I took off today with the weather looking good. Launched boat, fished bank just off the ramp and had 11 straight hookups on crappie. Kept 5 over 11”.

Turned around to throw lure bag into trash bin and saw water up to the top of the seats. Dropped rod and headed to ramp. Jumpe d out of boat and up ramp to truck. Backed it down and jumped in boat and used trolling motor on high to get front of boat on trailer. I ended up jumping in to get strap of trailer attached and started cranking as boat was slipping back and under.

Once I got boat hooked up,cranked it up as far as I could on trailer and then pulled truck up.

The inlet for the live well had broken loose leaving a 1” hole in the hull.

I ended up having to drain the motor and replace one fuse. Considering everything I think I lucked out

Sounds like a lucky bad luck day.

I typically always run out of that cove. Seldom ever fish it. If I was anywhere else, I would have been swimming to shore. I’m

sounds like you were very lucky, someone watching over you

Could have been much worse.You saved the day.

Somebody watching over you

Good save, had my thru tube snap a few years ago crappie fishing. It was a race back to the dock.

If the thru the hull hole is in the live well it will only fill to the height of the water line on the side of the boat. I had a boat that just had a PVC fitting that would take a screw cap. One cap to hold water and another with 1/4" holes to exchange water. Ever time the boat rocked it exchanged water.

Bilge pump never kicked in?

Sounds like a good day to me, have done a lot worse.....jk

You should consider putting in an auto bilge pump. They buy valuable time when something like this happens.

It's cheap insurance.

If ya get them out, ya had successful day!

I've forgotten to put the plug in my 16' johnboat too many times to remember and after parking the truck, finding it sinking, lo!.

Most times it still floats enough to fire the engine and get it moving fast enough to pull the plug and drain it. Had to bail it out a couple times tho.

What's just as bad is after you've launched the boat, you remember you forgot to put the drain plug in. Done that a few times.

Had the same thing happen on a champion bass boat. It's a bad feeling when you turn around and water is boiling up through the floor drain.

It’s a 20’ aluminum boat, with the inlet on the transom and the live well is right behind my pedestal on the front deck so all I have to do is remove fish and drop it at my feet.

The boat is powered by a small block Chevy motor and it was completely submerged up to just below the carburetor.

I pulled the spark plugs and hand cycled the motor to ensure there was no water in the cylinders. Changed the oil and had to replace one relay that blew. It started right up and is running fine.

The automatic bilge failed to kick on. I have a new one on order. The old one was rated at 800 gph. New one is much larger.

Feel very lucky as this could have been much worse.

I’m glad it all turned out well for you. So many things can go wrong when on the water. I am going to update my SeaArk to include 2, much larger bilge pumps, because I feel like the factory bilge is not enough if the boat becomes swamped!

Took a 3rd duck hunting when it was normally just my cousin and I. Ducks came in and all 3 of us stood to shoot putting us all 3 on the same side of the boat instant sinking. Luckily we were parked right on the bank and in shallow water and all in waders. A little of o crap moment then action. Push pulled it in the bank and waited for it to drain. Was a small narrow John boat with home made duck blind built on it.

Glad it wasn’t worse. A lot of boats lost to a failed thruhull. Consider a metal, not plastic, fitting with a valve connected directly to it. Checking thruhull fittings on a regular basis is good maintenance

If you mean a gas engine, it would be good to get it up to operating temp to make sure its dry inside. When PWCs get flooded, standard advice is to do whatever it takes to get the engine running, then run it hard for 30 minutes to dry out the internals.