Originally Posted by
CrappiePappy
Several lakes in my area are known to rise several feet after a good rain ... picking up lots of trash & limbs/logs from the surrounding banks. At times, with the right wind speed, areas of the lakes can be nearly impassable without pushing the larger stuff out of your way.
One lake in particular, used to use 55gal drums to float the docks/marinas. Occasionally, some of those drums would escape and drift off down the lake. The problem was ... they'd eventually fill up with water and float just at/beneath the surface. First time I ever had a boat of my own, I took it out for a shakedown spin down the lake & back ... maybe a couple miles. On the way back I noticed a circular "flat spot" on the surface, in the middle of an otherwise light chop of windblown waves. I realized what it was at just the last second and swerved around it .... a nearly completely submerged 55gal drum, floating upright.
After that incident, I carried my 22cal pistol ... dragged the drums I found floating out to the depths and sunk them (usually in 80+fow). A fishing buddy of mine came up with a "tool" to do the same thing, with no chance of ricocheting lead flying about ... it was an old ballpeen hammer that he had filed down to a point. A couple of taps with that and down into the depths they'd go.