South End/Drain Plug

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Dorado said:
I almost always pulled the plug, even before the AIS required it, just to be sure all the water is fully drained. I didn’t have an automatic bilge pump in my old crestliner. One day fishing out on Fremont Lake, which is a 10 minute drive from my house, I noticed the boat was acting sluggish and slow to come on plane. Never thought to turn on the bilge pump🤔. When I got off the lake, it was super hard to crank the boat on the trailer, and when I pulled the plug, water gushed out. I drained it with he bilge pump on and took forever to get all the water out. We had a wet fall that year, and Since I had left the plug in for the past couple months all the rain had pooled in my boat! Doh…
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Makes sense if storing outside, I kept my Stratos in the garage and the only time the bilge would see water is when I'd take a wave or wakes over the bow.
 
One more "forgot the plug" story.
I was taking my new girlfriend fishing on the Umpqua river in Oregon almost 20 years ago.
She loved fishing. She got me into bass fishing. I bought my first bass boat because of her. An old 1984 Bayliner Trophy bass boat. 16 foot. No floatation.
Anywho, we we staying the small mouth for about an hour when I noticed the boat was reacting funny when I was using the trolly. I immediately knew I had forgot to put the plug in so I flipped on the bilge and started to walk to the transom to put the plug in. There was so much water in the boat that we both couldn't stand in the back or it would have sunk. I had to ask her to fish up front while I fix the issue. I didn't tell her we were in inch or so from sinking or she would have crapped square.
I plugged it and gingerly steered to the nearest dock so we could get off the boat and let the pump do it's thing. It was only then that I told her why we can't fish until I get some water out.
I'm glad it wasn't windy or even a small wake from another boat would have easily sunk us.
I had that boat for another 10 years. Old crappy Bayliner with an 85 horse Force engine. Horrible boat and horrible engine but I loved it.
Miss both the boat and girlfriend. One more than the other. Ha
 
OK, I too left the plug out 1 time only in 1997 or so. We were at Spinney Mtn Res. in Colorado with the Bayliner (my avatar) I currently run at Powell. Dropped the boat in the water and Frank took the trailer to the parking lot. About 3 minuets after launching I noticed the mistake. Driving around in circles until Frank walked to the ramp, I yelled at him what the problem was and to bring the trailer back to the ramp. Loaded the boat and SLOWLY pulled it out of the water while the drain plug and bilge pump removed the water. I say slowly because when the storms hit Spinney the East boat ramp gets all the waves and swamps boats loading and has broken trailers at the ramp due to the added weight from all the water in the boat. Sq
 
Lake Bum said:
On our old 1974 Starcraft that we spent so many years on Powell with, we would only install the plug from the INSIDE of the hole, instead of on the back of the boat on the transom. It took some pretty good reach, laying on your stomach, and snaking your arm down inside, but there was no way it was ever going to fall out.
ONCE......and only once, I launched the boat without the plug in. All ended well, with a bit of drama haha. Everyone does it once :ROFLMAO:
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Our first Lake Powell experience we had a 21 foot StarCraft I/O with an engine built on a GM 350 block if I remember correctly. The seats folded down to make beds. The boat belonged to an Army buddy and I bought it from him when he retired. It had a 55 gallon fuel tank. In those days we partied excessively and we launched without the drain plug. As soon as we cleared the no wake zone he took off on plane while I inserted the plug as you described from the inside. That is why I always double check the drain plug. However it doesn't work well if you plug the live well instead of the main bilge drain. It's also why I save the cocktail until I'm off the water.😂
 
I plugged the live well once when I wasn't paying attention. I should have realized it when my boat was a little slow to get "on plane" after launching. I didn't realize my mistake until I had been fishing for almost an hour and saw the carpet getting wet. Fortunately I only had to get wet to my shoulder to get the plug in the correct hole and the bilge emptied my mistake.
 
Meatwagon said:
One thing to remember that as long as you are on plane it forces the water out instead of filling in case someone is without a spare. Back in the 70’s water skiing with my brother we lost his plug and ran 15 miles back to the marina beached the boat next to the boat ramp and ran the bilge till we got the trailer in to pull it out. Not ideal but we got it out.
Glad you had a spare made it back safely. Have you looked into the cabled plugs that you can use a lever to put in and take out. They prevent the plug from coming completely out and dramatically slow down the amount of water entering if you forget to put it in. It is a push pull with an o ring seal. I have to pull and push mine manually as the lever doesn't push it out but I've forget to put it in before and the water pressure alone almost completely sealed it. Definitely worth looking into. View attachment 22225

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I have that type of plug set up for my two live well tanks. I might look into seeing how difficult it would be to install on my drain plug.
 
I have enjoyed all the stories so I thought I would share my forgot the drain plug story. My wife would take the boat to the lake while I was at work and this day she was taking some of our friends out. I told her I would get the boat ready and put the drain plug in before she left so she wouldn't have to worry about it. Well, I got busy with work and about the time I was to leave I realized I didn't put the drain plug in. I hoped that maybe my wife checked the drain plug before launching which was wishful thinking on my part. When I caught up to them at the lake, I heard the story.
My wife launched the boat and all of sudden water was shooting out the sides and she couldn't figure out what was going on until she realized that I failed to put the plug in at home. So she ran backup the ramp and in record time backed the trailer down and loaded up the boat and after the water drained out put the plug in. My comment regarding her being the captain didn't go over so well and I am still reminded about it to this day. However, we called a truce when she hit a rock and bent the prop after I encouraged her to avoid a certain area in wahweap bay. Fortunately, it was the last day and we were able to get the boat back to the dock and loaded it up for the long trip back to Portland. At least there were plenty of prop shops in the Portland, OR area to get it fixed and it didn't damage the outdrive.
 
Friend and I owned a 23 ft family open bow --- he did not use much, but had been boating for many years --
One day he informers he is going to head down to lake and put boat in ----
I get a call a little later with the " boat is having trouble in hole shot" I ask "did you put the plug in?" -- 2 seconds later I hear " gotta go" and he hangs up ----- to this day he has never told me what the problem was -----
 
This is not a drain plug story, though I may have done that myself once or twice, however still funny.

Me and another broke college kid went in on an old 80's bass boat so we could fish university bass tournaments. We were in the process of fixing up this old neglected boat and I got it running great. We took it out a few times and decided a few upgrades were in order. My buddy decided he would go and put in the new seats himself since I was going to be gone for a week.

The following couple weeks we took it out and each time we could not figure out why the bilge was filling up with water. Checked the drain plug, livewell lines, engine mounting bolts everything. We could not figure it out. Now keep in mind this was an 18' small thin fast bass boat.

Finally I crawled under the boat to look for damage. To my surprise i found 4 drill holes straight through the fiberglass on both sides. It finally dawned on me he drilled through the boat mounting the new seats. :ROFLMAO: 🤦‍♂️ .

I quickly and easily patched them and we were good from then on but I did have to give him grief over the hole ordeal.... pun intended
 
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