old time bass boat drivers

[stratos 375]

Any of you guys that have been driving boats a long time ever had any near death experiences? The kind that was the result of a bad decision. Boat swampings? Collisions, Running aground ,got caught in weather you shouldn't have been out in?

Care to share a story or two?

[Fishes in trees]

Have I ever done anything dumb while driving a boat?  Yes.  Do I feel like sharing?  No.  Some things you learn your lesson from and move on.  Dumb boat driving falls into that category.  Do we really need a thread about who's done the dumbest thing while driving their boat  I'll pass.

[fishfordollars]

Thankfully i have never hurt anyone.

[Jig Man]

Have I ever done anything dumb while driving a boat? Yes. Do I feel like sharing? No. Some things you learn your lesson from and move on. Dumb boat driving falls into that category. Do we really need a thread about who's done the dumbest thing while driving their boat I'll pass.

Me too.  I don't want to go there any more.

[stratos 375]

sorry guys, I had no intentions of bringing up any embarrasing or bad memories, for that I do apologize.

In addition to fishing, I'm a long time sea & whitewater kayaker. I've paddled the perimeter of the penobscot bay, all thru the Chesapeake, all thru the swamps around Santee, the Everglades and a trip from Homestead to Key West. And many other places and some very scary rivers.

Sea kayaker magazine authored a book many years ago called " Deep Trouble", it's a couple dozen stories about kayakers making wrong decisions, sometimes with deadly consequences. It was one of the most important books I've ever read. I learned many times over what not to do. That book probably saved my life.  I only wish there had been a book similar to that about bass boats. It may have stopped me from making the severe mistake I once did, a guy in his early 20's with a powerful boat who thought that bass boating was just about fishing and having fun.

I have noticed on this board a lot of newer boaters and guys just starting out and wondered if most of these guys have clue how quickly things can get out of hand. Sometimes a gut wrenching story can save the next guy some agony and maybe his life.

I wasn't talking about plain stupidity, that would entail a thread all it's own, I was just talking about bad decisions made with good intentions that produced undesirable consequences.

sorry, I promise my next thread will be about something much more important and thought provoking, like the life span of trailer bunks or the best carpet glue to use.

[Way2slow]

I've never had but one "Oh ****!!!" experience with a bass boat. Crossing some wakes at fairly good speed in very choppy water. As I was going over the wakes I backed off some to play it safe. Wrong move, that let the bow drop some and it hit a big roller, the next second I was looking almost straight up in the air. It just happened the motor hit another roller and that pulled the nose back down with a pretty hard slap.

During the late 60's - mid 70's, I had more than I care to share while I was racing. Matter of fact, I still have a 1969 Allison with twin 135BHP mercs on the back sitting in about 90 feet of water that I deposited there in 71 and divers couldn't find it.

I have been driving high performance boats since the mid 60's so I know a little bit of how to drive one. While 60 mph was near the world record for a single engine outboard back then, the boats were a hellavalot more unstable then than what we have now. The twin engine Allison I was racing ran approx 80 back then.

[BassChump]

I've only had a bass boat for a little over 2 years now. I never bass fished in my life until I bought this boat but I've owned boats for years for water skiing.

My only close call came just last summer. I was fishing a good sized lake on the Oregon coast. I fished the main part of the lake but I didn't catch much so I decided to fish a small cove that I had seen on the way to the main part of the lake. I fired up the engine and ran at near wot. There was only 1 other boat on the water. I ski boat pulling several tubes with kids on them. I let the guy go in front of me so he wouldn't have to slow up and I followed them from a distance into the cove.

Since they were tubing, I decided to be cautious and I slowed down a bit but since I slowed down, the bow rose just enough that I lost sight of them for maybe 10 seconds. It was just at that time the ski boat made a hard left to swing the tubers. He was looking backwards and didn't see me coming towards the tubers and since I lost sight of them, they were heading right towards my bow.

Luckily, my instincts took over and I stopped because I lost sight of them. Good thing. The kids whizzed by my bow close enough to splash water on my deck. Maybe 10 feet.

Scared the hell out of me.

I'm not sure who was at fault in this situation (guessing it would be me) but I can say that I NEVER let a boat get out of sight. EVER.

Don't ever assume you know where the other guy is going.

[Catt]

I aint scared to admit I've done some pretty crazy things in boat, heck that what makes us better drivers.

Jack I know ya got some!

In fifty plus years I have so many it would be near impossible to list every one of them here; some were flat out dumb on my behalf and some were being in the wrong place at the right time.

My brother and I had a 25 hp Suzuki 2 stroke 3 cylinder 3 carburetors on a 15' modified V bottom Alweld that would run 35+ mph. While running the boat trails in the marshes owned by Miami Land Corporation in South Cameron Parish I round a bend only to notice dry land. I simply hit wide open throttle while reaching back tilting the motor up, chopping the throttle, slid over the levee, dropped the motor & hit wide open throttle again.

Chuck looked over at me smiled and gave a big thumbs up

[cart7t]

I'm a pretty boring boat driver these days compared to my youth.  I've done some things purposely that make me thank God I got this far in life.

[cart7t]

I have noticed on this board a lot of newer boaters and guys just starting out and wondered if most of these guys have clue how quickly things can get out of hand. Sometimes a gut wrenching story can save the next guy some agony and maybe his life.

I wasn't talking about plain stupidity, that would entail a thread all it's own, I was just talking about bad decisions made with good intentions that produced undesirable consequences.

The problem with the premise is that each individual bad decision made while boating (not intentional stupid decisions like jumping barge wakes on purpose for example) was made, usually as a result of an unforeseen circumstance that occurred while boating.  It was that split second decision you were forced to make that either turned out good or not so good.  It's the kind of thing a newbie boater will have to learn on their own and part of that learning curve is knowing the limitations of the boat and their ability to drive the boat to it's limits should one of those "emergency" situations arise. 

[fishfordollars]

I aint scared to admit I've done some pretty crazy things in boat, heck that what makes us better drivers.

Jack I know ya got some!

In fifty plus years I have so many it would be near impossible to list every one of them here; some were flat out dumb on my behalf and some were being in the wrong place at the right time.

My brother and I had a 25 hp Suzuki 2 stroke 3 cylinder 3 carburetors on a 15' modified V bottom Alweld that would run 35+ mph. While running the boat trails in the marshes owned by Miami Land Corporation in South Cameron Parish I round a bend only to notice dry land. I simply hit wide open throttle while reaching back tilting the motor up, chopping the throttle, slid over the levee, dropped the motor & hit wide open throttle again.

Chuck looked over at me smiled and gave a big thumbs up

O yea Catt, I have plenty. just lucky that no one has ever been injured by my actions. i'll figure out several and post them up in a bit.

[fishfordollars]

Running on the pad one day with my partner for the day. down the left(West) side of the Black forrest I had my head down due to the freezing weather. Moved a little too far to the right and ran aground. Realized my error, but it was too late. Stuck the boat. I stayed in the floor, but my partner ended up out over the bow in the mud. We gathered everything and fished the rest of the day with a mud soaked partner. Sad looking fisherman, but unhurt.

[stratos 375]

there we were, an early spring day, overcast, breezy and cold. Circa late 1980's. Smallwood Park on the Potomac.

Middle of the week day, not too many other boats out at all.

Water temps in the low 50's, air wasn't much better.

Day started out Ok, caught a 2 lber on the second or third cast right at the docks, I remember it well, it had an antenna & a small transmitter pack on it's back. Never seen nothin like it.

Headed down to Mallows bay, fished way in the back, around noon decided to head up into the Ocoquan looking for some clearer water. Made it up to Ocoquan, but noticed that the wind had picked up a notch or two and was now blowin down the river at a good 10-12 mph producing conservative 2 & 3 footers. At that point we should have bagged it & just headed back to smallwood.

Fished Ocoquan for about 2 hours, we headed out the mouth of the creek to head home & couldn't believe what we saw, to say it was rough out there was an understatement. We were in my partners 20' Stratos tunnel with a Mariner 220 on the back.

We looked at each other and said lets go for it. The ramp at smallwood was still on the other side of the river, across 3 miles of open water. As we were headed out the mouth , we saw another bass boat floundering in the shallows, she had the bow way up in the air, it looked like they had swamped. They were signaling us to come around and give aid. By that time we were into the thick of it & just couldn't turn around, or we would be in even worse danger. They weren't in a life threatening situation, where they were, they could have just jumped out & stood up. We were the ones who actually needed help.

The wind was coming down the river & the tide was coming up, it was producing confused seas, we'd get into areas of 4 to 5 foot rollers which we could quarter into, but there were times when the wind / tide was just making large standing waves. Halfway across, there was about a 6" of water in the boat, both bilge pumps were working, but couldn't keep up. Visibility dropped way down due to the size of the troughs we were in & the wind was knockin the tops of the waves off & blowin it.

At that point, I started visualizing how we were going to die, I knew that in low 50 degree water, we wouldn't last long hanging onto an overturned hull. It was late in the day, there was no boats out there except us.If we did capsize, we were on our own. If I'd had a VHF, I would have been poundin Ch. 16. But we didn't. This was also pre cell phone days.

Somehow that Stratos kept pluggin, at one point my partner told me to get the VCR out, he wanted to make a message to his wife & girls. We finally made it about 2/3 the way across and saw we may have a chance to come out of this alive. When we finally limped back into Smallwood, we were the only truck in the lot, they had a small craft warning flag on the building, it looked like it had taken a dose of !

We were wet, cold, but alive.

We came very close to dying that day. We should have just stayed on the other side of the river, got a taxi around or slept under a bridge, anything except what we did.

Things I learned that day

Never, ever go out without a VHF, preferably handheld & floatable. Never underestimate rough seas , no matter what size boat you're in, let someone know where you're at if possible. And it's never worth putting yourself in a compromising situation to find some clearer water, warmer water or bigger fish. Also, when we got to a payphone we called the cops and told them we saw a boat in distress & gave the location.

It's been many years, I still shake when I talk about it in depth.

[donmac]

In the early 90's I was doing about 60mph across Santee-Cooper, came across a large flock of terns (seagull like birds) and, as expected, they all flew off as I approached. Well, for reasons, unknown, one all of a sudden did a u-turn and flew right at me. I tried to avoid, came off the throttle, but the huge bird wound up nailing my front pro-pole. It stuck there, dead as a doornail. When I came to a stop it dropped to the deck. I asked my partner, 'would you mine doing something with that?' He tossed it in the water. I tell ya, if it had hit us in the head, it probably would have killed one of us. We were in my dual console Ranger Range 392, so we probably could have tucked behind the consoles.... but that was one of the weirdest things that has happened to me in a boat.

Then there was that time a bunch of us were heading south for our annual spring trip and my partner - driving my truck - rear-ended our buddy's tin boat in front of us - pushing it up onto the cap of his truck and ultimately totaling the boat... (he eventually thanked the driver since the insurance settlement helped him move up to a ranger)..

And the time I banged a u-turn on a skinny road and my little trailer flipped over, sending my tin salmon fishing boat rolling down a grass embankment, with me towing the trailer upside down for a little bit. Amazing part was that there was essentially NO damage other than the tie-down strap - not even to the cowling. And we were back on the road within the hour... fortunately there were 3 of us...

And then there were those "naked redneck women" wading in the water on another trip south... but that's probably not appropriate...