Ran aground in the middle of the Lake

[Home Cookin']

Re: Ran aground in the middle of the Lake

Yes you can stay. Have a moonpie.
Virginia is indeed in the South, although the area outside Washington DC known as NoVa has seceeded to the North. Maybe we just need to redraw the Manson-Nixon line.
It was the capital of the Confederacy and is the mother of the presidents. After the War of Northern Agression, many Virginians settled in Texas (Sam Houston, born outside Lexington, Virginia at Timber Ridge, for example). They took with them many Southern customs, including manners, but apparently left behind some qualities, such as humility.
Much of Florida, however, "Land of the Newly Wed and Nearly Dead," is actually part of Long Island and the Jersey shore, that broke loose, floated south, and reattached itself below Georgia.

 

[MrBigStuff]

Re: Ran aground in the middle of the Lake

>Pulling muddy water through the engine does no harm as long as you give it a good run in clear water before it settles in. You can chop mud but not hard sand and you have to be able to read the bottom to know which is down there.

Everybody has an opinion and a different level of risk tolerance. Ask the guy who routinely crosses the street without looking and has never been hit, if it's safe to do so and he's likely to say it is.

I'm not going to start my OB and run it hoping the bottom is nothing but "mud". Very few lakes I've been on have been peanut butter smooth mud and even then, there's the occasional ROCK. Sand and dirt are very abrasive and the last thing I want going through an interference fit impeller is an abrasive material. Or to find out the last 20 ft were nice and smooth and now it's deteriorating organic matter on top of gravel. Why risk it? A trolling motor prop is pennies compared to the engine and its prop. And I've yet to damage a pole (but almost lost hold of one once

I routinely ride channels as you describe with the boat crabbing along a deeper part of the channel. But those are lakes I've been on many times and already know the lay of the land so to speak...

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Ran aground in the middle of the Lake

No the correct reference for a boat in N Miss or the South is "it". Unless you live up North then anything that floats is acceptable to be called a she. In the South a three masted schooner is called a she. A 300ft tanker is called a she. A 63 ft Hatteras is called a she. A bass boat is called a boat or an it. Rednecks don't call boats that fit on trailers a she. Truth be said most Southern rednecks don't put a name on a boat that still will fit on a trailer. Not all but most. My first name on a boat was my Luhrs but it was documented and have to have a name.

Not good not bad, just different. I still call bs backing a 150 two football fields. So you were 600ft in shallow water before you knew it? The boat acted funny. Was it getting scared??

I am not trying to be mean. But from your post you need to find some locals who will help you and teach you. If I wanted to fish up North the first thing I would do was find someone who knew what they were doing an offer to pay for the gas.

Shouldn't you be out trying to catch a Sailors Choice or something?

It's quite obvious that you know nothing about our reservoirs here in the "Heart of Dixie", the deepest in Fla. is like 15' or something... unless you're fishing one of Bill Dances phosphate pits.

The Army Corp. of Engineers draws some of our dammed lakes down anywhere from 5-25' for flood control in the winter and spring. We have what is known as "summer pool" and "winter pool", our lakes can drop or rise from one elevation to the other in as little as 3 days and the lakes change entirely. Many of our lakes are dangerous at "winter pool" if you're not familiar with them because some can go from 300' to 2' in matter of a few yards. Most of the shallow areas are marked with buoys, but not all of them. It's pretty obvious that the OP isn't all that familiar with the lake he was fishing.

As far as the south and rednecks goes, anything further south than Tallahassee isn't in "Dixie" IMO and they should require a passport for travel any further south than Orlando!... not to mention that Fla. is a melting pot for every weirdo-freak in the world.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Ran aground in the middle of the Lake

Mrbigstuff, I think you and I agree. You have to assess risk and that includes having the information/knowledge, or more important, knowing when you don't. Also, it's usually better to avoid risky conditions; sometimes you can't. And any time you're in a boat, you take a chance on the unknown.*

I don't recommend things like trying to run in sandy water, shallow bottoms, soft mud, if you can avoid it. And dirty water is harder on the motor than clear, just as salt is harder on it than fresh. But outboards are durable and forgiving, and I demand a lot of them. For the learning process here for those who are starting out, there are "rules" that are absolute (you need oil mixed with gas on a 2 stroke) and those which are preferred (avoid shallow and dirty water). As your post points out, some rules can be disregarded, or bent, in some areas of the country but not in others. I do a lot of shoving to protect my motors.

*Once I was motoring along in one of those shallow creeks (guts) with peanut butter mud bottom when my boat mysteriously started rising! I was riding up on a section of a cabin or duck blind that had sunk there after a storm. Luckily I was just idling, and had 19' of boat before the motor would have hit. Six inches under the surface; same color as the bottom. Another time, nearby, I started riding up on a piece of a wrecked sailboat. I remember those events when tempted to take chances.

 

[southkogs]

Re: Ran aground in the middle of the Lake

Yes you can stay. Have a moonpie.
Virginia is indeed in the South, although the area outside Washington DC known as NoVa has seceeded to the North. Maybe we just need to redraw the Manson-Nixon line.
It was the capital of the Confederacy and is the mother of the presidents. After the War of Northern Agression, many Virginians settled in Texas (Sam Houston, born outside Lexington, Virginia at Timber Ridge, for example). They took with them many Southern customs, including manners, but apparently left behind some qualities, such as humility.
Much of Florida, however, "Land of the Newly Wed and Nearly Dead," is actually part of Long Island and the Jersey shore, that broke loose, floated south, and reattached itself below Georgia.

Clever ... and well said. Through reading Washington, Lee, Jackson and Darby (among others) I've gained much respect for Virginia over the years.

I plan on a return trip to Williamsburg in the next year or so. When I do, I'll bring a care package of Moonpies, GooGoo Clusters and RC for you.

 

[KDAVID1]

Re: Ran aground in the middle of the Lake

I'll be fishing Sardis the rest of the year (it has more water even at winter pool) and no sand islands in the middle of the lake. I will be picking up my push pole Friday afternoon

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Ran aground in the middle of the Lake

I highly recommend you visit Lexington, Virginia on your trip--it's on 81. There's enough to keep you busy just at VMI and W&L.* Nicer drive than Rt. 58, too.

BTW the guy that makes Moonpies went to W&L when I went there. It ws there, also, I encountered a lot of Texans, coming back to buy a little heritage.

*Washington and Lee University, Virginia Military Institute.

Clever ... and well said. Through reading Washington, Lee, Jackson and Darby (among others) I've gained much respect for Virginia over the years.

I plan on a return trip to Williamsburg in the next year or so. When I do, I'll bring a care package of Moonpies, GooGoo Clusters and RC for you.

 

[mommicked]

Re: Ran aground in the middle of the Lake

I would get a fishfinder w a shallow water alarm if your too busy fishing to check the depth now and then. Mines set at 10' below my skeg and not expensive either.

 

[KDAVID1]

Re: Ran aground in the middle of the Lake

got one---had the volume too low:facepalm:

 

[kahuna123]

Re: Ran aground in the middle of the Lake

Yes most of our lakes are really shallow. And I never had to back the ole 150 two football fields. But besides the point. Your right about all the weirdos. But if you can't make it up North move to Florida and screw up my neighborhood.

 

[Titanium48]

Re: Ran aground in the middle of the Lake

There's a lake near where I live with gravel bars that have munched many props, including one of mine. You can see them in this picture, but notice how they're nearly invisible in this picture. This is a eutrophic lake, so in late summer the water is often bright green with visibility less than a foot, making the gravel bars impossible to see even after you've run aground on them.

 

[Grizzz]

Re: Ran aground in the middle of the Lake

I've done this once. My buddy (we call him skinny, he's 340 lbs.) had just bought a lund bowrider. Skinny is not a boat person, and asked me to come along and test his new boat with him. We went to Pitt lake (Largest tidal lake on the continent). There is a channel dredged by the boat launch for ease of travel around the ever present sand bars. Skinny said turn on the sounder and try going over the sandbar as the tide should be at 14+ feet. He is not a boat person so he had no understanding that the tides are measured 30 mile downstream in the ocean. This means the tides at the lake are 4 hours behind the times posted on the weather channel. So off we go, sounder on, I say to Skinny "Go up front to see if we are deep enough to go for it". He goes up to the bow and assumes the position, just as we careen into the sand. I would have given anything to have a camera on the boat. Seeing a 340 lb. guy go flying over the bow while the outboard was screaming at WOT. One of the funniest things I've ever witnessed.