Holland evening May 6. Interesting night

[Engfishman87]

I felt like a fish out of the water last night. There were lots of cob webs to work out. Ended up 1 for 3. Landed a Coho and lost two others after a decent amount of time. The coho was caught on a 8" frog paddle and green fly. One other fish was on a 8" white paddle with green/white fly and a Dreamweaver Get-R-Done spoon. All the fish came from 85' of water and 30'-50' down.

The night didn't start well at the dock. Saturday the boat ran fine at home on the hose. Last night the boat started right up after dumping it in the water and after returning from parking the truck it wasn't running. Tried to restart and it would only run for a few seconds and then stall. I slid the dog box lid open and there was about 1/2" of gas in the bottom of the bilge! The bottom gasket on the fuel pump was sucked in and was leaking and not allowing the gas to pump up to the carb (glad it happened at the dock and not at 90'). I had to remove the fuel pump and reposition the gasket and adhere in place with a little peratex. I sopped up the gas with some old towels that were in the truck for drying off the boat and laid them on the curb by the truck to dry. After venting the bilge area for 10-15min we decided to give it a try. It started right up and no more leaks. Has anyone else seen the bottom gasket on a fuel pump suck in?

The rest of the night went ok other that being a little clumsy for the first time out.

Little Gem II

Dennis

[Just Hook'n]

Not too bad Dennis...at least you figured out the issue and caught a fish. Great job.

[CAC]

Thank God it stalled Dennis. It could have been a LOT worse. Sounds like it worked out well for you. Thanks for the report.

[luremaker]

Dennis luck was on your side this time . i have seen the back end of two boats go up in flames because of this issue. Glad it all worked out for you. I always open may hatch cover and run my fans 3 to 5 min before hand then fire it, and close it only after it warms up a bit. Better safe then sorry.

[Rascal Trophy Fishing]

Great safety advice Larry. Good thing Dennis is astute at being mechanically inclined. I of course would advise getting a new gasket asap.

[Priority1]

Dennis, Thanks for sharing your experience. GJ on the fish.