SHOTS FIRED!…how was your Thursday?

Last Thursday was a day I hope to never re-live again. It went something like this…

3:30 a.m.- I started the day off working on my lower unit. The owner of Action Marine had promised to have my boat done by Tuesday night so I could get up to Winneconne to start my pre-fishing. Never happened. I fixed it myself Wed. night and Thur. morning (good enough to get me through the BFL).

4:30 a.m.- I make an emergency stop in Wauwautosa at Mr. Brovarney’s house to pick up some last minute jigs. 4:30 a.m.!!! Now that’s service! Love ya Dan!

5:45 a.m.- I’m on the water and decide to make a wide-open-throttle run to test my lower unit patch job. While running at 74 mph the spring on my throttle (hot foot) BROKE! As I pulled my foot back the throttle remained on the floor! To add to the panic…I’m heading though a chute on the north side of Butte Des Morts flying toward a pack of anchored walleye boats! As I look back, I should’ve pulled the kill-switch but ended up turning off the ignition after about 7 seconds of freaking out.

9:00 a.m.- Snapped my 3rd rod this month. Yeah it too was a St. Croix.

2:00 p.m.- As I was making a run to check out another spot, I ran one of my gas tanks empty. I know this doesn’t sound very dramatic, but my engine just died and since it had been a long time since I had done that, I didn’t even think about me forgetting to switch tanks. After checking out the motor for 3 minutes, I finally noticed the starboard-side fuel gauge on “E”.

7:20 p.m.- I GOT SHOT AT! Dead serious. It was getting late but I knew I needed to find more fish for Saturday’s tourney so I decided to keep fishing. I was trying to get into a secluded area on the south-side of Butte Des Morts. I was on the trolling motor paralleling some riprap when I hear a ZZZZZIP……CRACK! as a bullet whizzes right by me and hits the rocks 10 feet from my boat!!! I totally FREAKED! I raised my hand and nodded my head as if to signal, “OK…I’ll get out of here”! I turned my boat around with the t-motor and was heading out. Not 20 seconds later zzzzzzip….crack, klunck, klunck!!! . This bullet was about 20 feet in front of me and I watched the rock fall that it hit!!! By now I’m wondering if I’m going to make it back to my family. Call me a coward or whatever else, but I hit the floor of my boat! I reached up and turned on the big motor and idled out to some deep water while hiding under my console. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could but I was only in 18″ of water so I couldn’t get my boat on plane. As I mentioned earlier I have a hot foot. So I’m tucked under my console pushing my foot-pedal with my hand while every 10 seconds popping my head up then down verifying my direction. Once I got the he11 out of there, I called 911 with my cell and met a cop on the north side of BDM. He said they found two cars in a nature parking lot near the location of the shooting and have 2 cruisers and 1 DNR boat on it! Never heard anything since.

8:30 p.m.- I’m finally done with the police report and still have a 3 mile run back to the boat ramp. The sun was down and it was getting chilly. While still in a state of shock I pulled open a front deck compartment to grab a jacket and forgot to remove my rod strap so I BROKE the loop which was used to fasten the rod strap to.

8:50 p.m.- I parked on the wrong side of the street at the ramp so I got a $10 parking ticket. I wonder if it was the same cop which I just talked with?

9:05 p.m.- I stop to buy some beer to help me calm down and found that all beer sales end at 9:00 p.m. at Winneconne. (thankfully I had a few warm ones left over)

10:00 p.m.- I lay on the hotel bed, sipping warm beer, wondering if I should just head home or try my hand at another day on Winneconne…

God will never dish out more than you can handle. Congrats you passed lol

Next time Fire Back

I think I would have had to check my pants. Glad you are ok.

W.O.W … glad your o.k

Any thoughts of me fishing Winnie are forever GONE!!!

Glad you’re OK!!

i’ll add that to the list of reasons winneconne is a big piece of

You and buckshot should get together for your boat problems! Good to hear your alright!

Nort,

If it is any consolation, while my list isn’t as long as yours,
Winneconne is where if anything bad is going to happen
to me or my boat, it will. I hate that place, and I grew
up fishing that system. I don’t know what demons lurk
there, but I have committed to fish that place until I
exorcise them…No matter what toll it takes on me and
my gear!

Big Bass Bane

Glad your ok Nort.
I know I would have been freak’n
Make sure to let us know if the idot gets caught.

Sorry to hear about all the BS.

If it makes you feel any better you looked good at 4:30.

Have you added the cold bear on ice to the tournement check list or are you skipping it and going straight to scotch.

Everyone has a bad day once in a while…but being shot at puts it over the top.

That TERRORIST not only shot at you…but at EVERY fisherperson in America.

Time to load the RPG in the starboard rod locker I guess. Could you even tell where the shots were coming from or see any people?

Glad they were bad shots!!!

I haven’t been shot at…that is probably next for me with the luck I have been having…I feel your pain with all the boat issues. I am to the point this year that I am afraid to take the boat out of the garage because the $ signs just keep rolling up. I should calrify just a smidge though…it isn’t actually the boat….it is the trailer wiring & brakes, boat batteries and big motor issues voltage regulator and spun hub…now overheating….oh yeah and kicker problems too…had to replace the throttle cables.

Chap you will be impressed to know….I still haven’t missed a week with something going wrong. After I spun the hub on Pepin, got that fixed, this last weekend on Cass…yeah……big motor was overheating if I was at idle speed for more than 2-3 minutes.

I keep thinking I can’t get worse….but then again…I haven’t been shot at….yet.

Glad you are okay!!
JB

d-nort,
Glad to hear you made it through all this . I’m thinking maybe this would be a good time to think about playing the lottery

dave

D-Nort;

Glad to hear you were not injured/killed in this attack against you.

I would be taking this extremely serious with the police department, demanding response.

Words on this website, I cannot share, for what I would do if that would have been me in your shoes that day……….

Hey, look at the bright side dude…they were horrible shots!

Seriously though, I’m glad that you’re okay. I would’ve went home for sure after that kind of day.

just playing devil’s advocate here.
do you think barreling towards a bunch of anchored boats at 74 mph (with a broken throttle) had anything to do with it?
seriously though, glad you are alright. I got shot at once while deer hunting and it wasn’t pleasant.

SteveO, re-read the post. His hotfoot problem was a 5:45 AM, the shooting was at 7:00pm, I really doubt that had anything to do with it.

Maybe the shooter was from Alabama. Aparently, they do that on a daily basis down there.

Jo

I had some boat troubles myself on monday out in my 12 foot skiff with 5.5 motor i was cruising along at a wopping 15 mph and it just started making wierd noises and it ended up dying on me. I was out by myself and i had to use the trolling motor to get me back to an area that me and my dad could hand lift the boat out of the water! It took me almost 45 minutes to troll my way upstream to a place where we could pull it out…It was probably a half mile away, and my trolling motor is only 17# thrust! Worse yet: i didnt even catch anything- although i had a nice fish on while i was waiting for my dad to get down there..He ran right at me and got off

As far as the boat goes, it was a loose bolt inside of the motor that caused enough pressure to kill the motor. My dad tightened the bolt down and it is ready for business when i go out today!