dumbest thing you've done while fishing 2024
Luke at Gouldsboro reply :
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 reply :
Me too !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MFBAB reply :
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 reply :
I forgot, I caught the smallie in my avatar that same day so it wasn't all bad.
ChrisAW reply :
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 reply :
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 reply :
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 reply :
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 reply :
I aint telling ;D ;D
Missouribassman95 reply :
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 reply :
I've launched without the plug with my wife and son in the boat, when I first got it.
BassThumb reply :
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. :
Captain Shane Procell reply :
12 miles deep in the everglades, I sunk my boat in alligator infested water.
John J. reply :
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 reply :
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 reply :
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 reply :
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 reply :
Dumbest thing I've done while fishing?
Answered my cell phone.
WanderLust reply :
^^^
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 reply :
QuoteWent 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-pottybut 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
: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 reply :
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 reply :
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 reply :
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 reply :
QuoteWas 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 reply :
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.
Fish Chris reply :
Well honestly, probably not a trip goes by that I don't do some little stupid thing, and then curse myself for being a dum-bass
I'm thinking a few of you might have done this one once or twice..... > Ever got your line wrapped in the t-motor blade ? ....and your rod just ripps down like you just hooked the lake record ! That will really get your heart pumping.... until you realize you are just a complete idiot LOL Then, while your trying to get your line unwrapped from the blade, your looking around, hoping nobody saw you do that ! Doh ! LOL
Another really stupid thing I've done, was to try to take off without pulling up my anchor ! Thank God my boat prop has never caught my anchor rope ! But still, your wondering, "Why is my boat lagging like this" ? Oh.... now I get it ! It's because I'm a dum-bass that forgot to pull up the anchor ! {again, I'm looking around and hoping nobody saw that ! LOL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But hey now, here's a mistake I saw a poor old guy make, that really just hurt to watch....
About 10 years ago, I saw this old guy, launching the most immaculate, mint condition... I dunno, I'd say, 1970 or 1975 Ranger Bass boat (anybody know there first year ?) Obviously he had babied this thing.
Anyway, he was launching it by himself, and had tied the slack end of the launch rope to a tree beside the ramp. He then backed in, until the boat drifted off the trailer, then proceeded to jump on the gas pretty hard, to pull the trailer out. Unfortunately, the slack rope got wrapped over a bar on the back of the trailer, and started doing like the block and tackle effect, as the guy just kept driving toward the parking area ! That fiberglass hull made the ugliest sound I've ever heard as it dragged completely up the ramp, on super rough, pea gravel concrete ! I was really wondering if the boat was going to catch all the way up to the trailer, and what would break next..... when finally the rope snapped.
The poor old guy didn't even know anything had happened, until after he parked, and started to walk back down to the ramp ! Ouch ! Took like 8 of us to lift his boat straight up in the air, then set it back down on his trailer. His hull was so heavily damaged, he was afraid to even put it in the water 
Now that really sucked !
Fish
Hamby reply :
I actually haven't done many dumb things. I guess it's easier when i only launch my boat once a year. Gets put in around may, and taken out in october. I fish out of the back of a buddy's boat when i'm not fishing the lake my family owns property on.
Not too long ago i caught a decent northern on a big jointed rapala. The tail hook was just dangling there, tickling the back of my hand. I had a really bad feeling about it too. As i reached for the pliers, the fish shook and sent the treble into the side of my ring finger near the base, and ALMOST out the top. That skin is stretchy as hell! I freaked and tried to put the fish down. Instead i ended up with a northern hanging from my hand and shaking violently. I'm surprised the weight of the fish alone wasn't able to tear my finger open, let alone all the shaking!
The northern finally shook itself loose and went flopping into the water. I stood there with a rapala hanging from my hand. Surprisingly i hadn't felt a thing. It wasn't bleeding at all either. Took a while to get the hook out by myself. Didn't hurt, i just couldn't get enough leverage with one hand to push the hook all the way through because of how stretchy that skin is. Got it out and kept fishing. 8-)
Dumbest part of that was letting that lure rest on my hand for that split second knowing well how pike are. Letting go of the fish when i felt the pressure on my hand was just the icing on the cake.
MI Gordon reply :
Having got my first boat last July..everyone said I would leave the transom plug out sooner or later. I finally did in october, and it just happened to be the first time my son was with me. I parked my vehicle and walked back to the ramp and my son very calmly said "dad, is water supposed to be coming in the back of the boat?" He was in absolutley no hurry to pass this info on and said it in a perfectly calm voice.
Bankbeater reply :
I've done so many I just can't decide on one .
Catt reply :
Yea Chris I've done the trolling motor thing except mine was at night and the trolling motor was on the front of my buddy's boatdang near yanked it off the front of his boat.
Decided to take the wife fishing in a marsh down in south Louisiana, hooked up the boat, packed every thing in the truck, drove 1 ½ to the launch, launched the boat and was putting every thing into boat only to realize my rod-n-reels were still at home. Looked Carol straight in the eyes and said don't you say a word, she just grinned all the way home.
Done this one dozens of times while night fishing, tied the perfect Palomar knot, cut the tag end and looked down to see the bullet weight sitting on the deck.
done reply :
not sure...so many to chose from. The latest stupidity I did was WOT with the d**n TM still down. I was sooooo lucky I did not damage anything. But I have been in this boat for 2 years and spent more hours than I can count out there on her. It was beyond dumb that I would do something like that and that was LAST WEEK.
princecraft papa reply :
I was musky fishing, I had just tied on a $25 lure to my line, trimmed the tag & threw it overboard, exept....I had actualy tied on to a old piece of line that was on my boat floor. I was really confused when I picked up my rod & there was no lure attached!
I have also launched the boat with no plug!
I left a fishing resort in a deep hangover fog, drove 7 hours home only to realize that I had left all my clothes in my hotel room!
B-Dozer reply :
QuoteI was musky fishing, I had just tied on a $25 lure to my line, trimmed the tag & threw it overboard, exept....I had actualy tied on to a old piece of line that was on my boat floor. I was really confused when I picked up my rod & there was no lure attached!I have also launched the boat with no plug!
I left a fishing resort in a deep hangover fog, drove 7 hours home only to realize that I had left all my clothes in my hotel room!
Drinking problem? I never have a problem drinking. 
1bigpapa reply :
Quote12 miles deep in the everglades, I sunk my boat in alligator infested water.
I'd like to hear a little more about that one!!!
WanderLust reply :
LOL gator bait is NFG...
Last year my buddy hooked a decent largemouth and made the mistake of stepping on dried slime on the rocks. Needless to say, man, fish, rod... everything ended up submerged.
and when he came up... no fish.
Sam reply :
1. Forgot the drain plug. Happens to everyone sooner or later.
2. Cut tag line and watched lure drop into the water and disappear as I actually cut the main line.
3. Being stubborn and not changing baits or locations as I knew I had to do.
4. Lifting bass into the boat in lieu of getting the net and watching a beautiful bass shake off the line and swim away.
5. Playing like Ike landing a fish, running all around and yelling and then watching the line snap and the bass swim off with favorite crankbait. (Found crank along shore six months later and still have it)
6. Forgetting to set the drag and missing a good fish.
7. Not paying attention and talking to partner when removing crankbait and the bass shook hard and the treble hook went into finger. Had to have hook surgically removed by family doctor later that day.
8. In a hurry at the Pamunkey River when I tied up the boat to get the trailer and noticed the boat floating away as the rope did not hold to the dock. Had to swim out to the boat and pull it back to shore.
Otherwise, I am perfect!!!! ;D ;D ;D
triglet reply :
hmm my best one happened last summer. fishing at bay springs with alot of wind. i managed to catch a 3 or so pound bass and was waiting on my buddy to get reeled back in to pass it on to him to go in the livewell. so i thought what the heck ill keep on standing and prop up on the seat. this is where it goes wrong. not sure if another boat passed or just wind but a wave dipped the boat a little and caused my seat to spin out from under me. i dropped my rod luckily it fell in the boat. the fish fell into the bottom of the boat. i feel across the console and knocked the fish finder out of its holder. somehow i managed to catch the fish finder in the air with my right hand. my left arm and head were completely under water, right hand held up in the air with the fish finder and my very good friend managed to somehow catch me by my belt and hold on to me while i climbed back into the boat. we were in about 20 foot of water. think we laughed about 30 minutes before we could fish again. luckily i had another shirt in the boat.
Fishing Cowgirl reply :
QuoteQuote12 miles deep in the everglades, I sunk my boat in alligator infested water.I'd like to hear a little more about that one!!!
x2. Do tell.
Nova Kaw 650 reply :
Left the plug out, several times.
Left the trolling motor down several times, once bending the shaft on a Motorguide TM.
Knocked the bottom end off a motor on a rock that I KNEW was there.
Left a livewell on fill w/o the restrictor/aerator in place. Filled the boat, took the bilge pump 20 minutes to pump it out.
Trolling motor set on 100% (thought it was on about 30%), leaned the wrong way and hit the pedal; climbed back aboard after a few moments of flailing in the water.
bwillis reply :
I fished for over an hour the other morning before I realized that I hadn't separated the claws on the baby rage craw I was using as a jig trailer.
DeanFishesNY reply :
QuoteI fished for over an hour the other morning before I realized that I hadn't separated the claws on the baby rage craw I was using as a jig trailer.
Huh? How is that dumb? I prefer keeping the claws attached most of the time, especially when it's colder and I want a slimmer profile.
bwillis reply :
I prefer using it with them separated and it took me that long before I realized they were still attached.
CAdeltaLipRipper reply :
One time when i was like 8 or 9 i skipped school and went to this little mountain lake called Cherry Lake to trout fish. There was a log connected to the shore that went out on the water resting on a sideways log floating on the water, so it made a T shape. I walked out on the log and got to the end on the floating log (the top part on the T lol) and just started fishing for a bit.
Couple minutes later i felt something crawling on my leg and looked down and it was a spider. I kinda got jumpy and panicked and made a lot of commotion to swat it off....and all the moving unhinged the floating log and....im not the best lumberjack if you catch my drift ;D. Was sittin there hanging on the floating log in 5 feet of water screaming for my dad to come help when i couldve just swam a little towards the shore and stood up lol. My dad had to wade out and get me, then retrieve my rod he was pretty happy
aceman387 reply :
Drank a thermos of old coffee that was sitting in the pot from the week before. I added new grounds and added water and started piling all my gear into the car while it was brewing,i was so excited to go fishing i never thought about checking the decanter to see if it was empty before starting a new pot,i kept wondering why it tasted funny and was luke warm at best,i figured maybe the coffee maker was on its way out before realizing my sister in law was at the house the week before and made a pot and didn't finish it all.
Fisher of Men reply :
No plug. . . been there done that.
When I was a teenager, I caught my Dad's cap with my crankbait and cast it into the water. What made the matter worse was that some jerk in another nearby boat was laughing his tail off. I wanted to punch him at the time, but I'm sure it was pretty funny to see.
I think the dumbest thing I've ever done was after I had loaded the boat and pulled it just out of the water. When I got out of the truck to put the motor toter and straps on, I accidentally hit the truck door lock with my elbow. Of course the truck door slams with engine running and NO ONE around the ramp to help me out. My wife had some keys in her purse, but the purse was still locked in the truck. Here I am blocking the ramp and my truck is running. The nearest phone (no cell phones) at the time was over a mile away. Fortunately, there was a flat-head screwdriver in the boat and I learned real quick how to break into a sliding truck window. :-[
GrizzerGreen reply :
I have only been fishing for bass regularly for about 2 years. And I dont own a boat so I cant say that I have forgotthe plug..
But Id say the dumbest thing Ive done is sitting down and sleeping on the hookset.
"Fish arent biting today..Ill just sit on down and take a load off for a quick second" And wouldnt you know it, almost everytime I get a strike and miss the hookset.
Forgetting to wet the line before tying it down tight has also got to be right up there. I dont know how many lures I have seen fly through the air because I didnt wet the knot first and it wasnt tied right.
Compared to everyones elses mishaps, Id consider myself lucky. haha
Red reply :
QuoteI actually haven't done many dumb things. I guess it's easier when i only launch my boat once a year. Gets put in around may, and taken out in october. I fish out of the back of a buddy's boat when i'm not fishing the lake my family owns property on.Not too long ago i caught a decent northern on a big jointed rapala. The tail hook was just dangling there, tickling the back of my hand. I had a really bad feeling about it too. As i reached for the pliers, the fish shook and sent the treble into the side of my ring finger near the base, and ALMOST out the top. That skin is stretchy as hell! I freaked and tried to put the fish down. Instead i ended up with a northern hanging from my hand and shaking violently. I'm surprised the weight of the fish alone wasn't able to tear my finger open, let alone all the shaking!
The northern finally shook itself loose and went flopping into the water. I stood there with a rapala hanging from my hand. Surprisingly i hadn't felt a thing. It wasn't bleeding at all either. Took a while to get the hook out by myself. Didn't hurt, i just couldn't get enough leverage with one hand to push the hook all the way through because of how stretchy that skin is. Got it out and kept fishing. 8-)
Dumbest part of that was letting that lure rest on my hand for that split second knowing well how pike are. Letting go of the fish when i felt the pressure on my hand was just the icing on the cake.
This made me remember one I did in highschool. Me and a buddy were at a little farmpond fishing for bass. I was using a big popper. The entire pond had this "scum" on the surface from the shore to about 10 feet out, all the way around. So each time my bait got close to it I would flip it out and back to shore to avoid getting the "scum" on my bait. Well I flipped it really hard and back over my head. It got hung in some tall grass behind me. Instead of walking four steps and freeing it, I decide to yank super hard. After a good few yanks that thing came out going about 100 mph and right into the back of my right shoulder (sleeveless shirt). I cut the line and didn't really know what to do because I could not see it. My friend said it was in deep. So I drove to my moms work and was walking down the halls with a big lure hanging from my back. She sent me to the Doc and he ended up having to cut it out with a scalpal.
Bass XL reply :
QuoteDone this one dozens of times while night fishing, tied the perfect Palomar knot, cut the tag end and looked down to see the bullet weight sitting on the deck.
This made me laugh so hard. I'm so glad I'm not the only one.
If I had a dime...
OHIO reply :
Rolled two rods up in my car window and broke one on my ceiling.
All within about two weeks and Bass Pro gave me replacements on all of them. They were all the same exact rods too.
I can't really think of much dumb stuff I have done, but I have witnessed my fair share.
I was with my Dad at a farm pond in Kentucky and there were two other kids there with their Dad.
One of the kids hooked into a nice cat and my Dad went over to help him get it to shore.
The banks are a couple feet high, so when my Dad was lifting it up, it slipped out of his hands.
This kid wasn't letting it go that easy though. He took his shirt off and dove in after it. I have no idea if he actually thought he was going to grab it, but he sure did try.
He came back to shore empty handed of course, but he forgot to take his phone out of his pocket, so it got completely ruined.
His brother then went over to a little dock and sat down on the edge of it. His phone then fell out of his pocket into the water and got completely ruined.
They were brand new phones that they had gotten the week before.
Needless to say, their Dad was ticked. That was the end of that fishing trip for them.
AndyPlaysDrums reply :
QuoteWhen I was a teenager, I caught my Dad's cap with my crankbait and cast it into the water.
Didn't think I had anything for this, then you reminded me that I did this to my buddy last year!
Big Daddy Duke reply :
Like most of you I have done some pretty dumb things while enjoying a day on the water. But the main one that comes to mind was on one of my many attempts to learn how to use a baitcaster. Which by the way I still can't use worth a darn so any tips would be great. Now I have what you would call a bit of a "MILD" temper at times and it will sometimes get the best of me. On this occasion I had went to the local sporting goods and bought a cheap baitcaster to learn on which was probably my first mistake and then headed out to Mark Twain Lake here in Missouri for the first time ever fishing that water. After about 30 45 minutes of surveying I found a nice cove that had lots of good cover and went to work. The first 2 3 cast went pretty smooth and I started thinking that I had it, made a couple more cast and stated to get a little cocky and started bragging to my buddy that I was fishing with my big boy toy. Then it happened, made a long cast dropped the lure close to where I wanted it and then looked down. The reel had back lashed so bad that it looked like a giant wad of tangled line that some one pulled out of the back of there truck. This mad me a little angry but I sat there for close to an hour untangling all that mess and all the while here's by buddy catching bass one of another, which only added to my frustration. So I get it all cleaned up talk a little trash and proceed on my hunt for a monster bass. Throw a few casts and it happened again, I had caused another back lash but this time was worse than before. That was it I was heated took the rod snapped it over my knee and threw it as hard as I could which I'm sure if it would have ended there I would have been fine. The problem came right after the throw, that was when my buddy started rocking the boat from laughter and I lost my footing. Next thing I know I'm treading water and my buddy along with another 2 other guys in another boat are crying there laughing so hard. I was so embarrassed I just told my buddy I would meet him at the dock and headed for shore. By the time I got there I had been able to think about how stupid and funny it had to look seeing a fat man fall head first into the water rather ungracefully and was able to laugh it off myself. Which was a good thing seeming's how my buddy and the other two guys had already made it back and were waiting to tell me all about it. 3 years later it's still my buddy's favorite fishing story.
On a side note this is my first post as I am brand new to this forum so, Hello to all and I look forward to reading, and learning from you all.
Blues19 reply :
I was fishing at a local pond before I could drive so i had my parents drop me off. I made a cast toward a big bush taht was in the middle of the pond. My texas rigged brush hog was buried in the branches and all the swinging wasnt doing anything so i tightened the drag and held the spool and walked backward waiting for my knot or line to break. All of teh sudden the line went slack, but something hit me in the forehead. I knew it had to be the bullet weight coming back and hitting me so i put my hand up to feel the lump it made. Turns out i was wrong, the hook was stuck there. I ripped it out cause I was alone and the blood was like a waterfall. It was about an inch and a half over my eye and i had no glasses so I got lucky.
RoLo reply :
QuoteDumbest thing you've done while fishing
Would you like that numerically or alphabetically? :-?
Roger
Gangley reply :
QuoteDone this one dozens of times while night fishing, tied the perfect Palomar knot, cut the tag end and looked down to see the bullet weight sitting on the deck.
Can't count how many times I have tied the knot before realizing the weight wasn't on the line, lol. Glad I'm not the only one to do this
Fishes in trees reply :
I've been reading through this thread and I realize that I've done alot of the things that have happened to other guys. Several times I could have been severely injured, but wasn't.
Probably the dumbest thing I've done on the water was to mouth off at a Water Patrol agent. He thought I was drunk ( I wasn't, I was stoned - minor difference) He boarded the boat and proceeded to go through the compartments and live well, looking for who knows what. On a positive note, it didn't occur to him to look in my pocket. After an exhaustive search and inventory of all required safety equipment he told me to beat it.
I'm still not sure what he did, i.e. boarding my boat with out an invitation was legal but I don't fish that lake very often any more - and that incident was over 10 years ago. These days when I am required to have a conversation with a Water Patrol or consevation agent (mind you, I don't seek out these conversations) I am totally polite. Yes sir, no sir, short to the point answers to quesitons and I never volunteer anything.
Bass Junkie reply :
I've had a similar experiance with the whole yanking the T-Rig and it coming back thing. I still have the glasses I was wearing, with the scratch right over the right eye. I'm lucky to have that eye. I've also hooked a fishing partner while casting...... Not good.... I've tried to grab a lure with Gammy trebles after flipping it into the air over hydrilla.... hooked my self with a lure I was tying on(still don't know how that one happened).... I also cast a rod into the water. Not mine, mind, but my fishing partners. I was chuckin' a buzzbait, went to cast, and I feel the rod really load up. I chucked the thing 15yards or so into 12ft. of water. I just started reeling as fast as I could, and wouldn't you know it but that stupid thing was still hooked..... I was luuuuuuucky!!!!!! Those are the ones I care to tell :
EDIT: I've also cut off a Rooster-Tail that I was absolutely killing 'em on that day, and watched it bounce off the side of the boat and sink..... And used a medium action rod with frogs for two years..... I missed atleast one teen fish because of that.............. And several 5-6's............
spooksandflukes reply :
Well there is too many dumb things to list here, but a few come to mind. When I was maybe 16 or 17 I was fishing this small mountain river. Its loaded with little redeyes and I had hiked about 3/4 mi to get there and on the first cast my spinner caught a branch of an overhanging hemlock tree. In the process of trying to free my bait I gave it a super yank and it came flying straight at me and stuck two of the trebles right under my right eye. Anyway, I couldn't see to remove it so I had to hike all the way back out to my car so I could use the side mirror to remove the hooks.
Another time I was fishing on my friend's boat. It was early springtime and the fish were really biting good. My friend hooks up and starts fighting with a foul hooked 3lb bass and starts yelling for the net. I reel in several ft of line on my new quantum baitcaster combo and set it on the rear deck floor of the boat. While netting the fish I notice something in the net besides the fish and realize that thing looks a lot like my cell phone. In my rush I had brushed the net across my pocket catching the belt clip and pulling my phone out. I untangle the fish and hand it over and retrieve my phone pull battery out really quick and put it in my gear bag. Then I hear a dragging sound then thump and a splash. I turned around and my rod was no longer on the deck. The water was still in the mid 50s so the last I saw of that rig was it sinking to the bottom of lake Hartwell. Luckily my phone was alright after drying out, but never saw my rod again.
airborne_angler reply :
QuoteI was musky fishing, I had just tied on a $25 lure to my line, trimmed the tag & threw it overboard, exept....I had actualy tied on to a old piece of line that was on my boat floor. I was really confused when I picked up my rod & there was no lure attached!
I did this once with a Mattlures Bluegill.
Ive dropped The pliers overboard when I was trying to shake a treble out of a Trouts mouth. Shook the fish free,opened my hand and in the pliers went.
I was launching my boat out of the back of the truck and ended up getting a crankbait stuck in my my leg. I clipped the line,and went fishing with the lure still attached. On every cast,my leg rattled. Removed it easily when I got home.
I decided for some reason I wanted to Anchor off the rear of the boat,as thats where I fish,and its easier to manage the anchor from back there,instead of climbing up front all the time.
Waves were crashing over the back ,filling up the rear compartment of the Jon Boat I was in. I got to pulling up the anchor(which got stuck),the back end dipped lower and lower until I had to jump ship because the boat had taken on too much water.
I Destroyed(Bent) the shaft to my TM,Broke a blade off the prop, while trying to muscle the sunken boat back on land I didnt have an oar with me.,Yet after I drained everything and recovered my gear,I managed to limp the boat all the way back in(barely),fighting the wind the whole way.
I ended up losing 3 Rod/Reel Combos off the boat in that experience which I retrieved 2 days later.
For those that dont know already...
DO NOT ANCHOR OFF THE BACK OF A BOAT!!
JaxBasser reply :
I had hooked a large bass (5+lbs) on a Horny Toad. As the fish got close to the bank for whatever freaking reason my brain decided "hey, lets try to just flip the fish out of the water onto the bank like an idiot instead of leaning over to lip it". Yeah I lost the fish.
I was dumbfounded as to why I would even try that, I was beyond ticked off. I chalk it up to rust and excitement. Would have been my first fish of the year this year. I caught some other that day so it wasn't so bad though.
AndyPlaysDrums reply :
QuoteDO NOT ANCHOR OFF THE BACK OF A BOAT!!
My boating certification instructor was incessant about this.
shallow thinker reply :
A couple of painful memories........
Once I ended up at the ramp without my boat keys. Still fished with the trolling motor and got a 4 lb bass.
I lost 3 different pairs of expensive sunglasses off the deck of my boat. One was while packing in the driveway at night and the other 2 were taking the glasses off while on the water (then jumping up on plane). Now I wear cheaper glasses
bassman018 reply :
I was fishing off a pier in lake champlain and makea perfect cast with a floating rapala, then i hear a huge splash I turn around to see my dads favorite old rod and reel combo sinking in 40 deg. water. and me with a floating bait the was nothing i could do. Then I was fishing with a brand new 6.6 ultralight doin a side cast unbenounced to me my friend walked up and i wacked him right in theback with my new rod and broke it over him he then fell forward in the water and was unbelievably ticked when I stopped laughing so hard I realized my 100dollar rod was busted. then I casted a popper with a good knot and hit the other side of this river, broke off, then one of my buddies went swimming.... found it... gave it back and I tied it on went for another cast and saw my lure foating away.... I felt so dumb...
baluga reply :
I farted in my waders and forgot about it.
Then later when I got to my car and loosened my belt the stink came out.
Waders!...we don't need no stinking waders!
J Francho reply :
QuoteI farted in my waders and forgot about it.Then later when I got to my car and loosened my belt the stink came out.
Waders!...we don't need no stinking waders!
The old breathable waders Dutch oven.....uggghhhh!
RoLo reply :
QuoteI farted in my waders and forgot about it.Then later when I got to my car and loosened my belt the stink came out.
Waders!...we don't need no stinking waders!
PHEW! Talk about a fate worse than death
Captain Shane Procell reply :
QuoteQuoteQuote12 miles deep in the everglades, I sunk my boat in alligator infested water.I'd like to hear a little more about that one!!!
x2. Do tell.
I was in the everglades backcountry running airboat trails (a place I should never have had my boat) with my friend/sponsor. When I came off plane the lower unit settled into into the swamp muck pretty hard. Never gave it any thought. Filled the livewell with some hawgs and started the run out. Noticed the peehole was clogged. Shut the boat down and both of us were working on unplugging the peehole. What we did not notice was that our weight (500#'s + 220# motor) was causing us to take water over the transome of my skiff. My partner hollers that my fuel tank was floating. I thought we had accidentially knocked the plug out. 20 seconds later the boat had filled to the rub rails and smoothly settled to the bottom of the muck bed. Somewhere during that 20 second period we both bailed out because we were listing hard to starboard and a few seconds from rolling over. Now we are in the water looking at a major problem. The only part of the boat above water was the trolling motor, steering wheel, motor cowling and poling platform. After alot of "What the heck just happened", we worked the boat about 40 yards over to a sawgrass island (I could feel with my feet that the base of the island was dug out by gators). We got the bow up on the island as far as we could and my pardner went to the stern and tried to hold it up as I used a tackle box to bail boat. I would have used the bilge pump but it plugged up immediately by the muck. It took 2 hours to get enough water out of the boat to safely get up on plane. Thankfully the motor started up and off we went. Its funny now ;D....but at the time it was a nightmare X10. Didn't have time to worry about the gators.
Yep thats definately the dumbest thing i think I have ever done.......
BassMike88 reply :
Back in 1994, I was fishing in the Chagrin River with my father for smallmouth bass. As it was getting just past dusk, bats began to fly. A bat got caught in my line. As the hilarity ensued, something unbelievable happened. A bullfrog jumped up and grabbed the bat in it's mouth. I still laugh 17 years later at that. I have a picture from a Polaroid somewhere. I'll show it sometime.
shootermcbob reply :
BassMike88, taking your bat story one step further, I was fishing last summer and felt something on the end of my fishing rod...keeping me from reeling in. I thought it was part of a lily pad since they were everywhere. I reached up to pull "it" off, and a bat bit me on the middle finger.
Rabies shorts ensued shortly thereafter. Not fun.
Now, if i even think something is on my rod/line...on comes the headlamp. ;D
CSimon2 reply :
I have a couple of stories that come to mind while fishing in Canada.
I was 19 and it was my first time going to Canada back in 1996. I had hooked into a pike on the second day there. It was heavy and hard to pull in, so I thought it was huge. I got it to the boat and it was just covered in mud. I had seen nothing like it before or after for that matter. I grabbed it behind the head and brought it up to the boat. I was not able to find my pliers, so stupid me set the northern down in the bottom of the boat. That thing started thrashing and threw mud all over me and my boat buddy. My boat buddy was not too happy with me at the time. It was a quick lesson learned.
The next year I had gone up and had a different boat buddy. This guy had a huge red and white musky prop bait tied on a baitcaster. I was the one driving the boat because it was his first time up there, so when we would move to a different area, he would take out this set up and throw it out and let it run while we were moving. This one time, I don't know exactly what happened, but I heard a splash and then some cussing. His rod and reel had gone for a swim. Luckily it was a topwater lure, so we were able to go and grab that, but he had left the spool disengaged. We sat there as he had to take up his whole spool of line to get back his rod and reel. Funny for me, but not so funny for him.
7mm-08 reply :
Had to swim after a couple of boats when unloading due to rotten rope. Once was just above a lock on the KY River.
I also dropped 2 rods off the boat into Green River Lake in one day. Only time I ever did it and it was two separate occasions on the same day. Both were retrieved with a large treble thankfully.
My cousin hooked a nice bass on a Roostertail and the hook came loose right as he was pulling the bass in to land it. It wrapped around his head then the hook went completely through the cartilage in his ear. He manned up and got it out with pliers. I was in tears laughing so didn't assist much with the removal.
piscicidal reply :
I've got a flats boat that has a poling platform on the back. I was pulling it out of the garage one day to go fish the everglades when the poling platform caught on the red release handle on the garage door lift. You can imagine what happens now...the garage door comes down, my poling platform hooks the garage door. I tear the poling platform off the boat and bend the garage door out in one fell swoop.
Didn't keep me down for too long, though. I grabbed a rubber mallet, banged the garage door back into place (kind of), threw the platform in the backyard and went fishing! Caught a bunch too...
joshholmes reply :
heading out on a lake without checking the weather report in a leaky canoe. lets just say 20+ mph winds pushing you the wrong way down the lake away from your dock and your favorite spot with no cup to bail the boat out, no trolling motor and getting stuck in a rocky area don't go together well
Cecil reply :
QuoteNight 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.
Now that's funny. ;D
South FLA reply :
1. Turned around to check motor tilt while going full speed 60+ and lost a pair of brand new Costa's with 580 lenses!
2. Forgot to put the plug in Jon boat after throwing it over a levee in gator infested water. Did not have a choice so had to floor my 9.9 hp engine to get the water out, put out a wake the size of a sport fisherman while going down the canal AT NIGHT!
3. Tied on a new spinner-bait and proceeded to throw it in the water, problem is I cut the tag end of the knot and when I threw it in it was not attached to my line. Then to did it again! (420 moment in college)
bigbill reply :
Please don't get hurt when you fall on the ground laughing i'm not responcible.
My son is one of those kids who is so smart he has degrees on degrees of education but they took out the common sense i tell him all the time. He is one heck of an engineer but with the hands on stuff we have to watch him. He'll give you the shirt off his back to help you too.
Ok he purchases his buddy's boat. First they all tried to help him tune it. There are two sets of ign points in the engine. He told me they had problems trying to get it running. I went over and tuned it and fired it up.
They cut out the middle seat to install a post seat(the previous owner). Then they tried to bolt in a bench seat again. Then i look at the partical board they use for a strengthener when making the fiberglass on this boat and its soft and swollen and the glass is cracked and the plywood is showing in spots. This was in the late fall.
Trip number 1 "the first outing of the SS Minnow"
Hang on now. We launch the boat on the lake to go pike fishing and luckily the engine won't start. It sat all winter with no stabil in it. This was an intervention from God that day. All of a sudden there is water flowing in the bottom of the boat. My son says there's a crank in the keel of the boat but we have enough time to take it fishing because its a slow leak. I'm thinking my tackle boxes need life preservers too? Since it didn't start we went home.
I repaired the 6'' long crack in the keel. The problem was they tried to use cheese cloth were it wasn't needed. I patched it with just fiberglass. Now its running. We launch it and he forgets the drain plug. Again were taking on water much faster now while were moving. The drain plug is at home of course.
Thats it for me with the SS Minnow.
I notice the boat is very bendable and the fiberglass seems to be weak. We called the non profit org to have them pick up the boat a trailer for free and he donated it. The trailer was like new and the money went to the needy a great cause.
I did feel bad because he purchased it to take me fishing. Maybe soon i'll buy him another boat a better one. I just wished he'd ask me to look at it before he bought the last one. Now the SS minnow has sunk for good its scrapped. Bill
BTW; The look on my face when we were on the water with the keel leaking had to be priceless.
jignfule reply :
stopped fishin and went home
wishin4fishin reply :
Ate a huge breakfast at the crack of dawn, two giant cups of coffee, half an hour later on the far side of the lake the coffee "kicked in."
I realized I didn't pack toilet paper on the boat.
Not a good morning.
jignfule reply :
On 4/9/2011 at 8:39 PM, wishin4fishin said:Ate a huge breakfast at the crack of dawn, two giant cups of coffee, half an hour later on the far side of the lake the coffee "kicked in."
I realized I didn't pack toilet paper on the boat.
Not a good morning.
No NO NO NO NO
Top of the list when your out on a boat TOILET PAPER
Before rods, reel, tackle box, food & water,
TOILET PAPER 
TimJ reply :
my partner takes my plug (type with a closing handle) and puts it in, pointing downwards, outside the stern in my old aluminum...then wondered why water was coming into the boat.
I didn't notice that my trolling motor had rotated and touched the on switch...while on high...and fell out of the boat, almost slow motion. had time to set the rod down and fall, coming back up into my hat, laughing like crazy. found a great ditch along some reeds that day!
tie on a new spinnerbait and toss it into the lake...and watch the tag end disappear behind it.
seems like we all have our days. good to have a sense of humour most days.
TJ
ProCrafter reply :
Just did another dumb thing yesterday....
While launching the boat, put one foot on the boat and one foot to push off and, with high water time, slipped on some algae and fell into the lake. I was in only up to my knees but the shock of 45 degree water put me off for a few seconds and when I got up I noticed my boat was now 20 or so feet away and movin fast!! with nothing to retrieve it and no one on the lake i was forced to venture along the shoreline....waist deep...through peoples backyards with the waterline into the berry bushes and such grabbing stuff to hold onto was impossible and after trudging 100 yards or so I hopped onto a dock where my boat had drifted to....removed my shoes...got out a towel and started fishin!! I paid my launch fee already and was'nt gonna give it up just for dry clothes!!!
Only caught a Perch for the day but for the first time this Spring saw Largemouth cruising the shallows!!
Well off to the T-Mobile store to get a replacement phone...(Lone Casualty!)
islandbass reply :
The dead of winter, the day after Christmas, snow and ice on the ground. After parking the car on site, I put on my waders and boots as if I were donning on battle armor, feeling like a bad-***, ready for fishing combat. Mount up! Lock-n-load!
Rods - Check
Reels - Check
Head Gear - Check
Lures/Bait - Check
Starbuck's Drip Coffee - Check (I live in Seattle, you know 
)
Polarized Glasses - Check
Gloves - Check
Keys - Check
Ready to go!!! A quarter mile in, even with everything on, something felt missing, but I couldn't pin it down as to what it was.
I wade into the water about make my first cast and realize that I didn't bring my wallet.
No wallet = Driving without a License AND more importantly, fishing without a license.
I don't think I've ever been as upset at myself. Doh! Double Doh! Yup. Tucked the tail, walked back to the car and headed home. Fishing liberty expired!
Now if that isn't a dumb move, I don't know what is.
i said ALL day reply :
Fishing topwater at night and was getting tired, made a cast and apparently forgot to hold on to my rod and threw it in the lake. Got it back the next day with the help of GPS and an aquaview. But hey! Got to go fishing two days in a row. I sould loose my grip more often.
Bassin18 reply :
haha one time my baitcaster got some bad backlash so I grabbed my back up spinning reel and pole well I cast and the 2nd half of my pole goes in the water and I jerk and my jig gets caught in a tree so I had to swim out and get the rest of my pole lol
BassMike88 reply :
On 4/9/2011 at 8:39 PM, wishin4fishin said:Ate a huge breakfast at the crack of dawn, two giant cups of coffee, half an hour later on the far side of the lake the coffee "kicked in."
I realized I didn't pack toilet paper on the boat.
Not a good morning.
BassChump reply :
On a nice warm sunny day last summer I took my girlfriend for her first smallmouth trip on the Umpqua River on the Oregon coast. Me, being the experienced boater that I am, calmly put the boat in the water and tie it to the dock. I park the truck, get in the front seat and turn on the trolling motor. The fishing is so good on the Umpqua that I usually troll to my first spot. I'll catch a few on a roostertail before I get the craws or jigs out.
So there we are, she is sitting in the back seat looking rearward and I'm up front looking forward trolling along having a great time.
After a while she happens to look at the fishfinder on the console only to find the floor is wet. She asks me if there is supposed to be water on the floor. Ok, my first embarassing mistake. I forgot the plug. So I grab a plug, lean over the back, put it in the hole and confidently flip on the bilge pump. I tell her not to worry about it. It will pump out in no time at all. Unfortunately I'm not done being stupid yet.
After another 15 minutes or so, she looks back again and there is water up past the drivers seat and screams, we're sinking!!!!!! She wasn't too far off. I had about an inch or two before the boat would have been gone. I had to have her get on the front of the boat, it was that close.
What happened is that I put the drain plug in the livewell inlet hole instead of the bilge drain.
I didn't just make the simple mistake of forgetting the drain plug just once, I did it twice and I did it on the same trip.
She has never let me forget that one.
pa mountain man reply :
I'll share someone else's moment that I happened to be semi involved in...
My buddy and I were night fishing on a moonless swealtering night, and had just entered our favorite cove about 0300. This cove is a mile long, and has a road that runs halfway down it, but the fishing is excellent on the opposite side of the road. Through the darkness we hear "Toby! Thats it, you're done, I'm over it, get in the truck!" about once every 2 minutes. We expected to see some poor kid getting yelled at when we reached the back of the cove. As we get closer, we see that Toby is a beagle that nips at the owner's ear, who is laying on the ground surrounded by beer cans, which causes him to yell his trademark phrase. I'm running the TM, and being very quiet as I go by him, but as we're right in front of him, my buddy ripped the loudest fart I've ever heard, and that guy sat up like he was waiting for a reason, and asked if we were doing any good, but before we could answer, he layed back down and passed out. We hovered around for a while, and fed the dog our food, and watched as the guy had 100's of bugs crawling on him.
Though he probably doesn't remember it, I'm sure that was one of his worst fishing trips.
As for me,
I hung a rattle trap up in a low hanging limb, and instead of going over to unhook it, I jerked the line, and watched the chrome missle come at my head in slow motion. I pierced my left nostril with one of the treble hooks. My buddy snipped the barb off, and I removed it with no trouble, but I bled quite alot for a while.
Bankbeater reply :
Two weeks ago, while digging out a backlash, I somehow managed to get the line wrapped around my feet. Not only that, but I got the line tangled in my shoe strings, lost my balance, and almost fell in.
linehand reply :
Yesterday I was just out on a cruise down the river. About an hour in and a few brews my buddy says what the....just then I see water pouring out of the front livewell. Not a huge deal except that is where I store tackle. What a mess. Disable the livewell dumb dumb if you are going to use it for storage.
fadetoblack21 reply :
On 3/23/2011 at 10:11 AM, airborne_angler said:For those that dont know already...
DO NOT ANCHOR OFF THE BACK OF A BOAT!!
Me and my fishing buddy go cat fishing below the LOZ dam here in Missouri alot. Last summer we decided to use 2 homemade anchors, one in front and one in back, to keep the boat from swaying in the current. We always anchored the front of the boat towards the current. Now the anchors were 3" diameter pvc pipe about 2 feet long each with rebar rods crossed through the base and then filled with cement. The rebar had a tendency to hang on big rocks.
Well they started to let out alot of water on the dam and we were sitting right in the path of it. . . and we were doing fine until we decided to leave. I pulled my anchor up thinking he had his up already (I was in front). Walk to the console, sit down, and fire up the motor all while the current is turning the front of the boat putting the back of the boat directly in the swift water. At that moment my buddy flys to the front of the boat yelling at me. . . . . the current was pushing us so hard and the weight of both of us in back plus the anchor still hooked to the river bottom was pulling the back right corner into the water. . . upon seeing this I quickly followed him to the front of the boat and watched with great relief as the corner emerged from the water. Once I worked up enough nerve to walk back there and cut the line we were fine. . . but I will NEVER EVER anchor from the back again. We both still talk about that. . . and its usually not a very present topic either as it scared the crap out of both of us. . .
Lake O Bassman reply :
Last summer we had a club tournament at lake Okeechobee out of Clewiston. We have a draw club and I did not draw a co-angler. I was running a little late and got to the launch with about 15 minutes to get launched, so I did not see many of the guys except for blastoff out of the rim ditch. I fished pretty close in the West Wall area, and had a small limit when I went to move and blew the top cylinder in my motor. I fished on trolling motor for the balance of the day and went in about an hour early, and put the boat on the trailer and got a burger at Rolands. I then went to the counter to buy some refreshments for the guys at weigh-in. While at the counter, the teenage girl at the register asked what was on my shirt. I said I don't know. She walked around from behind the counter and pulled something off the velcro on the back of my vented fishing shirt. It was a pair of my wifes thong underwear, that I guess had stuck to it that morning when I got it out of the dryer. She held them up, and I said those are my wife's; and she said I hope so. I have never been so glad to be late in the morning and I still wonder what the people were thinking in the restaurant seeing someone eating their burger with underwear on their back. I ended up telling the guys because it was so funny.
Avalonjohn44 reply :
I was salt water fishing with a snapper popping rig, which is a large popper cork, a two foot leader, and a little hook with a piece of surgical tubing. The baby bluefish just kill this rig. Normally I cast side arm because of the long leader, but I started throwing overhead. I really went for distance on one cast and put all I had in it. I felt something slam into the back of my head, but didn’t really feel any pain at first. I thought the cork had hit me. I kept fishing for a while until my brother asked me if my head hurt. I said not really, but it felt hot. He said it should, you’ve bled all down the back of your shirt. Sure enough, I felt my scalp and there was a good inch long tear just seeping blood. There was a tiny chunk of scalp skin on the end of my hook.
Fishing Cowgirl reply :
Ouuuuchhh
lou304 reply :
On 4/13/2011 at 1:32 AM, Avalonjohn44 said:There was a tiny chunk of scalp skin on the end of my hook.
So, did you catch anything on it?????
green reply :
I have a problem with forgetting to take rubber tubing off hooks... and i wonder why i wasn't hooking anything
Jim McC reply :
I locked my keys in the car when I got to the lake. Then while using my rod to try to pick up the keys from the car's floor, I ran the hook into my thumb. This is all before I even wet a line.
Jaheff reply :
My old fishing friend and I tied his boat up to some brush and started to hit the honey hole. well I went for an overhead cast,got the hook stuck in the brush and birds nested the crap out of the reel. To make it even worse, I did it again on the back up set up! Good thing I used cheap mono back then..
BassThumb reply :
I haven't seen many stories about people falling off their boats. Am I the only who has done this? 
mferris reply :
i have 2 stories,i'll use 2 separate posts....years ago i had a old duracraft alum. boat with a small gas motor.it was a good sized boat and very wide.while fishing with a friend of mine we were going thru a channel to the upper part of the lake.I pulled of to the side to let a canoe get by and hit some rocks with the prop and broke the shear pin.After about an hour of taking turns rowing this wide boat against the wind ,we finally got to the boat ramp.on the way home i remembered there was a spare pin under the motor cover......
mferris reply :
my other story is more bad luck than stupidity,same old alum. boat.i was on the way to the lake to meet some friends very early morning. i noticed while driving 1 trailer tire was almost flat.i went thru a yellow traffic lite and pulled in to a gas station for air when the officer pulled in behind. despite my pleas i got a ticket cause in his words the truck went thru the yellow lite but the boat went thru the red...got to the boat ramp ,backed the boat in and the rope broke and it drifted into the channel...a guy fishing on shore casted a spinnerbait to it and finally snagged some gear in the boat....he was able to guide it to shore where we found out i never put the plug in!!!!after bailing the water out and went fishing,of course we caught nothing.......
#pat_walker_fishing reply :
I was fishing my first night tournament at pickwick.....hadent had a bite all night then all of a sudden i felt... tap,tap........so i set the hook on what feels like a really nice fish.....onley to see at the boat that my nice bass was a peice of flat shelf rock.....very embarassing
MrsBass reply :
Well, I'm going to blame my hubby on this one, but I'm the one that ended up looking stupid.
About 5 years ago, we are trolling along in the lake, heading for our favorite haunts, but my husband wants to troll for Northerns on the way there.
No biggie, we are tooling around and my husband sets the darn hook so hard on a bite that the tiny northern and the huge lure both launched out of the water and hooked me badly in the back of the arm. You know that soft spot, okay well you are mostly men, but the soft tender skin right in the back of the arm? Well I had a huge treble hook AND a fish stuck to my arm.
(it was too painful to try and get the little pike off so I wrapped him with a ripped towel to my arm to secure it and the lure)
This is before we had heavy duty wire cutters in the boat (we keep them always now) so we had to go back to shore with me, a big pike lure and a small northern all stuck to my arm.
Ended up going to the ER with the lure inbedded in my flesh, thank God we managed to remove the Northern first 
Do you think I bring this up to my husband regularly ??
flyboy reply :
I was fishing a tournament about 30 years ago and ran full out to the first place I wanted to fish. I caught great fish on this spot for a month prior to this tournament and had all the confidence in the world in this spot. When I got there, three boats that were not in the tournament were camped out on "My Spot." I was so mad that I basically crossed my arms on the wheel to turn while running full out and launched my partner about five feet into the air and fifteen feet or so from the boat. That was bad enough but the worst part was he was one of my best customers in the business I was in at the time.
ArmyAngler reply :
I was running a frog through some thick stuff in a cove, trolling at a good pace. A gator darted out the brush and lunged at my ribbit. I yanked my line to avoid the tie-up, and sent the bait hurling through the air directly at my face. While setting my feet for the "matrix" move, I stepped on the foot control and it jerked the boat out from under my feet. As soon as my head surfaced the water I saw the two dark eyes pointed in my direction. I scrambled for a handle on the boat, knowing the gator was only 20 feet away. Safely in the boat, I switched to deep water tactics.
MrsBass reply :
On 4/20/2011 at 12:44 AM, ArmyAngler said:I was running a frog through some thick stuff in a cove, trolling at a good pace. A gator darted out the brush and lunged at my ribbit. I yanked my line to avoid the tie-up, and sent the bait hurling through the air directly at my face. While setting my feet for the "matrix" move, I stepped on the foot control and it jerked the boat out from under my feet. As soon as my head surfaced the water I saw the two dark eyes pointed in my direction. I scrambled for a handle on the boat, knowing the gator was only 20 feet away. Safely in the boat, I switched to deep water tactics.
I am just not used to fishing places where things can and would eat me!
BassmanDan reply :
I have always fished out of rented jon-boats in NC. One March morning I was throwing a spinnerbait on opening weekend for this lake and hooked the biggest bass BY FAR I had ever caught...(had to be over 10). By the time I got her in I was literally shaking with adrenaline. Now the stupid part.
My "system" back then was to grab a stringer and put the fish on just long enough to snap a pic and get the weight. But I wanted to leave her in the water and so I unhooked her (1st mistake) and held her in the water (2nd mistake) while I fished for the stringer in my bag with my other hand. I had done this many times before without a problem but been warned by my buddy that one day it would backfire on me.
About then she came out of her tiredness from the fight and wallowed that big head and I lost my grip...but she was still out of it and I was able to grab her again!! I was thinking..well actually not thinking at that point about how lucky that was and then CONTINUED to hold her in the water and fish for the stringer (3rd and last act of stupidity). Another two seconds and she shook again and I lost her...again!! My luck was over and I grabbed at her again only to have her slide through my hands and swim off. That day was one of those special pre-spawn days and one boat caught a limit of 6 and 7 pounders...my bass would have ate them for breakfast...and I didn't tell that story at the dock.
MJB_215 reply :
When I was younger I was with my brother and another friend fishing for panfish in a little creek. Well out of nowhere I had to take a dump. So I went behind a tree and did my business. But I needed something to wipe. Well I found this bush with some decent leaves on them. Turned out the bush was poison sumac. It was all over my bum and even eventually made it around front. That was the worst. So stupid
PondBassin reply :
I felt compelled to respond to this topic even though it was started a year ago. I was fishing in a small paddle boat in 20 degree weather and when trying to bank the boat on a high shore, thinking I had the boat run ashore jumped off into the water about shin deep. Ended up with frostbite on at least one toe. What's even worse is that I pushed the boat out to open water where some friends had to retrieve it for me, then proceeded to fish for another 2 hours in bare feet. Very dumb decision...
lizardcaster reply :
Took my wife fishing, and she outfished me...Ill never make that mistake again...
shimmy reply :
On 2/17/2012 at 11:15 AM, lizardcaster said:Took my wife fishing, and she outfished me...Ill never make that mistake again...
Get used to it. It is eerie...very eerie. They always do it. Unbelievable. I gave up trying to beat her. She could fish with her pole hanging off her lap reading a book, do nothing, and catch bigger fish than me. It will never end.
Loved all these stories and a part of my self-esteem has been repaired when i realized i am not alone in this universe. Aside from the 95% of the time i launch i forget to put the plug in and actually have more time preparing to bring buckets and other bottles in case i need to bail, my favorite story was with my brother and dad. The engine just died while fishing since my brother revved it too hard out of the water and it wasn't well oiled and we were left to a trolling motor. My dad was angry as you can imagine but never yelled at us and was always able to forgive us immediately, even though his temper flared up inside. The next cast my brother pulls back, misses the fish and snags my dad in the thigh with the hook and i hear a scream. Look back and it is stuck there. After a minute of removing the hook, my brother got silent and was really feeling bad and my dad just kept quiet and we both knew not to bother him. A few casts later i pull back and miss my fish and my hook comes flying back, i duck, and it punctured my dad in the neck. Luckily it only stuck in a little and easily came out. He then said it was time to go and we left. We were able to laugh about it later in the week. Never stop laughing about this story.
gr8outdoorz reply :
I took a 14ft jon boat on a 40,000 acre lake on a 4th of July weekend. I know...I know...but I wanted to fish Going out in the morning all was good. Started to head back to the boat ramp by 10 to try and miss the traffic and my big motor craped out 
took a LONG time, but the TM got us back. Fighting 3ft waves in high traffic on TM told me I never needed to do that dumb mess again!
Shinyboy reply :
I grew up in a small town in upstate NY right on the Oswego River. Upstate NY is known for it's record snowfalls and HUGE spring runoff and HIGH, raging water levels in the river. On a quick melt year, all of the riverside fenced walkways we would fish from as kids ended up completely submerged under raging torrents.
I was about 12 years old, a year with an extremely bad winter and incredibly high river levels. A buddy and I fished whenever we could but certainly knew the dangers of the high water levels and our parents were very aware of where we fished as well. One morning, we were loading up our gear to fish and were told by both of our parents, "Do NOT go to the river. If you do, you won't be fishing for a long, long time." "Of Course", we replied.
Well, being 12 and full of p i s s and vinegar, a little high water wasn't going to scare us away from our favorite fishing spot! We'll just go where we told our parents we were going and then after a bit, head for the money hole! Great idea, no one will EVER know!!! Well, that plan worked great until about 24 hours later when my dad showed up from work and unrolled the newspaper.
There we were, in all our glory on the front page of the newspaper in about an 8x10 color shot fishing near the raging torrent. The caption below reads, "Two local teens braving the dangerous waters for a chance to land a big one! Turn to page 10 for more photos!!" Turn to page 10 for 6 more shots of me and my buddy, posing with our rods, tackle and a couple fish happier than pigs in slop that we were going to be in the newspaper. Funny how at 12 years old, you don't really think of the consequences of posing for a full spread of glamour shots in the local paper when you're fishing in a place you've been forbidden to go!!
Well, after a nicely reddened rear end, a good tongue lashing and a couple weeks of no fishing. I "think" I learned my lesson. I *never* did anything dangerous after that (I swear)!!! 
tate reply :
Out fishing with my wife….. she catches a nice LMB…. I try to help get it in the boat but ended up kneeling and crushing her Costa sunglasses. Then back at the ramp I am taking her jacket out of the boat and drop her cell phone in the lake. Oh well it could have been worse …….
tugsandpulls reply :
one funny thing as a kid i put my brandnew rod and reel on a y stick to go pee well a big ole carp grabbed it and in the river it went my dad went swimming for it but never could catch it lol
Diggy reply :
I havent had any mishaps since falling into a lake trying to catch shiners when I was a small child, but my friends have gotten my tackle stuck in trees 14-20 feet high. Loaning them the tackle seems to be my stupidity...they are restricted to old unused rusty rattle traps and soft plastics.
Ive also lost multiple lures trying to retrieve lures that broke off.....lost 3 additional lures trying to snag and recover 2 frogs that snapped off a bad spool of PP. I then went to walmart to buy boots thinking I could walk out to get them all only to find out it drops down to like 10 feet. I then paid a kid on a kayak 10 dollars to get my frogs back.....he got one and the other sunk...expensive day there.
4 lost lures (20 bucks)
10 dollars paid to kayaker
New line needed after pulling the old line off in a rage 15 bucks
Boots 25 bucks, but returned them
fishnla reply :
Reach to far over front of boat to get a bait off of a stump, while a "GOOD" friend had control of the trolling motor. I guess he realized I was getting hot.
whitwolf reply :
This was before I hit the lake. I was In a hurry to get to the ramp , rushing around getting everything loaded into the car and meet my buddy at the ramp for a fine day of Spring fishing.
I pull out of the driveway and think it would be a nice gesture to stop get a couple of biscuits for me and my buddy so I stop, get the biscuits, and head to the ramp.
I get there and get out and see something funny on the back of the car.......It's my sweatshirt, two worm bags, and a gatorade. I felt sick as my big tackle box with all my spinnerbaits, crankbaits, topwaters, etc Is not there.
I backtracked but never found the tacklebox. I was sick . I went back home and picked up a few crankbaits and spinnerbiats I had in the tackle room and headed back to the ramp. I was determined to have a good day regardless of the morning and hopped on the boat . I bent over and right off my head my sunglasses went Into the water and sunk.
When all was said and done i estimated I lost close to $300.00 in a few short hours. It pays to be prepared, take your time and do things right and always be aware of what you're doing. :-)
kanasbassfisher08 reply :
one of my favorites cus i have done it man that made me chuckleOn 3/6/2011 at 5:34 AM, Ima Bass Ninja said: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.. :-/
vapredhunter reply :
My brother and I once lanched a new boat on the boat ramp while backing down. The boat slipped of the trailer just like it was on rollers landed on the keel and tipped to one side LOL!!! I guess the new waxed hull was just that slick on the carpet. We had to disconnect the trailer from the truck and crank it under the boat then chock the wheels and push it down to hook it back up !!!!!! The look on Justins face was priceless as he was sitting in the boat wondering what happen.
kanasbassfisher08 reply :
Back in college in pittsburg ks me and my roomate where out fishing a couple of strip pits in the area. we went to a local swamp pit that was very hard to walk or get a bout around but luckly we had a old 2man boat. we had all our gear 4 poles each nothing great but proud to have. we were killing the bass it was a shollow marsh with tons of trees and vegitation. spinnerbait was the key til sunset when we started killing it on a buzzbait and popper bite. well i switched from a popper to a buzzbait and not realizing the weight difference i casted about 7 feet into a tree and as we trolled over to it i was rearing back pulling us closer to the tree well when we got close to the tree i saw a ton of spider webs in the tree and told him wooooo and instead of stoping he gunned it. ( i hate hand trolling motors) and instead of grabbing spiders i tried to dodge a limbful. would of worked if i had steping room in the boat. well i didnt and lost my balance and fell backwards onto the rear corner of the boat swamping the rear of the boat and standing it almost upright. well he was in the front and shot him in and i was soaked too but as i came to reality i saw all my rods slowly sinking and i dove in for them and my buddy was just worried about his phone not realizing his rods where gone too. so we spent about and hour with jigging spoons fishing for rods got 3 of his 4 poles but we froze our +++++ off not funny til now
Will Wetline reply :
In younger days, I used to get overly enthusiastic at times.
Cruising from one spot to another, it suddenly occurred to me that if I tied on a spinnerbait, I'd hammer 'em! Yes! That's what conditions called for!
I put the casting reel on free spool, pulled off some line, tied on the bait. Simple enough.
My buddy in the driver's seat next to me looked over and said,
"I usually string the line through the guides first . . . "
KCL655321 reply :
I went to step onto this little ledge next to a pond to fish from & when I stepped onto it, the grass gave way to a foot & a half hole a cow pushed into the mud & I fell through it & then fell into the water. This was like my first trip with my new Premier & it ended up going in with me, but I managed to keep it above the water. This was like the first week in May, so that water wasn't exactly warm either. Good thing to come out of that day was I went to another pond for the first time(many times since then) & caught my personal best. Of course, I consider falling in more bad luck than stupid, since that piece of ground looked solid until I stepped onto it. Although it was lucky that I didn't break my leg/ankle when I twisted & fell in the water when it was stuck in a cow leg sized hole.
The stupidest thing I've done that was unquestionably stupid was leaving my Gerber Fishing Tool on the back bumper of my Explorer. I went back over the places I drove with it by the pond the next day, but no luck & I was out $50.
Dumb thing I've done many times is cut the main line instead of the tag when trimming my knot. I always hit myself on the head whenever I do that.
TimJ reply :
I have tapped the foot control switch on the Motor Guide when the motor was 90 degrees left and on full. can you say splash?
KCL...I have only cut the line once instead of the tag end and when I threw my buzzbait over the side of the boat, it was gone. I dont do that anymore.
jkarol24 reply :
I left a 2-3 month old pair of $140 Native sunglasses on the top of my jeep as i was in a hurry to get off of the water and pick up a friend. Didnt realize until the next day that they were missing. Must have fallen off as i was driving.
CoBass reply :
The sunglasses stories reminded me of something I did last summer. I was shore fishing along a dam and when the sun got below the top of the dam I took my shades off and put them on the baseball cap I was wearing. A few minutes later a bee started buzzing around my face and without thinking I grabbed the brim of my hat and swatted at the bee. I saw a splash about fifteen feet in front of me and realized I had just sent my $100 shades into the lake.
BassinSoldier reply :
about 4 years ago I was pond hoppin at Ft. Campbell. The topwater bite was on fire trhat day and I had my plano tray out with all of my lucky craft topwaters (sammys, gunfish, etc) well when I was done I walked back up to my jeep and I sat my box down on the hood of the jeep and ended up strikin up a converstaion with another pond hoppin angler. After I was done shootin the bull I got in my jeep n drove home. After I got home, I suddenly realized I had left my box full of 15 dollar lures on the hood...GONE, ALL OF THEM!!!
tkite16 reply :
When I got my first boat. We were at table rock. Boat ran good all day till we were ready to leave. I tried to start it and it wasn't getting fire. We took all spark plugs out and checked them and couldnt find it. Paid a guy $80 to pull me in.
Got home dropped it off at the shop. He called me before I got home said the boat was fixed to come get it. When I got there he said. "Do you know what a kill switch is"? I wanted to crawl under a rock.
loodkop reply :
I towed my boat a bit over a 1000 miles to go tigerfishing in the Zambezi river. First day was a blast and the second morning went well until the boat wouldn't start leaving us stranded miles from camp. Luckily another boat in our group came past and could tow me in. Long story short we couldn't fix it and had to hire a replacement for the rest of the week. Back home the mechanic found that there was a loose wire on the kill switch in the control box. Needless to say the boat hire worked out a bit more expensive than the free repair.
wevo1985 reply :
i was launching the boat and pushing it off the trailer and stepped in a deep hole that was deeper than i was tall and had everything in my pockets( iphone, wallet with money, car lock remote). destroyed most of it, got soaked, and it was a cold day. lol.
retiredbosn reply :
Good gosh, where do I start, I've hooked myself lipping bass, knocked rods and reels into the drink, just about any mishap I've had. One particular bad week I wrote the following,
I wrote this in 2009. I am very incident prone, not accident prone, rather incident. Things happen to me that are so unique and funny, that I sometimes wonder why me. Example, my float trip yesterday, we (my daughter and myself) put in around 7 am and everything was going good, caught a few fish, and decided to head down the river, through the first set of rapids the boat drags, nothing unusual. A few minutes later and we are sitting in the boat with water up past our ankles! The drag knocked the livewell compartment loose and of course the boat is flooding. We are to far down the river to go back, and there is nowhere to pull out until we get to Ronceverte. Fortunately the pressure inside equalizes with what is coming in and the flooding stops. No harm and we decide to keep fishing, the fishing is a little slow, and I decide to paddle down river and get to the submerged islands so we can fish. As we go through the last set of ripples before the islands and the wind catches us and pushes us up river! I try to row against the wind, no use, I stand and try to pole the boat down river, no success there either. As a last resort I get out of the boat and start pushing it down the river, of course I soak my cell phone, it is ruined, my wallet is wet, etc. I trip over rocks and cut my feet, I mean I can not win!!!
On another outing with my son Lucas this spring, we go to Tuckahoe Lake to try and trout fish. It was a little chilly and we are sitting on the bank and I'm telling him stories. Well the bank collapses under us and there we go into the lake, it was freezing. Lucas is screaming, he was scared and cold, my cell phone ruined. So up the hill we go, I had a dry sweatshirt in the car and wrap him up, head back and get the chairs, rods, and everything. Get back to the car and Lucas says where is my trout, back over the bank, fall down, retrieve the fish and head home, it was cold the wind blowing like crazy and my lips were blue.
Went to Anthony to trout fish, first cast hang up across the creek, nothing to do but wade across and get it, except the water is way to deep for that. So I head up the creek wade across at the rapids, fall, lose my sandals, stumble my way back down to retrieve my lure, I'm wet, shoeless and defeated, fall again in the mud. Did I mention that I was in full sight of a campsite, and by now the campers have all turned their chairs around and are watching the bare footed idiot!!! A few minutes after retrieving my lure, I look and low and behold there are my sandals floating in the creek. I come up with the bright idea of hook my shoes using a lure. So I get all ready, people still watching, and make the first cast at my shoes, unfortunately on the back swing I tangle my lure in a tree branch!! The campers are by now holding their stomachs and wiping the tears from their eyes!! Long story short I finally get my shoes back and leave as quickly as possible.
Finally, I decide to take my little brother out fishing at Smith Mountain Lake. We were running full throttle at about 60mph down the lake, and then the engine sputters and dies. There we were five miles from the launch and a long way from any marina. Try as we did, we couldn't get the boat running! I decide to start heading back on the trolling motor, it would be a long trip but we could make it. Except for one thing, the battery died! No problem I have two in the boat, switch to the other battery, in the dark, and start heading back to the launch, all of a sudden we notice we are going backwards. The trolling motor is going backwards, takes 20 minutes to figure out I hooked the positive side of the battery to the negative on the motor and the motor was turning in reverse, switch the wires and start off again. It is dark now, and what do I do, hit a rock, breaking the motor mount, I catch the trolling motor as it is falling into the water. Now I'm trying to hold the motor, Shawn is trying to keep power to it, and I'm trying to manually steer the motor, and then because of the reversed polarity thing, the battery dies. Three miles from the car, and no help, we are sitting in the dark on the river. Fortunately a good samaritan finally tows us in.
Diggy reply :
One of my friends had to go #2 in the woods once, he wiped with leaves....poison ivy
fowlskies reply :
My brother and I had taken our 12' rowboat pond hopping for the day and were headed back home. We had thrown the boat in the back of his truck and had not secured though. Well we get miles down the road and I look in the back of the truck and see that theres no boat, I Iook at my brother and say, umm, wheres the boat???, at which this point he looks in his rearview with a blank look.
We re-traced our route and found the boat sitting in the middle of the road. What had happened is we were stopped at a red light on a hill when it turned green and we took off the boat slipped out of the back of the truck and just sat in the middle of the lane we were in. It was pretty funny when we pulled up to it, it looked like the boat was sitting at the red light waiting for it to turn green. It being in a back country little town made it even more fitting and more suprising that it was still sitting there.
Megastink reply :
I fished a SPRO Frog on 12# fluoro. I lost it....
Robert Riley reply :
I've swam out to get a snagged lure, about 8 feet deep water, warm water luckily enough. On another occasion, i someone lost the rod midcast... It splashed in the water, so i quickly reached over, to grab it, only then to flip the canoe with my tackle box open... So glad they were mostly floaters and a few jigs.
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