I vote for the dude that was running his 17ft sled all the way up around Vance creek on the Skok while it was flowing at about 7-800 cfs on New Year's Day. Nice work, champ.

Camped at Howard Miller during last fall's Skagit humpy run. I don't remember the limit at the time, it was either 3 or 4 salmon, no more than two could be coho. A married couple camped by us kept two limits of humpies each on the first day. Many were foul hooked. All were dark and left on the bank, in the sun, for way too long. They thought they each had a limit of humpies and a limit of silvers and that somehow that was within the legal retention limits. What they each had was a limit of male humpies and a limit of female humpies. They proceeded to clean the fish right next to their camp trailer. Fish guts and blood all over the ground, baking in the sun just outside their door. Can you say flies? The next day they floated the river from Marblemount down in an inflatable canoe.

2nd stupidest thing was a long time ago. I wasn't paying attention when launching a driftboat below the high bridge on the Sky. Had done that a lot of times and was on autopilot. Looked around and the boat was off shore and floating away.
1st stupidest thing was that without a moments hesitation, I launched myself into the air, hip boots and all, out into heavy deep water in a loooooong shallow dive after the boat. My fingertips barely made it so I didn't pay the price.
SS

I've done some really stupid stuff on the river. But I am always courtous... The most stupid thing I've seen though happened a couple weeks ago. I was floating down the river with my wife and sister. Got to the Forks hole (Tall Timbers). I thought if I hug to the right and stay close to the people on the bank I would stay outta everyones water ( low and clear ). As I went past a couple of people on the bank I watched a guy look at me, wait about 30 seconds until I got closer, then he casted his gear out.... Of course I am going to give the guy the benefit of the doubt.. Wrong... He looked at me again....... He just let his stuff drift out there. I thought screw this. Here I was TRYING to be nice by staying outta the bankies water and there's this guy being an ARSE. I said to hell with it. I started pushing the oars. He kept his stuff there. I pushed harder. He didn't move. Just as his line was about 10" from hittin my sister (she was about to duck) he started reelin in. I pushed harder on the oars. If I could of got to his line I was gonna have a little boat gear. If I could of got the tip of his pole, he would of been done fishin for the day. I started chipping my teeth at the guy and he acted like nothing was going on.. Stupidity at it's best!!!!!!!!!

Well... do I dare tell you all I fell asleep while trolling one day? Yep it happened about 10-years ago while fishing for returning Kings. I was fishing the Girl Scout Camp and woke up to the thump of land some three hours later. Can't even tell you how the boat manage to stay fairly straight that long but I was just south of Southworth!

Funniest thing I saw was at the Blue Creek launch. Apparently the guy backing down thought his buddy had the bowline in his hands- nope! Boat was headed downstream with no one onboard. Thankfully a nice couple of fishermen in a sled saw what happened a saved the guy a lot of grief.

I was fishing the Clearwater in Idaho in January about 12 years ago. It was about 15 degrees with the water temp about 36. I decided to climb out on a rock about ten feet above a deep pool when you guessed it, I did a half flip into the 36 degree water. I had to swim 30 yards with rod in hand to get past the rock face. When I got back to my truck it took a full hour to warm up and I had to make the hour and a half drive home naked. I must have looked real cute driving naked in the middle of January.

steeliefreak: I damn near choked at "gorrila
cable."

The list is long, but here's a short one. A Kenai guide (a short timer) told me about a time he tied up a clients terminal tackle and threw it over the side only to watch with mouth agape while the client symultainously threw the rod and reel over the side with it.

Now *THAT* was stupid. :rolleyes:

Yeah, me bad too!!
Well now I get to learn a thing or two. That is if I can manage to get my hands on an Oregon Fishing License.
I don't know what it is about this state but after 3 trips to the DMV and then two missed attempts at scoring a resident license I now have a new respect for the lowlife scum that just go naked and fish without permission from the state!
I think Oregon should be forced to remove all of those signs they post at the border welcoming you to the state since they obviously aren't inclined to be very sincere about the sentiment. Maybe by the time I am able to trek north to Puyallup and retrieve the boat I just bought from Mike B. The good people of Oregon will see fit to bestow upon me the needed documents to go forth and slay some steel.
Man I get elloquent when I get pissed
This had better be worth the hassle
G

Theking: That reminds me of a story that is not ralated to fishing but is funny as hell (if you don't drink alot of milk).

An elderly aquaintance of mine who grew up in the dairy farm buisness in Enumclaw told me when he was a kid, he inserted his erect penis into one of the automated milkers of his parents dairy farm because he wondered what it would feel like. He got "stuck" and could not reach the controls to turn the thing off, and ended up screaming for his mom to come shut it off. I can only imagine the look on his moms face when she walked around the corner.

I've managed to keep my wedding tackle in my pants, but remember that root ball at the hatchery launch on the bogey last year, it got us mid-stern on our mayden voyage in our new 16' Guide (less the guide) Alumaweld. We managed to miss it after that.

I remember when I was a kid my dad had taken us fishing on the John Day. We woke up the first morning and I was looking across the river when I noticed that there had been some new campers on the other side. I told my dad, "Hey, those guys have a boat just like ours" He stood up and said, "that is ours" They had let quite a bit of water out of the dam that night and needless to say the boat wasn't secured and drifted away. Luckily it didn't go far down river. I watched my pop strip down to his boxers and swim across and get the boat.

Seems like stuff like that happened on EVERY trip my Dad took me on. I even know first hand what it feels like to be stuck on the big rock just below the main chute of White Horse Rapids on the Deshutes River. We lived.

Maybe WulyBugr will tell the group about the time I pulled my 90 horse Merc out of the water while it was still running. Ouch! New impeller please.

And yes I did the plug thing too.

But the funniest thing that ever happened while on a fishing trip has to be the story my Dad and hid buddies tell of there pal who went off to do his business while camping. When he walked back to the campfire he had crapped in his net and there it was hanging off the back of his fly vest. Lesson number three, take off vest while squatting in the bushes.

some idiot shooting spawning chinook with a pistol on the skookmchuck......

God I can't beat the crapping in your net story.
I have done the plug routine and even had my boat come off the ball right in front of Ray's at Shilshole at 8pm on a Saturday summer night (that was emabarassing).

Duh, plug, twice. First time was about the 3rd time I used the boat. Typical save and recovery. 2nd time was just in the last month.I bought that nice canvas cover from Sportsman's Warehouse a couple of months ago to cover the boat. I also made some PVC pipe supports to keep it from sagging and pooling up but I forgot to put them in last time I used the boat. It just dawned on me Saturday that I didn't put them in or pull the drain plug. I looked at the tires on the trailer and they were sinking into the gravel a lot more than they should have.I went out there Saturday afternoon and there was about 6 inches of water and ice in the back of the boat. It tapered up to about 1/2" thick at the windshield. I crossed my fingers and pulled the drain plug and turned on the bilge pump. Took about 20 plus minutes to drain the whole boat. I spent yesterday afternoon chipping ice off the carpet. I double crossed my fingers and hooked up the water to the motor and hit the key. I was absolutely sure the starter would be toasted. It turned a little slow from the battery not being charged but started up. I let it run for about 25 minutes and it settled into a nice idle after blowing some black smoke out of the exhaust and sputtering at first start up. I think I'll be shop-vaccing the water out when the temps go up.
Duh....

Hmm, I may be building a more solid roof over the thing sometime this summer.

Dumbest thing?

Thinking that there was enough flow that I could make it OK on the "stairsteps" below the Dalles bridge...NOT.

Scratched my new "baby" yesterday. Bottom scratches are expected...but this one scratched the side. Not huge...but a scratch.

Now that that's over with, I won't worry about every little pebble I bump.

Mike

Sol Duc Hatchery Run without a clue in an 18' Eastside at 4 boards.

Sol Duc Hatchery Run in an 18' Eastside at any level. That's Crazy! (Can't wait to do it again!)

It was about 1970 on the N fork of the Sky while fishing for summer run. This was back before there was much talk about gays and you certainly never saw a flamer out on the rivers. I was fishing the canyon up high when I walked around a section and came out on the beach there was a tent set up right on the rocks. There was a guy sitting next to the fire. As I approached the camp a lady comes out of the tent and starts wailing on the guy next to the fire. She had a funny voice and was really cussing him up and down while slapping him in a realy girly fashion. Then he started slapping her and the word biotch was being used liberally. I attempted to walk around the camp as best I could but they both stopped and stared at me. The lady was a dude clearly. Wearing capri pants and a scarf over her head like women did back then. But the 5 oclock shadow was unmistakable. It was the first time I ever saw a gay person after years of calling my friends queer it finally had a face a meaning. After that when I told a freind they fished like a queer it meant something. this hole on the Sky was not done with me that summer. Later in Aug while trout fishing I was hiking the same area and noticed some spashing in a pool of hidden water. I walked over the rocks and there was a woman skinny dipping. She was very beautiful not the big NW mountian women you are used to seeing out camping. She noticed me and put on quite a show. I was 13 and it was a great day.

When I was 18 or 19 I had a 12 ft. Highlaker with an 18 hp Evinrude on it, I would launch at Redondo and fish Pt. Defiance, made this run numerous times. 1 morning my cousin and I launched just as it was getting light enough to see that it was pretty foggy out, I had a compass and knew the heading so we decided to go for it. We start out and theres probably .25 mile visibility, were cruisin across with the motor wide open (hoping to make the morning bite) the water is flat calm but the fog is getting thicker. We had been running about 15 min. and were entering the shipping lanes when all of a sudden we launch off this wave and I'm pretty sure the entire boat is airborne, my cousin flies about 2 feet out of his seat and manages to stay in the boat, the boat slams down but the motor has kicked sideways and spins the boat, the next wave came within inches of swamping us but I managed to get things straightened out and back under control, it was then that we saw the stern of a huge freighter steaming away from us, we had to have crossed <100 yards behind that ship. We continued on at a very slow speed and stopped every couple minutes to listen for ships. Every time I'm on the water in fog I have flashbacks. Got a nice king and my first saltwater caught steelhead that day.

I had a bent throttle cable on my new Custom Weld (I'm sure the dealer did it on their demo runs). Anyway while familiarizing myself with the boat just toolin' around Columbia Park. Well, when I pulled the throttle back beyond the midpoint the boat lurched forward again & I drove over the corner of the fuel dock for a nice new gash. I told my father what happened & what the deal was but...

About a month later he was romping the boat up on the trailer while I stood on the tongue ready for hookup. He got screwed up & tried to pull the throttle back & again it went past the midpoint to full backward position. The boat lurched forward almost into the bed of my nice truck. Lucky I had one foot on the tailgate almost knowing what was coming.

Needless to say, I left the boat in eastern Washington & he took it straight to Custom Weld. They replaced the cable & threw in a couple downrigger mounts. It sure was an unsafe condtion though.

me and another unamed board member were about 11 , flippin live herring for bottom fish of the end of ediz hook, well the bucket of herring was getting low and we didnt want to go net up another bunch of herring cuz we were almost done fishin, so right next to the boat floats a dead herring and i yell over hey (name concealed), get that herring we can use it. so he reaches in real fast and we must of hit a wave or somethin cuz next thing i know hes half way under the water.....so i run over and pull him in by the legs and the first thing he says is "thats a cool view when u can see all the way under the boat."