Did I do thaaaat?

[Bassun]

Yeah, I did.  You probably did too!  What is "it"?  Bonzer mistakes with your boat.  I just watched a video detailing some mistakes people make, and found myself nodding along all too often.  Key point?  None really other than we all do it.  Especially if you get exited or rushed.

I keeping with the mantra of openly sharing the good and bad, here are a few that I've done at least once...
 

• Forgot to put in the plug.  This is my most common mistake and have caught it on the water, and missed it the whole day...
• Forgot to unplug the boat.  Pulled this off a few times, and while it has not hurt anything, you feel like a dork for doing it.
• Forgot to store the jack wheel.  Only once, and luckily it was a strong jack, and didn't break somehow.  It did, however, manage to pop the tongue right off the ball.  Since then, I lock the hitch on the ball --- I think that probably was a great lesson and probably avoided issues in the future.
• Forgot to stow the trolling motor.  Pulled this off a couple of times, and doesn't take long to figure it out, lol.
• Forgot my rope, which with two anglers isn't a big deal... solo or with the wife who doesn't use the trolling motor a bit more frustrating.
• Forgot to actually plug in the charger... hooked it up to the extension cord, but never plugged in the cord.
• Forgot to strap stuff down on long runs --- kind of a meh thing, but in rough water, key!
• But the one I still catch hell over, isn't even a boat thing...  Me and two buddies who don't get out on the water much at all went mid summer.  It was hot.  They brought chips, and decided to gnaw on a few after a few hours.  Then asked me for the water that I put in the cooler bag.  I opened my seat, and it wasn't there.  Looked around for a bit and realized I had left it at home.  It was super hot, and they just chowed down on some chips.  According to them, they could feel their mouths dehydrating as I was admitting I left the water at home.  Never has lake water looked so good, lol. 

 

I'm sure I've done more that I'm not thinking of, but so far nothing major or damaging.  I do have a mental checklist I run thru around the boat now.  Same thing every time.  One staging the boat, one before pulling out at home, one prepping at the ramp, and one for prepping the trip back.  It takes a couple mins max, and keep you from making extra mistakes, lol.

[scaleface]

I've done the plug thing a couple of times and took off with the trolling motor down too .  I also Forgot to remove the transom straps before launching .

[Sam]

The plug once. And my wife was with me which made it worse. She still tells others about it and how I almost sunk the boat.

 

Had to return home from about 20 miles down the road heading to a tournament to get the rear seat that I forgot as my nonboater wanted the seat to fish.

 

Otherwise, no problems.

[Log Catcher]

I guess my dumbest trick was running out of gas one time. By myself I wouldn't have cared but the wife was with me. It was about 8:30pm and luckily I  was only about a mile from the boat ramp. I thought we were doing pretty good coming in on the trolling motor until two guys in a canoe passed us. And they didn't even offer to tow us in.

[haggard]

• Forgot to put the plug in at the launch. Parked truck, came back, boat sits a little lower than usual, put the plug in, bailed a bit, all good.
• Remembered to put the plug in but forgot to bring the actual plug. Looked around for anything that I could make up a plug, which was sort of like Apollo 13 astronauts trying to make a CO2 filter out of anything they had on hand. Found the real plug in the truck bed, continued, fished, likely didn't catch anything. Again.
• Forgot to pull up the anchor before taking off. Boat seemed more sluggish than usual. Looked back and saw anchor chasing me 50 feet behind jumping like a caught fish. No damage done (excepting ego).
• Forgot to pull up the GoPro cam after tossing it overboard on a rope to inspect the bottom. Motored to next spot, stopped, fished, tried to restart, but rope was wound around the prop. Windy day, drifted to shore, got out and by some miracle (long story short) recovered camera and restarted.

 

Been fishing and boating only since last August. This is not a good sign. 

 

Bring water.

Bring rope.

Bring checklists.

Wear your PFD.

Don't rush.

if you rush, don't forget stuff.

 

 

 

[Yakalong]

Left the keys to the boat at house

[DINK WHISPERER]

I've done just about all of those myself. Most recently I've forgot the plug and to remove my MotorMate outboard locker before launching.

[frosty]

I’m only laughing in hysterics because I’m not currently a boater... if I was I’d be nodding and joining the brotherhood of “ah crap” moments 

[Oregon Native]

Remember going steelhead fishing back in Oregon with a buddy once and got to the river grabbed our gear ... put on the boots and !!!!!!...where did I put my fishing rod!!!

[mattkenzer]

I posted this last year but it is just that stupid I will tell you again.

 

I had left the boat outside last summer hooked to the truck, ready for an early morning drive to a club tournament.

About 30 minutes into the trip I asked my brother, "Did you unplug the Battery Charger?" to which he replied, "NOPE!".

 

45 km of travel, we pull off to the side of the road and unplug the 50ft of Extension Cord we ripped out of the garage socket, tore the plug end off passing under the garage door and had been towing behind the truck since we left my house.

 

Only in Canada Eh!

 

 

[TOXIC]

Nope...never.....nothing.....deny, deny, deny.........Well, there was this one time where while fishing the Fox river in Wisconsin, we stopped at riverside restaurant for lunch and about 1/2 way through my burger some guys come in and ask who had the gold/black bassboat because it's floating down the river.  All of the walleye guys got a good laugh since bass boats aren't the norm up there but one of them did take me to retrieve my boat.  I tie better knots in my ropes now.  

[papajoe222]

Drive to the lake, launched by myself, plug was in, ran about ten minutes to my first spot, reached in the locker for my worm rod............

Yep. I’d taken not only my rods, but my two tackle bags out after my last outing and there they were, an hour later, back in the garage.  

[Gundog]

I've only got a canoe but here is my list of stupid things I've done.

Forgot paddles.

Forgot pfd.

Had a friend's cooler fly out the back of my truck.

Forgot key to lock where I keep my canoe at the lake.

Launched canoe, paddled out then realized my rods, reels and tackle box were still on shore.

Got my shoe stuck in mud trying to launch my canoe. I think it may still be there.

 

 

[BassNJake]

 

Seriously, about once a year I'm swimming instead of fishing

 

My very first trip out I didn't tie the tow rope to the trailer and just launched my boat out into the lake.

I've had to go diving in for my car keys 2 different times and my wallet once.

I've had to get in the water to replace the plug.

I've been tossed out a boat when we ran aground.

I fished a trolling motor only tourney and our batteries died- so I had to walk the shoreline-including a causeway and under a bridge towing the boat with a rope.

 

I haven't had a recent incident but I know its coming....

 

[All about da bass]

The only one I haven't done was the leaving the rope one. I forget a lot.

Fished a tournament at pick wick, drug extension cord all the way to the ramp and one of my buddies finally caught me and told me. We were in a rush and it was raining classic mess up.

[Dtrombly]

Had something happen last year that could have potentially been tragic. We loaded the bass-raider style boat into the bed of my brothers truck, strapped it down, ready to hit the road. Driving down a bigger country road with 4-5 cars behind us, mind you it was 5 am so it was dark, I look out of the side mirror of the truck, and every car behind us quickly swerves into the oncoming lane. Not sure if a deer or something walked into the road or we lost something from inside the boat, we pulled over at the next intersecting road, got out and checked the boat. Sure enough, our giant cooler was gone.. turned around and just down the road the cooler and everything inside it (I had just turned it into a livewell the day before ?) lay in pieces all over the road. I'm just thankful no cars were hit, as that could have been a very bad situation. 

[WRB]

The 3 things I see most often at the boat ramp is forgetting to take off tie downs and dead batteries and not raising the OB lower unit.

Forgetting to raise the trailer wheel, forgetting to plug in the trailer electrical is something that doesn't happen as often with sealed trailer lights, you don't need to unplug and my tow vehicle has a  lights warning.  Not raising the trailer wheel is obvious when leaving my current driveway.

I don't take out boat drain plug less it rains and that's is rare. I do have a spare plug on my boats key lanyard, been doing that for decades.

A check list is a must for me and a walk around before leaving home and the lake has become a routine and wiping the boat and motor clean helps to see if something isn't put away, tied downs, rods, tackle, sonar units etc.

When fishing out of someone's else's boat it's easy to forget things, so I take the minimum tackle, PFD, jacket, hat and always have spare drinks. Leaving tackle on the dock gets expensive.

I am guilty of everything over the years and why a check list is essential.

Tom

[NHBull]

In add to everything listed above, I took delivery of a new ski boat and there was a change in liner........when screwing my fire extinguisher in to what I thought was an inner shell, I put 4 holes out through the gel coat.  Lost my mind, my wife called the dealer to say I was on my way and not to ask what happened.  Luckily I was on the Pro program and they made it good as new.

 

4 weeks later we were skiing on a river.  When done I had to decide if I was going to get the trailer or let my wife try to back it down.  Since she was a good boat driver, I got the truck.

when loading the boat up stream, the stern got caught in the current and she panicked and went fist down on the throttle  The boat jumped over the trailer and landed on the rocks.

My insurance agent almost wet himself when I told him ?

 

[Rpratt]

Worst was trying to put the boat on the trailer, heard a thud and the boat quit moving. I was like what? So I backed up and did it again.... Thud! Yep trolling motor still down, knocked it halfway off it's mount. 

 

Went to a lake and hour and a half away, went all the way across the lake, dropped the trolling motor.... Nadda! Dead battery. Drove all the way back across the lake, pulled out boat, went to the marina boat shop, paid a crapoad of money for a new battery (he tried to charge me 75 bucks to screw down two wing nuts..) , put boat back in water, went all the way across the lake, first cast my flipping stick reel broke.... And I did not get a bite all day! Good times

[TOXIC]

Most embarrassing.....At the ramp at o'dark thirty with 100 of my closest tournament buddies rapid fire launching for a tournament and I let my co-angler throw me off my routine for launching.  Jump in the boat and he backs me in, boat floats up and spins towards the dock, he starts to pull out and the ass of the boat swings wildly towards the ramp.  Yep, left 1 tie down strap on which was now twisted with the boat facing the wrong way.  What a slow painful process it was to get the boat righted and then off the trailer.  To make matters worse, it was on the lake where I was a guide....

[Bassun]

1 hour ago, Rpratt said:

Worst was trying to put the boat on the trailer, heard a thud and the boat quit moving. I was like what? So I backed up and did it again.... Thud! Yep trolling motor still down, knocked it halfway off it's mount. 

 

Went to a lake and hour and a half away, went all the way across the lake, dropped the trolling motor.... Nadda! Dead battery. Drove all the way back across the lake, pulled out boat, went to the marina boat shop, paid a crapoad of money for a new battery (he tried to charge me 75 bucks to screw down two wing nuts..) , put boat back in water, went all the way across the lake, first cast my flipping stick reel broke.... And I did not get a bite all day! Good times

I had a similar experience.  Traveled a couple hours with a buddy to a lake I seldom fished.  Launched and made a short run, then quickly TM got weak then no TM at all.  My charger had died, and the battery had enough juice so that I didn't notice it at the dock.  I refused to call it quits.  I always keep a paddle in the rod locker for those just in case moments.  I pulled it out and we just fished the most protected coves and I paddled around.  Made for a hard day, but I ended on a nice keeper.  A well earned keeper at that!

[Bassun]

The dead trolling motor reminded me of a bad night on Smith Mountain my first year of club tournaments.  I think it was my second time ever boating on Smith, and first time at night.  We were doing OK, and decided to fire up to move.  blur blur buuuur.... not turning over anymore.  It's 3 am, and have a few buddies on the water with walkies.  No biggie, called out... nada.  Tried a few more times, and no one responded.  

Ok, no big deal -- let's see what we can do.  Dead battery, no big deal --- I'll just swap the power over to the trolling motor battery, fire up, swap back and let it charge.  I disconnect the leads, hook up the ground, then BAM big spark hooking up the hot.  Surprised but ok, something has a load.  Went to fire the motor... nothing. wouldn't even turn over.  At this point I'm super upset at myself and the situation.  Start trying to figure out what was wrong, and realized my batteries were sitting opposite  so  -  +    +  - and I just hooked it up backwards.

Ok, no biggie - that's what fuses are for.  I swap the leads and pull the cover and start looking at fuses, and all (that I could find) were fine.  Now I'm irate, and a little concerned.  We're miles up from the launch, no contacts around, and no cell phones.  We decide to give in and troll our way back.  Worst case, we would tie up to a doc and bum a ride.

We trolled as far as we could, and the battery was giving out.  It's almost daylight now... swap over to the main battery and try to let the wind / current push us and used the TM to keep off the rocks.  It was dieing fast, and our marker lights were very dim... not cool.  We managed to kind of get towards the middle and are trying to flag any boats down for a tow as it turned light.  We knew there was another tourney starting in the morning so shouldn't be a problem.  WRONG.  We had no less than a couple dozen boats just rip past us and NONE stopped.  

We had weigh in at 7am... we figured when we didn't show, one of the clubbies at least would come look.   Had two other boats who we were good friends with and just knew they would not leave without us.  It's now pushing 9 and were just slowly paddling our way back the direction of the marina we launched from.  Here comes this barge looking thing.  We had about given up on getting help, but he came right towards us.  Stopped and called us by name?  He was from the marina, and had come to get us.  I was confused, and had real trouble understanding him -- but apparently both of our buddies had problems that night too.  But, they got back in and left early.  

One had left a message for us at the marina to check in when we got in, knowing we were noobs, and wanted to make sure we made it back.  When we didn't call, he called back - told them where he thought we were fishing and they sent a rescue boat.  We missed weigh in, obviously, and tossed our catch... which to add insult to injury would have probably won.  Get back, and go to load the boat... can't raise the motor.  And had no clue how to release the lifts.  Luckily the marina dude told me of the screw...So I grab a screw driver and walk out to back of the boat... which was over my head.  Loosen the screw, then stand underwater and push the motor up while my partner flips the dogs down to catch it (90HP Yam).  

 

I'm wet, exhausted, and entirely too upset from fishing.  But we were back and ok.  A couple of days later, I start trying to figure out why I still had no power, after charging the batteries, and found another inline fuse behind a bundle of wires.  Had no clue it was there.  And it had popped.  Replaced it, and all was fine.  Horrible night, but I learned a TON about the boat.  In hind site, things could have gone much worse... and I should have been better versed with basic boat knowledge... but I was young and dumb and well, yeah, that's it lol.  Still have the boat, and she still runs   And now I can do everything from rebuilding trolling motors to replacing impellers to rewiring stuff etc.  Except fixing the speedometer.  I have YET to fix that, lol.  I think the wood has petrified in there lol. 

[FishDewd]

First thing that came to mind when I saw this thread title, "Steve Urkel".

 

My uncle did this last year. He had the front winching strap or whatever it's called going under the pulley instead of over it. As he had told me, every time he went to trailer the boat it was a real PITA. I noticed the first time he took me out on the boat as we were putting it on the trailer. He was dumbfounded what a difference it made when I fixed it to go over the pulley instead of under it. "Well, yeah... we're pulling up on it instead of digging it straight down into the trailer the way you had it." Lol.

[scaleface]

The worst one I saw was a boat lying on the boat ramp . I didnt want to ask how that happened . 

[Oregon Native]

OH YEAH...another one!!!

Was at Lake Powell for a BASS Invitational many years ago.  I was new to this and pretty excitable.  Well...got up real early to get to the ramp before anyone and I surely did and with a light show too.  They had power strips at the motel I was staying at for the boats which was really nice...well...I drove off while leaving my power cord attached to the power strip.  Sparks everywhere...oh my.  I humbly went to office and told them what happened.