Boat Ramps,stuff that makes you ask why?

[Random guy]

The Metro muskie tournament thread was heading in this direction so I thought us Muskie folk could have a little fun venting without bashing and stay withing friendly speaking...lets see how this goes.

Like the guy that pulls up to the dock ties off over the landing and dissapears in the porta-biffy for fifteen minutes? What is up with that?

Or the sideways boat landers, one tire sticking out of the water and the other two feet under while they try land the boat...for half an hour. You want to help em out but scared you will offend them. What do you do?

[MuskieJunkie]

I got a good one. I have launched at many metro lakes and thought I had seen it all, the usual wait to take the cover off until you are on the ramp, wait to load the cooler/water skis/etc, forget the plug or backstraps (come on buddy, if you are not familar with launching your boat practice on a wednesday night, not on a Saturday morning) But this one takes the cake.....the guy was putting on his REGISTRATION, yes, parked in front of the ramp peeling and sticking on his registration, what can you say?

[Ralph Wiggum]

I watched to seasoned gentlemen spend 30 minutes loading their new Tracker on the St. Croix. They pulled it out 4 times before they decided it was on straight enough! Then, they stopped and wiped and strapped the boat down right on top of the landing. Luckily, no one was waiting. It was funny as heck to me.

[cjac]

Lake I was on this weekend has "street parking", so you're all lined up end to end. Well, by the time I got back to the truck, the rigs behind and in front of me were so tight on my front and back, I had to unhook the trailer to get out of my spot. Truck in front of me was so close, and he left his trailer out a ways from the curb to make it even more challenging!

[CommonSense Guy]

I watched a guy dump his fiberglass boat on the concrete four feet from the water on Prior this year. Then we had to help him get it back on the trailer. Then he almost did it again except a guys ran over yelling at him to stop. The funny thing is, he lived on the lake.

My favorite is the clueless "sailors" with their wannabe yacht club dingy's. You know it's gonna be a 20 minute wait with them.

[jerk bait]

I was on Mille Lacs with my wife one night. Out of nowhere the lake started to roll. We decided to go in. We were at the wealthwood landing and the waves were blowing in a direction that you could only land the boat on one side of the dock. A guy roars in around me to beat me to the dock. So I waited until he was done loading so my wife didn't have to hold the boat long. After fifteen minutes he finally gets the boat perfectly on the trailer and unloads all his gear from the entire boat into his truck while it sits on the ramp. He then pulls the boat just out of the water and walks to the end of the dock and starts to wash his hands in the lake. Thats when I lost it.

[mtreno]

i have been known to pull up and hang out about 75 feet off the boat landing on spring lake on a good hot saturday afternoon. sit back - crack a cold one and watch the idiots go to work. we used to pretend like we were fishing but i cought something onetime and it took away from my boat landing/lauching fun..... i should record some of it sometime cause lots of times its just one right after another.

we should have a fm get together out there to watch sometime. i sware its as good as fishing some days. make one of them hotbites videos. "a day at the access"

[i got carps]

Was out on Lake Harriet Monday night. After a succesful Muskie fishin' trip I came into the landing and some goofballs with their little sailboat decided to cut in front of me to unload their crappy little sailboat. After about 20 minutes of them tying ropes, rigging their dump, etc......With their boat still on the trailer, I had to yell at them that there were people trying to get off the lake before the storm.They couldn't undertand why I was upset and basically had to tell them there is a dock 10 feet from where they were trying to launch the boat where they could do whatever they had to do before going out. Then to make things worse I go to grab the truck and some idiots blocked me in so I had to lift the trailer up and slide it over to get out of my parking spot. I do all of this while not noticing the nice parking ticket on my windshield from 5 minutes before......15 minutes after I would've been out of there in the first place.

[mtreno]

ouch..... ticket for after 10pm?

[Jay R]

I had a interesting one last Saturday. Pull up to the ramp and there is a van backed down so I thought they where unloading a boat. I just waited in my pickup and waited and waited and waited. Finally I had to look, there was no boat but a small canoe on the other side of the dock not the side you launch on. Turns out they where just parked and loading there stuff from the van into the canoe taking there time. I was not in a huge hurry so no big deal and these peolpe did not look like the most experienced of boaters but the 2 rigs behind me where sure P&*^sed!!!!

This one really burns me up, on the way back in the wind started to kick up real hard so I motor into the dock, land and go get my trailer as I was by myself. Back down the ramp and proceed to load but having a hard time as the wind keeps catching the back of the boat and moving it off the rollers, NOW HERE IS WHAT MAKES ME MAD!!! The whole time and this is maybe 3-4minutes a young guy and his girlfriend sit in there pickup and watch with a p&*&ed look on there face as it is taking me to long. Well if you want in quicker lend a hand especially when someone is by themself trying to load........Oh well 7 out of 10 right?

Jay

[i got carps]

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ouch..... ticket for after 10pm?

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Nope. Ticket for being there 15 minutes longer than I paid for at the paybox.

[drizzle]

2 nights ago I had group of three in front of me. They got the boat in the water and of course the motor wouldn't start, which was no big deal because it gave me a chance to load my gear and straighten up my boat. Ten minutes go by and they were still cranking on the motor with no success. Then the one kid grabs his cell phone and makes a call, after he hung up he just kicked back and sat there. I had enough at this point and asked him what was going on, he said "my dad is coming down to take a look at the motor." I then asked why he needs to wait for him in the water, he quickly jumped up and got into the truck and started to pull the boat out of the water but he got stuck. After a couple of minutes of spinning the tires they finally got the boat out. Finally we got out on the water and we started fishing in view of the access we watched them finally get the boat running and they loaded up and drove the boat about 200 yards from the access and stopped to go swimming. The best part is there is a beach a 1/4 mile away.

[TBone1]

My favorite boat ramp scene took place two years ago in the fall, at the Spring Park access on Tonka. As I was taking the straps off etc. I watched a guy trying to pull his s.s. minnow out of the lake for the season. He had the huge bunk trailer where the bow of the boat hangs way down below the frame. With the tires of the trailer off the end of the concrete forms he finally was able to get everything situated on the trailer , he hops in the vehicle and guns it, as he does this the the tires come up onto the concrete forms, lowering the bow of the s.s. minnow and driving it into the concrete, not relizing what is happening, he backs up and rams it again, and again, thinking that his little suv just doesn't have enough horsepower. We finally clued him in to the situation. I believe he ended up hiring the marina to do the job. Quite comical to say the least!

[drizzle]

HaHa! Thats great. That reminds me of a guy with a similiar boat on Big Detroit. They were going to take it out for the year, but they didn't realize that the water level had dropped that fall. They couldn't even get close to the access without getting hung up.

[Steve Foss]

Great reading guys. I'm up early getting ready to hit Vermilion for muskies, and those stories woke me right up.

[delmuts]

i remember many of those !! i love to watch the ramp at the little lake near here as people load and unload!! after a while, when you have someone come in that actually knows what they are doing, you almost want to cheer and clap!!

[fishbreath]

At the ramp I look for the boats with T-stickers they are usually first timers. I'm lucky, I get to fish on Monday's when most pleasure boater are not on the lake. I don't go on the weekends unless it raining.

[Random guy]

If I only had the video camera:

I won’t say where or when I fishing this weekend just to save these guys a little embarrassment but…I have never seen anything so funny!

I was shore fishing flatheads watching the birds, listening to the river and just enjoying the day when out of the side stream comes a new boat with a couple of guys heading right for the water covered sandbar. Now mind you these guys where not screaming along by any means, maybe a touch above trolling speed when the boat bumps into the sandbar and stops. Now any one that has piloted a boat, been in a boat or even seen a boat would have just backed up and looked for deeper water in that 70 yard wide creek mouth. Not these guys.

After a quick investigation the captain of this mighty vessel (brand new 17 footer) decides the best solution is to put his buddy in the bow of the boat, trim the motor up high enough to get the water intakes and exhaust in open air and FLOOR IT. This didn’t work the first time so he tried it again and again and again. Now after several minutes of 20 foot high rooster tails they have moved about three feet, now we are getting somewhere punching it so if punching it worked why not hold it to the floor? A geyser of water that would put old faithful to shame reached to the heavens and the sound of a Harley Davidson doing 70mph in first gear echoed in the river valley. Luck finally smiled upon these two in the form of one of those boats not going fast enough to get on plane but slow enough to plow a huge wake. The wake smacked into the bow of the boat picking it up and pushing the prop into the water and sand harnessing the torque like an eighteen wheeler grabbing gears and off the sandbar they came only to punch it, bounce of a floating branch and continue the three hour cruise down the river.

I sat on my bucket with tears in my eyes and a gut ache that still hurts from trying not to laugh out loud at Skipper and Little Buddy.

[TBone1]

Jon -Now thats funny. Although it sounds super relaxing what I can't picture is you sitting on a riverbank watching the day go by.

[Random guy]

Quote:

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I can't picture is you sitting on a riverbank watching the day go by.

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The secret is to go musky fishing in the am and get good and tired otherwise I pace back and forth and get all jittery.

[buzzin for bass]

My personal favorite, and I've seen it dozens and dozens of times, is people not knowing how deep to put their trailer when taking the boat out. Many people seem to think the boat won't go on the trailer unless the bumper of the truck is at least partially submerged. This means that when there is even the slightest wind or current, the back end of the boat gets pushed off the side of the trailer before they can get in the truck and pull forward. Usually I just sit back and watch cause I don't want to offend the people, however after watching one gentleman wrestle with his boat sliding off the side for about 10 or 15 minutes and a storm rolling in I finally piped up and suggested that he simply pull his truck forward about 5 feet before trying to load the boat. Sure enough, first attempt with the truck moved the boat was on the trailer, straight, and no longer floating off the side.

[TBone1]

I see, so its therapy. I'll have to try it.

[Hibbing]

The stupidest thing I've ever seen, on the water and off, was a guy with his little daughter in the boat. They were hung up in a channel between Big and Little Sturgeon. This clown puts the motor (100+ hp) in gear and the motor is churning up the sand like crazy! He gets out of the boat and STANDS on the cavitation plate and starts jumping up and down! Somebody in another boat screamed at the guy aand he carefully dismounted. I could only imagine what his feet would have looked like if he slipped! Like Ron White says, "there ain't no cure for stupid"!

[Random guy]

Little sailboats, busy landing...need I say more?

[thewalleyeguy]

2 years ago on Big Sandy Lake by Mcgregor we got to the landing and there was thunder and lightning. As we are waiting for it to clear up some guy unloads his pontoon and goes out. My Dad and I thought he was a gonner.