OK, after reading Chris' report about his home run - 50 lb super toad this weekend, and that others don't post much or only when they do good, figured I would man up and post.

Some of you know that I keep my boat at Cedar Creek. Have it in a lift, and it is really nice to be able to drop it in the water and go fish... but down side is that I dont have a trailer for it. Bought if a couple of years ago from a guy down in Houston that got it new and had it delivered to his lake house. I had it delivered to CC. Figured I would pick up a trailer... but COVID has so much stuff hard to find and stupid prices, I just not found a decent price for a 24' tritoon trailer. And I really dont need to move it that much.

But... when you are trying to work on it, a trailer would really be nice sometimes. I had planned to go down this weekend, and work a little and then fish a little. Well, started off changing the oil and lower unit fluid. Oil is easy, bought a small electric pump off ebay and some tubing, suck the old oil out, put fresh in. Change oil and fuel filters. Lower unit... well if I get in my 12' johnboat and float under the motor, should be able to do this... anyone ever tried to move around or stand up and down in a 12' johnboat? I am 53 and fat... this would have been a lot easier 20 years ago! OK, managed to do that without losing any tools, or getting wet. My son was betting against me by the way, and talking trash.

Next up was running cables for transducers. Boat had an older 7" HBird in the dash. I had bought a 9" Lowrance Elite Ti 2 for my last boat, and kept it for this one. I had put transducer on the toon, and just laid the cable over the back area and up along seats to the dash, and mounted it on a RAM mount that I put in the cup holder. Did that just for a quick fix... a year + ago. Wife was tired of that... Well I bought a Garmin 106 and livescope at Christmas, and decided it was time to put everything in right. Wanted to put the Lowrance in the dash, and mount the Garmin unit on a Ram at the helm, but also have portable setup with a Pelican case and 18 volt battery for the Garmin. I want to be able to put the Garmin up at the front or at the back with the Livescope to crappie fish. Have ram mounts so I can put the livescope pole unit down at either end of the boat.

Had a plan, and this cant be too hard.. I will hook rope to the transducer cable from the Hbird unit, pull it back along the underside of the boat and then have rope to pull the two new transucers (Lowrance and Garmin) up under the dash, nice clean and safe, etc.

The SOB's that build my boat at the factory must have been getting bonus money on how many wire ties they used. MORE the better for them! Of course, all this [censored] is up under the boat, and also has a full length aluminum cover down the length of the boat, "protecting" all the wires, etc. It must be a heck of a protecting system, because it had about 20 sheet metal screws to remove to get the cover off... Did I mention under the boat... YEP - break out the john boat again. Betting line is changing and not in my odds. Wind also blowing some.

I could pick the boat up with the lift high enough to get up under it in the john boat, IF I laid down in the john boat... then I have to go in and out of the poles on my boat dock, to get to all the [censored] up under the boat. Boat is at a height I can not reach from laying on the dock, and I can not fully sit up in the boat, unless I stick my head between the boat and the boards of the dock. I also have reading glasses on - remember I am old... and cant see with them and cant see without them. I have a nice bump on my head from the dock... but not wet yet. Have the metal cover off, and of course this is a well made boat. The different runners and bracing are narrow enough that I can just fit my hand back between the runners to get to the 55 tie wraps, IF I spit on it and shove. Can reach in about 1/3 the way to my elbow... almost far enought to get a good hold on stuff. Getting it back out is another story.

Plan was to get this all done by early afternoon on Sat. and then fish some. Thought some shallow water after the nice sun all day, would be the trick. Well, I have no idea if there were any fish anywhere... I worked on this hunk of sadistic junk until after dark last night, and then started again this morning. Still being optimistic that I could get this done, and fish some this afternoon. Well... was home before dark. Boat is back together, and I only have one sheet metal screw that i know is missing... Have the transducer cables both up to the dash, new power wires ran for everything, and have the Garmin mounted on the ram mount now. Did not like the dash mounting of the Lowrance, so I have to move that, but power is there and it will work. Dang wind today makes a john boat skate around like crazy.

Have not put the first bait in the water. Did not even drop the boat down in the water... Hands and back are so sore that I did not even want to think about throwing a net and getting bait, etc. Just some pain reliever and a recliner. Typing all this with a pencil in my mouth, because my hands hurt too bad to hit the keys... not really, but please excuse all the typos!

Much to my son's dismay, I did not dump the john boat. Not wet... sore, cut, bleeding, dirty, YES, but not wet! Still a few small things to do, but I can go fishing and use the new Garmin right now if I want to. Still have to get the livescope transducer pole mounted, but a least the rear transducer is in place. Looking forward to using the side scan with a little bigger screen, and I hope a better scan... Have the 54 transducer. Know the 56 is latest and greatest, but got a deal on this black Friday sale.

Have to admit to my wife, looks better with cables hidden, neat. How come NOTHING ever goes a smooth as it should? Older I get, more things hurt, and longer "little" jobs take.

Did not catch a single fish Chris!

If you made it this far reading, hope you enjoyed it.
See some of you soon at El Gato Spring Fling.

Ken

Bravo, Ken!!!



As someone who is manually challenged, I say you done good, real good!

"on this hunk of sadistic junk..." haha! - excellent nomenclature!



If it makes you feel any better, I am older and fatter (62), and getting around in my small boat is always an art of balance and dexterity. I haven't fallen in, yet, but have been swimming for my boat....oops!

Thanks for sharing.

Ken,

You must have the same luck as I do when it comes to "projects". Nothing and I mean NOTH-ING is ever as easy as I think it's gonna be or should be. It seems that no amount of blood, sweat, profanity or money is enough to accomplish what I set out to. I always seem to manage a victory in the end but at a much higher cost than I expected.

Working on the boat without a trailer would be a non-started for me unless I had a wet suit. Your son would have won that bet if I were in your shoes. No way I'd have pulled something like that off without taking a bath and probably losing every dang tool I got out.

I too am old and fat and I will add to that stubborn and clumsy. So the longer the task takes the more pissed I get and the less care I take and the more tools I would lose, etc. etc.

Maybe I should take a page from BCB's book and just hire things done.

Ken, man we must be mental twins! I am also 53 with a little extra cushion. I share in your misery with both the readers and having what seems to be the absolute worst luck ANYTIME I work on something! If there's a nut to be stripped, a screw to be dropped into an impossible recovery location, or a knuckle to be busted, I'll be on it! So funny to picture you laying down in that john boat under your toon. I'm betting at some point you also had to deal with your arms going numb from having to work so long in that position. I would've definitely taken that bet with your son and watched patiently with humorous anticipation of you having to swim for a ladder. Great post. You're gonna love the new electronics.

No greater satisfaction than doing things yourself Ken. Sometimes we gotta learn things the hard way in life and I tend to want to try to do most things myself the first time as well which usually ends up with less than perfect results. That’s the reason our oven isn’t level, some of our light switches are upside down, my tile work in the house isn’t perfect, and there are paint drips on our floors. Yea, I did that!