TFF hazard

[Hot Runr Guy]

Last spring, when the water was down (for that time of year) I whacked an underwater stump while motoring along what I thought was the river channel, roughly where I've indicated below. Has anyone ever marked this one, and has coordinates that I can add with my skull & crossbones icon? By the time I got the motor tilted back down, and regained my composure, I was well past it. I remember 30 years ago there were a few stumps to the east of the channel, so I tend to stay left (heading toward the powerlines, from the dam)

I'd rather not find it again this spring.
Thanks, HRG

[sureshot612]

not much snow this year and hoping for spring rain if not you may hit em again some spots last year in may i couldnt get into others were dry

[Floating Dock]

I thought I was a bit closer to the landing than your map indicates. For me it was the first launch after installing a new lower unit. Bent the skeg but no prop damage. I adjusted the trim tab and the boat tracked straight after the first try so I was relieved.

This happened 2 or 3 years ago when the water level was good. I have been fishing in the vicinity a few times since looking for the hazard but haven't been able to pinpoint it. My guess is that there are more than one.

[Nick Kanauz]

HRG...don't forget about the one we found both ways up towards Pink Rock!

[Greenkeeper]

Just enough variance in the channel to make it tricky. It is not that wide right there!!!!!!go slow

[Flambeau Riverman]

No GPS but last summer while heading out to the river channel from sportmans
landing there was a family in a pleasure/fishing boat with an inboard moving at a pretty good clip towards Baraboo I told the wife this guy's nuts couldn't have been 5 seconds from the words coming out of my mouth when he hammered something right in that area and he was dead in the water.
When we pulled up next to them and asked if they needed help the guy just waved us off about 15 minutes later we saw a boat coming out from Baraboo
and they ended up towing them in.
Lessons Learned we've hit and bounced off many things on the TFF but we go slow and keep the motor trimmed up and have never done any serious damage. Some year's back on the big water heading down towards Rat lake bounced off a stump with arms like an octopuss that was floating free out in the middle noticed it at the last second one root was sticking up out of the water about 6 inches or we would have gone right over the top of it.
All I can say is be careful.

[mkoeh475]

About 4 years ago in May we were camping on d24, right north of baraboo. We were sitting around the fire drinking and it was about 11 at night and we heard a boat going by at a pretty good pace considering the time of night...about the 15 -20 mph range I'd guess. The boat was heading southwest towards Baraboo and we commented on how fast the guy was cruising. Same type of situation as Flambeau Riverman had. A couple seconds later we heard the boat/motor hit a rockpile. Heard a bunch of swearing and then some talk into a cellphone or walkie talkie and about a half hour later help arrived.

[George]

Like Mr. Gump would say...Stupid is as stupid does.

[Flambeau Riverman]

I meant to say the family was headind towards Lake Bastine and the tow boat came from Lake Bastine I guess the older I get the more I mix up Baraboo and Bastine or maybe it was the cold ones.

[mkoeh475]

I actually read your post thinking you were talking Bastine. What I was referencing in your post was the "watch that guy hit somethi...." "BAAAMM" moment

[rockinchair]

There's an actual hump that's fairly large in size and sets only 4-5 feet deep with numerous stumps on it. When the water is down 4 feet you can usually see the tops of some of the stumps. It is located almost straight north of the east? edge of the first island in that bay. The SW edge of the channel in that area has a good number of hazards all along the old river channel. In fact the whole flowage has a large number of hazards along the old river channels. Your map is a very general map of the contours and lacks most of the under water detail and isn't one you want to use to navigate by. I have a relatively new fish finder with a maps chip in it and it is good for the underwater contours but still isn't dependable enough to navigate by and miss all the hazards. What a lot of people don't know is that there a good number of areas where vertical stumps rise up from the bottom, topping out at the 1568 elevation. Some in water depths of twenty feet.

[George]

I've said this before. On every map, paper or electronic, that I've ever seen there is something like this on it somewhere...Navigation on the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage can be extremely hazardous. Rock bars, reefs, boulders, submerged logs and stumps, as well as floating timber are all present but may not be indicated on the map. Cautious navigation is advised at all times.

[Flambeau Riverman]

Theres lots of worries on the TFF but one of my biggest the last couple of years besides the big motor has been breaking my bow mounted trolling motor. At least a half dozen times the wind has pushed us very hard into stumps boulders rock bars you name it. I've thought it was going to break in half or be bent beyond repair. When it gets to windy we go someplace else. During this winter I bought a used clamp on trolling motor and I'm going to put it on the back of the boat and try not use the bow mounted one and see if it helps.

[Hot Runr Guy]

During this winter I bought a used clamp on trolling motor and I'm going to put it on the back of the boat and try not use the bow mounted one and see if it helps.

Most times, 'especially when we've been with guides, we almost always end-up using a transom mount TM, and a good anchor, when fishing those wind blown shorelines. I couldn't imagine trying to keep off of some of those islands with a bow mount.

HRG

[Flambeau Riverman]

Thanks H. R. Guy couldn't think of the words transom mount.
After seeing some boats out there with there bow mounts stowed and using transom mounts mostly off the back of the boat I figured this is what I should be doing. I also have talked to a guide on the TFF and his bow mount
is wrapped up like a football player from the shaft on down with garden hose
and peices of tire all wrapped up when I asked him why he said he lost a few bow mount trolling motors and didn't want to destroy another.

[George]

Flambeau Riverman.
I know what your saying about being pushed onto the rocks. I started using a "get off the rocks stick" about 15 years ago in Canada. Lotsa rocks there! It's just a nice straight, roughly 6 foot rather stout dead wood tree branch I found. It sits in the bottom of my boat nicely out of the way. But when you get into an OMG I'm gonna be on the rocks! situation you can quickly pick it up and push yourself off and keep your trolling motor out of harm's way.

[Flambeau Riverman]

George,
I have a 8ft. 2 3/4in. piece of PVC pipe right next to me in the boat that I've used many times to push off things and to get out of some jams.
It also comes in handy for getting to snags and getting back out.
My wife tends to get snaged in some pretty bad places places were i've had to get up a head of steam pull the trolling motor and coast in and the only way to get back out to deeper water is with that piece of PVC pipe.
My boat does not have oars.

[George]

Flambeau Riverman,
Never thought of the PVC idea. Good one! Saves lots of time scouring the woods for an appropriate stick. The main reason I started using it was because a lot of times I'd be bringing a fish in and would get blown into the rocks. And gee, for some reason they didn't put oarlocks on my 17'8" 1,100lb Princecraft. Not even an option! Go figure!

[Flambeau Riverman]

George,
We have a 17ft MonArk Deep V hull no oarlocks either.
We've been pushed into stuff while unhooking fish too.
We learned quickly the second the fish is in the net the wife is back on the
trolling motor if the wind or current is pushing us towards rocks, stumps,
weeds, or shoreline she'll slowly head in the direction I point to.
While I love the TFF when it gets to windy we head someplace else
Butternut, Pike/Round, Wilson, the Manitowish chain places were you have
to worry a little less about hitting or being pushed into something.

[George]

Always pays to have some alternatives.