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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.
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!!
