Fishing Michigan

Ever have one of those perfect weekends and when you get back to work on Monday, everything goes PHOOEY at once?  Had a good weekend fishing,  and this morning was just gorgeous,  just launched out of the channel at Bolles, engine running at 3,000 rpm and purring.

Then the ol sputter, sputter….dead.  Start thinking, ok the engine was running like  a top all weekend,  came out of the harbour just fine, barely get to the fourth bouy,  and thats it.  Couple of restarts, sputter, sputter and I’m ready to go swimming to cool off.  Instead I hook up the drive bar from the main engine to the kicker,  connect lines from portable tank, couple of pulls and back to the harbour we go.

I was so ready to go “fishing” with my dad, two guys out, and me getting a chance to hone my drift, drag and cast skills after trolling all season.  Was up till midnight making some of my lil special blades, then tieing the harnesses  and finally finishing building them about 2 am.  Up at 5, loaded and ready to go.

There is no worse feeling than coming in at 8 am, everyone passing you, asking, “Did you slay ‘em?”.  Having to respond that we had engine problems is the worse!  When I come in that early, I want limits, and I want to be done cleaning fish by 10 am!  Just not today.

Spent the rest of the day, replacing a fuel feeder, siphoning fuel,  and finally got to the point where I cannot do any more, without the proper tool.  Seems like the process of removing the fuel screen from the motor is a lil more difficult than it seemed at first.  Nuts, to quote a general from the Battle of Bagstone.

For the guys in the 16′ flat bottom boat, probably the least equipped to help,  but the only boat to stop and ask if I needed any help, thanks much, trully appreciated.  Would be nice if others were as thoughtful, even though not needed in this case,  its hard to tell from the casual passerbye.

Those two guys were real anglers.