Rainy day thread: Post your 2006 funny boat ramp stories

I'm bored. Can't fish the big lakes because of the wind. Can't fish my favorite watersheds because of the muddy runnoff. So how about posting some funny/weird/frustrating things you've seen at the ramp this year. Here's mine.....

It was the weekend before the big FLW Tour event on Kentucky Lake. Pulled into the parking lot at Fenton ramp, prepped my boat and was ready to put it. Looked behind me and noticed a Bounty wrapped truck and boat pulling up (I'm pretty sure it was Bounty, don't hold me to it, though). Thought to myself, "Hope that pro doesn't try to follow me to my honey holes. Not to worry, though, he can't keep up with my 17 Nitro with a 75 hp Merc." Actually, I didn't think that last part. Although it'd be kinda funny to see a little dingy like mine blow away one of those high powered boats. LOL

Anyway, I got back in my truck and proceeded to the ramp. As I pulled up to the ramp I noticed an odd group of characters with their boat (looked to be about a 20 foot 10 year old Ranger with about a 200hp motor) backed half way down the ramp. Good thing for me this ramp has 3 lanes. I wish I had better attention in highschool during writing classes because no words I write in this story can do these fellas justice. I swear to you it looked like a rock band with their manager (who happened to be a dead ringer for Uncle Jesse...overalls and all). These guys all had long hair, no tan, beards, wearing rocker clothes... it was strange.

In all there were four rockers and Uncle Jesse. As I'm backing in I notice them load 2 huge, and I mean HUGE, white coolers onto the front deck of the boat. I backed my boat in, offloaded it and tied off to the dock. As I'm walking back to my truck to park it, they finally had one guy backing it in and one guy in the boat to offload it. They backed it in and the dude starts reving the engine, but the boat won't go anywhere. You guessed it, forgot to unhook the straps. Rocker1 screams at Rocker2 to pull the boat back out. Pulled the boat out, unhooked the straps and backed'er back in. This time no problem. By this time, I've parked my truck and am back my boat and Mr. BountyPro has his boat in the water.

I pulled away from the dock about 50 yards and decided to stay a minute or two more just to see what would happen next. BountyPro parks his truck, gets in his boat and pulls up to within 10 yards of me. We both looked at each other and started chuckling without saying a word. By now, Rockers 1 thru 4 and Uncle Jesse are tied to the dock and all in the boat. It was something. 4 Rockers, Uncle Jesse and 2 HUGE coolers crammed into that boat. What a bunch of idiots. LOL.

They untied from the dock and started to back away. All the sudden (and I do mean quickly) the front end really started to tip up. Rocker1 screams and opened the back compartment. Yep, left the plug out. Rocker1 sees this and hollers for Rocker2 to get the truck! NOW!!! Rocker2 runs up the ramp towards the truck, stops and makes a u-turn back to the boat. Forgot that he'd given the keys back to Rocker1. By this time me and BountyPro are rolling. I yelled at them to beach it, but I don't think Rocker1 knew what I meant. Oh well, screw it, I'll just sit back and watch the rest of the fun.

Rocker2 gets the truck, backs it back in and Rocker1 tries gunning it onto the trailer, but misses badly. LOL. This is rich! By this time that boat is within a minute of sinking. He somehow backs it out and runs full steam onto the trailer. He made it this time. Rocker2 hooks the boat up and starts pulling it out. All of the sudden we started hearing metal grinding on concrete. Yep, the motor was trimmed all the way down and crashing into the ramp. Dumba$$ Rocker1 trims it up and they sit there waiting for about 200 gallons of water to drain out. I turn to BountyPro and asked him if he'd ever seen a comedy of errors like that. He said "Never". I said "Yeah. Good luck next week" and left.

****, sure wish I'd had a video camera.

This didn't happen this year, but when fishing a tournament at Patoka Lake one year and having the weigh-In after the tournament. We all heard some load crashing noise down at the ramp. We turned to look and there on the ramp was a boat sitting about 20 feet from the water on the actual ramp. The guy driving the tow vehicle had gunned the truck so hard and fast that he drove out from under the boat and it landed on the ramp. Now if they had secured the winch strap before they tried to leave the water this wouldn't have happened. I see alot of boat owners have their boat pulled out of the water without hooking up the winch strap...Just think this could happen to you if you don't secure your strap before you have your boat pulled out of the water....

That sounds like something that happened to a friend of mine a few years back. He got the idea that adding silicone spray lubricant to his bunks would make loading his boat much easier...uhhh.. and unloading. LOL

He was backing his ranger down the ramp, applied his breaks and the ranger slid off his trailer, bounces once, and into the river. Fortunately, he did not damage any of the fiberglass of the boat.

Needless to say, he got a lot of teasing about this.

A lesson learned too. I have wondered if I could get away with siliconing my bunks to make loading easier, and if careful prevent the bouncing of my boat. I've decided to just hold off on that procedure for now. LOL

Tight lines and God Bless

Danny

Seen a similar event this year. A man had bought a pontoon from the local marina. After a day of fun out on the lake with his family he decides it is time to come in. Granted the marina did not have the trailer for the boat so the man had went out an d bought a trailer fron a local for the toon. Unfortunately for him it was the wrong trailer and and the when loaded up the boat the middle toon was the only thing that sat on the trailer. Halfway up the ramp the boat rolls over, all 30 ft of it, blocking the ramp completly off. 9:00 P.M till 3:00 A.M. I watched them wrentch and pull at this boat,and I don't believe I have ever heard so much metal gring in all my life. I felt really bad for the feller.
The only one to top that was when I witnessed a woman get buck naked on the middle of the dock and change into her wet suit so she could jet ski. I laughed about that all day. She wasn't bad looking either, matter of fact if I remember correctly that may have been the best part of the day.LOL

My partner and I were fishing a small tournament at A. J. Jolly Lake in Campbell County KY and decided to fish close to the ramp for the last hour. The ramp was moderately busy, meaning there were 2-3 vehicles in line waiting to pull out. My partner noticed this one guy backing his truck and trailer up to the dirt bank off of the parking lot. The bank has a 45 degree angle with approximately a 5 ft drop to the waters edge.

“What is this guy trying to do?” I ask my partner.

To our amazement, a 16 ft fiberglass boat heads toward the shore where the trailer is at about 10-15 mph clip and runs the boat up the bank! He is revving the engine up and trying to push the bow up the bank. Meanwhile the guys in the truck, remember him, is pulling out the loading winch strap and sliding down the mud bank to the bow of the boat.

“Surely they aren’t going to try to trailer their boat up the mud bank” I say in disbelief.

“Looks that way, don’t it” my partner exclaims.

“Should we offer our help” I say and move over closer the bank.

My partner tells them there is no way they are going get that boat on the trailer and up that bank. They shout back, “We do it this way all the time, mind your own business.” OK! Now I’ve seen many things at a ramp before but this takes the cake. The ramp is no more than 50ft away and traffic is moving at a decent clip. We decide to watch this dog and pony show for a while, this was definitely more interesting than the fishing was that day.

The bow of the boat is about half way up the bank and the trailer is at the top and both of these guys are covered in mud up to their waists. They hook the strap up to the bow tie on the boat and crank it up as far as they can. I have the cell phone out ready to call an ambulance in case the strap breaks or bow tie comes off and decapitates one of these characters. At this point they decide they can’t crank it anymore and are just standing there scratching their heads. Suddenly, it was as if a little light bulb appeared above the head of the driver. He jumps in the truck and says they are going to use the truck to pull it up the bank. He engages the 4 wheel drive and with gravel flying they start to pull the boat up the bank, the other guy is throwing water up on the bank to make it easier to slide the boat. To our amazement, the boat starts to move up the bank, onto the grass and finally onto and half way across the gravel parking lot. I still can’t believe that the strap or bow tie has not snapped!

Now they back the trailer up to the boat and take up the slack strap and force the ends to the trailer beds under the boat and start cranking it up the trailer. 15 minutes later, with a lot of lifting, pushing and pulling they finally succeed to get the boat on the trailer. The guy who told us to mind our own business walks over to the bank, flips us his IQ and shouts;

“See I told you we knew how to do it.”

They jump in the truck and roar off into the sunset, gravel flying, indignant in their conquest.

It just goes to show you; you never stop learning when fishing, whether it’s new fishing or trailering methods.

Wow, what a couple of Einsteins. I can pretty much guess what they and their boat looked like.