ammusing boat ramp incident... 2024

Red reply :

ok so i just thought this was kinda funny..so i thought i would share....i fish from one of the courtesy docks on the lake here....there is a nice big boat ramp...4 lanes i think....so it usually is pretty busy....anyway...last night i was out there and i see a boat coming in at a rather odd angle to the dock to drop one person off to get the truck....there was a man and a woman in the boat...the woman was driving and the man was on the front ready to get off onto the dock....well first she drives right over the cement boat ramp that is in the water and scrapes the bottom of the boat and motor...then she cant seem to get the boat close enough to the dock to unload the dude.....after a few tries she is now coming straight at the dock....but dosent get it into reverse fast enough and just totally slams into the dock...hard enough it almost made me lose my balance and fall in.....ok then it takes them like 10-15 minutes to load boat to trailer....done deal.....well i am out again tonight and guess who is just pulling in as i start fishing? the same couple.....well this time she gets him ont the dock first try....but he forgot the keys...so while she is diggin for the keys her boat is still in gear and moving right over my line....she whips him the keys and procedes to accelerate right into where i was fishing....i saw what was coming and wasnt able to crank my stuff in fast enough and thus for a second was fighting a bass boat...man that thing was takin drag! needless to say it broke my line....the guy offered to give me a replacement hook or whatever....then started tellin me that she was a good boat driver.....then another 15-20 minutes later they had the boat on the trailer.....anyway...i was out one hook, one weight and one worm...but it was pretty funny....and the worst part...the guy didnt seem to care one bit tat she smashed up the front, bottom and prop on his very expensive looking bass boat!!

Cliff

Long Mike reply :

I guess there are idiots, and then there are wealthy idiots who don't care.

cajun1977. reply :

i wouldnt call them idiots id just say they were way inexperienced...do peoplke fish the docks alot where your at..that is one of my biggest pet peeves people fishing docks on busy boat ramps

Red reply :

i am the only one i have seen there on the dock..most fish away from dock for cats along the shoreline....everyone who comes in has been very nice and always asks if they can pull their boat in front of me(if its really busy and theres no room on the other side of dock) and asks if i am havin any luck and what not...of course i dont mind cuz i know the dock is there for them, not me...and i always offer to help tie up their boat or whatever...one guys motor wouldnt start so he tossed me the rope so i could pull him back to the dock...i fish from one corner of the dock casting away from launch point back towards shore where the cover is....if they need to park the boat in front of me, its no problem, i either cast away from them or just wait till they are done..most of the time it is one boat at a time...so it hasnt been an issue and i havent sensed anyone being disgruntled cuz of the silly bass fisherman on the dock!

Cliff

cart7t reply :

Most public ramps here in Missouri are posted no fishing, that goes for the courtesy docks as well.

As for the boaters in question.

The husband did the right thing by not losing control. The last thing you would want to do would be to verbally reprimand your wife in public. Everyone has to learn at some point, accidents happen.

My wife once convinced me to let her load a Ranger Bass boat I used to have on the trailer. I figured what the heck. There was a tail wind with a little wave action which caused me concern but I though she could handle it. She lined up on the trailer alright but a when she went to drive it up and on a small tail wave lifted the boat and the bow eye went over the top of the bow stop. Thankfully the bow stop swiveled when she drove the doggone thing about 2 feet past the bow stop. I had to wade in and push her back. She was pretty embarrassed but at least she had the thing centered straight on the trailer. No damage other than to her pride. I didn't say anything other than to tell here that loading the boat in that kind of wind and waves would be tough even for me.

RWHusker. reply :

First, the dock on the lake I fish the most is marked no fishing, but that is like an open invitation. For the most part the people fishing get out of the way or try to be helpful. But for an inexperienced boater spectators can't be much fun.

And that brings me to my second point. If you haven't had a boat dock incident you havn't loaded a boat.

GO BIG RED

Red reply :

yeah there isnt any "no fishing " signs here..and i stay out of the way and all that....and the guy was cool afterwords and offered to replace any tackle i had lost....i just found it rather comical and i wasnt upset at all....believe me i ave had my share of "incidents" at the boat ramp while loading/unloading a friends boat....the only thing i am pretty good at is backing the trailer

i wish i could find a better spot to fish from shore....but at all the parks the cover,grass,sticks,stumps are all within casting distance of the dock....the surrounding shorelines are pretty bare

Cliff

roadwarrior reply :

That was a nice story, I guess I was expecting something different. I don't appreciate people fishing the ramp, but it doesn't make me mad, either. Most of the time they just don't know. As far as amusing goes, well...something like that seems to happen all of the time. The most common mistake I see over and over again is the guy that forgets to unhook the boat! Geez!

RobDar reply :

I fully believe there should be boat licensing...like there is for motorcycles etc. I have seen some down right dangerous people on the water.

NOW...if you want to see a woman drive a boat...I will take you out with my wife! We got hassled at our first few tournaments. "You gonna let HER back that thing in?" "Does she know which way is forward?" and that kind of thing...most of it just innocent ribbings...some of it not, but anyway...

No one teases her anymore. She grew up on lake michigan...her dad was a charter captian...she was backing in and driving a 32' sport craft by age 14.

ThomasL reply :

Well i guess i am not the only one also that has to load his boat by himself,i

know some may look at me weird when loading back up to go home.

I tie the boat to the dock,get the truck back down the ramp,go back to the boat and

with the trolling motor head it toward the trailer with enough speed to float it mostly

on the trailer,hop out hook the rope and crank er in since i do not have a drive on

trailer,takes alittle more time but is safer to me than trying to drive it on with the

big motor.

Red reply :

yeah i see alot of guys doing it by themsleves too....and most seem to have it down pretty good, they do it the same way..tie up, back trailer, load boat and move out

maybe people are ticked that i am fishing the dock and just dont say anything....but as far as i can tell it isnt a problem, i stay out of the way and if someone needs to tie up their boat on the side i am fishing i just stop fishing till they are done, no big deal.

Cliff

michbass reply :

Well the first problem is that he let her drive.

rdneckhntr reply :

Take a video camera next time for us lol...some people are just stupid...

Red reply :

wish i had a video camera..lol...anyway after reading some of these responses about fishing from the courtesty docks and such....all day long i thought about it and felt like i was doing something wrong....like maybe i am in the way....so today i decided to try along the shoreline some and see how i did...i managed one dink and that was it....but it was kida nice not having boats in and out and running over my line...i did go back to the dock tho right before i left just for a few minutes but didnt have any action....plus walking the shoreline i can cover more water....so maybe i will stick to that for a hile..after all the dock hasnt produced anything but dinks so why not try something new, eh?

Cliff

Way2slow reply :

Ramp Stories, here's a real good one that happened a long time ago. I'm not going to use names because this guy is now in the pro football hall of fame, so I figure he must have done something right.

About 40 years ago our small town had a special day for one of it's hometown heroes drafted by the Oakland raiders. Some of the stuff he recieved was a new Blazer from the Chevy dealer and a new aluminum fishing boat from the boat dealers. A couple of days later I was headed to the lake and this person was in front of me at the ramp, getting ready to make his first trip in the boat. I guess in a hurry to get off the ramp so I could launch he backed in, slid the boat off with a rope tied to it and pulled it back to the ramp with the trailer, untied and went to park the Blazer. When he got back to the boat, it was filling with water where he forgot the plug. He quickly ran back to the Blazer, backed the trailer in and I helped him load the boat. He pulled out to let it drain, I told him I was in no hurry but he was rushing anyway, put the plug in and backed in but the rope hung the trailer so he jumped out to untangle the rope. Well, this time he forgot to put the Blazer in part or missed park, either way the door almost knocked him down as it when by him headed for 12 feet deep water. The rope on the front of the boat was still tangled on the trailer and somehow it managed to pull the bow down and over sidedways so it took on enough water to sink it also. I gave him a ride back to town so he could get a tow truck to get everything back out of the lake. Kinda what you call having a bad day.

dickenscpa reply :

Quote
And that brings me to my second point. If you haven't had a boat dock incident you havn't loaded a boat.
GO BIG RED

That is the absolute truth! Everybody's gotta learn. Even if my wife and 4 yr old are with me I launch and load my boat completely by myself. The day after I bought my bass boat on 3/31/07, unfortunately it was April fool's day, I forgot the plug on my maiden voyage. I learned and rigged me a little deal that would make it hard to forget the plug in the future. There was a crowd and I pulled my boat completely out of the way to let it drain. Wound up not launching because we wasted too much time and had to get to Church.

My next time I went to a different ramp. Me, wife and son along with another couple were the only two boats at the dock. I knew I'd be slow so I told him go ahead even though I was there first. He must have noticed the fear and knew I was a newbie. He tied his boat to the courtesy dock let me back my truck in. He told me to get in the boat and he did my truck in forward and reverse to let me get a feel for how far back the trailer needed to be in for the boat to come off. He told me to make a mental picture of how submerged my bunks were.

Unfortunately he wasn't there when it came time to load up and I backed my trailer in and ran my boat into one of my turn signals and broke it at the weld!LOL! But, I learned from that mistake too.

That was 4-5 weeks ago and my wife commented this past weekend that I can get the boat off and on the trailer so fast that her and my son can't hardly get on dry land and remove their life vests before I'm tied down and ready to go. Practice and confidence both require time.

Ghost Rider reply :

Good stories.... you can fish from the boat ramp docks as longs as you are out of the way...that includes ice chest , truck , folding chair etc.

My woman drive my jet on and off the trailer and i am in the process of teaching her to back up a trailer but not the boat trailer just yet. Oh we power load and unload do to the fact my trailer doesnot have a wench to pull the boat up

Shad_Master reply :

Here's another ramp story -- last Sat evening I was out on the local lake and it was getting dark so I headed in -- there were boats on both sides of the ramp so I waited until one pulled off and, since I was alone, pulled up and tied off. As I was walking up to the truck, another guy pulled along side and asked if it would be okay for him to back in a load up his son and his buddy (they were in a 2-man "tupperwear" boat) he said it would only take a minute. I said sure. As I was talking to him the truck for the boat on the other side was backing down. When I pulled up to the staging area the guy was still trying to load up the 2-man and the other truck was pulling out, so I decided to back down that side and then pull the boat around. It took me a couple of tries because I had to back over to the other ramp. As I was backing my trailer down, another boat pulled in and just kept on comming - I thought he was going to drive up on my trailer. By this time the truck with the 2-man had pulled out so I pulled out and proceeded to back down the other side and loaded with no problem. Was this the wrong way to handle this - in the mean time there are about 6 more boats waiting to pull in?

HunteR reply :

Heh, I bought my boat in Feb this year.

First time out I almost sank her for leaving the plug out. :-[

I panicked and backed the truck back under her to pull her out to drain.

Later my buddy whom I have been loading and unloading his boat for years said "Why didn't ya just pop the plug in and turn on your bilge?" :

LMAO... Well a few trips later with my son, same thing Forgot the plug...This time he is panicking, and I am calm. Don't freak I say, pop the plug in, turn on the bilge, we were dry afore we were more n a few yards from the dock.

Unless they are seriously unsafe, I never pass judgment, as this could very well be me that is the spectacle...Did I mention that on my maiden voyage to Coffeen the big guys were having a tourny?

O yeah, A sht load of tourny ready dudes got to watch that go down!

Hahahahaha O well

Live and Learn / Live and LET LEARN!

Dave

guest reply :

My favorite boat docking story happened on Long Island about 12 years ago.

The ferry at Port Jefferson was pulling into the dock but the captain, a reputed tippler, was going a tad fast.

For those of you who don't know, the Port Jeff Ferry is a BIG BOAT. I can carry over 100 cars on three levels.

So this behemoth is coming in and those of us lunching on shore can see what's coming. Sure enough,

Ka-Boom it plows into the dock and just keeps going. The big timbers and pilings are like so many matchsticks. It was incredible. I just sat there with my jaw agape

Way2slow reply :

Late one evening (almost dark) my dad loaded my boat on the wrong trailer. The guy didn't know what the crap was going on.

My dad can't back a trailer so I launch the boat with him in the boat and he drives it to the dock (he really can't drive a boat either so that's scary too, constantly slaming gears with motor running way to fast but that's another subject) while I park the truck. When we come in, just before getting to the dock he takes the steering wheel and I jump out onto the dock, get the truck, back it down and he drives the boat on. He didn't notice just as I was ready to back my truck down, another truck backed his down. My dad likes to see if he can have it on the trailer by the time I get back there to sinch it down. He saw that trailer coming down the ramp, thought it was me and drove right up on it before the in the other truck knew what hit him.

Low_Budget_Hooker reply :

You gotta learn somewhere, sometime. (Right RiskKid, Muddy ?)

We learn from our mistakes (hopefully)

I made my share of them learning with a 14 ft jon. Thought I was the man after a 1/2 yr or so. It was easier for me to do alone. I used the old "Bow line to bumper" trick too. Slick.

Then I got my first real boat, a 17 ft manatee. New game. Now we added weight to the equation. New mistakes, New lessons.

Then my friend bought a 27 (29?) Grady-White. New Mistakes, New lessons.

Using your head is the big key. Asking someone with experience is NOTHING to be EMBARRASSED about! I have gone so far as to check up on a nice couple out of Barrington, RI while they were on the bay. I noticed the yellow hulled boat as the one who asked me to help a few weeks before. They explained that they were new to boating and had taken a safety course but had lots to learn and didn't want to get hurt or have a needless accident.

I FULLY explained how and why I was doing what I was as I backed them in and launched their boat.

I explained to each of them that they each have a role to play and the steps are simple and will become repetitive with time. A system.

well, I noticed them on the backside of Prudence Island one day and motored over to say Hi and see how things were going.

We ended up chatting for a good hour, sharing a drink and a snack and answering some very good questions they had. Often, out of 1 question come 5 more and a few interjections. What if this happens, this is how this happens, etc etc

They got a great education, FOR FREE by just asking. Not to mention that we each have 1 more friend out there and on the water, you can't have too many friends.

Don_B reply :

Some good stories. I can only imagine the chaos if some of them were launching at some of the unfinished ramps on the rivers here, especially when the rivers are a little high. I fish mostly by myself, and sometimes trailering a boat back on in current can be quite difficult, to say the least.

The courtesy ramp is a little to the left......

Don_B reply :

Here's another on, taken right after I got it trailered after about a 15 minute struggle.

Rattlinrogue reply :

I never did anything like that(too poor),but I can remember some loading goof ups when I first started.I'll bet everybody within eyesight got a good laugh or two.It just takes a little experience and a little advice.

Red reply :

well about fishing from the docks here in waco texas...some mentioned that it isnt allowed in their neck of the woods and all that...well i happened to be heading to the dock the other night when the park rangers were launching their boat....i spoke to one of them in the parking lot for a few minutes...it is not allowed...but there is no signs....guess it is supposed to be a "known" thing...anyway he told me that technically it is not allowed, but he said i could when it isnt busy..and if a boat comes in i need to have my line out of the water...he was very nice and i told him it wasnt a problem cuz i had a few other spots down the shoreline i like too...at least i know now....but i dont understand why they just dont put up a sign if they dont want people fishing there? they put up no swimming signs and stuff right? but none of it matters right now cuz the freakin lake is flooded again so i cant even get into the park anyway...and more rain all week is expected...anyway just thought i would fill ya'll in on that

Cliff

perchpunk22 reply :

oops!

576

ammusing boat ramp incident... 2024

related Bass Boats Canoes Kayaks topic

previous topic

next topic

most viewed Bass Boats Canoes Kayaks topic