Weed guard for intake grates?

[tahmad575]

Hello everyone,

This past Saturday I took the boat out with my friend after work and we wanted to go bow fishing for carp on greenwood lake in NJ. First we decided to go to the deep end (New York side) for some bass fishing then I hit the throttles and headed over to the Jersey side of the lake (shallow side) so that we could scope out some good bow fishing spots (where belchers Creek enters the lake)

So on the way there all the sudden my engines bog down and make a weird noise and the boat slows all the way down. I turn off the engines immediately and realize I'm in a weed Forrest.
Opened up the clean out holes and tried to get as much seaweed out as possible but the intake side was like a bowl of spaghetti that wouldn't come loose. I even tried the reverse trick but it was so clogged it wouldn't even move that much
I could have jumped in to free the seaweed but I would have gotten stuck again so I called my buddy and luckily he was on the lake and he towed me back to the marina.
Next morning I pulled the boat out with the trailer and yanked the seaweed out. I went out on the lake the whole day and didn't have a problem since I stayed on the deep NY side.
But I'm bummed out because now I can't get to the good fishing spots!! There's weeds everywhere on the NJ side and that's where the bass and carp like to hang out.

Possible solutions?
- Make some kind of screen or something to prevent weeds from getting sucked up?
- Buy a trolling motor with a weedless prop? I need to be going atleast 5mph with it in order to make it from my marina to the fishing spots in 30 minutes - any longer and it wouldnt be worth it
- Buy a 10hp outboard motor and mount it on the back swim platform somehow? Only for when I want to go fishing?

Any help / suggestions / tips will be greatly appreciated

 

[Scottintexas]

WOW!

somebody posted about this a few weeks ago but we don't have anyone who has actually installed it,

Internal Repeller - Keeps your impeller free of debris |The Repeller Grate

The Internal Repeller keeps the impeller free of any debris removed by the blade cutter to help keep your jet performing at its maximum. It is a carefully shaped casting of stainless steel which can be bolted through the impeller housing just in front of the impeller, or installed directly to...

repellergrate.com

Were the weeds wrapped on the impeller shaft or stalled the impeller or just clogged the grate?



.

 

[Gym]

All boats aren't made for all applications. Even with a weed guard of some sort you would be sucking weeds up to the weed guard smothering the intakes. That's why they use airboats in the everglades.

 

[tahmad575]

I'm definitely going to check out the internal repeller seems interesting.
Also the weeds were clogging the intake grates and also a few were wrapped around the shaft.

Also gym you're right this boat definitely isn't designed to be a fishing boat but it's versatile in that I can wakeboard from it and also go for a nice cruise comfortably. Even take it out to fish some days, thats why I bought it and if there's a way to mitigate the weed problem I'd like to explore that option,
Also agreed, a weed guard is definitely not a proper permanent solution

For now I will just stay at the deep end of the lake

 

[Bennie]

Imho your troller motor idea would be your best bet.
Most versatile and useful mod.... mentioned as of yet, to solve this transient problem.

 

[tahmad575]

Yeah that's what I was thinking, any suggestions on the size of the trolling motor?

 

[markallan]

Anybody try this yet? Turtle Grass in the Florida Keys is a pain every year when I go own there