Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If You  want access  to member only forums on FM, You will need to Sign-in or  Sign-Up now .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member.

  • 0

Leaving Boat in the water...


LunkerBaitCo

Question

Just bought a cabin, but won't have a decent boat lift for some time. Have a fiberglass bass boat. If I leave this boat tied up at the dock with a mooring cover for extended periods of time, are there any probable problems to look out for? Thanks in advance for your advice or thoughts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

  • 0

Watch for wind direction, tie up boat on opposite side of dock where wind blows, so it gets moved away from it, and doesn't slam into it, unless your dock is very light and will blow with boat.

Get some very nice large boat bumpers, it will save your hull, beware that some rub against it and might leave marks, ask for the better quality kind.

Be sure battery is fully charged and/or have a good charger onboard and connected to power so it will charge battery while gone, and install an automatic bilge switch.

Be sure mooring cover doesn't leak.

Cross your fingers....... wink.gif just kidding !!!!

An alternative is to hire me to watch it while I'm fishing from it, I will promise I'll give you good rates....and secret fishing spots... grin.gif

This way it will never hit dock.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

About the only thing would be make sure you change your lower unit grease this fall. There is a much greater possibility of water getting into the gear case since it is constantly in the water. Does your boat have an automatic bilge pump? If it does, does it have an onboard charger? The boat will get water in it even with a mooring cover. They get terribly heavy when they are full of water sitting on the bottom of the lake. I'm talking from experience on this one. It's worth the cost of the bilge pump if you don't already have one. If you don't have an onboard charger, the 2 and 3 bank chargers have come down in price and all have a battery tender in them now so you can leave them plugged in when your not using the boat, even over winter. Keep your eyes peeled, lifts are starting to come down in price now also.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

We keep our boat in the water from May until November. The above advice is very good. I would say however, with all of the batteries, chargers and auto bilge pumps, even though these things are all worth having, that if you could get someone to keep an eye on it, that would be good insurance too. You never know when a knot or a rope might let go, or the ring on the dock....Just my two loonies...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Lunkerbait if you are ever looking at lifts call Jay Soderbloom and he can hook you up at a great price and he does great work. www.soderbloom.com

Only other advice I would give is keep the motor trimmed up. It sucks trying to get a lower unit out of a foot of muck. frown.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

This might be a no brainer but tie it up with the bow pointed towards the lake. It'll ride out storms better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

One thing not metioned above is having the bottom of your boat being covered in algae. My dad leaves his bass boat in all summer and it needs to be cleaned often. Not with soap and water, but with the acid stuff, the name escapes me now, but it is a nasty job. Granted, he lives on a scummy lake (Rush Lake, Chisago county), but I am sure this type of problem is commmon.

Good luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Speaking of having the bottom side of your boat covered in crappola... what would anybody recommend using to take this brownish discoloration off the boat? I've heard people say: Simple Green and Goo Gone... but if you use Goo Gone you should re-apply a coat of wax as the stuff is potent! Any other idea's guys?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Try Turtle Wax Bug & Tar Remover. It's safe for your finish but you may want to wash it off afterwards with soap and water.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

I know this my sound smart A$$ but why don't you take it out every time you leave, the 10 min at the launch will save you more time in the long run with maintaince and repair and cleaning and save you from worrying.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

to remove the gunk on the bottom of the boat...I found the best stuff is an acid that you can purchace at fleet farm or any marine dealer. I can't remember the name,(it's something like hull cleaner or algae remover, I am pretty sure the brand is Star Brite) but it is potent stuff. gloves required, and you better be outside.

It works so good all you have to do is spray it on wait a few minutes and rinse it off. If the scum is really bad, second application will finish the job.

good luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.


  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.