Another day of hunting - well sort of.

Mark W

Well-known member
Spent some time yesterday trying to fix the motor/fuel problems. I found an OEM fuel line just a few miles up the road and bought it. On the way into work I gave my local mechanic (Thanks Tom) a call to see what he thought. As I described the problem, Tom was convinced I had ice that froze either in the card or somewhere else inside the motor. He suggested I take a heat gun and give her a little warmth. I did as suggested. I also took off the fuel line from the motor and stuck a nail inside the ball to open it up. Squeezed the bulb and fuel flower right out. I figured then that the line was probably not the issue.

I threw the mini mud motor in the boat (back up) and headed for the landing.

Got there and it was mostly frozen. Probably had 100 yards of open water and then ice for the next 1/4-1/2 mile then open water. Launched the boat and pulled on the starter. Motor fired right up and sounded good. I'm on my way. Not wanting to get stuck, I circled around for awhile to see if the motor was going to hold on. It didn't. Died after 5 minutes or so. Paddled back to the landing. Not fun in strong wind and ice all around.

I pulled out the mini mud motor, fired it up and held on. While it would push the 14' Lund just fine, I didn't have a mount on this boat and while I could control it, I figured that it would be a big chore if I had to go an entire mile or so holding onto this motor. Plus I wasn't convinced that the little motor would be able to get the boat through the ice that was farther out. I went back to shore. Again.

It was at this moment that I noticed that the gas line had disconnected from the 15 hp motor and probably the reason the motor died. Hooked it up, squeezed the primer and the motor started right up.. I buzzed around for awhile and no problems. It was now about 2:30 and my better sense decided I didn't have enough confidence in the big motor as should it die way out where I wanted to hunt, it would be a difficult exercise to make it back to the landing. I loaded up and went driving around scouting out other possibilities. Ran into a park ranger and had a nice discussion. He gave me some ideas and told me to follow him to the park station where we could look over some maps. Very useful and a great to chat with.

So that makes 3 days going over to hunt and only hunting one of them. At least that hunt the other day was one of those that are just perfect. We had a good spot, wind was right, and there were ducks and geese everywhere. It was fun as they responded to the calling and the dekes. All shots were straight away as the wings were set and they were landing in the dekes.

Looks like this evening it will be time to make the change to the Hoefgen and see if I can get permission to use a little private access area to launch it and float down the river. Hopefully she is around today sometime to chat. If not, it is another mile or so upriver where I can put in on State property. This spot is a bummer as the stream is usually clogged with fallen trees making going around them difficult. There are also a couple of spots that are fast moving water that make me uncomfortable.

Hope the season isn't done. It is just starting to get good.

Mark W
 
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