Boat-Sinking Adventures - 08/10/11 12:26 AM
As "bait" to entice the details of Greg Grimes' recent "experience", maybe a thread for boat-sinking stories is in order.
I'll even start this gruesome challenge with my most memorable boat-sinking adventure.
Picture a bass-boat - full of electronics, tackle, high-end rods & reels, life vests, ice-chests, etc. This bass boat had a circulating live-well that was designed to overflow through an elevated hull-port located just below the gunwale. Now picture this bass-boat moored (unattended) in a marina boat-slip, in Aransas Bay (salt water), late at night, with its circulating live-well freshly loaded with 2 qts of lively shrimp - all ready to head out before dawn the next morning. Got the picture?
My pre-dawn stroll to the marina was met by the spectacle of familiar tackle-boxes, ice-chests, life-vests and many other buoyant objects floating haphazardly throughout the marina. Quite the gut-wrenching omen!!! Closer inspection revealed my boat's bow barely protruding above the surface (still moored in the boat-slip). A thorough investigation of the situation prompted my conclusion that circulating bass-boat live-wells are ONLY intended for FISH - and NOT for shrimp, which are quite capable of wedging their relatively tiny bodies into the live-well's discharge-port - thus causing the live-well to overflow INTO the bass-boat's hull and producing a (presumably) authentic replication of the Titanic's final moments - except the Titanic wasn't moored in a marina. (Sinking a boat in wide-open water at least has some excitement and glamour associated with it. Sinking a boat in a marina-slip offers nothing but utter embarrassement.)
Needless to say, I never fished that day (nor for several months thereafter), and the shrimp earned their freedom - except for the guilty culprits. If this story saves one person from the grief, embarrassment and expense that I endured that fateful night, then maybe this post will have served its purpose. Footnote: This memorable event also marked the beginning of my preference for kayak-fishing.
Greg - Your turn!!
I'll even start this gruesome challenge with my most memorable boat-sinking adventure.
Picture a bass-boat - full of electronics, tackle, high-end rods & reels, life vests, ice-chests, etc. This bass boat had a circulating live-well that was designed to overflow through an elevated hull-port located just below the gunwale. Now picture this bass-boat moored (unattended) in a marina boat-slip, in Aransas Bay (salt water), late at night, with its circulating live-well freshly loaded with 2 qts of lively shrimp - all ready to head out before dawn the next morning. Got the picture?
My pre-dawn stroll to the marina was met by the spectacle of familiar tackle-boxes, ice-chests, life-vests and many other buoyant objects floating haphazardly throughout the marina. Quite the gut-wrenching omen!!! Closer inspection revealed my boat's bow barely protruding above the surface (still moored in the boat-slip). A thorough investigation of the situation prompted my conclusion that circulating bass-boat live-wells are ONLY intended for FISH - and NOT for shrimp, which are quite capable of wedging their relatively tiny bodies into the live-well's discharge-port - thus causing the live-well to overflow INTO the bass-boat's hull and producing a (presumably) authentic replication of the Titanic's final moments - except the Titanic wasn't moored in a marina. (Sinking a boat in wide-open water at least has some excitement and glamour associated with it. Sinking a boat in a marina-slip offers nothing but utter embarrassement.)
Needless to say, I never fished that day (nor for several months thereafter), and the shrimp earned their freedom - except for the guilty culprits. If this story saves one person from the grief, embarrassment and expense that I endured that fateful night, then maybe this post will have served its purpose. Footnote: This memorable event also marked the beginning of my preference for kayak-fishing.
Greg - Your turn!!