Pet Peeve at boat launches....

[TNFL]

Pulaski is a notorious spot for people to park at the (horrible) launch because it is about 150 ft closer to the beach than the regular parking lot. God forbid you have to get that heart rate up walking the extra steps to the beach.

[bluefleck]

Let's not forget about Clearwater ,Cedar , Silvia Twin lakes,and Sugar lake . All bad lakes for morons how take to long and park really bad

[Tuber]

There is a non emergency number for the police in every phone book for instances like this that don't need 911 type response. I keep that number on my cell phone speed dial for these types of problems. My brother is a police officer and my brother in law is a Sherrif. They would prefer to get the phone call instead of someone getting into a fight over a parking spot. And yes, there were signs all over the place as well as spray paint on each parking spot that said "boat trailer parking only". I hate to do that, but when you ask politely and get the "it's none of your business", that's where I draw the line. Common sense isn't going to get you far when talking to those type of block heads. We did meet the sherrif pulling into the parking lot as we left. I have seen several times where they wrote tickets while someone is whining that there were no other places to park. There's no excuse for ignoring the rules. Could you imagine the uproar if we started taking up 6 parking spots in the car only lot just because the boat trailer parking was full?

[FOOT]

Some years ago I was on Winnie for opening. The resort launch ramp was fairly steep and the owner had a tractor sitting close at hand for assistance, if needed.

Well, in comes a 26' Bayliner (this was one of the good older Bayliners not the cheap ones put out by AMF). Everything is going fine. He pulls up to the dock. Everyone jumps out. While his buddies hold the boat he goes and gets the pickup & trailer. Backs down with no problem. Loads the boat on the trailer (actually drives it on perfectly the first time. I'm impressed looks like everything is going fine.

Then it hits the fan.

The pickup's tires are on the wet part of the concrete ramp and spin when he gives it gas, nope no 4wd. The dock boy says "hang on and I'll get the tractor".

The boat owner yells back "you ain't towin my brand new pickup with that tractor, I'll get it out"

He then jumps into the boat and tells a buddy to get in the pickup and give her the gas. While his buddy is putting his foot down on the pedal the owner has started the boat engine and hit the throttle.

I have never seen rock and sand shoot so far out from below the water. I swear rocks the size of watermelons were skipping on the surface (not quite, but you get the picture). Anyway his idea works as it pushes the pickup further up the ramp until it hits dry pavement. When it does truck, trailer and boat all shoot forward. The lower unit and prop hit the cement, the engine revs and the truck tires are wailing.

The next boat waiting to leave pulls up but can't get close because this guy has carved out a hole so deep that it has formed a burm that is a couple of inches below the water.

Did he bother to come back down and move the rock and sand back into the hole. Heck no, that was left to the rest of us who want to use the launch and the dock boy.

That night when he was confronted, in the lodge, by a couple of other guys and the resort owner, he blamed it all on the poor launch design. After several minutes of argument that led to some strong shouting the resort owner told the boat owner he had one hour to pack and get the h--- out, he could stop at the office and get a refund for the days not used.

Thinking back now it sure was one of the most interesting times I've had on Winnie. Besides catching eyes.

[mnvikingsfreak]

Today I was at a launch "lake marion" and instead of people getting out of the boat at the dock and walking away from it and waiting in the parking lot while the person gets the truck these people 12 of them were all hanging out sitting on the dock chatting and etc.. blocking the whole deck for about 20 mins so we had to drive the boat up to the shore and get out in the water up to my chest to go get the truck to get in line,some people are clueless! then when we were putting the straps on the boat I heard tires spinning thinking it was the wet ramp these guys loaded the boat then floored it in the dark with kids and a bunch of people around got up to at least 40+ then they go to the last parking spot and put their straps on then they do a burnout when they left!! must of been in a hurry or were just some punk kids

[DavidH]

All I can say, after reading all these horror stories is thank god I live on a lake and that I dont have to deal with boat launches.

[hoggs222]

So last night I'm at Crooked Lake in Andover. We're getting ready to go, so we head back to the launch. There's a trailer backed in waiting for a boat. Only one thing...No boat in sight. The guy with the trailer starts waving his arms. I look & the boat he's waving at is on the far side of the lake. So that only took about 10 minutes of waiting, because the whole bay of the landing is 1.5-2' deep! Then after he pulls out of the water, a sailboat loads in, that only took about 10 minutes also to get the trailer in the water. Plus they hogged up the whole shoreline so we couldn't even get our trailer in straight! I will probably never fish this lake again.

[Big Julie]

I had an "almost problem" yesterday morning.

I was on Ida at first light and had a big storm come in. I delayed as long as I could until the lightning strikes started getting way too close. I ran back to the access and saw two boats at the dock. One was pulled in on the non-ramp side and a big Pro V tied onto the ramp side.

No way to get my trailer down to land my boat!

I landed on the beach and walked up the ramp and saw the two rigs. One was just pulling out of (leaving) the access area.

They looked back and I got their attention and came back around. I asked them if the ProV was theirs, and yes it was. I asked if they could move it, please and the driver was jonny on the spot to move his rig.

As I was backing down the other guy walked down the access and asked me why I couldn't land my boat as things were. "What did I have, a cruise ship?" He was an elderly gent, or I would have asked him why he needed to have such a smart mouth.

The point here is that they were going to actually leave the access area with their boat tied onto the dock, totally blocking the access and one hum dinger of a storm coming in.

Holy Cripes!

I honestly don't know what I would have done if they had left!

[Crusher]

There are some very frustrating moments listed but for me it's the joker who's leaving the lauch with all the weeds hanging on the trailer!! You try and get their attention but they just drive off!?

Crusher

[The_Duckslayer]

hoggs, if they had left I would have taken the boat out about 50 yards and dropped it's anchor. Have a good one and N Joy the Hunt../Jimbo

[SCHAAKATTACK]

I just want to say "Thank You" to those for being patient w/ me and that I may have slighlty delayed Saturday. Normally My wife helps out with launching & landing. I wanted to get the boat out on Saturday and she was still out of town. I had never done this by myself. Yes there were two other people with me but they were clueless as what to do. So I know things took a little longer than normal. I try not to get worked up about it but you know it's something you think about. When we bought our boat and they took us out for a trial run with it our instructor said not to let others make you hurry(meaning warming it up once started) and that this is your time. I agree with his statement. I don't want to pull a real bonehead move. I feel a little more confident that I could do this by myself. So next time you are out there and someone is a little slow getting in or out remember it could be someone like me who just lacks some of that experience.

[TonkaBass]

Pulling out of the way for others to launch will not hurt you engine. Warm it up after you're done. Only takes a couple minutes in this heat.

It's good that you can do it by yourself. Once you do it a couple times, you will be faster than the people launching with tons of help!

[chief]

SOooooooooo many memories, laughs, and frustrations here.

As a number of you have said, it's important for all of us to remember when we were rookies at all aspects of launching and take-out. It's hardly the end of the world to give newcomers a couple extra minutes to get it right.

On the other hand, I can't go two consecutive visits to the Gray's Bay launch on 'Tonka without waiting twenty minutes while some jerk hand waxes his 37 foot tri-hull, or details his 22 foot Ranger.

It's not the unskilled who anger us, it's the inconsiderate.

[Keith_MN]

I second Chiefs comment, "It's not the unskilled who anger us, it's the inconsiderate."

When at a boat launch and I see someone having troubles I just ask if I can be of any assistance. And if its someone who is coming off the lake they are usually willing to tell you how their day of fishing went.

But my 'Pet Peeve' are canoeists. I fish the Mississippi river a lot and the Clearwater landing, from which I launch at, is the end point for the people who like to canoe down the river from St. Cloud. Invariably they pull their canoe up right in the middle of the landing, bring their vehicle down to the landing, spend a couple minutes off-loading their gear from the canoe onto the landing erea, spend 10 minutes getting the canoe onto the top of their car and then strapping and restrapping it down, then another 5 - 10 minutes loading all their gear (that was previously offloaded from the canoe) into the car. And then, and only then, make their way up to the parking area so the next person can launch/load their boat. Unbelievable.

Why don't they just pick their canoe up and carry it up to the parking area to do their offloading, strapping, restrapping, and reloading? I just don't get it.

[Quickstrike]

a few weeks ago, our fishing league launch was held up because of some kids that had build a bike ramp and BOLTED the ramp to the dock, they got out of the way but they could not remove the ramp from the dock causing numerous problems for all of us trying to launch our boats. Kids using lauch docks for reasons other than launching boats has always gotten on my nerves. Kids will be kids, but bolting a ramp to a dock crosses the line in my opinion.

[knoppers]

I agree with quickstrike, but also the poeple that think they can swim and fish from these docks, and never seem to help or get out of the way that gets my goat.

[Tom Linderholm]

Quick you forgot to mention the CO in a duck boat who did nothing about it, not sure if it is in the wrong or not by law but geez might of been worth a mention to them.

[freebledsoe]

Well, I was out on Lake Owasso last evening and when I came in to pull the boat out of the water guess what I found? Two young guys of Mexican or Islander persuasion had backed a truck/trailer into the water to launch a jetski. Then they took off buzzing through the no wake area and out onto the lake. My peeve? They left the trailer backed down the ramp!! Apparently they figured it was easier to leave it there so they could just drive the jetski back onto it when they decided they had enough fun. Unbelievable.

[Ray Kallio]

My favorite occured in Ashland,WI Had a couple of weekend warriors pull in ahead of me. They proceeded to get out of the boat and fall down drunk about every 10 ft. After pulling up behind them and trying my best to ignore them one of the fine fellows on the ground asked me if I could load their boat for them because they were to drunk to do it. Instead of wasting my time and maybe someone else's life I just let the authorities come remove the boat and the occupants.

[Gus]

Well I have a new pet peeve. Tailgaters! My gosh! Lay off the back of a guys boat! I'm already in the right lane! I seriously thought I was going to lose my motor to a certain tailgaiter this Sunday.

[buzzsaw]

Gus, I'll raise that ante... how about when a guy cuts in front of you and decides to slow down real fast to make a turn or just slow down because the car that was in front of me was only a few car lengths ahead! It's not that easy to hammer on the brakes with all that weight behind you! It's insane how often people do things on the highway without thinking. I also think that if your pulling a boat in the fast lane and going over the speed limit that other car drivers take offense to the fact your in that lane. They like to do whatever they can to ride you or pass you as soon as it's possible and then slow down... Ok, I digress.

[83walleye]

Had an interesting time watching two MN CO's loading their 22' Boston Whaler w/twin Merc 115's on Sunday here in Duluth. My son and I stopped at the St Louis Bay Park Point public access to use the facilities, as we drove up one CO was cranking while the other had the throttles juiced trying to load their craft. After it was obvious he was having too much trouble cranking, CO #1 actually got in his DNR rig and backed further down the ramp to ease loading. CO #2 in the boat proceeded to really hit the throttles, spraying sand/mud/currents out about 50 yards, in 4' of water. They got it up but it was ugly.

In any case, we made it to the dock, tied up and headed up to the biffy, and mentioned they should take it easy on the power-loading, that guys with small boats/trailers like me sometimes have alot of trouble getting our boats up when the ramp drops off at the end due to the heavy current/chop of the power-loading procedure. They gave me a funny look and just pretty much ignored me and went about their business.

As I got back from the bif, the DNR Vehicle Inspection guy(a college kid on his summer job who witnessed the entire episode), congratulated me for being right - and went on to say that the DNR boats are power-loading all the time on Park Point. It made me feel good when he said I was the first guy to speak up about their wanton disregard for our ramp.