shallow boat landing

[jeffandkaren]

Anyone put in their boat in a shallow landing? Any tricks or advice? I have an outback v and our lake in Wisconsin is quite low this year, and I am afraid the landing will be a pain! The lake is plenty big, and deep just a matte of getting her in and out! Any tricks out there or does anyone know how shallow of water I can walk the boat through? It is a sandy bottom lake.

[zabooda]

Two feet of water is OK for my boat to walk it but I'm not sure what the minimum depth is to launch a boat as I don't think the bunks are covered at two feet. Anyway, if you do launch and need to walk it get some quality sandals and watch where everyone else goes and maybe GPS it when you come in and go out again. Bumping a little sand while walking won't hurt anything and if it gets too shallow you won't be able to push your boat anymore. I would suggest having someone walk about 20' in front of you so you can change directions or turn around if it gets too shallow. Some of the best ski places have shallow spots going in and that keeps a lot of people away so in some ways feel fortunate and many people will go elsewhere if it is too much work.

[Scotts Elle]

This is in about 2.5 ft of water and its like this for about 300 yards out. The launch was the same. Our truck has a 8" lift with 36" swampers so we were able to get the boat in the water without to many issues. As you can see the water is up to my legs and it was fine like that. I got a video of a friend and I walking it out to about the 3ft mark. The rudder was stuck in the sand in the mornings but it was no issue getting it out.

[jester]

I have done a low water launch and retrieve once and it kind of sucks. Two people are going to have to get wet to get the boat on and off the trailer. The boat ramp i was at i had to get the water up to the doors of the truck to get enough water under the boat to get it off the trailer and lots of cranking to get it back on. Like everyone else has been saying you will have to walk it on and walk it off. Just watch out for big rocks.

[jeffandkaren]

Lucikly no rocks, very sandy deep lake. It is in NW Wisconsin, has been a drought up there for a year or two. Think i can make it work. Nothing will keep me from the water!!! Ill rent a tractor if I need to! They actually dreged out the landing last year, drops off good at the landing, but gets shallow out 20 feet or so...

[moombabound]

Float it off the trailer and paddle it out to safe depth. One thing to watch out for is that people gunning the throttle to run the boat up onto their trailers, actually move material on the lake bottom and create a hump. That may become evident as the water level lowers and you'll back your prop right into it. Sandy bottom or not, best not to take a chance. I always paddle mine out as a matter of routine, having learned the hard way.