Tough Day in Fair Haven Sat. 8/2/08

[Billy V]

I hate writing reports like this, but tough days are bound to happen.

Just as we were about to push away from the dock at 5am....ZAP...we lost power to most everything on the boat. Not exactly what we had planned. Jay and I scrambled around as best we could in the pre-dawn darkness and we couldn't find the source of the problem. Not much of a surprise there; it's dark enough down in the bilge and under the dash during the height of the day let alone an hour before the sun rises. The good news was that we had both engines running and charging our batteries and we also had our Sonar & GPS so we were pretty sure we just had a blown fuse somewhere. The bad news was that we were going to have to fish without our Depth Raider. We also didn't have any of our instrumentation on the dash.

Feeling blind without all of our instrumentation, we headed out and set up in 90 FOW just a touch East of the chute. We had tons of bait in 90-100 FOW and even a few hooks in the mix, so we set up a brown trout program and got down to fishing. We worked that water for an hour or so without so much as a touch. One of our friends slid in next to us and ran his temp probe down and said that he had 70 degree water on the bottom in 85 FOW. OK, time for plan B, that's just too warm. We turned the boat out towards deeper and hopefully colder waters and just as we hit 200 FOW our low diver fires and we're hooked up. After a brief battle we boated a small 2 lb. King and the guys decided to send him back into the lake so he could grow up and make someone else's day in a couple more years. That diver was out 210' on a .5 setting and was pulling a Green Double Crush Glow Spin Dr./ Sigg's Rigs Green Hypnotist fly.

After that fish we kept working our way out towards deeper water and we found a few suspended bait pods and a few small hooks in between 220-240 FOW, so we decided to work that area for a bit. We kept trying different speeds in an effort to make up for the loss of our probe, but nothing seemed to work. We just couldn't get the rods to fire. Looking back on it I wish I had rigged up a thumper rod and ran it down the chute to give us at least some indication of down speed but I was determined that we could figure it out with a little help from our friends on other boats with probes and by watching the angle on our rigger cables. Hindsight is 20/20. Man did I feel blind out there.

We worked our way out to 300+ and just as the thunderstorms rolled in we had our 600' copper pulling a Chrome Frog Spin Dr./Sigg's Rigs Super Lime Glow Pulse fly fire. As we were hooked up we could see two or three water spouts starting to form in the surrounding clouds. I was at the wheel and had us headed into the wind so I didn't snap any pics, but it sure was an ominous looking sky and it was a lot bumpier than the below pic makes it look. We worked as quickly as we could to boat the fish as there were some pretty nasty thunderstorm cells in the area.

As soon as the fish hit the deck the heaviest of the cells moved in and we just skirted it to the North. What is it with us being hooked up on 600' of copper when there's lightning in the sky? That's the second time that's happened this year and I hope it's the last!

We stayed out for a while longer in an effort to put one or two more fish in the box, but to no avail. We gave it our best shot under difficult circumstances, but the few fish we marked didn't seem to want to cooperate today.

After we got back to the dock we starting trying to troubleshoot our power outage. Chris Drogi from Anchor Resort stopped by to help us out and he ultimately found that a simple 30 amp fuse that was located away from all the other fuse blocks down behind one of the engines had blown. I'm not sure why that fuse is located where it is, but it sure did handcuff us today. I'm headed to the auto parts store right now to pick up a few extras to have on hand. Thanks for all your help today Chris. I really do appreciate it.

I sure hope this wind straightens out the temp and the fish get here SOON!

[seasquirrel]

Thanks for the report Billy. What caused that main fuse to blow in the first place?

[Billy V]

No idea what caused it to blow. It went just as we unhooked the shore power, so we're thinking that maybe there was a spike when we unhooked it. Other than that we really couldn't find anything.

[Diversion]

Hey Billy, I had that happen to me 2 years ago on my PY, that little in-line fuse down by the engine on I think an orange wire. I was running in and all my stuff went dead, except the motor. Was pretty strange, but a simple fix.

[Billy V]

Yup, that's the one. Why that's down there and not with all the rest of the fuses, etc. is beyond me. Once we finally found it it was a simple fix but it sure handcuffed us all day while were were fishing.

[L&M]

Vibration from the engine usually causes it with the standard glass fuse. It's a common problem. Replace it with a waterproof blade type fuse holder or put a 30 amp breaker in place of it. Why did you loose your d. r. because of that? Should of been hooked direct.

[Billy V]

Yeah, it definitely should've been hooked direct and it WILL be hooked direct before we go out again next weekend!

It was a blade type fuse that went, not a glass fuse.....

[L&M]

Um must have been switched out before. Most were an in-line glass type holder.

[Billy V]

Well at least I know where it is now and I have a half-dozen replacement fuses on board in case it happens again.

[LevelGreener]

Hey Bill,

Thanks for the report....sorry it happened but at least won't keep you "down" in the future.

Fishing "blind" is tough and your report lets me know that the electronics sure do help....so I don't feel too bad when I have a tough time out there and will have to get a probe one of these days.