I've got a couple.
1987 near Cooks Creek on the Satsop River in early December. Air temp around 30 or so. There is a guy fishing in blue jeans waded out to his sack. His dog is running around on the bank. About an hour into fishing, I go to make a cast with my 8wt. On the forward stroke, my rod just stops. I'm thinking I must have hooked a bush or something behind me. I turn around and there is the dog with a size 4 pink bunny leech hooked through his ear. I try to get the dog to come to me so I can remove the fly. It growls, shows its teeth and takes off running. I give chase while yelling at the guy to stop his dog. The dog is just abusing my new Teeny 200 fly line as it runs around through the bushes. The guy finally gets the dog in his grips. He is half blue from wet wading but doesn't seem to be bothered by it. I offer him my pliers to cut the hook. Instead, he wraps my 10 lb Maxima leader around his hand several times, grabs the dog by the scruff of the neck and rips the fly out of the dogs ear. The ear is now split open and blood is spewing everywhere. I love dogs and greatly dislike folks who mistreat them. I asked him why he did that to the dog. I really felt bad for the dog. The guy didn't say anything or seem to care that the dog was injured. He just went back, waded out and started fishing.
If I had had a cell phone back then, I would have turned the ******* in for animal cruelty.

1990
Shilshole ramp. Guy launches his new boat, around 24 feet or so.
Wife is standing on the dock holding the bow rope. Part of the bow rope is lying in the water. As the husband pulls out the trailer, the trailer fender catches the part of the bow rope that is in the water. The bow rope is ripped from the wifes hands and snags on the trailer. Has the guy is driving up the ramp, the boat comes flying up out of the water behind the trailer and onto the ramp a good 15 feet from the edge of the water. If anyone ever wonders what that white line is on the ramp at Shilshole, now you know. To funny and you should have seen when they had to get it back on the trailer.
Brian

I forgot about this one...

I was up on the Alagnak River in AK, fishing the end of the season going to a section of river I'd been to many times before. Ever time I came up to this one section it was kind of a ritual to go up through this chute turn a sharp right at full power let the jet catch and just as it caught shut the motor off and I'd drift right up to the bank. Like I said I'd done this plenty of times like 40 or 50 this season so It was second nature to me.

I was fishing a new couple of clients and they had been up with me the day before so they were familiar with the drill when I came to this area. They grabbed their rods in anticipation as I came up through the chute at about 35mph, turned a sharp right, the jet caught and I shut the motor off. BAM the boat stopped instantly about fifteen feet from shore. I got thrown into the console, my guys both went ass over tea-kettle right out of the boat and never hit the water landing on the beach. The gas tank broke loose from under the seat and slid to the bow and the console broke the back supports and bent forward.

I picked myself up, jumped out of the boat to find that both my guys were OK but a little sore, no broken rods, and to my surprise they weren't really pissed at me either. Cool! I spent the rest of the time putting the boat back together. Seems the water had fallen about six inches from the day before because it froze upstream and I landed the boat on a sand bar I'd never seen before. DUH!

I went on a fishing trip when I was pretty young with my Dad, my Grandpa, a neighbor and his boy who had just turned 18. We went fishing in on the Grand Rhonde River for steelhead. It was sometime late Winter/early Spring. We parked on the highway and hiked down where a bridge was being built the previous Summer, but they had stopped working on it when Winter came. The work crew had left behind their Honey Bucket that had seen quite a bit of use because this was a fairly popular fishing hole.

The kid got a .44 mag pistol for his birthday. His Dad had to take a crap and climbed into the Honey Bucket to take care of business. That crapper vented out the back. While The rest of us were setting up our gear that kid snuck behind the crapper and stuck the barrel of that pistol down the vent. He pulled the trigger and his Dad let out a scream as the door of the crapper flew open. He wen t tearing down to the river with his pants down to his knees. H

I went on a fishing trip when I was pretty young with my Dad, my Grandpa, a neighbor and his boy who had just turned 18. We went fishing in on the Grand Rhonde River for steelhead. It was sometime late Winter/early Spring. We parked on the highway and hiked down where a bridge was being built the previous Summer. The work crew had stopped working on it when Winter came. They had left behind their Honey Bucket that had seen quite a bit of use because this was a fairly popular fishing hole.

The kid got a .44 mag pistol for his birthday. His Dad had to take a crap and climbed into the Honey Bucket to take care of business. That crapper vented out the back. While The rest of us were setting up our gear that kid snuck behind the crapper and stuck the barrel of that pistol down the vent. He pulled the trigger and let a semi-wad cutter fly. His Dad let out a scream as the door of the crapper flew open. He went tearing down to the river with his pants down to his knees. He had $hit ande toliet paper packed everywhere - that's right everywhere! He jumped into the river which was probably about a degree or two above freezing. We had to go home right after that so the poor guy didn't freeze to death. I think that boy lost his right to bear arms for a little while after that. That's probably the funniest/stupidest thing I have seen while fishing.

Steve

A number of years ago I took my 22" Bell Boy with the wife over to Blake Island. The next morning we left the marina on a minus tide. As I was coming out of the channel I took my eyes off where I was going for just a second. That was long enough to go out of the narrow channel and run my outdrive right on to a rock. Now the boat is disabled and another boat tows me to Shilshoe and drops me at the guest dock. Now this is where I got really stupid.

My partner at work had a 28' old woodboat with a single screw that he moored on Lake Union. He agrees to move my boat from the Guest dock to the launch so I could get it on the trailer. Its a windy day as we tie my boat to the side of his. We push out from the dock and start down the fairway. Then the wind gets a hold of us and he can't control his boat. We start spinning around out of control still trying to get to the launch ramp. After narrowly missing a collision with some very expensive boats that were tied up and now completely out of control, I untie my boat from his. The wind separates us and believe it or not my boat gets blown right into the dock at the launch. My buddy regains control of his boat and all is well. However, many people got quite a show.

That Bell Boy was the scene of many a near disasters, from which I learned much.

a decade or so ago on a river far far away

ok it was the sky at two bit circa 94

well anyway
as we argued the merits of wood vs alum in drifters a certain freind accompaning his new female companion cited on how wood was basically better as a fish platform untill he overstepped his waders and minus the expletives the show was on


so? the new found lady was impressed with his command of our language while he poured 8 gallons of near artic water from his waders as he had overstepped his reach

now remember this is launch at 2 bit
water is calm attitudes are calm etc

ok
so now that a certain freind has watered his legs at about 15 degrees ambient? he cranks on the "mr" heaters onboard like any civilized person would do?
untill


the pos 1927 tank that he aquiered for 2 dollar is/has sprung a leak

so?
we have a sub zero temp day
we have a wood drift boat
we have a dude that has freezing nads
and full wet waders

now? the tank spanks a rossi

fire in the hole
sputnik goes airborn?
propane fire in a wood boat:)


anyway long story short

the propane fly"s into the drink
the gal freind rides out with us
the feet ? well you know that one
and the storie? it goes on


i love the stories

Trolling with my kids (both asleep), put out one rod with a flasher and herring- but not dropped on the down rigger.

Grabbed rod # 2 and let out 30 feet of line with flasher and bait and started to drop the rigger.

As I was messing with rod # 2 a salmon grabs rod # 1 gear from the top and starts running. I go to grab rod # 1 and as I attempt to grab it (unsuccessfully) another fish hits rod # 2 on the suface and it goes flying overboard.

Two Penn 975's and Loomis GL3's gone- no fish.

Ouch.

According to these posts my worst days are yet to come, may have to seriously consider selling both boats and taking up golf.NOT, guess I'll have to learn from other peoples mistakes,(RIGHT). were it only that easy.......

Several years ago I took a friend from work winter steelhead fishing on the Sky we were to have breakfast early at the Sportsman cafe in Sultan seems easy enough till I started backing up into a parking spot with my drift boat, you know when you say in the back of your mind "thats close enough" but you go a little more. Crash my anchor roller goes right their huge plate glass window. Luckily they haden't opened yet and knowone was sitting a that booth. I owner was very understanding I felt and was at that moment a complete idiot. I said heres my credt card # call someone to fix it we had breakfast went fishing hooked and landed one lesson learned listen to that little voice.

Capt. Be very careful. Those "little voices" can tell you to do very bad, bad things.

Steve

Capt Steelhead,

Sounds vaguly familar. Years ago my first home improvement project in my new house was to repair the hole in my garage door I put there with the anchor nest on my db.

My garage door opener doesn't have much range, so I back the boat up the driveway and then have to get out and click the remote to open the door. With the boat in front of the garage my truck sticks a ways out in the street. Usually not an issue because there's not much traffic.

One day I had the boat backed up, but a car was coming up the street, so I thought I'd better back up a bit more so they could get by better. I knew I had gone far enough when I heard the crunch. D'oh

Cruising full speed across lake ozette with my Dad during the summer when the water was unusually low. We were in between Garden Island and a some creek. We had taken this route many times and had only noticed shallows closer to shore.

All of the sudden the boat and all of our gear jumps about 2 feet in the air. The outboard kicks straight up out of the water and we coast to a stop. When I turn around to see if everything is still in the boat I see a long slender sand bar extending from where the creek spills out into the lake almost 1/2 way to the island about 6' below the water.

Lesson learned: go slower.

Crabbing near Blaine - I was around 14 and was spending the summer at a friends place overlooking the bay. They had an old wooden boat that they left on the shore and would carry down a little 5 hp motor to run out to the crab pots in the evening. I decided to take a coule of girls out in the boat and gather up some crabs. On the way back to shore I was moving the tiller back and forth rocking the boat (really impressive to a couple of 13 year old girls). All of a sudden the motor turns straight up in the air and dives down to the bottom...It suddenly got very quiet. Out come the oars and head for shore. We managed to find the motor the next day at low tide under some grass. I ended up paying for the repairs out of my money I got unloading salmon at the docks. Some things you never forget....

I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to make my first post; seems like this is the right thread to introduce myself.

In the winter of 1976, I was visiting my hippie brother and the rest of his commune who were building a 72’ ferro-cement sailboat on the shores of Bellingham Bay. A friend of theirs had a couple of commercial crabpots set out right in front of their boat. They had some sort of arrangement with him where it was okay to pull the pots and remove the smaller keepers and females and leave the big ones in the pot.

In any case, I was hungry for fresh crab but the only watercraft available was a very heavy 14’ Birchcraft canoe and we couldn’t find any paddles so we used a couple of square nose shovels for propulsion. Imagine two grown men trying to coordinate an effort to pull a commercial pot in a 14’ canoe without tipping it over. Somehow we managed to pull a couple of pots and had a couple of limits scampering around the bottom of the canoe. We had to sit with our legs up over the gunwales to avoid the crabs. I was in the stern so this left the family jewels close enough to the crab claws to make me extremely uncomfortable and the crabs could get enough traction on the canoe stringers to climb up the sides.

So… while trying to keep my manhood intact and keep the crabs in the boat, all the while balancing on the gunwales with a now very heavy shovel paddle, my full grown black lab decides she needs to swim out and join us. Somehow I managed to get her up across my legs but she wasn’t very cooperative and she didn’t like the crabs at all. Now, on top of everything else, I’m soaking wet; my brother is laughing his ass off because with the additional weight of the mutt, the stern is riding mighty low in the water and the crabs are congregating right below my crotch.

My dog now decides she really needs to stand up because there are a couple dozen crabs scratching around right below her; I can’t paddle and keep the dog still and keep the crabs in the boat and keep my balance. A crab gets close enough to my crotch to get a grip on my Levis and we’re still a couple hundred feet from shore. I decide the dog has got to go so I threw her over the side and removed the crab from my Levis; in the process I darn near swamp the canoe. My bother, between laughing his ass off and trying to keep his balance, drops his shovel in the bay and for some reason shovels don’t float.

We are now down to one shovel and the dog is trying to get back in the canoe; my brother is laughing so hard he’s about ready to fall overboard. I can only paddle on one side of the canoe because the dog’s on the other and I can’t get going fast enough to out run the dog. I can tell you, trying to do a j-stroke with a square nose shovel with one hand while fending off crabs with the other is not easy.

When we finally made it to shore, my brother jumped out and since I was on the very end of the stern I ended up doing a half-gainer into the bay. The good news is… the dog didn’t drown, I didn’t get a discount vasectomy, I didn’t kill my brother and we didn’t lose a single crab.

Slowleak

Great story!

Agreed!

Funny story slowleak. Welcome aboard.

I guess fishing related because I was heading out Steelheading. I was a broke college student in Bellingham. I lived in a run down apartment but it over looked the water. So, it was built on a steep hill. The steep parking lot was off of a back alley. I tried to start my POS Camaro that morning and dead battery. It was real cold and everything was solid ice. I am looking out my window while on the phone trying to find someone to give me a jump when I watch my car take off like a sled. I flew out of there but when I hit the lot I’m running in place because of the ice. All I can do is watch as my car travels the length of the parking lot gathering momentum, missing all of the parked cars, and then heads down the alley. Now it’s either A) going to go off of a cliff B) hit two parked cars parked to the side of a house built on that cliff (but this would save it from certain death) or C) take out the house. I’m screaming NOOOOOO as it slides right up and parks itself between the house and the parked cars and stops before going off the cliff. I run up out of breath thanking my lucky stars and praying the car stays where it is when a man comes out of the house, keys in hand and says “hey think you can move your car”.

Come to think of it, when I was young, most of my problems had to do with cars.

Non-fishing related but another young moment: late one night I had a car load of friends and hydroplaned off a curve into some bushes. We all got out, pushed my Chevelle back out and continued on our way having a good laugh. Early the next morning I get a call from a very old lady who say’s “you wrecked my Rhody”. Being a teenager I said what makes you think it was me? She responds “I found your license plate in my Rhody”. I bought her new Rhodies and planted them that day in exchange for my plate. She thought the whole thing was hilarious thank god.

Welcome slowleak---- Might you have been under the influence of herbs whilst you were having that adventure?

ROFLMAO..... herbs.
You would think, but, for some reason in certain situations, even when facing presumed death in a big rapid, laughing is all you can do.