Went fishing but not with out having a incident..

[DarthVader]

Hello everyone,

Since I am feeling a little better I finally had the chance to go do some fishing the last couple days,Saturday my landlord and I went fishing for perch and sunfish and made a good day of it we fished for about 6.5 hrs and did really well we ended up with just over 80lbs of perch and just a little over 50lbs of sunfish,Sunday we went back to the same fishing spot and did better we got almost a 100lbs of perch and 30lbs of Sunfish,Monday we did ok but not fantastic we only got 50lbs of perch and 20lbs of sunfish at the same location..

So Monday we decided to go back to the same location to see if we could get another good day but we did not so we tried moving to another location and this is where things did not go very well.

Just a little bit of a history here before I tell what happened.

In the past almost 30 years ago we had always had very good luck fishing by the bridge that goes from Rouse Point,NY to Vermont but this was when the old bridge was still up before they demolished it down after they built the new bridge..

Now this is where I think it should have been the responsibility of the board of engineers or coast guard or who ever is in charge of maintaining the Lake should be marking these areas because there the ones who made these so called home made what I call reefs now,So basically they left all the pillars there but blew them up and there not even marked with some of buoys to show very low water..

I knew the pillars where still there but never did I expect that as of right now they where only about a foot under water at this time of the year..Even last year when I went fishing with another good friend of mine these old pillars where in about 6 feet of water so the water this year is very low but still these areas should be marked from something that was made by man..

Thank goodness I was just crawling at about 3 to 4 mph when I went from 8 ft to about 1 ft in the matter of seconds..Well I ended up damaging my prop a little not enough that it stop or hurt the performance of my 70 hp Evinrude so at least I was still able to still fish for the rest of the day till around 3:30pm when my landlord and myself both call it quits for the day as I we where both getting a good sunburn..But before we did call it quits we tried one more spot and this is where I landed a beautiful Large Mouth Bass, Before I release the Bass back in the Lake we weighed it and was just under 5 lbs here is a picture of me holding my landlord took for me before I let her go..

Well today I told my landlord I am not going back out fishing till I get my prop fixed,now he told me my prop is not that bad and we could still go fishing,well I am very picky when it comes to something like this when I know it has some damage I am going to have it fixed even if it is not that bad..Lets just say he was not to happy about it,I said that is to bad this is my boat and I am not going out and taking a chance that it could actually ruin my motor,I said him do you have the money to fork out for a new motor or have my outboard fixed for something as simple as having my prop fixed or buying a brand new prop..

Well lets just say that shut him right up as he knew I was right. So I took the prop off and just across the bridge there is a well respected prop repair shop who does a excellent job,he does such a great job on repairing props you can not tell that it was repaired and they look brand new..I will have my prop back Thursday afternoon..

Well here is that picture of me holding my Large Mouth Bass,It is a good thing it was not Bass season just yet or I would have it mounted as it be my first ever fish mount..

[masterswimmer]

Nice looking bass there Clarence. Bummer about the prop.

[usmcveteran]

Nice catch! Glad to hear it was only minor damage.

[Hunter]

Damn, thanks for the heads up on the pillars. I'll be looking for that Bass during the Fathers day derby.

[Cgrutt]

Hey Clarence, sorry about the prop. Post up a pic of the damage. Sounds like you'd be able to use it without worrying about damaging the motor. Small nicks are ok. Can you take a file and smooth out any rough edges. I'd be OK using it as long as damage isn't too bad. Props wind up getting nicked all the time. It's boating

(Now if it has a tear in the metal, missing a blade or a bad bend, that's a different story.)

[DarthVader]

Hey Clarence, sorry about the prop. Post up a pic of the damage. Sounds like you'd be able to use it without worrying about damaging the motor. Small nicks are ok. Can you take a file and smooth out any rough edges. I'd be OK using it as long as damage isn't too bad. Props wind up getting nicked all the time. It's boating

(Now if it has a tear in the metal, missing a blade or a bad bend, that's a different story.)

Sorry forgot to get a picture of the prop,,yes it was damage enough it had 2 small tears about a 1 inch long making it really jagged and sharp and the blade with the tear was bent enough that I did not want to take the chance that it would cause any damage to my outboard..

[DarthVader]

Damn, thanks for the heads up on the pillars. I'll be looking for that Bass during the Fathers day derby.

Your very Welcome,the pillars will be on the North side of the bridge between the 3rd and 4th pillar of the new bridge on the Vermont side..It will be much worse come Bass season when the water should be much lower with the hotter temps coming,so come June and July you want to stay your distant from the North side of the bridge,if you do fish there I would highly suggest raising your outboard right out of the water and using a trolling motor around that area to get you around even by then I am not sure how much water will be there come July..The Lake is extremely low for this time of the year so be very careful out there..

[Cgrutt]

Yeah, sounds like you should get it fixed. Assuming it is aluminum? Might want to call this guy http://www.precision-props.com/ He is pretty close to my parts but I think repairs props from all over the eastern seaboard. He does nice work and is pretty reasonable. I think his name is Gabe but not 100% sure on that.

[DarthVader]

Yeah, sounds like you should get it fixed. Assuming it is aluminum? Might want to call this guy http://www.precision-props.com/ He is pretty close to my parts but I think repairs props from all over the eastern seaboard. He does nice work and is pretty reasonable. I think his name is Gabe but not 100% sure on that.

Thanks,there is a prop repair shop just across the bridge for me less then 1.5 miles I have my prop at being fixed,I will have my prop back Thursday afternoon..I was told he and his son are really good at repairing props and that I will not even know that is was even fixed from what I was told by the work he does,he does all the prop repairs for the 2 marinas by me..

[dwa12479]

Damn, they gotta get out there and mark those pillars then. You're lucky that you guys weren't on something larger that's at the bottom of the lake now.

Nice lookin Bass!

[DarthVader]

Damn, they gotta get out there and mark those pillars then. You're lucky that you guys weren't on something larger that's at the bottom of the lake now.

Nice lookin Bass!

Thanks I knew the pillars where there but I never knew that they where only a foot under water,I have fished that area before but that was way when the old bridge was still up and running and like you said these pillars should have been marked to warn other boaters about them after they demo the old bridge..

I know there is a few more out there but I am not exactly sure how many there is in all..

I do know that they are all on the North side of the new bridge..The worse part is that the lake water level at this time of the year is really low it is about 3 to 4 feet below what it should be for this time of the year.

Now since it is this low as of now just wait till June and July comes, I will not be surprised if that one pillar is not completely out of the water or just merely inches below the water..

I am going to ask my good friend down at the marina if there is someone who I can contact to see if there is a way that these pillars can be marked,

I was actually thinking of getting me a couple Milk Jugs and some heavy line and putting them out to mark these pillars or what where starting to call them now home made reefs..

I am just not sure if I be doing the correct thing in marking the area with Milk Jugs as they may say I am littering since I would at least put out about 6 maybe 8 Milk Jugs..

[DarthVader]

Well I went fishing yesterday by myself and had a awesome day catching perch , I did not go fishing today because of the he wind blowing 15 to 20mph out of the south,

So I stayed home today and mowed the lawn and weed trimmed,after that I decided to finally apply my new Humminbird and Minn Kota Decals to both sides of my boat..Here is 2 picture of my 120 quart cooler almost full of perch from yesterday..

I was fishing for about 6hrs yesterday before I got off the Lake as it was just getting to hot out there and there was a major storm rolling in and my back was also starting to hurt like hell even though I was sitting most of the time except for having to pull the anchor 4 times,I did manage to get back to the boat launch and get my boat on the trailer before the storm cam which was 30 minutes later..

Here is a picture of my boat with the new Humminbird and Minn Kota decals..I think it looks really awesome,I may not be like the pros but my boat looks really good and gives it a fancy look..

I hoping to go fishing tomorrow but it all depends on the wind which plays a big factor on where I fish..Check out the one perch you see in the top of the cooler it was nearly 14 inches long and weigh by itself almost 2lbs.

[masterswimmer]

Clarence what are you planning to do with all that perch??

[DarthVader]

Clarence what are you planning to do with all that perch??

I sold them to a place not to far away from me less then 2 miles away that buys fish as live weight, they are paying for perch $1.50 lb, which have to be 7.5 inches long and up they also buy Crappie and Sunfish..

[DarthVader]

Went fishing today and landed a couple nice Small Mouth Bass,here is 2 pictures..I would like to be in one of these Bass Tournaments but then again if I did enter one I probably would not ever see any of these nice Bass that I catch..I seen a lot of those fancy big dolor Bass boats just burning up the Lake..