get back to port, the boat rental manager is there waiting for us. We tell him what happened and how he engine wont start. The lifeguard comes by and tells him he tried to get it to start.

Boat rental dude, gets in the boat, gives it a pull, rev and bam, its running. We feel dumb and defeated. End of day.

T/O is really good at his craft and is worth going out with. Spent 75 dollars to rent the boat, lost gear, no bimini, frustration! Go with T/O to learn and it'll make it easier.


However, i refuse to give up and i will learn how to do it. Be back in 2 weeks. At least both of us beat the skunk.

cutbait
09-30-2012, 06:47 AM
LMao...

You my friend have not a defeatist attitude, will serve ya well striper fishing...

I assume the rentals font have a fish finder? Stay away from 20 ft of water trolling!

You got fish? That's a productive trip. Regarding the ordeals you went throught? We've all been there done that

P.A.W.
09-30-2012, 06:29 PM
Yup, Bob has a 6th sense about where the bottom is in relation to the trolling rig. I swear there are times he'll bounce the rig off the bottom just to attract fish. Like cutbait said... you caught fish! After my trip with TO I carefully recreated the mighty U-rig right down to the teasers and stingers. First 2-3 trips out I got skunked.... WTH!? A tweak here, a speed adjustment there and now I have striper in the freezer. Start saving up for your own boat. MDK next time!!

trail blazer
10-01-2012, 06:28 AM
LOL,,,,,,,,,,,,Great read for sure,,,,,,and CONGRATS on the feesh!

Stay with it,,,,,,your on the right track for sure,,no doubt abought that,,,,

T/B

fishinone
10-15-2012, 04:03 PM
LOL, I missed this before.

I'm glad this kind of stuff happens to all of us.

Can you imagine if it was just you?

flyhigh123
10-15-2012, 04:50 PM
No joke, the report i posted yesterday on the sunday skunk was even worse than this one,

my friend and i almost flipped our rental. This time was inches away from flipping. Half of my body was in the water, that's how close it was....

Friend was standing on boat, and i slid a little towards him to see what was going on. as I moved over, the weight shifted in the boat and i began to slide fast. i reach the side he is standing on and at that point the boat was tilted. I tried regaining my balance and reach to the other side and the first thing i grabbed onto was the throttle. Keep in mind all this is happening in a matter of seconds.

I accidentally, give the throttle, full throttle and its turned all the way to the side, so the boat full blasts while it is tilted all the way to the side.

At this point water is pouring in and the left side of my arm and upper body is in the water. Not sure how, but it was.

I quickly turn the throttle off, and was able to regain balance.

This whole time, both of us had the thought that we were going over. Once we get the boat under control, we realize we've probably taken on 20+ gallons of water, i'm soaked. We laugh it off since it was another brush with flipping the boat but this time, i was sure i was going over.