4

10/14/2007 9:38:32 PM

stern light indicates they were running in the dark, no wonder they ran it aground

10/14/2007 9:50:50 PM

yeah, i don't like running much out there at night period. a lot of it is so narrow, you don't get much moonlight. too many stumps and crap.

i don't know what the official level is, but i crossed over the other day and i can only think of one other time i've seen it that low. i bet jordan is even worse, it's a relatively shallow lake to start with.

10/14/2007 10:06:03 PM

I crossed Jordan a week ago on 751 and it was grass

[Edited on October 14, 2007 at 10:10 PM. Reason : k]

10/14/2007 10:10:09 PM

ha. i bet all the old road beds that go across it are exposed now too.

on the upside, i'll bet all the bird nuts are having a grand time. supposedly the best shorebird viewing is when the lakes are low.

10/14/2007 10:16:07 PM

Ill have to check on the roads...Might have to see if I can get the Trooper back there

10/14/2007 10:19:44 PM

yeah there was a bird nerd out with a camera at hickory hills today.

i wonder how this has affected fishing

10/14/2007 10:20:26 PM

not much if any in my opinion/experience. water temp and moon cycles affect them a lot more, at least the bass/brim/crappie around here. they're definitely going to move with changes, but anyone with any amount of experience is going to know where they go to and from with level changes.

if anything, you might find them a little bit deeper now since less water=higher temps further down. some say they go deeper because of the lost cover from shore brush/trees, but i dunno.

i'm sure brian has a more than educated opinion about it...



[Edited on October 14, 2007 at 10:36 PM. Reason : .]

10/14/2007 10:31:40 PM

Quote :

"stern light indicates they were running in the dark, no wonder they ran it aground"

Anchor line out indicates he ain't going anywhere for a while.

10/14/2007 11:51:19 PM

so what're my options for something cheap and fast, that can handle rough enough water to take it through parts of the Pamlico Sound and up and down the intracoastal (i.e., I'm not gonna take it deep sea fishing, but it can't be stritcly a lake rocket)?

I had my eye on older Hydrostreams, but y'all are saying that isn't really a viable option for anything except a lake.




oh, and Joel, how do you convince your wife that it's ok for you to own a half dozen vehicles? I mean, that's perfectly acceptable to people like me and you, but how do you make her not flip out about you blowing all of your (and by your, I mean BOTH of your) finances up on stuff she has little or no appreciation for (at least compared to you).

10/15/2007 2:20:04 AM

she gets mad about some stuff i think, but she's pretty into it for the most part. not like hard core crawling under the car fixing stuff, but she thinks most of it is cool. hell, both of the rovers are hers.

cheap and fast for rough water is going to be a ski or a modern style jet boat. anything else is going to be cheap and slow or exspensive and fast. you might luck up and find and older 70's big block type jet or v drive with a hull that'll at least handle the sound/intercoastal, but they're few and far between. what's your budget?

[Edited on October 15, 2007 at 2:27 AM. Reason : .]

10/15/2007 2:24:20 AM

we'll see when i get there and get potentially get serious about buying. prob $3-5k.

if it were just me, i'd go grab a GP1200 or another Ultra 150 with a blown motor for a song, then have a big-displacement 93 octane engine built for it...

but if things go as expected (which can change at any time, given the volatile history of the situation), baby's mama is moving to NC with my daughter (not living with me! in area, though), and it'd be nice to have something that is useful for more than 1 person.

10/15/2007 3:21:32 AM

lemme know, i might would be willing to let my gp1200 go. i had just started tearing the motor down before my wreck. it needs a new shortblock or at least a new sleeve/piston/rod in the number 3 hole.

lots of nice parts. intake grate, ride plate, impeller, pro cool head with interchangeable domes, flame arrestors, jetted carbs, oil injection removed, etc.

as it was before, it was radared at 72+ on falls lake when we were dialing the carbs in. acceleration is about as fast as you can hang on, gobs of power for launching off waves/wakes, adjustable sponsons, etc. it HOOKS in the turns too. plants and goes in chop, no porpoising like stock skis.

my focus was more on handling and acceleration in rough water since i spend 75% of my time in the intercoastal or ocean jumping breakers, swells, and large wakes. it's definitely built to be used for what you want to do. you could swap to another impeller, and easily have an 80mph ride. switch out the ride plate and intake grate to something more suited for smooth water, and you might get 83 or so. compucar is even making nitrous kits for them now.

[Edited on October 15, 2007 at 3:44 AM. Reason : .]

10/15/2007 3:37:21 AM

Quote :

"ha. i bet all the old road beds that go across it are exposed now too."

I know there is one exposed road that you can get to where Farrington (SP?) Rd crosses the lake. You can walk on the old road out to an island.

10/15/2007 7:44:23 AM

i haven't even gone fishing in about 3 months due to the drought. back in '05, i went out there and fishing was just plain miserable. not because i wasn't catching anything but falls is just too dangerous to run fast when it's this low. i mainly go fishing for the relaxation and catching a fish is just a bonus so running fast is one of the more enjoyable parts of fishing.
the fish actually get pretty lethargic when the water drops this low too. i've read it's because of the lowered oxygen content and higher temps due to shallower depths. my buddy who fishes a bunch of tournaments fished falls a few weeks ago and caught most of his fish right at the shore which isn't normal in the summer months. usually in the summer you'll find them at the end of long points near a deep channel.
you can walk right up to that bayliner now. you can access it off of bayleaf ch. rd. i have a picture of it on my phone that i took 2 weeks ago when i was out there riding around just to run the boat. ill upload it tomorrow when i'm at home.
and i found that hump near the dam. i knew there was a shallow spot out there somewhere and i wanted to find it. i never hit since i was idling around searching for it. as of 2 weeks ago, it was only 2 feet deep out in the middle of the lake.

[Edited on October 15, 2007 at 9:36 PM. Reason : -]

10/15/2007 9:32:50 PM

Quote :

"and i found that hump near the dam."

ive seen that shit on my depthfinder, thought it was a glitch or a fluke considering the surrounding area was like 25 feet deeper.

10/15/2007 9:52:07 PM

nope, no fluke. there's a huge rock formation there. the slickrock from those cliffs extend down and cover a large area of the bottom in that whole area, and it comes back up there. supposedly a lot of blasting had to be done there when the dam was being engineered. why they left that bit, who knows. i'm convinced the army corp of engineers did a lot of retarded things when that lake was made though, i don't think much thought went into some things.

[Edited on October 15, 2007 at 10:07 PM. Reason : .]

10/15/2007 10:06:02 PM

I know a guy whos family owned some land in Durham when they started buying up land so they could flood it. Army corps came through, bought land from several families in the same area. Everyone started moving out but this one guy called them up and asked do I have to move. They said not until we flood it, so he lived there for a couple more years tax free. Meanwhile he logged all the land and got rich.

[Edited on October 15, 2007 at 10:32 PM. Reason : at least i think thats the story lol]

10/15/2007 10:31:32 PM