So I haven't been fishing in about 2 months. Didn't have time and when I did, the weather sucked. Last month, I bought a new vehicle, so on my spare time, I've been modding it to my liking. Nothing like removing body panels off a brand new car, just because. LOL

Anyways, I didn't have time to winterize my boat. I saw the forecast showing freezing temps, so last week, I put the motor down to drain out any potential water. I still have a little under 3/4 tank of gas left. Instead of pumping it out by hand, I figure I'll go out on the water, get a little bit of fishing in and burn as much gas as possible.

I checked on the boat last night and saw small pool of water formed on top of the boat cover because one of my supports fell. Dumped the water out, but had a little sheet of ice already.

I take off to the lake late this morning. I think a little after 930. Temp gauge shows 27 degrees. As I get closer to the lake, it went all the way up to 31 degrees. Anyways, I get to the boat launch and do what I can, to avoid stepping in the water. Just got my toes a little wet launching.

I try to start the motor and it wont start..... Held the key for about 5 secs. DOH, forgot to flip the kill switch. I do that and motor starts after a couple of seconds. I wait for the pee and it's not happening. I shut it off after about 7-8 seconds from when it first started. Uh oh. I see on my water pressure gauge it's holding at about 2 PSI, with the engine off. So obviously there's some water that froze somewhere in the cooling system.

The nice thing was, it's sunny. Since I don't know where the blockage is at, I'm hoping sitting in the sun long enough will thaw out whatever it is and clear itself. About every 10-15 mins, I would start the motor for 5 seconds to see if it would pee. If it wouldn't, I shut it off immediately and waited. I gave myself a time limit until 11AM. Of course, right at 11AM, I started and motor started peeing!!!!!! WOOT.

While waiting for the pee to thaw, I noticed the latch/lock to my rod locker was iced up. When I had that pool of water form on the boat cover, it was directly over that area. Couldn't get into the locker at all. I tried chipping at the ice while I was waiting, but success. Luckily, I brought 2 rods from home with me. DS combo and heavy jig. I wanted a 3rd tube rod. I would have trolled too if I could get access to my trolling rods.

Anyways, I fished for about 45 mins in a timber field without a bite. Boated around for a little over an hr to burn as much as I could. I'm down to about half a tank now. ~10 gallons or so.

Oh, by the time I headed back in, the ice thawed out from the lock. I look inside and a couple of my rods/reels with mold all over them. :(

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