Thank You Ken! I feel much better!

Alright, I'm going to throw myself under the bus. I fish with my dad, I have the boat and he has the truck, so it is set up to where we almost never go without the other. Well, I am always giving my dad a hard time when we go to pick up breakfast or something after a tournament to just go through the drive thru. So the other day, I borrow his truck to take my wife fishing and head up to Mcdonalds before we go to the lake. I was thinking, man I really don't want to go in, so I pulled up to the drive thru. I am waiting to order, and it is one of those that has 2 speakers. Well, anyways, the other speaker had like 4 people go thru and they still haven't even said hello to me, so i decide to just pull thru and order in case that speaker was broken. That is about when I start thinking "so this is why dad doesn't go to the drive thru." I start to pull up, trailer is going to take out the speaker, so I start the back and forth game trying to wiggle my way out of the drive thru. As all this is happening, they finally decide it is time to take my order, "would you like to try....." all I could get out is a very panicked noooooo. I finally get out without harm to anything, continue to pull around to the window and order my food, cause after all that I still wasn't going inside . We get our food and my wife is dying, I mean she is just laughing her butt off, then says I can't believe you actually still pulled around and ordered. I promised dad I would never ask him to go to the drive thru again

Give these rookies a break, they are learning, just have patience and try to teach them. I know it can be tough but when we help them we have started a new generation of fishermen, or Fisherpersons.

my problems lately have been with trying to teach "old dogs" new tricks...

its like beating your head against the wall to try to get them to learn... slowly but surely both my Dad and Father in Law have become "better"... and I love to take them fishing, my goal is to get them a trophy size bass at some point...

...but it is an absolute beating sometimes... especially when my father in law, not only wont listen... will spend 15 bucks on a krappy spinning combo but turn around and buy 40 bucks worth of Grande Bass and Zoom baits... so, I have him halfway there.. he just doesnt understand the importance of a quality rod and reel... my Dad is even worse, but he at least listens and I just let him us my equipment...

most frustrating thing... taking someone to a place you know the fish are going to bite, theres big bass potential, telling exactly where to cast, giving them a lure that is going to catch the fish... watch the fish bite, see its a GOOD fish and THEN ... collapse in frustration when the person your trying to do this for, completely flubs the hookset, after going over it with them a 1000 times OR the line breaks because the el cheapo 8# mono he has on is 5 years old and he refuses to replace it..

Everybody at one point in time was a newbie I myself included dont even want to think of what I did. But let me say Ive seen some of the experienceed one do some stupid things too me included. Ive been at alot of ramps waiting for take off and watched alot of people mess uploading or unloading who knew what they were doing???????

seeing what people do at the ramps is a lesson in what NOT to do... but sometimes its comical, if your not in a hurry.

Inexperienced people seem to catch more fish that I do when they go with me!

Last time I took my wife with me, she was catching them left and right. Last time I took my friend out in Florida for his first time he caught a solid 6# for his first bass.

thats how you know youve done your job... when you take someone with you, tell them how to get it done and then they outfish you

As the guy earlier said I could write a novel on what not to do at a boat ramp

I figure if I have a good dump before getting on the water nothing else matters.

HAHAHA...my father in law does that!

How bout taking a swim to recover your boat while launching it. I am not new to fishing, but had a bright idea once.

Was tired of backing the boat down, getting out of the truck gettting in the boat, backing the boat off the trailer, tieing the boat to the dock, getting out of the boat, then going to park the truck.

SO - Thought I would take a "small" but tough rope and tie it to the trailer and the eye of the boat then back in far enough hit the brakes allowing the boat to just float off the trailer, then I would untie the rope pull it to the dock and tie it up. Basically emliminating getting in and out of the boat. Well hit the brakes a little to hard heard a pop, turned around and away my boat was floating at 5:30 in the morning.

Jump out of the truck run to the end of the dock - get ready to jump in like David Hasselhoff on bay watch and remember I have phone, wallet, shoes on everything else. Stip down to just my shorts, and jump in.

By this time boat is about 200 yards away and still floating. Needless to say when I finally reached the boat I was beat.

Got my exercise that morning. Never used my rope trick again.

Moral to the story - we all learn from experiences / mistakes. If you don't learn from your mistakes then you might be a stupid one.

A couple of years ago at a Marina in Rockport, as my dad and i were waiting for our guide to show up, this one guy drives into the ramp area and backs his bay boat in the water, jumps in the boat and parks it in front of us by the bait shop- he was by himself and you could tell he was being cocky as he noticed others were watching him secure his boat, etc.. He did not acknowledge anyone as he walked into the bait shop, came out a short while later with his bag of dead shrimp, got back in his boat and shoved off down the channel to go fishing. ALL the while completely forgetting about his truck and trailer still backed up at the ramp, engine running and driver side door wide open- maybe if he had ben a little friendlier, someone would have noticed- DumbA$$!

that sounds like a pretty tough lesson to learn.

ive launched both my little boat and my triton with the rope trick, luckily it has worked out for me... *knock on wood*

The Biggest Thing is 'Lacking Patience'.