Glass in the Shield?

[jlong]

Now that I'm running fiberglass and no longer aluminum.... I'm curious how you guys deal with going to shore in the canadien shield. With my aluminum, I could nose up just about anywhere.... especially for those spur-of-the-moment "mother nature calls". Also, will I be limited to having shore lunch near a sand beach now that I'm running glass? If not, what is your trick? I do have a hamby keel guard... but I'm sure there are still major limitations.

Hopefully you guys can help make my next trip to the shield a good one for my new boat. Thanks!

jlong

[RK]

Just don't hit anything... :)

Usually, with a keel guard you'll be fine as long as you aren't moving at Mach 2.1 when you reach shore. If there's two people in the boat, have the other guy just nose up to shore and drop you off, and he can go catch a fish while you attend to business.

The other thing to do is keep track of sand beaches. No problem pulling up on those. I have quite a few, ah, 'poop islands' marked on my maps...

Cheers,
RK

[dougj]

Jason:

I've ran glass for years (about 25 or so) and don't have much problem.For quick emergency stops go to sand beaches or carefully nose up to a rock and jump out as RK suggests. Sand beaches will fill your boat with sand if everyone jumps out and wanders around. Get a little brush to sweep off your boots before you hop back into the boat.

Sand beaches are also very poor spots for shore lunches, rocky points are much perfered. For longer stays (shore lunches) here's a slick way. Get an anchor and about a 25' piece of bunjee cord. Tie the anchor to the cord. When you want you go to shore on a point you drop the anchor attached to the bungee cord and take the first person to shore with a bow line rope. Once he is on shore with the bow line the bungee cord will pull the boat back away from shore. You now get all the stuff ready for the shore lunch and he pulls the boat back against the bungee and ties the boat right next to shore but not on a rock. Once you get the boat unloaded you let the bungee pull the boat away from shore a little and tie up the bow line. The boat is now away from shore a little and out of harms way. When you get ready to leave pull the boat in and reload, the bungee will pull you away from shore. This sounds a little harder than it really is, but it will help keep a glass boat from getting nicked when at shore lunch, and there are waves to deal with.

Another plus for glass is the fact that it can be repaired to look like new if something bad would happen. It's hard to patch aluminum.

Doug Johnson

[jlong]

Thanks RK and DougJ for the great insight. I know there are lots of guys running glass up there... just wasn't sure what the standard procedure was for shore lunch and pit stops.

Two more questions. Where do you find a 25 foot bungee cord? Can you do the same thing by finding a point on the downwind side of an island or point? Just let the wind drift the boat away from shore while it is tied or anchored to shore? Would you still need an achor off the rear to keep it from swinging back to shore when you are not looking?

jlong

[dickp]

Never seen DougJ use the rope/bungy deal.Just ease in and forget it.If you are out of the wind-no problem.Lift and pull and then tie tightly so its not swinging around and you'll be fine.
Think Doug J posted the bungy/rope deal so I would try it and,with my mech.skills,hang myself.

[Waterwolf]

So now Doug is offering Bungee Jumping as part of his guide trips?:)Have a good one!
Paul Clyne

[RK]

Jason,
You can get bungee cord by the foot at most decent hardware stores, and make your own.

Doug, is that one of your inventions? It's freaking ingenious.

As far as being downwind, you can try tying off and letting the boat weathervane downwind, but wind swirls...

RK

[Trophymuskie]

You guys must have better beaches then we do here, I run an aluminum but at the end of this year I forgot something in the truck and naturaly the docks were pulled out weeks before so I decided to drift into the beach. To my surprise when I pulled onto the beach it was loaded with rocks and I heard this crunching that just did not sound good. It sure looked nice a smooth outside the water. :)

I too like the bungee cord idea.

Catch a big one this fall
Keep releasing them all
Richard Collin
http://www.trophymuskiecharters.com

[dougj]

The revolutionary Doug Johnson bungee jumping shore lunch anchor system is now available through many of your favorite retail outlets (none that I know of). At the low-low introductory price of $49.94 plus S&H of $72.96 (these are heavy suckers). For people with little mechanical ability, and you know who I mean, right Dick, there is an instructional video available for $38.92 plus S&H of $13.88. Don't miss out on this great offer.

Really this system is used by a number of walleye guides out of the NW angle, who I've fished with and had shore lunch with a number of times. It really works pretty good, and really saves the boat from banging against the rocks.

Doug Johnson

[muskymadman]

Jason most of the places we like to fish have those little inside corner or coves that have some nice weeds in front and sand behind them and rocks are a short walk away to set up meal site or what ever . If you have a hamby's on the keel you almost can set the bow on rocks if you pick it up and slide it forward . I'm doing this with a 690 and it works great . I do a lot of camping on islands and wilderness sites with boat slid up on shore all nite sure there are nites you don't sleep well because the wind is blowing and the waves are pounding but you just have to pick a protected spot . David

[Franklin]

Not certain what they call them but can be bought for $20 or so from OVERTON'S (.com). They're a marine equip/supply catalog dealer.