Fishermen and boaters: check your thru-hull connections

[wh500special 2,170]

I had a bit of a surprise and scare yesterday. 
 

Launched the boat as usual and began fishing immediately at the ramp, working my way out toward the main lake.  So I was

standing in the front of the boat running the trolling motor and casting the bank, oblivious to what was going on under the deck. 
 

After about an hour and a half if this I pulled up the trolling motor and went to the back of the boat to fire up the engine.  When I put it in gear and started to accelerate all of a sudden my shoes got soaked with water.  It seems that the boat was completely flooded from front to back and when i took off the water all sloshed to the back.  It had been hiding under the floor boards so I was blissfully unaware I had been sinking. 
 

I turned the bilge pump on and I started scrambling, making sure I’d put the plug in.  I had.  I felt around in the bilge for the source of the leak but didn’t find it.  So I headed back to the ramp quickly and beached the boat instead of using the dock while i retrieved the truck…I figured it was better to have it sink in 2’ of water than at the end of the dock in 15.
 

Thankfully there was no lineup and I hit the trailer perfectly the first time and got pulled out. The boat was heavy on the trailer and tires were rubbing the fenders as I pulled up the hill. 
 

After draining what seemed like ten thousand gallons of water out of the boat I found the source of the leak:  the barb fitting feeding the live wells from the live well pump had broken off thus leaving a 5/8” diameter hole just freely flowing water into the boat.   I’m not sure the bilge pump would keep up with a leak that size. 
 

The boat is a 2003 and the pump was original.  I guess the combined effects of plastic embrittlement and years of the hose weighing on the plastic barb took its toll. Picture shows the broken barb on the pump. 
 

I’ve heard of this happening before.  And it also apparently happens on other plastic through-hull fittings as well.  So it looks like I have a few hours of replacing fittings and hoses on my hands in the near future.  The pump showed no signs of breaking before this happened. I think I’ll add an automatic bilge pump while I’m at it too…
 

Usually I motor away from the ramp

and fish my way back through the course of the day.  I’m glad I was off-pattern today since it would have been problematic to have been several miles down the lake when this was discovered.  
 

I’ve never had this much water in a boat before.  The top the transom almost went under when it all sloshed rearward as I accelerated.  There is a lot of foam in the boat so I don’t think it would have sunk completely but it was still a puckering moment. 

 

Got lucky. 
 

Check those through hulls!

 

Steve

Edited June 18, 2023 by wh500special

[OutdoorEnvy 1,522]

Yikes!  Glad it didn’t end up worse for you!  That is something I never think to inspect and probably wouldn’t notice except when wiping down the boat.  I’ll check mine out from time to time.  I rarely fish near the ramp and usually make atleast a few mile run.  
 

This does make you wonder though about something to fill a round hole like that though to stop or slow it down a lot.  Like a cone shaped silicone plug you could shove in till it was tight.  Anything to let the bilge pump catch up some.  

[wallfish 16,994]

11 minutes ago, wh500special said:

when it all sloshed rearward as I accelerated.  

Pull the plug out once you get going and it'll empty right out the hole. Put it back while still moving once it's drained. That way you don't have to crush the trailer pulling the entire load out of the water. Also helpful if the leak can't be stopped and gives you more time to get to a safer area.

Think everyone at one time launched without the plug in. Yes, embarrassing but typically noticed pretty quick. But that through hull leak could certainly catch anyone by surprise!

[SylvanLakeWH 25,547]

 

[wh500special 2,170]

54 minutes ago, wallfish said:

Pull the plug out once you get going and it'll empty right out the hole. Put it back while still moving once it's drained. That way you don't have to crush the trailer pulling the entire load out of the water. Also helpful if the leak can't be stopped and gives you more time to get to a safer area.

Think everyone at one time launched without the plug in. Yes, embarrassing but typically noticed pretty quick. But that through hull leak could certainly catch anyone by surprise!

 

that’s an excellent trick, John. 
 

We used to pull the plugs all the time when running on plane in the leaky rental boats we’d have up North.  Unfortunately there is a platform over the back of this boat and the plug requires a contortionist to reach it.  Can’t do it while underway when solo…and I wasn’t  sure I could get away with it this time since the rear was riding low. 
 

It’s funny because when I discovered the water immediately assumed a broken livewell hose.  I’ve read of it happening enough that I’ve been paranoid about it, but didn’t do anything to prepare. 
 

In addition to the drain plug hole, my boat has this pump sticking through the transom and also an additional thru hull next to it that serves as the drain for the rear livewell. I’m going to see if I can find plugs that fit each of the openings and keep them on board just in case. I think I can reach them by leaning over the transom. 
 

When I loaded back up I sunk the trailer a lot deeper than normal, figuring the boat would be riding low and would be heavy.  Once the Drotto grabbed the bow eye I pulled the plug to help drain as much as I could and pulled out a few feet for a few minutes.  I wish I had waited longer to let it drain though.  It was noticeably heavy. 
 

The lake I fish most often and was on yesterday is the largest lake in Illinois (except Lake Michigan of course) and is 27000 acres.  It’s 15 miles long and 3 miles wide.  While there are launches scattered all around it I sometimes will make a long run to fish a specific spot that’s getting wind, current, or something.  I’d planned to do a lot of boating yesterday to burn up the tank of 2.5 year old gas that I have in there.  I’m glad I changed my plans the way I did.   
 

Steve

[Pullstart 62,838]

1 hour ago, wallfish said:

Pull the plug out once you get going and it'll empty right out the hole. Put it back while still moving once it's drained. That way you don't have to crush the trailer pulling the entire load out of the water. Also helpful if the leak can't be stopped and gives you more time to get to a safer area.

Think everyone at one time launched without the plug in. Yes, embarrassing but typically noticed pretty quick. But that through hull leak could certainly catch anyone by surprise!

 

We had an old jon boat growing up.  We as a family named it the Queen Mary.  I had no idea at the time there was a slightly larger boat of the same name floating around, but I painted it on, the best I could.  It had a 2.9 Merc so I could drive it without license.  It was basically a boat shaped sieve.  My dog and I would ride it around like we were on top of the world.  Every 30-45 minutes if we were sitting, it would need just that.  Get it almost on plane (because it never really had enough power to flatten out) and pull the plug and bail with the Folgers can.  
 

We had a Tigershark 650 wave runner that sank once, at the other end of the lake.  I remember being so furious because my brother was well past his allotted time and he was burning into my time slot.  We had a pretty rich kid neighbor who was on the back and I was just sure he was showing off to the kid.  Here he came getting towed back via a power boat who witnessed it going down.  Just the same happened, the bilge pump had broken off and was doing it’s job pumping away, but not away from the boat.  
 

All the time, we had our life goal of sinking the paddle boat.  We overloaded it, filled it, flipped it,repeated.

[Ed Kennell 38,154]

I was 9 mile out in  my 24' WAC taking a snooze for an hour waiting for a tide change.  The tide started to come in, so I fired up the 150 Merc to head up tide to set up a flounder drift.     When I put it in gear , the transom almost went under when the flood washed to the stern.    I pulled the plug and raced for shore like a golloping porpise with my bow in the air.

 

 

At WOT, the boat emptied in about 10 minutes.       What I found was the three way valve inside the bulk head had exploded and I was pumping water into the hull instead of into the live well.     Just one more pucker event. 

[Pullstart 62,838]

Possibly we should collaborate and make a water in boat alarm?  Backup bilge pump, on a float?  

[Handy Don 12,215]

Some scary moments. A good friend found his marina-docked boat more than a foot lower in the water than it should be only a few days after its last outing. Yes, a cracked thru-hull was the cause, but two of his three bilge pumps had also failed along with the high bilge water level alarm. After that close call he is a LOT more regular at maintaining and replacing “mission critical” parts.

[wh500special 2,170]

1 hour ago, Ed Kennell said:

I was 9 mile out …

 

…   Just one more pucker event. 

At nine miles out I can’t imagine what went through your mind!

 

glad you had a good enough head on your shoulders to figure out how to recover.

 

steve

[wh500special 2,170]

 

1 hour ago, Handy Don said:

..he is a LOT more regular at maintaining and replacing “mission critical” parts.

I’ll bet!

Never thought it would happen to me. To think such simple, cheap components can bring the whole thing down…

 

Steve

[wh500special 2,170]

3 hours ago, Pullstart said:

 

All the time, we had our life goal of sinking the paddle boat.  We overloaded it, filled it, flipped it,repeated.

We did the same thing with a 15’ plastic Coleman canoe when my cousins and I were little.  Try as we might we could never flip that sucker over, we’d just fall out when it heeled over and it would right itself.   Even when fully swamped the flotation in the ends saved it every time.  That was a tough little boat, I’d imagine whoever stole It still uses it.  
 

My boat should have floated even when full of water due to the foam under the floor and injected here and there.  But pour foam like that has a reputation of soaking up water over time and losing its buoyancy.  And despite the Coast Guard level flotation requirements for small boats, they can still go down:  Adrift in Lake Michigan

 

My wife made a deal with me about a dozen years ago that she didn’t care how often or how long I went fishing, as long as I promised to always wear my life jacket (it’s an inflatable).  In the hectic moments yesterday of hurrying to get the boat back on the trailer I later discovered I was still wearing it when I got back in the driver’s seat to head for home.   Made me smile. 

 

Steve

[Handy Don 12,215]

3 hours ago, wh500special said:

 In the hectic moments yesterday of hurrying to get the boat back on the trailer I later discovered I was still wearing it when I got back in the driver’s seat to head for home.   Made me smile

I’ve done this too. And had the same grin when I realized it. Those SOSUS PFDs are really great.

[stevebo-(Moderator) 8,330]

One spring I out boat in at club I dock it and while backing up to my dock I lifted the motor cover and saw water pouring in the bilge. Turned out to be freeze plug popped. Lesson learned is first launch in spring, start boat and kit it run on the trailer before floating away. 

[Ed Kennell 38,154]

What`s the worst storm you were caught in the delaware bay | BASS BARN (thebassbarn.com)

Probably my scariest day on the water.     Some report 1988, but  based on the ages of my sons at the time, I believe it was  Memorial Day 1983 or 84.

I was fishing for weakfish on the brown shoal with a friend and my two sons, Mike 10 and Mark 13 years old. We were in a 19' CC.

I saw the black sky touching the water and approaching fast from the NE.  I knew I didn't have time to run the 8 mile West to shore before the storm slammed me on the starboard side.

I stuffed the boys under the small forward deck and headed North East directly into the storm.      I knew the only way we could stay afloat was to keep the bow into the storm.  The safety of the  Brandywine Light house was only 4 mile directly NE.  We made it there thru hail, 70MPH winds and 10-15' waves and got inside the horseshoe shaped rock wall in front of the lighthouse.   After the storm passed, we came out of the lagoon to the sight of US coast Guard choppers and cutters picking up people in the water.  14 boats sank that day but only one person died and was never found.          We went back to fishing and had a good catch of sea trout (weakfish).

[Handy Don 12,215]

Yikes, Ed. Scary time there. 

It can be dangerous on the water for sure. I was sailing my 18-footer (sold long ago) on the Hudson near my home and got becalmed. Not to worry, the wind will pick up again and I’m not in a hurry. Until I saw a big ship booking it up river with, as they say, a bone in her teeth, and I’m right smack in the channel. Not good. Do something quickly but don’t panic.

Dig the outboard out, secure it with a line so I can't lose it overboard, and get it hung on the stern mount. Seemed to take forever and the ship giving me a horn blast didn’t help.

Pulled the cord and (good maintenance paying off) it started right up and I headed perpendicular to the channel. After about 200 yards, the ship was directly astern so I did a 180 so I’d be bow-on to her 5-6’ wake. Her pilot gave me a little toot and a wave, calm as can be. It took me some minutes to regain my calm and go back to sailing. From then on, the outboard was always mounted if I was going anywhere near the channel.

[wh500special 2,170]

Not even close to the same scale of impending doom, but another lesson learned in preparedness:

 

Dad and I used to fish the Mississippi for Sauger in the spring when the water was still cold and they would stage below the big navigation dams.  As you can imagine, a river that size is powerful and unpredictable.  Combined with lots of barge traffic and copious debris heading down river things can get out of hand in a hurry if you don’t have your wits about you. 
 

We’d launch on the Missouri side at Winfield and motor over to the Illinois side to fish along the shoreline.  Immediately downstream of these dams the surface water is flowing downriver as you’d expect.  But in select places just outside the main flow there can be a very strong upriver current that can sweep your boat back up under the spillway if you get caught in the wrong place or don't have enough engine power to overcome it.  Certain disaster and occasionally you’ll hear of a victim getting caught under the dam and never being found. 

 We’d motor up, let the boat drift or slip down river in the current seam.  Sometimes we’d fish below the locks in the slack water and hurriedly get out of the way of the horn would sound that the locks were going to open and let a barge tow out. 
 

Usually the outboard would run all day long, but on occasion we’d shut it off for a drift.  One or two pulls and she’d crank up for another run.  
 

We fished for several hours and had some

nice keepers.  We’d dodged barges and 100’ trees that would go barreling down river at random hovering just below the surface, ready to snag the the boat and drag it downstream.  We ran back to the ramp and I dropped dad off at the dock so he could get the truck and trailer.

 

 He started talking to some guys in the parking lot so I killed the engine and floated in the harbor waiting for him. When I saw him coming with the truck I turned around and gave the rope a pull, and SNAP!  The starting rope broke, leaving me dead in the water aside from the 28 lb thrust trolling motor. 
 

Had that rope broken below the locks or in the backwards current it could have been a bad day. 
 

After that, the 9.9 always got to ride along on the transom next to the main motor…just in case. 
 

Steve

[Sailman 1,291]

Don't know if its possible on the smaller boats but all larger sailboats have sea ***** attached to the through hull so if a hose fails you can close the sea cock. Also, we carry a set of multiple sized wooden plugs (get at a marine supply like West Marine). That would be ideal for the situation you described to get the boat safely home, even from a distance.

[c-series don 8,689]

I’ve had boats since I was around 14, always lived only a few miles from the bay and the ocean. Once while returning from sea with my wife and two young children aboard our 23’ Chris Craft it went on fire. We were approaching the mouth of the harbor where there were rocks on both sides when my wife noticed heavy smoke coming from under the engine hatch. She also has been a boater since she was a child, and quickly got the kids to the bow. She then dropped the anchor without me saying anything, so we wouldn’t drift into the rocks. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and opened the hatch, a little bit, but enough to give the fire more oxygen and it took off! I dropped the hatch and had to regroup. At the time I had already been a volunteer firefighter for probably 12 years and I will say that for a second it scared the crap out of me. Next I opened the hatch just enough to get the nozzle of the extinguisher 🧯 in and squeezed the trigger only a little while. The extinguisher I had was not the biggest and I knew if I didn’t put it out with that, we would be in trouble. I forgot to mention that this was mid October and the water is cold 🥶 so I dropped the hatch again after the initial shot and hoped I knocked down the fire. When I lifted it up again it appeared to be out but then vroom! It lit up but this time I was able to shoot the extinguisher directly at the source and put it out. Turns out that one of the main positive battery cables chaffed causing a direct short, melting a lot of stuff. 
One call for help and my father in law was quickly on scene with his boat. He was also an experienced boater but was clearly frazzled by the situation and cut in front of our boat wrapping up the anchor line in his prop!!! So he had to drop his anchor and jump in the cold water to untangle the rope. (Both boats had inboard/outboards) Luckily nobody was hurt and actual damage to the boat was minimal. Since that day on all my boats I always had several extinguishers,just in case! 
Being one of the captains of our fire department rescue boat I have several more boating stories but this one was probably the scariest. 
Here’s a picture of one nice evening we were out training. 

[wh500special 2,170]

A little update to this…as it turns out, I think the broken livewell pump was a symptom and not the disease. 
 

Replacing the pump was fast and easy.  The old one came right out and I put the new one in.  No issues. 
 

On the first test run when i went fishing I ended the day with a little bit of water in the bilge.  This boat has never leaked, so I assumed I botched the install.  I tinkered with everything a bit and resealed the nut holding the thing in place. 
 

Took the family swimming.  Looked in the bilge and saw a little water again.  Darn it.  Looked the best i could and it seemed like the water was coming in above the pump.  That’s odd.   Couldn’t do anything about it on the water and it wasn’t leaking bad, so we swam and messed around a bit longer.  
 

When i was climbing back in the boat over the transom (I have a transom mounted ladder on the back) I saw some separation between the aluminum transom skin and the trim piece that caps the transom.  Immediately I knew the problem…

 

it seems I have rotten transom board.  This is somewhat of an endemic problem to Lunds of this vintage.  Any leaks in the 45713 bolts and rivets that go through the transom lets the plywood core get wet. Since the plywood is mostly encased in aluminum it takes forever to dry out, so it rots. 

I didn’t notice prior, but the rotten board let the transom flex quite a bit and i suspect it’s what stressed the pump and snapped it off. 

 

It’s not a hard job, but it is apparently tedious due to all the disassembly required.  So I have the plywood in the garage, sealant on order,  and will be working on it this weekend. 
 

Took the motor off the boat this evening after work and stuck it on a stand I knocked together.  The boat looks really goofy - and super wide- without it adorning the stern. And the tongue weight increased immensely without that 390 pound anchor cantilevered off the back. 
 

a few pix follow of the motor being liberated from where it was bolted 20 years ago.  
 

My plan is more or less to mimic what Lund

did with some minimal improvements.  The plywood is marine grade, but that doesn’t mean it’s treated.  It’s just that it has a lot of plies, waterproof glue, and no

voids. I’ll laminate it to 1.5” thick and soak it with epoxy.  Take care to seal all holes, etc.  

 

There are composite products available and I could make something better than plywood (I’m a composites engineer), but this lasted 20 years and the stiffness of plywood is a known and is better than some of the available surrogates.  And plywood is light and very well suited to this application. 
 

Boats are so much fun. 

Steve

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by wh500special

[Sailman 1,291]

The rot in the transom is a common problem on older boats. Use fiberglass to scarf it onto the healthy parts and lots of epoxy and she will last another 20 years.... or more.

[wh500special 2,170]

I figure I might as well keep this thread going. 
 

Made a little progress the last two days.  I figure i have about 10 hours into this so far, not including building the stand for the motor and taking it off the other day.  
 

I didn’t take any pix before I started ripping the boat apart as it didn’t cross my mind until I’d started, but did take some progress pictures once the thing started to look like it was being sacrificed for salvage. 
 

First step after the motor came off was to remove the rear platform.  It houses a livewell and a battery storage compartment.  Just a bunch of screws, some #10 bolts, and a handful of stainless steel pop rivets. 
 

took the transom cap off to expose the plywood which had some soft spots but didn’t seem too bad.   Corner caps came off.  Then had to remove some aluminum panels and the splashwell to expose the floatation foam that was injected after these panels were riveted in place during assembly. That foam covered access to the majority of the bolts and nuts that went through the transom and connected it to the longitudinal stringers of the boat.  
 

I got pretty good at drilling out the solid rivets Lund used everywhere appearance matters.  They use pop rivets in places where they don’t have access to both sides or where they are out of sight.  Unfortunately, several of these pop rivets that were installed into the transom skin itself are not sealing type rivets and there was a paucity of sealant on them, so they are a bit suspect as contributing to the rotting of the plywood core. 
 

With the metal parts out of the way I began removing flotation foam where needed to access hardware.  I found a pruning saw and a drill with a spade bit was a good combo to extricate the stuff.  It was quite tedious as there are conduits encapsulated in the foam that I didn’t want to damage and there are a lot of spots where I couldn’t get tools. So there I had to shove my hands in and use just my fingertips to peel it out in small chunks. 
 

in case anyone is worried I’ll leave these big cavities open, we use this sort of foam at work so I will be able to replace whatever I remove. 
 

As is characteristic of poured flotation foam, there are a lot of areas where the foam is holding water inside it.  When this stuff is new the cells are mostly closed and the water absorption is minimal. But over time it takes up more water than anyone would ever want to admit.  The wet foam was actually in direct contact with the lowest edges of the plywood board.  I’m not sure which got the other wet or if it’s a synergistic thing.  
 

I have to say i am greatly disappointed by Lund’s workmanship.  Several of the 48 bolts (I counted them) that hold the boat together were cross threaded.  A bunch were drilled through the transom at random angles instead of straight, so apparently they don’t use jigs or machines for this and instead eyeball it.  
 

eventually, we (dad is helping) got the board out in one piece so I fortunately have a template to cut the new one.  This was a combination of a couple of big screw hooks, prybars, and the loader on dad’s Kubota. Getting it in one piece is a bit of a relief because fitting it in there blindly would probably be quite the process of trial and error. 
 

The plywood that only seemed rotten in a few spots is actually rotten across the entire width, height, and thickness with only a few solid spots.  It’s worse than I thought but it was amazingly still doing its job pretty well considering. 

the original board is 1.625” thick.  Of course my 3/4 plywood replacement will be doubled to 1.5” so I need to find a scrap of aluminum or fiberglass to make up the difference.  I went ahead and dropped by work to take advantage of our laminate press to bond the two pieces of plywood together under pressure.  So that should come out tomorrow perfectly flat.  
 

Next will be laminating whatever piece I find to make up that 1/8” thickness and then transfer the shape to the new core.  I am figuring I’ll rough it out with a track saw and jigsaw and then trim it the rest of the way with a router using a template following bit on the old core.  Then to seal with epoxy and install.  
 

This is gonna take another couple days I think before i even start putting the boat back together. 
 

Something I noticed is that there is probably no way to keep water out of this thing.  Water in the bilge of the boat can soak the foam and then the board.  Or, if deep enough can soak the board directly. Rainwater can run down the sides of the boat into the cavity where the board lives.  Leaks through the hardware can get it wet inside.  But it lasted 20 years like this so another 20 puts me at an age where I’ll probably not have this boat anymore…hopefully I’m still around then. 

I do plan to seal the new wood, but I’m a little torn.  Sealing it theoretically can help keep water out of it, but if any does get inside there is a good chance it will never get out.  It would be nice if this was able to breathe a little bit. 

 

Anyway, it’s not been a hard task but it does take a while.  I worked until the mosquitos found me and I had to abort.  I see reports online of guys paying $4000 or more to have this done.  Hmmm…maybe i should consider a side hustle through the winter. 😜

 

Anyway, pix follow.  Hopefully in the right order. 
 

Steve

Edited September 3, 2023 by wh500special

[wh500special 2,170]

Got the board laminated, cut to shape, and sealed with resin.  It slipped right into place and I got a couple bolts installed to hold it in place before the humidity-driven torrents came today.  Hopefully will be able to work on it some this week. 
 

A few pictures follow. 
 

Steve

[wh500special 2,170]

I’m getting closer.  
 

With work and kids’ stuff it’s hard to find big enough blocks of time to make progress, but I did spend part of today and some of Friday night working. 
 

As shown previously, the new board went right in.  A lot of my time after that was spent drilling the holes through for the various bolts and installing them. Each one gets slathered in 3M marine sealant before installation so it’s a bit of a messy process.  Then need to clean off everything that squishes out before it sets.  Using a lot of acetone and old rags. 
 

Drilling was done with one of those drill press things that mounts to a hand drill.  Works nice to keep them pretty straight.  There were a handful where my drill press thing wouldn’t fit properly so I milled a hole straight through an aluminum block to make a pseudo drill bushing jig and it worked beautifully.  
 

I poured a bunch of polyisocyanurate floatation foam to replace what I’d hacked away during the demolition.  I had forgotten how much it expands so it got away from me on a couple of pours as you can see, but it’s ready to trim with a pruning saw after a few minutes of cure time.  
 

Splash well Is in.  It took a bunch of rivets.  Transom cap is on.  About a dozen sheetmetal screws for that.
 

 Only things left are to drill the 1” holes for the splash well drains, swage in the drain tubes, mount the ladder, put the rear deck on, install the two rear corner caps, and hang the motor.  I figure maybe another 6 hours all in.  

 

That will put this at about 20 hours of work.  I bet now that I’ve been through it I could shave several hours from the project if I had to do it again.   Wasn’t too bad, but i would have rather been fishin’.

 

The end is in sight. 
 

Steve

[wh500special 2,170]

Well, got the motor back on. Only things remaining are to mount the ladder and the splash well drain tubes. 
 

Either I was super prepared or I got exceptionally lucky because this was about as effortless as could be.  Despite having to drill new holes, everything lined up perfectly and I managed to push the boat on its trailer exactly into the right position for the bolts to slip through on the first attempt.    I’m thankful that we have so many tools and pieces of equipment at work that I can appropriate when needed for these extracurricular activities.  

I’ve had this boat for about 5-years or so. Since I’ve had it I’ve been frustrated that it always had a tendency for the transom tie down straps to loosen up when being trailered.  With the new transom in place I towed it 30 miles back to work and the straps were both still as tight as they were when I attached them.  Apparently I had enough flex before to cause them to loosen.  Lesson learned. 
 

Almost done.  Just in time for fall Crappie. 
 

Steve