Entertainment at the boat launch

[Tailing looper 0]

The rivers are still in pretty rough shape here in the northeast, and we had rain last night, so I decided to do some float tube fishing on my day off today.

 

I went to a nearby lake in VT and parked at a very small state boat launch site on the lake: small concrete ramp, 20' floating dock not in yet, dirt parking lot for a half-dozen or so cars/trailers. Being Monday, I figured I'd be all alone there. There was nobody around in the morning when I got in the water.

 

Despite the constant wind, I had an enjoyable morning of fishing, catching a small stocked brown trout, several bluegills, a bunch of yellow perch, and a bonus 3-lb. largemouth on my 3-wt. rod. When I got back to the launch, there were two guys ready to put boats in.

 

As I put away my gear and took down my rod, the first guy launched his 17' stern drive V-hull fiberglass boat. The dock isn't in yet, so he stayed in the boat and had his buddy launch him. The boat started right up and he cast off the line. But his boat refused to go into reverse and just ground the gears loudly as the wind pushed him into the rocky shore just downwind of the launch. I was ready to put my waders back on and help him when he decided to just put it in forward gear and bounce of the rocks and chew up his prop! Whoa! It made me cringe.

 

The the next guy, alone, backed his 16' aluminum boat with a 6HP kicker in and floated it off the trailer. I wasn't really watching him carefully as I was still putting my stuff away. He beached the boat in the gravel next to the launch and hopped back into this truck to pull out the trailer and park. Suddenly, I heard a horrible noise. I looked up to see his little boat come shooting out of the water and scrape back up the ramp... he never unclipped his trailer winch line from the bow eye before he pulled away in the truck!

 

I never expected such entertainment on an early spring Monday! I can imagine what I'll see on a sunny weekend.... =:-0

 

Tight lines,

Bob

[BattenkillBum 0]

Here in southern Vt the Battenkill, Walloomsac and Mettowee rivers are really rolling too. Still no Hendriksons, a few sporadic blue quills.

[Tailing looper 0]

I fish the Battenkill a bit; between the VT border and the Eagleville covered bridge, usually. I do a lot of fishing on the NY side of the Metawee (Granville-Raceville-Whitehall) and sometimes fish the VT section from Dorset downstream to NY. I almost went to Otter Creek in the Danby area today, but stuck close to home. I'm waiting for the rivers to mellow out a bit. I never fished the Walloomsac. I was on Lake Bomoseen this morning when I saw the boat launch entertainment. :-)

 

Tight lines,

Bob

[eastern fly 0]

I'm not trying to hijack your thread but that reminds me of a day I had. I was in my pontoon sitting at the waters edge. A guy back down with his big money bas boat. Tied his boat to the dock, or he thought. Pulled his truck out to park. When he got back his boat was floating away. The wind pulled it off the cleat. He was hopping around like a girl with hot feet. I finished getting my stuff on. Went out with my pontoon and got his bow line. I towed his boat back to him. Don't you know I didn't hear one word from him. Not thank you, kiss my ass or nothing. His day will come.

 

Kevin

[Tailing looper 0]

I'm not trying to hijack your thread but that reminds me of a day I had.

 

 

No hijack at all! I guess the real reason I started the thread was to hear about other folks' experiences at the boat launch... I'm sure there's a LOT of good stories out there.

 

Take it easy,

Bob

[JSzymczyk 0]

boats certainly tend to bring out the inner dumba$$ in a lot of people. I should write a book.

 

The worst fairly recent recreational one I saw involved (imagine this) people with obviously more money than brains.... Three folks were putting a LARGE cruiser on a trailer- it was 28 or 30 feet, very tall, new, luxury all the way. One genius backed the trailer down with the brand new F350 dually, three tries to get it in straight, and the other two were on the bridge and tried to drive it up on the trailer. They actually did OK, other than turning the launch area into a washing machine. Didn't get the boat on right the first three times, just a little off to this side or that. Final attempt, and they were all getting visibly mad, as well as drawing a crowd of onlookers. Whatever combination of factors, the boat was about six inches from being seated correctly so the driver of the truck decides to get out, walk out on the trailer and try to shove the boat into position... the two jokers on the bridge were arguing and not paying attention. Truck dude is under the bow trying to shove, and the boat dude decides to punch the throttle one more time..... Well, truck dude had his arm between the keel and the bow stanchion of the trailer at that exact moment. Good thing it wasn't TOO far from EMS, but the dude lost his arm below the elbow.

[JSzymczyk 0]

The other one I see quite often and makes me laugh, and laugh, and laugh... there will be a couple people in a 10 foot johnboat with an electric motor, or one of those plastic bass pond hard pontoon looking things.... The Chief Engineer is about 5 feet tall and built like a toothpick. He will be in the stern running the motor, which is sputtering and spraying because half the prop is out of the water even with full shaft extension. That's caused by the Captain, sitting in the very bow, weighing about 600 pounds and the boat is so nose-heavy it's in danger of taking water over the bow if a bluegill makes a rise-ring in front of them... Three separate times I have seen them swamp when approaching a dock, and once I saw them actually flip because the Stay-Puff Man forward decided to get up and reach for his Ho-Ho's in the cooler.

[eastern fly 0]

The other one I see quite often and makes me laugh, and laugh, and laugh... there will be a couple people in a 10 foot johnboat with an electric motor, or one of those plastic bass pond hard pontoon looking things.... The Chief Engineer is about 5 feet tall and built like a toothpick. He will be in the stern running the motor, which is sputtering and spraying because half the prop is out of the water even with full shaft extension. That's caused by the Captain, sitting in the very bow, weighing about 600 pounds and the boat is so nose-heavy it's in danger of taking water over the bow if a bluegill makes a rise-ring in front of them... Three separate times I have seen them swamp when approaching a dock, and once I saw them actually flip because the Stay-Puff Man forward decided to get up and reach for his Ho-Ho's in the cooler.

 

That's come crazy stuff. I'm sure you seen some good/dumb stuff while you served. I was in the US Navy an seen some stupid things also.

Kevin

[Piker20 0]

I was cringing when you said arm, he was lucky it was only below elbow.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

Pere Marquette River, last year right around this time, I'm participating in the annual steelhead outing of my fly tying club. I knew the day was off to a great start before we ever got to the ramp when I arrived at the fly shop and learned that the "drift boat" in which I'd paid $50 for a seat for the day was actually a 10' pram that would have been crowded with two anglers. I was angler #3.

 

So we get to the ramp, we launch our little glorified washtub, clear the ramp, and pull off to the side to wait for the other party of 3 in our group, who are about to launch--and how!--a real (albeit about 20 years old) driftboat borrowed from a guy one of them knew. As we're sorting gear and rigging up, we hear from the vicinity of the ramp a loud OH SH*t!! followed immediately by a huge splash. Yep, they'd unclipped the boat from the trailer and then all three turned their backs to fuss with gear and wader up. Apparently somebody bumped the trailer, initiating a spontaneous, pilotless launch. The boat proceeds downstream. My two companions are like, "Geez, somebody ought to go try to catch it!", but nobody moves. I wade out and intercept the boat while standing thigh-deep in a fast run which was F-U-N fun! (eye rolls) I would soon learn that not one of the three jokers in the borrowed drifter had ever--EVER!--rowed a boat of any kind before. The PM is a narrow, twisty river with lots of wood in the water. Two bends later, they had it lodged crossways against a huge logjam in the deepest part of a bend. As they're sitting there looking at each other, two gleaming new drifters full of guides and clients round the bend to find they can't get through. Oh, it was a happy, happy day.

[JohnP 0]

A friend of mine is a fish biologist in western Washington and, early in his career, spent considerable time doing creel surveys on the Cowlitz River. He told me of witnessing, more than once, what he called the "total launch" - vehicle, trailer and boat.

[mikechell 0]

I've seen my share of boat ramp follies. But I think the most fun is watching people with vastly under-powered (or with bad tires) trying to pull their boat and trailer OUT of the water. Slippin' and slidin' on the boat ramp ... sometimes going backwards, even while spinning the tires. I watched this happened until it was almost one of your "total launches", John. Fortunately for that idiot, someone with a four wheel drive hooked up to him and got him up the ramp.

[zOnk 0]

Bryon --

 

Saw a blog post the other day about a "launch mishap" at the green cottage on the Pere Marquette River. I think this is in the top 10 of "101 ways to not launch a drift boat."

 

Look at the last picture in this blog:

 

http://memoirsofaflygirl.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/fishing-floods/

 

Doh!

[Kudu 0]

I once saw a guy in the early 90's trying to adjust his outboard on his 70's model tri hull at the dock. There was no electric trim. Somehow he managed to cut his index finger off. It rolled onto the ramp. He was howling. The German Shepherd of the marina owner came over and wolfed down the finger. We got the guy medical attention. He was pissed at the dog but the dog could handle his own so to speak.

I've seen boats dropped from trailers, drunks, bonfires on the ramps in the fall and winter, sex, people shooting geese, etc.

Water brings out the best in everybody!

[mikechell 0]

I've seen boats dropped from trailers,

That reminds me of my friend, Jerry. So proud of his Ranger "Eliminator" boat in bright red. Like a lot of guys, he lets fishing partners back the trailer down, so he can drive his boat onto the trailer. This particular partner was not so familiar. When Jerry got the boat on and hollered for the guy to pull forward, the guy started up the ramp. But for some reason, he paused, then moves forward again. The pause was just enough to get the boat's momentum going backward, and off the trailer it went.

They had to push it the rest of the way back down the ramp and reload it. Cost Jerry 2500 bucks to fix it.