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Location: 31 | I find it 100% annoying (to nearly impossible) around multi-launch ramps to launch/recover with somebody else's headlights needlessly shining in my eyes, or especially the rearview mirrors while backing up. I realize some are half-asleep in the morning and it requires a little extra thought to switch to only the running lights because the headlights are on automatic but if enough of us start to only use their headlights as needed it might catch on… and even speed things up. |
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Location: MN | One of my pet peeves |
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Location: St. Lawrence River | Life sure can be tough.. |
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Location: Minnesota. | That word, "common sense"... famous oxymoron!!
All it takes is a little thought... |
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Location: FIB land | I just wanna go muskyhuntin' |
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Posts: 77
| Wait... Have you ever experienced courtesy at a boat launch? Everyone seems to think they own the whole place/park/etc.
I can launch/recover (I don't drive on) my 17ft Deep V in about 2 or 3 minutes by myself, yes it does take some practice.
It gets my gears grinding when guys drive in to the launch lanes, back up 20 feet to the ramp, blocking everyone and then start loading things from their truck into their boat, when they were just in line for 10 minutes.
I went down to the landing on the 4th of July one time (Lake Winnebago) and just sat and watched. It was unreal. I've seen motors dragged, boats come off trailers, etc.
Nice thing about fall is that the weekend warriors have their boats put away and *most* people know what they are doing. I realize everyone starts out green, and that really doesn't bother me. It's the guys that think they own the landing and take their sweet time to launch/land that bothers me.
Edited by SkiNoob 10/7/2017 3:30 PM
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Location: oconomowoc, wi | saves electricity also!  |
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Location: oswego, il | Most people are courteous at boat launches but there are ringers. I bet the people with the lights on don't realize they are blinding anyone. There are alot of people who have a low awareness factor. Alot of them fish.
Edited by ToddM 10/7/2017 7:57 PM
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| You meet the most accomplished fools at a boat launch. And see some of the best comedy, too. |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | ToddM - 10/7/2017 7:56 PM
Snip...
There are alot of people who have a low awareness factor. Alot of them fish.
Boy, ain't that the truth. The lack of situational awareness in many (most?) people out there today is absolutely astounding. Totally clueless.
TB |
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| Never having launched in the dark, I could see myself not turning off the lights. Now, if I ever do, I will be considerate ;>).
I volunteer to do the "clean water/clean boats" thing at the ramp on the lake where I live and for the most part, boaters seem to be considerate of others. One of the rudest and least skilled launchers I ever saw was a musky guide with his name on the cap of his truck. He swore at the retired couple who worked the shift ahead of me, saying he didn't have time for that "BS" when they approached him. Then on my shift, he took ten minutes to launch, getting the nice Ranger parallel with shore on one try, driving it off the concrete logs on two more tries, scraping the axle pretty good. I never said anything but did pull my cell and pretend I was taking photos. (lens had been smashed in a shop accident) He and this partner then parked the truck/trailer in such a way that where two rigs normally parked, now only their rig could fit. He was either drunk or incompetent. |
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Posts: 67
| Lots of trucks have automatic headlights that turn on the dark when the truck is in gear, what can you do? |
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| MTJ - 10/8/2017 8:56 AM
Lots of trucks have automatic headlights that turn on the dark when the truck is in gear, what can you do?
My Yukon has a selector switch where you can turn that feature off. The running lights stay on but the headlights will not turn on
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| MTJ - 10/8/2017 8:56 AM
Lots of trucks have automatic headlights that turn on the dark when the truck is in gear, what can you do?
Just relax. It's only fishing. Nobody here is fishing to survive. It's a hobby. If it's such a big deal maybe only fish during the day when all you need worry about is the sun. I understand the point, been there done that, however is it REALLY that big of a deal or just something else for us to bit$h about? |
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Location: St. Lawrence River | Brian Hoffies - 10/8/2017 11:42 AM
MTJ - 10/8/2017 8:56 AM
Lots of trucks have automatic headlights that turn on the dark when the truck is in gear, what can you do?
Just relax. It's only fishing. Nobody here is fishing to survive. It's a hobby. If it's such a big deal maybe only fish during the day when all you need worry about is the sun. I understand the point, been there done that, however is it REALLY that big of a deal or just something else for us to bit$h about?
Word!!! |
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Posts: 133
| Life is way to short to be worried about things like that |
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Location: 31 | ToddM - 10/7/2017 7:56 PM Most people are courteous at boat launches but there are ringers. I bet the people with the lights on don't realize they are blinding anyone. There are alot of people who have a low awareness factor. Alot of them fish. Todd nailed it, and I'm not $itching, just trying to make others more aware. I can deal with the annoying part but when the headlights are reflecting off of my rearview mirrors it's simply impossible to back up and just delays everybody. I pretty much always launch and recovery in the dark and so far twice this year I've had to politely ask people to shut off their headlights... both times they were gracious and said they didn't realize. Although this can happen at almost every launch, the one I've been launching at lately is very busy and has the prep area headlights aimed right at the launch. Because of the shorter days and more experienced anglers on the water, I thought it would be time to table this ... maybe not? |
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Posts: 497
Location: Ludington, MI | If you've launched at a Lake Michigan 4-bay or 8-bay ramp, you learn real quick about turning your lights off. Salmon guys don't mess around. My most recent headlight experience was a 2-bay ramp at an inland lake and some idiot had the brights of his pontoon boat on. He had to turn them off so he could back anywhere near it, but he walked to the truck with them on. |
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Location: oswego, il | Here is one, how many of you when leaving the house at 3 or 4am like i did today, leave your headlights off until you get out on the street so your not shining your lights into your neighbors bedroom windows? I keep mine off for that reason. Courtesy extends far beyond the ramp.
Edited by ToddM 10/8/2017 8:23 PM
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Posts: 45
| People have such a fascination with boat ramps, how about coming in to the ramp when its dark and a local is sitting in his/her car on the ramp facing the water with their brights on. Have seen it many times.
Rich |
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Location: Contrarian Island | as we get into colder weather, another friendly reminder is when pulling your trailer out of the water pull it out super slow, and even stop and let it drain off... helps keep the ramp ice free... |
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Posts: 97
Location: Tulsa, OK | This topic comes up almost quarterly on some of the bass forums down south. It is especially an issue when you have 200+ boats trying to launch for a tournament on a 4-6 lane ramp and a couple guys blind everyone by having their headlights on, and some are even idiotic enough to have their brights on. |
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Location: 31 | Obviously some of us are not aware of the problem if they think it's just some petty complaining, or that "life's too short”... no problem because I started this thread to try to help increase awareness. Again, I don't care who you are it's basically impossible to back up a rig with someone's headlights reflecting in your mirrors. No problem if you need them of course, but can be a little frustrating when it stops production dead "out of the water" that early in the morning.
Sooo, maybe rather than me switching to only "day fishing" so someone "unaware" can sit there idling with their headlights on, we can try a little education first. I've seen those ramps with the salmon guys and 90% of them don't shine their lights around needlessly... and the remaining 10% catch on quick because everyone else is doing it. However, from what I've seen lately 1/2 of the muskie guys at that ramp don't get it and the ramps in that area are almost exclusively muskie before the sun this time of year. Launching at the Boat Ramp. | B.A.S.S. Australia Nation
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Location: oswego, il | BNelson - 10/9/2017 10:39 AM
as we get into colder weather, another friendly reminder is when pulling your trailer out of the water pull it out super slow, and even stop and let it drain off... helps keep the ramp ice free...
Your right but tell the duck hunters! I always bring salt with me and spread it on the ramp after i launch, keeps them clean for loading. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | yup, I carry salt and cat litter.. both good to have along |
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Location: Smith Creek | Litter or sand is better for the lake than salt. Just sayin. |
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Location: Minnesota. | Yeah, I've seen some mighty interesting stuff at our boat launch that never fails to get me grinning. Sometimes you gotta be patient.
Pulled up to the dock last week only to watch as numbnutz dumped his rig in untied....yep! He tried to grab it ("Hey, I've done this tons of times, no problem!!!!!!") and I had to motor over to push it back...
Was about to load and watched him do it again... I went back out a bit and motored in and pushed it back to him.
Third time, he didn't tie off....I told him to roll up his #*^@ed pants and see if tying off the next time felt better. Then I drove away...
Next time out I talked to a guy who helped this same yokel chase his boat cuz it was untied.
sometime it just doesn't pay....................... |
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| Brian Hoffies - 10/8/2017 10:42 AM
MTJ - 10/8/2017 8:56 AM
Lots of trucks have automatic headlights that turn on the dark when the truck is in gear, what can you do?
Just relax. It's only fishing. Nobody here is fishing to survive. It's a hobby. If it's such a big deal maybe only fish during the day when all you need worry about is the sun. I understand the point, been there done that, however is it REALLY that big of a deal or just something else for us to bit$h about?
I agree with this! |
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| ToddM - 10/8/2017 8:22 PM
Here is one, how many of you when leaving the house at 3 or 4am like i did today, leave your headlights off until you get out on the street so your not shining your lights into your neighbors bedroom windows? I keep mine off for that reason. Courtesy extends far beyond the ramp.
My neighbors give me a lot of crap about how much I fish from spring to fall. They all seem to think I should be sitting in the driveway with them drinking beer. So I make sure to leave my lights on every time I leave the house at 3 am. Haha and they make sure to keep the music up when I get home at midnight and am to tired to come party with them. |
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Location: MN | MTJ - 10/8/2017 8:56 AM
Lots of trucks have automatic headlights that turn on the dark when the truck is in gear, what can you do?
On most you can just depress the parking brake one click (not enough to actually apply the brake) and that will turn off the lights |
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Location: Aurora | Flambeauski - 10/9/2017 4:02 PM
Litter or sand is better for the lake than salt. Just sayin.
Yeah, salt doesn't evaporate ya know.
Sheesh, how about some "lake" courtesy...eh?
Some people's kids..
~hands on hips, stern look~ |
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Posts: 64
| Or you could just wait a couple minutes until the other people are done so the light isn't in your eyes. I've never understood all the hostility I see a launches.... everyone thinks everyone else is some horrible, incompetent person. If I'm going to go fishing for five hours I can take five extra minutes to launch/retrieve to avoid getting all worked up about something that is supposed to be relaxing. |
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Location: Minneconia | I'm guessing the guys going out of their way to say quit peeing and moaning on this thread are the ones who leave their headlights on. It is beyond irritating, on both counts. |
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | What's beyond irritation?
My truck allows me to use my running lights and leave the headlights off. So I do. If someone else doesn't, they should if they can. But I won't get all crazy or go ballistic on anyone, I'll just mutter some unintelligible things and work through it, unless the brights are on, in which case I have been known to ask them to dim it. No one has ever argued, most say something apologetic and kill the lights. |
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| Brian Hoffies - 10/8/2017 10:42 AM
MTJ - 10/8/2017 8:56 AM
Lots of trucks have automatic headlights that turn on the dark when the truck is in gear, what can you do?
Just relax. It's only fishing. Nobody here is fishing to survive. It's a hobby. If it's such a big deal maybe only fish during the day when all you need worry about is the sun. I understand the point, been there done that, however is it REALLY that big of a deal or just something else for us to bit$h about?
My thoughts exactly. It is funny how crabby fisherman are becoming. |
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Location: Apparently where the Muskie aren't | Any waterfowlers on here. At the boat ramp at 3:30am waiting to go hunting might be the fastest and cleanest you will see anyone drop the boat. |
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Location: oswego, il | Maybe we don't need to bring salt, we can just shake ourselves on the ramp and be good to go. |
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Location: Minneconia | sworrall - 10/9/2017 10:59 PM What's beyond irritation? It's hyperbole Mr. Worrall. A literary device used for effect. Too many years on this board, what am I becoming. Haha...my smugness even bothers me.
Edited by Dirt Esox 10/10/2017 7:20 AM
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Posts: 431
| Walleye jigging the Detroit River in April has become really popular. We get huge lines to launch in the morning and people showing up 90 minutes before sunlight just to wait to launch. It gets really old listening to everyone complain about everybody else while they wait. I say just accept it and make an event out of the wait. Getting out of the truck and meeting new people from other parts of the country while you sip your java is pretty fun once you accept that the wait is part of the experience. People go from being thankful that we have a world class place to fish nearby to crabby and angry about every thing they can pick apart about all the other fisherman.
Edited by tackleaddict 10/10/2017 7:55 AM
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Dirt Esox - 10/10/2017 7:14 AM
sworrall - 10/9/2017 10:59 PM What's beyond irritation? It's hyperbole Mr. Worrall. A literary device used for effect. Too many years on this board, what am I becoming. Haha...my smugness even bothers me.
Eh, not so bad... |
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Location: The desert | Pulled my boat out the other night and had the lights off....didn't matter. Guy pulling his out at the same time could not back a trailer to save his life. Had he stayed out of my way for another 30 seconds I could have gotten out of his way and left my lights on.
Edited by Pointerpride102 10/10/2017 5:04 PM
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Location: oswego, il | Funny watching some people work their trailer backwards like a jackpot.
Edited by ToddM 10/10/2017 6:16 PM
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Location: Ludington, MI | Sadly, I look like a rank amateur this fall. After years of backing in with a single pass by looking over my shoulder, my new tow vehicle has forced me to back with my mirrors and my brain does not want to cooperate. And there's a new house under construction across from my long driveway. Guess I better figure it out before they move in. |
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| How about asking the person nicely? Maybe they didn't know. Saying nothing or being confrontational accomplishes nothing. |
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| Saw a guy chew some younger guy's butt over this a few months ago. A simple "hey, next time could you shut your lights off" would have sufficed but instead the guy got really salty. I get annoyed by it, but I don't care enough to go up and get hostile with some stranger over it. |
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| Volunteer to work at a boat launch sometime as a "clean boats/clean water" volunteer if you want to find out how crabby fishermen can be. Most are fine, answer the few questions we ask while getting the boat ready and then ask how the fish have been biting. But some are just rude and vulgar. They tend to be the guys whose boats look like they have not picked up a candy bar wrapper or any other trash for two years. Baits, rods, trash all randomly distributed on the floor. But they don't have time for this crap, like what lake did you last fish? Almost always the guys whose boats are organized, gear stowed, they know about invasive species, answer the questions politely and away they go. I always wish those guys luck and mean it. The rude ones, those I hope they take their skeg off on the unmarked boulder across the lake from the launch.
And muskie fishermen are both the best and the worst. |
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Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | I rage on the inside all the time about the idiots at the launch....but I really do try to laugh as much as possible, too. Lots of people just don't know, and I'll offer to give them a hand if they need it. Seems to work better than being a d*ck or sitting on the side glaring. Others are just idiots.
I will say one of my most fun (fishless) days of fishing was a S.Wi opener where we started early, stopped to have bloody breakfast at a bar next to the ramp...humor abounds! Boats that won't start, divorces that almost started because of launching troubles. If you can, just kick back and watch and laugh! |
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Location: oswego, il | Some launches should have bleachers. Silver lake in kenosha county is a great one i have seen many debacles there. The best one was a guy who launched his boat and tried to race out to a fresh open parking spot. I was on this dock and went running as he hooked his dock rope with the trailer almost broke the dock support right before the rope broke with a rifle shot sending his boat flying into some rip rap. I have a picture of a big fiberglass boat at heidecke laying on the pavement and they did it twice!!!!!
Edited by ToddM 10/11/2017 11:57 AM
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Location: 31 | Schultz345 - 10/11/2017 10:40 AM Saw a guy chew some younger guy's butt over this a few months ago. A simple "hey, next time could you shut your lights off" would have sufficed but instead the guy got really salty. I get annoyed by it, but I don't care enough to go up and get hostile with some stranger over it. Guessing the younger guy probably didn't deserve such treatment, but I bet he'll be more aware in the future… just as I hope some of you will be without having to be asked at the boat launch.
There are a couple issue levels you can encounter while trying to backup your boat around other vehicles that leave their headlights on - annoyance and impossible. The annoyance level (for me) usually occurs when backing up angling back and forth and pick up distant headlights in the side mirrors, or when somebody sweeps in behind causing a couple seconds of temporary blindness.
The impossible level (for everyone) is when somebody has their vehicles headlights shining directly in your mirrors while you try to backup.
My original post was the result of this happening twice this year from guys in the prep area waiting for me to launch... complete blindness. I had no choice but to put it in park, walk across the parking lot and politely ask them to shut off their headlights... while a line of anxious fisherman formed before the sun was up.
Edited by Jerry Newman 10/11/2017 12:42 PM
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Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | I talk to people all the time about this. Ask nicely and I have never got a negative reply. Now other issues come up more frequently like the guy who puts his trailer in way too deep and the boat comes out uneven. Then two, three, four tries later he gets lucky and it's good enough. Most trailers should be backed in about to the top of the tires or half the fender. Once you explain it to them they will be better at it next time.
It's best to bite your tongue and explain the best way to others. If you start out nice, most will appreciate the help. Most people don't know launch etiquette. Everyone has to learn sometime somewhere. Be the nice guy and help others. They will do the same hopefully. |
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| I have fun when the kayakers are taking up the launch. I usually squeeze the trailer in between them and freak them out. Funny. |
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Location: MN | I've never owned a boat, but borrowed my father-in-law's boat for Tonka a few weeks back. My main concern was spending as little time as possible at the launch, and making sure I didn't wreck anything. Getting off the water was a bit tougher for me, but I managed to make it work okay. It started to rain a little, and the launch was getting fairly busy. I probably looked like an idiot going back up and down on the trailer a few times to get it positioned right, but I don't really mind that. This post is nice for a boat rookie like me if I ever end up putting in the water when it's dark though, so I appreciate this!
As far as the lights go, most vehicles should have the option/switch/wheel/circle to turn off the automatic lights if it was made in the last 10 years. |
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| A couple things really help. If the launch is a big one get your gear into the boat when out of the way of others before approaching the launch lane. The second thing is when pulling the boat out of the water is to keep going and find a secluded area away from others to wipe it down and get it ready for travel on the way home. |
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| ToddM - 10/10/2017 7:14 PM
Funny watching some people work their trailer backwards like a jackpot.
Lol. |
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Nighttime Boat Launch Courtesy