Paul and his boats

Paul decided sometime in the early 1990’s (he can’t remember when exactly) that his little boat was no longer going to meet his needs. He bought a 17 ft. Lowe equipped with a 75 hp outboard motor. He had teenage sons and they wanted to do more than just fish. It was terrific fishing boat, quite large, and well equipped with a trolling motor and two depth finders which both show water temperature. Paul liked to fish at Clinton Lake, where such a powerful outboard motor could be used. We took many trips in this boat.

Clinton Lake is a cooling water lake for the Clinton Nuclear Power Plant. As such, the lake has an area that is significantly warmer than the rest of the lake. During early spring and late fall this area usually has good fishing.

Neither Don, Paul nor I can hear very well. Don at least has conceded to wearing hearing aids. On one occasion on Clinton Lake, Paul was sitting at the bow of the boat running the trolling motor.  I was in the middle and Don was sitting in the back.  We were near the bridge that is close to the warm water discharge. Sitting in the middle afforded me a good position to hear this conversation.

Don looking at the bridge, “Is that Route 10 over there?”  Paul “It’s about75 degrees” Don “Ok, that’s what road I thought it was.”

On his first trip to Lake Shelbyville with his boat he hit something. That was covered under the “Whoa is Woe” story.

On a return trip from Clinton Lake, he stopped to fill his fuel tank. The fuel tank is internal and very large. The fuel tank filler is also quite wide, and Paul wasn’t paying much attention. He filled the tank with diesel fuel.  When he took the boat out later, he had difficulty keeping it running. He took the boat in for repair and discovered his fuel mistake. When he asked the mechanic if he ruined the engine, the mechanic said “No, but you lubricated the hell out of it”.

When I was exploring a boat purchase, I asked Paul where he purchased his Lowe.  He said he bought it in Canton, IL from a dealer on the edge of town on Route 24. Since I traveled that way several times a year, I decided to see if I could find it.

 I always entered Canton on Rt. 9 and there was only a small lot with a few used boats outside of town. In days before GPS, one had to rely on directions and maps. I didn’t look at the map and relied on Paul’s statement about location. I thought perhaps Rt.24 might cross Canton on the north side as it headed west. I drove around looking for a boat dealer on the north side and did not find it. I exited south of town and there was no boat dealer there.

On my return trip, I discovered why I couldn’t find a dealer on Rt. 24, because Rt. 24 doesn’t go to Canton. When heading along the river you drive on Rt. 24 and turn off to follow Rt. 9 west. Paul is famous for his lack of direction. I am not much better.

After many enjoyable years in his Lowe, Paul decided he needed to downsize. His sons were working and not as available as before. He wasn’t fishing Clinton much and wanted to buy a new boat that would be a tiller steer and smaller motor. At this point Paul had fished several times with me in my Lund, and knew that was what he wanted.

Paul’s new Lund was the same size as mine and equipped with a 4 stroke 25 HP motor. He also purchased a 6 HP kicker motor for Lake Evergreen. Since he purchased it new, Lund gave him a huge tackle bag filled with fishing lures. A short time later, he had moved into town into a new house that had storage for his boat.

Paul was quite proud of his new boat and took very good care of it. Unfortunately he took Don with him on a summer trip to Lake Evergreen. As they were pulling the boat from the garage, Paul pushed the opener and started to close the garage door opener. Unfortunately, the boat was not all the way out of the door. The motor was up, so the electric eye didn’t see it. Garage doors don’t survive landing on boats. The trip was cancelled as they had to wait for emergency replacement of the garage door.

Paul and I decided to return to Boulder Junction, WI in the summer. I volunteered to bring my boat. My brother, Steve, had asked me the past year about fishing up there. I had declined, as I felt I didn’t know the area well.

I told Paul I was going to ask Steve, and Paul decided we should take two boats. This would let us add his friend, Jerry, who had a cabin in the area.

We fished with both boats the first day and it was slow fishing. Towards evening we decided to move closer to the dock. There is a rock bar that has less than a foot of water on the top of it, but it cannot be seen from above.  Smallmouth bass move onto the bar in low light. Paul decided to drive over to it.

Traveling at moderate speed, Paul’s motor hit the bar with a lot of force. As Steve and I approached he started frantically waving to get me to slow down. Fortunately I had the bar marked on my fish finder, and was able to ease up to it with my trolling motor.

We caught many fish that evening. The smallmouth bass were huge. Unfortunately darkness came quickly and we had to go. Paul’s motor was not running correctly.

When we returned home he took it into the shop. The lower unit was bent, so Paul did the only logical thing. He bought a new, bigger motor.