What do you consider to be your worst fishing trip ever?

My best bud and I took a weekend trip to Choke, left at 2am to get there at daylight. As we rolled down the road to the ramp we heard the pop, a blow out on the trailer. Damn, I didn't have a spare because I'm a moron.
Stroke of luck! We noticed a familiar trailer in the lot, a friend of my buddy happened to be at Choke at the same time. "Hey man, if your spare will fit our trailer can we borrow it until we can get it replaced?" "Sure, man. No problem!" "Great!>
We replace the wheel with the borrowed spare. "Don't crank it down too tight, I say. I wanna be able to get the dang thing off."
Nothing open at this time so we go ahead a fish for a bit and get skunked.
We head back to the ramp and head into town with the blowout in the bed of the truck, the trailer and boat still at the lake. No one has a spare the right size.
"Hey man, we can't find a spare in town. How about we give yours back when we get back home?" "Sure no problem. See ya Monday."
Problem solved? Not exactly, but that comes later.
Head back to the lake to pick up the boat then back into town to check into the motel. Not much to do, let's grab a bite and a few beers, boat still in tow. (This was the highlite of the trip)
After "A few beers" we head back to the motel for some shut eye with the boat still in tow, but in our state we can't find the motel (which was on the other side of the square form the bar.) How we didn't get spotted by local LEO, a big green truck towing a big green boat around and around and around town I'll never know.

Now, my buddy being a larger man he makes a few noises when he sleeps. He gets shut eye. Me and the dog wind up sleeping in the truck.

Morning.

Today is gonna be better so we hit the water! We manage one fish...ONE fish the entire day.
Time to head home. We make it as far as Pleasanton when I feel a vibration from the trailer. Pull over to the side adn check it out. Damn! The wheel wasn't on tight and it had wobbled so much that the lug holes were a bit wallowed and one of them had broken off completely! I asked my buddy WTH, man? He says "You TOLD me not to tighten them down too much!" SMMFH

So I crank the other four bolts down as tight as I can. I know they're cross threaded, but it's 3pm on a Sunday afternoon and no one is around in Pleasanton to fix it. On to San Antone. We gas up and I check the lugs. Still four on there so off we go again. We make it as far as San Marcos and I check the lugs again. Uh oh, down to 3! Well, we can limp home from here.

NOPE!

Just south of Kyle on 35 we lose another lug. I can't go on with two lugs and it's dark now. Both of our phones are nearly dead (this is at the beginning of mobile phone technology and we didn't have chargers on board.)
He has just enough to call his wife to come get him because he has to be at work at 4am. I have just enough to call my wife to tell her where i am and to send roadside help.
Buddy's wife comes to pick him up and about an hour later fleet services shows up. It's the only folks my missus could find to help at this time on a Sunday night. It's now about midnight. he says "I can fix it, but I gotta go to North Austin to get the parts". I said, man you do what you gotta do. Wake me up when you get back (remember I "slept" in the truck the night before so I'm beat!)
Guy wakes me up about 3am, trailer fixed. Several hundred bucks later I'm on the road again, my buddy's buddy's wallowed out rim in the bed. About 20 minutes into the rest of the trip (about the time my buddy is leaving for work) the sky opens up like someone slid a cookie sheet out from under a trillion gallon bucket in the sky. I mean it is POURING down and I can barely see the road. I roll up to my house just as my wife is headed to work. I head inside, grab a quick shower then it's off to work for me.

about $500 for the repair, another $200 for my buddy's buddy's replacement rim (this is the 90's) and a life lesson learned.

ALWAYS HAVE A SPARE

That doesn't sound like a bad trip. Just a good story. All of my "worst fishing trips" are the stories I tell today. After over 60 years of fishing trips, I got a few.

You're partially right, there. it IS a story...not sure I'd call it a good one, but it IS a story and it gets told frequently. I'm right there with you on years of fishing stories, but this was the absolute worst. Tell me about yours. make me feel better about mine!

Oh yeah, good ol’ Choke and the awesome dips on I37 a few years ago. It was dark and I kept staring back at the boat in the rear view mirror, something just didn’t look right. Kept staring and thinking I was crazy. Finally stopped at the Loves at 281 & 37, walked back to the boat and saw this. I had been driving for miles with it like this apparently, notice where the safety chains are.

I guess if I had one it would be at the end of Jan 2005. My partner and I were fishing a bass tournament on Palestine. It was very cold that day with a clear blue sky. We spent the first couple hours fishing a narrow creek with no luck. We decided to make about a 10 mile run to another spot. About 8 miles into that run, while doing 75 MPH, my 225 blew up! I knew it was bad when I took my cowling off and tried the move the flywheel with my hand and all I heard was a crunching sound. We spent the rest of that day on the trolling motor fishing our way back to the ramp. Of course we caught nothing. I dropped the boat off at the dealer on Sunday and headed to the airport for a flight to my job site. Later that week after I got home, I had heard nothing from the dealer so I drove to their shop and walked in to find out the status. The mechanic saw me come in and just shook his head like someone had died. Well it did and it was the motor. He took me to the garage and showed me the devastation. Holes in the top of the pistons, all of the spark plug tips were covered up by melted metal, melted holes around the writ pins and a major crack in the block. There was no way this engine could be salvaged. So I go out to the owner and asked how much a new 225 would cost. He said "the new 2005 E-TEC?". I said yes. He looked it up and said it would cost $23,500. I about sh$t myself. He could tell that I was not happy about that. He then said "I also got a brand new 2004 225 still in the box. I can sell that to you for $13,500". I told him to put it on and that would be back later in the week to get it. Keep in min that we were coming up on Valentines day. So I go home and said to my wife "Honey, guess what? I just got you a brand new 2004 225! Happy Valentines day!". I also gave here a card and flowers. We still laugh about it today.

Holy sh$t batman!

at least she was cool about it! that is an expensive "mishap"!

shocked holy [censored]! i ended up with my boat in the bed of my truck once from a bumpy road causing the hitch to fail. luckily my chains kept the trailer attached to the truck

The next time I have issues on a fishing trip, I'm going to remember these horror stories and think: "It could be a lot worse."

Easy. Hired a guide to take me and my wife trout fishing on the White River in Arkansas. The guy trolled rapala's all day and we got zero bites. Cost me $500 back in the day.

After I retired I went up to the White, bought some waxworms and limited out in about an hour. I've had some great guide trips but the Rapala troller was the worst.

A few years ago, I hired a guide on Fayette. I told him on the phone I wanted to learn a specific technique and he said great, that's what they are hitting on. Got on the lake and the POS front ended me all day throwing Texas rig, not what I wanted to learn. Worst part is when he pushed in on another guide and started fishing right beside him and his client. The other guide made a comment that he was getting a little close and the guide just kept on fishing. I apologized to the other boat. Told the guy to take it in, I was tired of watching him fish. That got me to checking references, not what was on their website.

Fishing trip on Choke Canyon somewhere around 1990. Launched at Calliham unit and fished half day in that area and decided to run over to the dam/3 fingers area. On the way back ran out of gas about half way back. Of course the wind was howling and pushed us in to shore quickly. Used the TM til it was dead...Began taking turns walking (pulling) the boat in shallow water around the stick-ups and watching for gators ! After several hours FINALLY got help from another boat ...we were tired and exhausted....

THAT would piss me off if I didn't even get a "Hey, today wasn't good. That happens sometimes, but I'll take y'all out again." Either "on me" or "half rate" or something!

Finding a similar theme.....fish at choke at your own risk!

I have an uncle in law, that has attempted going to Choke twice and never made it. First time he broke an axle, the second time he had blowouts. Definitely seeing a pattern here, lol.