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As we idled out of the marina's no wake zone, I noticed the level
of the water was down
considerably. Once past the no wake zone buoys, we got the boat
up on plane and took off
for our first fishing hole.
I have been fishing Richland-Chambers since it first opened. I am
somewhat familiar with
the areas of the lake that I frequently fish. I feel like I know
where it is safe to run my boat
wide open and where it is not, at least I thought I did.
As I made the turn out of the marina, I noticed a few unfamiliar
stumps popping their heads
up out of the water; stumps that are capable of removing the lower
unit from your boat motor
or literally tearing the transom out of your boat or worse.
Many of today's boats are made to run at speeds in excess of 55
miles per hour. With
the lake level dropping, this can pose a serious hazard. More and
more unknown underwater
obstacles are appearing. The one's that really scare me are those
that still are not visible,
but lying just under the surface of the water waiting for a fast
moving bass boat or ski boat
to come along.
I was made aware of a recent fatal boat accident on Lake Fork. A
bass fisherman hit a large
stump at a high rate of speed. His boat flipped over, throwing him
from the boat, killing him.
What a waste. Could it have been prevented? I don't know. What I
do know is that our lakes are
becoming more dangerous by the day. Until we get some rain to bring
the lake levels back up
to normal, all of us are at a greater risk of running over something
in the water, causing damage
to our boats and possibly to ourselves.
I would encourage anyone that operates a boat to use extra caution
while operating them on
our lakes and rivers during our ongoing drought. Always wear a properly
fitted life preserver and
a kill switch when operating your big engine. Try slowing down a
little bit. No one enjoys the
rush of racing across the water more than I do, but throttling back
a little bit might give you just
enough time to spot that unfamiliar obstacle in the water.
As for my fishing trip with Murray, we caught a few sand bass schooling
over by Oak Cove
Marina just before dark on topwater baits. The evening bass bite
was off. I think Murray finally
caught one bass before we left. Please, be careful on the water.
Until next time,
enjoy the Texas outdoors.
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