boat mishap/problem stories!

[Burnham]

so yesterday night i was on coon lake. just got a 16 ft boat and i decided to fish till like 845ish so i had an excuse to use the navigation lights lol since i got them working the day before. used them for about 20 minutes, we decide to go and they killed the batttery!!which meant my motor wouldnt start!!!!! so we didnt have navigation lights for much longer even and i had 1 headlamp lol..

we were in the 2nd bay across the channel in coon, had to paddle all the way back with the 1 paddle we had! got through the channel and the wind picked up, and we couldnt go farther. i got on shore and pulled the boat with a rope for awhile but then it stopped working, finally my buddy hops in the water to mid thigh deep and pulls the boat for the remaining 300 yds or so(felt longer)

we were very luckily it stays shallow and sandy and that my one light didnt run out of batteries as he was using it to make sure he didnt step in or on anything!! and i had my dog too, made it more of a pain.

im using a big marine battery, almost a car battery. i had to jump it at the launch before i went out also, im just a highschooler, did i just make the mistake of using a battery that was low, or do i need a new battery?? i didnt think the lights would wear it down that much. likely gunna purchase another battery, use one as a backup..

also should i have a seperate battery just for the nightime lights???

im just a high schooler lol remember, inexperienced..feel like a dumba--. it was a good experience haha and i filmed some of it...anyone else have any stories that can look back and laugh at?

[ozzie]

you just had a low battery and only one way to find out if it is shot or not is to charge it and see if it takes a charge.........

[jwmiller33]

you should have more then one battery if you are running a trolling motor, graph, lights, livewell AND electric start for the big motor all off of the one battery.. a day's use of the trolling motor will make the battery charge too low to use the electric start on most nights, plus having the graph running the whole time on the water... the lights will likely be the final straw before it goes dead

[Dylan33]

Burnham- Don't feel bad, or stupid.....I bet there are so many stories in this forum that yours will seem insignificant....here is one....

We almost lost our new 25 horsepower motor last year. First time out for the year in my dad's old 14 foot aluminum boat with new motor. So my dad fires up the motor and tries to open it up....problem is he didn't have the motor tightened down to the back of the boat.....the motor actually bucked up..and off of the back, but luckily he had a safety chain hooked up and for a few minutes his new motor was hanging half in the water off of the back of the boat. He doesn't move so well anymore, so I had to go to the back of the boat to pick it up, lift it over the back and attached it. If he didn't have the safety chain attached, that motor would still be at the bottom of Blue Lake

[Nick Kuhn]

A marine starting battery when fully charged should run electronics and light for several hours and still be able to start the motor. Unless of course there is faulty wiring somewhere. Our primary backup would be the trolling motor battery, and our secondary backup is the emergency pull start that is under our motors lid.

I've never had to go as far as the backup plan though. Only problem I've ever had is when I apparently didn't tighten the plug all the way. The boat ran noticeably slower, but luckily stayed afloat.

[jeffreyd]

if you can afford it, buy a battery isolator. put the second battery in, install the isolator between the two batteries. this way when you are using the lights etc the one battery will drain conserving the starting battery. make sure that your fish finder, lights, live well, and other items are connected to the second battery. When you hook the charger up to the battery you want to connect it to the start battery as current will move thru the isolator to the second battery but will not go back wards. Just like a check valve it can only go one way. this way you will always have a fresh battery to start the engine with. good luck.

[Grum]

You may want to bring it to battery shop or local garage and have them put it on a load tester, most places will do this for free , just make sure you have a full charge on the battery before you go. If you have a dual rate charger, use the lower setting (2 amp verses 6 amp) this will give you a deeper charge. If the battery is an older "wet cell" style you can pick up a hydrometer at most auto parts stores and you can check the specific gravity of each cell. If you need to add water make sure its distilled water, do Not put more electrolyte in an old battery.

[flyfisher03]

We drained the batteries in dad's boat once. What we did to get it going was to remove the cover and used a rope (now permanently kept in the boat) and wrapped it around the crank and pull started it. It was a royal pain but we got back to shore.

Now, we run a second bank of batteries for the trolling motor and the depth finder.

[hydro]

Burnham- Don’t feel too bad, many of us have been there at one time or another. I have a rule about boating, that everyone will eventually forget to put the plug in before launching and we will all get towed home sooner or later. I’ve done both multiple times and because of that I always try to help fellow boaters in need.

Back when I was in high school my dad had an 18’ fiberglass runabout with a 100 HP 4 cylinder Johnson that we used to goof off and cruise around. It was a cranky thing to keep running and I ran that battery down many times trying to get it started. Funny thing was that after the battery wouldn’t crank anymore, if I got the rope out from under the cowl, wound it on the flywheel, put my foot on the motor and gave it a good pull, it would usually start right up. Pulling as hard as I could it would go “thump, thump, thump”, fire and keep running.

One time, however, I was not that lucky. I was out by myself in the middle of Clearwater Lake and the engine died. None of my tricks worked to get it running and nobody else was in sight. Trying to paddle that beast was an exercise in futility, so I wound up pulling it by the bow rope wading through rushes, weeds, muck to my knees, and swimming across deep areas to get it home. All told I probably dragged that green monster about a mile that afternoon.

Been there and done that.

[CRAZYEYES]

Yeah dont feel bad. I have made some bad mistakes myself. One of the more memorable one was on the canadian side of Rainy Lake. I was about 18 and my buddy was 19 or 20. We had gone that morning to get licences with his dad and uncle in the big Warrior and it was about a 20 minuite boat ride. My buddy and I realized that in Canada we were old enough to get beer. Great! So later in the afternoon we decided to drive the 14 footer with a 9.9 that we could use back to the store in 4 foot waves. My friend had very little idea where the rocks were and sure enough we hit one. After that we had problems keeping the engine running and were blowing out to sea. Then trying to get the engine started my buddy who was so mad broke the rope. To add insult to injury it decided to rain. After about 4 hours of paddling and blowing around in the rain we got lucky that another boat found us and we were able to get towed almost 10 miles because this turned out to be the night of the big bwca blowdown. It could have been a long night. Know where you're going, Have a backup motor, have a radio, theres a lot of lessons you could take from that.

[DUCKAHOLIC]

well i got one... i was going duck hunting one morning last year on leech lake it was dark out and we took off across the lake not windy or anything and i was going wide open threw the narrows, now i knew there was a big weed bed in the middle somewhere but it was dark and couldnt see it sure enough we went plowing threw it. i have went threw all kinds of winds and rushes in my day on the marsh i hunt around home and figure ah no big deal we made it fine its all good. well after that the motor wouldnt run wide open. i just though theres weeds on the prop so i stopped and no weeds? im like ok whatever lets go hunting right?! so i gave it all she has and once again it wouldnt rev all the way about a mile later she died and got hot and stopped running water threw it.. and on top of this i had to go number 2 in the worst way and we were no where near shore in 20degree weather.. i got it running but would only idle with the prop going so im like well i need to go to shore now to go to the bathroom! only about a 3/4 of a mile from shore it dies and will not start. and i swear if to big of a bounce happens in the boat i with sh-art my pants. so i had to strip completely down in freezing cold weather in the middle of leech and go off the back of the boat.. aaand no paper towels or anything.. so for that day 0 ducks 1 broken motor and 1 lost pair of underwear.....luckily our good friend that owns a resort up there was still around and came and got us. not a good day at all but live and learn lol.. we just laugh about it now

[Hula_Grub]

The 3rd time out in my 1st (and only) boat, brand new, I hit a rock so hard I threw a blade and bent the prop shaft.

Fortunately I was taking my wife out for the first time in it. Didn't I look like a pro!

[Burnham]

i talked to the previous owner(family friend) today. i dont have the trolling motor on right now but what he said he did is would have a seperate battery for the trolling motor and just use that as a backup, or would bring cables and jump one battery with the other. prolly just gunna charge it for a long time with this plug in charger my dad has, and see if it works, and get another battery and have it as a backup. who knows maybe i will change my mind, either way that aint happenin again!!..and im putting another paddle in my boat.

and wow, im not the only one?? those stories dont make me feel as stupid lol..duckaholic that is pretty dang funny!!

[Burnham]

oh and by the way we did catch a couple dozen 7-9 inch crappies and stunted sunnies in 2-4 feet of water from 5-830..there was some good in the day at least!

[Tom7227]

Any idea how old the battery is that is in the boat? There are two different kinds of boat batteries. One is a battery that has the ability to start the motor and run some electronics and the other is a deep cycle battery that you use for things like the trolling motor, sonar etc. If you have to buy a new battery and it's the one that starts the motor be sure to get the right kind. If you charged the battery before you went out and it still quit on you then you need to get it tested to see if it's weak or shot. Do you know if your motor has a generator on it that charges the battery, and if so if it is working? Simply tossing another battery on board may not be the best idea until you get the system checked out and your needs a bit better ID'd.

[Swimbait2009]

I went to put my boat in the water a couple weeks ago, and ran into SHALLOW conditions on 3 out of 3 launches that I tried around the metro. I was a bit depressed that I didn't get my boat out, so I sat in my driveway and played with the sonar for a little while (pushed all the buttons to hear it go BEEP). Took her out two days later, and realized I'd forgotten to turn the key off and my starter battery was DEAD. Luckily I had the trolling motor on a deep cycle battery, so I was still able to float around and enjoy the day.

Since I've read a few of these posts i have one question...can you attach jumper cables from your deep cycle battery to your starting battery and get enough charge to start your 80-100hp outboard?

[jwmiller33]

can you attach jumper cables from your deep cycle battery to your starting battery and get enough charge to start your 80-100hp outboard?

yes on the jumper cables. i have seen lots of guys who keep them in the storage of their boat on the boat... if you have more then one battery in your boat, and rely on electric start to start your big motor, having jumper cables is a good idea/back up plan to have

[pulleye16]

I could write a book on all the mishaps I've had while fishing...most of which where human (my own) error. Dead batteries, running out of gas, boat plugs, I could swear I had my fishing pole in the boat, leaving the minnow bucket at home.

The best part about making mistakes is learning from them, the best part about being with someone who made a mistake is laughing at them (I bet your buddy had a field day at school)!

Isn't fishing GREAT!!!!!Memories

[MuskieJunkie]

We've all been there, the first time I took my new (used) boat out I launched it without the plug, drove and trolled around for about 20 minutes like that too until it dawned on me. Luckily it wasn't enough water to be a problem and I just turned on the bilge pump and went about my day.

Also I may or may not have launched a boat with the back straps on, and or broken tail lights launching into frozen water over the years.

Here's another good one. A friend of mine decides one morning he wants to be a boat owner so he walks into a dealership and signs his name to a high intrest loan on a brand new 18' Glastron. I think it was the 2nd day of ownership he goes through a shallow area on Prior Lake clearly marked with multiple bouys that say "ROCKS" with the lower unit trimmed down, I was in the boat and said "Dan you can't go through here!"

"Don't worry, I'm going to go in between them" he replies, I later found out he thought each individual bouy was marking an individual rock and he could simply serpentine his way through them.

Neadless to say we nailed a big rock. I later checked the hour meter and there was 6 hours on the boat. Couple grand to replace the whole lower unit.

[dairyman]

I went out to a new lake on a bit of a windy day. Launched the boat and pulled it to shore so I could park the truck and trailer. Came back to the boat and its taking on water really bad. Quickly reloaded the boat and pulled back out of the access. I had forgotten to put the boat drain plug in from the previous outing. I called it a day,I was so ticked!!

[ozzie]

I forgot to mention a couple of my mishaps......I have launched more than a few times without the plug in the boat (bottom plug) only to get back to the dock and hear the water bubbling in.....not bad when I had a working bilge but now I make sure to have the plug in......also the second time out with the boat I had a buddy with me and he was infront controlling the anchor and raising and lowering the troling motor when needed.....well we go to leave for the night and he lifts the trolling motor and and we go across the lake and I thought we were going a little slow but again this is only a 15hp and it is new to me so we go through a 2 ft channel that runs around 100 yards long or so and get to the landing. we start to pull the boat out of the water and that is when i noticed that we dragged the anchor all the way!!!! classic....

[jwmiller33]

we start to pull the boat out of the water and that is when i noticed that we dragged the anchor all the way!!!! classic....

haha that is hilarious!

great stories guys keep em coming

[creepworm]

I forgot to tie the boat to the dock once. Finally someone came and gave me a ride out to my boat. Turns out, I also forgot to put the drain plug in. Another five minutes or so, My boat would be sitting at the bottom of Eagle Lake.

[Duffman]

Out fishing in a little 14' foot boat with a 6 horse, I'm about two miles from the dock and I can't get the motor started. It had been acting up for a few days and decided now was the time to completely quit on me. No biggie, I should have enough juice to make it to the dock with the trolling motor. I'm about 200 yds from the dock in deep water, and the battery runs out. Now what? Who brings along oars these days?

But then I spied my Vexilar Pro Pack, yep, hooked up my trolling motor to the little gel cell battery and had enough juice to make it.....whew.

[flyfisher03]

Another story that I have. My brothers and my dad and myself were fish from shore near a boat landing. We watched this family put their boat in the water. They forgot to put in the plug, so they pulled the boat back out of the water to drain it out. Well when they tried to launch the boat again it rolled right of the trailer on to the landing. They removed both the winch strap and the safety chain. Needless to say after that they decided to fish from shore also.

One more. My brother and I took out Dads boat we looked at the gas before we left and thought we would have enough. My other brother calls later and he wanted to fish also so we drove back to the landing to pick him up. Well on the way back out you guessed it we ran out of gas . So we used the trolling motor to get back to the landing and I sent my brothers to get gas, while I fished at the landing.