So, since I bought a boat, I figured the next step would be to sign up for a bass club. Yesterday was the first tournament. I had envisioned a five fish limit and big fish of the tourney. It didn't turn out that way. We started at 6 a.m. and after fighting hurricane force winds until about noon with zero bites, I blew out my reverse gear and it was stuck in forward. The wind was so strong, I didn't want to risk getting stuck on a wind blown bank so I shamefully put the boat on the trailer. With a couple hours left until weigh in, I headed home. I didn't have any fish to weigh in and every one else was down the lake some where. It was my first time fishing the lake so I was extra cautious. Later, I talked to another angler he said two fish at 8.3 won and big fish was 5.9.
I looked at the engine when I got home and there is some decent size chunks of metal in lower unit oil and I got it back into neutral, but it is making noise in lower unit when I spin the prop. The worst part is I am going to potholes reservoir on Friday for 4 days. I think I will be taking the row boat for that. Also, water was 49 to 53 all fish caught were shallow.