Bass Boat might be taking a little water, any thoughts?

guys,

Im new here, but hoping y'all can help me figure out a little issue. I have an old boat, *(was my granddads, the boat I learned to fish in) and its been very well kept over the years. I have noticed lately it seems if I fish a while and then take off, there is a little water in the bilge. Dont remember this happening much before. My granddad had one of those old humminbird transducers mounted on the back and I took it out when I upgraded depth finders. It left 4 small screw holes I figured did not go all the way through. Even so, I did seal them up but have noticed the sealant came out on my last trip. Do you think I could be taking some water here?

If not, is it typical to pump out a little water when leaving a spot after fishing a while to find new ground?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

The screw holes could definitely be it. It could also be the sealant around the drain for the livewell or the bilge. It could be the live well leaking into the bilge area.

There are a couple of easy ways to try and figure it out. First off, be sure your bilge is dry, and fill the livewell up with water. Check the bilge area a little later and see if there is water present. That tells you if it's a leaking livewell.

Another is to pull the boat out into the driveway, put the plug in it, and fill the bilge with water from a hose. Be sure to fill it with enough water to come up to the water line when the boat is in the water. Look for any water coming out of the boat, and you've found your leak.

Other thoughts...Is it aluminum? If so could be the rivets. Maybe the plug is just old and needs to be replaced.

good thoughts. I will fill it up and see if it leaks. Its not the livewell, I take pics of the fish I catch and release them, unless its a hawg. Havent had a real big one yet this year. It could be the sealant around the livewell intake as well, but plug is new and seems fine. My bet is that it is the screw holes, as it has only been doing this in the last 2 or 3 trips. But filling the boat up with water should tell. It is a fiberglass 17 foot cajun with a 115 rude on it. You can see the pic of it by my name.

I really appreciate the word.

Many times a little leak like that is as simple as the gasket on thr drain plug. Check it out because the slightest knick, cut or break can let water in.

yea, I will take a good long look today when I get a chance. Thanks again.

It is probably the screw holes where you left the screws out. The screws may have just barely went all the way through. You should get some shorter stainless steel screws, put some silicone sealer around the screws and put them back to fill the holes up.

My boat was doing the same thing it wasn't enough to worry me but it was annoying. I took it to my dealer and after a bill for siliconing the intake areas on the bilge area of my boat and a 75 dollar bill, I was satisfied that it was fixed. Next time out the same thing happened. I new if it was going to get fixed I had to find where it was leaking myself. I put my plug in and started adding water to the bilge area. Everything was dry on the driveway until the water reached the level of the hoses attached to my livewell pumps. The hose had a hole in it on the underside and was leaking back through the pump on to the ground.The reverse was happening while I was on the water. I cut the hose off about an inch retightened the hose clamp and haven't had a leak since. Hope this helps.

does the boat have a intake line for the livewell, if it does you might want to plug this on the outside of the haul, if you have a bad intake hose it will leak.

I have an older glass boat and have had several leaking events. One was as others have described was a leak in my live well hose. Every time I pumped water into the live well it leaked water into the bilge. Other than that I have had to replace every plastic through-hull connector in the boat. Both livewell intakes and drains as well as the bilge pump drain. The drains connectors are above the water line but if they crack or the silicone falls out then when you run and drop it back in the water it can leak or the same can happen when taking waves.

Finally, my dad had a leaking problem on his boat that he could not figure out. He had a big-block OMC motor on the boat that made her really sit heavy when coming off plane and if not careful it was easy to take water into the back splash block. That motor died and he repowered with a 115 hp motor which is much lighter and doesn't sit heavy like that big block. Now his mysterious leak is gone. Must have had to do with water getting into the splash block.

kc

To find the leak take a garden hose and with the plugs in the boat fill the bottom of the boat up with some water. Do this on a dry concrete surface where you can see where any water leaks out of the bottom of the boat. Take a grease pen and mark any rivet heads or any seams that leak water.

You can then weld the rivet heads closed or repair them with new rivets if you can get access to the rivets to remove the old ones and install new one.

Or you can have a welder heliarc weld the holes shut. Any seams that are cracked can be welded shut also

If you want to go a cheaper route then just get some JB Weld and seal them with this stuff. Just make sure that you clean the metal really good before applying the JB weld.

[quote=Cajun78;298060]guys,

Im new here, but hoping y'all can help me figure out a little issue. I have an old boat, *(was my granddads, the boat I learned to fish in) and its been very well kept over the years. I have noticed lately it seems if I fish a while and then take off, there is a little water in the bilge. Dont remember this happening much before. My granddad had one of those old humminbird transducers mounted on the back and I took it out when I upgraded depth finders. It left 4 small screw holes I figured did not go all the way through. Even so, I did seal them up but have noticed the sealant came out on my last trip. Do you think I could be taking some water here?

If not, is it typical to pump out a little water when leaving a spot after fishing a while to find new ground?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.[/quote]

I cant thank everyone enough for the tips.. I actually found 2 leaks, one was the intake hose (i think i knocked it loose when i put a 2nd trolling motor battery on that side) which had come loose and was leaking a bit. The other leak was the screw holes from the old transducer, which i sealed with flat head screws and sealant. I should be good to go, but I will check again tonight when the sealant is dry.

Thanks again everyone.