Up the river

[capefearfly]

Well it started out to be a great day. I managed to get a Saturday off to put my newly completed boat to the test and reel in some monster catfish. The weather was nice, the water was warm and clear and all seemed well in the fishing world. I put in on the Cape Fear River at Elizabethtown and headed upstream; sounded out a good looking spot and tied up and proceeded to catch around 5 or 6 small blue cats.

After 30 minutes or so I decided to head on up stream and so I untied and gave the outboard a yank and the motor reved up to wide open throttle when it hit. I killed the engine and got the motor restarted at a more respectably rpm range and put it in gear but she didn't move. Reverse same thing, nothing. So I raise the motor to check it out and low and behold, just as I had expected, the shear pin had wrung of when the engine ran away the first time and also happened to be in gear.

Luckly I wasn't but about a mile and half upstream of the landing and had charged up my battery the night before so I just fished my way back down. I still ended up with a good day on the water. Caught around 15 or so catfish, a couple bream and made it off the river before the thunder storms hit.

Got back to the shop and got the prop fixed and the shift linkage adjusted and shes ready one more time. Hopefully next time she won't leave me up the river without a paddle again.