Boat building

[Sprung]

but does he get more Fish ??

That's up to him.

But, it's not always about getting more fish, or sometimes about even getting any fish. Sometimes you just need the change of pace and scenery - leave the phone at home and enjoy the beauty of God's creation and some time with and the good company of others. That's what fishing trips were for dad and I - they were chances for quality father/son time (away from all my sisters!) and we never really cared if we caught any fish. And if we did, we almost always did catch and release. It was never about bringing home a cooler full of fish!

 

[SENC]

How do you get dog back in it...

I'm still noodling on dog ladder design, likely off the transom. But, truthfully, that's probably not necessary. This boat will be pretty low to the water, and as long as a dog can get their front paws on the deck by putting just a little down pressure on the back of their neck they can generally pop right in.

 

[sprucegum]

Found a few old scans of pics of boats dad built. Not many pictures of his boats exist - only have pictures of probably a handful of the number of boats he's built. At this point we no longer have any of dad's boats - and he's not able to build any more due to health issues. Someday I hope to take up the reigns and build another one.

The boat that started it. 16', cedar strip. Dad started building this when I was 10 years old. A friend of his had dad build this for him. Based loosely off some plans, this was dad's own design. They did a lot of fishing trips down the river in this boat with 4 guys in it and a small motor on the back.

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One of quite a few drift boats dad built. He sold every one of them he made, and I don't think he ever got much more for them than what he put into them for materials, but he enjoyed building them.

View attachment 271229

16' garvey that dad designed and built for him and I.

View attachment 271227

And this was dad's own take/design on a baby drift boat. Fits into the back of a truck. Two people can comfortably fish from it. Very stable, can go anywhere, and can spin on a dime. If you were creative enough, one person could load/unload it from the truck fairly easily, but it did generally go easier with a second person to help.

View attachment 271230

Those are some beautiful boats. The cedar strip boat is similar to a plan that I've been looking at online. They call it a motor canoe, the big difference is that it has less taper in the back and a wider transom.

 

[SENC]

Those are some beautiful boats. The cedar strip boat is similar to a plan that I've been looking at online. They call it a motor canoe, the big difference is that it has less taper in the back and a wider transom.

I knew you'd jump back in!

 

[Mike1950]

That's up to him.

But, it's not always about getting more fish, or sometimes about even getting any fish. Sometimes you just need the change of pace and scenery - leave the phone at home and enjoy the beauty of God's creation and some time with and the good company of others. That's what fishing trips were for dad and I - they were chances for quality father/son time (away from all my sisters!) and we never really cared if we caught any fish. And if we did, we almost always did catch and release. It was never about bringing home a cooler full of fish!

catching more fish and the crazy stories was what fishing was about. Now it is about finding a parking place, let alone finding a place to stand. Started fishing probably at less than 4 or 5. Sorta stopped when a 21 foot boat ( 30 mph) in no wake area attacked my 14 foot boat (2mph) (now 13 ft boat) 150 ' from my dock. After that I turned into a boat watching with a fishing pole.. 51- 52 at the time. Sorta took the fun out of it.. Lucky my BIL and I survived to tell the story. Lady did cuss us out for being in her way. She almost crashed into my dock and my big boat. Only saving grace was her husband whipped the wheel right and shut engine down. So 21' boat slid into bow of my boat Sorta sideways. Which made for about 8-10' wave engulfing boat. And us. People immediately came from over a mile away. It was loud. She calmed down when police boat showed up... and wrote her a ticket. Luckily the boat lauch was next door. Never seen that much water in my boat in an instant. Tackle box and stuff floating all over. Poles 10 ft deep... and anything that else did not float.
At the time I was thinking of a old boat replica build... sold place a year and a half later. Sorta not a boater anymore...

 

[DLJeffs]

An incident like that can change a guy. I've seen some really unbelievable things stupid people have done in their boats. Like the guy in a 32ft Robalo with three 150hp outboards, had it buried on a sand flat that was maybe 12 inches deep. How he got that far in there we couldn't figure out, even at high tide. He got out front to pull on a rope and yelled and screamed at his wife/girlfriend as she ran the throttle, muddy sandy water flying all over the place, ruining large swaths of sand flat. His boat never moved.

My dad also built a couple boats over his years when he was teaching and had access to the high school wood shop. He liked to build El Toro sailboats, 8ft. My brother got the most use out of them. I never learn to sail. No pictures exist that I know of.

 

[sprucegum]

catching more fish and the crazy stories was what fishing was about. Now it is about finding a parking place, let alone finding a place to stand. Started fishing probably at less than 4 or 5. Sorta stopped when a 21 foot boat ( 30 mph) in no wake area attacked my 14 foot boat (2mph) (now 13 ft boat) 150 ' from my dock. After that I turned into a boat watching with a fishing pole.. 51- 52 at the time. Sorta took the fun out of it.. Lucky my BIL and I survived to tell the story. Lady did cuss us out for being in her way. She almost crashed into my dock and my big boat. Only saving grace was her husband whipped the wheel right and shut engine down. So 21' boat slid into bow of my boat Sorta sideways. Which made for about 8-10' wave engulfing boat. And us. People immediately came from over a mile away. It was loud. She calmed down when police boat showed up... and wrote her a ticket. Luckily the boat lauch was next door. Never seen that much water in my boat in an instant. Tackle box and stuff floating all over. Poles 10 ft deep... and anything that else did not float.
At the time I was thinking of a old boat replica build... sold place a year and a half later. Sorta not a boater anymore...

Fortunately we don't have a lot of combat fishing around here YET. There are of course the popular easy access spots, but even those will likely be pretty quiet on weekdays.

 

[Mike1950]

An incident like that can change a guy. I've seen some really unbelievable things stupid people have done in their boats. Like the guy in a 32ft Robalo with three 150hp outboards, had it buried on a sand flat that was maybe 12 inches deep. How he got that far in there we couldn't figure out, even at high tide. He got out front to pull on a rope and yelled and screamed at his wife/girlfriend as she ran the throttle, muddy sandy water flying all over the place, ruining large swaths of sand flat. His boat never moved.

My dad also built a couple boats over his years when he was teaching and had access to the high school wood shop. He liked to build El Toro sailboats, 8ft. My brother got the most use out of them. I never learn to sail. No pictures exist that I know of.

We had a resident rich guy with his 80 mph cigarette boat. He was at priest lake bar, left at night. Got rescued about 3 hours later off rocky island. They asked where the boat was. He pointed up the hill. About 100 ft from shore there the boat was, along with debris field. I happened to see boat where he bought it. He was lucky to be alive. They work much better in the water.

 

[vegas urban lumber]

but does he get more Fish ??

as long as he uses dynamite

 

[sprucegum]

as long as he uses dynamite

My grandfather was big on a glass half gallon wine jug and quick lime. I never saw it done but when I was a kid he often explained the process to me. Like a lot of people born before 1900 fishing and hunting was more about eating than sport. He also told about spearing suckers during the spawn and salting the down in wooden barrels.

 

[SENC]

My grandfather was big on a glass half gallon wine jug and quick lime. I never saw it done but when I was a kid he often explained the process to me. Like a lot of people born before 1900 fishing and hunting was more about eating than sport. He also told about spearing suckers during the spawn and salting the down in wooden barrels.

One of the more impressive things to see is shocking for catfish - still legal here on certain rivers.

 

[Mike1950]

My grandfather was big on a glass half gallon wine jug and quick lime. I never saw it done but when I was a kid he often explained the process to me. Like a lot of people born before 1900 fishing and hunting was more about eating than sport. He also told about spearing suckers during the spawn and salting the down in wooden barrels.

market hunting was an occupation back then. Great gramps was a market hunter late 1800's and early 1900. Grandparents had pictures of him and his partners with wagons full of game- headed to Helena to sell. I got half the pictures and made copies for everyone. My uncle would not let me copy other half. Mountain men they were- looked a lot like Jermiah Johnson.

 

[Mike Hill]

We had a resident rich guy with his 80 mph cigarette boat. He was at priest lake bar, left at night. Got rescued about 3 hours later off rocky island. They asked where the boat was. He pointed up the hill. About 100 ft from shore there the boat was, along with debris field. I happened to see boat where he boat it. He was lucky to be alive. They work much better in the water.

Back in the day, a company came after me and convinced me that I should work for them. They had some high-rises to build, and I was one of the few PM's around here with high-rise experience. Long story short - I lost all confidence in the VP I had to work with. The only experience he had was selling used cars and building 2-story apartments. He didn't like me much either - he was always telling me to do things on my hi-rises, that shouldn't be done on hi-rises. So I found another place to work. A few months later, I heard from my best friend who owned a marina on a lake that the former VP had gotten drunk and had driven his boat at full speed onto a rocky shore. He didn't live!

Even further back. A guy I knew in high school decided, while he was drunk, to show off on a jet-ski. This was in the very early days of jet-skis and was probably the only one on the lake (McQueeney). He plowed it into one of the docks at the Ski Lodge - we did NOT have a Golf Country Club - we had a Ski Lodge on the lake. He did not live either.

Moral of the story - Lil Mikey don't play around with boats and alcohol!

As an aside - he couldn't make his mistake now - the Lake's dam is being repaired and they sorta drew down the water. People camping on what was the lake bed. I think they will start re-filling later this year. If I have my bearings correct, the ski lodge would be around the bend in the background.

 

[Mike1950]

Where we were we had just over a mile to Marina across the way at Mouth of Coure d lane river. Next to secluded boat launch. Lots of craziness on lake without booze. Add it and it can get scary. Watching folks decide they would out run the police boat was funny. Multiple police boats on lake did not usually stop them but the helicopter always managed to stop them. The deck could be an entertaining real life soap opera or action flick. The launch- comedy central, we did help a few folks that had boats that were not trained to stay at docks on their own.

 

[DLJeffs]

Where we were we had just over a mile to Marina across the way at Mouth of Coure d lane river. Next to secluded boat launch. Lots of craziness on lake without booze. Add it and it can get scary. Watching folks decide they would out run the police boat was funny. Multiple police boats on lake did not usually stop them but the helicopter always managed to stop them. The deck could be an entertaining real life soap opera or action flick. The launch- comedy central, we did help a few folks that had boats that were not trained to stay at docks on their own.

Agree on the boat launch being a great place to have lunch and watch people try to back up a trailer and launch a boat.

 

[Mike1950]

Agree on the boat launch being a great place to have lunch and watch people try to back up a trailer and launch a boat.

Or destroy a brand new boat. Boat launch had 2' wide concrete beams with 6" of gravel in between beams. Taking boat out of water with down was horrible clunking noise. Instinctual reaction to back up to solve problem was 100% catastrophic with this maneuver.

 

[Mike Hill]

Yup! He bought the marina at auction mainly to get some land that was connected with the sale. But, put in a LOT of money upgrading it and making it more presentable. Even had a floating restaurant. Also had another bldg on land that had been used as a restaurant at one time he would have let me put a BBQ restaurant in. But I didn't want to travel 1.5 hours to work everyday and back very late at night! Even this is a marina, where some high-faluting types dock their boats - including former USVeep there was still a idiocy prevailing. At first they had rental house/play/party boats. They quickly found out that the repairs needed and the liability was just too much and they got rid of it. They had the only gas pumps on that part of the lake and numerous times someone would pull out without paying and without hanging up the nozzle. Gas would be pumping into the water until someone could run down the dock to turn the pump off.

 

[Mike1950]

Yup! He bought the marina at auction mainly to get some land that was connected with the sale. But, put in a LOT of money upgrading it and making it more presentable. Even had a floating restaurant. Also had another bldg on land that had been used as a restaurant at one time he would have let me put a BBQ restaurant in. But I didn't want to travel 1.5 hours to work everyday and back very late at night! Even this is a marina, where some high-faluting types dock their boats - including former USVeep there was still a idiocy prevailing. At first they had rental house/play/party boats. They quickly found out that the repairs needed and the liability was just too much and they got rid of it. They had the only gas pumps on that part of the lake and numerous times someone would pull out without paying and without hanging up the nozzle. Gas would be pumping into the water until someone could run down the dock to turn the pump off.

Hopefully they paid with credit cards.
I had a 20' Bluewater 350 ci. 35 gallons. At marina fuel was stupid expensive. I was whining about 30 gallons at $4 a gallon. Guy next to me with 2 501's laughed. How long will it run on that. I said less than a day hot rodding around, he had 350 gallon tank. Took almost 300 gallons. He said he expected to burn it up that day, he had friends coming. It was noon..

 

[SENC]

Hopefully they paid with credit cards.
I had a 20' Bluewater 350 ci. 35 gallons. At marina fuel was stupid expensive. I was whining about 30 gallons at $4 a gallon. Guy next to me with 2 501's laughed. How long will it run on that. I said less than a day hot rodding around, he had 350 gallon tank. Took almost 300 gallons. He said he expected to burn it up that day, he had friends coming. It was noon..

 

[sprucegum]

My scrap metal pile never lost anchor.