I was recently reminded of this when my neighbor's johnboat almost sank yesterday because his plug got caught on his dock line during a storm this weekend. I was in a tournament on Big "O" in 1994 in my buddie's new Bass Cat Pantera and the wind was brutal as usual so we went west through the lock at the Caloosahatchee River in Moorehaven to a mobile home park full of canals that usually have big bass and a lot of shelter from the wind. We always got abuse from the club members for driving 60 miles from Fort Lauderdale to the most popular bass lake just to fish canals but it paid off a lot of times.
Going in through the little bridge entrance, home owners have set up ropes with milk jugs across all the finger canals to keep out the hyancinths from clogging their water ways. We saw a huge explosion from a bass at a dead end canal and headed that way by trimming up the 175 Mariner and trolling over the rope. However, after hooking the fish on a Zara Spook, we saw water filling up the floor and realized that the rope had snagged on the plug, pulling it out of the transom. It was one of those types with the flip lever, not screw in. Do we save the fish or the boat? People were yelling at us for catching their bass that they feed and then this old man came out of his home to ask why we beached our boat on his property. Thinking we were in a hopeless situation, he then offered us a new plug he just happened to have in his toolbox. Right in front of him I was able to land the 7.5 pounder and win big fish that day from his bank while we bilged water for 20 minutes. I's still a cool memory and here's right where it happened. See ya!
Going in through the little bridge entrance, home owners have set up ropes with milk jugs across all the finger canals to keep out the hyancinths from clogging their water ways. We saw a huge explosion from a bass at a dead end canal and headed that way by trimming up the 175 Mariner and trolling over the rope. However, after hooking the fish on a Zara Spook, we saw water filling up the floor and realized that the rope had snagged on the plug, pulling it out of the transom. It was one of those types with the flip lever, not screw in. Do we save the fish or the boat? People were yelling at us for catching their bass that they feed and then this old man came out of his home to ask why we beached our boat on his property. Thinking we were in a hopeless situation, he then offered us a new plug he just happened to have in his toolbox. Right in front of him I was able to land the 7.5 pounder and win big fish that day from his bank while we bilged water for 20 minutes. I's still a cool memory and here's right where it happened. See ya!