A couple years ago I was anchor fishing springers on the Columbia in my sled. Hook up a freshly baited quicky, throw it overboard and watch the plug float away. The cheers of all my buddy's (anchored with probably 40 guys that I know) when we floated out of the hog line quickly turned to laughs when they realized what I had done!

Last winter I was on the Clearwater over in Idaho and was with a kid that I had never fished with. Really nice guy, just had never fished out of a sled before. On the second day I finally hooked up on a fish as the fishing was really, really slow. I get the fish next to the boat and was trying to explain to him the proper way to net a fish. I told him to grab the bag of the net and pull it tight against the handle, once the net is under the fish, drop the bag and scoop. Well.....all is going well until the fish is on top of the net. He then lifts up without dropping the bag. Have you ever seen a steelhead on a trampoline??? I have and it wasn't a good sight. When I tell him to drop the bag, he gets confused and lowers the whole net (still over the water) and the fish falls off the trampoline. The problem being the second hook of my double hook rig is now hooked in the net. The fish obviously ended up winning but I still laugh about it everytime that I think about it.

I have some more but am tired of typing

Tim

Not releasing the bag, we call those "Tennis" Fish. I've seen that one a couple times. Buddy of mine flipped one 6 feet in the air!

Fishin' pard jigs up a large foul-hooked dog fish which rolls itself in the mainline. (can this fish be raised above the gunnal?) Pard wrestles with the 8 lber while tail in hand and shark biting coat cuff. After pulling line loose first and then fish from cuff, releases both only to watch brand new jig flutter out of sight. Fish had bitten the line in two. Another 8 bucks STS.

Chronicles of a Driftboat Rookie

1st mistake.
Trying to catch and stop a spinning hand winch after shoving new drift boat off the trailer and down a long boat slide.

2nd mistake.
Too embarrassed, prideful and in too much pain to winch out, I decide to push off anyway and go lick my wounds alone. Of course not realizing until it was too late that I would be needing both hands to row.

3rd mistake
Next time out (and oh so much the wiser) I unclip the new (very slippery) glass boat from the winch before pushing off trailer down the same slide.

4th mistake
Not letting go of the boat with my only other good hand thinking I could actually slow it down before it hit the water and floated away.

5th mistake
Forgetting the plug.

6th
Forgetting rods and/or tackle.

7th
Not realizing I hadn't set the anchor rope until I heard that "zip" sound it makes as it passes completley through the guides.

8th
Not leaving enough anchor slack in the line before piling out to go fish a bar (upstream of course).

9th
Getting out of the boat to get off a high sided rock in fast water.

10th
Not heeding local advice, as in the time they told my it might take up to 3 days to float a 8 mile stretch due to upriver canyon winds on the Rouge. (They were right, of course.)

11th
Not watching the time on a long drift and having to float out in the dark. Or conversely, leaving the skinny Bogy Hatchery launch in the dark to get first water.

12th
Assuming that the fancy Public Fishing launch on the Calawah meant that it was safe drift.

13th................

Glad I'm not the only one...this rookie mistake cost me the biggest steelie I've ever hooked, a week ago...

One other that I keep repeating, to my endless annoyance, is showing up streamside to discover I forgot my wader boots...

A few of my faves from our AK clients over the years:

1) As the clouds and fog rolled in over Cook Inlet while fishing for halibut, a female guest turned and said to Capt. Bill and said "Wow, those clouds are really low, what elevation are we at?"

2) After tide rises hard and buries normal flow of the Kasilof (turning into a lake), I got asked "What river are we on now?" ... as in, we changed rivers

3) After already doing a turnaround in the morning, getting asked by a client of "How do we get back to our car?"

$) Being added to the list of the countless times I've been asked "Which way is the ocean?" as we float downstream

I'm sure a few more will come to mind later!

Frustrating clients could be a thread....

One of ours this year broke a rod tip. Not all that unusual, mildly annoying though...esp. since it wasn't clear how it happened.

Later, after he was off the boat, the missing 4" piece of rod tip was found jammed in the crapper....

heres another over the side of the boat stunt. fishing the mouth of the wind for fall kings. oldest brother ties on a brand new crippled herring, he ties it on a section of fishing line from the bottum of the boat. tosses it over board. it just kept going pulling the entire strand of mono with it. brewer gave him the "heres your sighn" followed by "dumbass".


i was wading a section of river i was sure you i could cross, only to find halhway across it is just to swift. then realising that i was scared to dealth to try finish the crossing or turn back.

I was fishing on the snake out of Clarkston with my then new fatherinlaw and brotherinlaw . We were in the valley boat club fishing tournament. The first hole we hit dad hooks a nice fish 16 18 lbs everone is real excited. They say this could be the winner. Dad says lets keep fishing as we had just started so he puts the fish on a long chain type of stringer and puts the fish over the side to keep fresh. We decide to go to another place and pulled up the kicker and pulled in the fish and motored up to the next hole When we got there down gos the kicker and I throw over the fish. We fish for awhile with no luck time to move. Up comes the kicker and I go to pull in the fish and you guessed it no fish. Someone had unclipped the stringer from the gunnel. When we got to the dock it turns out that that fish would have won the day and a 1000$ prize. Needless to say it made a impression on my new inlaws. Its been 20 years and my fatherinlaw has passed on but I still hear that story several times a year. Those were some of the best times of fishing with grandpa Joe

Some of mine:

1) Wearing rubber-soled hip boots before I knew the virtues of felt soles back in HS. Was sight fishing summer runs on the Kalama, standing on an algae-covered rock(may as well have been axle grease). Fish bites.....I set the hook.....2 sec. later I'm ass over teakettle upside down in the water soaked to the gills.....got the fish though

2) On the Kalama again back in 86' when the first generation Loomis IM6 1141's came out. Maiden voyage for my new baby, land a fish, set the rod down for my pliers and promptly turned around and stepped on the ferrule, crushing the ends of both halves. Splitting lot's of firewood paid for that rod. I almost cried.

3) Decided to "save" a dollar one day and bought eagle claw hooks when I left my pre-tieds at home when I should have shelled out for the Gami's......lost 6 straight fish in 3 hrs.

A couple of my buddies' best:

1) He's taking a dump in the brush, stands up, and his pliers fall out of his pants pocket and center punch his "deposit".

2) He lands a summer-run and doesn't immediately punch his fish(we're on a pod of biting fish, heat of the moment, etc...) Meanwhile, a game warden pulls up quietly behind us, I look up and give my partner a "pssst.....look behind you" so with an absolute look of horror, he's sitting there, all thumbs, trying to dig out his punchcard while his gear is mid-drift, fish flopping on the bank and the game warden is just standing there chuckling, enjoying the whole spectacle. He let the poor bas**rd off with a warning. He said after a laugh like that he didn't have the heart to ticket him. Warden was actually really cool and we became friends for years thereafter.

Probably should not admit to it as I am not a rookie, but,,
How about backing your sled down the ramp in front of about 10 other guys waiting to launch, unhook the boat, then decide to re-position the boat, pull forwaed and dump the sled on the ramp only to listen to those 10 laugh so hard they almost wet themselves.

Standing on the edge on a big rock, set the hook only to slip off the rock in about 10 feet of water and fill those old rubber waders to the top, no belt of course!

Telling your new fishing buddy to get up on the bow of your sled to put the 65 lb. anchor in the bow cleat at an idle only to hit a stump and dump him in the river in December.

Watching your buddy on the Skagit swing full power to wack a fish only to hit his new graphite rod (sitting on the seats) on the way down blowing it into about 5 pieces. Did hit the fish after the rod. Man did his day go bad after that, 18 foot sled and 3 guys razing you for 6 more hours.

GBL , I have to let you know that you are not the only guy to do that, and i am not a rookie either, but sure felt like it at the time. Same deal repositioning a 21 foot glasply on the ramp at port angeles, during their derby. Just set the back end down on the concrete, got out of the truck like it was no big deal, hooked up the winch, cranked her back on then backed her down a little straighter this time, told my buddy to unhook the boat from the trailor (no it doesnt get worse) backed down quickly, popped the brakes and slide her right in. Sure was glad to go and park that truck

I've left more landing nets on the roof of my rig while putting rods away and taking boots off.........then I hear a "splat crash crunch" as they fly off highway 2 when I'm going into Gold Bar and are immediately crunched by a truck tailgating me. That happened again 3 weeks ago!

Flew down to Phoenix to tag along on a striper trip to Lake Powell with my cousin and his non-fishing buddies. Late night drive, we stopped about halfway along the way in Flagstaff to gas up the boat. Being the sage boat handling veteran of the bunch, my cousin asked me to fill up the tank. So I walk back, grab the nozzel, and proceed to pump 10 gallons into one of the built in rod holders. Never thought about why there wasn't a gas cap until gas started streaming out of the plug hole.

Can't remember, but I hope I had had several beers.

Now that is funny SHIAT!!!!!!!

I think it was my second year steelheading and I was into getting to the river WAY before dark to tag my favorite piece of realestate. This particular morning it was raining pretty hard and the river was up a bit but was safe to wade accross to get to MY spot, so I cross the river in anticipation of the fish to come and as soon as I get to glow balling I see a familiar face crossing the river in the same spot I had, about that time the sky opens up and unleashes what was the hardest rain I had ever seen! So me and this other guy stood there and bs'd while waiting out what we thought was a quick down poor. About a half hour later and a $hit load of rain later we start fishing, that only lasted for about an hour because we started to notice how much the river was starting to rise and so we started talking about getting out before the river became to high to cross.

So we head up river to the same spot the we had crossed at before and the guy that had come in after me decided he would lead the way back to the other side, so he starts to shuffle his way into the river and starts to loose his footing and the next thing I know he is starting to float down river, so I grabbed his vest and he got his footing back and we made our way back to the bank.

So here we are, soaked to the bone and trapped on the wrong side of the river...So we decide to hike out throught the woods to find a road/ bridge where we can get to the right side of the river and back to our rigs. To make a long story short we hiked for a few hours through some pretty $hity terrain I was wearing 5mm neoprenes that were full of sweat/water by the time I stripped them off. It was a great day, I didn't drown being stupid!

Years ago, my brother and I were fishing Coho off Edmonds. He didn't get out with me much. He was pretty excited about getting a nice Coho. While it was still in the net he carefully measured the spot to whack it. The club got caught on the rim of the net and as he pulled back it came loose. He whacked himself right between the eyes.

fishing the mulkiteo areA for humpies with the same oldest brother. we were using divers and hootchies. i began to drop my diver a little to fast to get into the hot humpy bite. i fished for 45 minutes without any action. finally reel in to find my entire diver hootchie a tangled mess!!! he looked at me and said "DUMBASS"!

Igot to through in a hunting story.
Buddy can't sleep so he decides to go Duck hunting alone. Drives from Spokane to the Potholes launches his boat, gets his favorit spot then puts out close to a hundred decoys all by himself. With close to two hours left before shooting time he fills the coffee cup and waits. just before legal hours ducks start to land and he decides it'e time to get the gun out of the case and load up only to find he grabed his deer rifle instead of his shotgun....