While dredging through the channel I bent a prop and tore a skeg off, said screw it drove it to the no wake zone between Nippersink and Fox lake it wasn't driving so well with a bent prop so I anchored in the no wake zone and started to walk over to the Marina for new prop but who do I see rolling through the no wake zone........ It was J Bonz!!!! holy crap he saved me a long walk to shore!!!! :party-smiley-004:

It was a pleasure meeting you guys yesterday we had fun

just like homosassa but no gators!! lmao!:coolcowboy:

Wow, Finally caught up on some sleep and have time to post... We had an awesome time! I definitely want to start planning for a week in August to get back down there!

I thought I would recap on the weekend... We got down there early Saturday morning. Got our pass at Benny's and stopped to top off the tank We then decided to hit the hotel and dunk the boat.. We pretty much lucked out and was able to check in. I found out the Hotel just re-opened that Wednesday. We were actually the first ones to stay in the room assigned.. They did a decent job on the renovation. There were a few things that was re-used/not changed but it was pretty minor. I would definitely stay there again. I really enjoyed the view of the river...

So off to the boat ramp.. It was not as bad as I thought it could have been. BZ had me a little worried. It was ok for my small boat. However, the washing machine affect I was worried about did happen.. By the time we dunked in the river it was rough. The constant boat traffic didn't help. I lucked out and was able to drive it off and get over to a dock in the Marina. I thought it would have given better protection from the waves but I was wrong. I pretty much decided there would be no way in... I would leave it in overnight there...

So, with the wife and boy on the boat we took off towards Pistake... Pretty much followed the buoys as suggested and really just followed the majority of the boats.. A little uneasy we kept going and hit grass lake... Stopped at Blarnies so the wife could hit the bathroom... She waited while I tied up the boat... That turned into a project... Gotta love those docks there. She finally gave up and grabbed the kid... Kinda funny to walk up and find her holding the boy since they would not let him in... I said I thought it was Barny's island, we were hoping to see a purple dinosaur... :) Anyways, with the kid and wife hungry, I was dying for a beer. Stopped back at the port of blarney for lunch... I knew it was protected there and enjoyed knowing the boat wasn't getting tossed around.. We ate and chilled a bit...

Once back on the water, we headed towards fox to find a place to anchor out... Came up to the no wake area before entering Fox Lake and low and behold I ran into Awash in the water pulling his boat to shore...! Just kidding... While passing by he recognized the boat and we hooked up for the rest of the evening... We had a great time hitting the sand bar and Captains. Awash and crew were supper nice.. Its so cool when you meet good people off the boards.. After hanging with him I really got the confidence to explore some more of the lakes. We pretty much stayed at Captains till dusk was setting in... We had a great ride back at 25mph.. Gotta love the bugs out at that time.. Got to back to the hotel and docked. I thought by that time the river would have died down.... Wrong! It wasn't horrible but wasn't great... I pretty much dunked the trailer and drove it right on like a pro... Someone above helped me on that one forsure..

Sunday was another great day.. Packed up the car and checked out. A buddy up here in WI suggested to try the State Park.. Dunked it in there with no issues until we started going out the channel thru the grass... I started to get kick up a good amount of muck with the jack plate up and engine trimmed out... I turned around second guessing the way I went since I was following some Polish people out.. Fired up the Map ap on the phone to realize thats the way..... Went back out the second time with no issues.. Hit grass lake and got on plane. We pretty much looped all the lakes from there. All in all I really enjoyed it... It was great to get out of WI for a weekend and get away from all the pontoons. One thing I thought was really cool was the amount of performance boats there.. In WI your lucky to see one.. There it seamed everywhere you looked there was a cool boat... The boat traffic is just crazy. Many times I felt like I was in the Boatniks.... I can easily understand why some stay away and while others really enjoy it.. For the 21' boat I think it was a good fit. Easy to get around and still big enough to not get really tossed around..

Thanks for all that posted. I really appreciated the input...

We like it at the chain were there every weekend!!

Hey guys may be heading out this Sat for about the 1st time on the chain. It will be for a buddy bachelor party!! Boat all day,find good party bar and night and find a place to pass out.... But sure hate to kill a prop or fill my innercooler with mud!! LOL Any one going to be out?? Want to hook up?

Thank you Skydog

I was out there on Sunday also. Man was it busy. Most busy i have seen all summer yet. I always have fun. Especially on the river when it is snotty :) I just tear it up. It gets so rough due to the fact that it has seawalls on both sides. Those waves just keep banging all day long. We call it the river washing machine.

Let us know when you are headed back out again so we can meet in person.

Smitty

Were your Chain fears alleviated?

t bonz saw you at the intersection 12 and 134 sunday am I think it was you NICE looking apache we rolled thru ahead of you in white 650 with cigarette in tow heading to lake michican beautiful day boat didnt start lost an msd box went out and floated around

Ty for the nice write up! So if you go again where would you launch and where would you stay the night at? You did the State park ramp and you where kicking up grass...mud...ect ect? I sure dont want that...

Ty Skydog

I don't know how anyone enjoys having a go-fast in the chain. Drive a mile through 100000 other boats, idle through a channel for 15 minutes, repeat. Lots of shallow areas for anyone unfamiliar with the waters to trash a nice set of props. Abundance of morons at all hours of the day.

Having a ton of places to stop is about the only thing I enjoy about it. But, I'm on a boat. Why do i want to go spend my day/night at a bar?

WOW.. The Chain. Been boating there since the mid 80's to 94. Always had a great time. Lot's of skiing back in the days. I miss it actually. Had a slip in Algonquin, did the runs up river all the way to the boarder. Good times. Shallow as heII some spots, but I never hit anything. Glad B's is till there. Glad you had a good time. We always did.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]526545[/ATTACH]Hah, the boat radar was in full affect last weekend! I totally saw you guys roll up. That is one sweet tow vehicle. Tha cafe looked great!

I was over there last Friday. Beautiful day. Ran the river and looped the lakes. I am always nervous because it's so shallow. The regulars probably know the water well and don't have many issues. My biggest dislike is there is not much water to run wide open . Just short little stretches. It is a great show though . Lots of cool boats.

http://tcguploads.com/files/39/velocity111.jpg

Is this your boat? I was out there friday as well, in a friend's power play 222 spectra. Ive never seen another velocity on the water before, snagged a pic. We were just coming out of the McHenry lock from the lower river

Run the fox river, a nice stretch to open it up a bit. You can also come out of the fox on pistakee and continue the run

Yes, that's me. NIce picture. lol

Chain has always treated me good. Lots of memories. Fogged in at Blarney's, ton of shrimp at Freddie's, tie up partying and Gin Blossoms at Blarney's. Ironic that I am at a Gin Blossoms concert in Oshkosh right now.

The chain pass is bs but I definitely can't wait to go back!

Curious about inboards
 

Hey so I realize this is a 3 year old thread but was hoping to get some help and maybe someone catches a notification that was on it. We're looking to potentially get a place on either fox lake or pistakee. Admittedly my number 1 goal for this whole thing is to be able to wake surf. Not going to lie, after renting a boat out there today I'm starting to get a little gunshy about this choice.

Is it even plausible to be able to navigate all the lakes with a v-drive? It felt pretty sketchy today even trimming with an outboard in spots that seemed like the way. Obviously a proper v-drive boat would add a few feet of depth to the problem and I'm not super excited about running through props.

Not to mention, trying to create a wake at 5 feet isn't exactly all that great either though I suppose there are some double digit areas that I'm seeing on the depth map.

Anyways, any help at all would be very much appreciated.

I think you can safely operate the chain with a v-drive as long as the water level is at summer pool and you are familiar with the boating channels. If you are talking about tubing, skiing, wake board etc., a good place for that would be the southern end of Pistakee. The main portion of the lake can be shallow so I would not advise. Good all around lakes for water sports is the northern end of the chain......Catherine, Channel Marie etc. When boating traffic is low, those would be the recommended lakes in my opinion.

oh awesome. thanks for the reply.

That's actually fairly encouraging that you can get between the lakes. That was really my main concern. I saw the northern lakes were fairly deep for surfing but I just didn't want to get into the business of needing a second boat to do boat cruises for when my wife's parents came to town or something and they wanted to check out the other lakes.