Good Intentions Sometimes Go Off Track

Came across an admission from veteran bass angler Rick Clunn's wife, Melissa (right), the other day that reminded me of some similar circumstances I've witnessed firsthand over the past many years. It took her 25 years to work up the nerve to share her story with everyone, but that's OK. I've always been a firm believer in "better late than never."

After having traveled with her husband for a few months, Melissa had had ample opportunity to watch other anglers' wives launch the boat for their husbands and felt like maybe she needed to be doing her part to help her mate. Stella Hibdon watched Melissa trying to help Rick one tournament morning and saw how frustrated he was with his wife's technique. Afterward, Stella offered to meet Melissa somewhere and give her a private lesson when Rick wasn't around. Unfortunately, Melissa didn't take her up on the offer.

Then came a tournament at Ross Barnett when the weather, at best, was questionable. The wind that first morning was blowing directly onto the launch ramp, and the waves were loud. Rick, meanwhile, was convinced that Melissa's backing technique would be sufficient to help him get his boat in the water without any damage.

It should be noted here that Melissa was scared with their vehicle: a big white van with a diesel engine. Rick reassured her, though, and explained the hand motions he would be giving her throughout the launch process. Once she received the signal to start backing, she did so, while watching the boat start floating backward off the trailer. When satisfied the boat was clear of the trailer, she hit the accelerator to head back up the launch ramp. For a split second, she felt incredible relief and a sense of accomplishment.

She was still making her way up the ramp when she spotted someone running through the darkness, waving his hands at her. That someone turned out to be angler Gerald Beck, who, like Rick, had a ritual of being the first to the boat ramp.

In the wind and spitting rain, she came to a stop and rolled down the window, only to hear Beck tell her that she had just dragged Rick's boat out of the water. "What?" she yelled back. And, unfortunately, his second response was the same as the first.

After years and years of doing things the same way every morning without any problem, the first morning when Rick tried to incorporate Melissa into the process was a failure. The problem: He had forgotten to unhook the strap at the front of the boat. When Melissa had backed up far enough to see the boat starting to float backward, she mistakenly figured all was clear. However, the boat only had floated as far as the still-fastened strap would allow. Only about half the boat was off the trailer, and it was dragging on the concrete.

Melissa was mortified. Even with Rick's assurances that it was his fault, the tears still flowed. Meanwhile, Rick and Gerald managed to get the boat back up on the trailer enough to get it launched. She just stood in the rainy, windy and dark parking lot feeling sorry for herself. It was a gut punch to her spirit that was only soothed by the fact that Rick won the tournament and collected a check for $100,000.

When word got out that week about Melissa's mistake, she was embarrassed, and a few people teased her about it. But when the tournament was over, several anglers asked her if she would be willing to drag them out of the water if it meant they, too, could win a $100,000 tournament.

"Nope," she said. "I only would do that for my favorite fisherman."

It's hard to say how many times incidents like this occur, but this much I do know: It's never any fun for those involved...or, for that matter, any eyewitnesses who happen to be on the scene. That was the case in the following incident, which involved an old fella who was launching a vintage Ranger bass boat by himself. As described by an eyewitness, "This boat was in mint condition. Obviously, the owner really had babied this thing."

The old fella had tied the slack end of his launch rope to a tree beside the ramp. He then backed in until the boat had drifted off the trailer, at which point he proceeded to jump on the gas pretty hard to pull out the trailer.

Unfortunately, the slack rope got wrapped over a bar on the back of the trailer in the process and started doing like a block-and-tackle effect. Meanwhile, the ol' guy just kept driving toward the parking area..."with that fiberglass hull making the ugliest sound I've ever heard, as it dragged completely up the ramp on super rough pea-gravel concrete," said the eyewitness. "I really was wondering if the boat was going to catch all the way up to the trailer and what would break next...when finally the rope snapped," he continued.

The poor ol' guy didn't even know anything had happened until after he had parked his vehicle and started walking back down to the ramp.

"It took eight of us to lift his boat off the ramp and set it back down on his trailer," said the eyewitness. "His hull was so heavily damaged, he was afraid to even put it in the water. Now that really sucked!"