Overboard Boater

On the National Geographic Channel, ways to deal with the Asian carp invasion.

A welded-aluminum john boat may just be the perfect small-boat light tackle fishing platform. They are multi-faceted.

The reasons in favor:

1. The are lightweight and hard to break.

2. At slow speeds they bounce off rocks.

3. The engine and fuel tank are removable by hand.

4. Little kicker engines seem to require no maintenance.

5. If a kicker does fail, you can row home.

6. Should you choose to do so, a johnboat is easy to clean and maintain.

7. Should you choose not to do so, a johnboat seldom looks worse for the wear with dings and dirt.

8. They are easy to paint.

9. They are stable fishing platforms.

10. They float in inches of water and can be poled.

11. You can beach it.

12. Load it up with driftwood for a bonfire and it won’t get all scratched up.

13. Load it up with decoys in the fall.

14. You can trailer it with a mountain bike, practically.

The cons:

1. Lightning

According to this article from Vanity Fair, the two-year saga of the Barefoot Bandit, aka Colton Harris-Moore, ended after a boat chase with Bahamian authorities.

The Youtube video above tells the story, but not what kinds of boats he stole.

Daughter on the water.

My daughter’s already got the disease. We spent the holiday at my family’s summer place, and after her first spin on the first day, the words she most often uttered henceforth were, “Boat ride.”

The key, we found, was to keep the boat expeditions short and sweet. Usually half an hour, never longer than an hour. We’d go slow and explore so she could see. She grew excited to see several herons, an osprey, a beaver dam, families of ducks and ducklings, even Canadian geese.

Her favorite thing? When we turned off the engine and glided into areas where you could see bottom. She’d see perch, sunfish, carp, and even a few trophy largemouth bass. Each time she would point and scream, “Fishy!”

The whole car ride home after the vacation, she’d see water out the window and ask for a boat ride. Right now she’s at the age where there’s not even a remote way of predicting what she’ll grow up to be. But if she decided to be a marine biologist or even the world’s best fishing guide, that would be all right with me. As long as she comped her Dad some trips.

A 5-hp direct drive Johnson Sea Horse that still runs well.

Spotted this weekend in the North Country: an old direct-drive Johnson Sea Horse outboard. 1940s vintage. It has no clutch. A guy pulled it out of an old shed to stick on a skiff for his kid. Hadn’t been used in 12 years and after a quick prime it started right up.

Edson Marine makes and sells these nautical stars for boats. Since we’re approaching a patriotic weekend, this seemed like a good time to post about the memorial featuring these stars in Friendswood, Texas. The Veteran’s Memorial is a stainless-steel American flag. It’s 8 feet tall, 16 feet wide, and sits on a granite base. Some nautical influence away from the water.

This report from CNN puts my footwear of choice in a bad light. But I am going to ignore all evidence to the contrary and continue to believe the flop is the perfect shoe.

Takemefishing.org has put out a free Boat Ramps iPhone app. Notice the “free” is not capitalized. The app itself is free, rather than an app that lists where there are “free boat ramps.”

I downloaded the app and checked it out. You can search for nearby ramps based on your current location, by zip code, or by city. There’s a “marina” setting where you can look for marinas as well.

The flaw in the app, if I were in charge of future updates, is that it doesn’t tell you if the ramp in question is a public ramp, if you need a town permit, or if there is a launch fee. It just tells you it’s there.

Most of the time you have a plan where you are launching well before you hitch up the trailer, but it could be a good aid in travel planning to new locations and cities, or if there’s a better ramp in your normal boating area you just haven’t heard about.

To download it, search for “Boat Ramps” in your iTunes account.

The MoGo app as it appears on my iPhone.

You can file your own “citizen scientist” reports on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster and contribute  information about what’s really happening down there. All you have to do is download the free iPhone app called “MoGo,” short for Mobile Gulf Observatory, from scientists at UMass Amherst.

If you live in or are visiting the Gulf region and see affected wildlife or habitat, or any of the oil slick or tarballs, open the App and snap a picture in the appropriate category.

According to the Mogo website:

“Once you upload your photo, the locations of oiled and injured wildlife are pin-pointed with a GPS code generated by your iPhone™. You are then immediately connected to the Wildlife Hotline to report your observations so trained responders can be deployed to rescue oiled and injured animals, and to mobilize efforts to protect and restore vital habitats for fish and wildlife.”

In case you missed the link above, search for “Mogo” in the App store or click here for more information.

Why rely on the understated reports from the BP, the company responsible for this catastrophe? If you see something with your own eyes, you can help.

(Thanks to the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust for publicizing the MoGo app.)

Today's coastal surface temperatures.

A fishing buddy turned me on to this a while ago. Rutgers Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences publishes daily surface temperature readouts for the entire seaboard, and more detailed ones for specific regions. Click on this link and check out your region from the list in the left column. You already know the reasons why.