1st Open casualties

[BwanaR]

Well after a week long preparation by Fizisition and **********tampa of their new boat for the trip, we were foiled at the dock by a bad transmission shift cable that broke and would allow nothing but reverse. We regret not getting out to stick some bigun's in that beautiful weather we haven't seen in a long time! Oh well....Hope everyone else has better luck!

[Nikki]

We were foiled by bad impellers and electrical stuff........... :( C'est la vie! Maybe next time.

Gonna try out of Jupiter this afternoon, will show up if there's anything worth weighing in........

[stevemc1]

BwanaR, next time that happens, just shift it by hand. You may have to tie it up with cord, as in an outboard. The neutral saftey switch is in the shifter on an outboard and it will start in gear. I/O s are a little different, but can be started in gear, as can inboards. Or start it in nuetral(shift by hand) and shift back into gear but tie off. It will save a trip.

[Spearchucker]

Well, we were ten miles or less outside of the middlegrounds when the new wiring harness on my motors shorted out and overheated. We got one of the motors back up and running, and limped back in. Stopped at a few spots, and got a few fish, but nothing to speak of. Sucks, but it is the only time EVER that I have had to limp in from 90 miles out, I guess I was due....

I will see you at the weigh in to weigh my wimpy ass fish.

[Swimsuit]

man bad day for boats! we got towed in from the reef as well. still a nice day on the water though. jeff will post the story in miami/keys

[Spearchucker]

Well, SW, not to make light of your predicament, but I would have traded being towed in 4 miles versus limping in 90 miles anyday :cool:

[inletsurf]

The most beautiful conditions, too.

I was so frustrated, I said F**K it at 6:30 AM and proceeded to fill my stringer of bluegills.

I just want to appeal to the moderators that although I was over my limit, there were 4 people on the boat, including the one holding the camera. So please don't remove the picture due to our massive stringers of bluegills and cite your "photo policy"

Here is one of me pissing on the down motor, too.

[inletsurf]

You know, John cannot stand to be anything less than 1st place on his own boat. He tells me all the time, "Steve, its a long swim back to the weigh-in line". So, not being outdone today, he fills up his own healthy stringers of bluegills.

[inletsurf]

I actually freedove for this bluegill. Ritchie was convinced its a world record, because as you can see in the picture it is huge, not the typical 12 ounce bluegill you usually find everywhere. This thing weighed 64 ounces, empty. I'd imagine the beer was 12 ounces, too, making the total 76 ounces.

We had seen this phenomenon before, and were convinced that this particular bluegill must have came from Jupiter, where 10 pound gags always go 20 pounds.

Not to be outdone, John dove to 225 feet on air for a bigger one of his own. Unfortunately he was a little narced and left it on the bottom while riding the lift bag up.

Yes, that is Jerry pissing in the background. You are very observant. Possibly even gay. Quit looking at Jerry pissing and focus on my world record bluegill.

[inletsurf]

Last but not least, all this bluegill shooting called for a nap in the sun.

Sorry it isn't the best picture, John had to tuck Ritchie's balls back in his speedo before the shot without waking him up.

[bubblejunkie]

Next year guy's :( seems like the Southern Open is going to be my every other year tourney ;) did well last year :D broke down the year before and this year :mad: I'll be making up for it out of Sebastion Tomarrow :thumps:



Thanks for the boat ride John :beer:

[BwanaR]

Thanks Steve...(it's an IO), I asked if it was shiftable directly and we did make an attempt but Pat said the cable went into the case so the shifting linkage was probably in there. It would have been one thing $&##*@rigging it to get in, but to do that for a trip 100 miles due west was a differant story!
Maybe the SO will take pity on us and invite us back next year, for our donation.

Talk about a highjacked thread. :lol:

[junior]

Sorry about ya'lls bad luck.

At least you had nice seas for the limp back in John. Did you run out of bluegills?

[f94gator]

Now those are some mother@#$ing HOD's!!!! :D :D

[Spearchucker]

Sorry about ya'lls bad luck.

At least you had nice seas for the limp back in John. Did you run out of bluegills?

Funny thing that you would ask that. After 7 hours plus of limping along, myself and Steve were fairly inebriated when the bluegills ran out. Completely tired of dropping Ritchie on spots along the way, I decided to try and get the boat on plane. I pumped out the freshwater tank (40 gallons), and we dumped all the remaining ice overboard. I got the boat on plane. Full throttle, I got 4500RPM's, and at 4000RPM's, I was able to make 21 mph. We were about 30 miles out when I went on plane and ran the rest of the way in. I am impressed with the power of those etecs in that a single 250 got a 32' boat, loaded to the gills(well, except bluegills), on plane fairly easily.

[Spearchucker]

He tells me all the time, "Steve, its a long swim back to the weigh-in line".

I actually cannot deny saying that.... :thumps:

[Spearchucker]

No, he actually told that to Jerry after Jerry wanted to trade the rest of the beer to a shrimper. :D

yeah, when we passed the shrimp boat, and Jerry made the suggstion of trading our remaining beer for shrimp, I honestly thought the man had ****ing lost his mind. Shit, I was ready to go hit the shrimpers up for beer, not viece versa....

[junior]

Funny thing that you would ask that. After 7 hours plus of limping along, myself and Steve were fairly inebriated when the bluegills ran out. Completely tired of dropping Ritchie on spots along the way, I decided to try and get the boat on plane. I pumped out the freshwater tank (40 gallons), and we dumped all the remaining ice overboard. I got the boat on plane. Full throttle, I got 4500RPM's, and at 4000RPM's, I was able to make 21 mph. We were about 30 miles out when I went on plane and ran the rest of the way in. I am impressed with the power of those etecs in that a single 250 got a 32' boat, loaded to the gills(well, except bluegills), on plane fairly easily.

Sweet. Did she chug some fuel?

Note to self: stash bottle of Captain Morgan in center console for that inevitable day.

[Spearchucker]

At 4000 RPM's, the one motor was burning around 17 GPH, which was around 4 -5 gph more than usual, per motor, at that rpm.

[Jaizzen]

Sorry I blew past you guys.... I honestly never saw you :lol: :lol:

[AristaKat]

and I though I had a bad trip home from middle grounds when auto pilot compass went bad . Sorry to ear all the boat bads news !!! gotta love boats the day you buy them and day you sell them

[bubblejunkie]

No, he actually told that to Jerry after Jerry wanted to trade the rest of the beer to a shrimper. :D

In my defense :o I dont drink, So I just dont get it :D I would have gladly traded that beer away for some shrimp and slippers :p

[Marcus]

Damn...that sucks about you guys' boat problems.

Note to self: Don't depend on Jerry to bring any beer and remember to take a peak in Doug's console when he's not looking.

[REELKEEN]

Bad boat weekend for us too. Before we could get out of the channel at Steinhatchee we lost a motor before we could even get up on plane. Me and IcemanSS proceeded to hunt bluegills for the rest of the day.

[ArmorDave]

We lost NAV and Anchor lights going out Friday night. Luckily I had a red and a green chemlight on board for NAV lights, and a Walmart stick-anywhere push light for an anchor light.

Went to the middle grounds, put a couple hundred miles on the boat and lost the starboard engine (don't know why yet) just as we got back into the "cottee" river channel.

I guess we were pretty lucky.

[bubblejunkie]

We lost NAV and Anchor lights going out Friday night. Luckily I had a red and a green chemlight on board for NAV lights, and a Walmart stick-anywhere push light for an anchor light.

Went to the middle grounds, put a couple hundred miles on the boat and lost the starboard engine (don't know why yet) just as we got back into the "cottee" river channel.

I guess we were pretty lucky.



Chris Hudgins wasn't on your boat by chance was he? :eek:

[ICEMAN]

We were running with no ligths on the way out at 4 AM.
Just like the real Navy SEAL's on a mission.
Dr.Grouper the elder SUNCOAST SEAL member about shit in his pants.
He thought we end up in the pokey.

ICEMAN member of SUNCOAST SEALS.