Worst thing a BOATER has done to you

[Ratherbfishing]

I'm not a tourney guy so I haven't anything to contribute BUT to turn the tables a little bit, I'm curious what some NON-boaters have experienced with (ahem) "less than ideal" boaters.

[J Francho]

Tried to net *my* fish.

[Troy85]

? I'm ready!

[Catt]

Not showed up!  ?

[Ratherbfishing]

33 minutes ago, Catt said:

Not showed up!  ?

Yeah, that WOULD kinda stink.  Was any excuse ever offered?

[Mobasser]

Borrowed my good casting rod, and made a birdsnest big enough for a condor to nest in. Bring your own stuff, or stick with your pushbutton reels!

[looking45]

It didn't happen to me but this sucked big time. I was doing live well checks with another guy for a Pro Am. After all the wells had been checked, we walked down to the dock for the blast off. After blast off, this guy was walking on the dock with all his rods and gear. I was talking to the TD and we asked what he was doing, if he was in the event or what. He said he launched his pro, parked the truck and when he met him on the dock, the pro had put all his gear on the dock and told him he wasn't going to fish with him because he backed his trailer off the road trying to launch him. The guy asked the TD to DQ the Pro for unsportsmanlike conduct but the TD didn't, because the pro was a big name. He told the guy he could transfer his entry to another event. I don't thing this was fair as the Am drove 6 hours to fish. He could have fished the next day but would have been at a big disadvantage. The Am was *** and said he paid for the entire year and wanted all his money back. I don't know if he got it or not

[Ratherbfishing]

4 hours ago, J Francho said:

Tried to net *my* fish.

Unsuccessfully, I assume?

[J Francho]

3 minutes ago, Ratherbfishing said:

Unsuccessfully, I assume?

Of course.  I didn't even ask for the net.  That's one of my rules: net your own fish.

[Ratherbfishing]

50 minutes ago, looking45 said:

It didn't happen to me but this sucked big time. I was doing live well checks with another guy for a Pro Am. After all the wells had been checked, we walked down to the dock for the blast off. After blast off, this guy was walking on the dock with all his rods and gear. I was talking to the TD and we asked what he was doing, if he was in the event or what. He said he launched his pro, parked the truck and when he met him on the dock, the pro had put all his gear on the dock and told him he wasn't going to fish with him because he backed his trailer off the road trying to launch him. The guy asked the TD to DQ the Pro for unsportsmanlike conduct but the TD didn't, because the pro was a big name. He told the guy he could transfer his entry to another event. I don't thing this was fair as the Am drove 6 hours to fish. He could have fished the next day but would have been at a big disadvantage. The Am was *** and said he paid for the entire year and wanted all his money back. I don't know if he got it or not

Backed his trailer off the road?  Was the truck/trailer/boat damaged?  Was the non-boater a complete idiot or completely incompetent (and misrepresented his abilities)?  I guess I'd have to know more before I formed an opinion.  But yeah, it would suck to be left high and dry.

[looking45]

I don't know the details, that's all the Am told us, but backing the trailer off the road would not have damaged anything as the area was flat with and asphalt road in the middle of dirt. Maybe he didn't know how to back up the trailer and took a long time. 

[ww2farmer]

In my year end classic team tournament I fished with the guy whom I qualified with as we fished several team tournaments together last year. All was well in those events....................until the classic. 

 

We decided to use his boat, as it's bigger, faster, etc..than my Tracker 170.

 

So I am signing people up, doing livewell checks, and other tournament director stuff before take off, at the 6:45 cut off for sign up/boat checks, I notice he's NOT there yet. I send him a few texts.....nothing....finally he roll's in at 7:45...a full 45 minutes after the tournament started and simply states "sorry, I over slept".

 

I am already fuming mad, as my boat is only 5 minutes away, and I could have just gone it alone, and not lost the fishing time had I known he couldn't get there on time. BUT....this is just the start of the story.

 

He has ZERO exp. fishing for smallmouth on my home lake in the fall, which is what I wanted to start with, so after I load my gear, launch him, idle out of the ramp area, and we get to my first spot, we're already 1+ hours behind everyone else. Smallmouth are not there, or not biting at stop #1....but it's too late for me to re-game plan....I'm already spun out and still hopping mad. After a fruitless hour or so of smallmouth fishing, I have him move us shallower to try for largemouth. I boat a decent 3lber right away, but rather than continuing to drift quietly with the wind and fish the grass in this area to see if we could get some more bites....he puts the trolling motor on 11, and heads to the bank chucking and winding spinner baits. Fully spun out, and now wanting to go back to the ramp, I basically go into auto-zombie mode, pick up a chatterbait and aimlessly cast it around to give the impression that I am still "trying". 5 hours of this nonsense, and him running and fishing every terrible area on the lake he could think of, he turns to me and says..."now what do we do? I don't think they are biting this spinnerbait up shallow" My answer: " Take me back to the launch. I'm done".

 

I went back, set up the scales for the weigh in, and took a nap in my truck.

 

I actually like this guy a lot, were friends, but I will NEVER fish a tournament again with him, we don't mesh well as a team, and the not getting out of bed in time thing will bug me for a long long time.

[J Francho]

10 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

he puts the trolling motor on 11

One of my favorite moves. 

[Ratherbfishing]

13 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

In my year end classic team tournament I fished with the guy whom I qualified with as we fished several team tournaments together last year. All was well in those events....................until the classic. 

 

We decided to use his boat, as it's bigger, faster, etc..than my Tracker 170.

 

So I am signing people up, doing livewell checks, and other tournament director stuff before take off, at the 6:45 cut off for sign up/boat checks, I notice he's NOT there yet. I send him a few texts.....nothing....finally he roll's in at 7:45...a full 45 minutes after the tournament started and simply states "sorry, I over slept".

 

I am already fuming mad, as my boat is only 5 minutes away, and I could have just gone it alone, and not lost the fishing time had I known he couldn't get there on time. BUT....this is just the start of the story.

 

He has ZERO exp. fishing for smallmouth on my home lake in the fall, which is what I wanted to start with, so after I load my gear, launch him, idle out of the ramp area, and we get to my first spot, we're already 1+ hours behind everyone else. Smallmouth are not there, or not biting at stop #1....but it's too late for me to re-game plan....I'm already spun out and still hopping mad. After a fruitless hour or so of smallmouth fishing, I have him move us shallower to try for largemouth. I boat a decent 3lber right away, but rather than continuing to drift quietly with the wind and fish the grass in this area to see if we could get some more bites....he puts the trolling motor on 11, and heads to the bank chucking and winding spinner baits. Fully spun out, and now wanting to go back to the ramp, I basically go into auto-zombie mode, pick up a chatterbait and aimlessly cast it around to give the impression that I am still "trying". 5 hours of this nonsense, and him running and fishing every terrible area on the lake he could think of, he turns to me and says..."now what do we do? I don't think they are biting this spinnerbait up shallow" My answer: " Take me back to the launch. I'm done".

 

I went back, set up the scales for the weigh in, and took a nap in my truck.

 

I actually like this guy a lot, were friends, but I will NEVER fish a tournament again with him, we don't mesh well as a team, and the not getting out of bed in time thing will bug me for a long long time.

Yeah, that being late thing would have put me in a rather sour mood too.  If you read my entry in the similar thread (about what some non-boaters have done), you'll see that I can attest to this.

 

I have a friend who quite often outfishes me (he seems to execute better) BUT he will listen to my suggestions and will not stay on a "pattern" that isn't working.  All I've ever want/expect is someone who doesn't think they know it all or persists in something that obviously isn't working.  Oh, and who is also punctual.

[J Francho]

Worst thing I've done as a boater?  Put the console graph in demo mode. 

[Ratherbfishing]

1 minute ago, J Francho said:

Worst thing I've done as a boater?  Put the console graph in demo mode. 

Did you really?  Ha!  My friend said he did that once.  He said he wondered why there were so many fish under the boat and why it seemed so much deeper than it ought to be.

[scaleface]

Weighed in my fish , just to win a stupid trophy . I  ratted him out .

[BassNJake]

Scariest boater- I got tossed out of the boat at about 60 MPH as we ran into a submerged rockpile.

We both ended up ok, his boat not so much. Scariest 5 minutes of my life as my inflatable pfd never opened.

 

Racist boater- I got back boated the entire day we were on the water while my boater was bed fishing.

We stayed on one fish for 3 hours and he never changed baits.(no wonder he couldn't get bit)

To top it all off he said some racist things about another competitor and had me boiling mad wanting to fight him.

He refused to take me back to the ramp so I spent the last 2 hours doing the Guntersville slap everytime he would pitch to a bedding fish. This got him boiling mad as well and thats when we left. When we got back to the ramp he went right to the tourney director to report me disrupting his fishing on purpose. Tourney director suspended him as he did not deny what he said, he tried to pull the I'm not racist, my best friend is (insert minority here) card.

 

Wedding boater- I had a boater take a call around 11am telling him he was supposed to be at a wedding at 1pm.

We left on the spot. I ended up missing first place by 2 ounces after weighing in at 11:30, while everyone else fished until 4.

 

Hissy fit boater- I had a boater break 3 rods in about 20 minutes. He was fishing a deep brushpile with a jig. He broke off on the hook set the first time and just instantly snapped the rod over his knee. He flips back into the brushpile, this time he hooks the fish and its a pretty good one. He fights it for a short time before it gets hung up in the brush. after about 5 minutes the fish gets off but he's hung up and its his last PB&J jig. He gets a lure retriever slides it down his line and it was never tied off so it just keeps going and we watch the rope sink. He gives it a pull and the line breaks again. He hops around on the deck and then breaks rod number 2 over his leg. He picks up another rod in disgust and as he goes to pitch it out he snags the console and gets a major blow up. He then smashes the rod on the gunwale about 20 times. I bet he dropped the F bomb and other variations of it a hundred times in those 20 minutes.

 

Best Boater Ever- I drew a boater once and he ran a bakery with his wife. We had these amazing donuts and scones in the morning and some type of pastry wrapped ham and cheeses for lunch. We had a pretty good day and he ended up taking third. At one point I let him have a pack of Keitech swimbaits as he ran out. After the weigh ins he took me to his truck and gave me 2 left handed Shimano Citicas he had bought off of ebay by accident. 

 

I was a co angler for about 10 years and had about half a dozen bad boaters and they were downright awful.

I did learn a ton and wouldn't trade it even with the jerks mentioned above.

[N Florida Mike]

I have many more non boater stories.

The only boater story I can think of is when we had fished for a couple hours with little results and we saw a school of shiners. He immediately whipped out a cast net and threw on them, catching a 5 pound bass in the process. Then wanting me to count him in the totals. Which I didnt.

[Ratherbfishing]

56 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

I have many more non boater stories.

The only boater story I can think of is when we had fished for a couple hours with little results and we saw a school of shiners. He immediately whipped out a cast net and threw on them, catching a 5 pound bass in the process. Then wanting me to count him in the totals. Which I didnt.

It'd be truthful if he said he "netted him."  But otherwise...no.

[volzfan59]

I fished as a co-angler in a draw tournament on Watts Bar Lake in East Tennessee. I didn't know this guy from Adam, he didn't know me. This was around fall 2000, 2001.

 

We got along really well, we were both raised country. Main thing I remember is he had a Norris Craft, around 20 foot with a Mercury 225 on it. I guess he kept it outside, uncovered as the gel coat was oxidized and faded. Anyway, every time we hit a wake of wave I felt the floorboard buckle under my feet, all the while he was driving balls to the wall! I swear to you that I prayed for God to get me "back to the bank in one piece and I'll never get in another Norris Craft!" God and I have both kept our ends of the deal. This is no reflection on properly cared for Norris Crafts by the way. Great, super fast rig. Neither one of us finished in the money. Heck, I was to scared to seriously fish.

 

 

[Catt]

On 9/4/2018 at 11:36 AM, Ratherbfishing said:

Yeah, that WOULD kinda stink.  Was any excuse ever offered?

 

Nope!

We didn't have cell phones back then

And he darn sure aint tried to talk to me since! 

[RyneB]

Get stuck on a sand bar I warned him about. Then we had to get out and push and push and push 

[Oregon Native]

Fished a BFL on Chick a number of years ago when I first moved to Tennessee to kind of check out the water as I was new here.  Thought being a non boater may be interesting.......NOT.

Icing on the cake this day was when the boater said he had left his two little kids back in the motel by themselves...did I mention he was late and an jerk.

[FishTank]

Went flat out in a no wake zone in front of the DNR guys. Made for an expensive day.