Hey, y’all, had a FUN day today! I’m really just typing this to talk out loud to hear some opinions or potential things I may have missed today in diagnosing/explaining what may have caused my day at Fork to end at 11am.

Lot of typing here as I want to cover everything I’ve gone through in my head as deductive reasoning and where I’m at with it.

Plug (threaded plug) was in at 7:30am at the ramp! Started off in Bell. Wasn’t feeling it after an hour or so. Ran up to Running Creek and fished up there for about 3hrs. Bounced off a stump or two idling. Slid off another. Got fun when we rolled out with plans to go check out Coffee Creek. Throttle down. Can’t get the nose up hardly. Open the back compartment and there’s water up to the bottom of the battery tray. Threw the bilge on and headed in with the assumption I cracked the hull somehow on a stump.

Got the boat on the trailer, pulled the plug, and then assessed the potential damage. When I crawled under the boat at the ramp, I saw something that looked like potential rebar damage? But that’s an inference. It just has that pattern. Not sure though. Hell, it could’ve been there a while.

*What I DID notice was the mesh over the livewell intake was pretty smashed up and I know it was not even dented two days ago. Then I drove it home.*

As soon as we got home we filled the hull back up with hose water just beneath the battery tray with the plug back in the boat. Crawled under and couldn’t spot a leak. No leak at the plug either. I thought maybe the crack was being covered by a bunk, maybe. Took the trolling motor batteries out and the tray with the idea that if water is going to rush in, I’ll be able to see it. Now off to Lake Lavon to dunk it in again because I’m not letting this go until I understand the cause.

Dumped the boat in at Lavon and zero water is getting in. Now I’m just confused. Filled up the livewells next and the livewell isn’t leaking. All of the plumbing is good too. So I’m just staring at the back of the bilge area and it’s just bone dry. Ran the boat around for 30 more minutes and then put it on the trailer. I intentionally cocked it sideways on the trailer and looked at the hull at a different angle where the bunks were not in their usual spot. Dude, still can’t make sense of it. The spots are not that bad, but we will be addressing it with repair.


So, here’s where I wanna know if I’m just crazy. Here are the only two plausible scenarios in my head that I’ve come up with.

1. If the plug was in at the ramp, and I was able to fish for an hour in Bell, then go up to the top end of the lake, fish another 3 hours and my boat is not at the bottom of the lake yet, is it possible I was on a stump, slid off, and then knocked the plug loose? I mean, it’s threaded, could a stump unscrew that enough? The mesh on the livewell intake was smashed, so I know a stump got back there on it pretty good.

2. Did we cross-thread the plug and it was a slow seep into the boat? It feels almost impossible to cross-thread this plug. Anyone ever done that?

Brutal first post to a thread. I know it’s a novel. Thank you for your time!

You may have left the livewell on fill mode for a period of time not
Realizing it… once it’s full it will spill into
The back compartment… had this happen to me years ago in an 06 champion I had.

I’m curious why doesn’t your boat have an auto bilge pump?

Check the Through-Hull components of the live well pump and the bilge pump. I've cracked a fitting before and it leaked there.

I'm baffled !

Live well pumps not fully threaded on or lose hose connections on livewell pump.
And fix your bilge float

Back wash maybe.

I had a similar issue with my Champion Bay boat. I would go out and would always get water in the bilge and would have to pump it out. Looked at everything you did and didn't see an issue, Then i got to looking further and found that the caulking around the rub rail was missing. As it turned out that every time I would get on plane water would come in at that point. If I was fast idling and not getting on plane the rub rail was still low enough to let water in. I ran bass boats of all kinds over the years and I know that when you fast idle the back end is low enough in the water that the rub rails are under water. You might check to see the condition of the caulking on your rub rail. Even the smallest opening will let water in and when you are moving the water is being forced into that opening.

Loose, cracked, cut, chewed Speedo tube will put a heck of a lot more water in the boat than you think when making long runs too. Fortunately mine became loose in the console and water was running on my feet so I knew the cause. But it put a lot of water in the bilge on that run back to the ramp as my auto bilge was running a lot.

Probably rub rail caulking as above. Had that happen a time or 2.

It’s probably the rub rail on the back half of the boat. Leave the boat trailer straps on and back it into the lake while someone is looking under the boat hatches for water penetration. I would also look into replacing the bilge pump with an automatic one or adding an automatic one.

rain,...

It's a 2017 Z18 Nitro. I oughtta buy one and install it. They just don't come standard with one. The joys of being in your twenties and not being able to afford the big boy boats yet! :-)



I filled the livewell up, drained it, and watched the pumps and hoses during the fill and empty. Never saw a leak.



I checked the livewell when I noticed the hull filling with water, and it was only half full simply because I did not have the livewell plug in.

This is the only thing I can think of outside of somehow knocking that plug loose. I will check this. Thank you!

I appreciate everyone's responses. I'll be back on Fork next week. If y'all don't hear from me again, maybe it's because I added a new sunken boat for y'all to fish up in one of the creeks.

Thank you again!