Biggest Mistake After Putting The Boat In The Water

[pitchNbass]

How about this one. The night before a big trip you and your buddy spend a good hour and a half at your favorite Chinese buffet for dinner. Get up before daybreak and head out to the marina, stopping for breakfast at an all-night greasy spoon and walking out with a huge cup of black coffee to go.

After launching the boat and heading 20 minutes out toward the upper end of the lake the coffee suddenly kicks in and you realize you haven't made a trip to the bathroom in more than 24 hours. Your colon gets the workout of its life as it attempts to maintain the last shred of any dignity you still possess. Every wake feels like the bottom is going to fall out as you endure a living hell of clench, release, repeat. As you waddle toward the men's room at the marina the hottest college co-ed you've ever seen in your life comes idling past with a knowing smirk.

At least we caught fish that day - and yes, not just crappie. (Let me go ahead and get that one over with)

You called it. That's when it's handy to have that roll of TP in the glove compartment.

[qyjmh]

True story, a few years ago about this time I talked my dad into using the boat for the day and to my suprise he said yes, i was pumped and ready to go.  got to the ramp and got in way to big of a hurry, i was by myself got out unhooked the boat and immediatley got back in the truck and backed it on in then hit the brakes a bit to slide the boat on out, watching in my mirror to see if it came off ok, and it did but hey im by myself there goes the boat. So then i was just in shock of what i just did, luckily the wind was in my favor and the boat didnt go to far, but the ramp is really shallow and it stays like 2ft deep for like 20' off the bank, so off comes my shoes and sock and i go walking for the boat, remember its march in northeast missouri and the ice just melted. i wanted to keep my shoes and socks dry so i could still fish later.  so i got back in the boat and started to get my tackle ready and then looked down to to bottom of the boat and noticed water, guess what forgot the plug, crap. trollled back to the ramp got in the truck backed it in then ran the boat back on the trailer to do the plug. lazy me didnt feel like pulling out to put the plug in so i bent over the back to put in and yah dropped it right in the frigid water, back in the water i go. so i finally finish all this nonsense and i got to fish, i think i caught one over about 4hrs of fishing, time to go and i load the boat just fine and as im cranking ther strap on the front to make it snug.. snap! there goes that.  i couldnt beleive it.  all in all it was some tough lessons learned that could of been worse, i was so used to having a second person with me that i just forgot everything.

of btw when i got all the water in the boat i had my nikon coopix camera in a bag on the floor, bye bye coolpix and the 200 i spent on that. 

[qyjmh]

I was fishing Lake Fork with a buddy. He was running the trolling motor pretty fast to move out of the area. I was standing on the back deck near the edge and casting to some pads. He hit a stump very solidly with the TM and I went right into the water with a rod and Shimano Chronarch combo in my hand. It was March and cold. I went all the way under water and came up with the rod in my hand telling him to take the rod..take the rod...We had to go back a long way to where we were staying...Did I say it was March? I almost froze...but I held onto the rod.

you might call me crazy but was that in early march in some really cruddy cold weather.  we seen a guy fall last year about that time. we were on the west bank to from the 154 bridge a mile or so.

[Shane J]

Couple years ago me n two friends launch my boat in the river at about 3:00 AM, still pitch dark, and noticed the water was a little low, but didn't give it any more thought than that. Well, we worked our way down for an hour or so, and the pre-dawn light was just enough to fire up the big motor and make a run, so we did, and all was fine for the first mile or so, until we came under a bridge, and discovered just how low the water really was when we wrapped the lower end around a pile of rocks, and tore two huge breaks in the hull, and we were taking on water with a dead motor, and drifting down river quickly. Very bad day, and a hard lesson learned! That whole rig ended in the salvage yard.

[Edro]

- Left the plug out 

- launched boat by myself, usually i tie the boat to the trailer, but i forgot.  Boat went floating off.  Luck i had a extra rod i keep in the truck, cast out and real the boat in.

- My buddy and i drive 1 1/2 hours to a lake, he forgot his fishing license.  Nearest store open at 4:30 am was walmart 30 min. back.

- I was in the middle of guntersville lake, tried to start the boat to move to another spot and it didn't start. after 30 min.s of checking batteries, starter and wiring, i realize i had the boat in gear. 

- All of these happened last year.  Hopefully this year wont be worse.

[Shad_Master]

I haven't kep up with this thread, so if this has been posted already I apologize:

One of my favorite things to do when I can't go fishing is watch Mythbusters. They aren't doing any new episodes right now, but I can DVR old episodes on the upper cable channels.  Night before last, they had one episode entitled "Son of a Gun" (not related to this topic, but really wild if you ever get a chance to watch it).  One of the segments on the show had to with a "myth" about two guys taking their new boat out for a test run and they could only get it up to 5 mph even at full throttle - so they called the local mechanic from the marina - he checked out the motor and everything was okay - he kept inspecting and found that the boat was still attached to trailer - not knowing they had launched the boat and trailer at the same time.  The Mythbusters checked this out and it was confirmed.

[Bountyhunter]

The plug and kill switch have got me more times than I care to remember. :

;D ;D ;D me too

[Red Bear]

- launched boat by myself, usually i tie the boat to the trailer, but i forgot. Boat went floating off. Luck i had a extra rod i keep in the truck, cast out and real the boat in.

haha thats pretty funny, reeling in a boat

[BrASSmonkey]

Fishing was slow one day so I decided to do some on the water electrical work behind the dash to fix a guage that wasn't working.  I plugged something back into the wrong slot which killed a fuse.  This was a new boat, so I did not know where the fuse was.  So, we used the trolling motor to get back to the marina.  I had used the boat the weekend before, and had neglected to charge the battery.  So, now we were trolling on low power to try and conserve energy.  Eventually, we make it into the closest marina just as the power dies completely.  Unfortunately, the marina was a 45 minute cab ride to the marina where we had launched from and where we were parked.  So, 2 hours later, I get back, haul the boat out of the water, then find the fusebox complete with a spare fuse.

Lesson: no on-the-water electrical work.

BrASSmonkey

[Diablos]

I have all the same issues you guys have after launching....but I always forget to bring the trolling motor up after fishing an area.

[triglet]

haha.so far ive been lucky and remembered before actually launching the boat.   best one i got is me and two other friends were putting in one of their boats.  it was a stick steer that would also start in gear.  the owner of the boat back my other friend in.   it not being his boat had alot of trouble getting it to start.  so he started giving it more gas when it finally did start he had the motor kicked all the way to one side and wide open. lol he was not ready for this.  he fell out of the seat and was on his head and shoulders wedged beside the batter while the boat was standing at about 60 degrees in the air and going in circles. hahaha the momentum was enough it took him a long time to get back up enough to cut the engine back off.  meanwhile we layed on the shore crying we were laughing so hard at him. 

[MFCoopHKD]

I always keep the plug in, and I figure as long as I concentrate the 1 min that I am draining the bilge and live well and put the plug back in that I won't have to worry about it.  I have only taken my boat out twice so far and keep a meticulous checklist, or just email my gf from work what she needs to do as I remember it the day before.  I keep a table in the garage and put everything on it that I need to remember to take. Getting up at 330 am after getting off at 1 am it can be tricky to remember everything.   

[SirSnookalot]

[=Matt 5.0=]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^    ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Launching a boat... You're doing it wrong.

[Fishing Cowgirl]

When I take the boat out alone, I have to make sure I backed the trailer far enough into the water, so I can get the boat off the trailer. I put the Emergency brake on, truck in gear (manual shift), crawl into the bed of the truck, (because having to back so far, most times the water is past the front of the boat) then crawl over and balance on the trailer tongue. Then I can un-hook the front strap.

But I love wearing those comfortable foam shoes, that are Crocs knock-offs. Those things have zero traction if there is dew or the trailer tongue got wet.  Yep, you guessed it. Feet slip off, mad grabbing for the trolling motor, shoes hit the water and those concrete slab boat ramps have just enough algea, it feels like a slip and slide. Submarine impersonation, with one hand still hanging on to the trolling motor cable. Shirt half hung up on the front of the boat winch, (thank goodness for bathing suit top) and luckily just most of the shorts got wet and it was summer time.

I get my self back on the boat, with what diginty I could muster, get the boat off, park the truck and get to fishing. So I can say I was the boat ramp entertainment for that morning.

[kms399]

I took my grandpa out fishing or tried to a couple years ago, we launched the boat and for some reason the motor just wouldn't start I pulled till my arms burned I tried every thing i could think of my grandpa had the cover off trying to fix it well we never got it started so we put the boat back on the trailer and when we got back we drug out a drum of water to test the motor in as we looked the motor over I noticed that the kill switch was un-clipped! man did I feel like an idiot, a complete day of fishing wasted.

[kms399]

another time while duck hunting I launched the boat and it was pretty cold so I went to start the motor to let it warm up while I got things together, well after a couple pulls it wouldn't start so I gave it a little more throttle sure enough it started and it was still in gear and I was standing in the water next to it! thankfully it was pointed towards shore but it shot right up into shore and bent the crap out of my prop and broke the sheer pin, so ended a potential day of duck hunting.

[Dave P]

Plug...definitely the plug...Twice last week. Once on my boat and once on my buddies. No sinking though!!!

[bdunn333]

Was fishing with a friend who backed the boat into the water and parked the trailer before getting in the boat with me. We were tied up to a bunch of downed trees and brush. As my friend reached down to untie us from the branch, so we could load up and head for home, we both heard a small splash just beside where the boat was tied. Yep, sure enough, he had put the keys in his shirt pocket which promptly sank to the bottom in the brushpile about 10 feet deep. He dove in after but, it was fruitless. We were about 2 hours from my house on a leased pond. Luckily, I had an old analog cell phone and called my girlfriend who went by my house and picked up the extra set of keys and brought them to us. I love technology. He He! 

[basser223]

I forgot my paddle to my canoe once had to use my net to get back to shore