Stumps?

I'm just curious about the best way to tackle these darn things, more specifically those just under the surface that you can't see until you're on 'em. See story below for my latest encounter.

This past Friday night, a buddy & I went to Lake Palestine to catfish with poles & jugs. Once out from the ramp, I was having a time starting my old '61 10 hp evinrude. Then the spring gives up, so all the rope slack is out. I say screw it & just decide to troll. I bought a new Motor Guide Varimax 45 lb this spring & it's plenty for where we were.

I wasn't going fast at all heading across the water to where we were going to start, when all of a sudden we hit a stump. I shut the motor off, which is probably what I shouldn't have done. Now we were stuck in the middle of the boat & just a bit off of center. We tried using the motor & rocking, even moving as much weight to the back, but nothing. I started to worry we would swamp the boat, so...

My buddy, who is more of an old hat at being on the water than I, eventually just jumped in. The water might be 7 ft. deep where we were. Regardless, he said he couldn't touch bottom. He pushed us free, which might have happened when he got in the water, I can't remember. He goes to the front of the boat, climbs in, & we fished until around 1 AM. Oh, btw caught only six, the largest of which was about 3 lbs.

My question is what have you guys done in a situation like this? What could I have done or not done? I appreciate you taking the time to read my story & any help you can give.

I haven't gotten stuck on a stump, but once the motor is on, unless you have a big push pole and a hard bottom lake floor, you pretty much have to get out and push up.

I've ran my boat up on a hump out in the middle of a lake and couldn't pull up the motor... I ended up getting in and pushing the boat off and then jumped back in

All you can do is try to rock off it. Sometimes it takes several minutes. Moving both guys to the back of the boat can help to get the weight off the front end, which is normally where the boat is stuck because you rode up on it. If it's on one side, move both to the opposite side. But be careful with that move because if you're boat is easy to tip, you could both end up getting wet!

I've got a friend that leased a 1000 acre lake outside of Memphis and it was a stump field. It was as bad as Reelfoot Lake in N. TN. I could NEVER get across that lake without hitting stump after stump. One night he took us out in his bass boat. He cranked that thing up and went tearing across the lake. I was white knuckling the seat cause I knew we were going to hit a stump and be thrown out any second. When we got to the hole we were going to fish in I turned to him and asked, "How did you do that?!?!?! I've come across there a bunch of times and I constantly hit stumps!!" He said, "You gotta remember I live on this lake and I've seen it so dry I could almost walk across it. I know the route to take and what landmarks to watch."

Mike

You wait for the the tide to come in an float off :shock:


As was said above, you usually can rock it off by moving teh weight around the boat. If not - you gotta get wet

you did the right thing by having the first mate jump in the drink =D>

Loggerhead Mike said:

you did the right thing by having the first mate jump in the drink =D>

Click to expand...

I agree.

HEAD LINE READS.
Captain goes down with ship.First mate found in water sitting on submerged stump.Both survive. :LOL2:

The funniest part is he didn't mind. I probably would have been ready to go change clothes, but he was just as ready to be wet & fish 'til the next morning!

I don't like rocking my boat, not becasue it's not wide enough because it definitely is... I just don't want to risk tearing up an expensive a$$ trolling motor.. getting wet is a helluva lot cheaper than shelling out $500 or more

I have given it some thought and just came up with an idea which seems to me to be worth trying before getting wet. Almost everyone has rope on board. Take both ends of your rope in hand, and pass the center of the rope under your gas motor and then the boat. Slide it up the keel until both ends are in front of the boat, this should have the center of the rope around the stump. now carry both ends to the back of the boat and pull. If i described it correctly, you wind up with a rope going from the stump under the boat and coming out of the water and over the bow, then across the top of the boat to you, sitting in the rear seat. Maybe in this position you can pull the rope and cause the boat to go backwards off of the stump. Anyone feel like trying this out and letting me know?

^^^Sounds like it might work. If I find myself in that "boat" again, it's worth a try. Thanks!

FASCO UNlimted. Steel flex epoxy for the bottom of your boat.. I ride a rocky river, has logs, rocks gravel etc. ZSteel flex the bottom of your boat and it will slide over the stumps.

I have been hung on stumps several times. The best I have found is to throw my anchor in and haul myself of the stump. I use a mud anchor that digs into the bottom. In 7 foot of water you only need to throw it about 14-15 feet out to get it to grab well enough to haul on it. It may take several throws. Getting as much weight off of the stump helps a lot as well, empty the live wells of most of the water, set the fuel can in the water (don't worry it will float!) and move to an area that puts less weight on the stump; sometimes just doing this you will float free.

I'll go for the rock or push off with a paddle. Just don't hit a stump going too fast and fall and hook you're hand. It's not hard to do :lol:

There is only one exposed stump on the 400+ acre lake I fish. Normally about a foot of it is sticking up above the water, but when the wife and I were out last week I was trolling across to another spot and suddenly realized that the stump was nowhere to be seen due to the water being up. I made a quick wideturn in order to avoid the spot where I know it to be. I was probably only about 10 feet from it, and would have hated to hit that sucker head-on and break the dang tm, besides coming to an abrupt, maybe painful halt. :shock: