July 7 - Eventful night

Started by PhishingPhreek, July 11, 2022, 11:39 AM

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PhishingPhreek

The following is a story of back luck, poor planning, and not being prepared (all on me)...  :dontknow:

The Plan and driving
The plan was to get 5-6 hours of night fishing at Lake Pleasant with Preston and my buddy Elio. We were going to be launched and heading up the river by 7:00, but that was all derailled when a truck pulled up next to me at Carefree Hwy and Lake Pleasant Pkwy to inform me that one of my trailer tires was "flat". I pulled off at New River Rd, and "flat" was most definitely and understatement. The tire was gone and I was driving on the rim  :sad1:

The Tire Events
We thought "great, there goes getting in a full hour of scouting and trolling before the sun goes down". We started working on getting the spare off and breaking the nuts on the blown tire. We quickly realized that I didn't have a socket set to take the spare off, and my truck's tire iron didn't fit the boat nuts. Using some old vice grips, Elio and Preston spent 45 minutes trying to take the spare off the trailer because the nut was rusted on the J bolt and wouldn't budge. Eventually the bolt snapped and we were able to take the tire off... only to find out it had a dime sized hole because it had been rubbing against the trailer mount for years.

Preston's car had 5 lugs so we thought we could use his spare to get us to the lake. That didn't happen because the grease bearing on my trailer was too big and wouldn't let us mount it (probably for the better).

Since we were only 10-15 minutes from North Peoria, Preston went and checked Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowes for any spares on the shelves and they didn't have any.

Finally, I called my wife and after 20 minutes of explaining where she could find my emergency spare tire and the portable air compressor, she was on her way up to us. We got the emergency spare tire mounted and it was sitting at a comfortable 16 PSI. Tried to pump it with my portable air compressor and it was dead. I didn't have an extension cord, so I couldn't even connect it to my truck to give it power (AGH!!!!)

At this point, it had been about 2.5 hours and it was just before 9:00, so we thought LET'S GET ON THE WATER! After a brief drive to the lake, we finally launched at 9:30 and headed up to the Agua Fria.


The Fishing!
I graphed several trees I had marked looking for schools, we finally settled on an area that had some structure and was right next to a 10 foot drop off. I caught the first crappie just before 11:00. I was about 3-4 cranks off the bottom and caught it on a minnow and Aberdeen. Preston followed that up with another one 30 minutes later on the same rig. After that, we had a steady night of hits and catches. We finally packed up just before 3:00 AM and headed back home.

We ended up keeping 11 crappie, but easily threw back a dozen or so. Preston even caught two white bass that he threw back. Everything was caught with a dropshot rig using a minnow on an Aberdeen. We fished 28-32 FOW and caught them in so many depths. A few cranks off the bottom seemed to produce the most catches though. Everything was pretty small with most being in the 8-10 inch range.

They weren't hitting it in the traditional way. You really had to pay attention to the weight of your line. It seemed like they were putting the minnow in their mouth and swimming up. If we noticed the weight got lighter we had to slowly lift and set the hook.

PhishingPhreek

Here's the little tire that caused all the issues....


I've already purchased 3 new tires to replace this tire and the two other Goodyear Marathons that were on my trailer. Apparently those were discontinued back in 2019, so these were probably 5 year old tires (I thought I only had them for 2-3 years).

I also purchased tire covers to keep the new ones as fresh as possible, and a new tire iron to keep in my boat. I'm also going to purchase a small tool set to keep in my boat so I always have those available.

OneBlade

Amazing you guys didn't give up and head one.... once able to.  Glad you got on some crappie.

Fishless

WOW :o long night glad you at least got to finally fish and catch some crappie. I always carry a 4 way tire iron in the truck and have a small floor jack when traveling those factory jacks for the truck are terrible and won't fit under the axle of the boat trailer when a tire is flat. With the Carlisle's I had for a long time I got plenty of practice changing tires on the boat trailer on trips.
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them." John Bernard Books

apenland01

Because I travel so much and fish tournaments often, I carry the same tool set in my pickup that I carry in my boat and same Noco GB70 jump box.  In addition, I have a 20v cordless impact tool to remove lugs with various size impact sockets since I might be helping another fisherman with a flat tire at the lake...

PhishingPhreek

Quote from: OneBlade on July 11, 2022, 12:24 PM
Amazing you guys didn't give up and head one.... once able to.  Glad you got on some crappie.

We were only 10 minutes away from the lake, so I wasn't going to give up. haha
I don't get to fish often these days, so I took advantage of the opportunity. :)

PhishingPhreek

Quote from: Fishless on July 11, 2022, 04:46 PM
WOW :o long night glad you at least got to finally fish and catch some crappie. I always carry a 4 way tire iron in the truck and have a small floor jack when traveling those factory jacks for the truck are terrible and won't fit under the axle of the boat trailer when a tire is flat. With the Carlisle's I had for a long time I got plenty of practice changing tires on the boat trailer on trips.

I usually carry an old 4-way with me, but I completely forgot about it and left it in the garage. I wanted something I couldn't forget in the future and opted for the telescoping lug wrench I got off Amazon.

The little jack I have in my truck worked just enough for the boat. I have two tires on each side, and only one went flat, so I still had some room to get it under there.

PhishingPhreek

Quote from: apenland01 on July 12, 2022, 08:03 AM
Because I travel so much and fish tournaments often, I carry the same tool set in my pickup that I carry in my boat and same Noco GB70 jump box.  In addition, I have a 20v cordless impact tool to remove lugs with various size impact sockets since I might be helping another fisherman with a flat tire at the lake...

It's funny you mention the cordless impact... I got one for Christmas last year from my brother and I haven't taken it out of the box yet. I'm thinking I should do that after I get the tires replaced and have to set them back on the trailer tonight.

I have a Stanley Fatmax Power Station that I always take camping with me, but not usually for 5 hour fishing trips. I also keep a 12v-to-110 power converter in my truck, but I took the extension cord out last year and forgot to put it back in. I should probably toss one of those into the boat as well.

85260man

Well, at least you caught crappie. 

Wow.