Stories about forgetting the plug

[toothpick]

After 45+ years of Crappie fishing, I have nearly as many uhoh's as Bill Dance. Certainly I have launched the boat without the plug, but once I launched it and didn't have a plug. I got the boat close to the bank and had my buddy keep his finger in the hole until I could whittle a plug. Finally got it done and worked fine. I now carry at least three plugs in my boat. I took off once pulling my cousin on skis with the anchor down. After considerable bouncing, it finally broke off. One other time, I bought a "Flats" boat that was sitting at a repo yard. The boat looked good and had a 90 HP Johnson. I cleaned it up really good and first trip, discovered it was heavy. Went ahead and fished. Didn't know what the problem was until I got into the bilge area and discovered it had a double hull and the bottom half was full of water. Bet I drained 500 lb of water. It ran great then.

[Eagle 1]

WAS GOING TO PUT IN AT "BRYANT'S " ON GRENADA . AFTER WAITING 30 MIN. OR SO IT WAS MY TURN . PUT THE BOAT IN (DARK) . WENT TO PARK . HAD USED MY BOAT PADDLE TO ROPE OFF THE BOAT . WHEN I GOT BACK PADDLE WAS GONE ! WHAT THE HECK , SHOVED OFF AND GOT A COOL SENSATION ON MY FEET . HAD TO WAIT TO LOAD, THEN START OVER . AFTER ANOTHER WAIT IN LINE CAUGHT MY FIRST FISH AT 7:30 . GUYS I KNOW SAID THEY ATE IT UP AT DAYLIGHT . TOOK ME TILL 2 IN THE EVENING TO LIMIT OUT . THE OTHER GUYS LEFT AT 11 .

[royinlox]

My buddy launched out of Kissimee river on north end of Lake Okeechobee heading towards Kings Bar in the lake, we were in his new 17' aluminum weld fisher. we had fished for about thirty minutes when I decided to change baits and stepped down into the boat to hear the water sound under foot. He got it cranked turned on the bilge and headed for the boat ramp, we had about two to three feet waves going in and he was wide open. The pounding we took on the way in was hilarious--not to him at the time. We got back to the ramp and a boat came in behind us after a few minutes, pulled up to us and had saw us coming across the lake and commented wow that was neat I hadn't seen that except in the movies

[crappiehoarder]

I went duck hunting a few years back at reelfoot lake in my 15/48 jon boat with a 40 hp. mariner on it. There were two boat loads of us going to the same blind,so I pulled into the boatshed first to unload my crew and gear and then my dad would pull his in there to unload his crew and gear. After I got my boat unloaded I headed over to the bank to hide my boat and my dad would come get me and we were gonna use his boat to hunt with(pick up the ducks and chase down cripples).On my way to the trees to hide my boat I showered down on the gas,just playing around and the front of boat was up in the air just before planing out when I hit a stump,that I never knew was there and in just a second water was up to my ankles. This is december and the water was cold. So I hollered at my dad and told him that I had a hole in my boat and was going back to the boatramp. Thank goodness I had that 40hp. on there because it got up on plane and all the water ran out,but when I got to the boat ramp there were duck hunters still putting in so I had to wait,so I ran the boat up on the bank. Before I could get the trailer in the water the top of the transom was level with the water and I had to push the boat back into the water to get it on the trailer.That was pretty scary,I was afraid it was gonna sink when I done that,but it didn't,I guess the flotation done it's job. So I pushed it out and cranked it back up but tore the prop up bad getting to the trailer. When I got it out of the water I saw that the stump tore the transom away from the bottom of the boat about four inches long. But I just left it on the trailer and jumped in the boat with my dad and went hunting,we just had to make two trips at the end of the day.

[Hanr3]

2 weeks ago I joined the club. It was during the HOI Crappie Club tournament. Prior to launching I struck up a conversation with a couple of Bass guys fishing the launch bay. As I got out to unhook the boat one of them suggested I check the plug. I thanked him.

[superfly]

My Son and I went to G's landing a couple years ago. We arrived about 1 hour before daylight. I suggested we go ahead and launch the boat so we did. After putting the boat in I said let's go sit in the truck until it gets light enough to see. When we returned to the boat it was about a foot deep with water. I turned on the bilge and managed to get it back on the trailer and let it drain. I never pull the plug anymore. I just pump out the water that gets in with the bilge.