:Your Best Fall Ever.....

Ok everyone, best may be the wrong word, but what is the best fall you have ever taken at the ramp without serious injury of course??

I'll give mine first... very embarassing, but was as graceful as any 6'3" man who is at least 100 lbs over weight... LMAO


I was fishing by myself, at mineral mounds ramp, and was putting the boat back on the trailer to leave. Now as all good fishermen, I keep all my valuables in the glove box while fishing, just in case I fall in. Keep them safe, right? Well, once back to the dock, I refill my pockets with all my stuff, including my wallet... empty except a few ones of course *grin*

Well as many of you know, Mineral Mounds ramp is somewhat shallow, so to get my boat on the trailer properly, I have to back down to the point that the tail gate is over the water. No problem though, I just step from the tongue of the trailer and climb into the bed of the truck.

So, I have my boat up on the trailer, I've killed the engine and trimmed it up. I've got it hooked, and have gotten the winch as tight as I could, leaning over the edge. So I try to very carefully climb down to the tongue. Gets real fuzzy here, I don't know what happened exactly but I felt myself going free fall. Somehow I managed to get a push off with one arm so I did not fall head first, and did a flip. I landed on my tookish in about 4 inches of water, and my arm somehow hooked over the trailer.

The guy launching next to me came running to see if I was OK. Of course trying to be as macho as I could, I jumped up laughing and said of course......

Man, did the pain set in on the way home!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazingly, I was up and out of the water before those few one dollar bills got wet!! LMAO I doubt I could ever move that fast again.

Who's next... now remember, we don't want any bad injuries.... no broken bones etc... but bumps and bruises are certainly game to be laughed at.

Danny

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Mar-06-06 AT 07:37AM (EST)[/font][p]I am not sure there is any such thing as a "best fall"...heck they all hurt. I have fallen twice...once doing exactly what you were doing Danny and I did get hurt (separated my shoulder)..not a good fall for sure, but my worst fall in which I should have gotten really hurt ended up hurting my pride more than anything.
It happened about 6 years ago. I met my clients for the day at a local F&W ramp here on Ky Lake. It was raining that spring morning and I was running a few minutes late...never a good thing. My clients for the day had never gone out with me and that made my being late worse. When I got to the ramp and met them I immediately started rushing around getting the boat ready (rushing boat prep is never a good thing either). I forget exactly why I had gotten up on the boat but I am sure I was doing something that needed to be done, anyway I was on the back deck and turned around to get off the boat on the port side and somehow I managed to trip and went off the boat head first onto the parking lot. My clients were on the opposite side of the boat during my fall. Like you, the fall was kind of fuzzy...the next thing I knew I was lying on the pavement in a heap...I was afraid to move because I knew I had hit the pavement hard. My clients came around to see if I was ok(as it turned out two of them were paramedics). They helped my up and the only damage was my face was scratched and bleeding a little and I had bruised my shoulder a little. I was some kind of embarrassed and remember thinking: "If I was these guys I would be thinking what kind of guide have we hired anyway"...LOL I remember one of the guys telling me that I had fallen so far and hard that they really had expected me to be badly injured if not dead when they came around to assist me. As it turned out I my ego was more bruised than I was and these guys have turned out to be some of my favorite clients and have booked with me every spring since then.

When i was younger I use to be a serious creek fisherman and pond guy. I can't count on both hands the number of times I have landed squarely on the rump tryin to get just a little closer to the waters edge. I have soaked the cell phone in my pocket more times than I care to remember, just have to hold it to a hair dryer for a while to get er working again. Apparently that green stuff that grows on the rocks at the waters edge is slippery. You would have thought I would have learned this lesson after the first ten falls. LMAO, heck I have landed on my hind end so much I cracked it.

It was not at a ramp but was fishing related: About 15 or so years ago, my buddy (Cliff) and I was leaving this farm pond from fishing (Yes we had permission). The problem is that we had to climb over this wire fence to leave and the fence was right next to the road. There is this ditch between the fence and the road and it drops off another 3-4 feet below the base of the fence. My BIG BEHIND (350 pounds back then) climbs over and my foot got hung just as it crossed the top of the fence. I lost my balance and grip and fell straight back to the bottom of the ditch, probably a 9 foot drop in all, and landed flat on this huge (luckily) flat rock. WHAM, Cliff thought I had broken my back and probably thinking how in the heck is he going to get my big behind up. But, up I jumped as if nothing ever happened (Boy did I ever lie, it still hurts today thinking about it).

I saw a guy slip on Lynnville Lake ramp here in Lynnville Indiana last fall and put a gash in his leg that was probably 4-5 inches long and a good 1/2 inch deep. I helped him get tot he truck so his buddy could take him to the hospital. No telling how many stitches it took to close. This particular ramp is as slick as ice as people on this board warned me before I went. Lucky for me I have steps on my trailer and never have to step on the slippery part.

Tight Lines

Well. my fall I did break some bones, March 2003, fell from off of a 8 foot high wall. My right ankle exploded. I was in the hospital 1 week. 2 weeks later I was back in the Hospital because of a Circulation problem, 3 times to surgery over a 2 week period. Finally ended up loosing the leg below the knee. Fished a tournament 2 weeks after that and returned to work as a Firefighter 6 months later and still on the job when not fishing, I love life and look forward to each day. Now when it comes Butt Kicking time, all I need to do is remove and throw LOL!!!

Danny, I love your Posted questions, Real neat. You should do this on the Indiana Board.
Bill Kehl
Indiana

well mine wasnt exactly on the ramp it was trying to load my boat by myself. it was the first time i put the boat out by myself and there was a line of about 4 boats behind me trying get out too. backed the trailer in and and ran over to my boat, climbed in and threw the trolling motor down and started away from the bank (why i even put the trolling motor down i still dont know to this day). sometimes my trolling motor sticks in the mount and you have to step on the bracket by the shaft while pulling up on the rope. remember i'm in a hurry because of all of the other boats and i want to be cool and look like i know what i'm doing. well when i stepped on the bracket to unstick the trolling motor my foot slipped out from under me and went flying off the boat making me lose my balance. the first thing that landed was, uh, my groin region on the side of my boat. i'm 6'3 230 lbs so it wasn't a light landing. needless to say i was completely paralyzed from the pain and fell off the side of the boat into the lake. trying swimming when you can't move any portion of your body or breathe lol. moral of the story, cool means nothing when your paralyzed and holding your stuff in the water in front of the ramp with 5 boats of people laughing at you. lol

I havent had a "best" fall as of yet, but I did wittness one dandy of a fall at Barren a couple of years ago. Maybee someone that is reading this learn from this poor unfortunate souls bad experience.

My wife and I were going out at nite to fish for surface feeding hybrids. As she made her way down the ramp and onto the courtesy dock to board our boat I shouted out to her to be carefull and hold on to the handrail because that treated lumber was wet and it just had a slick-look to it. She slowed her pace and boarded our boat with success. The next guy wasnt as lucky! His buddies already out in the water hollered for him to "hurry up" and get in cause them hybrids are already bustin! As he touched the very first deckboard (at a blinding pace) his legs straight into the air. After soaring a good 10 ft or so, his croch landed right onto the mooring tiedowns as he came to a stunning abrupt hault. He slowly turned over to his side and procceded to vomit profusely. His buddies enthusiasum dropped and the only thing that they could utter was a low "OOOOOOOO, thats not good"! Remember that treated lumber that is wet is very slick, no matter what the temperature.


remember...eatsleepfish

Fishin at T-ville in the Dam area had the Wife's floating mat in the water behind the boat she was catching some rays. My phone rings I reach back and get it off the dash and talk while dragin a worm. I go to put the phone back and as I'm steppin in to the wellwith my left foot my right hangs on the net handle and comes up OOOOPPPSSS no feet on the floor BAD my petite frame came down on top of the drivers console the windsheild Exploded and cut both my forearms the key sheared off in the ignition the cell phone went off the left side of the boat the rod and reel went off the right side. The wife says what was that the phone just missed her. I said my phone she says YOUR PHONE I said screw the phone I lost a rod and reel worth over $300. I look at the fishfinder 52 feet of water bye bye rod I look on the bank and a guy was bank fishin he did'nt crack a smile in fact he would'nt even look at me I know he was laughing so hard inside he had already WET himself. Took me 20 minutes to get the boat started blood everywhere and me cryin about the rod. Man I sure miss that ROD.

Well, after reading the others, mine does not seem to be all that exciting but I will post it anyway.
I was at T-ville jugging and was wrapping up for the evening collecting the 50+ jugs we had out. I had one jug that ran off and was remaining on the bankside futher down from where we were. The last jug to collect and I was exausted from a full day of fishing and an evening of jugging. I pulled up to the bank after raising my trolling motor and put one foot on the bank rock and one foot in the boat. The boat started to slip away and I regained my balance and got back in the boat. manage to get back to the bank reposition myself one foot on a rock and one foot in the boat. Reached down to grab the last jug and less than a inch away, the jug begin heading under water. (i did not know that there was a fish on it at the time. I moved quickly to grab the jug, got the jug and then the boat begins to move away from the bank, still I have one foot in the boat and oe on bank. Before I realized it, they were to far apart and I was painfully doing the splits as I hit the water. Not sure how I did it, but I managed to go under the water, (deep edge) come back up and pull my self in the boat with out my cell phone(s) getting a drop of water on them. Yes I was wearing jeans. My uncle and his girlfriend was laughing, I could not help but to laugh at myself eventhough it did hurt. The jug with the fish on it, got away as I was pulling it in.

Thank you to those brave enough to own up to our somewhat stupid, clumsey and even painful pitfalls.

I sympathize with Dave Stewart as that fall I described was the one that tore my rotator cuff and sent me to therapy after I realized a year later it still hurt!! LOL.. thick headed sometimes.

But I have to say, my heart goes out to the guy that slipped on the dock, and had the tie down cleat bust him in his unbustables!! OUCH

Thanks again everyone.

Danny