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boat mishap/problem stories!


Burnham

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I never do anything dumb.. never whistleshockedlaugh

I will have to say the funniest thing I ever saw was not something dumb that I did.. But got to witness it..

White Bear Lake boat landing.. Some high school kids got a hold of dads boat..Which was a quite large cruiser boat.. They forgot to remove the straps, and rather than pull the boat back up, oneof them swam around to the back of the boat... Keep in mind that they had already backed the truck into the water trying to get the boat to float off.. so back end was very deep.. the kid says... "I think I just about got it".. next thing you know the kid is gone.. he was holding on to the trailer when it sunk.. he came up gasping for air. with this shocked look.. He was ok.. but I giggled for a bit..

When I was a youngster we had a pontoon boat.. my dad beautifully launched our 28' long pontoon boat.. about 25 feet from the shore.. but the wrong side of the shore..

my dad also while on lake pepin with the motor at Wide Open Throttle thought it was a good time to tune the engine.. evidently your not supposed to touch the spark plug with a non-rubber handled needle nose pliers while at WOT. .. got zapped and fell out the back of the boat..

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I don't have too many dumb boat stories, but I'll have you know I'm still working on it. I do have a story about the day I brought our boat lift to it's current home.

Our lake property is not to far from Walker MN, and I saw an ad for an appropriately sized used aluminum lift with a canopy over near Park Rapids. I spoke with the guy on the phone, told him I'd bring cash for it, but I needed a trailer to move it East to our property. So he tells me to rent a snowmobile trailer from a Rental place in PR. I did this and payed the small fee to rent it.

So I get to his place and take a loot at the lift. Right away I can tell it's too big for the trailer. The lift itself was in good condition, the canvas was okay, so I decide I want to buy it. He sweetens the deal by telling me he and his son, a Marine, will help me move it and install it on our shoreline. I thought that was a good deal. So we ratchet strap all four corners securely to the trailer, but all 4 pads are hanging off.

It's the Saturday of Mermorial weekend, so I took a bunch of back roads at 30 mph. But there's one stretch of Hwy 34 that I couldn't avoid, so we did 55 mph. I see in my review mirror that a strap had snapped. Then Snap, snap, SNAP! The lift spins off the trailer at about 50 mph. Cars and trucks are swerving to the left and right and luckily no one got hit. I pull over and am really hot at this point for being dumb enough to try this. I slam my fist on the wheel, throw the truck in reverse and step on the gas to get back to the lift on the side of the road. Just then my Father in Law realizes what is going to happen and yells STOP!! Too late, I got a huge bang on the left side of my pickup. I was so mad that I completely forgot I had a trailer attached and jack-knifed it right into my truck. It's sunny, 95 degrees out, and I'm replacing the rear tire. We finally limp back to our place. Bruised ego and all, we get the lift in the water and the seller peels out of there. $4300 bill to the insurance company for truck repairs (I actually bent the axle), but the lift works great. Not a scratch on her, I highly recommend ShoreMasters!!

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I borrowed my dads boat one time on a trip up to the outskirts of the boundary waters (where bigger outboards are still allowed). We're camping out on an island.

Day 1: early sunrise off to go skiing in the calm morning water. While motoring out to the spot we wanted to ski in, BAM! We hit a rock going wide open. Look back behind the boat to see oil and grease bubbling up from the lower unit. We get the boat back to the resort and they take it out and slab some JB weld on it.

Day 2: JB weld has dried by afternoon. The lower unit tually seems to be holding grease We take the boat back to the dock on the island and hunker down in the tent due to the constant pouring rain. Around 5pm we decide to go to bed since the rain wasn't letting up and all the beer we had consumed in the tent watching rain fall was making everyone sleepy. I decide to "be smart" and go down and tighten the boat down to the dock since the wind was really picking up.

Fast forward 4 hours: I wake up to my bro-in-laws girlfriend telling me that the boat is sinking. I race out of the tent to find the boat listing badly (like almost 90 degrees) I jump in and try to get all my weight on the high side, but no no avail. The boat tipped over at the dock. In hind sight I have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to tighten the boat to the dock, eliminating its ability to float freely ON TOP of the water. Instead waves were crashing into it causing it to fill with water throughout the storm. At that point the sun had set and we were stuck on an island with no cell phone service. With nothing to do but wait until morning I crawled back into my sleeping bag with the sickest feeling in my gut...especially knowing my dad's 16' Starcraft lay upside down at the end of the dock.

Morning came and nobody would stop and help, finally somebody reported us to the resort and they came chugging out with the 14' 5.5 hp. They towed our boat (still upside down) back to the resort's access and shuttled our gear and people back in the little boat.

Once at the access they tried everything to right the boat but nothing seemed to work, including 2 F350's pulling at the same time. Eventually they got a Bob Cat down a ways into the water and dragged the boat far enough up on shore that several of us were able to roll the boat back over. Unfortunately the boat was totaled. pulling on it with the trucks creased the sides of the aluminum boat in, the motor shroud was toasted and the engine sat upside down under water in sand all night long. The steering console was ripped right off. It was a tragic day for the boat. Not to mention me having to swim under that water to wrap chains around the boat in the frigid May waters.

Several lessons learned from that one.

I have so many boat stories... That one was the most costly though.

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The worst I have had so far was not tying the boat up on the first run of the season while I got the truck and trailer. I just beached it and figured it was going to be fine. While backing up I look in the rear view mirror and see my boat floating away. This was about april 13th and ice was out a week earlier. Now I know what they mean when they say it was so cold it can take your breath away. I do think I set a world record with my swim that day.

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thought of another one......before walleyes opened on Red Lake but they were impossible to keep off your line 2 friends and I go up to fish for the day and hopefully find some slabs well as we launch the boat my buddy that has no clue to fishing was in charge of holding the rope as we launch the boat....one guy driving the truck I was on the trailer to push the boat off and the other guy holding the rope as I pushed the boat off and it goes into the river channel the guy holding the rope throws it into the boat now floating in the river channel.....we just looked at him like seriously........heres another one my buddy and I take his boat to a new lake to us and as we get there a boat is coming off so I go to ask them how they did and b s while I thought he would be taking off the straps and getting the boat ready to launch. So he gets the boat in the water and it won't come off the trailer and I decide well I will just push it off the trailer so I climb out there and am giving it my best and he continues to go deeper to try to help well finally I realize he forgot to take the back straps off!!!! At least we know they worked!!

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I've also done the 'back the boat in the water without plug in' ordeal, kind of a rite of passage isn't it??

About 15 years ago I moved up here to lake country, bought my first boat, a 14 foot fiberglass bass boat, didn't realize that it wasn't made for big water at the time, but had the thumbs up from the finance committee, and it worked fine on the small lakes around here, but then we decided to take it with when we went camping out to Big Stone lake.

Took it out the first day with my wife and two dogs with, cruised around, tried fishing a few spots, wind picked up, went behind some islands, fished some more, then decided to head in. Came around a point and the first three waves came crashing over the bow, had water up to my ankles, tossed the worm can to my wife and told her to start bailing, told her not to drop the can - as she drops the can over board, one dog is huddled between my legs, I gave the six pack cooler to my wife to continue bailing with, and I was able to turn the boat around and get back around the point into shelter. Between the cooler and bilge pump we got the boat de-watered but we still needed to get across the river to the campground - thru these big rollers that were coming down the length of the river. About then a launch/tour boat came trolling by, I tucked in about 40 feet behind him, he was big enough to break the waves, I followed him until we were well past the campground, then I was able to ride the waves back to the campground. I was never so glad to be back on dry land!! I had bad visions for a long time on what would have happened if that boat had sank from under us, in those waves...

The next spring it wasn't too hard to convince the wife to get a bigger V-hull boat!!!

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One time we were up camping near the Whitefish chain. One evening we decide to explore Whitefish. About half way there from the campground we realize we forgot our flashlights. "Oh well", we thought, "Too late to turn around".

So we dump the boat in and navigate that long channel of buoys out into the main lake, keeping a close eye on our compass so we could find our way back in the dark.

Unfortunately we didn't account for the fact that there was no moon that night and it was black as possible out on that water. I navigated back to whre I thought the buoys should be but couldn't see any of them. Believe it or not cell phones don't put off enough light at night to reflect off the buoys (first lesson learned). The wife was with and she was freaking out. Before long it's 1 in the morning and we for the life of us can't find the buoys and by this time had second guessed ourselves and had started to search in the wrong areas. To add insult to injury we had already ran out of gas and were sputtering around on my 1 gallon spare that I keep tucked under the transom.

Finally by 2AM, running on fumes and plumb out of beer and snacks, we bumped into a buoy and from there was able to make it back down through the channel. Went out the next day and bought a nice spot light that is ALWAYS kept in the boat. The wife will never again venture out on a lake after dark with me again.

Lets hear more stories...I love threads like this!

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best one I have ever seen was back in 1999 i was working at a marine dealership in St.Cloud. we sold a 17'5 foot starcaraft with a 90 hp merc on it we offer to show the people how to properly use the boat load unload all the basics as they were first time boat owners, the y say they will figure it out and are on their way. about an hour or so later they call and say the boat won't get up and go says it revs high but doesn't plane out and is pushing an awful lot of water so we ask were they are and myself and one of the mechanics head to the lake their on. We get there get in the boat family waits on shore motor away from the dock so far so good, we hit the throttle and it nose dives and motor is just screaming check for water in the boat anchor out nothing so we look into a little further and notice that the winch cable is still hooked to the front of the boat so i yell to the mech check the back for straps he says why i say because the strap is still on the front look at the back yep both straps back to the dock trailer still under the boat. They just unhooked the trailer from the truck and away they went needless to say it was a chore getting it hooked back up but we got it unloaded the boat properly showed them how to use everything took the trailer back to the shop to replace bulbs and some wiring and check it all over and brought it back out a few hours later helped them load the boat and strap it down we laughed about that one for years.

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i forgot to put the plug in once when i launched my boat... luckily, not much water got in and was able to drain the boat with a quick drive around on plain. i think almost everybody does it once, and it is one of the many learning experiences one will have when they own a boat...

only story i have to go along with this thread happened last summer... i was out on island lake in duluth by myself... first year with a boat, and was new to many things... was out by myself that night, and wanted to stay out past dark to test out the new lights i recently installed and use the GPS to navigate back home... i was all the way across the lake, about a 20 min boat ride (in my boat) from the boat launch. it was just me and a older guy in his boat fishing this spot... we had been chatting for about a good half hr at sunset and he was a really nice guy... anyways, the sun finally set and it was dark and i packed everything in and headed back to the landing.. i start the motor, and get about 200 yards down the channel headed back towards boat launch and everything is going perfect... lights are on, GPS is working, motor is running and started on first pull and it was a beautiful summer night... all of a sudden, WHAM!! it sounded like i hit a rock, but i didnt... i didn't know what happened but my motor seized up and i knew right away that i was not going to get back to the landing using the motor.. i had a trolling motor and two batteries in the boat, so i could have trolled all the way back to the landing but a 20 min boat ride at full throttle would be about a 3-4 hr troll home, if the batteries had enough juice to make it...

anyways, i managed to leave about 5 min before the old guy i was chatting with and i knew he was going to be passing me on his way home... so i waited for him to come by and flagged him down with my air horn and he stopped and said "it looks like you could use a tow".. he was extremely nice and said he has been on both ends of this situation, and said he would gladly give me a tow as long as i returned the favor if i ever saw a fellow boater in distress... the guy gave me a ride back to the landing which took nearly an hour going at about 5-8 mph.

im really thankful that i left before this guy, cuz if he wouldnt have been there to give me a tow home, it could have been a very long night.

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Hey grizkid... my uncle told me a story exactly like yours. I almost didn't believe it was possible, but he said some new boat owners with a very nice expensive BRAND NEW boat did the same thing. Unhooked the trailer from the vehicle and got in the boat. Luckily a few people were at the launch before they got it started and told them about it! Keep in mind it was fishing opener so plenty of people had a chance to see this happen! HAHAHA - I read through a few and immediately thought of that story! Almost thought it wasn't possible than the story right before mine is the exact same thing I wanted to post!

My boat can be tough to get off the trailer (especially last year when I had bad rollers on the bunk trailer). One day I backed her in and was pushing and lifting with everything I had for about 5 minutes. Finally I realized the back straps were still on and she wasn't going anywhere!

I have an 1973 Crestliner 16' with a 6 hp Evinrude that has always ran great EXCEPT once. I think the gas line wasn't connecting tightly and I wasn't getting gas to the motor. Figuring it was going to work like it always does though I had pushed myself away from the dock and the wind had pushed me out about 100' from shore. There I sat getting pushed across the lake pulling on the motor 30 to 40 times with no starts. Starting to curse at the motor and hating everything about my boat and motor. I was getting tired and angry. Finally I started messing with the gas line and eventually it stuck tight and 2 pulls later away I went for the day!

Finally,

My dad and I went up to my uncles in Bemidji to fish on the Lake Bemidji. We got up there and the weather wasn't great but my dad and I hadn't taken any vacation days all summer and I was determined to go fishing (he wanted to go out to Montana). He likes to fish but never really goes. Anyways, I won and we went to Bemidji and used my uncles 14' Alumacraft. We get out to a spot he told us about and the waves picked up like crazy. There we were in a 14' Alumacraft boat that wasn't very big bouncing around like a bobber! Needless to say a 20 minute ride out became a cold, rainy, soaking wet 1+ hour ride back to the launch. THEN another 25 mintues loading the boat on the trailer! He didn't catch anything and didn't fish the rest of the trip!

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Jwmiller33- We did the same thing on our way to the boundary waters through vermillion, but we were trying to save weight and room and left the hand operated bilge pump at home. The one day it isn't in the boat we fill the boat up with water.

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Opener on Vermillion five or so years ago, camping out on an island. Pulled the front of my buddies 16' Smokercarft with a 90hp Evinrude up on to the rock shore and tied her to a tree. Fast forward to about 11:30pm Friday night. We walk down to the boat to check on things (before heading out) and find the boat filled with water, half the engine under water. Turns out we pulled the boat up on to shore too far and the drain holes on the transom were under water. Ended up pushing the boat into the water and it kept a float. Bilge did not work so we had to empty it by hand and then pull the plugs on the motor and got that all cleaned out.

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Mille Lacs a couple years ago in my buddies 21' Pro Line. He thinks we have enough fuel and that the guage was just acting funny (it did that once in a while). Well, we come to find out that the guage is working properly when we are 2-3 miles off the northern shore, with the wind blowing out of the north. Ok, lets call someone to come tow us in......no deal, all of our cell phones are dead. Luckily we were able to hail someone over the marine radio to come and tow us back to Red door. Had they not responded we may have had a long drift across the lake that Sunday afternoon! Thanks guys if you are reading this!!

A a number of years ago I forgot to put the plug in my parents speed boat one day. I pulled the trailer up to the parking lot and was taking my time only to come back and find the rear of the boat sitting lower than it should. Open the rear hatch and find it filling with water. Had to jump in the water to be able to put the plug in that boat. Luckily I learned from that one.

Same boat a year later, out on Forest Lake and it just doesn't seem to be running right. Heading back to shore after cruising around for a while the boat dies.....probably 500 yards from the main public landing. I am turning it over trying to start it and no luck. I open the rear sun deck to check the engine and everything looks fine. Try turning the engine over again and then I hear this whoooooomph sound. I look back and the Mercruiser is on fire. I get this oh-s$%# feeling and am not quite sure if I should jump in the water and start splashing water on it or what. Then a moment later I realize the boat has a fire extinguisher and I quickly use that to put out the fire, a big white poof of retardant/smoke rises from the boat. Someone comes over and tows us back to the landing, and it's a nice Saturday afternoon so the beach and landing are just packed. Don't want to go through that once again.

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One time I was fishing by myself. I was in my little 14footer trying to jump from one bench to the next. I missed the middle bench and overboard I went! I had my cell phone, wallet and my car keys in my pockets,and ruined the phone. Good thing I was in a spot that nobody saw...although I would have loved to watch myself fall overboard!

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Burnham,

Welcome to owning a boat. As you can see from all the stories everybody who actually uses their boat has stories.

Here is a list of mine

1. Stranded in a shipping lane in florida, rented boat, motor hatched- thankfully the coast guard notified the ship that was bearing down on us (they throw a big wakes, hold onto your stuff)

2. Hit unmarked rock on lac seul, trolling motored 3 miles to camp (always charge trolling motor battery)

3. powerhead cracked on 25 merc, trolling motored 7 miles, paddled the final 3 miles to the cabin in the dark. (don't drink and paddle, it leads to a broken motor and hangover)

4. Mechanic didn't fill lower unit properly, hatched lower unit - floated 2 miles down river to landing (always fish upstream on rivers)

5. Trailer suspension broke, left boat on the side of canadian highway and had to drive 7 hours home, take next day off, borrow a trailer, drag boat to nearby lake, unload boat, put on good trailer, drive home, drive back with big trailer to get broken boat trailer (trailer maintenance can save you 28 hours of driving)

6. Almost sunk by coastguard, they drove in front of me from the port side and curved around in front of my boat to board on the starboard side, 4 foot wake went over the bow of my 16' crestliner and knocked the 16 year old kid that was on the bow, sitting on a seat, out of the boat. (Needless to say, we talked and the USCG left rather sheepishly)

7. Slowed to a stop and boat slammed into the back of my truck, the ball on my trailer hitch had sheared off so the boat was hanging by the chains. (always have a second trailer hitch)

8. Putting boat on boat lift at cabin (ramps that pull it up into the boat house) I pulled too hard on the rope to attach it to the back of the boat, it broke and I flipped backwards out of the boat into the water, lost my favorite hat

9. Let a buddy drive the sport canoe with the 9.9 on it, told him not to swerve because it was narrow and thus very tippy. He swerved and dumped us in the middle of sandpoint lake. The boat circled us and by the grace of god I was able to grab the side of it as it drove by me and get back in and rectify the situation. (note to self, tie my tacklebox and rods down the next time I let a moron drive)

Now you would think after all of this I would get discouraged, but I seem to remember the accidents and they do make funny stories (only much later and to other people are they funny stories)

So welcome to boat ownership and all the joy and terror it entails!

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Gotta say I love threads like this, makes me feel much much more competent. That being said I've had my fair share.

Story One: My buddy has justified compeletly outfitting himself with 3 new rods and reels. 3 Fenwick HMG's and matching Pfleuger President Reels. We're leaving in his dads 17 foot vhull for a nice day of fishing. First thing he does is throw his rods in the bed of the truck and slam the tailgate. Rule number one, don't open tailgate when loading rods. Needless to say he snapped one of the rods in half when he shut the tailgate. Down to two rods. We finally make it to the lake and land the boat. After about five minutes of fishing I feel like the back casting deck I'm on is a lot lower than usual so I look down. Theres water everywhere so I yell to him to get the motor started. Turns out he put the plug in the live well hole. Second lesson, try to get a boat that has the live well hole off the side and not right next to the drain. When we get back to the landing he runs for the dock and stomps on another one of his Fenwicks. Now down to 1 rod. After draining the boat out we finally make it fishing.At this point Joe is furious and I've got all my rods as far away from him as possible. We manage to catch a couple walleyes and make a go of it. Its now 11:00pm and we're ready to leave. Motor doesn't start, apparently we also managed to run the boat out of gas. The trolling motor battery had already died for the day as well. After lugging the starter battery to the front of the boat we managed to limp our way to the landing. Wouldn't you know it Joe puts his last remaining rod in the back of the truck and shuts the topper.....you guessed it snap. Rod Count = 0. From that point on I have kept my rods strapped down in the foam rod holders in my boat. Luckily the store my buddy bought the fenwicks from returned all three and gave him three new ones, apparently spending lots of money at a local store frequently pays off!

Here's one act of genius I performed just last weekend with Wisconsin Walleye Opener. I have a small 14 foot aluminum boat with a 15hp 1956 Johnson. Now this motor is a dinosaur but it is literally indestructable. Last year when I put it away it ran just fine so and I didn't have time to drive 4 hrs home to get it tuned up. I went out for opener and guess what, it was only running about half throttle. I spent the entire weekend on the willow flowage going 5mph. My buddy, same one who broke his rods thought it would be fun to mock me and drive to the landing backwards faster than I did fowards. Note to self....If a motor is 50 years old odds are good you need to tune it frequently.

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Two stories:

1) Launched my boat on the Rum River one morning and motor out to mid-river and shut down motor and drift while I get my rods out. Then I sit down and begin changing baits to the ones I generally use on the river. A couple of minutes pass and I have to go up front and open a compartment to get some baits out and all of my plastic bins are floating - the one and only time I have launched w/o the plug. Turned on the bilge pump and thankfully got it to shore at the landing and put it back on the trailer and pumped it out completely - took like 10 minutes. Now I leave my drain plug in all year long.

2) I was fishing the state BASS Tournament of Champions on Whitefish Chain as non-boater. Boater has beautiful 21 ft Skeeter with 250 motor. He had early limit and I had like 2 fish. We were in Rush Lake and weigh-in was in Moonlight Bay at north end of Cross Lake so not too far. With about 30 minutes to go I changed colors on my jig worm and caught like 9 bass in 11 casts to not only limit but cull. I was pumped! Anyway, he says it's time to go so we get all buttoned down, throw on the life jackets, and he goes to turn the ignition and nothing...I'm crushed as I imagine the pounds slipping away from my limit from being late. He says "no problem" and gets out a pair of jumper cables and we jump the starter from the trolling motor batteries. Engine fires and we get everything put away again. I put my life jacket back on and sit down. He grabs his life jacket to put it on and - you guessed it - the kill switch was still attached to it - the motor dies again and will not restart so we have to go through the whole ordeal again. It was like a Chinese fire drill and several other competitors were watching the spectacle since they had later weigh-in times....Once we got going we set a personal best for me on the water 77 mph only pausing to go through a short no-wake zone. Made it back with seconds to spare and no penalties...

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Here’s another one for the list. I was on a trip a few years back with a few other guys and we had two boats out in this long narrow bay. The bay was pretty uneventful except for one big rock, shaped like a sooth turtle back, about 50’ around, 3’ high and surrounded by some reeds (the only reeds in the bay). Well it starts to rain pretty good and I decide to call it a day, heading back into the rain with my parka shielding my eyes. I’m moving at a good clip in my 17’ Alumacraft/50 HP tiller Merc, when I see myself cutting through reeds. Instantly I think “this isn’t good”, back off the throttle and push down on the tiller to pop up the motor. Good thing as I skated through about 6” of water, a couple of feet from the big rock. Missed everything and made it back to the cabin without further mishap.

About a half hour later, the other guys get back looking a bit shaken but laughing hysterically. They had a 16’ open fishing boat with a 25 HP tiller and an added front deck. They had waited until they were good and wet to leave and the boat had water in the bottom, so the driver, Steve, decided he would get up on plane, pull the plug to drain and keep going. His partner, Mike, was sitting up front on the casting seat. See it coming? Well Steve was busy fiddling with the plug, looking down and backwards when he runs square over the center of the rock. Mike said the impact threw him about 5’ into the air, landing back on the chair. Steve just hung on the tiller handle and they went right over the rock and kept going. Nothing was broken, no prop damage, and nobody got hurt. We all had a good laugh over that one that night.

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Was on a buddy's boat down in Kentucky fishing largemouth on their beds. My buddy was on the deck, throwing a jig, gets a hit, sets the hook so hard that he goes over the deck and into water..... and never actually set the hook on the fish. Once he swam up, I was laughing for about 10 minutes... and there were about 10 people on the shore that saw all of this unfold. They were laughing also.

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I got stuck out on Minnewaska during that big storm about 4 years ago. We were camping in Starbuck and fishing just on the Glenwood side of the lake, trying to get some morning walleyes to bite. I keep eyeballing the dark clouds approaching from the Starbuck side of the lake. I make a few comments to my dad who was my fishing partner that day. Not wanting to sound too worried I keep it casual. ("Boy, sure is getting dark over there huh?") He didn't seem to concerned though so we kept fishing. Pretty soon it's really really dark, like night time dark only it's not even noon yet.

Finally he agrees we should get back before "Ma gets worried". Off we head, straight for the darkness. Pretty soon the temperature drops what feels like at least 20 degrees in the blink of an eye. The rain is whipping into our faces so hard you can't even look straight into it. It feels like somebody is hurling sand in your face. The waves are piling into the 16' widebody Lund. The sky is now flashing with lighting all around us, and we can't see past the front of the boat. My dad's glasses blew right off his face the moment we entered the darkness. I can say with all honestly that I had no idea waves could get that big on an inland freshwater lake. They were absolutely enormous...felt like we were out on the ocean in a little dingy. Finally we see rushes off to the sides of the boat and realize we must be close. By the grace of God we somehow ended up right in front of the camp ground. My aunt stood there with the flashlight guiding us in, knowing we were stuck out in that storm. I've never been so scared for my life, ever.

Reports back at camp were 70 mph+ straight line winds. Large trees were down all around town and the power was out for the better part of the day.

Come to find out later from the wife that my mom wasn't worried about us out on the lake, she was worried about the new awning on the camper. Cursing out my dad throughout the entire storm for leaving the awning out. Fortunately I think a neighbor helped put it away before it ripped off.

Lessons learned:

1.) Check the forecast before heading out to fish on a beautiful sunny morning.

2.) Trust your gut...if it looks like bad weather on the horizon, it probably is. Get off the lake.

3.)My life isn't worth an extra 30 minutes of walleye fishing...maybe an hour, but not 30 minutes.

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I would have never believed someone would just unhook the trailer if I hadn't have been there either jman. One more did this personally, took my boat in for service needed a new gear in the lower unit, get it back figure i'll go to mille lacs to try it out. unload jump in fire the motor up and im of to seven mile I know I know maiden voyage on a new part=smart. well all goes good so i get on the front put the trolling motor in and start fishing time goes on and it seems i have to keep turning up the juice on the troller to go the same speed after about a half hour or so later i look back and there about 18" of water above the floor. I jump to the back a turn on the bilge it makes no progress unscrew the cap by the motor look in sure enough no plug repair shop must have removed it search around for it to no avail. fire up the motor hit the throttle back goes down water comes in so i back of to just above ideal and can see the water going out the drain hole finally get enough out i can get the boat to plane out and go back to shore load the boat search for the plug some more find it in the bottom of the boat right next to the bilge pump must have sucked it over put the plug in and back out i went still wet to the knees but i drove an hour to get there so i was fishing. I now always check the plug once in for service.

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Years ago when I was around 10 dad gets a used motor a 5hp green mercury. My brother and I were in awe what an upgrade from the 3 hp Johnson. We get up to the cabin no time to unpack we have a new motor. We get the motor down to the dock and decide to put the motor on the old hydroplane instead of the fishing boat. Tighten down the motor with all the power a 10 year old has and we are off.

My brother goes for the maiden voyage. Wow it is planning never seen that before. Finally my turn. I tear down the shore line. Take a wide turn and then it happens. Motor tilts left then right then over it goes. After 30+ years I can still hear that awful sound of a running motor hitting the water.

That motor lasted less then 15 minutes.

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Had a few myself and it's refreshing to see that others have done it!

First: 16 years old, brand new speed boat with too much power (thankfully) and a few friends. Put it in on Lake Superior for a day of tubing on the big lake...get out past the light house and slow down to look around, could not get back up to plain when I gradually get back going...went thru the list of what may be wrong and when I checked the engine it was a touch wet in there, forgot to put the plug in. Turned on the pump and gave it all I could, took 2 miles to get the water out and by the time I got back to the dock we could still not find the plug. I jumped out while my friends went back out to empty it again from slowing down. I backed up the trailer, they drove it on and secured it quickly. Pulled it up the ramp and heard the tell tale sound of my buddy being a novice around boats, he did not put the motor up. Expensive lesson for me, but I always check these things now.

2nd - Different boat, a few years older. Out on the Chippewa Flowage with some buddies while the ladies slept to try and catch breakfast before we pack up and head for home from a great vacation with friends. Going wide open thru a channel that I had been thru 10 times over the last few days I hit a deadhead...but not with the hull, motor only. No one was thrown out of the boat thankfully but we had to use the trolling motor to get back. 7 hours later, 3 hours late for checkout and a bunch of angry wives...should have sunk the boat, maybe then they would have talked to us that day.

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