Lost fish UNDER my boat's decking!!!!!

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richg99

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Houston, TX & Crossville, TN
Fishing in a local lake tournament yesterday, I had a ten-inch bass squirt out from my hand. She hit the deck and zipped promptly UNDER my stern bench seat. We tried to slip something under the seat to remove the fish, but, we didn't have anything long, flat, and with a big hook on it. Turns out that nothing would have helped.

Fishing continued and our new piscatorial passenger apparently died under the seat.

Getting home, I crawled down onto the decking and shined a flashlight beam under the seat. NO fish! I could barely get my flat hand under the seat front, and found that the false floor stopped about four inches back. There, the area simply dropped off.

I assume that the fish now is somewhere in the lower hull. There is no access behind the stern battery compartment, without some major work, if at all.

There isn't any way to get to the area in question without taking my side console off, and then drilling out dozens of rivets. Even if I were so inclined, I can't really figure out how to remove the false floor without a major project. That isn't going to happen. I am not going to dismantle my entire boat to get an already dead fish.

Luckily, I keep the boat outside, at a boat yard, far from other people. The fish smell will, finally, disappear. I wonder how long that will take????

Any ideas, thoughts, and just plain stupid comments solicited, here-in.

Ha Ha richg99
 
ohhhh noooooooooo I know that hurts emotionally to have a juvenile
to die needlessly like that.

Upon removing the deck of the bass boat I bought last year for new carpet,
I found about a thousand (or appeared to be) little dried out minnow carcasses . . . .
where I can only guess he had a minnow bucket turn over the last time he
parked his boat before he sold it. I did not notice any aroma, so it must have
been awhile.

I have heard that powered lime will mask or remove decaying animal stink
but have NO idea what that would do to an aluminum boat. (few boxes of baking soda ??)
I guess just let nature take care of it - plenty of sunshine and ventilation.
Once the coffin flies get to it, the maggots will eat most of it.
LOL but you know, when it gets wet again, it will only reconstitute the fish juice. #-o
 
Looks like there isn't much you can do at this point but I would be trying to close up that hole so it doesn't happen again. Good luck and at least you are now aware of a potential problem.
 
Re hole...yes, but I was aware that something could get under the seat.

A few weeks ago, I dropped a socket (11/32) and it rolled under the seat. Couldn't get it out. Never thought about a fish slipping under there though.

Went to the boat this morning. No smell YET!
 
Okay, Okay....
After reading, on this and another site, of the weeks' long stink that I would have had to put up with, I decided to dis-member the entire stern of my tinny.

After drilling and cutting a dozen or more rivets, the bass has been properly buried in my back yard.

Thanks for all of the fun and levity. Your good advice probably saved me from the slings and arrows full of derision from my local bass club.

Now, to put it back together without many tools nor tool stores here in the TN backwoods.

regards, richg99
 
Rich? You are a righteous man.

I would have left the fish to desiccate and become one with the boat...all Zen-like. Ohhmmmmmmm.

But I'm pretty sure I am incapable of dissembling a boat and re-riveting it without turn it into a sieve.

Congratulations.
 
Other than hollow, blind rivets, I know nothing about it either. Since I couldn't begin to find anything proper for real rivets in this town, I'll replace the rivets with SS bolts and nuts and some 3M5200. Nothing under the water line, of course.

richg99
 
Hey Rich:

If you have access to a pancake compressor (or bigger) and an air hose, I can send you my rivet gun, r-gun oil, brazier head tool, bucking tool and various rivets of different lengths ... to borrow. I just completed my new stern and 'finally' added the motor ... so I don't plan on using these for a LONG time, LOL!
 
Dale. Certainly appreciate your fine offer. I don't have any air here in the hinterlands of TN.

I should be fine with the SS nuts and bolts. I'll have air available in Houston when we return in four weeks. I am bringing this boat with me.

Lots of redfish and speckled trout are awaiting a trip in my old boat. Ha Ha. richg99
 
ok so i read you retrieved the fish, but while you were down there did you remember to get your socket?? i had a 5 spd truck that had a socket somehow get under the drivers carpeting and into the sub flooring...every shift the darn thing would roll back and forth making all sorts of racket..finally drove me nuts enough to rip the seat out and start pulling carpet. It took a while with a telescoping magnet to fish it out.
 
Darn, I knew I forgot something! Actually, I never saw the socket. Must have rolled forward under the main decking when I was hitting the brakes, ( going down a steep slope), trying to jiggle the fish out!

Besides, as my wife just said.....sockets don't smell...

Ha Ha

richg99
 
Rich,

I must apologize, for laughing so hard! :LOL2: :LOL2: :LOL2: As I was reading this, all I could think of was, ooowweee...that's gonna stink to high heaven.

Glad you got it out. Thanks for sharing! Sorry, again, but it is funny. Just know that I am laughing with you, not at you. :wink:

Respectfully~~
 
I feel for ya man, I know that dead fish in boat smell very well. Couple yrs ago took buddy out with his boy fishing. We were pulling nice perch up one after another. I let his son put a couple fish he caught in live well instead of me putting them in for him. About a week later I noticed this terrible smell and could not figure out where it was coming from until I opened storage compartment I keep life jackets in. Here he put 2 12" perch in that compartment instead of livewell. they were at the pint they were pretty much a mushy liquid state.
 
One day mackerel fishing in August, out off of Glostah, Mass (think Perfect Storm) one of the guys strategically placed a few macks under the drivers seat of the guy who drove - as we all met up at a coffee place and car-pooled. Fun joke #-o , no?

Only problem was ... he was a Service Rep and got a call that very afternoon to fly out to Argentina - :shock: for a week :shock: - to service a million dollar laser medical device. And the car sat in an open air, paved lot in 90+ degree heat and humidity.

And worse, he came back with a Doctor in tow who wanted to buy another laser system and the Rep offered to drive him to his hotel in Boston. I was told it was a few months before the smell finally dissipated ...
 
When I was young and dumb we used to nail the bodies of our prized catches to the camp wall. Outside wall. I think you will find that the fish will become hard as a rock and dry as a bone in a week or so outside and I'll bet you won't smell it after that. Unless under your hull stays damp. Then I have no idea. The fish we used to nail to the camp were petrified in about a week. Park your boat uncovered in the sun for a week.
 
Seat removed. Fish out. Stopper added.
zcdj3q
 

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