Regrets/mistakes from 2009

[50inchpig]

Nice to see everyone's pics and stories from the year. How about those trips that didn't go so well? I had two nights of stupidity, along with countless other flashes in between. It's gonna be a long winter, here are my stupid stories:

I usually don't get to the ramp much before dark due to work hours. That night in September I pulled up the ramp and realized I'd left my sonar on in back. Starter/accessory battery is dead. Not a problem, grabbed the cables out of the truck and started it up. Remembered looking at the cables and thinking I should unhook them right away but didn't. About 5 seconds later smoke starts pouring out from under my outboard cover and gauge panel in back. I finally unhooked the cables but the smoke didn't stop. Beached the boat and popped the cover off the motor, no flames there, so I turned my attention to the gauge panel, which was still smoking. Couple seconds of though - do I run or do I deal with it? Well I love my boat so I unscrewed the panel, wires were hot but no flames anywhere, and after a couple seconds the smoke and hissing started dimishing. I kind of traced the wires back but couldn't find any simmering globs of wire coating and everything seemed to be working so I put a couple screws back in and figured I'd rewire in the offseason. Not my first boat fire, not even the worst, I don't think.

Anyone who owns a boat knows big problems usually are caused by compounded stupid decisions, and here was my 2nd one. After jumping the motor again and making sure nothing was burning, I decided to leave my GPS off for the ride out hoping to store up enough energy to use the lights. Bad idea on White Bear. We got to cruising away from the ramp and I couldn't figure out why my motor wouldn't tilt down, finally figured out I was plowing through shallow sand. Not good. Arrived at the spot and started casting and realized I was leaking hydraulic fluid. I wedged a 2x6 in to prop the motor and take the pressure off the tilt so as not to leak fluid all over the lake. Found out the next day new trim units are somewhere around $900 - too much for this guy - so now my 2x6 is my permanant shallow water trim tool. Coulda been worse I guess. I think we got a couple fish that night too but I can't remember for sure.

My other night of idiocy wasn't quite as expensive but just as stressful. Ol' Nater came down to the metro to partake in a pretty good bite we had going and I was to meet him at the ramp with a couple hours daylight left. In the weeks leading up to this, I had always got a slight whiff of something burning when I'd unhook my boat in the garage, but could never find the source. Well I pulled up into the lot and Nater is there shooting the breeze with NCLaker and he says "your hub is smoking." Not only smoking but barely there. My bearing had worn away and the only thing left was the ground down metal cuff on the inside of the bearing. Nothing really holding my wheel on, so bad I didn't even want to chance launching. Now a smarter, more rational guy would know his axle size, especially someone who changes his bearings himself. Not this guy. I instructed Nater to hit up the hardware store and grab a couple different sizes. After we pried the old cuff off the axle, we found out that none of the bearings fit. Well I wasn't about to have Nater drive down here and not fish, so we threw the tire back on and launched the boat. Fishing sucked, didn't see anything, didn't know what I was going to do. After we were done around midnight, I picked out a nice long docs and tied my boat up, walked about 1/4 mile to the ramp, unhooked the trailer, and left it in the lot. Try sleeping well with your boat on the lake and your trailer in the lot.

Next morning at sunrise I was back at the store looking for bearings, still didn't find the right size, found some that kind of fit though, and put the hub on it, screwed it on nice at tight, and took it slowly home, about 10 miles. Halfway home my wheel started wobbling, realized the bigger bearing had cracked the back rim of my hub. Now I was screwed, late for work, and had to leave the boat by the side of the road all day. Well after work I finally found the right bearings, 1/16th, and made it back to the boat. This time I actually managed to fix it right and limp back home, but not without a truck full of wasted bearings, lots of grease, and a bruised ego.

[DHanson]

Fishing in the rain/wind and while wearing my glasses just sucks. My brother and I were fishing and getting ready to move spots. I layed my $200 rod down, but apparently I left like 3-4 feet of line out with my pounder in the water. He starts the boat up and a couple seconds later my rod goes flying and I catch the rod, but the end of my rod gets beat up by the prop. Lost 4" off the tip and wrecked like 5 guides. Still got to fix that rod. Could've been worse if I lost the rod and reel in the lake. The extra extra heavy rod will be a lot stiffer now. Too bad warranty doesn't cover it, haha.

[broken_line]

ouchhh!!

[MikeEiden]

Regrets... Only fishing 12 days this year!!!

[JRedig]

Marc, what about the night you went out without any release tools?

Sorry buddy, couldn't resist!

[JRedig]

My only story was fishing at a ramp this year that was very low on water. Boat beached a GOOD 5-7 feet from the edge of the water and the only deep water was where I had to back down the ramp to load, so I couldn't get it closer by myself. After backing the trailer in, I tried making the leap to the boat (which had all 3 of my dogs in it) and when my feet hit the edge (wet) they slid and I went [PoorWordUsage] over tea kettle into the launch hole next to the trailer. Water was all of 51 degree's and my dogs thought I was playing/swimming for them and they all jumped in!! Vowed to never fish that lake alone again until the water comes up!

[50inchpig]

No release tools? That only first level of stupidity. You haven't fished with me enough.

It was awesome though, someone had to show your Montana buddy what a musky looked like because he wasn't going to see it in the back of the Redig Ranger that night snap!

[JRedig]

Ya got me there, no question!

[ole matty]

Only regret is not fishing with jredig.

I forgot to unhook strap on boat. Took me nearly 5 full mins before I realized it won't get off trailer w.out takin straps off. sure glad nobody was around to see the show.

Not chargin battery the night before I drove 45 plus miles to fish and battery crapped on me 10 mins into fishing. Had to use gps, vexilar on troll motor's battery which only last 2 hours...

Gonna be long [PoorWordUsage] winter.....

[cjac]

Mistakes: Poor hooksets and a couple slow figure 8s that I should have converted. I know it's a matter of practice.... but screw it, I'm going high tech and going titanium.....

Six screws and two 3 1/2 inch long titanium rods in my back and I'll be able to bury hooks so hard I could hoist a muskie onto the deck of my boat like Skeet Reese does with a 3lb bass and spin fig 8s with double 13s so fast that you can't even see the lure, just a blur.

I'm well on my way to becoming the $6 million dollar man....

"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Chris Haider will be that man. We can make him better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."

[Shoot2Kill]

Quick one before I leave for the day...

Got a fish on the start of the figure 8 - being new to muskies I of course shat myself when it happened....buddy netted the fish, both of us were stoaked at the night time boatside hook up....CPR, done deal. Get back to the launch a few hours later....hey man, where is my other rod? What other rod he says....the other rod that was RIGHT HERE when we started tonight! He's looking all over and I'm starting to get mad...@#$@#$@#$@#! WHERE THE @#$#@$% is my other rod! Aaaagh! Gone. Well, where the heck was it?

Get home, look at the fish pics on the computer...rod is there on the edge of my buddies boat in the pics with the net handle pushing on it...(bass tracker with really shallow edges above the front and rear decks) - I was just about to put the fish back in when we forgot a measurement so we put her back in the net - one of those giant 42" jobbers that she could swim around it....measured her in the net, lowered the net, off she swam.

So...we figured that will measuring her when we lifted the net the net handle that was pushing up on my rod pushed my nice set up right into the drink. That was my second rod lost of the season...first was walleye fishing but I won't discuss that one today.

[mtreno]

i learned then when the boat is beached on shore ducks sometimes like to make it there new home. which i guess i would be ok with if they didnt [PoorWordUsage] everywhere. man that was a mess!

i learned that .8 ft is when my kicker bottoms out on a reef.

i learned that i need to stay away from my hot walleye spots on weekends in the spring....

i learned how to remove a ton of water from my fuel tank after a poor choice in service stations in Ky.

[Nick Kuhn]

For the most part just weak hooksets. That and losing my best early season bucktail because 2 of us were casting at the same time without looking behind us...

[cbrooks]

I learned to point the rod tip in the water when you got a fish wanting to leap out of the water. Had a few fish throw my lure this year.

[JeffB]

The last two years have taught me not to leave the dock, boat lift, and boat in the water till after harvest, since harvest never seems to end. From now on I guess I'll take everything out before the soybeans start.

[Muskiefool]

Regret is for those with no hope, but I did make a pile of mistakes LOL

[Scoot]

No huge regrets for me. I beat my head against a brick wall a few times on LOW where I'd have been better served to switch species, but I don't really regret it. I also would have liked to fish skis more this year, but I spent a lot of time on the dock and in the weeds chasing sunnies and perch with my kids, so no regrets there.

I guess I regret that The Queen that I saw on LOW didn't bite, but I didn't screw anything up there, so I don't feel bad about it. I went back many times and never saw her again. That one will stay with me for a while...

[gardn184]

Regret/Mistake One: Assuming that since my father used the boat the batteries would be charged and the gas tank at least a quarter full, needless to say after a 90 mile drive and passing numerous gas stations I was not happy when I got to the landing and realized no gas in the boat. Should have checked at home.

Mistake Regret Two: My buddy stepped on 4 st croixs this year, my only regret is that I didn't steal them from him so they would be safer in my end of the boat. Sure is a shame to see one crushed in half four nights in a row.

Mistake Regret Three: Allowing same said friend to unhook my first nice musky, I had a walleye on the other rod so I decided to unhook the walleye while he was unhooking the musky, needless to say fish slipped out of his hands and escaped back to the lake with no picture.

[mainbutter]

My only regret is not getting out and chasing muskies more. Next year will be differeint

[bronzeback]

Not fishing the night bite until about mid July. Biggest mistake of my season for sure.

[scsavre]

My biggest mistakes;

not hitting the night bite

Not fishing in november

Quiting my job in june, and doing pretty much no city fishing with my down time.I actually had nothing to do and fished less.

Biggest mistake was letting "dudeness" in my boat, he only goes for my big fish this year.

[Tony V]

Not using a safety strap for my fishing rod on my kayak. I went over, rod was caught in the current and gone. $100 reward for my $400 combo in the kishwaukee river in N. IL.

[dudeness]

I regret not making it to Savre's lake in July, cause the way it was going this year, that 52+ would have been mine.

Otherwise it was a good year. Always coulda fished more. It was a quality over quanity year for the most part.

[dcmusky]

Regret is for those with no hope, but I did make a pile of mistakes LOL

At least your a great netter! The 3 50+es I missed this year didn't hurt as bad becouse of it.

[Musky Buck]

Not putting a skunk in that dudes mailbox or a rotten fish under his truck seat on Miltona, the guy that swears at us when we're muskie fishing. Gave him a Boogaard invitation, got a lot quieter after that.