On 10/1/2018 1:10 PM, Bill wrote:
John H. wrote:
On Mon, 1 Oct 2018 08:59:53 -0700 (PDT), True North wrote:

Since it might be my last time out this year, I decided to head out to
Grand Lake to flush the 3.0 MerCruiser and lower end with clean fresh water.
Bit of a mistake...the rig parking area was chock full with trucks and
boat trailers with the overflow area a bit of a hike away.
Turns out it was some kind of fishing tournament with about 36 boats
registered to participate. We got there around 1300 hrs and one of the
fishermen told us the tournament ran till 1530 hrs. That limited us to
about an hour and a half on the lake. Glad it was a big lake by local
standards with these high powered bass type boats roaring along from
position to position..then stopping to fish..sometimes in my way. I
didn't want to pass too close while they were fishing. The lake surface
was great and quite smooth until be bounced ov er wake after wake.
anyyway, came back early to beat most of them but by the time I walked
up, goy my rig and waited in line for the double ramp there must have
been 20 to 30 boaats all milligg around the small dock..which I was
hogging with the bow rider.I must admit, they were quite efficient
recovering their boats..they would nose up to the dock..one guy would
jump off to get the rig and the boat would back out to let someone else
do the same. Only bad thing was they all seemed to power up on their
trailers..moving the rocks at the submerged end of the ramp. This
wouldn't be so bad in the spring but with the lake down a couple of feet
or so...even I had to carefully back the trailer wheels to the very edge
which had the water half cover my bunks. Anyway, mission
accomplished...burned up some gas and flushed everything out.

Powering a boat up onto the trailer scours the lake bed at the end of the
ramp. You'd think the
idiots up there would know better. I hope you don't do the same. Scouring is bad anytime.


Most of us do that. Maybe we build better Ramps here.


When I was a kid when my family spent summers in a cottage on a small
lake we had a yearly ritual of raking the "muck" off the bottom of the
swimming area. The "muck" was just leaves, twigs and small branches
that settled on the bottom during the winter. Nobody liked walking in
it in the shallow area near shore so we used to rake it all out.

We also had a raft that we swam to and dived of off that was about 40-50
feet from the shore in about 12' of water. It was well
anchored with 2 concrete mooring blocks.

One year, after I got my little Sears 12' aluminum boat with a 5 hp
Johnson we tied a long line around the rear seat of the boat and tied
the other end to the raft.

I'd then approach the shore bow first with the boat, letting out line
until the prop was close to hitting bottom. I'd then start sweeping
back and forth in the swimming area by moving the engine tiller back and
forth with the boat held in place by the line attached to the raft. The
prop wash would push the leaves and crap out into deeper water. Then
I'd shorten up the line so the boat was a little further from the shore
and repeat. It worked well. The shallow areas were now pretty clean, no
"muck", just a nice, sandy bottom.