# Beached near 6mile in pt lavaca need help!



## Redfish Chevy (Feb 6, 2011)

Beached boat near 6mile heading to garcitacas. Only a few inches of water. If anyone has an airboat that can help I sure would appreciate it. 361-237-0071


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## Redfish Chevy (Feb 6, 2011)

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## Trouthappy (Jun 12, 2008)

I don't think airboats can pull hard enough to move a boat like that. If the tide goes out any further it will be high and dry. You would have to stay within sight of the boat, to protect it from vandals, until the tide comes back. We got stuck in Power Bay the same way, and were there 17 hours before the tide rose four inches. But that's a lot further from the jetties and incoming Gulf water. We camped in the boat, and cooked soup and beans on the shoreline over a driftwood fire. We were in a big, flat-decked Shoalwater. There was nothing to do but wade around and fish, and hunt ducks down the shoreline that day. At least it was about 55 degrees the whole time.


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## Redfish Chevy (Feb 6, 2011)

Haha doesn't sound good for me! Tow boat is supposed to be heading out so hopefully they can get us out 


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## Trouthappy (Jun 12, 2008)

If there is deeper water within 100 feet and the towboat has a rope that long, then it shouldn't be any problem. For sure you don't want to leave a nice boat like that one overnight, without someone watching it. Might think about camping and groceries and a campfire, if it can't be towed today. Low tide today is 11:52 a.m., so that ain't good. And only coming in a few inches by 5:40 pm.....


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## Trouthappy (Jun 12, 2008)

I'm curious, how far away is the nearest channel, or say at least three feet of water? Looks like a channel marker in the distance, off the port side of your boat. Pretty far, though. You guys look well-dressed for cold weather, better stuff than we had.


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## Redfish Chevy (Feb 6, 2011)

Just guessing, 200 yards to deeper water but I can tell that the tide is still dropping hopefully not much more. We are dressed for the cold but not to get wet. 


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## Trouthappy (Jun 12, 2008)

Hmm we were wearing chest waders and ended up sleeping in them on the boat. Looks like you can roll your pants legs up and wade around barefoot for a few minutes, and keep your clothes and shoes dry. I hope it isn't far to the nearest shoreline. Surely a tow boat carries a couple hundred yards of good rope. Texas tides are unpredictable. They're also fairly anemic, compared to places like Florida. And Texas cold fronts can just shove the water out of a bay. It will be pitch dark when high tide arrives after 5 pm today, maybe you'll get a few more inches of water by then, enough to push the boat. 

If you have to stay and watch the boat tonight, before dark you should have a friend deliver a new blue tarp, and canned food you can cook over a fire on the shoreline. Spoons are good. A can of lighter fluid or lawn mower can of gasoline, too, that will light up any driftwood. Wooden kitchen matches are best for that, you can throw them. Maybe some chest waders and dry socks. A little whiskey and Advil would have helped us, we were sore from pushing the boat. A six-volt flashlight is good, you can light up your boat from a good distance, to check on it. If it gets dark, don't forget to anchor the boat, just in case.


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## wiznut (Jun 10, 2013)

Hope the tow boat gets you off soon. At least you got stuck with plenty of day light left to figure things out. 

Only time I got stuck was while flounder gigging.. at the beginning of the night.. at the beginning of tide going out.. It was a long night spent in the boat. Gave my wife my coat while I used the exhaust from the generator to stay warm through the night.


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## Trouthappy (Jun 12, 2008)

I hope you don't have to go to Plan B...but be prepared, you have about four hours of daylight left.


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## Redfish Chevy (Feb 6, 2011)

We made it back to the dock. Air boat broke the eye off the front of the boat during the first pull. Had to steal one from the back and then he was able to yank it out of there. I definitely learned my lesson today! Thanks for all of the advise!


























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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

You need a utube of just how shallow your boat will run. 

Been there and done that but a Baby Cat is a little easier to get back into running water than your big girl.

Glad you got back to water and not spending the night out there.


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## Redfish Chevy (Feb 6, 2011)

Here's how skinny she can run

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## Danny Jansen (Sep 15, 2005)

Good thing that tow guy knew what he was doing. I probably would have given up after about 20 or 30 seconds.


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## gman1772 (Jul 15, 2012)

Glad you got out it of there Red & I hope you had tow insurance. You never know how skinny you can go until you stick it. And if you have never stuck your rig you ain't running skinny enough.


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## DadSaid (Apr 4, 2006)

Who towed you out?? Buddy, Tow Service, etc?


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## danthrc (Jun 19, 2007)

That YouTube is sick. Glad you got out and hope I don't ever get in that predicament!


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## Trouthappy (Jun 12, 2008)

One of the reasons I don't like fishing some areas when the tide is low at mid-day. Low water is a factor all day long, it seems like. Glad you got out of there, camping on the shoreline wouldn't have been as much fun as it sounds like. Looks like a big airboat can do the towing job after all...


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## TIMBOv2 (Mar 18, 2010)

**** did homeboy bring your boar back to you?lol cool video


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## FishAfrica (Jan 23, 2010)

Awesome video! 
How much was the tow bill?


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## ntslam (Sep 12, 2015)

Looks like the airboat driver was enjoying himself


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## Worm Drowner (Sep 9, 2010)

You know, most folks who want a Yamaha with 4 wheel drive just go with one of these things....









:tongue: Glad you and the boat made it out okay!


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## Trouthunter (Dec 18, 1998)

Sure am glad you didn't have to stay out there. I did the same thing though years ago...if you don't know how to get to the mouth of the Lavaca or Garcitas and I didn't lol, you'll be where you were.

Thanks.

TH


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## Smackdaddy53 (Nov 4, 2011)

Your brother Marshall text me and sent pics. Glad you got off safely bud! I ran over that same spot last days off but the tide was up. If I see trees I stay in the channel.


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## barronj (Sep 30, 2013)

I thought the boat might've been a Desperado at first until the YouTube, didnt know GC had a cat hull.


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## SSST (Jun 9, 2011)

Threads like this only confirm that i don't need a flats boat, that would be me, lol. Cool video, amazing what those airboats can do.


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## Pintabo (Feb 8, 2006)

Trouthunter said:


> Sure am glad you didn't have to stay out there. I did the same thing though years ago...if you don't know how to get to the mouth of the Lavaca or Garcitas and I didn't lol, you'll be where you were.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> TH


Very true - been stuck at the mouth of Lavaca more than once.


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## [email protected] (May 24, 2004)

Having pulled lots of flats boats stuck on sand and mud flats over the years with my own airboat, I would say from the youtube that the guy running the boat definitely knew what he was doing - has very good equipment - AND he sure ain't bashful about using it. -EJ


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## SSST (Jun 9, 2011)

[email protected] said:


> Having pulled lots of flats boats stuck on sand and mud flats over the years with my own airboat, I would say from the youtube that the guy running the boat definitely knew what he was doing - has very good equipment - AND he sure ain't bashful about using it. -EJ


You got that right, I'm sure a lot of others would've gave up long before he did! Very impressive to say the least.


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## Puddle_Jumper (Jun 30, 2014)

That was a WILD video... Thanks for sharing and glad you got to deeper water safe


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## TrailChaser (Nov 7, 2015)

How many pounds of pressure do you think that airboat can produce? I'd be worried about the rope snapping or popping the eye on the boat out and having it spring back into the propellers.

I grew up in High Island and a couple of duck hunters pulled into the local gas station using the airboat on the trailer to push the dead pick up truck. I thought that was the greatest lick of ingenuity ever. Over 20yrs later and I'm still telling people about it.


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## Capt. Bobby Hill (Mar 30, 2010)

i'm sure this is the last thing you cared about at the moment, but dang your boat is going to be filthy after he covered it in mud and water lol


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## Z (Sep 22, 2014)

Can you talk about how you tied the boat for towing after the front eye broke?


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## Ice Cream Man (Aug 10, 2013)

Felt your pain, more than once. :headknock ........ ICM


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## KDubBlast (Dec 25, 2006)

Worst case scenario couldnt you just bring up a bunch of pieces of PVC pipe and roll it along those?


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## Smackdaddy53 (Nov 4, 2011)

I doubt if the rope broke it would be able to snap back into the air props with all that wind.


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## Aggieangler (May 28, 2004)

[email protected] said:


> Having pulled lots of flats boats stuck on sand and mud flats over the years with my own airboat, I would say from the youtube that the guy running the boat definitely knew what he was doing - has very good equipment - AND he sure ain't bashful about using it. -EJ


I agree, EJ. This guy knows his stuff. It almost seems like he was wallowing out a little channel at first there, with the back of his airboat, to get more water under the cat, and then pulled it right through the area he just made. Very Impressive!


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## Stuart (May 21, 2004)

Aggieangler said:


> I agree, EJ. This guy knows his stuff. It almost seems like he was wallowing out a little channel at first there, with the back of his airboat, to get more water under the cat, and then pulled it right through the area he just made. Very Impressive!


 Nah, he was just using the momentum of the back of the airboat whipping around to move the cat little by little. His definitely done that before.


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## sharkinaggie (Jan 21, 2008)

Yeah, ole boy on the air boat had done that a time or two. Even went so far as to give your boat a nice bath after he got it into deeper water to clean up all the muck he had just kicked up on it. Pretty amazing video!

-SA


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## broncotw (Jun 28, 2015)

WOW! 

First, I am glad you got out OK! 

Second, VERY impressive video! 

Thanks for sharing!


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## squid013 (Jan 8, 2016)

TrailChaser said:


> How many pounds of pressure do you think that airboat can produce? I'd be worried about the rope snapping or popping the eye on the boat out and having it spring back into the propellers.
> 
> I grew up in High Island and a couple of duck hunters pulled into the local gas station using the airboat on the trailer to push the dead pick up truck. I thought that was the greatest lick of ingenuity ever. Over 20yrs later and I'm still telling people about it.


I wouldn't worry about that half inch nylon. Considering my 160 ton tow boat is 1800 hp and we produce about 20 bollard tons of pull and a 2 inch poly pro cam handle that. The nylon should be ok.

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## Capt. Billy (Mar 6, 2010)

Great video! Glad you got out. Wish I had an airboat. 

As far as the comment above about nylon your right but a lot depends on what the nylon is attached to. We don't use nylon due to the stretch and the risk of a cleat or eye coming off and flying back at you. I've seen it....
For recreational boats and ungroundings try to use something with low stretch or make sure it's tied off to the strongest point


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## TrailChaser (Nov 7, 2015)

squid013 said:


> I wouldn't worry about that half inch nylon. Considering my 160 ton tow boat is 1800 hp and we produce about 20 bollard tons of pull and a 2 inch poly pro cam handle that. The nylon should be ok.
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk


When I was into offroading, I spooled my winch with some dyneema winch line. It's amazing stuff, but it just feels so dinky compared to 5/16 steel cable it replaced. Reminded me of switching from 50lb mono to 50lb braid back when spiderwire first hit the market.


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## [email protected] (May 24, 2004)

Couple tricks I learned and used often: First and foremost, have all bystanders and lookers-on way the heck out of harm's way. This is a potentially very dangerous operation to both men and machines! As the operator did in the video, start on a slack line and snatch it tight creating stretch in the line. The initial stretch created by the inertia of the towing vehicle against the one being towed amplifies your pulling force. Try to jerk the bow of the stuck boat around as far as you can, any movement you can create by jerking the bow lends to the momentum you are trying to create to free the stuck boat. When the load stalls your forward momentum, work the airboat rudders as vigorously as you can for as long as you dare with the throttle on the floorboard and the engine running on the governor. The wiggling motion is all you have left at that point. He did a great job at all the above.


As for the line snapping - Make sure the weakest link in the tow line is located to your advantage. I used a tow bridle fashioned from doubled 1/2 inch three strand nylon - no knots - the towing eyes were braided back into the line itself. Ditto the tow line except it was double 3/4 inch. Theory here being that if a line snapped I never wanted it to shoot into the airboat prop, let it fly back toward the boat you are towing. Never was so sure that if the main tow line snapped it would end in the airboat prop, figuring the airboat would surely exit the scene very quickly if it was suddenly released from the tow (I always hoped). But - never take any chances was my motto.

FYI - These same strategies and techniques apply when towing with an outboard - lunging on the line - placement of weak link - etc.


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## Redfish Chevy (Feb 6, 2011)

I was thinking that the airboat wasn't going to be able to pull me out. By the time he got there the tide had dropped completely out from under us. He made one pull with us in his boat but the suction on his boat and the sand was making it hard for him so he had us get out and way out of the way. He repositioned it and re tied the boat. When he went to yank on it, the eye on the front snapped right off. We were scratching our heads for a few minutes and then remembered that there were two more eyes on the back of my boat so we took one off and put it on the front and the rest was history. Robby with tow boat was very professional and experienced. He said he would do all that he could to keep from having to leave the boat out there till the tide came back up. I have sign and glide through progressive but tow boat doesn't accept payment from them so I had to pay up front and they will reimburse me. Well worth it as I got to come home at a decent hour. The misses wasn't happy but she got over it as usual  we live and learn and I learned yesterday!

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## Stuart (May 21, 2004)

Redfish Chevy said:


> I was thinking that the airboat wasn't going to be able to pull me out. By the time he got there the tide had dropped completely out from under us. He made one pull with us in his boat but the suction on his boat and the sand was making it hard for him so he had us get out and way out of the way. He repositioned it and re tied the boat. When he went to yank on it, the eye on the front snapped right off. We were scratching our heads for a few minutes and then remembered that there were two more eyes on the back of my boat so we took one off and put it on the front and the rest was history. Robby with tow boat was very professional and experienced. He said he would do all that he could to keep from having to leave the boat out there till the tide came back up. I have sign and glide through progressive but tow boat doesn't accept payment from them so I had to pay up front and they will reimburse me. Well worth it as I got to come home at a decent hour. The misses wasn't happy but she got over it as usual  we live and learn and I learned yesterday!
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


 How did you attach the eye from the stern to the bow? There wasn't a big hole were the bow eye pulled out?


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## Reynolds4 (Jan 18, 2010)

That was some awesome boating skills. He sure wasn't afraid to hammer down. Glad it worked out for you.


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## Redfish Chevy (Feb 6, 2011)

Stuart said:


> How did you attach the eye from the stern to the bow? There wasn't a big hole were the bow eye pulled out?


I was lucky here... The eye didn't pull out, it snapped off. We were able to pull the studs out from the back side then hammer the eye from the back of the boat into the bow. Even after all of that yanking, the fiberglass around the eye is all good from what I can see

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## Redfish Chevy (Feb 6, 2011)

Thanks Reynolds. I'm glad it worked out too. That boat wasn't going anywhere!


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## madbayrunner (Oct 25, 2013)

I hope you had a lookout to blame. that's not shallow that's beach...


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## Redfish Chevy (Feb 6, 2011)

I had two other people with me but nobody to blame but myself. I was behind the wheel. There was a bunch of water for a while and I was taking the usual route but not thinking about the tide conditions. Once I started to see the bottoms of the crab traps it clicked in my head that the tide was out and that I was in trouble. Made a wide turn and was heading back out but got into just a couple inches of water and that was all she wrote! Luckily the boat came to a soft stop and nobody got thrown around


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## web feet (Jun 6, 2011)

You never said how much tow boat charged a "non member" up front.
I know how much the tow cost me 10 years ago.I just wanted to compare.


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## TexasWineGuy (Jun 19, 2017)

Think I would have just camped out right there until the next tide. . . .



TWG


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

We were pulling a plow the year I was working for Sinclair Pipeline in the 60'S with the big wench truck we used and the cable broke.

It was a big cable that we used for everything pipe, pumps and every.
That cable broke at the plow and had enough power to go under the truck and lay straight out the opposite direction.


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