I was at Martin Creek yesterday to fish a small tournament. The boat ramp is just terrible but with care and some help you can launch your boat. During the early morning A Dodge Truck with a welding machine in the bed made its way to ramp. Seems to me he was having a hard time backing his boat trailer using the mirrows. As he approached the ramp he ran his boat trailer off the right side of the ramp, hanging his trailer half on half off. After many long looks and some spitting and talking he was able to 'give her the gas' an pull his trailer up the ramp while cleaning the concrete with this trailer axle.

Finally able to get his boat into the water, Now remember there is a line of people waiting to launch. THe motor will not start. After several moments of spitting, talking, and cussing the motor started. "Yea it started" with a buff of blue smoke. Trailer away, boat launched, and bilge pump on>!!! ??

Bilge pump on?? Yes the story continues. He pulls up to the bank but boat will not get all the way to shore. He then realizes that he has left the plug out of the boat. Calls for the trailer but the line is very long. SO he decides to do the 'man-ly' thing .

He got down to his 'drawers' Thank heaven he was not wearing a thong. As I watched this I knew better than to offer any advise. By now this guy was about stroke level. As I watched him ease into the water, I felt his pain as he yelled' I thought this was a hot water lake!"

Oh My Gosh was he cold and near naked. Of course he could not reach the bottom of the boat to reach the hole for the plug by reaching only his arm under water--OH NO-- he finally had to go completely under the water to find the plug hole. Once while he was under; for a long time, I heard some one say,"he can not find the correct hole for the plug." About that time the near naked blue looking man came up from the bottom of the lake screaming 'Which hole does this plug go?"

Then another dive under the water. Staying down for a very very long time I began to worry about him, even started to tell some one 'they' needed to go check on him. The guy came to the top of the water. He floated to the top of water and propelled himself into the boat. He took towel from one of the boxes and dryed himself off.

The last time I saw him ...he and his partner were motoring out with the bilge pump still running.

Fishing was tough for me I saw water temp from 62 to 74 I threw a crank bait all day. Chrome when the sun was out and gold when cloudy. I caught lots of fish but only three were taken to weigh in. But I did have a better day than the 'naked guy' I hope he got his flu shot this year..

wild bill

OMG. Sometimes You just need to turn around and go back to the House.

Talk about a bad day!

Wonder why things like that only happen when there are lots of spectators?

man I guess I should have stayed at the ramp.We was there and that would have been funny to see.

That was me a couple of years ago at choke canyon.... the water was soooooooo cold, it was about 45 degrees air temp and 55 water temp.... and as soon as I got all stripped down to my boxers, a large group of elderly birdwatchers with binoculars showed up.... they all had a good laugh!!! I got asked several times that day, "hey! arent you the guy that went skinnydipping this morning?" hahaha

That was me a couple of years ago at choke canyon.... the water was soooooooo cold, it was about 45 degrees air temp and 55 water temp.... and as soon as I got all stripped down to my boxers, a large group of elderly birdwatchers with binoculars showed up.... they all had a good laugh!!! I got asked several times that day, "hey! arent you the guy that went skinnydipping this morning?" hahaha

Now that is funny and sad.

That's about the same water and air temp when I fell over the side one time. Thankfully I had just pulled off my coveralls a few minutes earlier, so at least I had something dry to put on. Good thing I wasn't drowning, cause my 2 brother-in-laws were laughing too hard to be of any help at all. Oh yeah, there was also 2 other boats to witness and enjoy my humiliation.

that would have sucked but I would have let my partner go in and then laugh about it later

I had "one of those days" Saturday on Monticello. I crossed the 21 bridge over Sandlin and met an oncoming car that put a glare on my windshield. As soon as I passed I kicked the high beams on, only to see a large dog crossing the road probably 20ft ahead. I tried for the brakes but to no avail. I hit the dog and it broke the plastic bottom part of my bumper off and it was dragging under my truck. I got stopped and finished ripping it off and threw it in the back and proceded to the lake. I got there and launched behind probably 15 people. I pulled my boat over to the side by the reeds as there was virtually no where else to pull up. I jumped out and left the motor running to warm up. I parked the truck and as I was walking back down, I saw an older man that looked as if he needed help as he was by himself. I asked and he thanked me. I got in line and waited behind 2-3 more boats to launch and then put him in and parked his truck. As I got close to hand him his keys, I heard a buzzer going off. I looked around and realized it was mine and my motor was steaming and smoking pretty bad. I ran over and before I could kill it, it died on its own. I thought the worse as I could smell the motor being very hot. I popped the cowling and all I could do was wait for it to cool down and hope for the best. I figured the water pump had went out. As I was sitting there I decided to trim up to get a better look at the back of the block. I felt the boat move and realized that the motor was trimmed down in the mud. After about 15 minutes I cranked it up and it ran fine. The water pump was pumping strong and the motor cooled down and ran fine the rest of the day. It was very scary though. I thought to myself that it was one of those days I should have stayed home. Dang tournaments. LOL. I thought this might be good info to share as this could happen to anyone. I have been fishing hard for about 20 years and launched 1000's of times and had a lot of things happen, but this was a 1st for me.

I hate to ask but what about the dog?

He didn't make it. I felt sorry for the big fella, but there honestly wasn't much I could do without wrecking by truck and boat.