Newbe

[lunkerlander]

One day last summer, I was fishing on a rather busy lake.  As I was driving my boat back to the public access, I noticed some commotion.  When I got there, there was a guy trying to load his brand new bassboat.  He was having trouble getting it on the trailer, while who I think was his wife was in the truck backing the trailer.  He kept trying to load it, but never figured it out.

Finally, he had her back the trailer up a bit more and started up on the ramps.  I thought, 'Oh good, now they will get out of the way." But just then he must have gave it full throttle and his boat literally hit the trailer so hard that it jumped up the ramp and over the trailer and hit the tailgate of the truck!

So his brand new boat was part way in the back of his truck with a bent tailgate and a cracked hull.  His wife was screaming and shouting.  And the look on his face was priceless. 

My buddies and I have a term we use for people who aren't good at loading/unloading their boats.  We call them "Once-a-years." Because they only seem to fish once a year, and always take forever loading and unloading their boats because they dont know what the heck they are doing.  I've waited for almost an hour before while 2 people climbed into the lake pulling on ropes to load a boat.  Come on, is it that hard?

I'm not sure whether this guy was a "once-a-year" or worse; some rich city-fisherman with his new truck and boat that assumed by watching other people load their boats that you must go wide open throttle when you drive on a trailer.  I dont think you need all 225hp to push a boat up!  I have 150hp motor on my boat, and I only go 1/4 throttle at most.  Someone should have told this guy that...

[jayswimmer09]

haha well me and my dad got a boat this year and we never had much experiance with docking or anything. after 3 trips we could get in and out in less than 5 minutes without a problem. he must have been a once-a-year

[bluecaddisfly]

 the scary thing is, if they don't know how to load and unload it, whats that say about how they drive it???

[prchslyr]

Must've been a once a year. It only takes a couple times to get the hang of it. I was loading my gramps boat with him in the truck when I was 12.Thats why you leave the wife home and bring a buddy that knows what the hell is going on.

[njsimonson]

Of course, instead of sitting there gawking and complaining, you could have offered the guy a hand, saved him some trouble, and done something sportsmanlike.  I was the same way at one point, but I found that "once-a-years" get off the launch a lot faster with the help of an experienced boat launcher.

There are two wolves inside each of us, a dark one and a light one.  The dark one represents those negative qualities within: greed, deceit, anger, fear, jealousy and selfishness.  The light one represents the postive ones: leadership, pride, strength, honesty, integrity, and civility.  The wolf you choose to feed is the one that will survive.  --American Indian Proverb.

[Shrek]

Amen, njsimonson you sound like the true sportsman  that make up the better half of the people I get a chance to get out with, I see you too are F/ ND . I'm not a native of ND but have been here 20 years and find that most of the people are willing to go out of their way to lend a hand . 

[njsimonson]

Shrek - I guess that makes you a native by adverse possession - You're one of us now. 

Yeah, and don't get me wrong, I too was the same way at one point (young, arrogant, know-it-all-ish).  So I am faaaaar from perfect, but just hoping others learn from my experiences.  The only way we preserve these heritages of hunting, fishing and the outdoors, is by working together and helping each other.

How are things in SW ND, do you even HAVE any ICE in the banana belt?   Had a blast hunting birds down by Hettinger last year.  SOoooOOoo many pheasants flushing at once in one field, it looked like the ground was raining into the sky!!!   My grandma lives up in Watford City, so we make the trek there 1-2 times each fall, they're not short on roodies either!   Even here in Barnes County, we've got some great numbers, pheasants, grouse and even partridge on the way up!

If you're ever around VC, shoot me a PM, best smallie fishing in the STATE!  Tight lines to ya!  Keep fightin the good fight!

[Shrek]

Thanks for the invitation, man we could not ask for nicer weather most lakes have 5 -6 " others more, and it's warm enough to keep the snow off the sidewalks , shoveling snow is not one of my favorite things to do.

[jimmygunns]

There are a couple kinds of people @ boat ramps.  Some are stubborn & don't want help.  Others will lend a hand without asking.  I even had an old timer come up to me this past summer @ the Turtle Flowage while launching myself & only had 1 arm!  I wasn't sure if I should've laughed when he asked me if he could "Lend me a hand"!  True story!

[PowerBaitron]

At one point in time we all had to learn. Sometimes the only guys who can afford the real nice boats are once a years. Because they are busy working to pay it off. Lend em a hand if you can. I always hated that feeling of someone watching you make an ass of yourself at the boat launch.

[Hardguy]

I always said you can entertain yourself with a picnic basket at a boat launch. That is if you do not mind watching people waisting thousands of dollars. I can tell alot of stories. One that comes to mind  is just before Memorial day a few years ago a couple of guys brought a new bass boat down and removed all straps and the winch rope. The launch was in the process of being paved so there was a couple of feet gap between the asphalt and the concrete launch planks. There was gravel washed out everwhere. I was in the water waiting to go out so I sat and watched from the river. Anytime I see T stickers I keep my distance. Here they came down the launch and hit the dip. Off came the boat right on the gravel filled launch. I got sick. The checked out the damage and pushed the boat back on the trailer and left. Ouch! Never even got wet.

[theProfessor]

I was waiting for my friend to get his trailer at a big launch on lake erie this summer and a ford explorer was backing down the next ramp over( this place has 14 ramps!!). the truck stops just short of the water and a guy gets out of the driver's seatclips a rope onto each of the jetskis on the trailer and goes up on the dock. meanwhile his (smokin' red-hot bikini wearing) blonde girlfriend gets out of the other side and slips in to drive.

she starts backing up and he's yelling at her to turn the wheel left, no back the other way, pull up again, now right....

you get the picture until finally, CRUNCH!! the trailer and one jet ski hits the dock. about this time my buddy get out of his truck and checks the action: the guy start chewing her out for messing up his new jetski in a not-too-polite fashion. So she jumps out of the truck and tells him to go **** himself in every way that i could everthinkof and some that never would have occured to me either. ALL 13 lanes of boats and boaters were frozen and staring at this chick just blasting the BOZO.

She finally got back in the truck pulled it up out of the ramp and told him he'd better come take her home, OR ELSE.

HOLY CRAP, did we ever laugh our butts off!!

still cracks me up,
cheers
jerry

[happy perch fisher]

i seen some young guy trying to load his boat up. He was going around 40kilometers a hour he missed his boat trailer and hit a bunch of rocks he smashed the front of it real badand it started to take wated luckly it was only foot deep

[frostyicecold]

     Thought I would add a new to boating experience I had this summer. Picked up a 1962 boat that had been in a friends family forever. It has a 40 hp motor on the back of it. By the time we added a trolling motor and another battery , the back was pretty heavy. We found out the hard way when we got stuck on a tree, hit the reverse, and filled the back of the boat with water.
      Luckily we were able to get to the boat ramp (very slowly at full power) and find a way to drain the water. Only one problem, the boat started taking on more water at the dock and we didn't have time to  get the boat onto the trailer to pull the drain plug.
      So we had to run the rope off of the trailer to the front of the boat and pull it up onto the concrete ramp. What a sight ! Picture vehicle with trailer towing a boat behind the trailer!!
     So once the boat was laying up on the ramp, the plug was pulled and the boat drained for 20 minutes. The next comical moment was how to get the boat back in the water. We tried to get it back on the trailer, that didn't work. So we ended up grinding the bottom of the boat down the boat ramp back into the water.
We loaded back up everything that we had thrown out onto the dock and ground and went back fishing.
We almost went home with an empty trailer. So I guess we were lucky.

[4cator]

Just spend a day at a busy boat ramp, you will some very funny things