Back in the late 80s, two years after I caught my first steelhead my wife bought me a drift boat for my birthday. I loved that boat, I got a report that there was really good steelhead fishing on the Skykomish that week so I was eager to launch and yes I did forget to put the plug in. But drift boats are way more forgiving than aluminum boats as far as dragging them up on a gravel bar to bail...
There was this one time.....
People: A buddy of mine and I with his P-14, powder by an Evinrude Fastwin 18.
Place: Oyster House/ memaloose boat ramp. Upper Tillamook bay. Trask/ Tillamook river tidewater. Short 2-lane ramp w/ short dock in the middle.
Time: Peak of Fall Chinook season. Well before dark.
A long line of cars/w boats form well before legal fishing time. We were a mile back probably. You get your rain gear on in pieces, moving up between pants, jackets, getting gear in the boat. I drop the boat in the water and was lucky enough to get the last spot in the lot at the ramp. When I trotted back to my buddy he leaned over a whispered in my ear. I couldn't hear what he said at first. After about the third time I realized he was saying "I forgot the plug" I forgot the plug". Damn good thing I got that last spot in the parking lot, is all I can say. If we had got there 30 minutes later that morning? Even 15 minutes. SOL, because that car/trailer would have been a half mile down the road from the ramp. People knew how to get their boats in the water and out of the way back then. That means a couple of dozen boats could have been launched in that 15 minutes. A lot of big chinooks caught in that tide water back in those days. I think we always caught at least one salmon when we fished that place.