Okie trip a "BUST"

:confused: HOW??? It was beautiful weather. Light winds and a stable weather pattern. Excellent trip down & was 'on the water' by 1:30pm Thursday. Put in a #9 landing. Started the motor to hear a :confused: strange/new sound. Idled out and got worried about leaving the ramp area. Pulled the cowling off and started it up again. Noise just doesn't seem that critical & determined that it just might be the drive belt or idler pulley. Put the cowling back on and brought it up on plane. Noise disappeared :) Went into the cut and stopped at the first trees. Lowrance SS showed fish at 10ft down to 18ft. Dropped jigs and minners down to those depths. Caught 1 crappie and a blue cat. Headed to some shallow stumps with nota bite. Came back into the cut and marked a brush pile in 17ft. Fished it catching another blue. Since the bite up North has been on the rip rap & Eufaula only has prolly 20miles of this scattered about the lake, we headed to some back by the ramp. Engine still making noise and prolly a little louder. Brought it up on plane and headed to the causeway. Well it got really worse from this point on. Engine went to 6k & warning horn sounded. Shut it down immediately. Check a few things and started it up again to the same thing. Shut it down again to see a lot of oil coming out of the lower part of the motor. A gas smell too. We are about a 100 yds from the ramp and the Merc has had it. Trolled in and loaded it out with little effort. Pulled the cowling off to see the drive belt broken. That's it:) We will get a new one and will be back on the water but,,,,, where did that oil come from?? Rotating the pulleys. looking to see if the idler was stuck, came to the problem. There is a air pump pulley at the back that would not turn. Below that was a exposed part that shouldn't be. Housing busted by a connecting rod in the air pump. RATS!!! We are done! Spent the night & watched the KU whoopin while sucking down some 'Crown'. Quit watching at 1/2 time as it ruining a good buzz that we both needed. Friday morning came and we loaded out and headed to Seasonal Snacks for a much anticipated 'home cooked' breakfast. As we found out, 'it could get worse' , they were closed! Got a meal down town & headed north. Back home by 1pm & Frank has another 3hr drive headed home. Boat is up at Rock Creek and should be back running next week. <*)}}}><

It never fails when you KNOW their biting somethin has to go wrong. Last Oct. when Chatt came down the wind blew 40 mph.!!!!

I feel your pain. There is nothing worse than having motor problems when your out trying to slay them Crappie. At least you had some good Crown to help ease the pain.

Sorry that your boat spoiled your fishing trip. I know the feeling for it happened to me a long time ago.

Man that sounds like Murphy's Law caught up with ya. Happens to me all the time. Better luck next time. Thanks for letting us know you raided us and lived to tell the story.

Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh h!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry your trip didn't fare better Chatt. Try it again soon.:)