Got some air today

[scubasteve]

What a difference 2 weeks makes.2 weeks ago we crushed the perch east of middle bass.4 man limit in 3 hrs.Today no such luck.Got blown all over the place.Started east of middle bass and after 2 hrs had nothing to show but 3 perch and lots of trash fish.Went around the north side of kellys and settled in on the east side and had the same results,nothing.Ran back over to middle bass and found a few perch and one nice walleye.The ride back to Catawba was quite fun with 5-6 ft. rollers one after another.My 30 ft. Rinker was airborne the whole way back.

[Eyezcrazy]

I'm sure glad I decided to stay home this weekend, I can only imagine what those waves would have done to my little 21 ft seaswirl if you were airborne in a 30 footer.

[scubasteve]

Trust me when I say you don't want to find out whats its like to plow through 5-6 ft. rollers.Remember,What goes up must come down.We hit what seemed like a rouge wave and our bow pitched straight up and all I saw was the sky.I remember thinking"Man this is going to hurt".Then we crashed down in a trough and had a 6 fter. break over the bow.Imagine running from Middle Bass to Catawba in that crap.It was not fun and my back still hurts.Oh well,If I would have stayed home I would have had to do chores.At least I caught enough fish for dinner.

[Hoytman86]

We damn-near sank. Our bilge pump failed on us NE of Kelley's in a 21 1/2' fish and ski. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get into Portside Marina, when we did there was so much water in the boat that the 250hp outboard wouldn't push us even 5 mph with the throttle all the way down. We had to take a ferry over to Marblehead, get the truck & trailer, then ferry back, get the boat, ferry back.

That was really, really scary. Didn't even bother going out Sunday and not sure if my old man is gonna have to nerve to take that boat out again. I may be in the market for a charter before the end of the year.

[Eyezcrazy]

Wow, that does sound scary! I have been caught in some pretty nasty stuff and always trim way up and as long as the nose stays above the waves I've never really been in too much danger and that is with a 21 ft open bow fish and ski as well. I'm sure glad you guys made it back ok. But hey, don't stop taking the boat out, you just have to pick your days and watch the weather.

[Hoss928]

I have a checklist I do every time before leaving. The Bilge pump is one of the things I check before and many times during.
I am glad things worked out for you. It may have been a different outcome if its been an inboard.

[Hoytman86]

I have a checklist I do every time before leaving. The Bilge pump is one of the things I check before and many times during.
I am glad things worked out for you. It may have been a different outcome if its been an inboard.

We always watch the bilge. It got clogged up right about the time we called it. I think something washed down into it when we swamped it, either on the way out or as soon as we started back. It looked like rotten masking tape or something, it was wrapped completely around the pump. I got it cleared right before we pulled into the marina, but the pump still wasn't running well enough to catch up. It's getting replaced before the boat goes in the water again.

We've been caught in that kind of weather before but never had a problem keeping the bow up. This time though...

I'm not sure where the stuff came from. We're always very careful about keeping small debris off of the deck and out of the lockers and never leave anything laying when we work on the boat. I'm going to pull everything out when I'm replacing the pump and get a shop vac down there. Lord knows everything has to have been washed back there with as much water came over the bow.

[LEfriend]

We always watch the bilge. It got clogged up right about the time we called it. I think something washed down into it when we swamped it, either on the way out or as soon as we started back. It looked like rotten masking tape or something, it was wrapped completely around the pump. I got it cleared right before we pulled into the marina, but the pump still wasn't running well enough to catch up. It's getting replaced before the boat goes in the water again.

We've been caught in that kind of weather before but never had a problem keeping the bow up. This time though...

I'm not sure where the stuff came from. We're always very careful about keeping small debris off of the deck and out of the lockers and never leave anything laying when we work on the boat. I'm going to pull everything out when I'm replacing the pump and get a shop vac down there. Lord knows everything has to have been washed back there with as much water came over the bow.

You might think about a second pump while you are at it. Had one put in mine last spring for just your reason. Dealer thought it was overkill but I stuck to my guns. Have two batteries also and each pump is wired to a separate battery. Nice piece of mind for no more than it costs

[B can man]

Woah! scary crap. Plowing the bow is my biggest fear in my fish-n-ski. Glad you made it back ok.

I keep a spare bildge pump on the boat with a 8ft piece of garden hose attached to it. It stays in a storage locker, but is one grab away. I can either plug it into the cigarette lighter outlet or clamp it onto the battery. That way if the main bildge pump goes down or can't keep up for some reason, I can chuck the extra pump into the bilge and the hose over the side. I plan to mount the pump permanently and put a float switch in with manual override.

[TIN CAN]

I have two 1500 gph pumps on each of my two boats. One is automatic and the other is on a manual switch. Don't forget if the plug is inside and accessible and you are under way you can always just pull the plug and drain the bilge. Just put it back in before you stop forward movement.