I left the minnows in the bait tank on Tuesday and didn't know if they could survive. The ambient temp is 85 degrees. So, I dallied until about noon before I got my act together and headed for the boat. No sense looking at the bait, just got what I needed for eats and water I thought I might need on the boat and headed for the launch. Noticed that the automatic bilge was pumping water out of the bilge after the horrible rain storm that lasted much of the night. Thought to take the bilge plug out, but the pump already did it's job, so why bother. Not like Mel's deck boat that sat bow down for months in the rain. Got the gate opened and backed the boat into the water. Stopped at the right depth where I usually have to motor the boat off the trailer. The boat slipped back and I stopped. The truck always moves back a few inches. This time, it was enough to launch the boat. I couldn't move fast enough to try and catch up with the boat before it cleared the end of the dock. Why didn't I tie a line . . . hind sight is always 100%.
There was a light wind that kept the boat moving. Moving? Well, the wind was blowing a second in one direction, then another, etc. So, the boat kept going around in circles. Never close enough to a dock where I could grab it. Went to the truck for the rope that I always have on hand . . . nope, no rope. Thought maybe someone across the water would come down and help, but that didn't happen. Finally a steady wind pushed the boat down the channel and just right, it passed the pontoon on the right and into a vacant dock. Got there just in time to hop (if that's possible for me) on board.
Also, checked the baits and found only one of the gizzards was left alive. All the herring croaked. Still had about 2 dozen shiners quite frisky. Emptied the large cooler of ice and two catfish that got left uncleaned by exhausted fishermen. Also dumped all the deceased baits from the bait tank in the open lake. Pumped old water out of the tank and added some fresh lake water. Whew, that help reduce the dead bait fragrance.
Once on board, I realized that I didn't have but vapors of fuel. Motored to the fueling station and then up river into the Pamunky, but much further than when I was with Bill. Put the gizzard down in what looked like larger marks, but nothing happened. Back to Marshall Creek cove and kept the gizzard and a shiner in what looked again to be productive marks. Nope, nothing!
The channel to the ramp is very narrow with boat motors protruding on one side and there isn't supposed to be anything docked on the adjacent sea wall. Yeah, sure . . . doesn't look difficult, but this is a "no wake area" and that means minimal steerage control for a large boat. Today, it was jet ski. Yesterday, it was swimmers. In the past it's been huge inflatables.
Made it to the dock and got the trailer close enough so I could step from the gunnel to the dock. Just barely due to my lack of agility. For the next 30 minutes or so, I pumped the bait tank into the lake, dumped the remaining baits. Emptied a small cooler from the previous days that had water with ice. And emptied the big cooler dregs. The garbage was bagged. Kept the trailer higher on the ramp and it made loading the boat much easier. It centered and I was able to power it all the way to the bow stop. The trip to the house was uneventful, thank God. Had to spray with insect repellent when I got on the boat to toss the trash bag and copy the screen shot files.
Not sure why just going fishing has to be so exhausting. This is supposed to be relaxing, isn't it?
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