[borderfly]

As I sit here at work totally bored out of my mind I start to think of the stupid things I've done while fishing.

One time I forgot my wading boots and used my dress shoes for the job!:Eyecrazy: Fishing was more important at the time.

Last, I went fishing one fine summer day when I should have been working. I had been having trouble with my trucks electrical system as it would drain the battery while sitting there. So I came up with a brilliant idea I would disconnect the battery cables so it would not do this while I was out fishing. So it was done locked the truck up and off I went. Had a great day on the river knowing that I could come back and re-connect the battery cables and off I would go to get refreshments. When I got to the truck I of course took out my keys and tried to electronically open the locks and of course it did not work. Truck locked hood secured and unable to open I thought of the only way out, rock through the window. Does anyone know how hard it is to throw a rock at your window hard enough to break it? Well it took me three or four throws until I gave it enough force to break the window and off I went.

It took me about 30 minutes of driving to realize that I could have used the key in the door to open the truck!!!!:Eyecrazy: Did I feel like a complete idiot? Yes I did!

I lied to my wife of course and the insurance company as well!:tsk_tsk:

There it's out in the open and I feel much better.

Any crazy stuff out there that you will omit to?

KC

 

[James C]

I've never broken my window on purpose...

I left my waders at the hotel the night before on a winter steelhead trip. I layered up and fished all day anyway on the Smith. I thought I would catch pneumonia, but I didn't and survived. No steelhead. I thought I deserved one though.

Ten years ago I left my rod at home and drove 6 hours to a trout stream, back when I trout fished. I realized my mistake when I got there and almost smashed my window. I bought a $10 Eagle Claw rod at the sporting goods store in the next town and went fishing. Thing didn't cast nearly as bad as I thought it would.

 

[clearhead]

tough widows

I had to smash one once. Locked the keys in and went fishing. Late off the water as usual, had to get home so my wife could go to work. Used a railroad tie, which bounced off the first try. Second try made a hell of a mess.

 

[Jason]

Any crazy stuff out there that you will omit to?

KC

Haha, that's funny stuff KC! There's plenty of crazy stuff I will absolutely "omit" ... and very little I will "admit" ;-)

Just one that I will admit, as I'm sure I am not the only one who has done this one: wife and I were having a celebratory beer, along with chips and salsa and other munchies at the end of a fine day of fishing. Waders hung from the car doors to dry, some music on the car stereo, set the rods on the roof rack so that they would not be under foot of us or the dogs... you know where this one's going...
quite a bit later as we hoped in the car and drove off we had forgot to put the rods back in the car

Amazingly, they were both still sitting there despite having driven several miles already.

Actually that reminds me of another dumb one on my part, also related to drinking a celebratory beer and enjoying some music in the sun while my waders dried after a day in the river:
This one was solo fishing on the Pitt, and there are very very few people in that canyon particularly on this occasion. Accidently ran the battery down a bit too low and could NOT start the car. Even after a few long waits I still couldn't quite get enough juice to turn the engine over. Sat out in the road for a long time to flag a car down, and not one came. Decided to hike about a mile up the road to a campground and see if I could find someone there, no dice.

About this time it's near dark, and I don't have much food left, but I consoled myself with the reassurance that I had plenty of beer still (and some water). Problem was that my wife was expecting me home, and I had no cell service and figured she would be freaked out by the middle of the next day if I hadn't called.
Just as I'm settling into the reality that I'll be spending another night camping along the river a truck comes by and a nice man offers to help jump start my car. That's when I find that I have neglected to put my jumper cables back in the car (long story), and true to Murphy's Law; he didn't have any on him. Thankfully the guy was heading to work at the dam about 5 miles up the road and was decent enough to offer to place a call to my wife to let her know where I was and that I was ok, and turned out to be even better than that when he came back about a half hour later with some jumper cables and got me out of there!

I'd better stop there, before I get into any of the really good ones...
JB

 

[middlecalf]

Window breaking? Have you seen those small tools (at the hardware checkout counter) that are meant to hang from your rearview mirror, so in case of water dunking you can break the window from the inside to escape? They have a small point, doesn't take much to break a car window, in the lower corner is best. We have those things on our fire trucks for extrication. A railroad tie is (way) too big of surface area for breaking modern safety glass. Wow, that was long description, LOL.

I've never done anything stupid by my standards. It's by other peoples standards that sometimes I look stupid.

 

[borderfly]

To err is human, right?

 

[clearhead]

Oh, the railroad tie worked just fine on the second try! But this thread is about doing stupid stuff, right?

 

[herkileez]

I thought I was wrong once...but I was mistaken...

 

[fredaevans]

There are times when I wish a thead could have 6 stars.

To err is human, right?

This is one. When (now pasted) Dogs look at you and confirm you ARE the Villiogiooot Idiot. Time to sit back, break in half the Subway sandwich and admit 'DE Feet.'

Snuff-Snort and you aren't going go catch anything. 99.99 times they were right, but both would be flaked out on the beach. ("Told you so!") Love-Hate relationship. Still have bagges of their 'cookies' in the old Jeep.

Honor amongst friends. Sandy, the Lab, could jump in, Husky took arms around the belly. 100 pounds and 'In you go.' 'Move over God D'mit I need to sleep. One under each arm and an old blanket over the three of us. Picture of both, where they beat me to the bed and were crashed out. Got in the middle/fiddle and pushed aside. More 'profanity' and move the xuxk over.

 

[skegfisher]

Keys to sucess

After a long, long fishing day, I attempted to start my truck. Key went in but would not turn, shook the wheel, kicked the wheel, nothing. Got a screwdriver along with a small hammer and proceeded to break the ignition switch. That trick worked just fine. I went around to the bed of the truck to make sure I had not left any equipment behind, all was well. Now for the locked door with the engine running! Son of a sea cook! What do you do when you lock your keys in the car, you check your pockets! Here's a set and by George they open the door. Had the wrong set the first time and could have been home by now! jk

 

[borderfly]

That's a good one!

I love being stupid every once I a while, it's hard being a genius 99.9 of the time:chuckle:

 

[troutless]

Most of the really stupid stuff I've been a party to has involved hunting. Steelheading seems to elevate the IQ of adult males a little more. Or not depress it as much. Whichever.

Not counting driving off with things on the top of the truck, I thought that was just part of the sport. Always figured that was how rod racks were invented.

 

[chromerman]

I once gave up fishing eggs to go to the spey rod I mean how stupid could I get?

CM

 

[Hardyreels]

This is a good topic for sure, let me see, hum................

Although I could write a book titled Stupid, there is one thing that sticks out in memory.

Way back in the seventies I worked for a company, it was a really good job and paid more than I was probably worth at the time and.... I had a boss who really didn't like me or if he did he kept it cleverly hidden from everyone. Because of my fishing problem I would occasionally miss work. I did this even though the guy hated me and I was borderline 'absentee' dismissal material. Funny thing, the company would tolerate people who drank until they needed to be sent away to rehab but for a guy who had a fishing addiction there was no recourse except being fired.............. Go figure?

Anyway, I had decided one April night that the following morning I would arise before the sunrise and report off sick for the day. Once my obligatory phone call had been made I jumped in my truck and headed to the Elk Creek in Sullivan County Pennsylvania to get things started. Elk didn't pan out the way I had planned and late morning found me on the Fly Fishing Only waters at Sandy Bottoms on the Loyalsock Creek. The fishing was slow, the morning cold and that noontime sun felt so good that I found myself a comfortable spot along the gently sloped bank and reclined to soak it in. Funny how time flies when you nod off When I awoke it was pushing three O clock and I fished my way back downstream to where I had left the truck, swinging feather wing streamers of course........ It wasn't until later that night at home that the sunburn on the right side of my face and neck began to bother me. Now I'm talking 'sunburn' here, as in red as a beat and perfectly split down the right side of face and neck as far as my open jacket had exposed things.

Naturally I reported for work the next morning all cured and feeling better. Then 'Benny' set his eyes on me. He walked up to me and gave me that close, too close Drill Instructor look. And then he said, Sick Huh? I looked him right in the eyes and without blinking I said, "yeah, weirdest thing I've ever come down with and although I still have the rash I feel better". That man hated me, he stood there staring right at me and he actually grinned! "Well whatever you were doing you couldn't have picked a better day, now get your ass to work".

So let that be a lesson to all who would lie to an employer and then go fishing, watch out for those sunny days guys

Incidentally I worked there almost 16 years and ended up one of the top guns, they never did get rid of me and one day the general manager took me aside and told me that years before they had considered canning me but he was happy that they had not. I left on my own in 1988 and went to Alaska to work as a commercial fisherman.

 

[flytyercurt]

I have come back to my van locked up with the keys inside so many times, I now have a spare door lock key duct taped inside on of my hub caps (its one of those small plastic jobs that I can remove without any tools.) I have used the tip end of a very expensive rod to reach in and push the unlock button after wedging the top of the door open with a chunk of wood (the door is still kinda sprung from that and whistles at higher speeds).I have broken the back window out by prying on it to release the latch the keeps it shut (its very easy to shatter glass when prying on it) I also carry a jump pack in the van because I fish in some very remote places and may not see a single person all day. And just a side note, make sure your key will turn in the door lock. People use the key fob so much the door lock will freeze up and wont turn when needed (and forget they can manually unlock door with key).

 

[borderfly]

It's funny in todays world of tech that the simple things just vanish!:hihi:

 

[GBrenowitz]

Lost sock

Last week I was fishing on the Grande Ronde. On the first day I wanted to compare how warm 2 different types of socks were so I put one sock from each pair on a different foot. That evening I was organizing things for the next day and could find only one sock from the pair I liked best. I tore my gear apart twice but could not find the second sock. I did the obvious, I sat down, poured a single malt and said F*** it. It was at this point that I looked down at my feet and noticed that I was still wearing the second sock which I had been fishing in all day. I am not, nor have I ever been, blond.

 

[Hardyreels]

There are a lot of 'I locked the keys in the truck' posts. I sure hope that now that I'm saying something about this that I don't turn around and do it.

I keep a spare key in my fishing jacket. I've been real paranoid about the keys for a long time but saw something here that really made an impression. Years ago in June at the peak of the King Salmon season I showed up at a boat launch early and found a huge backup at the launch. There was a guy with a new truck - trailer in the water - motor running - and doors locked. The truck was brand new and the fellow really didn't want to break a window.

There was still room to get a boat in beside him but his trailer made things tricky because of river current. Still with one launch blocked things were a mess, the people here get really wound up during king season and the poor guy was the most unpopular person in this part of Alaska. I always roll down my window at the boat launch

 

[sinktip]

I'm sure I have done many stupid things fishing and at least one stupid and near life ending. I instead will relate one I only witnessed.

This summer, as a family outing, loaded my wife and two sons in the drift boat for a day float down a local river. She would read and the boys and I would fish. The takeout is at the mouth of a smaller river that meets the main river. It is not a big launch but will accommodate two vehicles at normal flows.

This was July though and there was really only enough deep water for one. We were backed down and my son was loading the boat when a sled pulls up, a guy jumps out and runs up to the lot. Soon he is back in a nice full size pickup and trailer. Rather than wait a few minutes for us to finishing loading, he instead decides to back his trailer and pickup out into the tributary and load his sled there. The sled pulls up on the trailer and he attempts to pull the PU out and up onto dry ground. The problem was the trailer hitch and undercarriage was high centered on a gravel bar. His rear wheels started to dig and he got out and locked his hubs in. I mentioned to him that he probably should pull the sled off the trailer and take the slot we were vacating. He said, "no, I got this". Long story short, his PU was soon buried to the frame in the river.

We pulled out, stopped up in the lot and after strapping the DB down and stowing our gear, I walked down to see if I could help. By this time another 4WD with a tow strap had tried to pull him out and wasn't getting anywhere. As I left, they were discussing calling a tow truck.

 

[Snagly]

Time doesn't permit the full listing of stupid fishing episodes

Rather than brag (ahem!) about my long list of stupid fishing exploits, here is what I'm trying to do esp. when on multi-day trips.

1. Lists, lists and more lists. I print out (or save prior printouts) lists including:

a) What's in the truck? (e.g. wallet, drivers license, spare waders, spare rod)

b) What's in the backpack? (e.g. LUNCH, WATER, motel/vehicle keys)

c) What's in the vest? (e.g. LICENSE)

And so forth

2. About those pesky keys . . . I used to lose them . . . sort of. Well, I dropped a couple sets . . . didn't float, and didn't come up in my gold mining rescue attempts either.

So at the Fishing Rental Car counter you'll see me slipping onto the rental key ring a large cork float decorated with a hank of chartreuse yarn. Now when I drop the keys they either float or they have something high viz tied to them.

* * * * *

In Alaska this past July, I had my #2 all-time fly rod in its protective steel case while my son and I bushwhacked a mile or so to a piece of water. The case was inserted into my fishing backpack, but not tied in. I got half-way to the lake and had a bad feeling . . . no case. Searched the swampy ground behind us . . . but I'm no tracker and after 20-30 yards didn't know which way we'd come. Ouch. Double ouch.