03-10-05

Just Angling

By Donald Millus

Boat, Rod Repairs: What Friends Are For

Tom Craddock at Inlet Convenience—a misnomer: his Murrells Inlet tackle and bait shop is not a convenience but a necessity for fishermen—had four of my spinning rods looking better than they have in ages when I stopped in late Saturday afternoon. But he also had good news for me: I had not missed any good fishing with my boat and trailer undergoing repairs for the past five weeks.

Saturday morning had been spent with one my master-of-the-tool-belt friends, Pete DeChamplain, putting the final touches on boat and trailer that the Dunns and the Barkers had been working on between more important assignments.

Billy Barker had sneaked away to the North Carolina mountains after dismantling the back seat of my 9-year-old fourteen-foot Duroboat and the pieces that connected from there to the transom. All I had was a tiny leak, but Mr. Barker diagnosed it as a stress factor without even sending me and the boat for an MRI. He suggested I take it to Dunn’s Welding and Machine Shop, fittingly located on Dunn’s Short-Cut Road in Conway, tel. 365-6890. Since the senior Dunn had done one previous welding job at a not unreasonable price, I left the boat in his and his son’s capable hands.

The next step was to catch William Barker the Younger with a free hour—it took two—to put in some pop rivets and get the seat back in place, which took some effort since the back seat of the Duroboat helps shape the gunnels. It popped into place without taking off a finger. Better him than me, since I don’t do pop rivets.

My next task was to move the supports on the trailer, which involved drilling a few holes. I drafted Pete to do the heavy lifting with me of boat and motor, and allowed him to do the drilling and bolting. Both Billy Barker and Larry at Duroboat in Washington State said my stress fracture had come from the fact that the stern of my boat overhung by three inches the supporting boards on the trailer.

Two things remained for me: screw in the floorboards and put an extra roller on the trailer to make loading easier. So it’s off to Register Mufflers, Conway’s trailer builders, for that one last piece to let me go clamming this weekend on the new moon.

The wind was howling Saturday when I dropped in on Tom Craddock to pick up my rods. He had completely redone the guides on a 5-foot Garcia spinning rod that will be perfect for casting MirrOlures for trout. He had also repaired two Shakespeare “Ugly Sticks” for flounder fishing and a Berkley rod that will be perfect for anything from spottail bass to Spanish mackerel.

The final good news of the week was that the flounder were just starting to bite. I’m ready to go, the boat and rods are almost ready, and, most importantly, Alice can’t wait to get out on the water. In fact, according to my wife, she howled piteously when I left for the Inlet the other day thinking that I was neglecting her. Since I had planned to stop at the Coastal baseball game on the way home, I could not even take her for a ride, but I will try to make up for it this weekend.

(Editor’s Note: A few years’ worth of “Just Angling” columns may be found on “Tyndale’s Angle,” our columnist’s website, at http://ww2.coastal.edu/millus/angling/angindex.htm )