Quote Originally Posted by Capt Juls View Post
Left the house at 5am, to go pick up my crew from their motel, at 5:15. It's only a mile down the road, so I thought I would be able to jump down the Tik-Tok rabbit hole for 5 or 10 minutes, before they came out, but they were already outside waiting for me to arrive... Ha! They climbed in the truck and we headed to the other side of town to gas up, get ice, and get to Mazurik's to launch.

When we arrived, we were the only people there. There were no trailers in the parking lot. Just a long haired black cat, that was going back and forth across the park, from the parking lot, to the rocks, and back, was the only other being to make itself known.


Another rig showed up just as we were getting ready to drive down to the launch...then, another, and another, and another. "Good timing", I thought to myself. "It's going to get busy, shortly".


"Hell yeah, first ones in the water today! Woot! Woot!" I was excited! I put the throttle in reverse, and saw that bow start to twist to the side. "Oh, %$#^&!", I said, "I left a strap on... I'm, an idiot." The boat that came in alongside us, in the get ready lane, was launching now too. I shouted over to them, "Hey, any of you guys have muscles?"
"Yeah, what do you need?", said the driver of the truck, as he started walking towards me. He was already bending over to pull his pant legs up, as he walked.


I think he already knew what I did, because he saw me trying to get the bow of the boat back on the roller, so I could winch it back in place. He splashed right in and lifted the bow of that Ranger like it was a car topper canoe, and placed it back inline with the roller...then, proceeded to winch it back up, so we could pull forward and undo the strap. My hero! Thank you, you anonymous person with muscles. (If you're reading this...I'm sorry, I never got your name.)


"Okay, the strap is undone...let's try this again" I said to Jim. Jim starts to back us down and I put the throttle in reverse aaaaand she'ssssss not coming off the trailer. "Noooo! Awww, COME ON! I truly am an idiot". (She says, hanging her head and shaking it). Yes, that's right, I forgot to undo the winch strap.


A positive: Thankful for the EZEESteps, because otherwise I would have bruised my ribs trying to climb in and out of the boat as many times as I had to this morning. I stepped down, and undid the winch lock....ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz, ZZZzzzzzzzzz, Zzzzzzzzzz...it whirred, as the handle went around and around at breakneck speed.
When it stopped, I pulled the boat forward and unhooked it. "Well, at least it was easier than a back strap", I thought.


I took a deep breath, to calm myself down, because by now, we were at a very busy launch. A dozen boats had launched, or were getting ready to launch, during my fiasco. I apologize for blocking a ramp for 5 minutes this morning. Sorry!


We headed north out of the ramp, and hit the north side of Kelly's first. We only picked up 5 or 6 there on a very long pass. Then, we moved to the west side of the Bass Islands, where we were yesterday, and picked up another 3 or 4. We worked at it, but it was slow for us. The puzzle pieces weren't fitting together for us today, and never really dialed anything in, other than they liked most the leads 30-50 back. A couple were caught deeper, but most were higher fish.


Jim and Gary had a good time, and learned a ton. They are both off to other adventures in the outdoors, in just a few weeks. Jim's going to Lac Saul (sp?), and Gary is headed to Big Bay de Noc for a couple of weeks. Good luck gentlemen! It was a pleasure fishing with the both of you. Safe travels in your journeys.


Tomorrow, I have a repeat crew, that I've had for a few years now, they are always a fun time too, so I'm looking forward to fishing with them again.


The forecast is for mostly cloudy skies, 20mph winds gusts, from the west in the am, but diminishing by 9am. It will be a little chilly in the morning, with air temps only in the low 60's.


Stay tuned....


Capt Juls
We've all had those moments at the ramp, or with boats in general. Last summer I was in a hurry to launch, as I knew I only had about 2 hours before a storm was coming. Launched the boat into the St. Clair River and started trolling with the electric immediately, so I never started the big motor. When I was done with my first pass, i started the motor and put it into gear and heard loud thunks coming from the prop area. I was in deep water, so I was confused. I shut it down immediately. Then I noticed chunks of wood floating on the surface of the water and it hit me. I never removed my DIY transom saver, which was made out of a 2 x 8 (and other stuff). It was bungee'd to the engine still. That was fun to get off w/o falling into the river. I was able to remove it and continued fishing, but I had to make a new transom saver. Felt pretty stupid with that one. I have left the front hook attached or the safety chain, many times. Back it down expecting it to float off and then it snaps back.....DOH!