Was out this past weekend and made contact with a stump while idling back to the ramp. Once I loaded the boat, I gave the lower unit an inspection and noticed that on the cone/barrel of the lower unit, the tip of the cone has a 1/8-1/4" hole and there was some wood chunks stuck in it. I cleaned most of the wood out and realized the hole goes into the lower unit about 3/4" inch deep. Maybe I am oblivious for not noticing this before, but I highly doubt this issue was created on my most recent outing. Boat runs fine, I have not changed the lower unit oil recently to see if water is possibly getting inside.

Excuse my ignorance but has anyone seen something like this? Wondering if I should try and get the hole welded up / JB weld. Any thoughts? Motor is a 2006 Yamaha vz200tlr

Its the water pilot tube for the speedometer.

Makes sense. I assume it would be okay to lightly drill out the wood?

yes... you didn't notice that your speedo wasn't working? Mine plugged up every trip... and I gave up cleaning it out and use my gps for speed... poor design if you ask me... at least for TX fishing...