Been there, done that, except it was on a puker out of westport
about 20 years ago... It felt stupid then, too!

First salty boat, first salty year, new to downriggers,first real sharp turn. Strum strum strum pop rod bends over and line is going out fast... till cannon ball hits bottom.

Remebered one. Get to the lake, beatiful weather. Real excited, calm water, fish surfacing. Back up trailer, push boat off. Realize no one has rope in hand. Deterimine water temp with body.

I got a few. Camping and fishing one weekend. Brand new rod in back of truck with boat motor. Get to camp, brand new rod now a three piece . Jury rig rod for day. Put rod back into truck, secure boat motor. Get back to camp next day, rod now a four piece . Fix rod yet again. You know, I caught more fish with that thing than any other rod. Including a state record catfish . Camping and fishing on the Cow one day, nothing biting. I break out the fly rod and mess around. Buddy steps into my back cast. He ends up with new ear ring. Fishing the Yak one day. Catching some nice whitefish. Forgot stringer, so put fish on sand pool on river edge after knocking out. Go back to fishing. Hear funny noises behind me and see a mink grabbing my fish and running for cover. I chased that darn thing and still lost my fish. Next, leaping before looking. On the South jetty at Westport. In a hurry to catch fish, cast from top of jetty. Hook nice fish on cast. Start hopping rocks to get to water line. Next rock covered with moss and barnacles. Slip, fall five feet to next rock butt first. Tore up back and arms on rocks. Still landed the Lingcod though. Last, out with a buddy in his boat on lake. He forgot pee jug. Lots of traffic around on lake. He decides to use empty pop bottle. He is concentrating real hard on peeing in bottle. His rod starts jumping. Me being helpful friend, I tell him he's got a fish. He looks back and says "What? SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH, GODD@MN! SHIATE!, thump, glug glug glug" He missed the bottle and peed all over his hand and dropped almost full bottle on boat deck. Missed the fish too.

How about leaving your wet wading boots in the back of your truck on the way to the river only to have them freeze by the time you get there.

Arty, that you?!!! Ive heard this story before, perhaps from Kurt?

My old Boss came in after a weekend and was telling us all about his new crab pot. He said he went out of Shilshoe and dropped the pot. He kept checking the pot and there were no crabs and the bait was untouched. Knowing it was a pretty reliable spot for crab he began checking his new pot over and found that he had failed to remove the rubberbands from the doors. We all laughed like crazy thinking of the crabs trying to kick the door in and that our boss would be telling us rather then keeping his mouth shut.

Rocket Red, that's pretty hilarious.

One of the funniest stories I've read on here was team lingcod going full throttle through heavy chop, breaking their kicker motor mount, losing rods and gear, and getting soaked and skunked.

Okay, reading these has triggered some memories. On a lingcod drift, my buddy had a big fish on, so I started to get the net ready. My rod got bit, so I stopped and reeled in the smaller lingcod and let it go. The other fish was getting close to the boat, and it was huge. I grab the net and net it, only to have the net pull off the handle. I hadn't gotten the push-button in the hole when I stopped to reel in my fish, and I forgot about it. Luckily, the 40" ling got tangled in the net, and it got reeled back in and I grabbed it.

Another trip I was out trout fishing in Deer lake, which is a small lake with houses all around. My friend had to take a leak, so he started going overboard. He accidentally bumped the tiller, so the boat started spinning in circles. He was yelling at us to straighten the boat so he wouldn't be exposed to everyone on the lake, but we were too busy laughing to do anything.

I have done a few rookie moves, plenty in fact. My bother inlaw and I are launching his boat, his hand is in a cast. I park the rig stop to pee and when I get back to the boat he is in the water behind the boat with his finger in the plug hole. I did not notice him until I saw his cast hanging over the transom. It was summer and I was going skiing so no one froze. Fishing with same brother in law in a 12' aluminum boat, tossing lures had been drinking. turn to cast and hook him on the back cast EMBED the hooks in his scalp had to use pliers to pull them out. I think he is still pissed at me about that one... He reads this page from time to time so if you read this mike sorry once again

We're launching on the Duc at the hatchery. My emergency brake didn't work on my old toyota 4X4. I backed down and told my buddy to put a rock behind the rear tire. The doors were open and the motor was running and I went to push the boat off the trailer. My truck jumped the rock and went off the ramp. We had water running over the floorboards. I jumped in real fast and drove it up out of there. That was the first time I had ever floated that section and I thought what a bad way to start out the day.

Sound like your first float was almost in a toyota 4x4.

LOL..I had that happen to me..i was lauching my sled and my E blake cable broke and my chevy was peddle deep... little scary

was fishing south sound for coho with bro time to leave so were at ramp watching newbees with new boat loading on trailer six shots they have it lined up the guy goes to crank boat on trailer and starts draging scag into ramp tells wife to jump in and tilt motor up one foot on side of boat one on dock oopps does the splits as boat slides sideways no guide ons then does a header in between boat and dock luckily only thing hurt was her pride.

True story. Wanted to drift fish a particular run on the Clearwater. Very shallow and rocky near the shore so we get about 3 feet out, drop anchor and climb outa the boat. Start fishing down the run from the bank. Jet boat comes by and leaves a big wake. Rollers start breaking on shore. Happen to look up stream and notice that drift boat is now 20 feet off the bank and floating away... Did not let out enough rope... Freak out as its picking up speed and floating away.. start casting slinkies and corkies at boat to hook it. Get it hooked an 4 th try and are actually able to get it pulled back to where we could grab it with 12 pound test with two rods pulling on it.

Worse yet. Taking some guy you really don't know from your wifes office steelhead fishing because she wants you too. Half way throught the float starts talking girls and tells you several times how hot he thinks your wife is, and goes into great detail telling you "why" he thinks that. Must resist urge to kick him the the back of the head from the rowing seat.. Tell him that his wife is kinda gross, but may have looked better a long time ago. Somehow your wife gets all pissed because she hears that I said this guys wife is "gross" without hearing the rest of the story

B-Run, shoulda just kicked him in the head and outta the boat!! Probably wouldn't have gotten any more grief from the wife for that!

second time in a db and I have a nice mid teens steelie on, this was the second steelie I have ever had on and the guide takes the boat to a good spot to get out and snap a photo because is was a nice nate and I go to get out in the front of the boat . and when i step out the river bottem is very soft sand and my foot sinks about a foot and i take a header right in the water. I didnt get wet i had full raingear on and hip boots under, but i stuffed the reel in the sand to break my fall, then got up fast to keep the fish on and It took a hard run around the bow and i put way to much pressure on it and snaped it off, to top it off. cracker