INGLESIDE ON THE BAY -- Obsessive is the proper description of our desire to run boats in shallow water. I include myself in this category.
A vessel's draft and running depth often are numbers one and two on the priority lists of many anglers searching for the right boat. These also are popular topics for bragging and exaggeration by boat dealers and boat owners.
But regardless of how shallow we float, propelling our vessels with ease and stealth while fishing remains a challenge in shallow water. This is particularly critical in shallow seagrass and should be of even greater concern in our Redfish Bay State Scientific area, where seagrass is protected by law.
It is unlawful with a gasoline- or diesel-driven propeller to dig a trench or otherwise uproot aquatic vegetation within this 50-square mile area, which roughly is bound by the Intracoastal Waterway on the west, the Corpus Christi Ship Channel on the south and the Lydia Ann Channel on the east. Essentially the area stretches from Rockport to Port Aransas to Ingleside.
Drifting, paddling or propelling a boat with a push pole or electric trolling motor is encouraged here and any damage done by these means is expressly exempted by the statute.
Among these options, the electric trolling motor is a favorite with many anglers who run bay boats. There are drawbacks though.
When these handy machines are under full power at certain depths and sometimes at lower speeds, the plastic propellers suck air from the surface, creating a cavity or pocket of air around the spinning blades. The result is known as cavitation. It makes an awful gurgling racket, frightens fish and diminishes or eliminates the propeller's thrusting power.
The operator must stop the motor, loosen the bracket fixed to the shaft and then lower the propeller more deeply into the water column. This adjustment may or may not be allowed depending on bay depth at that location. The density of vegetation there and the presence of obstructions such as oyster shells also may come into play here.
This may not sound like much of an inconvenience, but it can be. Consider that oftentimes the operator of a trolling motor also has a fishing rod in his hand and is on the lookout for fish. He may even have a fish in his sights when cavitation occurs.
It's an aggravating interruption, and possibly an unnecessary one.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could submerge the propeller to just below the surface and then forget about it.
Soon we'll have this option, thanks to local angler Joe Garbutt, a clever boat-builder/inventor who lives in Ingleside by the Bay.
The innovative Garbutt put a lot of thought into the constraints and dynamics of trolling motors. Actually he puts a lot of thought into a lot of stuff you and me probably wouldn't. You may learn more about this quirky retired sailer in a future column.
He's created a simple attachment for the shaft of his trolling motor based on the same principle that allows a tunnel-hull boat to run shallow, The patent is pending on this invention.
Essentially it's a curved plate fixed flush with the water's surface above a trolling motor's propeller. This barrier prevents an air vortex from being drawn downward by the prop's suction and allows the prop to maintain contact with water at all times. Even at higher revolutions, the propeller does not lose its thrusting capacity and no cavitation occurs, allowing a bay boat under electric power to negotiate depths quietly about four to five inches shallower than it could without the device.
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