Take this morning, for example. Wayne and I had a 4- or 5-hour trip planned to the water to see if we could duplicate some boasts we've recently been hearing from others. When Wayne checked the water level at 6 a.m., though, it stood at 0.94 feet, with north winds at 5-to-10 mph predicted to continue throughout the day. That, coupled with the fact that safe launching at our chosen site cuts off at 0.50 feet, made it abundantly clear that we should...and did...cancel our planned trip today.
However, there also are times when John Q. Angler acts like nothing short of a bloomin' idiot...some to a bigger degree than others.
Consider the following story I found online yesterday, in which a hard-headed angler threw caution to the wind and ultimately paid a hefty price for it.
This story began with an angler who lived out West having just pulled his boat off a big lake after getting beat up in 5-footers for most of the day. He and some buddies were standing around his boat afterward, enjoying an adult beverage and discussing the day, when an argument broke out at the ramp. Seems a guy was teaching his wife to back the trailer down the ramp to launch, with those same 5-foot waves pounding the ramp straight on. The man and woman were each losing patience with the other.
After a few exchanges of less-than-loving words between the two of them, he told her to get out, and he would back the boat in for her. Unfortunately, he neglected to unhook the winch strap beforehand, so he had to get into the boat, with those big waves shoving ever more water over the transom, then bend over the trolling motor to unhook the winch. The boat was half-full of water by now, and as soon as he unhooked the winch, another large wave picked the boat up and deposited it sideways on the trailer...but this wasn't the worst part of what ultimately happened.
With some help from another angler, the guy straightened out the boat (after getting soaked up to the waist) and pulled the trailer forward enough to catch his breath. One would have thought the guy now would have given up and gone home...but not this "nut case." He decided to take another stab at it. Seems he had just bought the boat the week before and simply HAD to try it out.
The four other fellas standing around, watching this whole "train wreck" evolution up close tried to talk to this guy, noting that the 25-to-35 mph winds were not getting any calmer, but he not-so-politely told them to mind their own business, then had his wife get back behind the wheel and start backing him in again.
This time, he left the winch unhooked and had decided to use the boat's trolling motor to get turned around and tied up to the dock before starting the outboard. She backed him into the water and stopped, but instead of shooting the now-extra-heavy boat backward off the trailer, it simply hovered just above the trailer, all the while dancing in the big waves. This guy now jumped up and threw over the trolling motor.
At this point, the four buddies knew what likely was going to happen but kept their mouths shut...just as the guy earlier had told 'em to do. As the trolling motor went down, the guy's wife started to pull forward, and POW!!! the shaft of the trolling motor caught the back of the trailer...jerking the trolling motor completely off the front of the boat. Along with the trolling motor went half the boat's front top cap, the light mount, and most of the wires. Turned out that the boat's previous owner had, for some unknown reason, hard-mounted the motor to the bow with huge washers on the back of the mounting bolts.
If any of the four buddies never had seen it happen before, they got to watch a grown man cry that day.
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