Most Head Shaking Thing You've Ever Seen on a Launch Ramp

[Mark Langner]

While reading all the good stuff under the "Pet Peeves" post, I just couldn't resist the temptation to put a different spin on this.

I keep promising myself that one day I'm going to grab my folding chair (the one with the built in drink holder), and a cooler full of beer and ice, and plant myself at my favorite ramp and simply enjoy the festivities.

I mean really, think about this as entertainment value. I've seen guys boats sinking cuz they forgot the plugs. I've seen guys practically back their trucks into the water trying to get the boat to float off the trailer, with the tie downs still attached. I've seen guys pulling out after they got the boat on the trailer, to realize half way up the ramp that the boat was canted 45 degrees to one side and falling off the trailer.....and the hits just keep on going.

What's the most funny/sad/ludicrous/unbelievable thing you've seen on the launch ramp ???

[Paul W]

Worst I ever saw was at Half Moon Bay when a guy loaded an older 22' Outrage on his trailer. He was pulling it out when his winch strap broke and the boat hit the concrete and slid about 10 feet down to the waters edge. Wasnt really his fault, though. Worst I ever saw was a guy back his boat into the water, and his boat floated off. Problem was, he forgot to tie a rope to his trailer or to the dock, so the boat just drifted off, LOL.


Paul W

[sTony]

Spillway launch ramp in Oroville when the waer was down significantly. Guy goes to put his boat on his trailer, does so and jumps out and runs up to his truck, guns the motor and starts quickly going up the ramp only to look into his rear view mirror just as the boat slips back off the trailer and on to the ramp. Took about a dozen guys to help him get the boat on the trailer and the fiberglass damage was major league.

It's amazing what you can avoid by simply applying the nose hook to your boat.

Course I know a buddy of mine and delta record holder who did the same type of thing at Orwood but I won't name names, hahaha.

sTony

[MIKE TREMONT]

Hey Mark, I think they actually do something like that at one of the ramps on the Delta. I think it's Orwood, they have a nice deck on the bar and people hold up score cards .
It's just what I heard, sounds like fun.

[Brian]

Sunday at Paridise, I watched a wake board boat launch. While they where waiting for the guy to park the truck they where floating around when all of a sudden all four, yep four of the bilge pumps started spewing water about five feet in the air out of the holes. All the ones in the boat just watched and couldnt figure out why. Then the guy from the truck, the owner I think ran down the launch ramp with plug in hand and jumped in while the motor was still running. I thought here we go. lucky for him the idiots in the boat didnt put it in gear. He plugged it and away they went still looking like a fire boat on the 4th of July.

Not too funny because it was a fellow fisherman but, at a tourney at Comanche a few years back, a guy had a new Cobra. As his partner headed down the ramp and made his U turn the boat came all the way off the trailer on the ramp. Put a big hole in his hull. took about ten of us to put it back on the trailer. He said the day before he had put Pledge furnisher polish on his runners to make the boat easier to load. Guess he wished he hadnt done that.
Brian

[Fishin' Dave]

Sieg Taylor! The misty girls called in sick. So being the good business man that he is, he filled in. I pulled up and saw Mr. Taylor in a no sweat bikini and a wig! Shook my head fo sho! A razor would have helped brother...

[Steve]

Not the worst, but probably the funniest, thing I ever saw was something I did one fine February at Whiskeytown. Just as the sun was coming up I was the only one on the lake and it was a full blown blizzard. I was certain I was gonna catch a world record spotted bass so I was in a hurry. Problem was I forgot to attach the launch rope to my boats nose. So the boat floated off and kept on going. And the wind was blowing away from the ramp!! Being the only one on the lake I quickly determined I had but one option. Off came all my clothes and in I went. I swear I sprouted wings and flew across that freezing water to my boat. Then I stood there naked while running the trolling motor back to the ramp. Being the white skinned person I am, that freezing water turned my skin RED, and I mean RED. I sat in my truck for 30 minutes with the heater running, then got my clothes back on.

I havent forgoten to attach the nose rope since this incident.

[bryanmc]

Fisher's Landing on the Colorado River above Yuma sometime back in the early nineties. For those of you unfamiliar, Fisher's attracts a big ski crowd on the weekends as well as a bass tournament or two. anyway, we're all done with weigh in and this half in the bag jet boater is trying to load his ski boat with his girlfriend backing the trailer.... trying to be careful. "Farther back!!! deeper! deeper!!! You stupid f####ing bitch!! I said deeper!!!" With that, she nailed it in reverse... had the truck so far in the water it was over the hood and flowing through the windows. She gets out.. swims to the dock and yells back "Is that deep enough you A##hole?"

True story...

[JGB]

Once while at New Melones I saw three guys coming in from a day of fishing. One of the guys went up and got the truck and trailer and put it in position to load the boat. The two other guys stayed in the boat while driving it on to the trailer. Everything seemed fine until the guy who hooked up the bow strap after doing that jumped into the back of the open bed truck and told the driver to "hit it!" The poor guy left in the boat was standing up on the back deck at the time and went flying into the lake.
It was during the summer and the guy who fell in was unharmed other than losing major cool points .

JGB

[Tobe]

*NM*

[Kentuck]

Funniest one I have witnessed.

Lake Berryessa while fishing near the Berryessa Marina launch. Heard some loud slapping noises and turned to see a guy in flip-flops being pulled down the ramp by his boat trailer. Seems he had unhooked it before he turned it to park it off to the side of the ramp. Finally about the time he was going to get some major road rash to his feet or other body parts he let the trailer go. It was near the end of the last major drought we had and the water at the bottom of the ramp wasn't deep enough for me to even float my little aluminum boat off the trailer with the truck practically in the water. His trailer hit the water and stopped with the tongue barely out of the water. Lucky guy.

Best I've seen was at San Pablo Reservoir one evening while waiting for our turn at the ramp. This "hippie" type couple comes in, the guy goes and gets the van, complete with shag carpet, and while he's gone this well developed blonde with an extra long t-shirt on is holding the boat with a rope. Well, the boat starts drifting away from the dock and next thing you know, she's in the water. She gets out and low and behold, no undergarmets. She stands there holding the boat for at least 5 minutes while this guy backs in a loads up. Not one word is exchanged between them. Everything else at the ramp had pretty much stopped though!.

[Jim V.]

Lake Cachuma, the water was really low & the ramp could only handle 2 boats if you did it right. This SUV & flat bottom jet boat - looked like a blown 454 - comes up to the ramp - takes the middle of course and naturally they have to load their crap and, untie the straps, all while the music from the SUV is vibrating everything around. They finally get it in the water & over to the courtesy dock. Still blocked the ramp as they were in the way. The guy waiting with the 2 girls decides he will jump in & start it up - show the ladies what a stud he was. Only thing is, when he decides to floor it & make some noise - it's in gear! That big motor flung that thing about 10 feet up the ramp - high & dry before the other guy ever got back down from the lot.

[Big Rick KFOG]

The craziest thing I have ever seen is a hot bite for salmon in Monterey Bay and the Moss Landing ramp on a weekend. The boats and trailers line up on Highway 1 at least 1/2 a mile away. That is if you get there around dawn. That would be getting there late.

Then you wait forever (1 hour + easy) and wind around the parking lot waiting your turn. They can barely do 2 boats there at a time. Sometimes you wait so long boats are coming back in with limits before you get out. Now it is a guy who waited forever trying to launch and a guy trying to get out and it starts stacking up on both sides.

After you launch there is nowhere to park so you drive back out to Hy. 1 and park in a ditch and walk back to your buddies in the boat.

Stuff happens including the tide eventually goes out and people who don't know get hung up on the sand bar oposite the ramp waiting for their friends to get the trailer or to park, meanwhile the slimy ramp gets slicker as the tide goes out and trucks start to spin the tires pulling out after launching their boats and guys pulling their boats out hope for the best and well stuff happens.

ahh salmon fishing...

[Dom]

Old story but funny still (now anyway) Jeremy(bassman) Anderson and I were pre-fishing for a pro-am on Clear lake, We were staying at the skylark hotel as was alot of the Pros.

Anyway we went to launch my Champion and I had thought Jeremy pulled the straps from the back and he thought I had grabbed my side so he only pulled his side , I unhook the boat and back him down the ramp and the boat would not come off the trailer I cowboy'd up and jumped on the deck I grabbed the motorguide and started the hold it in water by the cord and hit the pedal,yea that move ! As the boat started swinging off the trailer to the right and the Machette Blade clankin on the trailer ! I am thinking all right here we go! The boat swings around and dead stops almost throwing me in the water!

At this point I am PISSED,EMBARRASSED and Confused. So I think for a min. and thought the strap in the water I go now I am gonna pull that superman move you know the one where you think your strong enough to pull a 21 ft champion down far enough to put some slack in the strap long enough to replease it! Yea that one.

After about 10 min. of this it all came full circle for me I got the answer it hit me like a ton of bricks! I pulled the boat back around on the trailer and hooked it up,pulled the boat out of the water and unhooked the strap and the hook.

Well it may not seem that funny but the worst part was DEE THOMAS,DAVE GLIEBE, and a host of others were sitting beside the ramp and laughing thier butts off the whole time this thing went on and it lasted a good half hour!!!!

Needless to say I trust no one when it comes to straps or plugs it is like second nature for me now to check each and every time I launch a boat.

Tight Lines Dom

[Mark Langner]

Ur killin me dude, ur killin me... I love it !!!!!!! Score cards....gotta ad that to the packing list !

[Lance]

Thats a good one Dom

[troutnut]

True story-
Bullfrog Marina Lake Powell

Drunk SOB in a 20' picklefork hydro with blown Hemi

Launches boat, forgets to put in plug. boat is slowly filling with water. No plug in the boat, only lots of beer. Plug is in the truck.
Buddy is parking the truck.

Boat driver is pissed that his buddy is taking so long to park trailer. blasts off out of marina about 50 mph thru 5mph zone. Sherriff nails him. Boat is still sinking. Sherriff lets him motor out onto lake to siphon the water thru drain plug hole. Boat will barely plane now but no ticket for now.

Zips in to pick up buddy on shore, they decide to put boat back onto trailer again and completely drain boat. Buddy cuts in line again, flips off 2 other people tells them "their sinking boat is more important".


Best PART- Drunk boat driver in a fit a anger for having to wait, nails throttle , all 800 HP WAKE UP AND launch boat over trailer and thru back window of truck, then rolls off side into another Dodge pickup launching next to him. MAJOR picklefork damage, front port sponson torn OFF, V-drive, strut, prop, and rudder torn off boat. Cooler of beer spills and breaks.

Sherriff comes up to FINISH several more citations. Can you say Boating while INTOXICATED. Truck driver DUI.

Ever go to jail in UTAH?

[Colebass]

back the WHOLE truck in the water on the Delta earlier this year!

At Clearlake a couple 3-5 years ago, watch a guy pull his boat up the ramp by the nose tie down.

These things just happen! Hell, "someone" pulled my plug and I got in the water at the Stren event at Lake Havasu, only to start taking on water like crazy! Pulled to shallow water and waited for the trailer, WEW! The longer you boat, the more these things are apt to happen, you know "#$%^ happens!"

[Bill kizer]

Watching two drunk kids loading a jet ski in the back of a pick-up truck bed.

With the back of the truck in the water level with the tail gate. On the first attempt the driver only made it half way into the bed of the truck.

On the second attempt the driver told the jet skiier to gun it.

From 50' or so away, the skiier nailed it. Get the picture, the jet ski ended up half way in the cab of the truck.
Bill

[SABP]

Steve,

That one was great. Even greater was admitting to have done it.

Priceless.

[basstamer]

but Dom has given me the courage by admitting his cluster! I had an OLD flatboat glass boat my kids and I had affectionatly named "The Jalopy". Anyways I had a friend weld some guides on the trailer for me and planned it to meet a buddy out at the Kelsey Bass Ranch to fish. Here is where the problems started...the boat was only like 15' so I took my little 2 wheel drive Isuzu pickup out there and we preceeded to launch. I untied everything (gotcha Dom) and my buddy backed her in. At the time Kelsey was low and the concrete ended abruptly (did I just give it away?). Ok I take all responsibility for not checking the freinds work on the guides ok BUT if he were to have looked at the boat he would have noticed that the boats widest spot was in the center of the boat so as the boat floated off it got wider therefore getting wedged in between my new guides. Ok so far its ugly but still ok. Now a word of advice when you in a big *** hurry to fish SLOW down and make sure your gonna survive the outing! I on the other hand did not slow down but instead told my buddy "Woah" UNFORTUNATLY "Woah" and "GO" sound an awful lot alike so my "buddy" backs here in deeper to float the boat higher (higher the guides went the wider they got) Made sense right? Another unfortunate thing was this was his 1st time to Kelsey so he wouldnt have known that 1)The dock dropped off dramatically and 2) all you boys with them big horses power your boats onto your trailers instead of "leading" your pony onto the trailer like us jalopy pilots do. Now everybody knows what a 200 Merc does to the gravel and the end of the ramp right?So here we go down the dock and crash-truck goes off the end of the concrete into the big hole blown by everybody powering onto their trailers.Instantaniously the tailgate is underwater and at the angel the truck is on the ramp we are barely keeping water out of the cab.....that is UNTIL my "BUDDY" decides he is going to get out and survey the situation. Not to make this story any longer but we all know what happens when you first put a vehicle into park even with the emergency brake on right? Yep she rolls down about 4 inches and of course since he so kindly left the drivers door open when he got out the truck cab is now filling with water like the Titanic! MY "@*^% BUDDY" jumps back in and fires the motor up and guns it spinning the tires and sinking the truck that much more allowing more water into the cab-this also allows the truck to sit juuuuust low enough to where the exhaust is underwater and the engine sucks up water! So I say screw it,trucks dead lets go fishing! My wife shows up and hour later "happy as can be" that we are out on the lake instead of rescuing the truck. We pull it out with my 4X4 and out comes the tow truck-now this has been an expensive,humiliating day and guess who is driving the tow truck? An old High School buddy of mine! Sorry I took so much space but this is MY mosy head shaking moment at the ramp! Tight Lines my brothers!
Scott

[MN]

Hey Big Rick pretty good assesment of Moss Landing,well one was i was at San Luis and i was pulling out.Well these people were just getting ready to launch.They had what looked like a brand new about 24' cuddy cabin style boat.The women were getting stuff ready and the to men were admiring the new boat when one decide to unlatch the winch strap before backing down,bad idea becouse the trailor had roller's and you guessed it of the trailor it went.

The other was my wife and i were at Nacimiento one fall and as we were leaving this drunk all by himself was standing right in the middle of the ramp just pissing away and i was going to go over and confront him but thought if you do Mike the fight will be on so i didnt.Well he took of fishtailing his trailor and smokeing the wheel's and i thought what a freakin idiot.Well when we were driving down the road i noticed the guy walking back toward the store.A couple more turns and yea baby his boat was completly off the trailor down a small gully,and yes we stopped and took picture's and i still have them.

But seriosly my wife and i literly do take a cooler,umbrella,lounge chair's and our small weber and sit at the ramp and watch it's really good entertainment.Nacimiento is a complete zoo in the summer now day's.

[TWinger]

Several years back, during a Clearlake Event, A guy in a motorhome with boat and trailer backed down the ramp at Skylark. He is trying to get the boat off the trailer for sometime and can not get it to seperate. It looked like he was floating the trailer with the boat. He kept telling someone in the motor home to back up more, more, more until he realizes the motorhome is back down so far it is taking on water inside. He then trys to get the motor home to pull its self out of the water with no luck, the thing has taken on soooooo much water it can't pull its self up the ramp boat and all. He then thinks that if he starts the boat big motor up he can help power the boat trailer and the motorhome up the ramp to safety. What he does do is put the throttle down and begin to really hit the power on the boat. It comes detached from the trailer and instead plows into the rear of the motor home nose first driving the nose of the boat into the rear of the motor home clear past the trolling motor. The boat hit so hard to big motor came up out of the water sending water into the air in a hugh fan shaped wave the motor home had the full impression of the boat into the rear end which you could see and walk through. The motor home just sat filling with water. It was the worst thing that could ever happen. The boat and motor home looked brand new at the time. and were in really bad shape at the end. We blasted off and the works was still filling when we left. Never heard to this day whom it was or how it turned out. Someone out there must remember and know about this incident.

[TomAtkeson]

I once saw a new nitro driving back and forth infront of the 5mph zone at a launch ramp. After a few passes he comes into the ramp ties off his boat and starts to remove the engine cowling. Some one asked him if he knew what the problem was. He replied "I have no idea its a brand new boat" Just then some one pointed out that he was supposed to remove the boat from the trailer when he launched.

[CORAL 96]

My story comes from Lake Berryessa. Back in 1992, we had a fairly dry year. At Spanish Flat they were using this metal portable ramp at the bottom. Well, when the metal got wet, folks with empty pickup trucks had 0 traction. Folks were helping people out by jumping in the backs of their trucks to add a little weight. This guy comes down with a daycruiser type boat about 22' long. His wife is on the dock holding the rope attached to the boat. He floats the boat off the trailer. The wife tells him to go when it's still partially on. He pulls up, and the front of the boat slides off the trailer, SLAMS onto the metal ramp, and slides down the ramp into the water. This was a time when I didn't have a boat, but my buddy and I were bankfishing nearby. I told my buddy that they needed to put it back on the trailer to look for hull damage. They proceeded on their way out!!!