Great thread Dave hope you get some more ideas.
here are a few of mine that I haven't blocked out from my distant youth;

>solo trip......back my 12' aluminum down the empty shilshole ramp w/mother's brand new ltd van, get out (drivers door ajar, car motor running), wrestle the boat off trailer....door closes, all doors locked :(, engine running,tide coming in :(, 3 old codgers sitting on the bench yukked it up for the bulk of the 45minutes it took to track down & get a second set of keys over there (as salt water began creeping into the tailpipe.)
>(different trip) buddy leaves the rods standing up in Arima rod holders rolling out of shilshole, under the RR bridge...oops.
> netting a ball of sandlance (w/a salmon net because we didn't have anything else) out at possession & dumping what didn't fall back into salt (100s) right into the bottom of the arima....took hours to clean & months to get the smell out....yeah, we got us some bait now ;(
>wade across to the old end-of-road hole (as deep as I could go in hipwaders) on the Tolt......while the river was on a fast rise.....duh (fortunately a big guy was out there & helped me back across soonthereafter....avoiding what would have been a very long walk.)
>1st time climb down into the green-river gorge below the high bridge (hwy 516?) thinking- wow, some beutiful holes down there. Who needs a trail?..... 30' fall onto my back (landing softened sort-of by the evergreen bush) & I found the trail.
>trying to land my second (a teener) steelie standing on a rock in the Cedar R. surrounded by 3-4' depth on all sides, 5th time dropping it broke the line, inciting laughs from nearby steelie veterans.
>being the last boat floating by Addicted & family on the island below sandrock & not registering that they were stuck there (not getting out on foot with the river rising that fast.)

I fished a hole for over an hour while watching lots of fish show, trying about everything I had, finally throwing out a spinner and landed a nice fish after a good fight. My 8 year old daughter was with me, her first weekend fishing trip with dad. I was excited and rushing to get the lure back in the water, cast back to the same spot and had an instant hit. It ran, jumped, danced back and forth a couple times, then the line broke.

I'd had the presence of mind to check the hook, but not the line.

i cant count the number of times that i have been out mooching for salmon, caught a dog fish... bait up a pre-tied leader and toss it over with out tying it back to the main line... drives me crazy.

This happened to my friend back in the day when we first started river fishing.

Guy walks down and says do you know these are closed waters?

My buddy says nope, I read the regs, the Sky is open for Silvers.

The guy says, your correct, only problem is you are standing in the Wallace!!!

How about launching the drift boat in the dark and fogetting to put the plug in and hoping in to your truck to do the shuttle. Come back from the shuttle realizing that your boat is sitting on the bottom half full of water.

I've never done any stupid sh!t like you guys are talking about.

No, really.

Not really a rookie mistake. I caught my first steelhead at age 16 in 1956. I blame old age. The usual routine was that my buddie and I would back the boat into the river at Fuller and he would tend the boat while I parked the rig in the lot. On this day he went to the restroom while I launched the boat. I took the boat to the side of the rig and waited for his return. When he arrived he got in and I pushed the boat off into the river. As we were motoring under Fuller bridge, he asked me if I was going to put my rig in the parking lot. I had left my truck and trailer idling on the ramp with the motor still running. At least someone could have moved it.

I typed "decern" once and later learned it was discern.

Don't know if this has been mentioned before but I do this a few times every year on the charter boat. Get an out of control king that decides to tangle in a few lines no big deal right? Well usually this happens in shallow water, when we are running long leads for spooky fish. The fish usually create a big ball of SH!T of lures and line wrapped up on the line. The only way of getting the fish in the boat is cutting the ball of line to let the guy on the rod reel up the fish. Trying to be careful not to cut the line the fish is on, I start cutting...........And then for some reason I will cut line the fish is on and we all just watch it swim away with a lure in its mouth. Feel like a complete idiot!!

I have lost a few rods over the boat. Was letting a leadcore out when a fish hit a dipsey diver rod so I grabbed that rod. Should have put the leadcore rod in a holder, just a soon as I grabbed the dipsey rod a fish hit the leadcore and it just shot in the lake like a rocket. I have had my head turned while putting a rod in a rod holder only to completely miss the rod holder and without thinking I let go of the rod thinking its in there and see you later!!

Night fishing on the pier one time, I was fighting a king and it was getting close to the end of the fight. Just happened to loosen my grip just a bit on the rod and the king decides to take a run again. Will remember for the rest of my life the feeling of that rod leaving my hands bouncing on the pier and shooting in the lake. Don't think I have ever been laughed at more than that moment...

One time i was fishing the wallace. I was right under the rail road bridge by the hatchey. lots of fish in the river. But couldnt touch a fish. an hour later a game warden shows up and says this river is close from the rail road down. I sat there feeling like an idiot pissed off. For that i gor an 108 dollar ticket. what a day

One time i was fishing the wallace. I was right under the rail road bridge by the hatchey. lots of fish in the river. But couldnt touch a fish. an hour later a game warden shows up and says this river is close from the rail road down. I sat there feeling like an idiot pissed off. For that i gor an 108 dollar ticket. what a day

One time i was fishing the wallace. I was right under the rail road bridge by the hatchey. lots of fish in the river. But couldnt touch a fish. an hour later a game warden shows up and says this river is close from the rail road down. I sat there feeling like an idiot pissed off. For that i gor an 108 dollar ticket. what a day

Two guys in their drift boat anchored in the heavy current when they realize the anchor is hung. They BOTH get in back to try to free it. Down the back end goes and the boat sinks in a split second. Lucky they both lived.

Great stories!

My dad grew up fishing the Puget Sound and Straits for salmon. About 30 years ago, we were trolling for kings off Possession. Dad's down rigger pops and the rod starts dancing. He pulls the rod out of the holder in his right hand and starts to crank up the DR with his left. As the fish runs, he sets the hook with his right hand below the reel seat and the old wood butt section snaps just above his hand. I turn to see the rod and reel go ripping away under water while he swears a blue streak with the rod butt still in his right hand. We both laugh about it and he rigs a spare rod so he can continue fishing and maybe snag the line.... About 30 minutes later, I see this guy in another boat doing a hand-over-hand in the air. I point him out to dad and we crank up and motor over just has he nets a nice king and then pulls in dad's rod and reel soon after. We tell him our story and show him the matching rod butt section and he in turn gives dad back his rod AND the king. They fished together for years after that....

Cool story driftin...

1. Bought my first rod at the Pawn shop.

2. Took that rod out to the Elwah, third cast, hit a big boulder behind me and wondered what that black thing flying in the air was...the other half of my rod.

3. Bought a new rod at Wal-mart, lol....AND

4. Took it out the the Elwah and got hung up, pulled on it harrrd and SNAP! Broke that one.

5. 2 Days later, bought a new 9' rod on sale at Swain's...took it to the Duc, few casts caught a nice fish. Right after landing that fish I was so excited I just casted without paying attention and hit a branch above me and broke that rod.

I was netting a fish for daughter on a river. She had just broken one off and I really wanted this fish for her. I reached, took a bad step and did a header into the water. I kept my eyes on the fish and managed to get the fish in the bad and my feet under me. At least I was smart enough to come up laughing so that others wouldn't laugh at me. It might have looked like a rookie move, and maybe it was, but I had dry clothes to change into so I claim that I wasn't too much of a rookie.

If you are looking for true rookie mistakes, so here are a few I have seen and may have actually done at one point.
1. Reeling for ever on a fish and then realizing the drag is set way too loose. Then the opposite of setting a drag way to tight and having a fish snap your line.
2. Fighting a snag, line in the water or another fisherman. When the springers were in at the barrier dam it was fairly common to catch a line of someone on the other bank. For a little fun you could slowly strip line out interspering it with a few tugs. The guy across the river swear he had a fish on.
3. Getting excited over a fish only to have it be a carp or dogfish, or even worse a starfish.
4. Forgetting the boat plug.
5. Tossing out of sequence at blue creek and getting everyone pissed off.
6. Thinking 8 pound test is enough to fish for kings in a big river off the bank.
7. Swearing that salmon won't bite in a river.
8. Bragging about how good the fish are bitting when in fact everone of them was lined.
9. Keeping black chum or salmon, and even showing off the pictures.
10. Keeping a really nice down river fish.
11. Bewing too cheap to buy waders.
12. Drift fishing with twice the lead you need and setting the hook on every rock.
13. Taking a freind or wife steelhead fishing and here them complain about the rain or cold or whatever.
14. misidentifying a fish.
15. Being proud of a 12" coho.
16. And the worst.. Telling someone about your "secret spot"

Several years ago me my buddy are totally stoked driving up the 7400 road on the Nooch with about 6 inches of fresh snow and not one other set of tires ahead of us...1st H20 on the horizon! Yeah right, for some reason it just dawned on me, I don't remember seeing the flipp'n oars in the drift boat. I slam on the brakes and sure sh*@t, no oars.

and another, 1/2 way to Cowlitz from Puyallup and realizing I left my tackle box sitting in the garage. Went all the way back and got it and back to the river. Now the fun part, were are 1/2 way back home after fishing and then I realize I left my Frickin mountain bike back at the launch...what an idiot, I blame it on the Fish Whistle.

Who doesn't, my man............who doesn't?