Thread: First Fish

Well not really, but the first fish on my new,used boat.
This is the second outing, after the first I noticed that one tire was flat, so I pulled it off and headed to my shop to refill, well it was off the rim so it took a little longer. Then I noticed the large slice in the side wall,time for a replacement tire. New tire and wheel fixed that problem.
I noticed the hub was loose, I of course I pulled it, bearings were shot, brake linings loose from the shoes. I went looking for shoes and came home with backing plate assemblies which required breaking loose the hydraulic lines. Of course some one had those rounded off so replacement lines were needed. Pulled all 4 and repacked/replaced bearings replaced seals.
I wanted to try out the new sonar/gps unit I installed last week in the snow.
I loaded the wife and three dogs in the truck and headed to Mountain Island. I wasn't really trying to catch anything, but I'd kept some shiners alive for 6 weeks and figured I'd troll while I figured the GPS and Sonar.
Got the boat in the water, cranked it up, idled a while then quit, think, think it seemed to be out of gas. I had installed a water/filter a couple weeks ago. It dawned on me that I should have installed the squeeze bulb in front of the filter. I quickly switched the line to remove the filter, she started and ran fine.
Had a ball running around then suddenly one of the down lines went off. I hauled in a small Striper which I threw back, I wasn't sure of the size limit for MT Island.
After fighting the wind, I swear it was 25mph the WildLfe officer did a spot check, I had everything but the boat registation. I assumed the dealer did ALL the paperwork, but no, they didn't do the boat sticker. The guy was nice and said to get it registered, I guess we didn't look like boat thieves.

After a shakey start it turned into a nice day on the water. GPS is really cool the color sonar will take some figuring. I saved some way points which mean nothing but it was a good practice day.
I hit the trailer agin first try only the second time piloting a pontoon.....life is good!
Grady

Good to hear you got the bugs worked out and got to enjoy your day. GPS is the best thing anyone has come up with for boaters!!! At night they are life savers.

glad you got all your problems out of the way,now you can fish.