Richard.

Lol peeing isnt the only reason to go overboard . Prefishing for a sat. night tourn. I took my wife with me about 7:30 pm I was sight fishing a pretty large fish and didnt want to spook it , were getting close to the dock so I asked her to push gently off there dock . Now she had on some jogging pants and lazily reached over the boat with her knees on the top of the nicely waxed top , when she pushed off she slid and fully extended with her hands on the dock and her tip toes holding her in the boat I heard splash . About that time a little girl on the deck of the house I heard go running inside screaming daddy daddy daddy , theres a girl on our dock . Her whole family comes rushing outside and upon seeing our prediciment they laugh sit and watch . now I have to get off my boat to go and pick her soaking wet back up onto the dock . While in the middle of this process the boat floats away so now I have to get wet swim retrieve it troll back and pick her up . When I retrieved the wife the family watching in there lawnchairs gave us a standing ovation .

Guy I used to fish with came by the shop today, needed a little work on his boat.
I took him to lunch while the service tech got him lined out.
This particular subject came up while we were swapping fish stories.
He reminded me of something that happened a long time ago. We thought you guys would get a kick out of it.

Those balance beam fish cullers had just come out.

Roy, being Roy bought the very first one the local tackle shop sold. He’s still the first one in line for a new gadget.

That weekend there was a Okie Team Bass event on Grand, we drove up there on Thursday, got in a couple days pre-fishing. Had a fair lock on three solid patterns.

During the tourney we started culling about noon, Roy was working the back end, doing clean-up with a salt craw behind my slow rolled spinnerbait in flooded brush. I caught one about three or so, swung it into the boat. Roy grabbed it, we’d seen two more wakes in the grass patch when I’d run the bait through it.

I didn’t pay much attention, heard the splash as the culled fish went back.

Third cast back Roy hung another one about the same size. I lipped the fish and handed it to him. Commenting it might cull another one. He grabbed the smallest fish out of the well, hung them both on the balance, then unhooked the low fish and tossed it over the side!

Once I recovered from the shock my commentary on this action could be heard half a mile away. It was quite obscene, questioning his ancestry, intelligence, personal hygiene and a few other intimate habits.

It took him a few seconds to realize why I was just a tad bent out of shape. When he finally got it, he looked at the culling balance, at me, back at the gadget. And proceeded to throw it about 100 feet out into the lake.

Now, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, we were two pounds out of the money. The two fish he’d thrown back wouldn’t have made that much difference.

But for the next year I absolutely refused to let him bring any newfangled gadget on my boat. Good thing we were, and are still good friends, or I might have ended up with a fat lip. I do get a kick out of corncobbing him about it from time to time. We get a laugh out of it.

Now.

(Side note, I have two of those balance cullers now)

Richard

The dread plug story. I took my new boat out for the third time, by now I am a seasoned boat pro. I lower my new Targa tracker 18 wt into the water and drive up to the parking spot, walk back down and start the motor idling, realize I forgot the tackle box in the car. I walk back up the 1800 or so feet up a pretty good incline and get my tackle box. When I get back to the boat and get in my wife says, Ed why is the boat so low in the water? Well I explain as it is a steep ramp the boat is at an angle, and she buys it God bless her. That is when I notice the water coming up to my shoes in the floor of the boat, the boat being a deep v hull it was pretty full of water. After a few minutes wondering what was up I hit the bilge pump and at the same time remember, oh yeah the plug !! I put my life jacket on and lower myself in the water and stick the plug in the first hole I could feel, but its a little loose, so I remove my life jacket and look under the water to see I am trying to plug up the livewell drain. Anyway after getting it in the right hole it was so filled with water I sat there for twenty minutes with the pump running before putting the boat back on the trailer and pulling it out of the water where I sat for 45 minutes till it drained out. I had at least 9 people laughing at me, being cute one guy said they float beter with the plugs in. Oh well, wet to the bone with my wallet laid on the dash with everything set out to dry I was going to reclaim my machismo by speeding away once out of the idle zone, well I also learned to not leave valuable papers out and that wet things sink quickly.
Ed

Great stuff guys. I still often wonder how we even survive let alone catch a fish now and then.

I was fishing on a charter boat for halibut. I was talking to a lot of the guys on the boat showing off my new rod reel combo witch I referred to as Tiffany my new girlfriend. After an hour or 2 everyone on the boat knew about tiffany. I had my rod in the holder with my line straight down from the boat when my rod doubled over. I grabbed the rod as the fish took off about 8-10 yards away straight out from the boat. I tried to slow the fish down by lifting the rod tip knowing I have a small line capacity on my Calcutta 151. In my adrenaline educed panic I put my thumb down on the spool off my bait caster.......... I heard and felt a Simultaneous thud/snap.............. The next thing I know my line is broke (20lb big game) and I have a knot on my forehead from smacking myself with my rod (Tiffany). From then on I was the first case of spousal abuse on a man on that boat. Thinking back on it I don’t know if I should laugh or rub my head

We may as well laugh at ourselves, everyone else does!! LOL Johnnie