After some timely repairs to the Fish Hawk I gave Beaver Boy a call to check in on his availability to go fishing.

I had a new bilge pump put in and I changed my fuel tank with fresh fuel added. Beaver Boy was a bit skeptical because my new Yamaha 20 hp four stroke had been acting up in a weird manner.

I told him that I had it looked at and that I was ready to hit the water flying.

Hmm…was his answer to my added comment about adding a new fuel stabilizer as well.

I loaded up the pfd’s and a measuring rule and a nice landing net as well. I was especially excited about having a net holder in place to keep my landing net out of the way until we needed it to do its job.

At 6 a.m. I was at Beaver Boys’ driveway and he was there waiting for me.

We would stop at a local convenience store for a morning coffee and then be on our way.

As I sat with the truck and boat I saw Jake Dingel a well-known Pennsylvania wild life photographer pull in beside me.

I gave him a hello and he asked me if I had just come up Route 8 and I nodded yes.

He then proceeded to pull out a very familiar looking life jacket that he had seen flying out onto the highway.

I sheepishly accepted my wayward PFD and this time did a better job of securing it down.

A lost PFD would have been a setback for our trip and a violation of the safety requirements of boating in the Commonwealth.

Finally we arrived at the boat launch and we backed the trailer into the water without further incident.

I unloaded the boat and Beaver Boy parked the truck. The last thing he heard was the 20 hp engine firing up and me sitting there with all smiles.

I would let it warm up and we would be off to a nice day of fishing and relaxing.

I decided to rev it up a little more and just like that it died out and quit running.

No matter what I tried the engine would not restart…I hated the look Beaver Boy gave me.

After a real long try at the docks we decided to pull it out of the water and go to plan B.

My plan B was to rent a boat at the livery and fish no matter how bad the Fish Hawk betrayed me! The livery was close by and we went in for a nice boat rental…my treat.

The livery guy told us the water was too rough and no boats were going out today. Maybe the Fish Hawk was smarter than we were and saved our bacon.

I decided right there and then that I would take the boat over to a local dealer and have him check over the motor since we had already drove quite a distance.

The dealer asked me a few questions and then spelled it out like a doctor in the waiting room of a hospital.

“E15 is your problem and I guarantee that your plugs are fouled as well as your carburetor. The fuel with ethanol is poison to these recreational small engines and we see this issue regularly,” said the mechanic.

We can change your plugs and clean up the fuel system and have you running great in a few days. He also told me to run recreational gas with a Yamaha fuel additive and to stay away from the ethanol added gasoline.

This appeared to be the answer to one problem and helped me release a bit of steam over the messed up boat trip.

We decided that since we were at the lake, had plenty of bait and packed a lunch that we would give plan C …shore fishing a chance.

I knew of a good spot near where could fish so I headed over that way.

The shore fishing was off a wooden pier on the spillway run of the Shenango River in Jamestown.

The water was a bit high but fishing looked promising.

Using a fathead minnow on a jig set up appeared to be the right combo to use as we started to land some real nice slab crappies.

Beaver Boy and I love to bust into a school of crappies and had a nice challenge landing the paper mouths from the swirling waters.

Just about that time a tub full of yellow duckies came floating our way, oh no, it was the yellow duck race for the American Cancer Society and we were smack in the middle of it. No harm came of it until I tried to land an extra nice crappie and the jig flew back and stuck me in the thumb…ouch it was in deep past the barb on the hook.

Thank you Don Halpin of Butler Medical Associates for talking me into getting the tetanus booster shot! Beaver Boy was oblivious to my predicament until I held up my injured thumb. With some emergency work with a pair of nail clips and pressure against the impact point we worked out the hook with minimal damage.

Bait was running low and we had a bucket of pan fish for a dinner told us it was time to call it quits.

I lamented about the bad luck I had on Friday the 13th until Beaver Boy chuckled and told me it was Saturday the 14th!

I guess now I can’t blame it on the Friday the 13th curse…just under the general term of stuff happens! Until we meet again get some recreational gas for your small engines and pack a first aid kit!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle