Interesting morning yesterday, please be safe out there and be prepared!

John L

John L

Well-known member
It was an interesting morning at the ramp yesterday.
I arrived at my usual time of 5:15am. My friend was running late so I got to see all the crazyness at the ramp.
It looked like a TDB convention with some real characters getting their boats in the water. As I waited for my friend I asked one of the guys if they were all part of a club or something. His answer was "no, they were just friends that hunt together". There looked to be six or seven TDB's and some additional aluminum boats mixed in. Now this is not a typical morning at this ramp. I never see that may guys launching.

While waiting on the dock a guy starts throwing bumpers for his dog into the water on the ramp. Trucks are backing down, boats are still launching, motors running and his dog is swimming around on the ramp. Not the brightest idea if you ask me, but hey, that's only my opinion. Loose dogs at the ramp in the dark with heavy fog swimming around just does not make sense to me.

Then I hear another guy yell. I thought he was yelling at his buddy for tossing the bumpers in the water but he was holding is face and he is covered in blood. Another guy asks if anyone has a fist aid kit in there boat. The replys from all were "no". Unbelievable!

Another guy pipes up and said he has one in his truck and ran back to get it as I was getting mine out of my boat. It appears the guy was pulling on something when it let loose and he gashed his face open on a nail or something.

Now, again, this is only my opinion but wouldn't it make more sense to have the first aid kit with you when your out hunting instead of back in your truck? Call me crazy but I would have thought everyone of them had a first aid kit in their boat. So, six or seven boats heading out and no first aid kit amoung them?

OK, now my friend shows up we launch his boat and as I'm sitting in my boat the guy infront of me starts his boat in gear and runs into my bow. Not a big deal, not much damage other than some paint chipped off. I tell my friend to speed it up and lets get out of here.

By now there had been several boats that have headed out. Did I mention it was foggy, real foggy. The kind of heavy fog that you can't see more than 50'. So anyway, we head out of the marina and proceed towards our first spot which is less than a 5 minute ride from the ramp. As we were heading out at idle speed I notice there are what appears to be small wakes hitting us from several directions. I think to my self that someone is out here running in circles but I can't see anything accept for my friends lights directly behind me. I call on the VHF to see if anyone answers, because we all have VHF radios, right? Well no replys, so we continue cautiously on our course and all of a sudden I'm closing in on another boats stern, I mean closing in from less than 50'. No stern light on the boat , not even a flash light to let someone else know he is there. WTF, out in the dark, supper heavy fog and no lights, no VHF radio or anything else on to let us know he is there. I slowly pass him on his port side some 20 feet away, maybe less and yell to him to turn on some lights. I get no reply. So we continue another 2 or three minutes to our spot.

We get to our spot and I set out my spread. Both our boats still running, nav lights on and I start to anchor up to the marsh island. I shut my motor down and hear another boat, close, very very close. Then, here he is again motoring through my spread. WTF again? He turns through the spread and is slowly heading right for us. I know he can see our lights because he is only 15 or 20' away and almost ran into us. He must have relized he was going to hit us and turned away heading back into my spread. Again, WTF!!! Never yelled out to us, no verbal comunication, no radio communication and no lights. If I was not already set up I think I would have headed back in and called it a day.

To sum things up:
- Make sure you have a good first aid kit in every boat and it's easily accessible
- Navigation light are no good if they are not turned on and in proper working order
- VHF radios are a good thing to have when on the water and keep them turned "on" especially when navigatiing in fog or in the dark.
- Dogs should not be swimming around on the ramp in the dark

Exercise caution when conditions are bad. If your boats are not 100% ready for a hunt in less than ideal conditions don't go. Instead go home and make the nessessary repairs and go another day and please use common sense.

I guess that ends my rant.
Thanks for reading and please be safe out there.
 
Well after picking myself up from the floor due to laughing so hard I guess all I can say is sometimes you just can't fix stupid.

Tom.
 
Can't make this stuff up
And the Darwin award goes to....I'm sorry we can't find him he is still lost in the fog
 
And I thought this evening was going to be boring. Now I have tears in my eyes. Thanks for the great laugh it's the best medicine.

Tom.
 
Wow!

When I taught science at the local juvenile detention center, the guards always said, "there is no such thing a common sense. It just learned behavior." I guess the guy with the gashed face learned something!
 
John, heard from a good friend about a hunting celeb launching a duck boat one morning. Backed boat into water and launched, parked the truck, dog ran way [well trained], caught dog, didn't put in plug. Goes on and on.
 
Hey John we sort of went thru the same thing yesterday morning.Me and my son headed out in that pea soup fog,it was really bad.Bow and stern lights aglow..Passed a few boats on the way out..totally blacked out.WOW...not a running light to be seen out there!Its really amazing..$1500.00 shotguns...hundreds of dollars invested in boats,decoys..dogs..etc..but not a $20.00 light anywhere.We drove a mile and a half in the dark with fog at idle speed..no probs..and with all the running lights I still had Robbie standing guard up near the bow with a big light just in case ..Thank god we didnt need to launch at the ramp.
 
Looks like you ended up in the middle of a village idiot convention. Don't worry, we have them pretty regularly out here too!
 
Maybe the early morning ramp escapades will be the next reality show,
move over Duck Dynasty.
Seriously we need to be careful each time out.
 
Sounds like Illinois public hunting to me. Seen all kinds of crazy stuff on public land. I think the best was the time my son and I were out one morning in a public blind. This guy in a sea plane decides to do touch and goes about 200 yds from us. That wasnt bad enough he would make his turns right over the top of us at height of about 50yds. There are 20+ blinds on this lake and he cant see any of them? He did this for about an hour ruined pretty much the morning hunt. Did get his plane number and reported it to the FAA. I was called a few days later stateing they had no plane in the area with that registration. I know that at that distance and for that amount of time my son and I would not have gotten the number wrong. I think it was this guys buddy or something.
I do love the guys who go out with no running lights they are such a joy to share the water with. :)
Be as careful as you can and watch out for that other guy!
 
A friend of mine worked a municaple boat ramp one summer. He had some great stories. People dropping their boats off the trailer onto the concrete ramp. Backing boats and/or tow vehicles into the bulk head. Leaving vehicle in reverse and getting out with the half the truck ending up under water.
 
Sounds just like a typical MN public area duck hunt. Used to see it all everyday when I hunted the "popular" spots. No lights is the best. I'd be willing to bet that over half the boats that are out duck hunting have no nav lights and of that half that don't, maybe 20% use flashlights.

Mark W
 
The wife and I have a favorite past time to do in June. We grab a sandwich and soda and park at the local tidal locks and watch the new boat operators. Should by a video camera, would be a shoe in for funniest videos. Launch ramp is also fun.
 
John,
Great experience and thanks for sharing. This story brought up an important point for me.

"OK, now my friend shows up we launch his boat and as I'm sitting in my boat the guy infront of me starts his boat in gear and runs into my bow. Not a big deal, not much damage other than some paint chipped off. "

To me that is a big deal. Engine manufacturers are required to install Start-In-Gear protection so the engine won't start while in gear. Its supposed to be there to protect someone from being tossed overboard, runover, or hit by a prop. Many of the mud motor types of surface drives and long tails don't have this and we are in the process of addressing it. What I see a lot of times is the owner/operator of the boat making changes or replacing parts and the start-in-gear protection is bypassed or overlooked as not important. Also see the mud motors come in a kit and the kits lack this important piece. You were lucky nothing serious happened.

Thanks again for your story.
Darren
 
Thanks for the story. Your summation is spot on. Public ramps are a source of unending amusement in the summer. However, those sorts of antics in the dead of winter are nothing short of scary.

I don't know what it is about navigation lights and duck hunters. I hunt a property with 8 other guys. None of them have navigation lights on their boats, or a complete set of working lights on their trailers either!
 
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