General Outdoor Discussion
Boat launch idiots!
Well, I usually don't post on this topic, but I may be a BLI !!!
Went out a few weeks ago with the new lady friend, gave her the rope that's attached to the front of the boat for launching, back the boat in, gave it a little snap to get it off the trailer, saw it launch, pulled out and went and parked the truck. Got back down and she said the rope wasn't attached to the boat !!!! boat was floating in the river !!! good thing the guy who launched just before me saw this all transpire, so he guided my loose boat back to the dock !! To this day I still don't know how that rope came unattached, the rope is tied to a rather large carabiner snap which is then attached to a large eyelet on the top front deck.
do I get to join this exclusive club ????
My biggest boat launch fail. Headed out of Sheboygan at 3:00 am for a morning of salmon fishing with my 1900 Lund Pro V. Dropped the boat in, parked, and headed out the harbor at no wake speed. Cleared the pier heads and opened it up. Boat seemed kind of sluggish and I had a 200 Merc on it. Luckily there was a full moon and I looked back and the water was above the floor. I told my partner to grab the wheel and I went to check if the plug was in. It wasn't. Now this was before all the invasive species rules so I NEVER took my plug out. I had the boat into a marina for a tune up and they pulled the plug after they lake tested it. It was too rough to keep the boat up on plane and drain the water on the lake so back inside the harbor we went. I'm glad the coast guard doesn't go out at 3 in the morning cause I did circles inside the piers until all the water drained out. Always look now.
Not a boat launch idiot story, though I did run into one this weekend.
But, I had a mess of walleyes to clean. Pulled up into a Sturgeon Bay launch with a fish cleaning station. Saw a wedding going on in the lot across from the station. No big deal.
I get out with the electric knife and garbage bag for fillets. My wife has our net full of walleyes to be cleaned.
I get setup and here comes a very nice older gentleman who wants to talk. No problem. Happy to talk and clean. Then his son some over, he has to be 36 and he is bringing his two young boys with him. Maybe they were 5 or 6 years old. No problem.
Dad says they wanted to see fish being cleaned, so I show them. I'm digging it.
Then one of the boys sees the water hose with the sprayer attachment. I'm oblivious to this fact as I'm cleaning fish. Dad yells out "Noooooooooooooooooooo." And it's too late, he has the sprayer and is soaking me with water! I give a little shriek, which was more womanly than I care to admit.
The dad takes the hose away, and apologizes profusely. The boy is hiding behind his dad. I take the hose and tell him to step away, because I need to get even! There is nervous laughter, and I say to them, "I'm not kidding." Then there is big laughter.
Well, everyone went away dry, except for me. But it sure was a funny happening at he fish cleaning station.
These stories are getting really funny.
My friend's dad was going from near Omro to Oshkosh to fish the Fox River. On the on-ramp to Hwy 41, a nice looking boat went flying past them.
My friend's mom said, "Hey, that looks just like... Oh shit."
During a winter, right around the same time, her dad hooked up a sleigh to his snowmobile and took her and her sister out on Lake Butte des Morts for a spin. They stopped somewhere for lunch, got back on the ice and headed home.
When her dad got home, he turned around and the sleigh was empty. They had hit a decent sized bump and both kids went flying. He didn't notice until he got all the way home. Butte des Morts is a pretty big lake.
I know about a runaway boat.lol. My bud and I were in a hurry after work to try for some salmon. We were on a divided road going down hill when my bud yelled “ the boats loose!” We slowed down and the boat and trailer shot by us but luckily the tongue slid along the RH side of the curbing and stopped a block ahead of us. He forgot to lock the trailer and attached the chains. We enjoyed many Brewskis that evening. Lol that was almost 50 years ago but we still laugh about it. It sure doesn’t seem like the salmon were introduced to LM that long ago. CARPIO
My old man and I have backed over probably 25 of those old metal minnow buckets back in the day.
We would get out of the car to load the boat, and always take the minnow bucket to the back of the boat while we undid the buckles, cleats and engine. And we would typically forget about the minnow bucket....till we started backing up.
I'll bet we singlehandedly kept Frabill in business during those early years!
I have a couple but this one sticks out in my mind. More of a fishing day fiasco than a boat launch story. You ever have those days where everyone is aggravated and nothing goes right? Back in 1995 I was 16, my mom, dad and I were on a little camping fishing vacation. Something set my dad off early that morning and he was in a pissy mood before we left the camp site to drive to a nearby lake to fish. We hit the bait shop to get minnows and snacks. Dad tells me “I’ll fill up the gas can u go in and get minnows”. I come back out and noticed the strap across the boat came loose so I set dad’s favorite antique metal minnow bucket down to tighten the strap and we hit the road. We pull out and dad biffs the curb a bit with the trailer tire ticking him off even more. Anyway we get to the launch start loading the boat and dad says “where are the minnows” I say “I dunno” then realize I probably left them sitting in the parking lot when I tightened the strap. So back to the bait shop we go. Get back don’t see it anywhere so I go in and ask the lady if anyone saw a minnow bucket in the lot. She chuckles and says yeah, bends down behind the counter and picks it up. Well it wasn’t a curb we hit it was the minnow bucket! Great, now I have to show dad his now smashed minnow bucket. He gets out with steam coming out of his ears grabs the bucket and puts it in the back of the van and says “you drive”. Back to the launch we go, I pull out of the lot and just get going, look in the rear view and say “why does the boat seem so far back?” Dad looks and yells “ stop, the boat came unhooked!!!” Well I stop and the boat keeps rolling and the tongue smashes right into the van. We were only going about 5mph but that was enough to put a huge dent in the back door of the van. We get out and look and the safety chain broke where it was bolted to the boat from being old and rusty. Oh man that was a day!! We looked back later and laughed about it and thanked god that it didn’t come loose at 60mph. I couldn’t make this story up if I tried!!
As I was walking to my boat at the end of the dock after launching, I once kicked/stumbled upon a cleat that was midway out on the dock and put on a show for the others around. I don't know how I did not end up in the water but I could have maybe won $10k on the funny video show as I tried to regain my balance and upright posture. I basically rumbled and bumbled and stumbled about 15 feet right into the boat and just drove away like nothing happened.
BJD, I used to fish Delevan every weekend and every other Friday as it was my day off. One Summer Friday I arrived at the launch and prepped my boat, waiting for the boat in front of me to launch. It was a Cadillac SUV pulling a 22 foot boat, both fairly new. It was obvious they had no clue how to launch the boat as they were all over the place backing it up, kind of like the Family Guy episode if you ever saw it. Well they got out of the truck and walked over to me and asked for me to back it in for them. It was a woman and three of her friends! I happily obliged, and launched their boat for them. They were very grateful and I suggested they take it to an empty parking lot to practice, so they could do this on their own next time.
