|
|
Posts: 2097
| I was backing up from a courtesy ramp and bam hit something around 2-3 mph. I idled through the no wake zone and when I started to give it gas the motor was shaking. I turned it off and raised the motor and a chunk was gone from my alluminum prop. I was peeed and decided to load up and leave.
Earlier in the season I almost lost my new terrova into the lake, dropped a couple rods/reels (but jigged them back out), that's been the major issues.
Anyone else have bad luck like this? |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | about 6 years ago I took a boat out for it's "maiden voyage" in April...a boat I had been staring at for months and couldn't wait to use. After driving well over an hour, I put the boat in, after parking the truck and walking back my dog escaped his collar and it took me and another guy 20 minutes to grab him. Get to the boat, finally ready to fire up this big engine...turn the key and nothing, battery is no good despite a lengthy charge...To the truck I go, get some jumper cables...Jump the battery, it starts...but then my dog ( first time in the boat) gets scared and jumps overboard and starts swimming around for 10 minutes as people look on at the idiot on the dock ( me, not the dog). Get his arse in the boat and start idling out to actually fish...console alarm goes off as I get down the lake. Great...I decide to make something out of the day so I drop in the trolling motor. Within 3 casts the trolling motor completely stops working and is obviously no good. Now I'm stuck on the other side of the lake, with no power and the wind blowing right at me.....Had to get towed in, only to drive another 2 hours to the nearest mechanic...
That was quite a fun day, me and that boat got too to just a GREAT start  |
|
| |
|
Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | drive to AML, put in boat ... get license and unpack, head to first spot ... drop trolling motor into water, sigh cast ... foot on pedal .. SNAP, pull motor up and drive back to the docks with broken TM cable. see guy walking down the stairs who says "you need a spare TM?" ... "there's one in the back of my truck" = trip saved!!! ... who brings a spare trolling motor on a fishing trip????
i do now ... |
|
| |
|
Posts: 470
Location: Blaine, MN | Not fishing but related...
duck hunting trip with a friend of a friend in Lansing, IA. 5 of us so a few stay out of the way while the 2 "seasoned" veterans launch the boat. Brand new Denali XL backs the boat down the ramp fine, then the guy has a hiccup in the thought process and jumps out of the truck while its still in reverse to do God knows what, Truck floated 75'-100' down current before it finally settled to the bottom. The wrecker pulled everything out fine and straight to the mechanic, but the trip was shot so we tucked tail and headed home. guess that could be considered a no trip. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 682
Location: Sycamore, IL | I've had a bunch of little mishaps on my day trips but the worst was a trip to Vilas a few years back...I had just bought a used 2WD truck and talked my buddy into a late summer 4 day trip to Vilas co. On the way up we blew a tire and my spare wouldn't lower(rusted shut). Got towed to some little town where they were closing up and got set-up with a new set of tires. 3 hrs later back on the road it starts storming to the point where we couldn't see the road. We were meeting a friend of my dad's who's got a cabin on the Moen chain in Oneida county. When we arrived there was so much water in the boat the lakewoods were floating (I'm surprised I didn't blow a trailer tire!) Woke up the next morning and followed my dad's friend to a little lake in Vilas with a "tough" boat launch. As in:"this launch is a little tough to get into". Well we got in just fine and fished until afternoon when my dads buddy had to take off. We dropped him off and fished til about dark and decided to head back in. Drove my 2WD truck in til the trailer bunks just touched the water and all four wheels were in the water and got the boat loaded. Pulling out I buried the rear wheels in the sand/gravel bottom and we were stuck. Had to call for a second tow of the trip. Made it back to the cabin and decided that we would just fish the Moen Chain the next day. Got in the boat and proceeded to hit a submerged rock busting our prop. Drove into town and bought a new prop. Decided that we would go to a lake that I love up by Phelps. Got some lunch and bait and noticed a funny sound coming from the outboard...the trim unit was running pushing the motor down into the transom saver and wouldn't raise the motor to get the boat off the trailer. At that point we had had it, we tossed the bait and went to the bar. Headed home the next morning, hungover...tail between our legs.
Best short trip: a buddy and I were helping out the DNR at shabbona with some trail up keep and bridge rebuilding. I decided to bring the boat in case we got done early we could hit the water for a few. Launched the boat at 3pm, fish on at 3:06pm(nice 39 incher) at the bar by 3:45pm. Awesome!!! |
|
| |
|
Posts: 206
| I have found that one glitch can set off a whole series of unfortunate events...
Had a trip planned with my dad, nephew and son to Canada in 2008. All packed up the night before and ready to go. Were to drive in one shot to the camp 2 hours over the border and be fishing by the next morning...
Got up early to take off and before pulling the boat out of the garage, had to trim the motor down on my Ranger Reata.. trim was dead. Went and got jumper cables, still no luck. Went to the store and got a charger... still didn't charge. Now after about 2 hours of screwing around, decide to get a new battery. First store was out, second store had one...installed and off we go now 3 1/2 hours late.
When your traveling with older people or younger kids, it doesn't always make sense to do a straight thru 10 hour trip. We were going to get in late, so I called the camp and said we would get through customs and instead stay in Fort Frances that night. Get up and drive to the camp in the morning and still be fishing by 11:00 or so.
So we stayed over, drove out early the next morning. While driving North out of Fort Frances straight East into the rising sun, the Semi-sized logging truck behind me didn't see me put on my signal to turn left because of the glare and he decided to pass me just as I turned. I can still hear the collision and crumpling of metal...
To this day, I don't know how the 4 of us in my Jeep and the truck driver himself survived that accident. I still get flashbacks, but miraculously we are all okay. The more I have thought about the turn of events, it all started when that battery went dead and delayed our trip 3 hours, causing us to stay over and take off in the early morning sun.
But who knows, maybe if we would have driven to the camp that night we might have hit a moose and ended up dead... you just don't know. I guess the moral of the story is when a typical routine gets thrown off and sets a series of other actions in motion...slow down, think, how will this affect other actions, decisions, etc... Get there safely, fishing is secondary..
Edited by smalljaw 4/8/2013 3:29 PM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 20248
Location: oswego, il | went to braidwood to fish on a saturday. was on call for work. typically dont get called, made abouy 2 casts and got callef in.
.
booked a trip at a resort on star lake. bought our groceries, got there, unpacked put the groceries away, launched the boat drove back. sorry, we double booked the cabin, you have to leave. lost our perishable groceries, booked a motel room and the next day called around untill I found a resort with a vacancy. |
|
| |
|
Location: Eastern Ontario | Drove to a lake 1/2 hour from house, launch boat , park truck, down to dock boat filling with water had run a drill bit through livewell hose when installing new depth finder, pull boat , drive home, make repair, drive to lake 5 min from house, launch boat, park truck, start boat no water coming from tell tail, pull boat, drive home, put on muffs discover tell tail plugged with algee, clear with wire no problem. GO IN HOUSE WATCH CARTOONS. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1168
| Opening weekend a few years ago. Get to the launch at 11:45 on Friday night. Get everything set to go, boat is in the water, try to start it and it wouldn't fire. Pump the bulb, check the plugs, battery connections, check the timing sensor, and anything else I can think of that could possible prevent it from firing (all of this in the dark). I give up and head home.
The next morning I start looking for the gremlin. Pull apart my entire fuel system (so I had the entire rear deck pulled off the boat) as I've determined there's a fuel issue. Still can't find it. Yank the pickup line out of the tank and here there was a tiny pebble or some other type of debris that got sucked into the pickup line and plugged it. As long as I had it apart I upgraded all of my fuel lines and had it back on the water by Sunday. Still frustrating....that crap never happens before the season when you are on a leisurely trip going after panfish or suckers. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 189
Location: West Bend, WI | I put my boat in the lake and parked the car. I went out and noticed the boat filling up with water. I forgot the plug, I got it put back in. The boat was pretty full of water, so I remember guys at work telling me, " If the boat fills up with water, get on plane and pull the plug. The water will just drain out." I got on plane and pulled the plug, the boat drained about half-way. Then I ran out of gas. I panicked as the boat filled with water. I got the plug back in and started to row to the landing with a boat full of water. I thought I should cast. I backlashed first cast. Reel was done. I opened my only beer and took a drink. Then spilled it in the mud water. Rough day. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 247
Location: Uxbridge Ontario | 2 hour drive to one of my favorite lakes for the day.... Forgot my boat keys and all my lockers were locked. That was terrible. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 299
| Backed my boat up in my driveway a thousand times and never an issue. Practically could do it in my sleep until 1001th time. I grabbed the boat the night before a trip, it started to rain and was dark out and backed up too far in driveway smashing my kicker against the side of garage (brick) and literally shattering my kicker off boat. It was hanging on only by the cables and was kinda fun to see the wife run out at 11pm stunned and in shock as I shook the whole #*^@ house!! That didn't stop me though. I spent the next hour taking it completely off and headed out first thing in the morning. The stuff we'll do for Muskies!! |
|
| |
|
Posts: 402
Location: WI | With 3 kids under 10yrs old & a bucket of minnows. We're 40 miles from home. Slide the boat off the trailer & park the truck. Get life jackets and hats on the kids, lather 'em up with sunscreen, get the sunglasses & take a quick "potty break" on the nearest tree. Get everybody in the boat, hit the starter, NOTHING. 2yr old battery is dead!! Load up the boat & have lunch in the parking lot. then headed home. Mom finds out that Dad said lots of bad words. Maybe next week........ |
|
| |
|
Posts: 96
| I had one a few weeks ago. I went to fish a little river spillway about 40 miles away. Great walleye spot closer to home btw. I am unpacking my gear which was just a bucket and a small tackle bag and my 7ft fenwick HMX medium light. I pulled out the bucket and bag and when I go to pull the rod out here comes the wind and shut the door on my rod. The door didn't close all the way and it doesn't look broke so I headed down to the river. I run line through all the eyes and give the line a pull so I can get enough to tie on and the top 8 inches fall off and slide down to my hand. Very disappointing. I tried to make a few casts like that but it kept wrapping the remaining rod sticking up. I went home. I have two of those rods and both tips are now broken.  |
|
| |
|
Posts: 7084
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Loaded the truck, attached the boat...made it about 1 mile with the truck sounding like the front right wheel was going to sheer off somewhere off the axel...turned around and went home. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 7084
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | And the next day I went and traded the truck in and spent a ton of money on a new/bigger truck. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 477
Location: Iowa | Up very early one morning to go to the Mississippi to catch some bass. Drive about an hour, back boat in, park truck, get in boat........no rods or tackle bags in the boat! Get truck, load boat, start heading home, thinking what the ....? Stopped at the gas station I was at and looked around. Watched the road all the way home. Nothing. I live in a small town and always loaded the boat the night before, if I was leaving early. Never had a worry. Well, on this night, someone was snooping, or watched me load, and decided they needed the equipment more than I did. The police officer came up with 1 rod that was tossed in a yard up the street. Insurance gave me a check for the rest. That wasn't my shortest, but most discouraging. I had one last year. About 35 minute drive to lake, back in, outboard won't start. Not even firing. Pull it out. Check fuel lines and filter to make sure it's getting gas. Consider burning the whole outfit. Driving home and realize I don't remember seeing my safety lanyard. Keep driving home anyway because I've had by now. Get home, see the lanyard laying on floor. I never pull this out, so apparently the wind caught it just right so it pulled out. Hooked up the muffs. Put lanyard back in and it fired right up. Lost interest at that point. I won't forget to check that again!!
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 8828
| You Madison guys will appreciate this one. Sunday morning, nice sunny day. My buddy (who lives next door) sees me out on the driveway, we start B.S. ing a bit and I say "man, today would be a good day to be on the water!" "Wanna head up to Madison??" Spend the next hour packing gear, get on the road. As soon as we hit 90, traffic stops. Accident. Sat in traffic for an hour. Starting to look cloudy up North. Get to the state line, more traffic. Highway down to one lane. Looking really dark up North. Sat in traffic for another hour. Finally get to Madison. Should have been a two hour drive. Took almost 4. Dump the boat in at Babcock to the sound of thunder, just as the rain starts. Screw it, we're fishing. Fished our way down to Bible Camp before lightning hit right behind us, then hit something on shore. When it hit between us and shore we decided to head in. I think I made three casts. Left the boat tied to the dock, spent the next two hours standing in the fish house, soaked, watching the storm. During this time the temperature dropped a good 20 degrees. All I had on was a light rain jacket. Headed back out when the rain finally slowed down. My buddy snapped off two baits in back to back casts. Drove around in the rain trying to find them. 3 footers. Blowing like mad. Screw it. Headed back, pulled the boat. Drove past Monona. 4 footers, white caps. Decided to fish Wingra. By this time it's almost dark. And COLD! Dump the boat, head East, drop the trolling motor. Can't see anything. Wind is blowing us all over. Wind up burying the trolling motor in the weeds, burned a fuse. There goes another 20 minutes. Had to hotwire it. Finally get it working. Throw one cast. 5 minutes later, the guy in front gets his line wrapped in the trolling motor, bad enough where we had to take it apart. I slip and fall on my back on my tackle bag. Dark by now. Soaked, cold, can't see #*#*, back hurts. Finally say "screw it" and head home. Drove home right back through the same storm. Roads flooded, wind, couldn't see the car in front of us. About an hour into the trip back home, the guy in the back seat says "hey, what's that noise?? Turn off the radio!!" Holy crap, what IS that!! Dude, I see sparks! Oh $%#^!! The trolling motor!!!!!! Not sure how it happened, or when it happened, but it deployed somewhere along the way. Pavement: 1 Minn Kota: 0
We drove out of the storm about ten miles from home. Didn't even rain here. Came home soaked through to my underwear. 1/2" of water in the bottom of my tackle bag. Poured water out of my boots. Camera wet. I even poured water out of my sunglass case. Water in all my 3700's, tools soaked, hat soaked, I couldn't have been more wet if jumped in with my gear. All for what amounted to maybe 5 casts.
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 477
Location: Iowa | esoxaddict - 4/20/2013 1:31 PM
You Madison guys will appreciate this one. Sunday morning, nice sunny day. My buddy (who lives next door) sees me out on the driveway, we start B.S. ing a bit and I say "man, today would be a good day to be on the water!" "Wanna head up to Madison??" Spend the next hour packing gear, get on the road. As soon as we hit 90, traffic stops. Accident. Sat in traffic for an hour. Starting to look cloudy up North. Get to the state line, more traffic. Highway down to one lane. Looking really dark up North. Sat in traffic for another hour. Finally get to Madison. Should have been a two hour drive. Took almost 4. Dump the boat in at Babcock to the sound of thunder, just as the rain starts. Screw it, we're fishing. Fished our way down to Bible Camp before lightning hit right behind us, then hit something on shore. When it hit between us and shore we decided to head in. I think I made three casts. Left the boat tied to the dock, spent the next two hours standing in the fish house, soaked, watching the storm. During this time the temperature dropped a good 20 degrees. All I had on was a light rain jacket. Headed back out when the rain finally slowed down. My buddy snapped off two baits in back to back casts. Drove around in the rain trying to find them. 3 footers. Blowing like mad. Screw it. Headed back, pulled the boat. Drove past Monona. 4 footers, white caps. Decided to fish Wingra. By this time it's almost dark. And COLD! Dump the boat, head East, drop the trolling motor. Can't see anything. Wind is blowing us all over. Wind up burying the trolling motor in the weeds, burned a fuse. There goes another 20 minutes. Had to hotwire it. Finally get it working. Throw one cast. 5 minutes later, the guy in front gets his line wrapped in the trolling motor, bad enough where we had to take it apart. I slip and fall on my back on my tackle bag. Dark by now. Soaked, cold, can't see #*#*, back hurts. Finally say "screw it" and head home. Drove home right back through the same storm. Roads flooded, wind, couldn't see the car in front of us. About an hour into the trip back home, the guy in the back seat says "hey, what's that noise?? Turn off the radio!!" Holy crap, what IS that!! Dude, I see sparks! Oh $%#^!! The trolling motor!!!!!! Not sure how it happened, or when it happened, but it deployed somewhere along the way. Pavement: 1 Minn Kota: 0
We drove out of the storm about ten miles from home. Didn't even rain here. Came home soaked through to my underwear. 1/2" of water in the bottom of my tackle bag. Poured water out of my boots. Camera wet. I even poured water out of my sunglass case. Water in all my 3700's, tools soaked, hat soaked, I couldn't have been more wet if jumped in with my gear. All for what amounted to maybe 5 casts.
I believe you are the winner! |
|
| |
