This always comes up a couple of times a year. I figured I would bring it up this time. I want to hear the crazy stories about the things you see at boat ramps. I will tell my story first.

I was at Grapevine a couple of weeks ago. We had been fishing in the morning and were going to put the boat up at about noon. When we pulled up I noticed a mini van trying to launch a 20' bow rider. They had the mini van backed in until the back door was only about 1" out of the water and the trailer was at a 45" angle to the van pointing to the right. They kept gunning the motor on the boat. It looked like the were trying to get in on the trailer. I made a joke to my cousin that was fishing with me that it would be a lot easier to get it on the trailer if they backed down straight.

I dropped off my cousin to back in the trailer. He backed the trailer down the left side of the ramp. I started to head to where the trailer was going to be. The trailer started going in crooked so my cousin pulled the truck forward to straighten up. I put the boat in neutral and backed up a little.

Just them the people with the bow rider broke loose. He has that boat at probably 4k RPM in REVERSE! He had the wheel turned the opposite direction of the trailer. It broke loose from the trailer and swung around not 15 feet off my bow. He was going so fast in reverse that water was coming over the back of his boat. I estimate his speed was 10-12mph, again.... IN REVERSE. If my trailer would have been in the water he would have come directly into my side of the boat.....prop first. The guy got control of his boat and just sat there at idle

It was just me and my cousin's 12 year old daughter in the boat. I was trying to get the guys attention, but he was intentionally looking the other way. He finally looked at me and I explained to him how dangerous what he just did was. He told me it was his first time taking the boat out. I was lucky that I had a kid in the boat because I know I would have reacted differently if she was not sitting there.

I got my boat on the trailer and looked back. He had one other guy with him and 9 children that got in the boat. I watched them take off shaking my head.
This is the closest I have even been to getting in an accident at the lake.

Sorry for the long post. Lets hear your boat ramp stories.

Cedar Creek one year I was sitting in the boat waiting on some yokels to load their boat. They got it on the trailer and noticed it was cockeyed so they decided they would just give the side of the boat a few shoves in hopes it would land on the trailer correctly. That didn't work so they decided to back down the ramp again and reload. At least 15 boats were now waiting on them so they had quite an audience and were getting hurried. The guy in the truck backs down, climbs out of the cab but he forgot to put the truck in park and the truck starts rolling down the ramp. The driver quickly turned back to the truck to stop it and HIS FAKE LEG FELL OFF. I tried to be an adult about it but I could not stop laughing. I guess I am an a$$.

I was at Bridgeport a couple of years ago and while I was tying down my boat a pontoon boat came in and dropped a guy off so they could load up. Well the wind was blowing pretty hard across the ramp, so the guy back the trailer down on the down wind side of the dock. I watched for about 10 minutes as they tried to get the boat on the trailer, everytime they would get it started the driver will put it in neutral and it would float away. At one point they threw the guy at the truck a rope so he could pull it on to the trailer. I finally felt sorry for them and asked if I could help. They said this was the first time they had the boat out, so I told them to put the trailer on the other side of the dock so it would keep it from floating away until they could get it all the way on the trailer. They did it and first time it went on, they stopped to thank me for the advice and said I don't understand it when we bought the boat the guy brought them out and loaded up just fine from the other ramp. I ask them if the wind was blowing then and they said no it was a real pretty day.

Go figure. Boat ramps are great cheap entertainment.

I would probably lose it too if that happened. There has to be a "you might be a redneck if" joke in there somewhere. Good story.

Wait till the holidays this summer come around.

That is why I stay off the water on Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor day weekends. I will let the guys that only take their boats out once or twice a year run into each other and not me.

was at cedar mills marina on Texoma saturday fishin around the slips in my bass hunter when a truck pulling a 18' pontoon drove down the ramp forwards, came within an inch of the water and then backs up the ramp after about ten minutes. Then, without taking the trailer straps off, backed into texoma and pulled BACK up the ramp. this is about the time we backed our trailer down and took out my boat. I sat with my grandpa on the trailer watching the pontoon back down again trailer straps on, into the lake. about now they take off the straps, back down one last time, and pull off the trailer just to immediately pull back on and leave, straps still off

I end up fishing by myself or with novice buddies a lot. I always get stuck doing the one man Chinese fire drill to launch my boat. One morning out at Big Sam, I see this guy launching this fancy new 21' bass boat solo. I always pay attention to guys launching solo so I can learn any new tricks.

So far everything is as I do. He unhooks the winch and starts to back down. I notice as he enters the water that unlike me, he doesn't have to loop his bow rope around the winch post to keep the boat from just floating away. I think to myself that those new fangled bass boats must have some secret to them.

As a buddy of mine backs my trailer down the ramp (yes, I do have a few good friends), I watch the guy launch his boat and see it float out into the lake. Now I'm thinking this fancy boat must really have a neat feature. Something involving remote control. The guy steps out of his truck, looks at me and says "That's not how I wanted to start the morning off!". He asks if I can retrieve his boat, but my 17" aluminum is no match for his. I pickup him and my friend at the ramp and bring the guy to his boat. He and I laugh it off saying how at least we will never see each other again. I ask him where he is from and find out we're both from the Houston area and live less than a mile apart.

Kevgray,
They do that all the time in West TX. Someone will give you a ride out to your boat.

I posted this story last year regarding an idiot my wife and I saw at the "Dove Loop" ramp on Lake Grapevine. In February of 2008, we were fishing the cove adjacent to the ramp. It was one of the first warmer days, 65 degree's with a very stiff south wind in excess of 25 mph. Water temperatures were still in the 45 degree area.

We watch as this guy backs a fairly large pleasure craft into the water, jumps on board as the boat begins to be pushed off the trailer and away from the ramp due to the high winds. The guy tries to start the boat but quickly determines he has no battery power. Then, this guy jumps off the boat into the 45 degree water wearing only a bathing suit and we notice that he is trying to swim back to the ramp holding a rope that is tied to his boat! The wind is so strong that his effort to swim his boat back to the ramp was useless and he was being pulled further out into the lake.

We quickly pulled up along side the guy, pulled him aboard our boat and towed he and his boat back to the ramp before hypothermia got the better of him. You would think that he might have learned from this, well, no he didn't.

After we got him safely back to the ramp, his truck and trailer were still backed in. Instead of getting his boat back on the trailer, he uses jumper cables to start his boat, then he backs into the water and takes off leaving his truck with the hood open and jumper cables still attached on the ramp blocking it completely for almost an hour!

WOW! Sounds like you interfered with Darwin on that one.

Pulling up to the boat ramp at Lake Belton. Two guys in their boat off the ramp with the hammer down and the boat barely moving. They told me it was the first time with a boat, a brand new Bayliner ski boat. It was then I noticed the winch strap still on the bow eye. I go behind the boat and see transom straps. The boat was still on the trailer !!! I told them to take the boat off the trailer and they would be fine. I have seen this twice in my 42 years.

Seen a guy put a boat on a trailer with no bunks once. Has anyone seen the homemade pontoon at Lewisvile with the wheels built on the boat? Thats a sight, he pulls the tongue up on the ramp and him and a group of guys and big women struggle to pull it up the ramp and hook it to a mini van, and pull the whole thing out of the water.

Don't forget Easter weekend. At Braunig and Calaveras on that day as well as those mentioned above, Many candiates for Americas funniest home videos or Here's Your Sign Award.

I enjoy going to Browders on Lake Livingston on Laborday weekend. Around noon I will get off the water and go get a six pack and a lawn chair. I don't think I could pay for entertainment this good. You get drunk Bubba and some other REDNECK argueing and then their old ladies get involved. You just can't pay for quality enterainment like that. They will fight over who was first, who was looking at their old lady or just someone that looks at them wrong. I throw them a beer and sometimes tell them I wouldn't take that off of them and then the action starts. HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!! It is amazing how stupid liquor can make some people!!!!