Boat Landing Stories

[Woody]

Thunderpout wanted a place to post your Opener Boat Landing Horror Stories-we'll here ya go! 

This one is from many many years ago.  My friend "T" finished fishing on a small remote lake (out in the middle of nowhere) and pulled the boat up on shore to land the boat.  There was a truck and trailor backed in the landing-but no one around.  Apparently some arrogant SOB backed in, launched his boat and went fishing without pulling his rig to the parking area!  Making it impossible to use the conrete landing. 

"T" was a large muscular man, and didn't take  from anyone.  So after he backed his trailer off the rocky shore to land his boat, and pulled ahead to secure his boat, he grabbed his pliers.  He walked over to the truck and proceeded to cut the valvestems off of all 4 tires!  "Now the sum- can stay parked there even longer" he said as he told the story.

Now I don't condone such actions, but hearing "T" tell this story  - well maybe you had to be there.  Then again-be thankful you weren't! 

[sandmannd]

Last year a week or two after opener I headed up to Clear Lake in Forest Lake with a couple of guys, one of which used to be on these boards  . Anyhow, we get the straps off the boat get it all set to go in the water and I unplug the trailer lights and take the safety chain off the boad. Apparently while I was going back to the truck and/or manuvering it around the lot to the ramp, this guy desides to reach over and take the which cable off as well. 

Not sure if you know the ramp, but it's steeper than some. So I go to back down and hear a Crunch!!  I look back, boat is at a 70 degree angle sitting on the ramp!! Get it whinched in and loaded into the water after much  words to this clown. Boat leaked and the motor didn't stay running. 

We trolled around a little, but the wind set in and figured we better head in as all we had was the trolling moter. I start trolling, now the trolling motor keeps cutting out on me.  I'm trying to figure it out and thsi guy is still fishing!!  So more  and finally get to shore. Get it loaded and look at the bottom. Well, it was pretty banged up in the back. Took it in and was spendy to fix, lucky for insurance. Then come to find out the reason the motor wouldn't stay running was it had water in the gas.  Had to drain all the gas (had just filled it to) and now it's been running fine.

Anyway, that's my worst one outside of forgeting the plug at least once or twice a year!! 

[Jdrummer]

One ramp story I have is last year during the summer ( can't remember the exact date) I was fishing madison lake and I always had to be back by 5:30 p.m. when i get home and do what I gotta do I recieve a phone call from one of my buddies and he tells me about a boat crash on madison lake around 5:30 -6 o'clock! some underage drunk kids hit a small fishing boat with two guys in it at the north shore landing . ( the landing I was just at 20 minutes before this incident happened ) The kids fled the sceen and they later caught them . They never stoppped to help the other two guys!

[7outof10]

here is one from me lol .......about 3 years ago i was up fishing out of rocky reef on the big pond and if you have ever used johns ramp it is really steep well we where getting the boat ready to go in and we had been working with the winch on the trailer (put a new strap on it ) so i made sure that it was locked and well i hop in the boat and they my dad comes out of the cabin and we are using a 21 foot  creastliner so this is a really big boat and i cant see what he was doing on the other side well he gets in the truck and starts backing me in the water and we get half way down the ramp and i hear the winch spinning  ............   and keep in mind that i am in the boat .......and i think to my self    he flipped the winch safety and well any ways ......we did what i ended up calling a dry launch   ......now ever time i put a boat in i make sure im the last one to touch the winch 

[GRIZ]

Jeff

Did "T" look to see if the keys were in it?

When minnow trapping on a public lake most all bait trappers would leave their truck parked there with the keys in it. If another trapper showed up he just moved your truck and backed his in. It was a time = money type thing. No one wants to back their truck down to the landing 4-5 times to unload from the boat. Then again we didn't have to worry about fishermen showing up or we wouldn't be there, fish in a lake = no minnows. It was common courtesy if you did have to move someones truck you tried to park it close to shore so they could unload quick. Sometimes maybe you just backed down beside them only half on the ramp. I usually tried to do that if I could.

This brings me to my story. I done this one time and I got real close like my truck bed was only an inch from his. He got back before me and was going to leave but he couldn't. A few circustances lead to this.

One he did not litter even accidently so the cab of his truck on the passenger side was full with pop bottles sandwich wrappers and other garbage right up to the bottom of the window. Therefore he kept the passenger door locked so no one would open it and spill the crap on the ground.

Two he was a rather large man and being I parked on the drivers side there wasn't enough room for him to open his door and get in his truck.

He tried moving mine so he could get in his and got it stuck right where it sat.

This is where I showed up. I found the guy trying to crawl into his truck through his drivers window from through my passenger window and having a heck of a time. Now it was quite funny to say the least but he was not as ammused.

Anyway Being more slender and a bit more agile I told him I would crawl through and move the truck for him and then we'd pull mine out. He said "I'm not pulling you out" My reply was "Nope I am. Your going to drive mine" I already had the tow strap hooked up anyway. Given the situation he agreed but was still a little grumpy.

We've always gotten along before and after that instance but if I bring it up he still gets cranky calling me a "sum of a female dog". He does however park to the far left side of the landing so his driver door will remain available to this day. For this reason I like to give him some grief whenever I see him by reminding him of how much I taught him that day. He still gets cranky an calls me a "sum of a female dog"

Now that I thick of it I park to the far left of the landing too.

[Stoney]

Here we go...Th late 70"s, I'm at the blue goose waiting for midnight on opening sitting in my truck, the count down begins at 12midnight and all the drunks file out of bar heading for their boats and cars...3 over seriously impared guys come stumbling and crawling out of bar with all equipment in hand, "we're going fisin" they say..walking across 169 inbetween cars going 60mph when one goes down in the middle of the hwy, "Oh my God he's gonna get hit" the guy dumped the minnows and he's on all fours picking them up one by one as cars race by heading for the fishing spot, not even seeing this guy..... The other two guys have fallen on the side of the road laughing their asses off and screaming at him to hurry up their going to miss the bite. Ah, the good old days!

Stoney

[sticks-n-rods]

Well all those are good but this one is pretty good from a few years ago. 

My brother and I were in our early 20's and had borrowed the old man's suburban and 17' lund since he was in Vegas so we run it to Leech on opener.  We wait in line at the ramp of 371 by the channel to Kabekona bay.  For those who have never been there its two ramps with a dock in between.  When its our turn we back the boat in and prepare to push it off, I'm in the boat and my brother is pushing.  Well being kids we did not think to check which ball was on the trailer hitch, and when the boat moves back the 2" trailer comes off the 1 3/4" ball and proceeds to lurch forward and go straight through the back door of the suburban.  When the boat backs into the water the trailer pulls out of the truck and lands on the ground.  Now my brother is pissed and all the guys on the dock are staring in disbelief.  My brother proceeds to pickup the trailer and slam it down on the hitch. 

I was able to talk him into going fishing and calling dad later. 

[MetallMilitia]

one time my buddy hooked up a guy's boat to put it in for him and i made a quick phone call.  As i was talking, i heard a big bang so i turned around to see the guy's boat (still on the trailer) pop off the ball of the truck and the trailer was rolling free for about 15 feet on a steep ramp.  the boats owner was in the boat and he was s**tting bricks!!  luckily the boat was going straight and it made it to the water!  i came back about 10 minutes later and the dude was in his underwear in the water trying to unhook his trailer from his boat