Share your "DOH!" boating moments

[HarryK]

I was the anchorman when we pulled up to the spot on a perfect ice cream condition day at the pass. Current was moving great, pulled the anchor and slipped it in the water and was proceeding to let out line to tie off in the "perfect" spot. I was facing the opposite direction as the end of the rope slipped through my hands. My fellow boatmates were thoroughly impressed. I was called several bad names....I was anchor"less"man that day.

[WestEndAngler]

Forgot to put the VHF antenna down twice pulling into the boat house...

Forgot to put VHF antenna down when leaving GYB took out a few street light

Left brand new Curado 250 on a brand new rod on top of T-Top at Causeway Rail Bridge its somewhere in West Bay now.

Jumped a geo-tube with a 22' robalo going 20MPH into the State Park

Beached a jon boat on a mud flat, got chased by a boar, battery died and had to paddle 3 hours to the ramp in 30 degree weather. Nothing like sitting on the bow paddling into a 20mph head wind!

Beached the Gator-Tail on a sandbar in Morgan City tackled my date, sliced my ear open and she has never called me again But I got a t-shirt!

[WestEndAngler]

LOL, so far luckily my only one is the first time I backed up the trailer!! I am sure I will have some soon. Haven't had the boat long enough!

You don't ever take it out because it takes you an hour of prep and waiting before the launch is clear enough for you to figure 8 your way into the water before jack-knifing into the port-a-can.

[GGF]

Jumping up in 12" over mud and feeling the boat bog and then accelerate as the prop clears.... only to realize at that instant that I was in 3', and that acceleration was the cleat holding the drift sock I forgot to pull in ripping loose from the side of the boat.

[Swells]

Before we had something called a "dock" we had an old telephone pole to tie up the boat. You tied a rope to the bow, jumped into 3-4 feet of water, and brought a stern line to shore so it's easy to get on the next outing, tie that to a stump with plenty of slack.

Not too bad except when the current and wind was against ya, and you had to do it all by yourself. So I motor up, run to the pole to get the line ... and the boat backed off fast. Being the smart boy I thought I was, I jumped onto the telephone pole. I dunno why, I just kinda froze onto that pole, huggin' and even crawlin' up it for dear life even with them nasty splinters - I didn't want them oyster and barnacle cuts.

So here come a passel of locals who saw everythang, laughin' themselves silly. A couple of 'em got the boat for me in a dinghy and the rest enjoyed the show. "Jump off thar Sammie, you can do it!"

So, I jumped. Backwards. Headfirst into the mud. Nice reverse swan dive.

Folks, this never happens when I drink beer. But I sure downed a bunch when I crawled up onto the back lawn, dripping with black mud and a few cuts. One of 'em poured a can of Pearl over my head and pronounced "dang, I think it's gonna live!"

[Williep]

After probably 45 years of boating I wouldn't know where to start. I think my story telling would have to be around a camp fire or BR's front porch with a case of beer.

[bigbarry2u]

Was new to West Bay and new to GPS technology. Thought I had the trail to SLP set, was following it. Another boat behind following me obviously thinking I knew where I was going.

A few minutes later I was stripped down to my underwear pushing my boat about 20 yards to get back to deeper water. Guy following me was laughing his ***** off until he ran aground about 100 yards later.

[Moonpie]

Ask JT.

There are a number of broken off PowerPoles scattered around West Bay that lay in deep silent tribute to his boating prowess.

[Booyah Red]

I always put my back pack under the console on top of the gas tank. Once I places it further back than normal pinching off the vent line on the tank. This killed the motor causing a slight bit of concern. Pulled the back-pack out to get my glasses to have a look at the motor, problem solved.

[reeltime]

I will start with this one because my brother reminds me about it all the time.lol Me and Micheal were fishin in St,Charles bay and we put in at Goose Island.We started a drift on the other side of the bay across from the Duck hunting club in lamar as we end our drift i attempted to start my motor and nothing....racking my or our brains check wires battery and everything looked good or so we thought.So i suggested we use the trolling motor.we hooked it up nothing.geez......so we get the bright idea to walk the boat over to the boat ramp in front of the Hunting club....big mistake...we walk it over there all worn out and soaking wet cold.My brother get's a ride over to the truck and trailer in the park and i start to mess around with the boat and low and behold a bad ground my brother was pissed.....just one of many.

[Booyah Red]

Many years back two old friends and I were fishing near SLP. Well one friend who I’ll call Mark decided he would see just how much Jack he could drink. Well unfortunately for us and him he was a bad drunk. Back in the day we did a lot of bait fishing, so here we are sitting in the boat fishing while Mark runs his mouth 100 mph. The more he drank the worse his entertainment value became and he soon became more than one could handle. He was way past reasoning with so I informed him of the arse kicking he was fixing to receive. But before I could stand up he grab the anchor by the rope and began to swing it around his head screaming at me the whole time. Well after the anchor made a couple of revolutions around his head he either ran out of gas or simple just stopped swinging it. The anchor made an abrupt stop with the pointed end of the anchor hitting him square in the forehead. A bump the size of a golf ball with blood squirting out quickly appeared. Talk about funny you should have seen the look on his face, priceless. Well I won the fight and he lost his buzz and we went back to fishing.

[Torque]

Friend and I decided to fish offshore out of Freeport. We had a 16ft center console. I have never been out of Freeport and was beginning to wonder when I saw all of these 30 footers blowing by us. Then we encountered the waves at the mouth of the jetties. I bet those suckers were 4ft. Anyway, right when we cleared the jetties, the motor dies. We are cranking, cussing and trying not to yell at each other. I'm sitting up front on pedestal seat hanging on like I'm riding a bronco to help stabilize the boat due to the waves.
The waves are pushing us to the rocks. We're thinking...well you know what we were thinking. We are going to die on those rocks. The waves were too big. Just as we approached the south end of the Jetties we saw that the kill switch was knocked lose by the cooler that was bouncing around.

That was a short but exciting trip. We went home.

[Beandaddy]

Years ago I went to the south shoreline of East Bay. I eased in there with live shrimp and after six throws I had six trout in the box. One more trout on and when I turned around to put him in the box I had a foot of water in the boat. I reached over the back and the plug was gone!!! I pulled in the anchor and fired up. It took a while to get on top and when I did I headed towards Hannahs for the boat to self bail. I was alone and I had to tie the wheel with a rope and install a plug from the inside. Well after that I went back to the same spot and finished My limit just like I never left. When I got back on the trailer I saw that I put the plug in the bait well drain!!! Always bring an extra plug and don't be Hung Over and put the first one in the wrong hole!!
Beandaddy

[Hydra Man]

Ok, here's a couple.

1) Had been offshore most of the day, mostly drifting or trolling. After anchoring on a wreck, I started the motor and took off to another spot. A mile or so later I turned around and was trying to figure out what was 'skiing' behind the boat. That one could have turned out much worse.

2) First boat I ever owned was a real fixer upper. I replaced the steering mechanism and took it fishing the following weekend. Imagine the joy I felt as I pulled away from the dock and the steering was completely opposite of what it should be. Turn left to go right. That'll make you put the beer down quick.

[JT]

now that ive thought more about it...

Heres the biggest..."DOH!".....thing I can remember on the water.....