Where do I start? I loaded up me and the boy and headed out on Gun Lake for some fishing, the first fishing of the year.
What happened next I have never seen in my life. Much to my surprise about 300 yards away from the boat launch at top speed, I reached to grab my pop and let go of the steering handle on the motor......Just as soon as I let go, I realized I had neglected to tighten the bolt that holds the motor going straight.....You guessed it, the motor LURCHED SIDEWAYS AND THE FORCE OF THE PROP SPINNING AT FULL THROTTLE RIPPED THE MOTOR RIGHT OFF THE BACK OF THE BOAT! I CAUGHT A GLANCE OF A SPINNING PROPELLER WHICH CAME WITHIN ABOUT 6" OF MY HEAD AND SAW THE MOTOR FLY OFF THE BACK OF THE BOAT.....I WATCHED MY HARD EARNED $700 DISAPPEAR UNDER THE WAVES AND GO DOWN.....THE BOAT COASTED TO A STOP...
I then reached for the oars. If it wasn't bad already, it got instantly worse.....I FORGOT THE DAMN OARS!
I sat down in my chair, and took a deep breath. I then stood up, took off my boots, socks, AND PANTS. I was happy I wore my camo boxers today so I could salvage a little bit of dignity in front of the other fisherman who all sat in their boats laughing their asses off. Not a single one came to my aid. I dipped my lower body into the ice cold spring water and began kicking....My legs did no where near a good job like that motor did.....It took me 49 minutes to kick all the way to shore....I at one point got so numb that I climbed back into the boat and tried paddling with my large landing net.....This worked terrible. I went to lower myself back in the water about 80 yards from shore and completely lost my balance.......IN I WENT! Right in front of 6 guys who were sitting on the bank as their motorcycles stood silent parked at the launch....My poor son was so confused, when I fell in, he jumped overboard and began swimming away. I had to grab him and hoist him into the motorless boat....
Here is a picture of me at the launch.......Dignity gone...
Let's just say by the time I got to shore, I invented three new curse words and my body was froze!
After my wife dropped the oars off, I rowed back out to the 4' deep water to look for the motor....I had to try and find it so the DNR didn't pull it out of there, run the serial number, and give me a big fat ticket....After about a half hour of searching with my polarized goggles on, I FOUND IT!
The next task was the worse.....I had to jump in and get that bitch off the bottom! Four foot of freezin and I mean freezin ass cold water......Completely submerged, I was in my camo boxers, no socks, standing in muck that went up to my shins.....Pulling that motor off the bottom. As I hoisted the motor up toward the boat, I sunk up to my knees in muck and my mouth was barely above water.....Gas was leaking out of the top of the tank and I got a nice mouthfull of gas/oil/Gun Lake mixture......
I climbed back into the boat, screwed that motor on with all the built up anger, and said a little prayer.....
I pulled for about a minute.......Pulled my guts out......AND THE DAMN THING STARTED!!!!!!!
It ran like a top the rest of the day.......Fish weren't biting but the Nissan 5 horse was crankin!
Today's tally:
- One really shriveled volksvanvagenweaner
- Three new curse words
- Two nasty ass rockbass
- One bluegill
- A mouth full of gas/oil/Gun Lake
- One real close call with a propeller going 1100 rpm
- A son(dog) that will never want to go fishing with me again
- One real good lesson learned......
