On the Dockside: Boats come out for the season
The boat harbor in Rogers City was buzzing with activity last Friday. Local mariners were down on the dockside preparing to lift their boats out of the water. A large crane was on hand to do the heavy lifting and the ladies stood ready with buckets and brushes to scrub the hulls as soon as the boats were securely resting in their cradles.
Kellie Hall explained that their cleaning job is much easier if done as soon as the boats come out of the water, while the hulls are still wet. The ladies in their colorful waterproof apparel execute the work detail with military precision as the fellows officiate at a safe distance from the power washer spray.
“These women know what to do and get right to it, head down and straight forward,” said harbor master Ken Rasche. “With their enthusiasm and determination, I just hope they don’t take up bull dozing because they would raze every building on the harbor,” he said with a chuckle.
THE BOAT haul-out crew has a set schedule; the last Friday in September is for hoisting the boats out of the water and the Friday before Mother’s Day is when they put them back. Dick Geyer has been helping to organize the work for the past 15 years. He explained that a heavy crane is needed as the boats can weigh anywhere from four to twelve and a half tons. Geyer said he recruited Dick Lappin to help out after Dr. Thomas Allum sold his boat, Linnea to his daughter by the same name in Chicago earlier this year.
Dr. Allum was instrumental in organizing the boat haul-out detail for more than 20 years and explained how they got started. “Initially, the reason we did it here was because there wasn’t any option outside of going to Alpena or Cheboygan,” he said. “Then we were able to refine the task to do the whole job for a hundred bucks per boat owner in the spring and a hundred bucks in the fall, which is unbelievable for a marina. We were able to save money and have fun doing it,” he said.
“Dr. Allum and I handled it for quite a while but this year we had to find somebody else and Dick was it,” Geyer said. Geyer mentioned that it had not been a particularly good summer for sailing this year but then the weather turned into summer at the end of the season.
DR. ALLUM AGREED, noting that he sailed his boat up over the mitt and down to its new berth in Chicago this summer. “It was a pretty rugged trip, the winds were out of the south, which makes it tough to go on a sailboat. It’s about 450 miles and it took us ten days. “We took the boats out in 80 degree weather and that’s a first for us,” he said. Maneuvering the boat slings and getting the boats to rest properly on the cradles can be tricky. It keeps everyone on his or her toes. “Going in the water is a little easier than coming out because you can see where the slings go but then it’s a little harder to set the masts on the sailboats,” said the skipper of Dauntless, Beach Hall. The all-day affair gets underway in the morning and finishes late in the afternoon. The group provides coffee and cookies for the morning and a hearty lunch. By quitting time, the boat haul-out crew is ready for a little R&R.
“When we got done, we all went out to dinner at Jason’s Gaslight to chew the fat and, in some cases, say good-bye to people we won’t see again until spring,” Beach noted. Dr. Allum summed it up this way, “We could always tell if we had a successful haul-out by asking, number one, did we drop any boats and, number two, do we still have ten fingers left at the end of the day?”
ALSO ON the dockside, anyone with functional olfactory receptor glands may have noticed the lake began to “turnover” this week. After gleaning a series of articles and websites on the subject, here is a brief description of the phenomenon. Lake turnover is caused by seasonal temperature changes of the surface water and occurs in the spring when water begins to warm up and again in the fall when the water cools down. The water circulates and stratifies in the lake throughout the year. Because the temperature and circulation of the water dictates the amount of oxygen in the water, the temperatures and oxygen levels can indicate where the fish are in the lake.
Anglers who set their fishing strategy to match t
The warm water surface layer heats up as air temperature rises. This upper layer also has higher oxygen levels due to aeration at the surface and oxygen that is produced by aquatic plants.
THE HYPOLIMNION is the bottom layer of water. This layer will lose much of its oxygen due to the decomposition of plant and animal matter and the respiration of aquatic animals. The density barrier, or thermocline, that forms between the cold and warm layers prevents the water in the hypolimnion from circulating to the surface. Little or no sunlight penetrates to the hypolimnion, so oxygen-producing plants cannot survive in this zone. As summer progresses, the oxygen levels are depleted and the fish move to shallow waters. When the surface layer gets to about 50 degrees in the fall it becomes as dense as the deeper layer and starts to sink. The downward movement of surface water pushes deeper water to the surface. As in the spring, the water begins to circulate, and this is called fall turnover. Circulation is also helped by fall winds. Because circulating water interacts with the air, oxygen levels start to rise in the lake. The best way to determine lake turnover and spot the stratification patterns throughout the year is to measure temperature and oxygen profiles from top to bottom. Fancy temperature and oxygen meters are becoming more popular but their cost can be a barrier. If a buddy has this equipment ask him or her to help you determine seasonal temperature and oxygen profiles on your favorite lakes. Assuming good water quality, the three most important factors in locating and catching fish are water temperature, dissolved oxygen and submerged structures. Your ability to find submerged structures in waters with the right temperatures and plenty of oxygen will improve your odds of landing a lunker.