Henderson Monday 10/12..Fire On Board...

[prefers shiners]

Made my second trip out since July.... the trip last Thursday only one sac, 3 catfish and one gar....single pole and spider rig shiners....Monday weather was perfect, started around 7 AM....rode around trying to spot some fish but nada....saw about 20 egrets ling the banks on both sides so tried a roadrunner for about 15 min....nada....so I crossed the lake with my trolling motor running wide open and when I got to the other side the trolling motor wires just behind the plug burst into flames about 6" high....ran to the back of the boat to turn off the master switch to the TM all the while thinking how close am I to dry land....got back to the front and grabbed the fire extinguisher from the storage locker....by this time the fire was all out so I didn't have to use it....the wire was completely burned in two (plug not shown in picture)...good thing I didn't need any help as I bet there was not more than 4 boats on the whole lake...this was around 8:30....too early to call it quits besides I had 3 bags of shiners....so I went to one of my favorite stumps and tied up...saw tons of fish on the bottom but no bites after an hour....got a call from one of my buddies and he and his friend were on a spot I told him he may catch some...I went there but just drifting or anchored down didn't cut it...I quit at 11:30 with an empty live well....they wound up with 43 between them...and, it ain't over yet....I always put my tailgate down before backing my trailer down so I can hop off the boat on it...as I was backing the trailer I noticed my new "Drotto" was floppy (bolt too loose) so I pulled up and went to back the trailer up in the shade so I could tighten the bolt...turned too tight and the tailgate hit the winch stand and lifted up one side of the trailer....trailer is OK but I put a nice dent in the top of the tailgate....now the good news, went to my boat guy today and he cut out the plug and hard wired the trolling motor....he said all the pros are doing this now because of plug problems...and the beat goes on...