Joys of age related stupidity

I really hesitated to post this, but in the interest of those of you who worry about forgetting things that you did or needed to do here goes. I took a break from fishing over the summer just because it was so hot and not fun. So, yesterday I offered to take my buddy Harry to Lake Secession. I have not been able to sell him on trolling jigs for crappie so I thought if we went to Secession and had good luck he might come around. We have always caught at least a decent mess there and the Spotted Bass add to the fun.
We get to the ramp to find perfect conditions with no wind and only 2 cars in the parking lot. I could smell success.
In the process of prepping my boat to launch I explained to Harry how I idiot proofed my drain plug but attaching it to my hold down strap so I had to put my hand on it before i could launch the boat. As I was doing this, I laid the straps in my car, unfortunately, along with the plug.
So yes, I launched only to find the boat filling up with water. I had a spare plug but for the life of me I could not find the drain hole on the transom. So he quickly ran to the car and backed the trailer in so I could fun up on the trailer.
It took about 10 minutes for all the water to run out even though the bilge pump was going full blast along with water coming out the drain. I had run the boat about 2/3 of the way onto the trailer just to get out of the water.
Y'all see what's coming....right??
After all the water was out, i installed the plug, jumped in the boat and told Harry to launch me again. Well, as soon as the released the brake and the car started down he hit the brake to slow down the car and off the trailer went the boat. Now it is sitting on the ramp with the front on the trailer and the transom on the ramp. I attached the winch strap, which obviously wasn't attached earlier, and had Harry slowly back down while I cranked the boat back on the trailer. We checked for any damage and could not see anything. (Thanks goodness it didn't break the skeg on the foot of the motor).
So we launched and I pulled over to the dock only to see the boat filling with water again. Back to the car and back down the ramp Harry comes again and this time I run all the way up on the trailer and lock the winch strap. We looked and looked and could not see any damage but I noticed water coming out around the drain hole for the live well. I pressed on the plastic flange that mounts to the transom and hooks to the drain hose and it fell off on the ground. So now I have a hole in my transom where the drain hose used to be, Only thing we can figure is the impact must have popped it because it is too high up on the transom to had suffered a direct hit on the concrete. After a lot of looking and a trip the hardware store in Abbeville we couldn't find any way to patch or plug it so we gave up. The hose is under the sub floor and the battery hold down box is riveted over the top of the hose. There is a small amount of clearance between the sub floor and the transom to access the hose but the battery and the box have to come out. The boat is now in my garage waiting on me to tackle this lovely project.
So for CK and the net disaster or Don loosing his keys for a couple of hours, and any of the rest of you that have pulled bonehead stunts, it's alright guys. We will live to fight another day.
:banghead:banghead:bash:bash

Hate to hear you had a bad day of it. You are so right though, we all have days like that and we all survive the headache and the heartbreak of such days. Yes I too have done. I changed out my plugs and forgot to put 3 of the wires back on. Went out to fish and the motor would not run for anything. Looked and looked and never figured it out until we went back home and then, found the issue. Bonehead me.
Thanks for sharing. We all like knowing we are not the only one...lol

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Pulled my old SeaPro all the way to Myrtle Beach. Didnt weigh as much cause I left the keys at home !

We all have done something like that. Mine was when I had a Stratos Bass boat, the middle seat was the cooler. We were Striper fishing in Dec, we'd been on the water for a while and I wanted a cold Pepsi so I go the cooler which by now was full of water ice and drinks. I'm thinking wow it's not that hot and there wasn't water in the cooler, the drain for the cooler was out like normal. Then it dawned on me I didn't put the plug in. Well we were down by the pennisula South of the 150 bridge on Norman. A good 20 minute run once I got it on a plane, bilge pump going full blast, got it on the trailer and it poured out 15 minutes before it started throwing bubbles.

Been there one that, had warm drinks the rest of the day

Tough day Ray been there done that. You probably did not miss much on the fishing part. Couple people I know went Thursday and did not do much

That makes it a tough day when things just keep going the wrong way.
Been there done that.
Here's hoping next time out all goes well and you load the boat with slabs.
I'm sure you would have caught a bunch of crappie.



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Thanks for sharing your story. A good lesson for all of us.

Bummer. Glad no one got hurt. Except your buddies ribs from laughing. rotfl As soon as my coffee cools off from putting the cup in the refrigerator instead of the microwave, I’ll try to remember some tong I goofed on. :bash

How about this bonehead trip.. Years ago i had a tri hull with a old chrysler outboard that i could use a flat head screwdriver to operate the ignition switch. I put the boat in at Blewett Falls, above the dam and realized i had left the keys at home. So i commenced to use the screwdriver to try to start old Betsy not realizing that i was choking the engine every time i tried to start. I just knew it would start since it cranked up at home before i left. I thought to myself, i will just drift out a little ways from the dock and catch a few. So here i go, out a ways i thought i would anchor off, engine still wouldn't crank. i put the anchor out and it was too deep for the anchor, still drifting towards the dam. It's time for the paddle, grabbed the wooden paddle and the first stroke, the old wooden paddle broke. Thanks to the guy who pulled me away from the dam.. Now that is what i call up the creek without a paddle:yikes

Here's mine, no issues noticed on a beautiful day. My wife and I fishing and catching white perch when all of a sudden poof a loud noise I had never heard before. Found out my life vest in the floor under the console had inflated. The live well had overflowed filling the bilge. Stupid perch thought he could swing down the drain hole. No damage but a few minutes of scrambling around to get it fixed.

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All good stories,and we all have had something like these stories in life.
But can’t remember all of them.


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Ray LOL that was too funny and sad at the same time!!:Rofl :bash
Something about Secession and drain plugs, it has happened to me more than once on that lake and one one trip we were fishing the upper river when my boat filled with water. Yep bottom is close in the river. :mad: I think the luckiest thing & hard to handle trip was the day I made a run down to the dam and as I was coming back to the ramp I seen you and Don fishing and stopped to talk with y'all. When I started to leave my boat wouldn't move and raised the motor and my prop was gone :dono Lucky it didn't happen near the dam but that was a stainless steel prop.....

Each day it seems I get a little more forgetful so at some point when I make mistakes by the next day I won't remember it happened :) So all is good...

I'm so perfect! :woohoo Several years ago my brother and I were in a hurry to go fishing and was pushing me to the max to get the boat in the water. I made ready the boat to launch and got in the truck to back it in and he was hollering to come on back. Well as I couldn't go any farther he said somethings wrong and I couldn't figure why we were not getting the boat off the trailer. I got out and looked and saw nothing then it downed on me. I hadn't taken the straps off the boat on the back. So here we were trying to float the boat with the trailer still attached to it.:Doh:
Now don't tell anyone you know me! :biggrin Needless to say we didn't catch many fish afterwards, I just felt like going home and taking a nap!:bash

I guess we all need to run a check list at least one point and time.:welcome

as we grow older stuff happens. luckily don't have any tales like these to tell as havn't operated a boat much but my fishing buddy has forgot the plug and after backing down the ramp and parking the truck had to jump in the boat as he was motoring by so he could get her on plane quickly and the put the plug in.

just part of the adventure of growing older, enjoy! Hey at least we are here to do silly things, know a bunch of friends who can't get out to do anything anymore or are planted in the ground

Hey, it happens to be best of us! Even the young fellas like myself. I've left the plug out a couple times and one time I launched solo and never took the motor toter off! Every time I put the motor in gear it'd choke down. After several attempts I goosed it a little and all was well (must have broke the bungee cord). It wasn't until loading up that I put it all together lol

Last year I took my wife to wateree on Veterans Day. It had been a while since she had accompanied me and I was very excited to potentially put her on some fish. We put in and idled to the first spot and fish were all over the depth finder!! I set out all of our rods and even baited them up before I realized water standing in the floor of the boat. She immediately exclaimed, "You forgot the plug!" I said I hadn't and we argued for a while while getting the rods packed back up while the bilge pump kept us a float. We made it back to the ramp and loaded the boat to find the plug where it needed to be. Which I was happy to show my wife!! LOL turns out the drain hose from the front livewell had pulled loose. I wrestled with it for an hour before giving up and plugging the hole with a cork to salvage some fishing time. Probably not the smartest decision but it got us by. I just kept a check on things and we fished....didn't catch much, but atleast we tried for a few hours LOL




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With some of the dumb things I have done in the last 5 years I could write a novel. I once had to get my boat out of the lake still attached to the trailer what a job. Did not latch trailer and left the tounge jack down and as I pulled up to take some tension off the hitch it jumped off and rolled back in the lake and floated to my neighbors dock. Took about an hour to get it out boy was I embarrassed.

I used to have a note taped to truck dash stating what did you forget and is boat plug in?
I found the best way for me was to install a auto float on bilge pump and leave plug in at all times. LOL
So far my old boat stays on trailer as l have forgot to latch winch strap and notice it next trip at boat ramp.
The older we get the more we forget.
I fish most days of the week by myself so my wife has me text her what lake what ramp location and I'm ok for she knows how we forget things.


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Originally Posted by sinkermaker

With some of the dumb things I have done in the last 5 years I could write a novel. I once had to get my boat out of the lake still attached to the trailer what a job. Did not latch trailer and left the tounge jack down and as I pulled up to take some tension off the hitch it jumped off and rolled back in the lake and floated to my neighbors dock. Took about an hour to get it out boy was I embarrassed.

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Now that's a new one!:Rofl

AWWWWW! yall old farts cant remember doodly squat I have not forgot to put the plug in
my boat in years and years :biggrin ooh what was that? you say you don't need a plug in a pontoon :scratchhead ummmm

Everyone that goes fishing with me will ask if the plug is in and I always tell them yes, I never take it out, my boat doesn't leak so why take it out. About once a year I'll take it out, put a little silicon grease on it and put it back in. I'm glad Ray didn't do this on the Florida trip I went on, we may have had to battle the gators. there.

We all feel your pain Ray. I've done many stupid things, have had some bad luck, and have seen quite a few weird and funny things while at the lake. Yeah, it's funny when it's happening to someone else! I decided to make a trip to Greenwood a number of years back. It was a cold winters day. When I got to the ramp, I was the only truck present. I unhooked the boat, backed it down a little too far and the boat slid off the trailer out into the water. I thought no big deal, then the winds began to blow. It blew the boat out of the creek, and out into the main lake. I'm sitting there thinking someone would certainly be coming to the lake as it was a Saturday. One hour passed.....no one. Two hours passed....no one. I have no one to call, and see nary a soul anywhere. I'm just pacing back and forth along the shore when a little jon boat appears out of the lake fog. This elderly gentlemen ask, you wouldn't happen to be looking for a boat would ya? He said he saw it drifting down the lake and was fearful someone had fallen out. Super nice fellow, and my hero on that day. My worst day however, came about on a warm fall day about 10 years ago. Around 10:00 one week day morning I got a wild hair and decided I would run to the lake to try my luck for a few hours. I got about 3/4 of the way to the lake when I noticed a farmer harvesting corn. His combine spooked a bedding deer and it ran in front of my truck and I hit it. I pulled over to look at the damage, and check if the deer was dead. The truck was still drivable, so I got back on my way to the lake. After making it to the ramp, I backed down, and unloaded. I pulled the boat onto the bank, and parked the truck. When heading back to the boat, it had drifted off some 40 feet from shore. I stripped down, and swam after it. I got it back to the bank, dried off, and off I went. My first spot, I broke a pole. I fished another 1.5 hours without ever getting a bite. I finally said the heck with this,this is not my day. I loaded up and headed towards the house. Not wanting to come home empty handed, I picked the deer up I had struck to at least have a little something to show for all my frustration on the day.

An interesting sidenote:
I looked on line for a new thru hull fitting to replace the one that broke. (It was plastic, like every other one I've seen, at least on aluminum fishing boats) Every plastic one I checked stated "not for use below waterline". Guess Duracraft ignored the statement. So, for an additional $8 I ordered a stainless steel one.
It came today. Guess what it said on the package.
"Not intended for use underwater":bash
I think now that is a CYA in case one leaks.

Youth + military contract + chartered sailboat + casino + overindulgence = chasing a falling tide and cracking the keel bolts on a 35' boat, 20' off the coast of South Africa

Myself, my dad and a couple friends pulled down to Edisto a couple years ago to go trolling for phins and wahoo. Pulled up to the ramp behind about a 24' Grady with 5 dudes from Greenville. They went to put the boat in, noticed that they didn't have the plug in the boat. Then the convo went to; "did you pack the plug". "NO, I thought I told you to grab it!" "Yea, but I told him to grab it." Walked up to them, no big deal we always carry a spare in our boat. Crisis averted right? WRONG. Our spare plug doesn't fit their boat. That's a long way to drive to have your day ruined by not having a plug. But I now carry two plugs just in case, because of someone else's mistake.

Ray, years ago my old buddy (passed away now and I miss him EVERY DAY) and I rode down to clark hill at a popular ramp and took the grill, a couple ribeyes, and a cooler with drinks. We also carried a couple lounge chairs and our goal for that leisurely afternoon was to relax and sit back, eat good, and get a few laughs watching all the yahoos loading their boats that evening. And to no surprise to me we did get some chuckles watching those people. Probably the funniest that day was watching somebody TRYING to back the trailer in the water and then fussing the whole time at his wife that was TRYING to drive the boat onto the trailer. I laughed so hard I almost regurgitated the steak I was eating.:biggrin Very frustrating when youre in line to load but any other time It's really entertaining when you have absolutely nothing to do watching those big city slickers with their big rigs on the boat ramps without a clue as to what theyre doing.:Rofl:Rofl

good stories, I have decided to leave the plug and keys in all of my boats. I never take them out

if there Is water the bilge pump will take It out

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Originally Posted by gabowman

Ray, years ago my old buddy (passed away now and I miss him EVERY DAY) and I rode down to clark hill at a popular ramp and took the grill, a couple ribeyes, and a cooler with drinks. We also carried a couple lounge chairs and our goal for that leisurely afternoon was to relax and sit back, eat good, and get a few laughs watching all the yahoos loading their boats that evening. And to no surprise to me we did get some chuckles watching those people. Probably the funniest that day was watching somebody TRYING to back the trailer in the water and then fussing the whole time at his wife that was TRYING to drive the boat onto the trailer. I laughed so hard I almost regurgitated the steak I was eating.:biggrin Very frustrating when youre in line to load but any other time It's really entertaining when you have absolutely nothing to do watching those big city slickers with their big rigs on the boat ramps without a clue as to what theyre doing.:Rofl:Rofl

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Butch I'm may have told you that when I retired my wife and I sold out house, put what we kept in storage and spent the next 5 years traveling around this beautiful country of ours. After a while parking and maneuvering the motor home came pretty natural. My wife drove as much or more than I did
One of the most entertaining things we saw was watching people trying to back campers into sites. You are correct, if you are just a bystander it gets pretty funny.
If someone had made a video of me last Friday, I'm sure it would have been a hit on U-Tube.

Searay, Back in the day, we live in So California, we'd go water sking at sun up to beat the Tubers and water lice. Once we'd get done we'd head back to the motorhome, have breakfast then grab the inner tube and head to the ramp with a cooler and drinks. Always got a bunch of laughs watching folks trying to get the trailer in the water and out.
Once there was a couple that were screaming at each other come on back, he's in the boat she's in the MH finally they both go back and forward at the same time, the boat bounced on the trailer right into the back of the MH.
Or the guy that decided to not pay the $5.00 launch fee and tried backing the boat into the water, burying his truck, spending most of the day trying to save it then paid $100 for a wrecker. Ah the good old days

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Potatoe

good stories, I have decided to leave the plug and keys in all of my boats. I never take them out

if there Is water the bilge pump will take It out

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That's what my buddy who was with me said he did. Several years ago a mutual friend and I sat at the dock at Monticello for 90 minutes while he went back home to get boat keys. I had forgotten that until I read your post.

wow,,,a fishing trip you will never forget....

Great post. There are certainly many days that Murphy's Law prevails and 'whatever can go wrong does go wrong for sure'
At least the only casualty in all of these stories was the deer... and nothing very drastic or dangerous resulted. Thanks for sharing.