Everybody goes through the learning curve. I saw some guy with jet ski's drive straight down the boat ramp. He was pissed and surprised there wasn't a turnaround at the water. I told him that big circle thing at the top was the turn around. He said they don't expect a person to back that far do they. I laughed and noddedd my head and pulled a way. Took the guy a long time to back that little trailer up the ramp.

the first time I launched the boat was when I was 16. my dad decided to let me back the truck in while he sat in the boat. The ramp we were on had a bit of an odd angle that causes you to really have to work to get the boat off the trailer or you have to back the truck WAY into the water. So... my dad's solution was to tell me to back up, get straight, pull forward, back up again fast and slam on the breaks.

In his haste to tell me all the stuff I shouldn't forget when doing this he forgot to take his boat keys off the truck key ring. So, I back up, slam on the brakes and he shoots off the trailer, his motor is barely in the water and he immediately notices he has no keys. As he's floating away he's yelling at me to stop and come catch a rope to pull him over to the dock. I on the other hand am completely oblivious and parking the truck which takes me a good 10 minutes because I've never moved a trailer before and there weren't any good pull through spots.

He managed to stop the boat by tossing in his anchor and when I walk up to the dock he's yelling across the lake that he needs me to get the oar out of his truck and throw it as far as I can to him, then he'll swim out to it and use it to paddle the boat back.

I, being the uneducated amateur ask him if his trolling motor requires a key. He stares at me for about 10 seconds, puts the trolling motor in the water and putts on over to the dock, snatches the keys out of my hand and tells me to sit down and not to say a word.

years later I'm putting a boat in by myself for the first time. There's a girl there and I'm gonna take her out on the lake for some recreational activity. I assure her I know what I'm doing.

I back the boat up, one shot, perfectly in line and straight. Walk out to the boat and carry her over the water so she doesn't get wet and put her in the boat. Disconnect the last strap and climb in the boat to pull it off the trailer. I'm hearing an odd sound but not sure what it is, turn on the motor and back up, boats off. Run it over to the courtesy dock to tie off whiel I go park the truck. Park the truck and come back and she's staring wide eyed at the back of the boat that's almost under water now because I forgot the stupid plug. So I run back, put the truck back in the water, run as fast as I can back to the boat which is now moments from tipping nose up, make her go lay on the front of the boat to counter it a bit (only a bit, she was tiny) and I gun it for the trailer. Luckily I got it on the trailer without scraping or scrubbing. The next part I'm pretty ashamed to admit but when she asked what was wrong I told her there must be some damage to the boat that happened last time we pulled it out and took her and the boat home, when my dad asked how it went I handed him the keys and told him to sit down and not say a word.

I just got an idea! Instead of a Fishing guide service. I go to a boat ramp and...you got it, JEB's Boat launching and recovery service. I'd be rich! Only one problem, who's going to teach me how to do it right???????? I always mess up.

I hate to do this to myself but I am about to claim the "Trophy" for bone headed launches.

I was going to fish Elephant Butte in New Mexico in 86 and wanted to fish the Narrows which was way north of the paved launches and seeing how I had a 16" Bayliner with a 50 hp Force at the time , I wanted to launch closer to the Narrows to avoid the two hour boat ride. So, me and the wife head down a little known dirt road to the waters edge where we prep the boat and start backing in the water. After 50 yards into the water and still not finding deep enough water to "float my boat", I start getting worried that my jacked up 4x4 Ranger just might get stuck so I pull back out of the water with the boat still on the trailer. We decide to head to another ramp and figured we didn't need to put the tie-downs back on because the winch cable would hold. Right?

Now I'm cruising down the bladed gravel road headed back towards civilization at about 40 mph when I look in my rear view mirror and see the bow of my 3 month old boat peeking out from behind my truck. That ain't right so I start to slow down so I can take a look-see. Well, when I hit around 20 mph, the skeg which had been planeing on the road bed finally dug in enough to be able to pull the boat right off the trailer. That's right folks, I launched my boat on terra firma!!! I quickly discovered that the winch cable will break and allow the boat to mossey backwards when the tie-downs are not in place. Well it takes me and the wife (mostly me!!!) about three hours to load the boat back on the trailer. Did I mention that it was a little known road and so nobody happened to stop by and lend me a hand or at least shoot me. My wife was able to give a lot of speculation on what happened and good advice about how to re-load it. The only good part was we finally were able to launch the boat in "THE LAKE" and seeing how it wasn't taking on water, we proceeded to fish and did catch some nice fish.

So now I am going to just kick back and eat some popcorn and see if anyone is foolish enough to tell their story which could possibly beat mine and rip the "Trophy" out of my deserving arms.