Well that was stupid, but fun!

[Wanderer]

So, I obviously don't condone the license issues and life vests we know are not only required but a good idea...  The sock made me laugh and think of the the time me, my brother, and a long departed friend patched a hole in the side of a wooden boat so we could get on the water.

Most of us did some pretty crazy things to enjoy the outdoors when we were young and gung ho on the way to growing into the sportsmen who keep this passion near and dear to our hearts.

I'd like to hear what you guys did as new hunters or fishers just to "get out there" when you were young and didn't have two nickels to rub together.  

No judging here - It's assumed we all know that we've become "wiser" with age. 

[leech~~]

One of my many, many years ago when I was in my 20's was forgetting my orange hunting coat on the second weekend. On the way back up we pulled over on the way Friday after noon thinking we could jump in and get a few hours in the woods. I frantically tore the truck apart looking for my coat. 

The best thing I could come up with was to wear my orange hat and put a pair of long orange hunting socks up each arm and headed out!

Didn't see any Deer or Wardens that day!

Sorry, hope this wasn't just for water Fowlers?

 

 

Edited October 7, 2016 by leech~~

[SledNeck]

we hunted the cache/white river in arkansas last Jan and had 3 boats... well one motor wouldnt start so we piled into 2 boats and when we came back into the landing we were over capacity by one guy in each boat and the wardens were checking everyone at the landing. $500 fine. Better than guys not getting to hunt, I guess. They tend not to cut anyone breaks down there. Everything else was in order, which is quite a large amount of permits (paid and free) and special regs. 

Edited October 7, 2016 by SledNeck

[leech~~]

38 minutes ago, SledNeck said:

we hunted the cache/white river in arkansas last Jan and had 3 boats... well one motor wouldnt start so we piled into 2 boats and when we came back into the landing we were over capacity by one guy in each boat and the wardens were checking everyone at the landing. $500 fine. Better than guys not getting to hunt, I guess. They tend not to cut anyone breaks down there. Everything else was in order, which is quite a large amount of permits (paid and free) and special regs. 

Couldn't you have towed one out with one of the other boats?  Slow, I know but mite be $500 worth of time?

[Kettle]

Keep in mind I am definitely still young and dumb full of piss and vinegar at the age of 29.  Last year while in Canada we scouted an area we wanted to hunt, the water levels were low on a local lake and the cattails were about 20 yards from the water so we were planning on grabbing our layout blinds and hiking about 400 yards or so with them and decoys to hunt.  When we got there in the morning we had to walk down a flooded road to get there.  The wind was incredible, gusts to 50 mph so we couldn't get there.  Tried walking and the layout was like a sail, one of my friends actually got blown over.  Determined to hunt we picked another location.  We walked about 250 yards through thigh high muck and sat in our layouts in muck.  It was rough everything was soaked and full of mud but we got birds.  I cannot remember how many times we towed boats or drug them various distances to hunt.  

Kettle 

[fishuhalik]

Pretty sure my entire youth can be summed up by the title of this post

 

hmmmm, where do I start? My stupid ideas weren't usually caused by lack of funds since I've been working since I was about 12. Mostly just born of stupidity/cockiness of youth. 

 

Camping in the BWCA in July with nothing but hammocks cuz a tent was considered a luxury. In case you didn't know, there's a few skeeters that come out that time of year. And rain. On that same trip the rivets on the front of the canoe split, so we dried if off and duct taped the pi$$ out of it & it lasted the entire trip.

 

Tried paddling a big log out to the blind cuz my dad wouldn't let us use the canoe (I can't imagine why). That one didn't work so well. Also tried paddling out a giant otter sled by myself. Worked better than you would think.

 

Another boundary waters trip, went 2 days back into a lake. Weather was awful, cold front after cold front, and we didn't bring food in with us, because we were awesome outdoorsmen (15 & 16 hahaha) and we could catch our food. Caught one smallmouth so we ate the filets and put the remains in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid and a small hole, drilled about 1/2 way up the lid. Buried the bucket in the rocks til that hole was even with the bottom and let it sit there over night. Pulled it up and it was LOADED with crawfish. Ended up eating nothing but crawfish tails the rest of the trip.

 

now that I start thinking about it, I could go days telling stories like this. And I don't regret a single one of em haha

Edited October 7, 2016 by fishuhalik

[SledNeck]

20 hours ago, leech~~ said:

Couldn't you have towed one out with one of the other boats?  Slow, I know but mite be $500 worth of time?

Nope. River is usually over flood stage and you literally drive boats into flooded woods.

[MattL]

I've been in loaded up Jon boats with only a few inches of freeboard.  Not something I'm going to do now that I'm older and wiser. 

I also remember a time about 15 years ago getting out of school early due to a November snowstorm and driving my truck way too fast for the conditions to get out hunting.  Didn't end up in the ditch, but i remember the snow was coming down so hard you couldn't see much. 

I always had a shotgun behind the seat of my truck parked in the school parking lot. Never seemed like a big deal at the time...but then again it stayed behind the seat and I kept my mouth shut about it. 

And I know I've been in a boat with a makeshift plug. It think we used a wadded up T-shirt. 

[Wanderer]

Leech,

Nope, not just for waterfowler's on this one even though posted here.

I'm getting laughs out of every story. Thanks for the replies.

I didn't really give too much info on my boat patch story, so here's a little more: Back around 1980 my parents bought a cabin on 10 acres on the Pine River just south of said town.  Us kids of course were free to roam about unsupervised.  We found that old wooden boat on the property, chucked it in the river to find water gushing in a softball sized hole where the side met the floor.

We would NOT  be denied a float to gather Intel on our new playground so we stuffed the hole with our T shirts so we could float a quarter mile downstream to scout fishing spots.  We then got out of the boat, tipped it over to empty it and dragged it back upstream to our property.

We made one fishing drift and caught a ton of rock bass.  We pulled her back upstream for the second time, then figured out we could just wade the river and get the same results without the boat!

Our parents took a Polariod to commemorate our voyages and the boat was unplugged and left to be re-absorbed  into the forest.  And we could use our shirts to cover our sun burned shoulders.

That was the beginning of our fishing independence.  No parents or boats required to explore and learn how to catch rock bass, creek chubs, hammer handles, and the occasional walleye from Hwy 371 to the County 15 bridge before  the Whitefish.

If I come across that pic today, I'll post it.

 

[Neighbor_guy]

Does the story have to be from back in the day???

i feel like I am creating that was fun but dumb stories all the time. 

Just yesterday I had to peel off my layers and go bobbin for the browning after my foot got caught and I tipped the kayak over. For some reason I took the tether off said shotgun last weekend. Now this weekend it went in the drink. 

----------------------

How about the time four grown adults, after being warned by several people that it wasn't a good idea, decided that 4-people, 4-fishouses, and 4-full sets of gear could be hauled by only 3-snowmobiles, through 18" of fresh powder several miles across a lake that had only a few inches of ice on it??? We were then shocked when we got bogged down in a slush field. Only to then find out that member #4, who didn't have a sled, was found to have 2 cases of beer hidden in house. For a 1-day trip!!! 

Then because of superior intellect, we decide to make the same trip, on the same route, with the same results the next day!!!

fun, but so dumb....

[Wanderer]

7 minutes ago, Neighbor_guy said:

 

----------------------

How about the time four grown adults, after being warned by several people that it wasn't a good idea, decided that 4-people, 4-fishouses, and 4-full sets of gear could be hauled by only 3-snowmobiles, through 18" of fresh powder several miles across a lake that had only a few inches of ice on it??? We were then shocked when we got bogged down in a slush field. Only to then find out that member #4, who didn't have a sled, was found to have 2 cases of beer hidden in house. For a 1-day trip!!! 

Then because of superior intellect, we decide to make the same trip, on the same route, with the same results the next day!!!

fun, but so dumb....

Yah, that was epic... 

And if you could only capture the pucker factor in words about pounding through the October waves in Ely, riding in a flimsy aluminum boat that had a missing rivet replaced by a self tapping bolt at the access, you just might have something there too.

Sorry to hear about the Browning.  Bet you won't go tether less again.

[Mike89]

oh my, just too interesting.  have to think of a couple of mine.

[fishingstar]

back in 79 my dad and I went to lac Qui Parle  to do some goose hunting.

It was during deer hunting season. we went to get our blind picked out 

and they asked us as we were walking out the door they asked about one piece

of red clothing ( that is when it was red not orange) we said we did not have any

so we left. Well we got out to the truck my dad noticed I had a red t shirt under my

camo shirt. Of course  I said I could go. So I was sitting in the blind waiting for a goose

and here comes my dad with his old one piece snowmobile suit turned inside out.

Will everything turned out good because I got my first goose and dad got one with

his old model 12. 

The funny thing is we were just laughing about this afternoon.

 

 

 

[MJ1657]

23 minutes ago, fishingstar said:

back in 79 my dad and I went to lac Qui Parle  to do some goose hunting.

It was during deer hunting season. we went to get our blind picked out 

and they asked us as we were walking out the door they asked about one piece

of red clothing ( that is when it was red not orange) we said we did not have any

so we left. Well we got out to the truck my dad noticed I had a red t shirt under my

camo shirt. Of course  I said I could go. So I was sitting in the blind waiting for a goose

and here comes my dad with his old one piece snowmobile suit turned inside out.

Will everything turned out good because I got my first goose and dad got one with

his old model 12. 

The funny thing is we were just laughing about this afternoon.

 

 

 

That's a great story!