I just returned from a week in Maine with my wife, and no I did not do any fishing, though I passed by and over some beautiful waterways.  Of course the first think I passed upon my return home was my boat sitting all alone in the garage, looking much like a typical family dog waiting for someone to take her for a walk.  Its been a hot, busy summer, and I have only done the bare minimum to care for my boat.  With the temps dropping, it makes it much easier to hang out in my garage and tinker with my boat and fishing equipment.  Taking care of a boat, rods, and tackle can be an overwhelming project if you try and do it all at once, so I like to break it up into smaller, bite-size chunks that make it much easier to accomplish.  I had noticed on my last several trips that my trolling motor just does not seem to have the power it once had, so time to check it out.  I decided to start with power, and since I have a 36V system, I should have 36V at my trolling motor.  My batteries are fairly new, only a year, and they are top quality DEKA AGM (glass matt) batteries, and should last me for at least 4 years.  I checked the voltage at the trolling motor, and my meter showed 37.4 v, which is good.  The only way I was able to check this voltage was to pierce the plastic coating on the wires so that my meter was actually touching the wires. The next item to check was the trolling motor propeller.  I grabbed a socket and carefully removed the retaining nut and washer, and set them aside.  I pulled the prop off, being careful not to lose the locking pin found under the prop.  FULL OF GRASS!  I should have expected this.  We had two tournaments at Saguaro Lake this summer, and I spent a lot of time in the grass.  I removed the grass, though I did need the assistance of a utility knife.  The blade itself looks in decent shape, no nicks, chips or gouges.  I reattached the prop onto the trolling motor.  

The next item on my list was the replacement of the prop on my big motor.  While at the recent Roosevelt Lake tournament a hit some rocks on a submerged island while slowly idling, but it was enough force to significantly ding up two ears.  I removed the old prop, installed the hub onto my spare, mounted in onto the lower unit shaft, torqued it down to 55 lbs, and packaged up my damaged prop so I could ship it to Mark's Props in Indiana.  $145 for the repair, which is very reasonable, and their turnaround is super quick.  What is unfortunate is that I just changed props, after dinging my other one, which I had repaired, only two months ago,  guess I better be more careful. 

I now carry a spare prop and hub with me always, after spinning a hub at Apache with Larry White this year.  I had never spun a hub before, but the tourney Larry and I fished at Apache launched out of the Marina.  When we returned for the weigh in, the standard procedure done by all anglers was to beach the boat on the sand, bow into the shore.  I had never done this before.  I think I made a mistake when backing out by not raising the prop high enough to clear the sand, so I believe my prop was still in the sand while I was trying to back out.  The additional resistance likely created sufficient force that the plastic hub inside my propeller shattered within the prop.  We discovered the problem when motoring back to Burnt Corral from the Marina, when suddenly the boat lost its forward momentum, but the motor was still running the same RPM's.  Larry looked at me when it happened, and said, " I think you just spun a hub."  Oh, the lessons we learn when boating.  BE CAREFUL OF YOUR PROP.