Lake castaic warning

[jrbasspro]

long story short I hit something coming out of slalom cove on lake castaic Friday I was about ten feet from the bouy and pointed toward the west wall and I had just cleared the bouy when I dropped the hammer and heard clulk, clunk and pulled the throttle back, after I idled back to the ramp I had blow the side out of my lower unit

I originally thought I had just blow the lower unit because other than the case damage I didnt see any thing wrong with the prop, well when i took the boat in, Gidian noticed a small chip on the leading edge of one of the prop lobes and a crack that ran almost all the way thru the lobe, so I deffanatlly hit something hard to crack a stanless steel prop, I was in at least fifteen feet of water so the only thing I could think I hit was the one inch steel bouy cable, if you have every seen cable that thick just laying on the ground, it doesn't it coils in big 4 or 5 foot high loops and seeing how far the lake is down that can be alot of cable.

Please be extra careful in this area
lower unit $3,600 (mercury rebuilt) $4600 brand new
balanced prop $700 to $1000 dollars
plus labor I should find out wednesday if the insurance will cover it.

[Ron C]

Damn it JR - You just gave away one of my all-time favorite (normally) deep water structure spots. Man, I hate when the water is down!

Follow the American Dream - Sue the s**t out of them! Hahaha!

Glad you weren't hurt - well..... except for your wallet, that is.

[Brian D.]

sorry to hear JR.

[jrbasspro]

Hate to tell you this Ron there wern't any shad I know I was alooking.

are you and Brian fishing sunday?
I get to go as a back seater and we all know I love fishing from the back of the boat! last time I fished from the back of the boat I did my Kent Brown delta impersonation, in 100 ft of water on havasu.

[mark poulson]

Walt,
Thanks for the warning.
I'm sorry you got hit so hard in the wallet!

[tunaman]

Dang JR... stop bouncing off the rockpiles!

Sorry to hear that buddy - sucks for sure!

Roger

[jrbasspro]

Thanks Roger

I should lead with me head and not the prop, at least with my head when I hit something it breaks not me!

[Oldschool]

Didn't go back to see what you hit? A cable would have scratched the lower unit severely, more than likely a submerged buoy or log boom in that location. The patrol boat should have been notified. The unmarked harzard may be covered by your insurance, if it's lake property and their responsibilty to remove it.
Tom

[jrbasspro]

Old school
Your right I will calll them here shortly, I am pretty sure the insurance will cover. but I think the lake should know

[jfross]

walt that realy sucks, You know how many times I go in and out of there, I guess someone should cheak out the deal there. Sorry for the crazy expense. Jross.

[jrbasspro]

I jsut spent a hour on the phone with a friend that gave the best awnswer I heard.

the bouy line anchor at slalom mormally sits in about 60 to 70 feet of water and the anchor sits off the first bouy towards the main ramp, and it normal goes down at a steep angle.

with the water down so far and the wind blowing from the main ramp (which it was) the bouys get blown back, now keep in mind the cable is the same length so as the bouy line moves back the cable sits at a greater angle so instead of a 60% down angle at full pool its More like 25% when the water is down.

once it was explained to me it makes perfect sense, we are creatures of habit normally the water is aways up so you get in the habit of coming in and out of areas the same way, which is exactly what I did. so if you travel out 20/ 30 yards and than turn you should be fine
I did call castiac today and spoke with Dion about my damage and he said he would send the boat out to take a look.