Ramp etiquette for a newbie

[Lbrown]

Happy Tuesday!
I'm new to the board, and pretty new to boat fishing, and would like to avoid making too big a fool of myself in public or much worse, creating a dangerous situation. so I have basic, dumb question...

This past weekend my son and I launched our bass pro boat in the Licking river at Wilder...(btw, water was low and muddy, caught a few crappie in the treetops, mostly on minnows or yellow roadrunners, but mostly just a good day to be out of the house and on the water!). When we came back in, the plan was to let my son off at the dock to go get the truck and trailer, while I waited in the boat. the ramp there has a dock in the middle, ramp space on either side. when we go there, there were two fishing boats in place, one on either side of the dock, well past the end of the dock,both waiting on the arrival of their tow vehicles. I approached the dock at the end, straight in, slow and careful, let my son off the bow of the boat, and backed out away from the dock to wait our turn. He stayed with our truck up at the parking area until one of the sides of the ramp was clear, then backed down and we loaded. During that time I was getting lots of "hard Looks" and genneral muttering comments from the other boater, which I did not respond to, not wanting to make a scene.
I'm new, as I said, and don't want to be the guy who breaks the rules and messes up. should I have stayed out until there was a free side of the dock? I apologize for the dumb quesion and for the long post, but really want to learn to do this right...
thanks for any guidence...

[bmck25]

It doesn't sound like you did anything wrong. Maybe he was waiting on his truck to be backed down and felt like you cut in line?

[mhall]

You did nothing at all wrong. Welcome to the site.

[Bandit1]

Sounds to me like your son was faster at getting your truck than that guys partner was & he must have thought you should have waited on them. Which I don't see why you should have to. Even if they were driving down the parking lot & he had room to get out in front of them safely. Just my thought. But you did nothing wrong. You can't help it if they are slow or parked much farther away. Just enjoy the day fishing & don't worry about it. They will get over it, whatever it was that they THOUGHT you did wrong.

Jason

P.S. Welcome to the board. A real good bunch of guys on here.

[DJD]

Welcome aboard!

[Duayne]

You say they had drivers are were tied up to both sides of the docks? It's one thing to tie up if you are by yourself, they are the ones that need to be muttered at if they had drivers and were taking up dock/ramp space..

[markmac60]

Nothing wrong as far as I can see. Two other points that a lot of people screw up on though. 1. At night, turn headlights off when backing down the ramp and leave them off while loading. Keep parking light on though. 2. Load your stuff from the truck to the boat before you get in the ramp line. Once boat is on the trailer, get out of the way before loading from the boat to the truck. Welcome aboard.

[Col Forbin]

You say they had drivers are were tied up to both sides of the docks? It's one thing to tie up if you are by yourself, they are the ones that need to be muttered at if they had drivers and were taking up dock/ramp space..

This is dead on - the only time I every tie up to a dock, is if I am by myself, or if my wife is with me (she wants no part in backing the truck or operating the boat). Sounds like you did nothing wrong at all. Common sense and common courtesy go a long way at the boat ramp, a great deal of people are lacking one or both of those.

Welcome!

[mhall]

You say they had drivers are were tied up to both sides of the docks? It's one thing to tie up if you are by yourself, they are the ones that need to be muttered at if they had drivers and were taking up dock/ramp space..

Only time I ever tie to the courtesy dock is if I'm by my lonesome.

[DYNATRAK]

Only time I ever tie to the courtesy dock is if I'm by my lonesome.

ditto. and even then sometimes i can unload/load quicker than the others.

[stoner]

Sounds to me like your son was faster at getting your truck than that guys partner was & he must have thought you should have waited on them. Which I don't see why you should have to. Even if they were driving down the parking lot & he had room to get out in front of them safely. Just my thought. But you did nothing wrong. You can't help it if they are slow or parked much farther away. Just enjoy the day fishing & don't worry about it. They will get over it, whatever it was that they THOUGHT you did wrong.

Jason

P.S. Welcome to the board. A real good bunch of guys on here.

Ditto, and welcome aboard!

[basshuntin]

Sounds to me like you didnt do anything wrong at all. Thats pretty much the way my partner and I do it all the time. One thing you should be careful of though,,,if your night fishing and pulling your boat on the trailer,,,,make sure its your trailer that your pulling up on!! I admit I tried to pull on the wrong trailer once at the end of a night tourney. The guy drivin the truck got a kick out of it. He just stepped out of his truck and asked if I minded till he took his boat home before he came back and got me. Hey , it was the same model and color truck and the trailer was a good fit!!