Strange but true… at the ramp!

I would like to start a “strange but true” posting of wild/strange/crazy/dumb/dumber/stupid/and weird sights that we have all seen at the boat ramps we’ve visited. All stories are welcome, but must be true. I challange you to beat mine! In fact, I’ll give the winner of “the best ramp sighting ever seen” $25.00 worth of my latest walleye lures ( I just invented a new floater and a jig that are being field-tested).

Steve and James, can you do a poll on the top five we pick ? And that way, we’ll all figure the winner?

Hey, how about Everett’s doing a season pass to go to the winner too? How about that Steve? Well, you should have seen a few doozies too….Anybody elce want to throw anything into the pot for the winning sighting?

Remember not to use the real names to protect the incrediblely wild/strange/crazy/dumb/dumber/stupid/and weird

people you mention…. you may have to fish, work, eat, or even sleep with them again someday! Who wants to go first?

Hawger

I am sure this will not win me any prizes as a lot of people have probably seen it happen or it has happened to them. One day at Evrets resort a guy backed his truck in to the river so far that he had water coming out of the cab of his truck when he finally got out of the river. I thought maybe it was a new way of seining minnows even if it did work I think I will just get mine at the bait shop!

I have also seen guys at the public launch on HWY 63 pull their boat out of the water and forget to hook up the safety chain and have their rig come right off the trailer and lay right on the ramp. I have a spot I like to spend a lot of time on in that area so I see a lot of people coming and going, it is amazing what kinds of things can happen . I am looking forward to some of the funny flubs people have seen or experienced

See ya on the river!

Dustin

Here’s a good one. I pull in to the ramp after a day of fishing to see a truck on the ramp so I just idle around watching the guy load his boat. First time he gets the boat all crooked on the trailer, hooks it up and tries to pull out. No luck. Gets stuck. Backs in a little further unloads the boat and tries again. Gets it on the trailer right this time but leaves the motor running (like most of us do untill we get it hooked) but this guy just gets out with the motor running at a good speed. Gets in the truck and roaches the tires getting the thing out and then drives off to his camp site with the motor still running. The look on all the guys at the ramp was unforgetable. Brother in law about died laughing.

A few years ago on the Opener a friend and I went to Tetonka Lake and fished between rain stoms. While we were sitting out a bad hour downpour in my car, we watched people back their trailers half way down the ramp and stop. Then they would crank the boat up the ramp on the pavement and onto their trailers. Talk about stupid. Great way to ruin the hull on your boat. Serveral different people did this. We also saw a guy do this in Lake City once. He was worried about getting water in his bearings so he wouldn’t back down into the water. Since when are bearings more expensive than the bottom of your boat? Bill

Sounds good to me Hawger….Season pass through the end of March to the winner. I suppose the stories that I have of countless hours at the ramp as a creel clerk don’t count. I sometimes wondered if people had ever launched a boat before or even backed their vehicle up!! Hey, everybody has to learn! I have some really good stories, but I’ll give everybody else the chance just in case they saw the same stupid/funny things I saw. Lets hear em!! Don’t be shy, even if the story is something YOU did……it still counts.

Steve Vick Everts Resort Manager

Seen this happen twice. The ramp I’m speaking of drops steeply into the water.

A guy backs his trailer onto the ramp and holds his foot on the brake while his buddy cranks the boat on the trailer.

The guy who cranked the boat onto the trailer waves his hand to the driver to signify that the boat is on. The driver then steps on the gas pedal and backs right into the river!!!!! He forgot to shift out of reverse!!!

Mahumba’s Fishing Page

Hawger

We can do a quick nomination of some of the best stories and then let the visitors poll those nominated stories for the ramp pass that was so generously donated by Everts Resort. You guys at Everts rock!

I swear I’ve seen everything twice…

My dumb story:

Two winters ago I got to watch a single boater in a 16′ Alumacraft hit the same wingdam 3 seperate times in succession. The first time he was steaming up the channel towards the Red Wing dam and schmucked that first downstream wingdam pretty good and then he proceeded to turn right back around at idle speed, not once, but twice, first downstream after the first impact and then back upstream for his final “inspection” of the pile of rocks. Not sure what he thought he hit or what he was turning around to see…. but I’ll give him this much… he found it every time he looked!

My stupid story:

2 Springs ago Steve and I waded out into 40 degree water to free a VERY stuck Lund Pro V 2025. These guys tried to cut through 9 inches of water on the back side of Sawdust Bar at the head of Lake Pepin and through a flock of seagulls standing (not floating or swimming!)…. standing! Steve and I still joke occassionally that we could see those “seagull’s knees” when those guys tried to run through the flock. So anyway, we get these guys lose, we’re freezing cold and heading home when we see a second boat trying to make the exact same run across the sandbar… almost as if they waited thir turn! Steve and I saw what was about to happen and we both just turned our heads and we couldn’t even bring ourselves to watch!

My “thanks, you made my day” story:

This is in fact a big thank you to the pontoon-load of gals out of Wabasha last summer that must have had a few too many beers and felt a bit “giving” shall we say. To keep this G-rated and short…. the pontoon pulls up fairly close, I’m casting a shoreline, and these gals start waving and yelling and they get my attention. So I turn around and I’m greeted by… let’s just say the bottom of their t-shirts were yanked up to their ears for a couple seconds. I was so stunned all I could do was give this half-baked wave and I literally half mumbled, half yelled back this wimpy sounding “thanks!”…LOL

Come on guys…. share those stories! That ramp pass out of Everts Resort is worth a few bucks at $7 a launch.

James Holst

Moving Waters Guide Service

http://www.movingwaters.net

Tracker Guy and myself were fishing out of Colville Park this last summer, late July/early August. There was a Bass tournament going on so the parking lot was packed when we got there just after sun up. Had a good day fishing out on Pepin and decided we would put the boat on the trailer and watch the weigh in.

Colville harbor had the crowd of boats that you would expect at the end of a tournament. Combine that with the pleasure boats and it was crowded. All of the bass guys were power loading their glass boats onto bunk trailers. Just running them up to the bow stop, clip on the winch rope and pulling out. Double ramps were moving the crowd through very quickly.

On comes the pleasure boat guy & boat gal….. (I’m going to have a little fun with this)

I had just put Tracker Guy on the dock and was backing away from the ramp as the trailer is backing in. Left….right…..left…up…down….left…ok At this point the trailer is completely submerged. The trailer hitch is at water level. “Better pull out a bit” Tracker Guy says. Boat guy’s gal steps out onto the dock and starts directing traffic. This is when it starts getting ugly…. Boat guy and boat gal had been watching the bass guys power load about 15-20 boats and felt this was the time to give it a try. The guy driving the truck pulled forward just a bit as boat guy comes in to load traveling way too fast. Kinda showing off to boat gal. (Who, by the way was quite the looker!!) With the trailer still to far into the water, boat guy comes in for a landing. For some reason hits the gas and runs that boat up and off the trailer right into the left rear corner of the truck. Smashing glass, crunched fiberglass. The boat was laying half on the ramp, half on the trailer. Boat gal is in tears grabbing Tracker Guy asking what to do. The 30 or so guys waiting to load erupted in laughter, it was ugly. I couldn’t help it, I was laughing too.

They ended up just backing the whole mess back into the harbor. Two guy chest deep positioning the wrecked boat over the trailer and finally getting out of the way after about 15 minutes.

Wow Jon… that’s one of the worst launch stories I’ve heard in awhile. I’ve said it once, I’ll keep saying it ’til I’m 100 years old, it amazes me that EVERYONE has to get at least some instruction to drive a car but ANYONE can drive a boat without know up from down.

James Holst

Moving Waters Guide Service

http://www.movingwaters.net

Heres one that Ive put on this board before (hope it still counts?)… but its worth repeating… these guys MUST have been a comedy team, their timing was impeccable!!!

We had just landed at the west public launch at Mille Lacs and were waiting our turn to retrieve our boat…… for the most part it was the usual efficient loading of experts… but this led up to the funniest act Ive seen at a ramp EVER!!… (and I was a creel census guy too, so Ive been at LOTS of ramps)…….

anyway, the next “team” up were preparing to powerload, and from the start it was obvious that the driver of the rig had NEVER participated in a power load before… the owner of the rig was out in the water reving his motor shouting instuctions to the driver…. you know… IN A LITTLE MORE!… NO!, BACK OUT A BIT MORE…… well the owner shouted ONE more instuction… I think it was “GOOD!”, but the driver apparently heard it a bit differently……. so just as the owner hit the gas and roared raced right to the trailer… the driver GUNNED it and pulled back UP the ramp!!….. the boat hit the ramp and skidded halfway up it!!……. well, we of course were getting a GOOD laugh out of THAT!…. but there was MORE to come!!!…….. after everyone helped push the hapless boat back out, and the driver got positioned JUST right…. the owner powerloaded the boat NO problem….. right on!!….. sitting smugly in the back of the boat he shouted to the driver “GO!!”… well.. the driver no doubt embarrassed as heck already hits the gas HARD……. nice powerful truck!… the whole rig rocketed UP the ramp….. and the hapless owner sumersaulted over the transom and landed in the water!!! to be greeted by the roar of laughter from the onlookers as he arose soaked from the lake…. I swear, I had to SIT down… I was laughing so hard tears were running down my face… if ONLY we could have taped that one!!! it was priceless!!

It was a few years ago at the Ramsey County Beach ramp on White Bear Lake. I was trying to come back in after a mornings fishing. 5 young guys were in the process of launching an aging tri-hull. After a few attempts at backing it in the leader jumped in to turn the key. Nothing happened. They all stood looking at the motor for a couple of minutes. I asked what they were going to do and the leader walked to the back of the boat , looked under the storage area and said to all , “My dad must have taken the battery out”. A couple more moments of silence. Now the leader says ” Lets push it off the trailer and I will go look for a battery”. They got it into the water and the leader left. Second in charge looks at the others and says” Thats OK , we can rig our rods.” Now they all jump into the boat , which is still at the main traffic side of the dock , and oblivious to all , proceed to mess with rods. By now there was a crowd of us waiting to get in or out. We pointed out , politly at first , that they needed to move. To our astonishment they proceded to tell us to mind our own busness , leave them alone. It only took a second and 3 of us untied the rope and gave the boat a push away from the dock. The only unfortunite thing that resulted was the cloud of “blue” language that all were forced to hear from these young people.

I was next at the dock and was able to get out quickly , even with the visual and verbal daggers that were being thrown my way.

Dino

I’ve got two quickies…

My son Matt and I were just coming up Hiway 61 from the Hastings boat ramp, when he saw a brand new Lund Tyee directly in front of us at the stop light. He said he would love it if we could get a boat like that. He then said, “I wish we could get a better look at it…” At that, the light turned green, the driver hits the gas, and the boat comes SCREAMING off the trailer! Darn near into our laps! Matt yelled “Not that close of a look!” We spent the next half hour getting it back on the guy’s trailer.

Number 2, a husband and wife show up at Hastings ramp with a BRAND SPANKING NEW 25+ foot pleasure cruiser, “Never been in the water yet”, the guy told me, acting like the skipper on the SS Minnow! He told his wife to undo the strap, and he would back it in…..Well, off came the strap, off came the safety chain, and OFF CAME THE BOAT! Right on the pavement! Broke the lower unit, and all of the fiberglass around it!!!

I know my day will come, so I try not to laugh too hard when I think of these…

Tuck

My first….

Several years ago, my wife Jill and I, were at the access on Lake Washington in Southern Minnesota. The Westwood Bar is located right beside the ramp. It is a fovorite watering-hole with the locals and young college student boaters. I waited my turn as a goup of four young college age guys unload a huge ski boat and push it over to the nearby Westwood dock. They tie it up and all run in for a cold one.

I mentioned to my wife that I did see that they put no plug in the boat’s drain hole. It took some time for my turn at the ramp. Finally, I got my truck and loaded the my boat. I pulled it out of the way and began strapping her up, and squaring things for the trip home. While doing so, I am watching the ski boat starting to sink. It continues to get lower and lower in the water as my wife and I watch. I then tell Jill that I should go tell these guys about this. Before I can reach the bar, a young man walks out to see water in the floor of the boat. Then he runs back inside to get his pals. Two of them are scratching their heads watching, as a couple of them tear the boat apart looking for the plug. No plug is found. Now the water is up to a foot above the floor and Jill and I have moved close enough to hear the conversations. The guys were planning to start it and drive it till the water ran out, then load it back up. Then they would go to town for a new plug. One of them heads for the truck and another trys to start the boat motor. The motor will not start. I guess that the water is now up into the distributor and though it turned over well, she never popped!

So, the guys decide to load the boat up on the trailer and pull ahead… to have the water drain out. Half way up onto the trailer, the rope breaks due to the extreme weight of a 1/2 full boat of water. They re-tie and try to crank the big fiberglass i/o up again. The rope breaks again before the boat gets 3/4 of the way up the trailer. They tie again. Now there is quite an audience that has accumulated. Three of the guys sit on the front on the boat’s bow to help counter the weight of the amount of water in the back of the boat. They get the boat cranked up to within three feet of the winch. The driver pulls ahead and they make it about twenty feet up the ramp before the water sloshes and breaks the rope again! This time, guys go flying every direction, and the boat crashes on to the concrete.

Now, there were seven guys on each side of the boat that were trying to lift the bow up to get it back on the trailer. They were straining but could not lift it more than about one foot up off the ground!

Jill asked if I was going to go help them. I told her that they were beyond help.

Second and last….

On French Lake, after I got all loaded up. I looked to see a group of folks all sitting in lawn chairs, by the ramp. They had score cards! 1 thru 10, they were ranking the loading of each boat that came out.

I scored an 8,8,9,8,7 for a total. I thought this was pretty good as I was no even trying to load very fast. I guessd I did a fairly good job. We all laughed as I joined them to watch a couple of boaters load up. The looks the boaters had once they caught on was fabulious. I found out in the conversation that this was the major source of entertainment and daily activity for these folks who camped at this park, which was right next to the ramp ( a park in which they had their travel trailers and motor-homes).

Then comes in, a guy with the wife and three kids. A wild bunch! We could hear them way before we actually saw them. Mom was yelling, Pop was swearing, the kids were not helping or not minding.

We watched as this guy went for the car, backed it in and hooked her up, then started to pull ahead… he sticks his head out the drivers window and yells for his kids to “get the [censored] out of the boat!”.

The kids who were six to twelve years old, paid no attention. The guy tries several times to order his kids out of the boat, and to the one who now is sitting on the side of the boat, to get off the boat.

He pulls ahead, stops, rolls back, shoots ahead, stops, rolls back, pulls ahead… trying to shake the kids off and out the boat! One kid is hanging on to the side of the boat and is straddled on the trailer’s fender-well. The mom is yelling now for him to “get the [censored] off the boat”.

Dad pulls up off the ramp and stops, the kids bail, then dad pulls up a bit more. The trailer tire runs over the boy siting on the fender and pins his leg to the pavement. The kid goes nuts, screaming! Mom runs to see what is wrong, dad puts the car in park and bails out too. The kid’s leg is pinned under the tire! Dad swears, Mom swears, both stand there for what seemed to be, way too long… telling the kid the “we told you so” routine. Dad goes back and drives forward and mom helps the kid up and to the car. They all start to load up.

I look at the group od spectators who are arranging their rateings cards for this one. Out comes the rateings… 10,10,10,10 10 !!! The guy sees this and gives a big thumbs-up, and then I begin thinking of my own scores as I walk away… hum… not so good. I figured I best be working on my launch/load delivery.

Hawger

Edited by Hawger on 11/09/01 11:20 AM.

I’ll donate the humble pie! LOL! I bought a rickety old aluminum boat and it needed some patchwork but I’d take out for short ventures anyway and thought I knew what I was doing at the ramps. Dad and I tackled the patchwork but he didn’t tell me he sprayed my runners down with silicone so my next outing at the ramp resulted in my boat running off the trailer WHILE I was still approaching the water! Landed flat on the dry and absent of help. Good thing it only weighs 100lbs. or so!

I’ve got two. The first happened down at Lake Pepin a couple years ago. We pulled up to the launch to find a guy who had just launched his boat with the truck still parked on the ramp, motor running, and his only keys locked inside. He was calling the police on a cell phone to see if they would come unlock his truck for him. I would’ve volunteered to open it up for him with my tire iron, but we decided to just go launch elsewhere.

The second one happened about four or five years ago up at Split Hand Lake near Grand Rapids. This guy had just launched his boat and started to pull his trailer up the ramp when all of a sudden there was a clatter. I looked over to see him dragging his trailer up the ramp with no wheels under it! The entire wheel/axle assembly was still in the water! The two of us managed to get the wheels back under it, and then he figured out what happened. It was an older trailer and he had recently replaced the tires and wheels with slightly higher profile tires. He needed more clearance for the tires, so he unbolted the metal fenders and moved them up a bit. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize that the wheel/axle assembly was also attached to the trailer with the same bolts. The amazing thing is that he had towed his boat all the way up from the Twin Cities this way. Apparently the weight of the boat had kept everything in place until he launched the boat and started pulling up the ramp. The trailer started bouncing, and without the weight of the boat to keep it in place, the wheels fell off. I would hate to think what would have resulted if that had happened on the highway.

Did anyone else hear the story about a group of recent arrivals to our country who launched a boat on Lake Minnetonka without taking the boat off of the trailer? They just unhooked the trailer from the car and pulled away with the trailer still hooked on the front eyelet. After dragging a trailer and a couple of hundred pounds of wet weeds, they realized that they were doing something wrong.

I think the story was on Joe Soucheray’s radio show-very funny.

Well guys, some of you have seen the craziest stuff. I, like Tuck said, laugh but know my turn is coming. Of course, if you remember I did grind my skag down a little this summer…on the driveway. That wasn’t funny! At the time anyway. Stop laughing!!

That’s not my story for the prize though. If anyone has ever been to the West Shore boat ramp on Lake Oahe you know the road had a huge swell in it for years. It basically was a natural dip/sinkage in the road. It served well to keep everyone slowed down.

One Sunday afternoon after trolling for salmon in the heat of the day we had enough. We were of course sitting in line waiting our turn to load out. This is a 4 hole ramp so usually the wait is very small. Well one intoxicated gentleman, and I use the term very loosely, was in the middle taking up both lanes. No big deal, still two shots on the outside. Apparently this guy was fairly full because it took him an eternity to get the boat on the trailer. He pulled out, let the water drain out and double checked the winch and safety chain. Jumped in the truck and apparently was going to show off as he tore out of the parking lot up the hill. I imagine he was doing at least 20 mph by the time he hit the aforementioned dip/speed bump. Well, needless to say the truck jumped, the boat flies in the air and lands square on the trailer now. Just glad I wasn’t sitting in the boat because it was upside down on the trailer. This is what really tops it off. The guy is stomping mad at the Corp of Engineers for not fixing the road. A park ranger shows up to help the guy. He says he’ll need an accident report for insurance purposes. So the ranger calls the local sheriff and when the sheriff arrives, he proceeds to write the guy up for DWI.

PaulV’s story reminded me of another good one. This spring I was at the Pool 2 – 494 ramp working to chop ice to make the launching easier. 2 guys were just landing their large boat and got it on the trailer. Now they had to pull it up and over a 1′ high ice ridge. After banging the complete loaded rig a bit they decided to give it a run and go for it. As they hit the ice ridge the complete trailer/boat bounced a couple of feet into the air and they pulled up onto the road. As I looked toward them they were cussing up a storm. The axle on the trailer had slipped by over a foot. It looked bad. I believe they had a long drive home and thought they had no tools to work with. After pulling out the spark plug socket and wrench it was discovered that it would fit. After loosening the bolts the axle would not move at all. I helped them by hooking my tow chain to the axle and they pulled their rig against the chain hooked to my truck. It worked perfectly and the axle was lined up again. After tightening the bolts they were on their way, feelings hurt for sure but no major damage.

I did pull out 2 other rigs the same day , one was a car that was stuck on the ramp for 3 hours before I had showed up.

I am happy I have the 4wd Suburban and I always have my chain and tow strap ready for use.

I have to admit, some of the best times I’ve had were had watching people load and unload at the public access. You see,… we had a cabin 2 lots away from a public access fro 27 years. The opener and the first three weeks after were usually the best! I’ve seen everything you guy’s have already mentioned – and more – many more! We used to spend hours in the lawn chairs, slugging the beers…just watching people at the access. What a laugh! Sunken baots, crashed vehicles, people falling out – in and out of water, people backed over, boats dropping off before in water, trailers comming unhooked after backing down ramp, fights at the ramp, drunks doing wierd things, husband and wives fighting over the load and unload process, grandma and gramps sliding down the slippery ramp to take a bath,….. you name it. I also found lots of leftover fishing equipment. Many $$$ worth. Sometimes people would come back for it, some did not. Some morons even left the licensed boat at the ramp – for weeks! Having the cabin there also made me LOTS of $$$ too! Especially durring the hard water season. Just as many fools at a public access durring winter as summer.

One of the funniest/strangest for me though took place at Minnetonka – North Arm Ramp – durring one of the Holiday crappie contests in April a few years back. I was returning to the ramp after a morning of fishing. While floating off-shore waiting for my turn at the ramp, I watched a guy try to back his trailer in to pick up his boat. After several failed back-up attempts, a guy in a high $$$ Ranger bass boat “floating” next to me – got hot. After several “four letter” screams, he decided he had seen enough. He started the boat and raced it up to the landing, docked it, jumped out, ran full speed at the guy trying to back up the car. He pulled the drivers door open, reached in and pulled the driver right out. He then jumped right in the car and backed it up himself. He never asked the driver IF he needed help,…. he just yanked the guy right out. After he (the hot head) completed the job, he got out and screamed, “That’s how you back up a *$#@!*#@ trailer!” (with a few more four letter words too). Obviously,… the guy was a loose cannon, but at least he got the job done. By this time there were about 25-30 of us floating around, waiting our turn. It still took me 1-1/2 hours to get loaded, but that scene was worth every minute. It was really wierd,….NOBODY said a word. ……Not the bass boat guy, anyone else at the landing, or the guy who could not back up. Everybody just kept loading and unloading like nothing happened. I’ve never seen anything like it since.

Ok here goes ,A guy and his wife (i think) at harpers ferry public ramp,brand new boat , well the guy asked the wife to unhook the front and back him in , so she did, and in mid back down he yelled about something and scared her i think because she hit the brakes hard and jerked him around in the boat ,then she got crooked so he yelled for her to get her stupid @ss back up ramp and straighten out ,well after a few more names in front of people watching she was mad ,she slammed on gas and the boat slid off the trailer and sat banked half way down the ramp, then she stuck her head out the window and very politely asked him “whos gonna look like the dumb @ss sitting on the ramp with no help” …and drove the trailer up and down the street , here the guy sits with a new heavy deep v , sitting half way on the ramp with no help , and she never came back ,we helped push it in the water and some older lady that watched had the guts to ask the guy if he thought he would treat his wife better from now on?,i didnt stick around to hear the answer ..

Man, there is some real good ones here… many that cracked me up!.

Come on now, anyone seen anything wilder?

James, can you post the exact location, month, week, and time of day that you had this clothes-encounter of the babe kind? Sounds like you may have been fishin in a real honey hole.

Hawger

We use to have a cabin over on alake (it is about 90 acers and filled with idots with mastercraft and big ski boats not to mention the jet skiers like misquitoes). The county police has a water patrol there to keep people under control wich never happens. Any way there was way to many times the this jet skiier would push boats off course to load. After a few times with this happening I deceided to let the DNR guy that patrols to come over on a Sunday afternoon to watch how close the jet skier get to a boat at the landing. DNR officer came over to the cabin to see for him. He got in the boat and we proceeded to the landing, and low and behold the jet skier got with in 15 feet with my motor off. The Officer laught and waved to the jet skiier. The skiier turned around and came over. The DNR officer said well officer do do you want the ticket or do I write it out to the County Sheriffs Boat patrol. And the rest of the summer I never had another problem with the jet skiier.

Jigger2001

Hey all,

I’d like to suggest we let the new stories come in through Wednesday then I think we should close the thread and start the vote to establish the winner of that season launch pass doanted by Everts Resort.

That OK with everyone else?

James Holst

Moving Waters Guide Service

http://www.movingwaters.net

I`ve got a couple. First one was at Pelican Lake muskie fishin’. I was off on the side loading my gear while some guys with a ski boat were ‘attempting’ to launch. They had a little S-10 pick up and a boat that was bigger than the truck. One guy climbs in the boat while the other guy backs in the rig. When the guy in the boat figures he’s deep enough he waves his hand so the driver stops. Well, he fires up his 150 and tries to back off the trailer…no luck. Perhaps revving the engine will help…..half throttle…noluck…let`s try full throttle…no luck, but he’s pulling the truck backwards. “Come on back some more!”…..trailer now goes ‘plunk’ right off the end of the ramp and the back of the truck bed is now half submerged. While observing the situation, the driver decides that now would be a good time to unhook the boat from the trailer. So he wades out into chest deep water and unhooks the boat, but with the combination of a truck bed full of water and a trailer that is laying flat on the ramp with it’s tires dangling somewhere over the lake bottom, he doesn’t have enough power to pull it out. Don’t you love the smell of burning clutch? As the driver walked to a phone booth, I went and launched at the other side of the lake.

The other one is second hand, told to me by a friend.

Seems there was a boat with about 8 oriental people in it with about an inch of freeboard aproaching a boat ramp when one guy jumps out near the shore. He runs to a truck and backs it onto the ramp while the boat makes a big circle. Now the boat is coming right for the ramp and another guy jumps out as it nears shore with the motor still running. “What is going on?” he wonders then watches in amazement as the 2 guys in the water run alongside the boat and then grab the tongue of the trailer that the boat is still attached to and gracefully put it on the ball of the hitch. And here all this time I thought you were supposed to leave the trailer on the truck not the boat.

Beav

Strange but true…. While fishing a small bass tournament on a lake near Hutchinson a few years back, the Tournament Director weighed all the fish and helped everyone else load their boats and then told the last guy to go ahead and take off. He said he could load his boat by himself and he would be O.K.

Everyone was gone and he backed his boat trailer into the lake. He had an aluminum flat bottom bass boat, so he was pulling it with his car.

He drove the boat on the trailer and then got out of the boat to hook the winch before pulling it out. While standing by the winch, he decided to take his life jacket off and put it in the trunk. He stuck the key into the trunk lock to open it and then put his life jacket in the trunk. He shut the trunk lid, climbed up in the boat to put a couple things away and then got out of the boat and went to the car to pull the boat out. Low and Behold, no car keys, they were in the pocket of the life jacket.

He tried every which way to pry the trunk open with any item he could find, but to no avail. He opened the rear door and climbed in the back seat. Made every effort to take the back seat out of the vehicle but found out it was bolted in from the trunk side. He looked up and down the parking lot– no cars–no people in sight — anywhere. He waited a half an hour and no one showed up. Finally he walked to the nearest road and flagged a car down and asked the driver to get ahold of a locksmith in the nearest town and send him out as soon as possible. The driver left. ( This was before cell phones.) Nearly two hours later the locksmith truck pulled into the parking lot. ( Bear in mind that the car was setting in the water with the rear wheels nearly covered. It was late Sunday afternoon so no one came to launch a boat at that time of day, and everyone was off the lake.

The locksmith got out of his truck, walked around the car, turned to the owner and said he would open the trunk for $79.00 but wanted paid before he opened it. The owner was able to scrape up the money and handed it over to the locksmith. The locksmith walked around to the front passenger side of the car, opened the door, reached in and opened the glove compartment, pushed a yellow button in the glove box and the trunk lid flew up like magic.

The owner hung his head in shame and embarrasment. The locksmith went to his truck and drove off without a word, but the owner thinks he saw him laughing as he drove away.

Sounds good to me James……TWO DAYS LEFT for the stories! Keep em comin!

Steve Vick Everts Resort Manager

Ok, I gotta do one more….some of these are so great!

I got a buddy that fishes alone most of his time. When driving past a lake on his way up-North he passes the access to a lake he’ld never fished before, that had about 50 cars and trucks parked in the access. Wow! He figures this must be a hot lake to have this much traffic on it, so he decides to change his plan and fish this one instead. He unloads and putts out of the access, heads round the corner to find a ton of boats that are sitting in the next bay. Boy, look at the boats in here, this must be the “hot spot”, he thinks to himself. He sneaks into the bay, sort of off to the side, goes past a few boats, as not to be too close to anyone… but still close enough to take advantage of the obvious bite. Down goes the ancohr and he starts casting cranks to the shoreline. Nearly all the guys were checking him out… pretty hard. Mostly friendly, and waving, he noticed.

All of a sudden, he hears a loud air horn blast and all of these boats go blowing out of the bay at top speed, leaving him to ride the zillion of waves in his ancohred boat.

A single fellow (in a red Lund) other than himself was all who were left behind, and this Lund was approaching him slowly. The guy in the Lund yells out, “Hey you are disqualified from the contest cause you started fishing before the horn blew!”

My buddy had a heck of a time convincing him that he was not a part of the contest and that he had just been there to fish….. He loaded up and left.

Hawger

Ok, I guess time is up!

Time to vote on the best of the best….

James, can you close this thread and start up a vote posting one.

Thanks to all who submitted their great ramp stories! I got a big kick out of reading these. And thank you Steve/Evrett’s for putting up the season ramp pass, for first place.

Will all those persons who posted a story, please send me a private that includes your name and mailing address (even if you do not place as a first place winner), and I will send you all a selection on my newest lures to try… in appreciation for lots of laughs. Hawger

Please do not forget that there are several posts on our sister site http://www.fishthelake.com , that need to be considered in your votes too.

If you have not read these posts there yet, you are in for a treat!

Hawger

A couple years ago I watched a boat with 3 teenage couples pulling up to the dock at the ramp. It was coming in a little too fast, so the girlfriend of the driver was leaning over the bow, reaching to keep from banging into the dock. Just as it got close, the driver, without thinking, slammed into reverse and she did a perfect sommersault, fully clothed, into the lake. Her friends had a difficult time controlling their laughter as she stormed up to the car.