Friends...Fish...Floating !

My son's friend Josh is moving away next week. He asked if we could fish again before he goes. So we planned a day. We didn't know it would turn out to be 100°. Filled up at Bojangles at 4pm and off we went. Fish were cooperating right away. We killed a couple dozen minnow catching crappie, catfish and one bass. When the fishing slowed down, we took to cruising. Tide was all the way out and seemed lower than a normal low tide. We rode around and I gave a tour. We checked out all the visible stuff that is normally submerged. Coming back out of the barge pit, I swung wide to avoid a log. Well......missed it. By about 20'. Seem my boat needs more than 6" of water to float. Rolled the boys up to the front of the boat and removed paint from the lower unit. Boys were amused. They walked away from me. I texted their mom's to tell them about it and that we would be about an hour late to let the tide float us up. First boat by was the jon boat. He stopped and offered help. About a minute later, a Nitro bass boat stopped and yelled "Throw us a rope". They were headed back to the tuesday night tournament weigh in. I told them to not be late, that we were okay. They wouldn't hear of it. Came along side for the rope. The boys were already ankle deep in mud, so I out I went to help push and lighten the load. Didn't take long. Pulled the boat off the flat. I asked the jon boat to bring the boat back, so the bass guys could get going. No problem. Off they went to weigh in adn the jon guys towed my boat back to us. Swim ladder is nice for this fat boy.

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Musta been a weird evening. Got back to the ramp to see a ski boat captain throwing a hissy, all PO'ed at his playmates. He burned two tires up getting out, and kicking everyone out. Smoked them up again as he left in a huff. Go my trailer and came around to see a jeep hopping up and down. Thought he was having trouble pulling his boat up the wet ramp. Nope. He jack knifed it backing in and his cruiser was wedged under the pier. He was ruining one tire to no avail. He had a group of spectators. I suggested putting everyone in the boat to squat the trailer. That worked and after a disgusted look at the boat, he backed her in and cranked up. I loaded up and asked him if his plug was in. It was. Told him he was not the only one having a memorable evening.

Tied down and off to McD's for milkshakes. All's well that ends well. I'm ready for a nap.

Hump day tomorrow. I'll prolly get just that at work.

Life is good.

Dayton

Don't cha just hate it when things like that happen. I thought it was real nice of you to go out of your way so the kids could get some swimming in.:popcorn

It is great that you made it back with your party all safe and sound. Caught fish and you have a tale to tell!

Glad everyone made it back alright, Your son's friend and ya'll will have a nice story to tell for a long time.

Oops! At least it did not happen in January!

Dang, first the tailgate, then.....umm don't ya have a $2000 depthfinder? Hahah we've all been there. If your a boater/fisherman and you don't have one of those stories your lying or just don't fish enough lol. Thanks for sharing Dayton and good going Putting those younguns on fish.

At least you're fishing again. My boat WILL run in 6" of water but it won't jump rocks 2" under the surface. We hit one in the upper James 2 weeks ago, running wide open, I looked up from the floor and wondered what I was doing there. No quite far enough to pull the cut off switch, I had to reach up and shut it down. Slammed one knee into the console, one into the steering wheel, my arm hit the console depth finder and snapped that bracket, scraped my arm pretty good, bled all over everything. Both knees swelled up and turned some pretty purple, black and yellow. Boat held up, just left some aluminum on the rock, small dent. Duracraft makes a tuff boat. After bandages, we kept fishing and caught a mess. Wife told me to stay home the next day, musky bit me the day before, she said you done come home 2 days in a row bleeding. I did'nt listen and went chasing snakeheads in the Potomac the next day anyway.

Yea, yea that's it. Swimming. I wanted to give the boys a chance to go swimming... Yea, that's the ticket!

OK, the question is did the boat float because you got out or did the river rise enough to float the boat because you got in?

Glad you got out to do some fishing!!! I think most of us who fish the james or the chick have run a ground before.