dumbest thing you've done while fishing

[Luke at Gouldsboro]

What is the dumbest thing you've done fishing? I'd say mine was launching my Jon Boat without the drain plug in. So while i was parking my truck my boat was under 2 feet of water...

[Grey Wolf]

Me too !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MFBAB]

A few months ago I was fishing the TN river and left my livewell on "fill" instead of "recirculate" for about 45 minutes, saw water in the floor after a while and finally figured it out   Had to replace a couple of electrical relays but still better than sinking I guess.  I've probably done dumber things but that's the most recent one.....

[MFBAB]

I forgot, I caught the smallie in my avatar that same day so it wasn't all bad. 

[ChrisAW]

The latch on the hook for my winch strap had broken on my trailer, so my hook could fall off if there was slack on it. So one day last summer when I went to launch, the hook had fallen off while I was backing into the launch. As soon as the boat floated up, it just went straight out into the lake. I jumped out and tried to beat it to the end of the dock, but no such luck... Sooo I jumped in and retrieved my boat.

The swim felt good, but dumb at the same time.

[wisconsin heat]

i was fishing from shore and was nailing tons of little bass on a weightless trigged trickworm on my spinning outfit, i decided to put a trigged powerworm an my mh baitcaster, first cast big bite, 2 1/2 pound fish (very big for the little gravel pit i was fishing) reeled it in and it went through the air, and went behind me, doubled the rod the wrong way and snapped it (this was the day after i had broken my other casting rod during a cast) in a second i went from extreme happiness, to extreme sadness, and then into rage... after i unhooked the fish, i grabbed it by the lip and threw it as far as i could into the lake...dumbest most childish thing i have done...

[MFBAB]

Got another good one...My cousin and I were driving down I-55 running about 70 w his boat in tow about 10 years ago and the trailer came off of the hitch.  Basically, it just ran along side the truck for about 100 yds and rolled off to the side, we just hooked it back up and went fishing.  That could have gone really bad, can't believe it didn't cause an accident or do serious damage to the boat and trailer.  This was a 15' jon boat, not a big bass rig but still, dang....he just forgot to lock the trailer onto the hitch that time, don't think he's ever forgotten it again. 

[Ima Bass Ninja]

When i was cutting some of the tag end on my line after retying one time i drop the excess line on my boat and tossed the pliers overboard.. :-/

[fishn hard]

I aint telling  ;D ;D

[Missouribassman95]

One time I was fishing from a fallen tree for crappie I got a snag and as  Iwas pulling the branch out trying to get my jig I fell in and got totally drenched with water. It was a miserable fishing trip after that.

[fishermantony]

I've launched without the plug with my wife and son in the boat, when I first got it.

[BassThumb]

Two years ago while I was trying to remove a deeply embedded lipless crankbait from a mouth of a 7 lb northern that I was holding from behind the head, I dropped the thrashing fish onto some rods that were on my boat deck. It broke a GLX rodtip, knocked two guides off a Dobyns that I had owned for about two weeks, and flipped my digital scale and a nice spinnerbait into the water.

Now I use the net on snakes. :

[Shane Procell]

12 miles deep in the everglades, I sunk my boat in alligator infested water.

[John J.]

I've had a few instances.

1.) Same as you gouldsboro

2.) After changing my lure I placed my pliers in my lap (I was sitting down in my chair), and when I stood up, I heard a thunk and then a splash. I looked back at my buddy in the back of the boat and said "What the ---- was that?" (fill in the blank) he said "I dunno" I ignored it and kept fishing, later that evening (we fished all day), I was looking for my pliers to change my lure again and then it dawned on me :-X :

3.) I felt a thud and my line started swimming off so I set the hook hard and blasted a little bluegill so hard out the water it flew over my head and landed on a dock behind me when I was fishing in a cove. It was a small cove, the dock was like 20 yards behind me. It flopped a few times and then landed back in the water. My finesse worm twirled around and landed in the boat behind me.

[CoBass]

Night fishing from shore at a local pond on a completely moonless night. It was really dark and I couldn't tell how close to shore I had worked my Senko. Got a hit and set the hook so hard I launched the fish through the air and hit myself in the face with it. Never even saw it comin.

[Red]

Last summer my brother came to visit from Ohio wanting to catch some bass, preferably bigger than what he gets up north.  We only caught one fish the whole time, and it was only about two pounds.  I happened to remove the hook from his fish and then accidentally dropped it back in the lake.  The only fish he ever caught in Texas he didn't even get to touch!!  He is coming in October this year, hope the fishing is better!

[Bluebasser86]

Went fishing by myself one morning and made the mistake of eating breakfast under the golden arches. By the time I got the boat in the water my stomach was bubbling so bad didn't think I'd make it to the Port-o-potty  but thankfully I did. Relief quickly disappeared when I came out and realized in my hurry to get to the bathroom that I hadn't tied my boat up very well and it was now a good 50 yards from the dock floating in a very light breeze, would have been perfect fishing weather. It was a small narrow lake so I drove around to a point on the other side where it was floating towards. There was no other boats on the lake or anyone fishing to help me. I sat in my truck and watched my boat float for about 30 minutes with the very light north wind. I noticed as it got closer to the bank I'd left the trolling motor down because I'd planned to just start fishing right around the ramp and my trolling was going to drag bottom before the boat got within reach of the bank. It was still early and water was in the low 50's, I wasn't looking forward to the idea of getting in the water. Right as my boat was almost close enough to think about walking out into the water after it the wind switched to the south and started blowing it back across the lake. It had at least picked up so by the time I got back to the other side of the lake it wasn't far out. I dug through the back of my truck and came up with a few pieces of twine, a short piece of rope, and 2 bungee cords. I tied it all together and decided to try to climb out onto a tree to try to reach the boat by tossing my "boat retrieval system" and hopefully hooking the trolling motor or something. As I climbed up part of a busted off willow tree I was at the very least surprised when a large raccoon came shooting out of the hollow tree and landed in the water. Good thing I'd already emptied my system or I might have made a mess right there  . Finally got into the tree and made a toss at the boat and hooked the open front storage of my boat and drug it close enough to get into the boat. Thankfully I have sense of humor and took pictures of my boat floating across the water so I could share them with my family and friends when I got home. I don't even remeber if I caught anything that day but it couldn't have gotten much worse than it started! Moral of the story, tie a good know and stay away from fast food!

[SoFlaBassAddict]

Dumbest thing I've done while fishing?

Answered my cell phone.

[WanderLust]

^^^

LOL I have that one beat... I dropped my brand new DROID into the lake trying to answer it. Fishing gods way of telling me to fish, not to a jack arse.

1st day on the boat last year I caught a nasty snag and while freeing up forgot I wasn't the only one aboard. Fishing partner got whipped in the face hardcore... Not my finest moment. 

I bought gas \ beer \ bait and still feel bad about it.

[bilgerat]

Went fishing by myself one morning and made the mistake of eating breakfast under the golden arches. By the time I got the boat in the water my stomach was bubbling so bad didn't think I'd make it to the Port-o-potty but thankfully I did. Relief quickly disappeared when I came out and realized in my hurry to get to the bathroom that I hadn't tied my boat up very well and it was now a good 50 yards from the dock floating in a very light breeze, would have been perfect fishing weather. It was a small narrow lake so I drove around to a point on the other side where it was floating towards. There was no other boats on the lake or anyone fishing to help me. I sat in my truck and watched my boat float for about 30 minutes with the very light north wind. I noticed as it got closer to the bank I'd left the trolling motor down because I'd planned to just start fishing right around the ramp and my trolling was going to drag bottom before the boat got within reach of the bank. It was still early and water was in the low 50's, I wasn't looking forward to the idea of getting in the water. Right as my boat was almost close enough to think about walking out into the water after it the wind switched to the south and started blowing it back across the lake. It had at least picked up so by the time I got back to the other side of the lake it wasn't far out. I dug through the back of my truck and came up with a few pieces of twine, a short piece of rope, and 2 bungee cords. I tied it all together and decided to try to climb out onto a tree to try to reach the boat by tossing my "boat retrieval system" and hopefully hooking the trolling motor or something. As I climbed up part of a busted off willow tree I was at the very least surprised when a large raccoon came shooting out of the hollow tree and landed in the water. Good thing I'd already emptied my system or I might have made a mess right there . Finally got into the tree and made a toss at the boat and hooked the open front storage of my boat and drug it close enough to get into the boat. Thankfully I have sense of humor and took pictures of my boat floating across the water so I could share them with my family and friends when I got home. I don't even remeber if I caught anything that day but it couldn't have gotten much worse than it started! Moral of the story, tie a good know and stay away from fast food!

:D That's friggin' hilarious. Once my buddy and I were on our way home from fishing. I had beer and hot wings in me from the night before. All of the sudden the 'urge' came upon me. I started yelling "Dave, pull over NOW!!" The truck wasn't even stopped all of the way and I was out the door and into the woods.

[Crestliner2008]

Back in the early '90's when we were trolling for pike, I nailed a fat 35" specimen, while letting line out. She came to the boat green, just floating there about 6' from the gunnel. I sat there looking at her....she looked at me too....for what seemed like a long time.

My partner says, "Well....do something!" So, I reached out the tip of my rod and tapped her on the head. She exploded and snapped my 20# test dacron like it was fly tying thread. Lost a dandy plug that day.

Really DUMB!

[Mr SwimJig]

Went fishing at a private pond, parked, walked a couple hundred yards to the pond, walked another couple hundred or so to where I wanted to fish set down my tackle bag and went and picked up my rod and realized that not only did I not have a reel on the rod I wanted to use but I had actually left the reel at home! What a great trip!!

SJ

[tritz18]

Was imitating how one of my friends walks and I kinda fell over board. What was a little chilly to. Glad that was on a small pond!

[hookingem]

Was imitating how one of my friends walks and I kinda fell over board. What was a little chilly to. Glad that was on a small pond!

I fell out on a small lake to last season ruined a 2 day old Motorola Droid. Taught me to leave the phone in the truck.

[Nixstyx]

I can't decide between two:

1.) Forgot the plug, and then, once I had the boat bailed out, I pushed off from the dock only to realize that the battery was dead from not unhooking electronics since last time I was out, and the motor wouldn't start.

2.) Got back from a day of fishing and started unloading the boat onto the shore while my brother backed up the trailer. Forgot that I had put my $1,200 camera and fully-loaded tackle box on the ground and we drove away. Luckily, a VERY nice person had picked them up and called the number on my business card in my camera case.

One more that I witnessed:

My friend and I took the kayaks out on a good sized river that was flowing high from spring rains. When my friend tried to get out of the kayak at the shore, he tipped it, and went for a swim, but more tragically, so did his rod, cell phone and expensive sunglasses - none of which he ever found.