Ramp incidents

[Ice Hole]

The other one that really bothers me is people deciding that the single dock at a boat ramp is a great place to fish from.

[Nick Kuhn]

Originally Posted By: katoguy

I can't tell you how many times it is my turn to load or unload after waiting for quite a while patiently and somebody pulls their boat right up to the dock blocking the access.

People blocking the access is the worst, how about when they launch and then leaves the wife to hold the boat (or tie it up) on the dock floating above the ramp clogging up the whole works as he drives off to park the truck. Never mind that they could have moved to the non ramp side of the dock or go to the other dock away from the ramp and that there are signs up saying "do not leave boat on this side of dock."

That one gets me everytime, come on, have a little courtosey and some common sense.

We always just have someone in the boat to idle around out a ways from the boat ramp while the rig is parked. Then just pull up to the dock and pick up whoever parked the rig. The dock is never really blocked except for maybe 10 seconds if you do it this way. Plus you get the engine idling for a bit and it runs smoother when you open it up (or else you'll notice a problem before you try to open it up).

[swampbuck]

Had a great example of boat ramp behavior this weekend at the GFO at Breezy pt, I had three of our boats to line up that were used by the govs party.

There are about 5 trucks in line at a double ramp.

The sheriff pulls in next with a 21 foot center console and backs in the center of the DOUBLE ramp. takes about 20 minutes to get the beast loaded then pulls up so tthe back of the boat is just out of the water, gets all the law enforcment gear out of the boat loaded into the squad and the gets the cover out. Keep in mind that there are now 8 rigs waiting to pull out, also take into account that it has been raining for a few hours and is starting to snow.

You wold think that this deputy would have enough common sense to move ahead 50 yds, but no 45 minutes later we were able to get backed up.

Then he had a big gob of weeds hanging from the trailer as he pulled away.

[Iambjm]

At the launch, the hubby is backing the boat down, I am at the shore directing him, he is not paying attention, backs the truck into a fence and a sign before I even have the chance to yell at him to watch out. He gets out of the truck, puts both hands on his hips and looks at me and says "WELL", I say "well what" he says "now look what you made me do" I told him "don't blame me, I wasn't driving"

[Moe Szyslak]

People blocking the access is the worst, how about when they launch and then leaves the wife to hold the boat (or tie it up) on the dock floating above the ramp clogging up the whole works as he drives off to park the truck. Never mind that they could have moved to the non ramp side of the dock or go to the other dock away from the ramp and that there are signs up saying "do not leave boat on this side of dock."

That one gets me everytime, come on, have a little courtosey and some common sense.

This is the only one that bugs me. Or the individuals do this and leave their buddy to hold the boat on the ramp side, then procede to start carrying their fishing gear from the parked truck to the boat after the boats already in the water.

I havent seen too many expensive ones like mentioned above.

Once I saw guy try to drive on his 14ft aluminum with his kid in the boat. He would throttle up then run to the front to clip. The first time him was a tad left and broke the trailer lights and trailer guide. Next attempt he didnt use the motor.

Another one was a family that was loading up to leave on a steep concrete ribbed ramp. Husband gets minivan and puts boat on by cranking winch. All is good. I was watching from about 100 yards away waiting to get off the lake (only two boats on the lake). Next thing I hear is screaching tires and incremental BANG...BANG...BANG...BANG, about ten times. Oops, forgot to trim up the motor.

[ole matty]

i have forgot plugs severals time once left the boat for 5 mins before buddy arrive n say "whys the back of boat is under water?" . forgot to remove straps took me awhile why the boat arent gettin off the trailer. forgot to put brake on manual truck it was moving till a nice dnr guy got in truck n slam the brake. someday i m smart someday i m dumb@$$. thats happened to everyone. just like ron white say "you cant fix stupid"

[Walterwontfalter]

I rolled my first boat with a roller trailer off onto the concrete...with embarrassment and adrenaline it's amazing what you can lift and crank with a crank winch. Of course there's a bunch of people watching.

I also unloaded with 5 other boats in our crew and proceeded to drive the boat to our campsite dock... couldn't figure out for the life of me why I couldn't get the boat to plane...Once my feet started getting wet I realized the plug wasn't in...and I hadn't hooked up the lead from the bilge pump. I got grief from that moment all week.

[croixflats]

seen a boat load people motor off from the boomsite launch ,launch there boat from side of launch couldnt wait their turn left truck there. Thing is took trailer with them. I'm not joking.

[icehousebob]

Saw one on Tonka a while back.This was the old Gray's Bay launch by the dam, current flowing pretty good. A guy pulls up with an SUV and two boys, pulling a new pontoon. He backs down the ramp and stops. He and his extended family, who arrived in a van, start loading their picnic gear and assorted stuff for 15 minutes.Then mom, granny, and a half dozen others climb aboard. So far, no English was spoken by any of them. Then the guy backs down the ramp and there's a horrible grinding sound, as if the motor was lowered and scraping, which it was. A teenaged boy tried to start the engine after it was floating, but no luck. It floated away and towards the dam, with a great deal of angry shouting. Some eastern deity should wash their mouths' out with soap. Finally, some guy who is waiting in his boat to land, throws them a rope and tows them back to the ramp. The process is reversed, complete with the scraping noise. They load the pontoon,, put people and stuff in the van, all the while still blocking the ramp. 45 minutes for a thirty foot boat ride. I wouldn't have given you three empty pop bottles for the lower unit on that new motor.

[MN Angler]

A few years ago for the opener I was involved in a launching incident. There were four boats in our group and my cousin and I were the first to the ramp with the other three waiting in line. It was one of those landings which are very narrow as well as the dock was placed so close to the ramp that if you were to park your boat on the ramp side there would not be room for another person to launch. Well we were all excited and wanted to get out on the lake. our plan was to have him back it up while I sat in it so i could quickly start it back out and make room so the next boat could launch. Our plan crumbled when the winch line snapped, back end rolled off, and was sitting at a 45 degree angle three feet from the water. I was sitting in the front of the boat when it happened and ended up rolling to the back. Of couse the other boats in our party were laughing and helped us lift it back on the trailer. We were known as the " village idiots" that weekend, we just told them we were trying to speed launch it

[Grum]

That would have been a good "Kodak Moment"

[tunrevir]

I watched a guy down at Pappy's in Stillwater one time trying to put in 2 jetskis for the weekend. Must have been brand new and pretty excited to get on the water as he hopped out of the truck with it still in reverse and sunk the whole works. Luckily, the trailer jackknifed and save the truck from fully going in but the ski on that side and the trailer tongue took a beating. We used to sit in the marina and watch the ramp on the weekends. Lots of crazy stuff happens at boat ramps.

Tunrevir~

[Sandmannd]

I'll fess up to a couple. Last year was my first opener with a boat so I was really excited. A guy was meeting me at the ramp to fish. He was running late so I thought I would quick launch the boat and park so we would be ready when he got there. Got the boat in under five minutes and was going to park. No parking in the lot so was going to park on the road. As I was going out the exit of the parking lot I saw "level" ground so I thought I would park there. Turned out, not so level. Dropped my truck to a good 45 angle and had no tracktion. My buddy showed up and went to get a tow rope. I ran back to the boat to put my tackel box away only to find the boat taking on water. Reached in and put the plug in, turned on the bildge, got the truck out and parked and then fished. Was a bad start to the season.

Last year, Kingfisher and I went out one night. Don't usually unhook the safety and the winch (I still think it was KF that did it) and was backing in. Hit a bump and the boat started coming off. Motor was trimed up good so the bottom just touched the ground. Got her cranked back on and launched. Luckily no one was around.

[unfrozen]

Sounds like you fish at Lake O'Dowd. I see that all the time there...even though there is a very nice fishing dock a quarter mile down the road.

[Fishinguy40]

I agree with katoguy. There is usually a line of vehicles on shore waiting to both load and unload. Whichever vehicle is next in line it is there turn to use the ramp whether it is to load up a boat or put in a boat.

[HOT SPOT]

ozzie -

I DINT REALLY IT HIT THAT HARD, IT MUST HAVE HIT JUST PERFECT IN ORDER TO DO WHAT IT DID, BUT YA ILL EITHER GET A NEW BOAT WITCH SUCK, I HAVENT EVEN HAD MINE FOR A YEAR, OR THEY WILL HAVE TO FIX IT. IM SURE ILL GET THE WORSE PART OF THE DEAL NO MATER WHAT THE INSURACE WILL STALL LIKE USUALL ARE THEY WILL OFFER ME ABOUT 2/3 OF WHAT THE BOAT IS WORTH.

ANYBODY NO OF ANY GOOD CERTIFIED PEOPLE THAT FIX AMUMINUME BOATS? I HAVE HEARD OF A FEW ANY INFO COULD HELP.

[fisherjmb]

I had a funny incident happen in '97 at the Rainy River. We had fished the day before and got to the ramp early the next day. My dad backs in the boat and trailer. I was holding the rope and planned on pulling it to shore away from the access a bit.

We get the boat and trailer in the water and everything is unhooked, straps, chain, winch strap, everything. The boat will NOT come off the trailer. I am standing on the tongue of the trailer pushing the front of the boat. It will NOT come off. I proceed to throw the rope into the boat and push with all my strength. Next thing I hear is a loud BANG. The boat then leaves the trailer with no one in it and no one holding the rope. The boat proceeds to float down river. I yelled a few explitives and my dad sees the boat go. Luckily, a nice gentlemen retreives our boat and brings it to shore. We had a bunk trailer and the boat had FROZE to the trailer, that is why it wouldn't come off. Finally the water melted the ice and the boat broke free. The loud BANG was the trailer hitting the concrete under the water. We laugh about it to this day. I still get greif for not hanging on to the rope.

[Sandmannd]

Sounds like you fish at Lake O'Dowd. I see that all the time there...even though there is a very nice fishing dock a quarter mile down the road.

Nope, that one was on Clear last year for opener. Did do O'Dowd this year, most we got was yelled at by the dock boys for being too close at about 200 ft from them.

[JimBuck]

You might want to take that English Literature book off of the caps lock key... searching the forums in boats & motors for example will yield numerous results. Good luck.

[Dave S]

ozzie -

I DINT REALLY IT HIT THAT HARD, IT MUST HAVE HIT JUST PERFECT IN ORDER TO DO WHAT IT DID, BUT YA ILL EITHER GET A NEW BOAT WITCH SUCK, I HAVENT EVEN HAD MINE FOR A YEAR, OR THEY WILL HAVE TO FIX IT. IM SURE ILL GET THE WORSE PART OF THE DEAL NO MATER WHAT THE INSURACE WILL STALL LIKE USUALL ARE THEY WILL OFFER ME ABOUT 2/3 OF WHAT THE BOAT IS WORTH.

ANYBODY NO OF ANY GOOD CERTIFIED PEOPLE THAT FIX AMUMINUME BOATS? I HAVE HEARD OF A FEW ANY INFO COULD HELP.

AAARRRGGHHH,

easy on the caps lock. It's considered yelling on the internet.

[MuskieJunkie]

Had a great example of boat ramp behavior this weekend at the GFO at Breezy pt, I had three of our boats to line up that were used by the govs party.

There are about 5 trucks in line at a double ramp.

The sheriff pulls in next with a 21 foot center console and backs in the center of the DOUBLE ramp. takes about 20 minutes to get the beast loaded then pulls up so tthe back of the boat is just out of the water, gets all the law enforcment gear out of the boat loaded into the squad and the gets the cover out. Keep in mind that there are now 8 rigs waiting to pull out, also take into account that it has been raining for a few hours and is starting to snow.

You wold think that this deputy would have enough common sense to move ahead 50 yds, but no 45 minutes later we were able to get backed up.

Then he had a big gob of weeds hanging from the trailer as he pulled away.

That's unbelivable. After 45 minutes no one said anything?

[JimBuck]

Wow. I would love to see someone tell him to take care of loading away from the landing...sounds like an act just out of spite.

[JP Z]

Would have been great to CAll the DNR for a disturbance at the ramp

[tisosy11]

Or call him in because he's leaving with aquatic life on the trailer...you know hes dropping into another lake soon!

[tunrevir]

Guy was just trying to do his job and it may have helped or hurt to go over and ask if he needed a hand. Chances ae they didn't know they were holding up the show. Point in case, I had some motor issues a few years back and was adrift on my parents pontoon boat. I began to signal with the running lights an S.O.S morse code. County sheriff blew by twice and never batted an eye, an old salt on the shore came out in his 12' boat and asked,"Are you in need of assistance?" I said, "Well, yes I am, I am having motor problems and cannot get in but the sheriff seems more intent on cruising around then paying attention to distress signals." He towed me in. Now, the topper is that the same crew that works that boat pulled up one evening at dusk and warned me to put my lights on so that others could see me and they wouldn't ticket me. Lesson to the story, if you see law enforcement not followuing the rules or etiquette, help them out, educate them, and if they are belligerent report them. Chances are he could have used some help. If all else fails call the tipine and report the vehical and give a description and follow up on it! County waterpatrols don't always know all of the rules and I don't either, but to drive off with the weedies attached was brazen after hoggin the ramp for 45 minutes. Gotta love the rookies and if he wasn't shame on him!

Tunrevir~