Dont click if you dont like long stories.

[Sea-Mac]

I've been wanting to put this story on paper for awhile. Everyone I tell it to seems to get a pretty big kick out of it. We've all had our good and bad times on the water, heres one of mine that deals with both.

Was fishing w/ a good friend and his daughter on a Fall day catching some LM/SM bass and his daughter was catching gills/perch. It was getting late and they had to get back to their cabin, so I take them back to shore and get them on their way. My friend asks if I need any help getting my boat back on the trailer. I say nah! I can handle it, Im gonna hang around a bit longer and try for some walleyes. So I head back out and managed 2 nice eyes.

Heading back to the launch im thanking the good lord for such a beautifull day of fishing and the scenery of the Fall leaves and sunset. Life cant get any better.

Drive my boat back up to shore and get my Jeep and trailer backed up to retrieve my boat. The Jeep was a stick shift, so id often leave it run and out of gear with the emergency brake on as I loaded up.

I begin to try to work it on the trailer an a few yards from getting it on the trailer I hear my Jeep make a "POP!" sound. Was that just my emergency brake giving out?? Sure enough I see my Jeep start rolling backwards into the lake.

Frantically I jumped out of the boat into the water to try and stop it. By the time I made it to the drivers side door I was allready up to my neck in water.

Then I hear "SMASH!". Was that just my boat running into the back window??

Sure enough.. water starts to pour in through the back window and sucks it right down.

I swim back to shore for relief of the cold water and try to analyize what all had just happened.

My boat is still in gear running by the way... I notice it's about to hit a dock next to the launch "BOOM!" hits the dock and a pontoon tied up to that.

Im getting ready to run off the dock and try and capture my boat that is starting to head out towards the middle of the lake.

I dont know how many of you remember the Tom and Jerry cartoons, but there was a lady on their that they never showed her face that would always chase Tom around with a frying pan or broom... She happened to be the lady whos dock and pontoon I hit. She starts chasing me down yelling and swearing at me a mile minute "Get off our lake!" ,"Get off our lake you drunk!". I calm her down and explained the situation and assured her I was not drunk, but that my parking brake had popped out.

After jumping off a few other docks to corral my boat that was being drivin by the Devil, I finally get that taken care of.

Now a crowd has started to form from this lady's screaming echoing across the lake, and my headlights being on and it lighting up the WHOLE lake. You could see fish swimming by like business as usual. That made me

The NOW nice old lady took me into her home to let me use the phone to call a tow. She gave me some cloths to put on as I was freezing cold and she made me THE BEST pork chop I have ever had in my life to this day. I ended up giving her my walleye and smallmouth for being so kind.

The tow truck arrives and the driver agreed to swim out with the chain to hook up to my Jeep. He says "I've had to do this before and its my job". He gets about halfway and he cant swim while carrying a big heavy chain and keeps bobbing up and down. Were yelling from shore when his head pops up "Just drop the chain!, your gonna drown yourself!". He does and comes back exhausted and realizes he's been defeated.

Now all of the people are hyping me up to go do it. "I seen Mike at work he can do it!", "Go out there and do it Mike your the man!". So I take off my nice new warm clothes an have to get wet and cold again. I swim along bottom with the chain and drag it a foot or two at a time till it gets to where I can hook it up. Resting by standing on the roof of my Jeep with just the tip of my nose out of the water so I can breath.

We get it pulled from the lake and I have it towed to our cottage. This nightmare is finally over.

Next day my brother in law was gonna come up to do some fishing. I cant let him down. We use his truck to fish the next day as mine was still damp. We found items from my Jeep floating around in other sections of the lake. Shoes,sandals,clothes and hats those kind of things. Some of the people that witnessed what happened the night before were yelling at me from their paddle boats and shore "Your a brave soul for coming back out here!", "Cant believe your back out here fishing!".

"Fishing is to much fun" was my reply.

So no matter how bad a day you might think you had fishing. Im sure it coulda been alot worse.

This is still my favorite inland lake, and I make it a point to see that nice old lady and her husband everytime I go there and give them all my fish.

[j1musser]

Wow, Thank you for sharing that with us all. That is a story that needs to be put in writing.:lol: is about all i can say. Naturally in the fall when chilly out. I have to believe ya cause i don't think you could make that up.

[Sea-Mac]

One those nights to where ya just want to get home fast cause you were out later than you wanted to be, clean your fish real quick and go bed.

[GLF]

I can honestly say....I have never had one of those days. Hopefully I never due.

[Redeye]

That is just too Funny!!!!! :lol::lol:Although I would not wish that on anyone!!!!:angry2:

[nickoftime]

Bravo great story well done by the way do you keep a bucket in your tow vehicle for bailing:lol::lol:

[DIRTY DOG]

great story mike , the only thing close to that that ive done, is when i was working on my outboard on my 14 footer and wanted to see how it was going to run , i took it to a lake down the road unhooked the strap and hooked the retrival rope to the back of the trailer and as the boat floated away i did not realize that the rope broke and the wind was blowing at the opposite shore to make a long story short it was a very long swim with a large audiance.

[Priority1]

Mike, Do you want to sell the movie rites???? Your bad day makes mine look like a cakewalk.

[familytradition]

Lmao, thanks for that story Mike. I needed that laugh. But you also made me rethink about trying to launch a boat with my stickshift truck. I can only hope that I will never be in need of a tow truck at the launch. Good luck fishing and keep your head above water.

[bluedevil]

Well I said I would post one of mine so here goes...

About 5 years ago I went camping at Silver Lake State Park with my wife (now ex-wife) and some family. We took the boat but were to busy with other things to use it. Well it got time to go and I only had a regular cab truck back then, so most camping gear was loaded in the boat. At the last minute wife says she wants to go for a quick boat ride before we leave so I said sure. I back the boat into the water and unhooked and told the wife I was parking the truck and I will be right back. As I am walking towards the boat I think to myself, "man there must be alot of weight in that boat with the camping gear cause it sure is sitting low in the water". Thats when I realize I did not put the plug in... I start running and yelling to the wife to turn the bilge pump on but of course she has no idea what that is. I jump in the boat, turn the pump on and the water is within inches of coming over the transom. I reach down into the water to try and put the plug in and just cant get it so jumping in was the only other option.

So there ya go Mike. Now you know your not the only dumb ass out there...

[fishsniffer]

i had a 16 ft lund tyee a couple years ago and my wife helped me get it on the trailer at fishermans landing...she ran the winch...we got it on the trailer..i got in the truck got almost to th top of the slope when i see the bow of the boat point straight up in the air...she forgot to engage the lock and being a roller trailer it slid off and crushed the bottom of the transom...i had to crank on the winch till the back of the boat was a couple inches off the ground and back into the water...the only reason i got mad was becouse about three grown men watched as me and my wife struggled to get it back on the trailer...i hate to say it but ive met some nice fisherman in muskegon but ive met a lot more a**es...just wait till august in the channell..youll see:grin: