Your Most Embarrassing Fishing Moment

[S&M]

Post deleted for the betterment of the members.

As well as my membership on this website.

[Sam]

Well, I was launching by myself at K Dock. There were other fishermen coming and going and I like to clear launch ramps in a hurry so I don't hold anyone up. I'm pretty quick at it, even by myself.

My drill is to leave the front of my boat hooked to the trailer and undo the back tie-downs. Then I back my truck down the ramp until my boat's floating level, climb out of the truck cab, go over the truck bed, unhook the front of the boat, get in the boat, start the motor, and tie the boat to a dock or beach it - then move my truck off the ramp and park it.

I leave the driver's door of my truck open when I launch, because to get back in the truck I climb up on the hood and drop down into the cab. On most ramps I'd get my feet wet if I tried to get back in the door from ground level - so you can always tell I've been fishing by myself by the muddy footprints on my truck hood.

Anyway, long story short - on this one day I'd left my keys in the ignition, had the windows rolled up, and had just got into the boat when the driver's door of my truck swung shut and locked. I didn't have a spare key, and my truck and trailer were completely blocking the single ramp with guys waiting.

Fortunately, the door only closed on the first notch, not all the way. I was able to get a thin screwdriver out of my toolbox (which wasn't locked), open the truck door, and clear the ramp in about 5 minutes. It was pretty embarrassing, though.

Since then, I've got a spare truck key, I take my keys out of the ignition when I'm launching, and I roll the driver's window all the way down and make sure the doors aren't locked. I don't want to do that again, ever.

[techo]

That is a great story Sam.

I had a friend back the trailer down the ramp one time to load up the boat. I maybe should have asked if he could back a trailer.....cause he couldn't. I suppose he spent about five minutes trying to as I started to laugh hysterically. I was laughing so hard tears were coming out of my eyes. Some of the guys waiting, didn't have the same sense of humor though.

[Don]

A friend had permission to stay at a bed and breakfast for a meet and greet situation as he served as a liason for a charity organization. He was allowed one guest so he invited me. We arrived and nobody was there, so we dropped off our gear and went flyfishing in the meantime. After a couple of hours I ended up breaking my flyrod and said to my friend I was going back. He said he was going as well but he crossed the river in a rough place and ended up going for a swim. We walked back to our hosts and presented a nice first impression with one guy with his broken flyrod and the other dripping wet. Nice to meet y'all:).

Don

[ozarkgunner]

Well, I was launching by myself at K Dock. There were other fishermen coming and going and I like to clear launch ramps in a hurry so I don't hold anyone up. I'm pretty quick at it, even by myself.

My drill is to leave the front of my boat hooked to the trailer and undo the back tie-downs. Then I back my truck down the ramp until my boat's floating level, climb out of the truck cab, go over the truck bed, unhook the front of the boat, get in the boat, start the motor, and tie the boat to a dock or beach it - then move my truck off the ramp and park it.

I leave the driver's door of my truck open when I launch, because to get back in the truck I climb up on the hood and drop down into the cab. On most ramps I'd get my feet wet if I tried to get back in the door from ground level - so you can always tell I've been fishing by myself by the muddy footprints on my truck hood.

Anyway, long story short - on this one day I'd left my keys in the ignition, had the windows rolled up, and had just got into the boat when the driver's door of my truck swung shut and locked. I didn't have a spare key, and my truck and trailer were completely blocking the single ramp with guys waiting.

Fortunately, the door only closed on the first notch, not all the way. I was able to get a thin screwdriver out of my toolbox (which wasn't locked), open the truck door, and clear the ramp in about 5 minutes. It was pretty embarrassing, though.

Since then, I've got a spare truck key, I take my keys out of the ignition when I'm launching, and I roll the driver's window all the way down and make sure the doors aren't locked. I don't want to do that again, ever.

Learning is funny, but part of it all!

[Don House]

Here is my claim to fame with all of the guys in my very first bass club about 15 years ago.. Just purchased a brand new Tracker TX-17 boat and I was ready to fish tournaments and take on the world in my new shiney boat..

I was at a spring tournament at Truman Lake, had my oldest daughter with me as my partner.. Floating around before take-off and talking with everyone in their boats, I seen it was getting close to my take-off number so I had the trolling motor down, here is were I made my first mistake, so I just turned it up on HIGH to get around my buddies boats and went towards the bank then down the bank in shallow water to get around everyone and move closer to fire up the big motor..

Well what I did not see or think of was the cables just underwater that hold the dock down to the bottom of the lake.. My trolling motor hit the cable at full speed and it was a rubber band effect!! Launched me Airborne out of the boat head first, all I could do was dive at this point and in I went... Needless to say everything went down hill from there, and to this day If I run into any of those guys they smile and call me the human depth finder...

Good Fishing Everyone..

Don

[Tom Spence]

Allright..if everybody else is going to swallow the pill of humility so will I. Last Spring I was fishing as a coangler in a BASS weekend series. Gary McCormick was my boater. Anyway we're back in the bushes when the water was high on Table Rock and I had a topwater rod laying on the back deck with a spook hanging on about 10 inches of line from the tip. I was flipping a shakey head at bushes and not paying attention when I saw my topwater rod shooting off the back of Gary's boat cause the spook caught a piece of brush. I drop the rod in hand and lunge for the one going in. Next thing I know I'm underwater looking up at the transom of Gary's boat. Yup, I went in and I mean all the way in. You know, I would have thought 63 degree water would have felt much colder. I guess my embarrassment was keeping me warm. I crawled back in was able to reach down with a long rod and catch the line on the rod that went in....so I saved it...but broke the tip on the rod I used to fish it out with.

[denjac]

I guess mine isnt embarrassing as I didnt get caught, but could have been awful. Around 20 years ago A buddy and I were night fishing at Table Rock. Around 4:00 in the morning the fog was socked in and the call of nature hit me. Buddy let me out on the bank and I wandered up the bank to find the perfect spot. Did my duty and went back to fishing. When the sun came up and the fog burned off we happened to be fishing down the same bank. I looked up and was horrified to see a big pile of toilet paper in a well manacured lawn of a half a million dollar home!! We often wondered what the owner thought.

[skeeterp]

Ah yeh, the rod's snagging a tree trick. Same thing happened to me, but I was out pre-fishing from my partners boat by myself one fall day and had about 5 rod's a combination of his and mine get pulled over the side. I was fishing Beaver Lake down in Indian Creek, so the water was clear, I could see the rod's about about 6 ft down, nobody was around, so I stripped down to nothing, dove down retrieved the rods, got dressed and continued pre-fishing for my tournament. No one else was around, so not so embarrasing, but a good story.

[focused fishing]

O.K. 2 stories:

Several years back we had a club tournament the same week the BASS Open was in town. Our club was a bunch of retailers so we had our tournaments on Wednesday while the BASS boys were practicing. We went out of Aunts creek, I launched with my partner and tied up to the dock. Looked up on the ramp and my buddy was trying to launch with his partner, a young lady about 4'10". He asked if she could back him in and she said no problem. He climbed into the boat and she started the truck. She didn't realize he had a three speed and not an automatic, she managed to get the truck in neutral and it began rolling down the ramp, at 4' 10" she couldn't reach the brake and the whole rig went in to about the head lights. My buddy dove out of the boat swam to the truck and managed to get it back up the hill. He pulled into a parking spot and opened the door, it looked like a cartoon with water pouring out of the truck, I expected to see fish swimming on the parking lot.

By now I had run up to him to see if I could help, he said he was o.k. but needed some dry clothes for him and his partner, I gave him my coveralls and her a pair of sweat pants and a sweat shirt. They changed and we had managed to retreive his rig and pull it to the dock. He gets to his boat and it is full of water..... forgot the drain plug. Wearing my coveralls he dives back in the water and inserts the plug, climbs out and starts the bilge, bilge doesn't run. We decide to put his boat on my trailer because his truck won't start. I back in my trailer, we manage to barely get his boat on and my 1 ton truck struggles to get the boat up the hill. We let it drain, he changes clothes yet again, now fishing in a rain suit only. The entire episode happened infront of about 30 BASS Open guys, I don't think they laughed that hard in their entire lives. Oh, he went out an hour late and managed to win the club derby.

#2

I decided to improve my odds by setting some brush piles on a "local" lake a few winters ago. Air temp was about 40 and water temp was about 38. I had planted about four brush piles and noticed a real good looking sycamore that had blown down on the bank. I beached my boat to retreive the tree, I grabbed it and started back to the boat about the time a gust of wind blew my boat off the bank. I walked about 50 yards down the bank following my boat before I gave into the inevitable and waded out chest deep to retreive the boat. Freezing I stripped down to my birthday suit and put on a sweatshirt and sweatpants I had in the boat and decide it was time to head home, cold but relieved that no one had seen the fiasco. Pulled the trolling motor and went to fire up the big motor and heard clapping on the bank behind me, I looked up and three couples were on the deck of their house watching the whole thing.

EP