Oyster Beds and the bottom of my boat!!!

[Visco]

So now you know what I did, here is the story. Sorry for being so long winded

I took my first trip down to Empire and decided to try out the area's around Shell and Pelican Island's. Well we got there and the water was dirty so we decided to head out to the shallow rigs straight out from the rock jetties. Once we cleared the jetties we noticed bait fish all over so decided to pick up some live bait and it was not hard at all, every cast provided about 20 to 30 small croakers and or nice size menhaden. This was the only thing that went right for us.

Got to the rig and nothing but jacks, small red snapper, and black tips. Was hoping for some trout but no luck.

Went back inshore and decided to try out the oyster beds as I had heard some guys where doing pretty good on them.

Got to the first site and started fishing... nothing but hardheads . Moved around and nothing hardheads.

This is where it went from bad to worst... The tide was going out and not knowing the waters I was fishing between two oyster beds. While I was working my way back to the channel all of a sudden my trolling motor started hitting the oysters and then the boat stopped. Luckily my boat drafts very shallow so we was able to get out and push her off the bed, but the damage was already done.

Got back to the house and looked under the boat ... no deep gouges but some significant groves were left along the bottom of the boat.

My question?
Has anyone repaired there own work?
What did you use?
Who else has done this same thing?

[KDM]

Gel coat repair kit or marinetex

[smooth move]

don't worry about it. it's going to happen again. i've got a keel guard for the keel, the rest is just just going to have to be scratched up.

[Reefman]

I fish mostly reefs with the bottom of my boat lookin like I towed it on a road. Most are just surface scratches in the gel coat..no problem. If you don't like those marks just compound the heck out of them.

[I make oil]

Every other year or so I bring my boat and have the Gel coat touched up and detailed. If you use the boat it will happen. No way around it. The first time is the worse then everytime you have it fixed the first time hurts again. I always say. Glad I got that out the way! But cringe just the same.

[Visco]

I take my truck rock crawling all the time and we call the scratches on her offroad pinstirping, so i guess the same goes with the boat.

I will touch it up I quess once every two years or so or when ever it starts to look really bad. Thanks again for the information.

[SuperDave]

Is the bottom of your boat white?

[Bluechip]

I would recommend some "flex seal"!!!

[Visco]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Is the bottom of your boat white?

it is white yes, my plan is to keep her white as well. why?

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[SuperDave]

Because if it was Midnight blue like mine it would look a million times worse lol

My "pin striping" is easily seen on the trailer. Lmao

[outcast]

You dont want to see the bottom of my skiff. I only looked once,i wont do it again

[CaryLab]

Man ya'll hitting on my fear every time I take my boat out, especially since I'm not familiar with many areas. I cringe when I start getting real shallow. Don't think I can handle seeing my Xpress hull all torn up.

[Visco]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Because if it was Midnight blue like mine it would look a million times worse lol

Midnight blue? That is the color I wanted when I was looking for my boat last year. I now see why I am glad I went with white, thanks for that piece of information.

My "pin striping" is easily seen on the trailer. Lmao

Originally Posted by outcast

You dont want to see the bottom of my skiff. I only looked once,i wont do it again

I will not let mine get that bad... I hope

Originally Posted by CaryLab

Man ya'll hitting on my fear every time I take my boat out, especially since I'm not familiar with many areas. I cringe when I start getting real shallow. Don't think I can handle seeing my Xpress hull all torn up.

I was the same way this time last week... Now that I am over it, and I know it is fairly easy to fix it is not all that bad.

[CaryLab]

How easy is it to fix with an aluminum hull?

[Visco]

Originally Posted by CaryLab

How easy is it to fix with an aluminum hull?

UUUMMM, a hammer and grinder, and smooth it out i guess? I remember I had a 10' shiff that sprung a leak back in the day and I threw some duck tape on her and it worked out perfectly...

[CaryLab]

Yeah not exactly what I want to do on a new 22ft boat


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[olddad]

Hey CaryLab, nice boat
How do you like it so far?
Is that blue and sand color?
Got a 24 ft. in that color

[CaryLab]

Olddad yeah it's the blue/sand and I like it more and more every time I take it out, which is not as often as I would like. I actually wanted the 24ft but was talked out of it by my salesman when I went to buy it. How do you like the 24ft? How often do you fish and whereabouts do you go?