Well spent the long weekend at Lawrence Lake. Fishing was slow for Perch but I did manage to take a nice 1/2-3/4 lb Perch. Everyone we talked to said the same thing. You catch one or two and they just stop biting. The pike were hitting the hook hard but it was still slow.
It was the first time for me to be out in a boat on this lake so I might have been in the wrong locations. The wind kept us more or less to one side of the lake.
On a bright note the new boat and motor worked like a dream. After the required break in time Saturday night we managed to get about an hour of fishing in. I managed a nice pike, the wife hooked 3 but lost them due to the barbless hooks and me forgetting the net.
Now for the mind boggling mishap
My cousin ran his boat out of gas on the way in sat. night about 100yds from shore. I pulled him in. Sunday afternoon the wind died down so we got ready to head out. He gassed his boat up and then since he had the hip waders on he pushed the wife and I out in our boat. We went out about 100yds and waited. I saw him swing his boat around and point it out the opening in the weeds ( he is standing in the water still). Since he had ran his motor out of gas he stood at the end and fired it up. After it started a couple times and stopped it finally kept running. By this time the wind had swung the nose of the boat back into the weeds so he stepped to the side and swing it back pointing out to the lake. He went back to the back corner to climb in when all hell broke loose. Litterly. He felt the motor jump into gear and swung the prop towards him, he hit the motor with his shoulder to swing the prop away from him. At that point he realized the motor was at full throttle as well and he was being dragged through the water and was forced to let go because his hip waders were full and dragging him down. All this happend in a heart beat. I was wasn't really watching and heard the wife yell and looked and saw the boat comming more or less at us, full throttle with NO ONE DRIVING!!!
I quickly positioned myself to dodge out of the way depending which way the boat went. I saw it curve to the port side and make a beeline for the shore. I gunned it to get there as quick as I could. The boat hit the shore, was air born and came to rest with the transom about 4 ft from the waters edge. When it hit shore the motor went right back to an idle but was still in gear. I quickly got there ( carefull not to damage my boat and motor) and shut it off. My cousin was soaked and tired from running in knee deep water trying to get there as well. His boat is a 16ft lund with plywood floors, front fishing platform live well etc. So you can guess how heavy it is. We swung the back end pointing down slope and managed to wiggle it back in fired it up and the motor ran ok. Still pumped water and even though the prop was bent the motor never vibrated at all. I am sorry I have no pictures. The wife left it in the trailer with dead batteries. Later that night I said it was the ghost of his dad and he got tired of waiting for him to get in and took off.( lol something his would have done in real life) with his boat. Later the wife said you guys haven't realized this is Lawrence lake. Then it really hit us. ( his dads Name was Lawrence). When we pulled it out Monday on the trailer not one dent.
Lesson learned was if your gonna fire it up when your not in it you better have that kill switch cord in your hand, But its better to be in it to fire the motor up.