New Course vandals worse than Jetskis, Wallys OR Fisherman!!

[RAWSki]

 

MUSKRAT!#@!

 

Yup is a new one for us, in the last 2 weeks we have lost 6 buoys to these dang things. Their population has increased the last couple years and recently at least one of them has found they like to nibble on the buoy 'eyelets' where a hook or bungee knot is connected. Anyone have a solution? (besides a shot gun, @Shell and @GMC have already volunteered) I am thinking either steel wool around the hooks or a cone shaped piece of stainless mesh surrounding the eyelet.

[BraceMaker]

Shotgun... no. Nice air rifle with a night vision scope is the ticket for muskrats you can see their eyes glowing.

 

Maybe cut the neck off of empty waterbottle/soda bottles then slip that up over eyelet on the bouy and put a ziptie under it.

 

But you need to bring down the population if they want to chew that for some reason then they will chew through steel wool.

[jjackkrash]

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. Its the only way to be sure.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

We had a similar problem with otters a few years ago. They liked to chew the anchor line right at the anchor and we ended up having to drop several new anchors since we couldn’t find the old ones in the e mud.

 

A partial solution I used was to put a short (2’ or so) piece of 2” pvc over the anchor lime. So at least if they chewed the line I could find the remaining line and anchor.

 

The only real solution is your favorite type of lead poisoning.

[DaveD]

@RAWSki You should see if you can borrow that gator they saw in the Albion College nature center.

[RAWSki]

@DaveD we already got one of these hanging around our dock, he likes to have his chin and neck rubbed with the end of the dock broom. Now... just need to train him to patrol the course at night! @BraceMaker I like the soda bottle idea, thanks.

 

[75Tique]

 

Not varmint or vandal related, but related in the sense of the things we deal with to ski. This is how my week went last week. Set up: I'm on a "semi-private" (neighborhood/HOA) lake. Cant leave course out so I sink it after each use by removing balls. Its depth ranges from about 35 to 50 feet, complicating matters. I get to it by following a leader I have (tied to a no wake zone buoy that the HOA placed (one of many)) that leads to one of the anchors. Finally, I'm in the main channel of a 150 acre lake, not tucked in a cove where the course is close to shore/landmarks.

 

So one evening last week, I am going to deploy course. I start pulling on the leader only to realize its not hooked to anything and I am just reeling it in. Somehow it has come unhooked from the sizable spring clip on the anchor. This is not good. I have custody of the EZ slalom course, I do not own it, it is not mine to lose. Next evening I start fishing for it with a rope and grappling hook. No luck after several passes and maybe 1/2 an hour. I go back in and get my fluke anchor and start dragging with that. Another several passes and I snag the main line. Relief! So I get everything put back together. A few days later, I try again. Follow the leader out to the anchor. Hoist up the anchor (remember, 35 ish feet/heavy anchor) Now I find that one of the 3 ropes supposed to be hooked to the anchor, the leader, the mainline and a 50 foot hunk of rope I put a rope handle and buoy on to tension the course. The tensioner rope has mysteriously come off. Off to the hardware store to get a new one. Not sure how much good its going to do, but I wound a bunch of electrical tape around the spring clip. Hopefully won't flop open for no reason two times in one week again.

 

And to cap it off, today, head out this morning, looking forward to the first not too windy outing in a while. Just two sets (for the 2 other guys I was with) into the outing, out comes the big old deck boat, loaded with kids, towing them around on surf boards (not surfing, using long ropes) at 15 mph. We collected the buoys and called it a day. Great week!