How to winterize a bass/lake boat for PNW winters?

Josh

Josh

Dead in the water
Staff member
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As I mentioned not long ago, I finally acquired a bass boat. It's been great fun, but as the weather is turning, I know it'll be time to put it to bed until next spring. Yes, yes. I know there's lake fishing in the winter and even bass fishing if you care enough. But I also know I'm not likely to do that. My winter fishing tends to be on moving water. Plus, I've always got the kayak if I get the urge to cast a line in stillwater.

So, tell me what I need to do, and maybe what I could/should do, to winterize a boat for PNW weather. There's lots of info on the internet, but so much of it seems to be for locations where it freezes hard in the winter. While we do get some snow around here, it's mostly above freezing in our neck of the woods and rain is the bigger challenge.

Boat is a 16ft Bass Tracker with a 40hp Merc 4 stroke. I only run non-ethanol and the motor was serviced regularly so there's no outstanding maintenance as far as I am aware. Never used in saltwater. Boat and motor each have covers and there is a heavy tarp over both with all tented as best as possible so that rainwater doesn't collect. I've got one of those big DampRid buckets inside and dollar store moisture removers in the storage hatches.

Do I pull the batteries? Leave them in? Charge them up and unplug? Leave a maintainer on them all winter? Fill the gas tank? Pull the gas tank and empty? Etc. Anyone got a plug in ultrasonic/lights rodent repellent device they like?

I'm not looking to be the fanciest lad at the ball with a spit shined boat. But I don't want to leave anything undone that will be a big annoyance later.
 
It only needs to freeze once for you to be in for all sorts of problems, and it does do that around here.
 
Chucker said:
It only needs to freeze once for you to be in for all sorts of problems, and it does do that around here.
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What do you mean by that? I've personally never had any problems as a result of freezing.
 
-run gas through the engine that has been treated with Sta-Bil or similar. Do not run it dry, EFI outboards are best kept 'wet' during storage.
-add appropriate ounces of Sta-Bil to gas tank and then fill it to the max
-I spray my engine exterior with WD-40, wipe it and cover it, always store the engine vertical so moisture can run off it
-if leaving them in the boat disconnect the batteries, spray/grease the terminals with a dielectric. My batteries are lightweight so I store them in the garage.
-save your annual service for when the boat comes out of storage, that way any moisture that managed to condense in the oil chambers is removed as well
 
Evan B said:
What do you mean by that? I've personally never had any problems as a result of freezing.
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I haven’t either - but I keep my boat in a heated garage. But what I was getting at is that it gets down below freezing a time or two most winters, any water left in your engine can freeze on that one day, and you have problems.
 
Chucker said:
I haven’t either - but I keep my boat in a heated garage. But what I was getting at is that it gets down below freezing a time or two most winters, any water left in your engine can freeze on that one day, and you have problems.
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Just trim the motor all the way down and you're good to go. That'll drop any water out of it for the most part.
 
Evan B said:
Just trim the motor all the way down and you're good to go. That'll drop any water out of it for the most part.
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It should, but with my outboard (40hp mercury) it doesn’t. I often dry the boat off with a leaf blower before I put it away, and found that if I point it at the exhaust, it will piss out about a pint of water.
 
Chucker said:
It should, but with my outboard (40hp mercury) it doesn’t. I often dry the boat off with a leaf blower before I put it away, and found that if I point it at the exhaust, it will piss out about a pint of water.
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I use my boat all winter long when the weather allows. The Mercury would not drain all of the water when the motor was vertical. Puzzled me a couple of times when there wasn’t an indicator (pee) stream. An air canister used to dust off computer keyboards and monitors worked for me. I inserted the tube on the spray can into the indicator tube on the motor and gave it a couple of blasts to drain the remaining water out the bottom of the motor. Haven’t tried it yet on the new Yamaha motor but will before it freezes.
 
My boat gets some winter use, so I don't "winterize" it. I just back it into the garage. If it's been a while between uses, I put the charger on the battery to make sure it's topped off enough to start the engine.
 
Lithium batteries? Pull them and store them inside at half charge. Disconnect any other batteries so there is no draw. Other than that not much else to do.. I always do my maintenance of oil, plugs, fuel filter, etc in August or September so I can get a few more trips on the fresh stuff. In case there is some kind of issue. I always run marine fuel stabilizer in the boat. I do park my boat in a garage but I would do the same if outside. I also open the hatches to keep moisture from collecting.
 
Fuel stabilizer, tank near full to minimize condensation, batteries on a charger, engine upright…and covered, to provide a safe haven for spiders to crap over everything…
 
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