The lighter side of fishing, tell your most embarrassing boat fiasco

[Gone Fishin']

We all learned about boating and fishing sometime. Along the way we made some embarrassing boating mistakes, share them please.

I thought of this when I heard an acquaintance of mine got a brand new boat but the trolling motor wouldn't work. He came from a tillar handle and didn't know the foot control had a switch on it. That happened to him today and I heard about it a short time ago.

Me? Whew, so many to pick from...

Putting the boat in and the rope broke and I had to wade out to retrieve my boat before it got to deep water. I once loaded the boat and it was sitting crooked. The water was down and the ramp had a drop off that wouldn't allow me to get the trailer deeper. I had to drive five miles to another rampwith the boat sitting all wampy-jawed to fix that one. Last fall I took my hat off to wipe my brow and had my new expensive sunglasses up on the bill of the cap until they dove into the lake. I'm sure I provided some entertainment at the ramp to spectators a time or two.

[slabbandit]

Old, metal bladed, trolling motor clamped onto side of my flat-bottom at Lake Conway Ar. Had to make a mad dash to the bank one morning so had the trolling motor on high. Turned motor off with push button on end of handle and tipped trolling motor over into boat when I hit shallow water. Had to roll up my pants legs to try to jump to the bank. Last leg to leave the boat hung my rolled up britches on the clamp holding trolling motor on boat. When this happened the button slammed the bottom of the boat and came on on high with me doing the splits inches above the whirling metal blade!! I was screaming at my buddy that was laughing so hard he couldn't move. He started walking up the boat and that made things worse as the motor seemed like it had a mind of it's own as it lunged up at me with every step he took!! Finally, he thought to just pull one of the clamps off the battery.
I can still hear his laughter echoing across the cypress filled back water as I scampered up behind the first big tree I could find.

[Grainraiser]

Years ago I tried to use those rubber grommets to mount my trolling motor. I hit the lake chasing white bass in the trolling motor comes out of it's mount and deemed useless. I then run out of gas on the big motor 2 miles from the ramp. I had to grip the trolling motor by hand while hanging over the bow and steer the boat all the way back to the ramp. The trolling motor was a 80lb thrust unit and it had too much torque for me to hand hold it in high gear. It took me nearly 2 hours to get that darn boat boat to ramp. From that day forward I keep extra gas in the boat and bolted the trolling motor to the bow of the boat.

[slabbandit]

Wow! that sounds like a tough day!!

[slabbandit]

One of my friends is an Arkansas Razorback fan like no other. One year back in the late 80's he and I took about a 6-mile boat ride on the Arkansas River in my brand new Tracker PF-16 Stick Steering. We were planning on watching the Razorbacks play in the 1989 Cotton Bowl later that afternoon. He watched the time all day and said we better go so we could cook some food before the game. Well, we stowed all our gear and I hit the starter and nothing, I pulled the cowling, checked fuel and everything. He was about to have a fit. He started trolling as I was checking out the engine.
As I was standing there scratching my head I felt something hit my leg. I looked down and saw my kill cord hanging off my lifevest. Well, I wouldn't be a good friend if I didn't mess with him a little. I said, "If all the batteries will hold out we might catch the very end of the game." He was sick. I said well I guess I might as well put the cowling back on. I walked up as he was running the trolling motor and flipped the kill switch and it fired right up. We laid the ears back as we hauled tail back to the ramp. By the time he got the trailer in the water, I was already on it. We walked into his house just in time to see the football leave his foot on the kick off!!

[Mmirg]

First boat I bought was an old 24' pontoon about 20 years ago. Took all 6 kids and the wife out for a day of fishing and fun. When we went to leave the first spot and the motor wouldn't even turn over, I thought the battery must be dead.
I waived down a nice couple passing by to ask for a jump start, lucky for me the people I bought the boat from left me with some cables. We hooked up the cables and it still wouldn't turn over, what the heck! That's when the guy in the helper boat asked if it was in neutral. I jiggled the throttle back and forth and low and behold she fired right up. Boy was I embarrassed. Lesson learned!

Sent from my SM-S908U using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

[Ketchn]

in the dark way early one morning , launched the boat , eased it up to the bank to go move the truck off the ramp , bank was a really steep red clay , feet wet from the launch , stepped out and went right in fast up to me jewels in 60 degree water , one of the brighter moments in self launching for sure and WAY better than black coffee to wake you up right FAST .....

[DockShootinJack]

Bought one of those used plastic 2 people little bass boats. Had the trolling motor up front, cruising along, hit a stump and ripped the trolling motor off the front. Had to use my feet to hold the lower end of the shaft and my hands on the upper part. Made to a long 2 miles back to the ramp

[justinp61]

in the dark way early one morning , launched the boat , eased it up to the bank to go move the truck off the ramp , bank was a really steep red clay , feet wet from the launch , stepped out and went right in fast up to me jewels in 60 degree water , one of the brighter moments in self launching for sure and WAY better than black coffee to wake you up right FAST .....

Years ago, my buddy and I fished a lot in the winter, we used his dads jon boat. There was a long rope tied the winch eye on the bow. He'd back it in the water and I'd step up on the tongue, unhook the winch, then he'd back in to float the boat. Then I'd push it off the trailer while letting the rope slip through my hand. When he was far enough out of the water, I'd step off the trailer and pull the boat to the bank.

Unknown to us his dad taken the long rope off and put a shorter one on. We went through our normal routine and all was going well until I stepped off the trailer. The end of the rope went through my hands in slow motion and was floating on the waters surface. I started wading out on the ramp trying to catch the rope. There was a little wind and the rope stayed just out of my grasp. I'm over my knees in 50° water chasing the rope when suddenly I step off the side of the ramp and up to my arm pits in cold water. Yes it's better than coffee to wake you up. I couldn't take it and had to wade back to the bank. After dumping the water out of my boots, taking off my socks and as many wet clothes as I could and stay decent. We sat in the truck with it running and the heater on for over 30 minutes until the breeze slowly blew the boat into the bank at the back of the small bay where the ramp was. Then my buddy made the hike to retrieve it, after loading it back up we made our way home. We were very lucky that the wind was blowing into the bay, if it had been blowing out of the bay the boat would've been out in KY Lake in just a couple minutes. Always pay attention to how long the rope is! LOL

[Brag]

I don't know that this is necessarily the worst or most embarrassing, but it just occurred, so I'll post. I was launching by myself the other day. I backed down to the water's edge, took my tie rope and attached it to the dock at the launch and backed in. Usually I'm really good about watching to insure that the rope has cleared my trailer bunks before I pull the truck/trailer out of the water, but this time I wasn't paying attention, the rope hooked the bunk and snapped when I pulled forward. This allowed the boat to start floating freely, so I slammed on the brakes when I saw it, jumped out of the truck and ran to water's edge to see if I could reach the boat. Nope....ran to the dock where I could ALMOST reach the prop on the outboard, but just missed and didn't want to fall in, so I let it drift. Ran back over to the shoreline and thought that the boat would drift towards shore, but it didn't and I became quite concerned that it would drift into the lake instead of into the shore because it was a rainy morning and there appeared to be nobody on the lake (turns out that I was right because I fished for a couple of hours and only saw one or two other boats during that entire time). I finally just put my big boy pants on and waded into the lake to grab the boat before it could completely drift off. Thankfully I only get wet to the knees or just above and did end up fishing (and had a pretty good morning for Crappie). No harm, no foul. I was wet to the knees, but as I said, it was a rainy day and I just accepted being wet for a couple of hours.