Dark Cloud rears it’s head again but... 
By Bob Zettler 
July 20, 2013

You ever get so keyed up and excited about heading out and onto the water since everything is going as planned and then it all starts to tumble downhill? I mean, you REALLY look forward to hitting the lake, Lake Shelbyville in this case, all week and you get all prepared well in advance – Heck, you even take a second shower for the day before heading out and change into some nice but still casual clothes – and then it begins...

First stop on the way is Subway to get dinner for you and a friend and not only is there a line but they must be training new people who had never made a sandwich before in their life. And when you are just the third person in line and it takes them 15 minutes just to get to you and then another 10 just to make your two sandwiches, that you realize you will never get this time back and it's putting you behind. “Patience Bob” I remind myself. But, hey, I am headed back to the water!

Then on the way there you start to hear all sorts of squeaks and the like coming from behind you. But after multiple stops you just have to believe it's the hitch and not a wheel or two about to fall off. So you decide to remind one's self to spray the Heck out of it all with lube when you get home and, hey, I am headed back to the water!

Then you get to the ramp only to discover that the gate is locked for the high water ramp! But why are all these boats in the lot and waiting off the beach? That is when see that you can now put in at the regular ramp. “Patience Bob, the night is still young.” You put the plug(s) in, place all the gear carefully in the boat and...I must be getting better for I am able to launch the boat all by myself and park the Jeep all to the wonderment of the wife whose husband is still trying to back their rig into the water with her “assistance.” And, hey, I am finally back ON the water!

Your game plan is to fish a little before meeting up with a friend just to make sure all is working and lo and behold you catch a Crappie on the first cast. A keeper in fact so you start to fill the livewell. Sure is taking a long time but it eventually gets enough water in it to keep a fish or two and then your trolling motor quits. I check the cable and then the plug which in this case goes into a spare battery under the deck compartment only to see water all around the battery! Holy Moley, my boats leaking and I am about to be in the water and not on it as now the bilge pump wont turn on!

Luckily I usually don’t panic and am pretty good at problem solving and quickly discover all it takes is to jiggle the wires to the bilge pump that enables it to start emptying a bunch of water back into the lake. I surmise that the livewell pump or hose must have a leak, but to be safe, I head back towards the ramp and make sure it empties out reeeaaal good! Twenty or so minutes later I head off to rendezvous with a friend at their boat who is anchored in a cove over by Bo Woods – I am currently at Wilborn. When I get there, I discover the wind has picked up and now its decision time – do we get in my boat or theirs. And, regardless of which one, how does one accomplish this feat? Remember, I have only truly been boating for the past five years and have little experience with things that many take for granted. I quickly decide their boat is much, much nicer, so now I have to figure out how to accomplish this without my ending in the water!

My host, being much more experienced (and probably a lot smarter than I am) has me throw them a rope after putting a couple of bumpers on the side I will approach. And after ensuring I am on board, they let out enough line so the two boats wont bump uglies in the darkness. As an additional safety precaution I leave my running lights on. We chat for few hours till they figure out that the 106 degree day has zapped them and we repeat the previous actions in reverse with one exception...I turn the ignition and it sounds like a Sears Di-Hard commercial – the battery is D-E-A-D. I had already untied so now it's anchor time and I am so glad I brought those extra batteries! Why? Besides the starting battery being dead, I quickly discover the adjacent trolling battery is as well. How can this be! I mean I charged both of them last weekend before hitting the lake Sunday afternoon, so they couldn't both be drained from that and the running li...wait a minute. How long did I run the bilge pump and I did just add that color fish-finder which I left on as well as the others, so maybe they had more impact than I thought? And then I started to discover corrosion on the all the wiring connections to the batteries AND that the main power supply cable to the front was broken! Well that explains a lot but what do I do now?

The one battery is easy to take out and it goes into storage up front where I keep the spares and its replaced by one of them to which I now have to switch the outboard starter cables to and voila, we have ignition! But I also have a lot of water in the boat again, most likely due to the wind pushing it over the transom while it was tied up and pointing away from the other boat (note to self, tie your boat off FACING into the wind). Do I also connect the bilge pump to this battery along with the running lights and the rest? I tried that but then thought to see if there was enough juice in the starter battery to run the bilge and lights and fortunately there was!

So I am able to pump water out, have running lights, enough juice to start the outboard but no electronics for which I have no answer. As I was only about 15 yards from the shore now (remember that anchor, it was still there but it was VERY windy) and as my host had stayed awake and was still trying to offer assistance, I decided I had enough to make the Marina where there were lights and a place to tie up to just in case. I fired that puppy up and after trying to say thank you and to please get some rest, I was off into the darkness without any electronics. Wait a minute, that day I had just purchased the NAVIONICS App from the Google Play store for my Cell and thought what better time to try it out. So right in the middle of that arm of the lake I stop and open it up and it looks just like what my fish-finder GPS would show if it was working but without the depth indicator. Well, that was better than nothing and as I was fairly familiar with the Lake and had plenty of CREE-LED search-lights on board, I was able to make it to the Marina without further incident. And, hey, I am back ON the water (still)!

It was pushing 2 AM by now and even with the protection of the Marina, the wind was pushing me around and then I saw lightening to the northwest. VERY bright lightening and I am beginning to wonder if fate was against me this weekend and just maybe I ought to head home. Even my recent host was worried and called me if I had seen the same thing. We both checked radar and there is nothing. What gives? Once again I turn to my trusty DROID Cell and the only storms showing up are over Lincoln and Bloomington, a good 40 to 50 miles north. Wow, they must be getting pounded up there so I decide to stick it out but keep checking my RAINDAR App on my DROID. So I keep on fishing and even land a couple of keepers, nothing of any size but pretty fair Unders.

No storms come, and as daylight begins to crack around 4:30 AM, I decide that come 5 AM or so I will head to my first target as I remember there was good structure sticking out of the water there which will make it easy since, again, I have NO electronics. And that’s when I notice my Cell is about dead. Well, its getting light and I have already seen at least a dozen vehicles pulling boats over the bridge so off I go! As soon as I get there I realize that this deep water had changed EVERYTHING as I cannot find those trees I love to fish. I even troll with a hook hoping to discover a tree or two and nada. Que sera, sera.

I fish one side and then the other and it was pretty slow till this one spot and I am on the Crappie good! It's fish after fish and pretty soon I am near my entire limit! Then I hear someone yell out, “Zettler, you’re on my hole!” Not knowing who it was and darn sure no one had told me to go there, I ignored my mysterious critic. A little while later I motored towards his boat and discovered it was very good friend who had been pulling my chain. Now here I am with all these aforementioned troubles behind me, no electronics to find neither structure OR fish, and I had my first Crappie limit of the year! And being the nice guy I am, I didn't tell him that I did have a limit AFTER he said the three of them had only four fish between them after almost four hours of dangling hooks over the side, thousands of dollars worth of electronics, a boat worth more than some people's homes, and the experience of a tournament winning guide! Oh, and another thing, most all of my minnows had mysteriously died in the last hour and I am fishing with dead ones and still reeling them in! But, hey, he is a VERY good friend and I am still ON the water!

Deciding it was time to head back towards the ramp, I decide on the way to try one more place and see there are at least four boats in the general area but there is still lots of room, so I slowly pull up to my first tree. I could see a couple of boats and noticed that neither were catching anything so I fear I might be too late. Drop my dead minnow over the side next to the tree and BANG – fish on! Catch two more and move to the next tree away continuing away from the other boats and repeat! Same with the next one and at least one of the boats leaves in disgust and another tries my first spot without any luck.

As I was nearly out of juice in my battery, I decide to call it a day way earlier than anticipated and made it to the ramp and the show of people trying to get on and off the lake. After waiting on the one boat to load up AFTER they got it in the water, I pull over, tie up and am on the trailer without mishap in no time. In fact, the wife of the next man putting in comes over to me and compliments the way I trailered my boat as her husband is on his third attempt, which provides me with some additional satisfaction as she has no idea how my past 18 hours has been. And, just 20 minutes later as I finish getting my gear off my boat and ready to leave while others are just heading out (it's around 1:30 PM), a bolt of lightening hits so close that you can almost smell the ozone and I relish the thought that I am no longer on the water!