Duck Hunting Close Call and Saftey

First is a report from the second weekend of the season in Delacroix. My blind killed 13 on Saturday and 9 on Sunday. Not bad considering the reports from around SE Louisiana.

As many of you know, I always end my reports with “Stay safe on the Water” Saturday evening I went for a scouting trip to determine where to hunt Sunday. About 20 minutes into the trip I went to slow down and had no response from the throttle on my CC gator-tail rig. I told those in the boat to hold on as I pulled the kill switch to stop the boat. As we looked at the throttle cable to se what the issue could be it started to smoke and within a minute caught fire. This occurred very close to my full 12 gallon fuel tank. I quickly grabbed the fire extinguisher and put out the flames and sprayed everything in the rear of the boat. After my dad came to tow us in the 7 miles back to Delacroix we were able to inspect the cable. It was melted from console to engine alone with some other wires. Also the fuel line had melted where it came into contact with the throttle cable.

Somehow another wire was shorting out and was in contact with the throttle cable causing it to get hot enough to burn.

Being prepared and haveing life jackets on, kill switch attached, and a working fire extinguisher quickly assessable allowed us to handle a situation that could have been a bad one. (We would have been jumping out the boat if no working fire extinguisher). Being ready for the unexpected can prevent catastrophe on the water. Things can happen that you can’t control, but you can control how you respond to those situations.

Please check all of the saftey equipment on your boats this Thanksgiving weekend and be prepared, just in case.

I will send reports on the hunts the rest of the week. Good luck to all and EASE STAY SAFE ON THE WATER!

WOW! Who would ever expect something like that? Glad you guys had a happy outcome.

Proud Pop,Glad to hear everything turned out ok-duck hunting has its share of perils and fire aboard a boat aint a welcome sight and good thing ya had fire extinguisher handy-just replaced mine towards end of last duck season.Worst day of my life was about maybe ten or so years ago when fishing the Causeway with a buddy,got call from buddy fishing near Cane Bayou-he spotted flatboat going in circles and there was a drowned person attached to boat via nylon rope tied around his ankle and when I got there,Coast Guard had jumped aboard and loaded body onto their boat and we made the trip to Mandeville Harbor so we could see if we knew this individual,very sad situation!!!

Mandevillian

WOW!! Never heard of that in my life. Glad y’all made it back safe and where ready to handle the problem without panicking. Thanks for the heads up

Proud Pop have you folks made Gator Tail aware of what occurred? glad it was put out in quick fashion and everyone safe and sound. 13 and 9 put on the water with the low bird #'s sounds good to me, couple of mid week hunts we've made we're putting 4 & 5 on the water but very low bird #'s in the area, reports I'm getting out of Houma and Empire area about the same as what we are seeing

I did not contact Gatortail as I bought the rig used from a individual. I have had the boat 3 years and have had no major issues. Seems some minor friction with wires caused a major problem which lead to the electrical fire. I’m just glad that calmness prevailed and I had what was needed on board to handle the situation quickly.
Good luck to all this Thanksgiving weekend and please, STAY SAFE ON THE WATER!!