Back when Ray Bob first opened up I was out at first light around Wallling hump one Saturday morning. Evidently there was a tournament that morning because just as I dropped my t.m. a wave of boats came flying by. About 300 yards from me near the "boat lane" (we know there ain't no boat lanes at RB) I see and hear a guy waving his arms trying to flag down one of the boats flying by him less than 50 yards away. I'm thinking, damn, I hope one of these guys close to him stops, cause it's first light and I really don't want to tow him all the way back through the trees that took me forever to get here. LOL, not a chance. 20 boats go by him and nobody stops, so I pull over to him and ask what the problem is. Him: "I just bought this boat Wednesday, and took it out to test it and do some fishing yesterday evening. The boat won't start and my battery is dead. My wife is probably losing her mind." He didn't have a cell phone in his boat, and was obviously stressed out. Honestly I thought he was gonna cry. I asked him, "you have two trolling motor batteries, right?" Him: "you can use those?" SMH. "Yes sir". Tied up my boat next to his, helped him switch out one of his tm batteries, let him borrow my cell to call his wife, and off he went.

Good on you Randy! I thought you were gonna say he had gotten up & pulled his kill switch.

I have a 100 stories but here's one of my faves.

Early one morning I get my Bullet ready to launch. I put Jack in the boat with me. His son-in-law, Jim backs us in. Jim is a BIG Ole boy about 390. The boat slides off the trailer as I fire up the Merc 300. Jim parks my Tahoe and walks back to the dock at Hwy 154 Public ramp. The lake is about a foot low so it is a pretty good step down to the boat from the dock.

I idle up to the dock and Jim steps down off the dock onto the bow of my boat. He is so heavy the bow drops about a foot and he loses his balance and does a back flop into the water. He starts panicking and flailing around. Jack runs up front and is trying to grab his arm as he flops around, yelling at him, Jim, Jim, Grab my hand!!

I am trying to shout to Jim but the screams of bloody murder from Jim and Jack are "drowning" me out. I watch this scene for a few seconds from the drivers seat. Finally I get up and walk up to the bow.

As loud as I can, I yell, JIM, STAND UP!!

Jim stands up and the water is 4' deep. My customer almost drowns in water chest deep at the dock.





*No persons were harmed during this episode and Jim is no longer Jack's SIL as he & his wife divorced a few years later.

Good one Ken! I bet that was hilarious! Merry Christmas to you and the fam! You get a boat back in the garage yet???

Same to you bro. No boat yet but I am hankerin to get one.

I now live 20 mins from Bois 'D Arc Creek and 30 mins from Ralph Hall (when it fills)

Several years ago I was fishing Grapevine and I saw what looked to be a father, grandfather and a kid fishing from the bank on a shoreline I was fishing down. I asked the Dad if he minded if I gave the kid some baits. He said sure so I trolled up and pitched a few bags of plastics and some handbaits to him ad told him to have a great day catching.


I spun the boat around to head out and my trolling motor hit a rock and wrecked my trolling motor ending my day.

I think it's reverse Karma. No good deed goes unpunished. That one has bitten me many times in my life.
I don't understand it, but in the grand scheme there's bound to be be a reason for it.

I'm sure I've earned some bad kharma along the way. Just checks and balances I guess.

Should be less than 3 years to fill Ralph Hall as it’s began the filling process started earlier this month

A few years ago on Fork I saw a guy waving at me as i was idling out of a cove. We were fishing a tournament. He said he had hit a a stump and trashed his lower unit and asked for a tow. It was only about a mile from the boat ramp. I gave him a tow, as I didnt mind because I had bent my prop shaft earlier and my boat wouldnt go over about 15mph anyway!!!

My Dad told me this story about my uncle (Dad’s brother). Uncle Garland was fairly well known as a badass around south Louisiana as a prior Navy boxer, crawfisherman, construction worker who always helped others even though he was fairly poor family man with 4 kids. He was also known as a poacher who fed his family on whatever game he could find in the Atchafalya basin swamps, even out of season. And, of course, who could afford a hunting license! One day, Uncle Garland had a dead deer in his John boat when the game wardens started chasing him. He went into a wide open area with a lot of stumps and started zig-zagging (before boat lanes were named) while the wardens tried to cut him off. Game wardens hit a stump and motor died. My uncle circled them until they promised not to arrest him. He towed them back to the ramp, became friends and they never bothered him again.

Many years ago, at Squaw Creek, I approached the loading dock
and there was a boat sitting along the dock. The other fisherman was
sitting down and holding onto the dock. He asked if I could give him a hand.
He said he was stuck. Apparently, there was a deep diving crankbait on
the seat, when he sat down. It was imbedded in his seat and backside.
I got some sidecutters and cut the hook. I walked up to the top parking
area to get his truck and loaded his boat on the trailer for him.
He headed to the Granbury hospital, leaning on one cheek, for hook removal.
After that, I am very cautious where I put lures.

Lol...who dat?

I've been hooked several times but NEVER in the arse! Funny!

Years ago I was kayak fishing offshore and coming back in through Port Everglades Inlet into the Intracoastal Waterway, making my way back to the ramp, another mile away. Tide is going out, lots of boat, freighter and cruise ship traffic in the port, when I see two guys in a beat up 10 ft john boat struggling to go up current. Only one boat paddle which guy in front is using. can barely keep his bow into current, much less move forward.. No life jackets in boat, no rods, just a cast net. I think they were from Nigeria, originally.

Offered to pull them back to the ramp. Get rope tied on, and start paddling. It was tough sledding as I dont believe they had any real experience in a jon boat and it was swinging back and forth behind me... was making progress at about a half a mile an hour with me paddling my aZ off... I was thinking what did I get myself into. Then the coast guard showed up.. and they werent happy.

Couldnt believe the tone of voice they used at ME... I didnt even try to explain.. got untied and kept paddling while coast guard towed the john boat.

Possibly the first known recorded act of human smuggling into the U.S. New screen name, "Iconn4Coyote".

A friend bought a brand new Z18 with a 175 pro xs. He had it about 6 hours. Picked it up that morning and he wanted me to fish a working man’s evening tournament in it with him. I told him I’d be at the lake about 10 minutes late and told him to start without me and I’ll call him when I got to the ramp. Well. I get there and call him. While I’m getting out my fishing pole and bag of senkos, I hear this boat hauling [censored] down the lake. It’s him. Wide open. Boat has about 10 minutes of run time on the motor. He comes in flying around the buoys and doesn’t let off the throttle nearly soon enough. The boat slid up the bank…almost to my truck door. I told him “it’s ok…I don’t mind walking down to the bank”
This brand new boat was an entire boat length OUT OF THE WATER!

There were a few people standing around, luckily, and a couple guys launching a John boat. Between 6 people and that John boat, we were able to turn the boat around, heading towards the water. We all pushed this boat to the water. The wetter the bank got, the harder it was to slide. We finally got the boat mostly in the water, so I suggested putting his Fortrex into the water, turn it in 100, while we pushed from the back. Inches at a time. Then WHOOSH! The boat took off across the lake without us.
He jumped in the John boat and they chased his boat. He jumped in and got his boat under control. Turned around and idled back to the bank to get me.

We wasted 1-1/2 hours getting the boat back into the water and still won the tourney.

The bottom of the boat looked exactly like you’d think it would. ROUGH.

The new motor and prop were scratch free. Somehow.

My friends boat still looks like new from the sides up….the bottom looks like he drug it down the highway.

I had a co-angler once that had fished as a non boater for several years and had never got in the money. I told him at the meeting I could probably get him a pretty good limit on topwater and he said he didn’t have any. I gave him an old beat up pop r, but I called it a popping f’n r. He catches a good limit, obviously is going to be high in the money, and they get him on stage and ask him what he caught them on and he said, “ RJ gave me a popping f***ing r”, the announcer thought he misheard him and made him say it again. I was so proud lol.

I would sure love to have a beer with RJ and hear more of his stories.

I am very sad that hotel story got deleted last year when they cleared all of our PM's.....

You would have to bring that up lol. A bunch of us will probably get together and go to the expo at the Classic, you’re welcome to join us and the beer will be flowing.

Steez's story reminds me of one along time ago at Ray Hubbard when Point Royal Marina was still there.

This is not really helping out a fisherman but rather helping out a boater.

A guys pulls up in the parking lot with a brand new walk-thru windshield pleasure boat. It was a pretty good sized boat maybe 22-23 feet with an inboard. It sat on a trailer with rollers. I guess he had seen guys unhook their bow eyes then back down the ramp. He unhooks the bow from the winch and gets in line to the ramp, wife & kids still in the truck. It is a busy weekend.

Finally it is his turn to back down. He gets lined up for the ramp and starts down the steep ramp. About 3/4 way down he taps his brakes. The boat slides off the trailer and onto the concrete ramp, out-drive still about 10 feet from the water. Now we really have a mess. It takes about 10 of us pushing to get the boat down the ramp into the water. I am fairly sure there are shards of gelcoat & fiberglass still on that ramp from his boat. He loads the boat back onto the trailer and leaves.

Another helping a boater story - Was on Ray Roberts in the early days and coming back to the ramp I ran across three guys in a runabout, floating in the middle of the lake, just sitting on the bench seat in the runabout. There was no motor. They could speak very little English but I was able to get out of them that the "motor fell off."

Towed them back to the ramp and they loaded up the boat and left. Ought to be a good fish attractor if I could only remember where it was.

Helping a boat owner (not fisherman). I was at Ray Roberts a number of years ago. I had launched my boat and had to park my trailer (I was alone). As I parked my trailer (Isle DuBois) I was walking back to the ramp and there was this young woman in her truck cab towing an empty trailer crying her eyes out. I asked what the problem was but soon realized what the problem was. She had jack knifed the trailer and did not know how to fix it. The lot was very crowded and other tow trucks/vehicle's were honking at her to move.

I asked where the boat was and she said at the ramp. Her husband had backed their ski boat in an told her to park the trailer. It was obvious to me she had no idea how to park it. I asked her if I could park it for her. I thought she might kiss me and said yes. I got it parked and she was very thank full (no not that kind of thankful you horney toads). As we walked down to the docks her husband was yelling at her for taking so long. Was thinking to myself, I hope (bet) he does not get any for a long time.

I have parked and or recovered many trailers and boats over the years mostly at Ray Roberts but also at Lewisville and Ray Hubbard.

Yeh. I might have sunk a dudes boat once….pulling them back to the ramp. Thank goodness the rope was tied to it. His John boat took a nose dive and the rope kept the nose down. It swamped it and it was dragging the bottom of the lake all the way to the ramp.

But….he eventually got it back on dry land and drained.

It would surface, like a bad chatterbait, then roll over a dive again….like a 10xd.

Yeh. I might have sunk a dudes boat once….pulling them back to the ramp. Thank goodness the rope was tied to it. His John boat took a nose dive and the rope kept the nose down. It swamped it and it was dragging the bottom of the lake all the way to the ramp.

But….he eventually got it back on dry land and drained.

It would surface, like a bad chatterbait, then roll over a dive again….like a 10xd. [/quote]

I'd love to see the video of THAT one!!

I have one that happened to my Uncle Steve, my Pops, and I.

My Uncle Steve and my Pops found a great deal on 14' v bottom boat w/ 10 hp motor. They decided to split the costs and get a crappie rig for fishing the SoCal lakes. Our maiden voyage was to be on El Capitan. El Cap has 2 ramp areas high water / low water level. The lake was using the high water level ramp which was very long but not necessarily steep. My uncle Steve drove as his truck was 4x4 and had an extended cab so I could ride. Steve backed the boat to the ramp where my Pops and I jumped out and started to prep the launching rope and prime the motor. My uncle backed the boat the water and launched with success. It was almost like we knew what the heck we were doing.

As I'm standing there with back rope in my hand, I started to notice the boat get heavy on the rope. I look down and see that the rear of the boat is about 1' from going under. I yell to my dad who was talking with another boater. Pops forgot to put in the plug! I'm now frantically attempting to pull the boat, water, etc. to the ramp as we were in 10-12' of water. I get the boat to the ramp and start sprinting up hill on the very steep long ramp. Get to my uncle who and tell him to get the truck down there ASAP. After the 3 of us morons get the boat 1/2 on the trailer, we empty the water, put in the drain plug, and launch again. Luckily we didn't kill the battery or get water in the gas tank.

That would be the time where it took 10’tries to back back down the ramp.

That same year, same place, I am paddling in from offshore and see a guy struggling... find out later he is from Columbia, just bought a small kayak and big Penn rod and reel with what looked like 80 lb braid... first time out in a kayak, not wearing a vest, dragging about 10 lbs of sea weed attached to his bait.. He had his scupper plugs in so he had a cockpit full of water, his drag was set so tight he would have been flipped if he had hooked something big..

Nice guy, had a lawn service business, spoke decent English... and we paddled in the rest of the way.. Encouraged him to fish inshore at first until he figured out what kayak fishing and paddling was all about. Invited him to join me a few days later in Chokolosskee, Everglades on the west coast of Florida as it was much safer than Flamingo, much more civilized and hard bottom if you needed to get out, and no crocodiles, and not nearly as many sharks. He shows up at nice resort we are going to launch from in a big box truck.. which he carried all his lawn equipment and his kayak... unpainted, eyesore, front row parking... we get on the water quick and make it out to the oyster bars...

I let him use one of my spinning rods as his pawn shop Penn Squidder wasnt really going to work throwing plastic baits... I am catching redfish and snook, he is learning... finally he hooks a good one and begs me to take rod and land it for him so he doesnt lose it. Get the fish, take picture with him holding it, and then release it as it is over the slot.. he is pi$$ed.. but keeps fishing... we get separated and meet back up later.. he has a bucket full of undersized reds and snook... which I had to release for him... he was livid.. I tried to explain the slot, the reason for it... he was looking at his dinner swimming off... he left mad, never spoke to him again.


all smiles before letting him know we had to release it...

AHAHAHAH, I didn't see it. I was too busy holding the rope so it didn't go under while my Pops bailed water.

]

I have seen something similar when I was in HS. It was at the Diablo East ramp on Amistad just after they had closed the gates and the lake was filling. It was 80' low at the time.
The San Antonio Bass Club had a tournament there. That was back around 1970 when competitive bass fishing was in its infancy. We had brothers, the Krueger bros, one who was fishing BASS and the other started fishing it the next year or two.
Anyway Raymond had just just bought a brand new top of the line bass boat. It had a 100 hp Evinrude which was big back then. He and his brother along with about 30 other people from the club were inside the marina eating breakfast.
As we were sitting there someone ran in and told Raymond his boat was about to go under. When I went out the boat was underwater, only held up by the mooring lines. We sat there and watched while my father and several others manhandled the boat up high enough to start bailing it out. Someone dove in and put the plug in.





One of my funny helping out a fisherman was actually someone who surprised me at a Federation tournament.
He helped me out.
I was fishing on Chambers in the spring with the North Division and I only had an hour or so to fish so on my way back to the ramp I stopped in a cove with some new homes in it. It was a split cove with a point between them so I started at the point and was going to try to work the openings of both coves. The fish were from the opening to half way back all day and I had a decent stringer. We draw partners but I was the odd man so I got to fish alone that day.
As I was making my way to the dock on the point I noticed that a guy was mowing on his riding mower. As I shut down and put the trolling motor down I saw him jump off the mower and run into his house. I was thinking that he was going to run down and try to chase me off and sure enough a minute later he came running out the back door headed towards me carrying something in a paper bag.
I didn't know what to think but when he got there the first thing he asked is how the fishing was. When I told him he asked me if I'd like some fresh tomato's that he had grown in his garden. He said he had too many.
Anyway, I gladly accepted the gift and as luck would turn out, I caught one 4 pounder on a dock on the other side of the cove and missed a big fish, maybe 7 pounds just afterwards. I won the tournament with I think 17 pounds.


You never know. A lady came out on her dock another time on Cedar Creek. Me and my partner were told to leave her dock or she would go get her gun. I moved on to the next dock and a little while later a couple docks away a father and son were fishing their dock. Dad told me not to worry because the sheriff had taken all her guns away two weeks earlier over the same thing!!