Humbled at the boat ramp

I went fishing yesterday afternoon by myself. I hate going by myself but it was a spur of the moment trip and none of my fishing buddies could go, so.....

I got everything set up, backed the trailer down the ramp, the boat unloaded. I hit the deploy feature on my Ulterra, it deployed. I hit spot lock, went and parked the truck. Came back to ramp and the boat was sitting right where I left it. I drove it over to the ramp and stepped off onto the deck. While I was driving the boat to the dock with the remote, I did make sure to look at the two bass fishermen who were loading their boat and they looked at me a couple of times. I could tell that they thought I was cool... I was so proud.

So I go fishing. I come back to the ramp, step on the pier. It's almost dark. I drive the boat away from the pier and hit spot lock. I go get the truck, and back down the ramp. The trailer wasn't square with the ramp, so I pull up and give it another shot. I got out of the truck and walk down the pier. "Where the heck is my boat?" I had turned the running lights off when I got back to the pier so it took me a few seconds to find it. She was about 150 feet from the pier and headed out to sea. Trolling motor was on 5/10 and she was moving fast! I had apparently just turned it on, and failed to hit the spot lock button. It's hard to tell which direction the front of your trolling motor is facing when it's dark, but I finally got the boat back to the pier. I got it loaded and pulled out. The boat was sitting all hopped up on one side. Not on the trailer correctly, so I had to back her down again, not once but twice to get it right. I finally got it all fixed right and headed home.

This story reminds me of a Bible verse:

Proverbs 16:18, Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Next time I'm not going to hope the guys in the other boat are looking to see how cool my trolling motor is!

That's a good story for sure... but one that many would be too proud to ever tell. You are a good man.
Glad to hear it was pretty harmless overall and that it worked out as good as it did in the end.

Thanks for telling your story, life has a way of keeping us humble and self examination is key to learning those sometimes hard lessons. :)

Thanks for sharing. Boat loading goes two ways for me. Either very well or very bad :yikes

Everybody does stupid things, I'm just not shy about admitting my mistakes. LOL I figured you guys would enjoy reading about my idiotic event.

crp, that's 100% the way it works for me. No in between.

I'm getting my tm with spot lock this coming Tuesday. I want to see if it will put itself in the boat slip. Trying that might make quite a story.

My wife and I had some of the best laughs of our, at then young, lives while at the boat docks.
Anything can and does happen at the boat dock!

I don't think I'll ever trust doing that.....

So your sayn your remote worked the tm 150' away?

I just recently installed my new Ulterra. Man was I excited. I fish alone 90% of the time too. But when I arrived at the ramp I said to myself, self, you have haven't tried this newfangled TM out yet, with a loading ladder on my trailer I couldn't deploy it in the yard. So this first trip out I just did it the ol' way and backed down and clime aboard and started the motor and slid her off the trailer. Yeaaa, just call me chicken. I just hope I don't ever go to deploy and I not have remembered to turn the power on... :Doh:

If it makes you feel any better ... I once tied up to dock...went to the truck....came back to find that the rope I tied to the dock was not tied to the boat! I watched the wind push my boat about halfway across into Beaverfork Lake before some other boaters came to my rescue.

I can just imagine that sinking feeling in your stomach when boat wasn’t there. I would have had a heart attack. Glad it all worked out for you.

I put mine on the pontoon and have not tried that yet but, I can see that happening to me. I may not try it unless there are other boats waiting to load so someone can carry me to get my boat...lol...

You know, that is one stupid mistake that I haven’t made! Probably because I don’t have an Ulterra or Spot Lock! However, if I did have one, I’m sure I would have done it.....probably more than once! Stupid mistakes seem to wanna jump outta me as soon as I get to the lake! Fact is, got the boat hooked up and ready to go, so stay tuned!

I watched a guy I met to fish with launch, deploy, and "park" his boat with his Ulterra remote control. After he parked his truck he remoted it over to the dock and jumped on, piece of cake. I thought wow those guys on the internet weren't joking. I have Terrova I Pilot, but I ain't that brave. Being an EE, I know something can, and with my luck, might go wrong. So I do it the old fashioned way, myself. Knock on wood.

I have only tried this once, I was so nervous I left the remote on the dock and ran back after I parked truck

Quote:

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Originally Posted by silentkilla

So your sayn your remote worked the tm 150' away?

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Yes. I don't know what the range is on those remotes but I had to be pushing my luck. I've lost signal with it spot locked before and walked back to the ramp with it still sitting where I left it.

I have unloaded the boat with it, by myself, probably 4-5 times. But, prior to ever trusting it enough to unload it by myself, I unloaded it with the trolling motor and spot lock with my 16 year old son sitting in the seat of the boat. I did that pretty much every time we fished last spring. He was 15 at the time so I wouldn't let him park the truck and trailer. After unloading like that probably 10 times I had enough confidence to try it solo.

Only other issue that I have ever had was when my 16 foot pole handles got caught in the power wire to the TM. I have it looped and zip tied at the bottom to keep it neat. Two handles got in that loop and it would not deploy with that added resistance. Luckily that day the wind was blowing towards the dock, so the boat blew back to me.

One thing I do, in case it doesn't deploy, is to unload the boat very slowly so it doesn't slide off the trailer very fast. I typically deploy the motor when the front of the boat is in knee deep water at the ramp. Our lake is shallow so the ramps don't drop off fast.

You are a good man. I prolly wouldn't have had the guts to tell it!!.....but I would've panicked when the boat wasn't there!:biggrin

I don’t have an Ulterra but I do get over confident. In ‘09 I had just gotten my boat and gotten confident on the load and unload process. I have a 25’ rope tied to a Clete permanently and clip it to the trailer, disconnect everything and slide her in. Disatracted, I clipped the rope to the front eye of the boat. Remembered that as the boat cleared the trailer in a tailwind. School day, no one around, boat getting further by the minute,I had only one choice. Strip down to the righty whiteys and off I go, britches on the bank waiting for me to return. Back then I could still get in over the side, dripped my way to the front and trolling motored my way back. Tied off, dried off and changed best I could, went fishing. Do I have to tell you how set I am in my launch sequence now. Sometimes the dumb*** just gets hold of you and don’t let go.

my guide bud lost his boat in high winds a few weeks ago at the ramp at 3 am …
he is about way past crazy though and swam it down in 46 degree water ….
it humbled him times 2 as well ….and about killed him I might just add
the simplest things can get complicated for sure
good story and nice reminder

I had been putting in at a secluded little ramp all summer long to check my lines. On one particular day the storms were fixing to roll in and I needed to hurry and run my lines and get back out before the lightning started up. I could run all of them in an hour and a half.
Got boat ready to launch and backed her in. As I watch her slide off the trailer I'm thinking She sure is taking awhile for the rope to catch. I'm looking in my rear view mirror waiting for the rope to straighten out and still thinking it's not that long of a rope. Put my brake on walk to the back of my truck and realize that my rope had broke and away with the current goes my boat.
I start running down the bank in tall weed (oh and did I mention I am petrified of snakes) running beside my boat along with the current. Unbuttoning my shirt and kicking off my boots doing a running striptease act down the bank. Dove into the water, swam to the boat, and rescued my boat from an inevitable drowning I'm sure. Got in to the boat coughing up water and way out of breath for a fat boy like me.
Drove the boat back to the ramp and trailed h her. Tired her down and drove back to the house. Left a good button down shirt and a pair of red wing boots (size 9) and I'm sure a load of one dollar bills from my running striptease act that fell from the heavens on the side of the bank cause I wasn't going back to deal with them snakes that I know I stepped over as i was running down the bank.

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Good story!


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I'm always by myself. Pretty paranoid about losing my boat at the ramp. You should see the knot I attach to the dock cleats when I'm leaving it to get the truck! I'm pretty sure I won't utilize that technology...I would screw it up somehow.