Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

You guys have any tips for boating through areas with flooded timber? I was in an area on Keystone the other day, and there was a pretty steep drop off with the channel nearby. I noticed a few trees poking up through the water closer to the shore, and I thought, no big deal, I'm in the channel. Then out of nowhere, I marked a tree on the graph that came right up to the surface. Didn't take long to turn around.

Our pontoons seems somewhat risky to take through submerged timber. Seems like the toons will "funnel" the stump to the motor if you bump into it. Do you guys have any tips on boating through that stuff? How big of a risk to the motor is it if I'm just idling through and clip a stump?

I just tilt up the motor and keep it a idle speed. The prop has a rubber inner hub that helps reduce a sudden shock.

[quote="C_M_25"]Our pontoons seems somewhat risky to take through submerged timber. Seems like the toons will "funnel" the stump to the motor if you bump into it. Do you guys have any tips on boating through that stuff?[/quote]
I was thinking about your comment while heading upriver yesterday. An additional thought is that a tritoon might actually have the added benefit of protecting the motor, at least from stumps tall enough to bump the tooon itself. The prop below the toon depth is still obviously at risk from lower stumps. But I am thinking the middle toon might guide the boat (off throttle, of course) past the offensive stump, right?

I'm noodling over what it would take to build an underwater object detection system.

So far, I have noted that the light wavelength that transmits best through water is 420 nm. That's sort-of violet/purple light.

I'm also noodling on an infrared surface object detection system, using a scanning device, built around a Garmin Lidar Lite. We get a lot of floating logs in the lake in the spring, and especially at night, they're a serious hazard.

I wish I had an unlimited R&D budget, and the time to play with what that would bring.

That would be great.

I learned that submerged timber is easy to deal with in comparison with floating timber! Keystone has a lot of water coming into it right now and I hit a floating stick yesterday. Don't think it was quite log sized but I felt the boat thump it. Don't know if one of the toons got it or if it was the skeg. In any case, no damage done, but just a reminder of the hazards lying just below the surface!

Some of the best fishing is in flooded timber so I navigate it often. the ones you can't see are the dangerous ones. Slow and with the motor trimmed up to shallow drive is the best way to do it. Once you have seen an area at different lake levels often enough you can make paths through that you can go a little faster but slow is the best option.

If you have a gps system, you can follow tracks through bad areas but stay on the track and zoom in tight.

I toon on El Dorado Reservoir.

Not exaggerating by much, I think there's as much submerged timber as there is clear water.

But there's often good fishing in the timber.

As stated by others, tilt up shallow and learn to watch for the channels, marking them with GPS is something I always do.

If you're not barreling through at a high rate of speed with the motor hanging straight down and instead are putt-putting with the motor tilted, the motor will usually ride up a log or tree instead of thwacking it head on and bending something.


https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6235/621 ... 75da_z.jpg

Funny story about a similar topic of floating timber. We were headed to dinner early this year one night as it was right before sundown. The lake had come up which usually means floating logs/dock poles so I had my eyes out. The nightmare scenario is log that is water logged but not enough to sink all of the way, just right below the water line. Running around 18mph and I hear the dreaded thud that shook the boat. I turn around to find the offender and pull it up so no one else hits it. Sun has just about gone down at this point so we turn the docking lights on and my wife is at the bow door scanning for anything. Next thing I know she says well I see what you hit, but it wasn't a log and for a second my heart skips a beat because I have no clue what it was. Then she chimes in that there are feathers everywhere. We had hit a loon right as it surfaced and it looked like it exploded as there were feathers as far as you could see.

Wasn't funny at the time it was happening but it was funny once we solved the mystery. The gps track to that restaurant is still named the loon loop in honor of the fallen fowl.

[quote]the loon loop in honor of the fallen fowl.[/quote]

That's a good one!