worst thing a non boater has done?

[RyneB]

I recently had a back boater that I did not know. He had joined the club to learn about fishing. I understand everyone has to start somewhere, and am always willing to help and willing to learn. From the get go, I could tell this gentleman didnt have anything organized and was kind of childish from the get go.

 

About 20 minutes into the morning I get blown up on topwater. As I make a few cranks on the reel, this dude runs up on my front deck and picks up my Loomis IMX with a MGX reel and rifles it out and blows up the whole spool of Tatsu with a backlash. And then drops the rod and reel on the deck and walks to the back of the boat. 

 

What's the worst thing a back boaters done to you? let's hear em

[Bluebasser86]

I've been pretty lucky, haven't had anything to terrible happen yet. I get really annoyed by the guys that launch a cast as far as they can up into inches of water with a bait that has no chance of returning without snagging, or casting way behind the boat and getting snagged. 

 

About the worse I can think of was a couple guys I was guiding for flatheads that complained all night about the lack of bites (if you know anything about flathead fishing you know that it's pretty standard to get 1 or 2 bites a night on a good night). Then we caught 1 fish, a 47 pounder, and they were just beside themselves by morning that we'd "only caught 1 fish". Nevermind it was the fish of a lifetime for most folks and exactly the fish they'd paid me to help them catch. I stopped guiding for flatheads shortly after that. 

[scaleface]

The worst thing a non boater has done is out-fish me and win  the tourney .?

[Troy85]

22 hours ago, RyneB said:

About 20 minutes into the morning I get blown up on topwater. As I make a few cranks on the reel, this dude runs up on my front deck and picks up my Loomis IMX with a MGX reel and rifles it out and blows up the whole spool of Tatsu with a backlash. And then drops the rod and reel on the deck and walks to the back of the boat. 

No no no no no no...this can't be true.  I'm a pretty chill dude, but that made me angry just reading it. Wow.  I'm blown away.  How did you handle it? I'm assuming he's still alive, unless you have computer access at the local jailhouse.....  

 

I've had friends do that with my bait casters, but these are guys I've known for years and years.

 

Worst I've had was a friend who apparently thought it was a good idea to get stupid drunk the night before.  It was August, its 88 degrees at sunrise and only gets hotter from there. A hangover sucks as it, you add sweltering heat and wave action.....needless to say, he spent most of the morning sleeping and puking off the back of the boat.

[Logan S]

Nothing too crazy...the vast majority of co-anglers are great.  Only 2 really stick out.  

 

One of the worst co-anglers I had was a guy that didn't do anything too terrible, but spent the whole day complaining about the place we were fishing, how the fishing sucks, how much better he was than various other boaters he's fished with, about pleasure boaters, kayakers, getting snagged, how it was too hot....Basically anything and everything, the most negative person I've ever met.  By about 1:00 I finally snapped and told him that I'd take him to the dock if it was really that bad, but otherwise he needed to STFU and enjoy a day on the water.  He didn't say another word and left early when we got back without helping clean up the boat and without chipping in gas money.  Was fine with me though...Good riddance.  

 

My worst experience happened when I was younger and wasn't even a tournament.  My club used to do a week long trip to a lake in Canada every year where boaters would pair up with non's for the trip.  For my 3rd year/trip I paired up with someone pretty new to our club who was shopping for boats but hadn't bought one yet (his 1st boat).  Anyway, since I had been there a few times already in my boat I knew a lot about the lake, had spots/areas/techniques, etc...Anyway, as you'd expect with a group trip, we'd all talk fishing while not actually fishing and this guy would constantly frame everything we did as though HE somehow did it or figured it out or was otherwise was the reason for our success - Basically trying to take credit for everything I had done.  "Yea, I found this hump....I found this school of smallmouth....I ran out to the islands....I figured out they wanted a dropshot....Etc". It went on the whole week like this, I guess his ego wasn't good at handling the fact that a 19 year old kid was running the show or something.  Anyway...The week ended and he finally bought his bought that year.  So the next year we are all back up at the lake and he's a boater.  I'm sure you can guess what happened, he was in every single area that I fished the previous year.  Literally all of them, it was so blatant that other guys noticed it too.  I was pretty annoyed at that, but I lost it when I heard him start telling stories about how "He found this spot last year" and other similar things.  It was the most bizarre and irritating 2 trips I ever had.  He didn't stay in our club very long, which is good because he's the only person ever actually disliked in the fishing world.  

[TOXIC]

Substitute non-boater with "client" and I could write a book.  

[J Francho]

2 hours ago, TOXIC said:

Substitute non-boater with "client" and I could write a book.  

I use to teach and guide kayak fishing classes.  One day discussing all the skills and items, next day on the water.  I had two types: anglers that wanted to learn kayaks, and kayakers that wanted to learn fishing.  Yo can guess which group was the least entertaining, lol. 

[Ratherbfishing]

Wow!   Just.....Wow!  As evidenced, there are truly some clueless people out there. 

 

It wasn't a tournament.  Just an outing. But one guy I know was talking up going fishing one evening.  He gets my fishing juices flowing.  I express that I'd rather go in the evening but he wants to go out in the morning  before it gets hot.  Oh, and he wants to use MY boat (instead of his).  So I'm like "okay, whatever."  The morning arrives.  I get up at the butt crack of dawn (like 4:00 am.), load the boat, have it all ready and sitting on the street so all he has to do is pull up and transfer his gear into it.  I wait and I wait and I wait....  Around 6:00 a.m. I get a call:  "I over slept.  Just now getting up...blah blah blah."  grrrrrrrrrr  I don't suffer fools very gladly!

[SDoolittle]

I've been lucky with coanglers. I guess my worst was when I drew a guy who had just come off of a graveyard shift. He was supposed to meet me at the ramp before take off, but he didn't show up on time, and the tournament officials wouldn't let me take off without him. He showed up about 15 minutes late, and when we got to our first stop, he made a few casts and then sprawled out on the back deck and slept for most of the day.

 

I could go on and on about some of the jerks I fished with when I was a nonboater!

[RichF]

I've never had any terrible co's but have had some interesting/annoying encounters.  So I've never asked for any $$ from my non-boaters since my little Tracker 170 isn't all that expensive to run, but it kinda irks me when they don't even offer.  I had the same guy do that twice.  One of the times, I even let him have the trolling motor because he didn't have a keeper.  He ended up getting one bite that turned out to be lunker of the tournament.  The dude didn't even thank me for letting him run MY boat!  I had a REALLY old gentleman as a co in the 2014 ABA national that told me where to find his nitroglycerin just in case his ticker went bad on him...totally freaked me out.  The most recent was a guy new to the scene.  He blew up one of his reels and asked me if I could help him get the backlash out. He was nice enough so I obliged but I sure didn't like losing 10 -15 mins of fishing time.

 

Oh, and if I had a co do what the OP's did, he'd be swimming back to the ramp. 

[RyneB]

14 hours ago, Troy1985s said:

No no no no no no...this can't be true.  I'm a pretty chill dude, but that made me angry just reading it. Wow.  I'm blown away.  How did you handle it? I'm assuming he's still alive, unless you have computer access at the local jailhouse.....  

 

I've had friends do that with my bait casters, but these are guys I've known for years and years.

 

Worst I've had was a friend who apparently thought it was a good idea to get stupid drunk the night before.  It was August, its 88 degrees at sunrise and only gets hotter from there. A hangover sucks as it, you add sweltering heat and wave action.....needless to say, he spent most of the morning sleeping and puking off the back of the boat.

I kindly told him that he shouldn't go up on the front deck and grab someones tackle without permission, and that I'm a fairly laid back dude but I know some guys who would have dropped him off at the nearest piece of land. 

 

This one just popped into my head. I drew a co angler who was a long time member of the club. He is a good guy, but he tells the same exact stories everytime I'm around him. Well, I was working a spook and a biggun hits the spook and knocks it 2 feet out of the water. The line wrapped around the hook and I brought it back to fix, as I did he casted a wacky worm on where I got my hit. Ended up being 5.5lbs and big bass of the tourney. I came in with a big fat zero. And he still brags to me how he beat me out of the back of my boat. lol

[Troy85]

9 hours ago, RyneB said:

I kindly told him that he shouldn't go up on the front deck and grab someones tackle without permission, and that I'm a fairly laid back dude but I know some guys who would have dropped him off at the nearest piece of land. 

 

I'm nominating you for the Nobel Peace Prize........

[WVU-SCPA]

Heard about a guy that had a non boater start dating his sister a year or two ago.

 

 

He still threatens to throw me off the boat every now and again.

 

 

 

[tav]

well I was a non boater a few years back......the boater had a 6 lb lrg mouth on and I had to

net it......took 1 swipe and bobbled it then I netted it.....boy was I scared.

[scaleface]

There are boaters who can tell stories about me . During a  two  day club tourney there was a lot of drinking going on that night . On the second morning my boater found me sleeping on a trailer bunk.  He told that story  til  the day he died .

[J.Vincent]

Co-Anglers are like the Rodney Dangerfields of the sport...they get no Respect : ) 

[ShenandoahAngler]

I'm having fun reading these. I'm probably never going to have the money to be able to afford tournament fishing, and I've never fished from a boat, but if I ever get a chance (because I'd like to do both) I'm learning what not to do.

[rob0225]

On 8/19/2018 at 11:45 PM, RyneB said:

I recently had a back boater that I did not know. He had joined the club to learn about fishing. I understand everyone has to start somewhere, and am always willing to help and willing to learn. From the get go, I could tell this gentleman didnt have anything organized and was kind of childish from the get go.

 

About 20 minutes into the morning I get blown up on topwater. As I make a few cranks on the reel, this dude runs up on my front deck and picks up my Loomis IMX with a MGX reel and rifles it out and blows up the whole spool of Tatsu with a backlash. And then drops the rod and reel on the deck and walks to the back of the boat. 

 

What's the worst thing a back boaters done to you? let's hear em

What was his excuse?  Did he think he was trying to help you by getting another bait to the area?

[RyneB]

I dont think he knew what was going on. Not sure if he got excited and just seen me using a baitcaster and just figured he had to chuck it. no clue.

 

The other time I had my good buddy as my non boater for a 2 day tourney. I had caught a few fish off a small rocky area underneath a overhang. I drew him day 2. I told him about the rock pile and to just wait to cast at it till I get situated and make a few casts at it. I was leading after day 1. He didnt listen, first cast he chucks a double digit price squarebill into the tree and tells me to go get it. Which would make me go right into my little rocky area. I made him cut it so we can get it later. 

[N Florida Mike]

The worst non boater I had weighed 500 pounds.He nearly sank my boat when I saw a cottonmouth by the boat and made the mistake of telling him. He yelled SNAAAKE ! at the top of his lungs and began literly running toward me in the boat! Water began pouring in with the huge ( no pun intended ) weight shift. I yelled at him to go back and sit down, which he did.

He was sitting on a pedestal seat, and after a while he said " somethings wrong with my seat " He had been moving around and eventually the pedestal hole cracked and wallowed out ! Never even said he was sorry or offer to pay for it to be fixed.

I told a friend that if I ever drawed him again , I would put him on a pontoon and tow him around to keep him out of my boat.

Not against big folks ( Im pretty hefty myself ) but that could have been avoided with a little common sense !

 

[NorthwestBasser]

On 9/1/2018 at 4:12 AM, VirginiaBureaucrat said:

I'm having fun reading these. I'm probably never going to have the money to be able to afford tournament fishing, and I've never fished from a boat, but if I ever get a chance (because I'd like to do both) I'm learning what not to do.

You'd be surprised. My club is only $25 to join, then $50 per tournament including big bass side pot. You can fish as a guest and only pay the entry fee but you don't amass any AOY points. So essentially you and fish the year any way you want. All in and go for AOY, or pick and choose your tournaments and lakes you want to fish. We have a great system to get non boaters in tournaments and learning new skills and experiencing the tournament world. Look for clubs in your area, I bet you'll find one like mine. I fished as a non boater for a while before I bought my boat. I still fish a few tournaments every now and then as a non. 

[FishTank]

I asked a friend at work to fish in a tournament with me.....  He forgot his buy-in money and showed up with a zebco 33 (not knocking this reel), a broken rod that was duct-taped together, a styrofoam box of night crawlers, one bobber and two hooks.  He had been out all night at a bar and was still lit with no sleep.  It was a short fishing trip. 

[stepup]

So I will tell you one about my self. When I was about 17 there was a guy that would take me with him to fish the club tournaments. He was honestly a pretty good mentor. He wasn't a great fisherman but he could catch fish if there was a good top water bite in the morning and a jig bite in the evening. If it was any other pattern he would d**n near blank. Anyways he was a great guy and I have to give him all of the credit for taking me under his wing. So we are fishing a club tournament and I was throwing a DD22 Crankbait and I was whacking them with that thing. He had just gotten a brand new boat and it had a hydraulic jack plate. I think it may have raised the motor just enough that I couldn't cast like I normally did. So I am slinging this crankbait as far as I can and I go to cast it sidearm to try to get it up next to a blowdown and when I sling it forward it sounds like that crankbait exploded. My line is broke, The crankbait is no where to be found. I am dumbfounded all while my buddy has this dumbfounded look like what the hell did you do to my boat. I still can't figure out what happened and neither can he. I grab another rod and fish until we get ready to move. When he cranks the boat it sounds like all kinds of hell coming from the engine. Somehow when I slung that crankbait I was able to sling it through one of the holes in his brand new Mercury Cowling. We didn't know that until we got the cowling off and there was little specks of green plastic everywhere. Thank god it only scratched the cowling and caused a mess but I thought he was going to kill me.

[Troy85]

15 hours ago, stepup said:

So I will tell you one about my self. When I was about 17 there was a guy that would take me with him to fish the club tournaments. He was honestly a pretty good mentor. He wasn't a great fisherman but he could catch fish if there was a good top water bite in the morning and a jig bite in the evening. If it was any other pattern he would d**n near blank. Anyways he was a great guy and I have to give him all of the credit for taking me under his wing. So we are fishing a club tournament and I was throwing a DD22 Crankbait and I was whacking them with that thing. He had just gotten a brand new boat and it had a hydraulic jack plate. I think it may have raised the motor just enough that I couldn't cast like I normally did. So I am slinging this crankbait as far as I can and I go to cast it sidearm to try to get it up next to a blowdown and when I sling it forward it sounds like that crankbait exploded. My line is broke, The crankbait is no where to be found. I am dumbfounded all while my buddy has this dumbfounded look like what the hell did you do to my boat. I still can't figure out what happened and neither can he. I grab another rod and fish until we get ready to move. When he cranks the boat it sounds like all kinds of hell coming from the engine. Somehow when I slung that crankbait I was able to sling it through one of the holes in his brand new Mercury Cowling. We didn't know that until we got the cowling off and there was little specks of green plastic everywhere. Thank god it only scratched the cowling and caused a mess but I thought he was going to kill me.

Thats a one in a million shot, you couldn't do that again if you tried. haha.  Did your life flash before your eyes when you realized it was your crankbait making that horrible sound?

[stepup]

2 hours ago, Troy85 said:

Thats a one in a million shot, you couldn't do that again if you tried. haha.  Did your life flash before your eyes when you realized it was your crankbait making that horrible sound?

Yeah it was defintaley a 1 in a million shot. I remember thinking when I couldn't find the bait and heard the gun shot. What have I done???? When I heard the sound coming from the engine I was just hoping and praying that it didn't hurt anything. He was honestly pretty cool about it. He really couldn't help but to kind of laugh. I mean what are the odds of it making it through a hole that was smaller than the size of the crank bait. He still gives me **** about it to this day.