The Fishing Trip From Hell

[Michael Beckman]

Hey guys,

Finally, 4 days up in the North Woods (Minocqua/Boulder Junction, Wisconsin area) is here. We were planning and anticipating this trip before Christmas and looking forward to it. A CL 182 LPX is probably the worst Musky fishing platform there is, but what the heck it’s the only boat I have and it will keep our feet dry.

For those that haven’t read my earlier post “Gimbal Ring Project”, in short, this past non-boating season I removed my Gimbal Ring due to excessive steering clearance (slop) and repaired or replaced everything from the Transom Housing to the Propeller Nut. After the job was done I took the boat to Lake Delevan on a perfect boating day and ran it through its passes, checking for leaks, strange vibrations and/or noises, and performance. The boat performed magnificently and was about 6 MPH faster than the previous seasons. I was very pleased with my work.

Now back to 4 days in hell. I picked up my buddy (who has some limitations) at 6am on Wednesday the 11th and we drove the 320± miles to Lake Arbor Vitae before checking in at the motel; put the boat in at the DNR Boat Landing. I told my buddy his job was to keep the boat from touching the dock and he replied “no problem, I can handle that” in 2 or 3 minutes there was a nice scrape through the graphics on the Starboard side. I was upset, but that doesn’t fix anything and I wasn’t going to let that screw up a trip. Next, when I was backing away from the dock I lowered the drive only to run the prop through the sand. Now I’m upset with myself, nothing I can do about it so we went out and fished for a couple of hours. I have a 6 bunk Prestige Trailer and it is very difficult to trailer my boat because the “sweet spot” is so narrow and the boat maneuvers so poorly at low speed. So I developed a plan that works well for my rig; I attach a bow line to Bow Cleat and have one of the crew on shore take the other end and run it over the top of the Trailer’s Bow Stop and center the bow on the trailer while I take the Boat Hook and line up the stern with the trailer centerline, now I can power the boat on the trailer. It took a few tries until my buddy got the idea. When I got the boat out of the water I examined the prop for damage, it was scratched up a little and the leading edge had some sharp edges. This was the second time the reconditioned prop was in the water, and the prop shop did a really great job. Oh well, “poop happens” I’m too old to let things get to me; I dressed the prop up with a file when I got back to the motel.

The following day we put in, in Minocqua/Kawaguesaga and fished for a while; a musky hits my buddy’s lure right at the boat, after landing the Musky the bait was halfway down the fish’s throat. I took one look at it and knew there was no saving this fish; I am an adamant “catch and release” fisherman and this really disturbed me and still does as I’m writing this. My buddy is did the best he could to get the lure out of the fish and there was blood everywhere, the carpet was soaked, blood splattered all over the interior, it looked like an axe murder was committed in my boat. The cleanup was a nightmare and I worked frantically before the blood dried, gosh a feel sorry for that fish. Moving on, we motored around the lakes for awhile fished here and there caught some Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass, not big, but fun.

On the way back to the boat landing we had to go between an island and the mainland about 60-70 yards, a large pontoon boat was right in the middle of the channel so I’m a courteous boater and throttled down to under 1000 RPM and cleared the pontoon by 10-15 yards then I hit a submerged rock pile, the boat shook and clunked pretty violently for a couple of seconds, didn’t kill the engine we just motored off the rock pile. There was no way to assess the damage while the boat was in the water so we slowly motored about 1 1/2 miles to the bar and moored there for a well deserved beverage. After refreshing ourselves we motored to the landing and removed the boat where I could see the damage. The Skeg was broke off directly below the gearbox bullet and the only thing holding it on was one bolt from the Stainless Steel Skeg Guard; the recently reconditioned propeller kinda mangled, bent, scraped and scratched, pretty pathetic.

Two days left in the North Woods without the use of a boat, don’t worry guys; we ate very well, had plenty to quench our thirst and my buddy won $1500 in 5 minutes at the casino, not too shabby.

Today I called my insurance company and in a couple of hours an agent arrived and we went over the damage, he took at least 40 pictures, I removed the prop and he took dial indicator readings several places on the Propeller Shaft and it was bent pretty good. The insurance company is replacing the Lower Drive complete unit with a new OEM (Mercruiser) assembly; recondition my propeller, Gear Oil, 3 hours labor (sweat equity towards a new Rev 4 Propeller) and replaced the Stainless Steel Skeg. Also, the insurance company reimbursed me for Sales Tax and Shipping costs.

I wish all this didn’t happen, but I can’t complain about how the insurance company handled the situation, once the parts arrive just a couple hours labor and I’ll be back in the water.

A few pictures of the Lower Drive and Prop, I had to tie the Skeg to the Drive in case it broke loose and hit someone on the trip home.

Windbag

[Bretz]

Sounds like you now have an excuse to add a fishing boat to the fleet !

Everyone is ok. Things could always be worse. Hope you get back on the water soon.

[Dale Michalak]

Ya gotta watch that rock pile just east of the bridge by the island. Friends using my bass boat years ago dinged up a prop on it. Fortunately I keep a spare aboard and they were off and running agin. Love fishing Minoqua.

[Michael Beckman]

Dale,

That sounds exactly where it happened, right near that really cool White Boat House.

Mike

[Paul]

Always an adventure in the Northwoods! Good to hear your insurance is covering it. Note- next trip just rent an aluminum boat w/10-15 hp outboard!!!

[Mark-P]

Sorry to hear of your misfortunes Mike. Round lake in northern Wisconsin dinged up my boat and prop over the 4th as well, (eaiser to blame the lake than the captain, even though I know the truth) although not to the extent of yours. Glad your insurance company is taking care of you.

[Tim B]

Sorry to hear that Windbag... Glad the insurance is taking care of everything for you as they should.

[Mike_H]

That sucks Mike. Glad you're ins stepped up. It is a terrible feeling when you hear that noise. Happened to me last year...though I didn't have anywhere near the damage you did.

[Michael Beckman]

My forensic examination indicates that the boat slipped laterally when striking the rock pile and snapped the Skeg; there are sharp scrapes only on one side of the bottom of the Skeg and the fracture is consistant with the reaction of this lateral movement. The Alpha Skeg is no match for the dynamic force of a hull in motion moving sideways against it. The Stainless Skeg was installed before I bought the boat and there were indications that the Skeg tangled with something in its early years. Installing a Stainless Steel Skeg modifies how the Aluminum Skeg handles dynamic forces applied to it; now the weakest part of the Skeg is through the fastening holes near the top portion of the Skeg.

Here is a picture of the hull/graphics scrape mentioned earlier. For 13 years the graphics survived pretty well.

[chris daraska]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, didn't they have the hazard bouys on that rock bar?
They usually do. We will be up to gods country soon. We'll see everyone on beer can island!