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Oh what a day! I was planning on fishing American on this day but I got a text from Trent asking if I wanted to go with him and Jerry in Jerry’s boat to Lake Merwin. I have never been to Merwin so I asked what time. Since I didn’t have to be to his house until 8am, I said yes.
We got on the water around 12pm. This was Jerry’s boat shakedown trip and we used Trent’s electric motor. The Suzuki motor started right up and we were off down the lake to where they had previously caught fish.
Jerry caught 2 fish within an hour long lining a Dick Nite watermelon dodger with a pink splatter squid with a Mylar blade and his homemade garlic corn. I can’t remember what Trent used. I used many things but didn’t get anything until late and it was on a Dick Nite watermelon dodger with a Pink Splatter Squid and unscented shoepeg corn. With this gear on, I caught 2 in the evening. Trent had bites mostly in the evening as we paddled the boat with lids. So for 9 hours on the lake we got a total of 4 fish for 3 people with 4 lines in the water, all long lining. As we troll back toward Speelyai Bay launch with the electric motor, Trent decides it is time to pick up and head back. We are about a mile from the launch on Trent’s I-Phone app and Jerry goes to start the electric start Suzuki and it just clicks. Trolling 8 hours on the electric with only short bursts of charging from the main motor had depleted both (the switch was on both) to where it would not start the motor. Jerry had one oar but it was in his vehicle at Trent’s house. Guess what? We were the only ones out there. Jerry and I had no cell reception. Should have brought that oar...Jerry grabs the small plastic lid off a plastic container and starts rowing. I get one off mine and row. I think it was Trent that got my ice box lid and Jerry started using that. Now the sun has gone behind the hill and it is getting close to 8 and we have made progress. Thank God the wind was behind us blowing us in the right direction, too. Still it looked a long way. It was going to take a long time. I thought of who we could get a hold of and I remembered that I had Kokonuts phone number even if I couldn’t call I could use the contacts and get the number and call on Trent’s phone. I was hoping he was at his Merwin campsite but he wasn’t. He was home in Portland but Richard (Kokonuts) knew someone to call, Mudinchev (Scott) from Kokanee Fishing Forum. So Trent, the fisherman, could not stand all the fish jumping around us. He puts his fishing rod back out and gets the most bites he had all day while we were paddling the boat. He still could not catch a fish.
Scott got there a little after 9, I believe. We heard him coming across the lake and Jerry and I started to flash our cell phones at him. I use my camera flash. He towed us in to the launch. We weren’t to far from it but an east wind had started up and would have blown us away from the launch if he had not come.
Now we are back at the launch with one more obstacle we had to find out about. Had they closed the gate? No, thank God once again. I thank Richard and Scott for being my heroes. We made it home safe although late. In fact, I got home the next day.


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Bob R

4/23/2013 5:47:00 PM

Wow, what a harrowing tale, dark coming on and a ways from the launch? NEVER go out without two oars or paddles. Melanie and I have run out of gas once or twice, but only on small lakes( and I knew we were low on fuel, but figured we needed the exercise(lol). When we fish larger bodies of water we are religious about safety, winds can burn you even with elec. motor, oars or paddles.We started out with our electric for our flat back canoe but realized early on that on big lakes power counts,also speed when the wind or unexpected squalls come up quickly, thus we got a 4hp 4 stroke for larger bodies. We fished with Richard and he was a most gracious host. Glad he could hook you up with some help.Try 1 to 2 inch pieces of nightcrawler with hoochies, fish in Merwin seem to like it(prob. don't see it much). Glad you had a successful day regardless of problem with moter.Bob R

Mike Carey

4/25/2013 11:41:00 AM

glad you made it back ok.

buc

4/26/2013 2:00:00 PM

pullstart?

bryanpeck

6/1/2013 9:02:00 AM

Glad you found help and made it back safely, Toni. This is the reason I converted the kicker on my boat over to a pull start 4 stroke with an alternator. If I run down my battery I can fire-up the kicker and put enough of a charge on the battery to fire the main motor.

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