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Note: All of these pics were taken by others on a fishing forum I belong to so I wasn't actually there to see the incident. However its confirmed the story is 100% true - CS

You see a lot of strange things while fishing the rivers of Washington State. Like this guy who took his Seadoo on the Cowlitz

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Then his Seadoo died in the side channel by the launch, so he went home and got his 21' Dual Trophy to help tow the Seadoo out

cowlitzmistake.jpg

He then floated down the side channel to his Seadoo and tried to tow it back to the launch. Of course the props dug into the rocks and managed to lose a few pieces of the Trophy but he did make it to shore. Finally he drove his big Ford diesel down to the owners property and according to witnesses almost sunk his pickup trying to pull it out.


So what weird or funny things have you seen fishing the rivers and lakes of the PNW?
 
1986 I believe.
My boss hit Blue Creek all the time with his jet sled. A guy in a Bronco was launching his boat.His buddy was in the boat trying to start it.He got out of the Bronco to go help.Truck still on the ramp...when the truck broke out of park....and rolled into the river.
Apparently Broncos float for a while.Luckily the trailer sank and caught a stump.Then the Bronco sank.
The only thing showing was the front half of the top of the truck.
Well the guy got pissed when Dan was laughing so Dan said "hey I'm not the DS that didn't use the E brake" And took some pics
The guy says "Well send me those pics Ahole"
I told another co worker a couple years later and he said "Yeah he sent those out for Christmas cards that year"
 
When I ran a marina on Table Rock Lake in the Ozarks I stood on the dock one day and watched a guy launching his brand new home-built day cruiser. It was a proud moment after working on the 24 foot boat all winter. He took pictures of his rig with the boat behind it and his family in front of it as it sat on the launch ramp about 30 feet from the water. When it came time to launch the boat he pulled the pin on his tilt trailer before starting to back toward the water. The first time he applied the brakes the boat rolled back a little on the rollers, the trailer tilted, and the boat slide right off the trailer onto the dry pavement, breaking the lower unit and destroying the transom. It was a sad sight, but I couldn't help laughing.
 
ZigZagZeke, I have many fond memories of Summer family vacation fishing trips to Table Rock Lake when I was just a kid. We did our best to decimate the Crappie population.

Similar to your story above, my brother and I were on a little lake outside of Kansas City, MO a few years back. I was waiting for a spot on the boat ramp so I could pull my brother's boat out. There was a group of yahoo's that were putting in that were obviously pretty liquored up. This guy backed the trailer down and his buddy started the engine to back the boat off the trailer. When he got it off the trailer the guy driving the truck and trailer gunned it up the ramp. Unfortunately they forgot to unhook the winch line from the bow of the boat and proceeded to drag the boat up onto the concrete ramp. I laughed so hard I cried. They didn't see the humor in it.
 
I lived in West Seattle for a bit,on the beach.So we would walk the beach down to the boat ramp.
I gotta tell ya,if you live in Seattle,there isn't anything much more entertaining that watching the boat ramps or the locks in the summer.
You can have stories like Coug's all summer long.With and without liquor.
 
Many years back, I was fishing on the bank at the mouth of the Clackamas River. I was watching a drift boat coming down the Willamette River. There was only one person in the boat. As the owner turned to go into the mouth of the Clackamas, he gunned the motor. He was promptly thrown overboard. One of the boats in the hog line at the mouth of the Clackamas dropped out and picked up the operator of the drift. While this was all going, the drift boat was happily motoring in circles. The person flipped out of the boat was one of The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Marine patrol officers!! Such a sight!!!!!!! And yes we never let him live it down.
 
Many years back, I was fishing on the bank at the mouth of the Clackamas River. I was watching a drift boat coming down the Willamette River. There was only one person in the boat. As the owner turned to go into the mouth of the Clackamas, he gunned the motor. He was promptly thrown overboard. One of the boats in the hog line at the mouth of the Clackamas dropped out and picked up the operator of the drift. While this was all going, the drift boat was happily motoring in circles. The person flipped out of the boat was one of The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Marine patrol officers!! Such a sight!!!!!!! And yes we never let him live it down.

That's what kill switches are for. They are required in bass tournaments. I once was riding in a brand new 175 hp bass boat going down the lake when it suddenly made a 90 degree right turn at full speed. The driver was wearing his kill lanyard so the engine stopped immediately, and luckily neither of us went over the side. Upon inspection of the steering system later on at my shop I found that the jam nut for the steering cable was frozen on the housing and would not turn. The first 2 threads on the steering ram tube where the jam nut attaches had stripped off. It was clear that when initially rigging this boat the dealership had dealt with the frozen jam nut by twisting the whole steering cable housing as far CCW as possible then threading the nut onto the steering ram tube. They were only able to get about two turns but called it good enough. It decidedly was not good enough and nearly got us killed. The boat's owner went back to the dealership and started with punching the salesman in the nose before explaining the problem in detail in four letter words.
 
On the Clackamas. A fella we named "the cluck in the duck",,Duckworth, came down to the ramp at Carver in January to do some high speed river running under the guise of Steelhead fishing. As he was around the 5th boat to put in, the ramp was wet and due to the -30 degree temps, frozen like an ice skating rink. When this maniac backed down the ramp, his high rise 4x4 slid rapidly backwards until the wheels got below surface level and the brakes grabbed traction, sending his UNHOOKED 20 foot pride and joy halfway across and quickly down the river. A gentleman in a drift boat came to his assistance and he jumped in. The whole time the gentleman was rowing trying to catch the "clucks" boat, the "cluck" was shouting orders like the Captain of the HMS Bounty. We were anchored just below the bridge, along the south wall and had a ringside seat for the event. When they finally came along side the runaway Duckworth, "the cluck" tried to jump to the swim platform,,, and missed! He was almost to the next hole around the bend before he got her under power and came flying back up the river with steam coming from his ears. To add insult to injury, the "cluck" couldnt back up the ramp due to the deceitful ice, and no amount of swearing and spinning helped, until another good hearted fisherman who was tired of waiting to use the ramp unhooked his boat and towed the "cluck" and his 90k$ combo out of the way. I know in my heart that it's not right to laugh to the point of almost puking at another mans misfortune, but the Steelhead were not hitting at the moment, and having endured being around this arrogant blowhole many times in the past, I had to chock this one up to being in the right place at the right time,,,,, and priceless! Thanks for the thread.
 
A friend that was working at a boat shop told me about a guy who came in and bought a boat - he returned the following Monday fuming mad that his new ski boat didn't have enough power to pull any of his family out of the water and it wasn't a very good ski boat (Sanger if I recall correctly). he offered to go out with him and see if they could figure out the problem. As they got to the lake and put in he immediately saw the problem... the genius didn't realize that you had to take the boat off of the trailer when you launched it - he assumed that the trailer was part of the boat and with the trailer firmly strapped to the boat it was only capable of speeds of around 12 mph after a long slow acceleration - also if you let off the throttle too fast the wake would slosh into the back of the boat... I wish I had pics of this event as they would be priceless!
 
I knew a guy that would intentionally use the "trailer tied under the boat" technique to get his boat out to Orcas Island each spring. It bypassed the state's added charge for extra axles on the ferry.
 
A friend that was working at a boat shop told me about a guy who came in and bought a boat - he returned the following Monday fuming mad that his new ski boat didn't have enough power to pull any of his family out of the water and it wasn't a very good ski boat (Sanger if I recall correctly). he offered to go out with him and see if they could figure out the problem. As they got to the lake and put in he immediately saw the problem... the genius didn't realize that you had to take the boat off of the trailer when you launched it - he assumed that the trailer was part of the boat and with the trailer firmly strapped to the boat it was only capable of speeds of around 12 mph after a long slow acceleration - also if you let off the throttle too fast the wake would slosh into the back of the boat... I wish I had pics of this event as they would be priceless!


I want to think you are joking, but I'm guessing you're not. Further words fail me.
 
A friend that was working at a boat shop told me about a guy who came in and bought a boat - he returned the following Monday fuming mad that his new ski boat didn't have enough power to pull any of his family out of the water and it wasn't a very good ski boat (Sanger if I recall correctly). he offered to go out with him and see if they could figure out the problem. As they got to the lake and put in he immediately saw the problem... the genius didn't realize that you had to take the boat off of the trailer when you launched it - he assumed that the trailer was part of the boat and with the trailer firmly strapped to the boat it was only capable of speeds of around 12 mph after a long slow acceleration - also if you let off the throttle too fast the wake would slosh into the back of the boat... I wish I had pics of this event as they would be priceless!
:s0140: I would love to see this in person. I only hope I could keep laughing too hard so I could snap some pictures.
 
I'm the star of my own story. About 2 years ago I went fishing in my 17 foot Whaler type boat. It's not like I was a newbie as I have fished that boat at least once each week for the last couple of years. Anyhow, I don't remember all the details, but somehow the boat ended up being lose from the dock and about 10 feet away, with the wind blowing the wrong way. I did what any guy who has been watching too many action movies would do - I got a 2 step running start and jumped for the boat. Incredibly enough I got enough air to make it to the boat, hitting the side with my chest and getting my arm pits above the gunwale. I actually made the jump and was hanging off the side. Of course, thinking back it was incredibly stupid thing to do. Had I gotten just a foot less of a leap out of my legs, would have smashed my face into the side of the boat, probably knocking myself out in the process and maybe drowning.
 
Well Grunwald, I can't quite top your story, but I can come close. When I lived in MN, a buddy and I used to hunt ducks up on a little lake by Fergus Falls, MN. We had an old construction shack for a duck camp an a chitty little dock to launch our canoe from. It was duck season and we had been watching the weather and saw that there was a Norther looking to sweep down from Saskatchewan into the Dakotas and MN. That would usually move a lot of Bluebills, Ringbills and Cans down (although Cans weren't legal to shoot then).

We got there Friday evening and took our canoe and loaded up all our decoys and set it down by the waters edge next to the dock. We figured we'd just get up in the morning, launch the canoe, set our deeks by one of the blinds we had built that you could pull a boat or canoe into and be set.

Morning came and we got up about half asleep, downed a cup of coffee and headed out to the canoe. I took the canoe and gave it a good slide into the water so we could wade out to it and get in.........I thought. The temperature had dropped so much overnight that there was over 1/2 inch of ice on the lake and the canoe sailed over the ice about 15 yards into the lake. Luckily it was fairly shallow and we were able to wade out in chest waders, breaking ice with some branches of downed trees and retrieved the canoe.

We spent the rest of that morning watching ducks fly south in bluebird skes about 100 yards plus in the air.
 
Several years ago my dad, his friend, and I went fishing on the Willamette. We launched the boat and headed to the fishing spot. After a few minutes the friend said "is all this water supposed to be back here?". My dad and I both looked back and noticed a good 4" of water had collected near the transom and was rising. Dad yells "Oh ****!" and goes full throttle back to the dock. We got it back on the trailer and after draining for about 30 minutes realized we had left the drain plug at home.
 
Several years ago my dad, his friend, and I went fishing on the Willamette. We launched the boat and headed to the fishing spot. After a few minutes the friend said "is all this water supposed to be back here?". My dad and I both looked back and noticed a good 4" of water had collected near the transom and was rising. Dad yells "Oh ****!" and goes full throttle back to the dock. We got it back on the trailer and after draining for about 30 minutes realized we had left the drain plug at home.

If you own a boat and haven't done that yet, you will!;)
 
Several years ago my dad, his friend, and I went fishing on the Willamette. We launched the boat and headed to the fishing spot. After a few minutes the friend said "is all this water supposed to be back here?". My dad and I both looked back and noticed a good 4" of water had collected near the transom and was rising. Dad yells "Oh ****!" and goes full throttle back to the dock. We got it back on the trailer and after draining for about 30 minutes realized we had left the drain plug at home.

Been there done that!
 

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