your worst fishing trip

[lobo]

A couple years ago we had the trip from He## and was wondering if anyone else can come close.
For our annual Canada trip we had a few guys complaining of the long drive and expense from mid-michigan to Pickle Lake. We decided on a fairly inexpensive fly-in out of Chapleau. This outfit looked good. It was in the the huge (unspoiled) Crown Game Preserve, log cabin, lots of fish etc etc. Guy has a great web site and advertises a lot (I see why now).
I'll never forget the feeling when we got off the plane and asked the crew coming out (all wearing their head nets)- How was the fishing ?
Their "leader", who looked like the elephant man from all the huge welts on his face, said they caught enough for two shore lunches (six guys seven days !!) We were glad we brought insurance - crawlers and leeches.
This went down hill fast. Apparently this was the worst black fly hatch in 30 years. It was hot every day 85-90. The cabin was falling apart and was infested with carpenter ants. The refrigerator didn't work. The boats had poorly running motors and leaked badly. The cabin had two windows with ripped screens - no screened porch thus ventilation was difficult.
All cooking had to be done inside and it had lanterns for light -no problem with the set up but this combo made it a nice cozy 100 degree sleeping.
It was a quarter mile walk through the woods to our water source and the outhouse had a varmint living in it that would poke his head out between your legs at the most inopportune time (usually right after you got bit somewhere you shouldn't have).
I was bit by a spider in the night and my hand swelled so I couldn't move any fingers for almost two days and almost had to fly out ( I wore gloves to bed after this to add to my sleeping comfort).
All of this would have been fine if we would have caught fish - but we didn't. All six of us spend quite a bit of time on the water each year. Three boats with electronics fished every method known to man from sunlight well into the night for 7 days and we had two fish fry's. Myself, I came in 2nd place with a total of 7 fish (so much for the insurance - the live bait didn't help a bit).
Our skin burned from the DEET and we were never able to remove our nets during the day. At any one time there may have been thousands of bugs crawing on you - it looked as if your clothes were moving all the time.
Those of us that could - had to take time off from work when we returned to allow the welts to heal in order to shave.
I could go on about SHORT portages to TROPHY waters and a near death experience etc but this is already a novel.

ANY TOPPERS ??

lobo

[hoghunter]

Nope, can't touch that one, lol.

[Raybob]

Nothin' close to Your Experience by a Long-Shot!
But I would like to hear about your, "SHORT portages to TROPHY waters and a near death experience etc", if you have the time!

Raybob

[Tom (Mich)]

Man, I can't touch that either. Sounds a little bit like our first "fly-in" - about a 5 minute flight - could've walked. Your story relays a solid lesson though for those considering a Canadian fly-in, if they advertise heavily - don't go. There's a reason you see the same outfitters year after year at the spring sports shows - no repeat business.

[Chad]

Wow, cant even come close!

[Sunshine]

Unbelievable!!!

Please, Please tell us more. We had one trip that we affectionately call the trip from #####, but nothing close to your adventure.

Please continue.

[SetTheHook]

I didn't think it was possible, but I think you've proven that the old mantra "a bad day's fishing is better than a good day of work" is not always true.

[Backwater Eddy]

AH man, them black fly's are the worst!

So it's JUST not me who has had these memorable type experience's?

Mine involved a tornado, Lake Oahe, lot's of BIG BIG BIG waves, treading water because the boat kinda vanished, no could find shore, or the other two with me! Long night! Long walk once I found land!

Boat didn't make it but we all survived. Although tragically some others who were caught in it that night did not. No fun, very Bad deal!

Thank God for life jacket's because I swim like a rock!

I measure all bad day's by that one, most don't even come close.

BE

[hoghunter]

Oh ya, once my underwear was riding up on me all day in the boat. That really sucked.

[River_eye]

What would you consider a lot of advertising? All lodges good or bad, have homepages now. And a lodge owner would be a fool if he didn't do a few sports shows during the winter.

River eye

[Frank from TBay]

lobo, cannot touch this one. This could be made into a movie. It will be a lot better than the garbage being put out today. I would like to see a minimum standard that outfitters have to adhere to. Kind of like the *** ratings on hotels. I feel for you and would not want the experience to be repeated.
Good fishing: Frank

[lobo]

I realize that the outfitters would like every week booked and therefor go to several shows but it has been my experience that the good ones are generally trying to fill in their less desirable slots, cancellations, or a new camp/cabin.
The guys that I have been doing business with don't advertise but do hit several shows.
The trip from he## outfitter can be found in virtually every outdoor publication that I pick up.
I do believe that he has very little or no repeat business.
Outfits like this should get slammed and banned.

We joke about it now but we wouldn't return on a free trip w/ a weeks pay. We did get a good measuring stick as to when the bugs are bad. We don't bother with nets any more until they are so thick we are breathing them in or we're bleeding !!

Lobo

[Grinch]

Can't compare to yours, but I was on a trip to Canada with two guys that fought and argued all week and expected me to be their mediator. That was the last time either one has gone with me. What a way to ruin what should have been a great week!

[lobo]

Frank,
I generally put the trip(s) together and take the praise or blame for the brunt of how the trip turns out. Needless to say - the next year, and every year since, we have gone back to Pickle lake WITH NO COMPLAINTS of the long drive or cost.
We made some minor adjustments such as breaking the drive into two days and staying the night in T-bay.
A rating system would be nice but unlikely; I have found this site and guys like yourself, Eddy, the various guides, pro's, etc to be a great help.
I booked a differant place for next year that looks tremendous that I found here.

lobo

[River_eye]

I am pretty sure that Manitoba Lodges have a rating system.

River eye

[WAeyes]

Nope, cant even come close to topping it. Would all that Deet you were using gotten on some of your lures/bait? Might have affected your fishing results.

[Gilligan]

All I do is remind myself that I could be at work or home mowing grass.

Closest thing though was running over a deer on the way to the lake @60mph. Deer went under passenger side truck tires plus under the trailer wheel. Hit her so hard that I had bones imbedded in the tires. Deer was a total loss and truck was close. Had to get truck towed to garage and a buddy had to run 40 miles and haul the boat home. Didnt get tow rig back for 2 months. If the walleye were as stupid as these deer it wouldn't be much of a challenge.

[lobo]

After thinking that things couldn't get any worse we decided to portage. The portage was described as a leisurely walk that could be completed by "all except the most physically challenged". There was a short 1/2 mile walk to the swamp, where there was supposed to be 3 canoes waiting. If we thought the flies were bad you should have seen the skeeters down here !! remember that OFF commercial where the guy sticks his arm into the tank of skeeters ? this was way worse- literally billionsof them. So we're sweating a bit and fighting off the bugs and realize that somebody forgot the key to unlock the canoes. One guy goes all the way back to camp to get key - get back and see that one canoe leaks too bad to travel.
So we forge on...three grown men to a canoe through the swamp for a mile or so to land again. We're thinking we're almost there because it's a leisurely walk. Right.
Continuing on, we walk up and down steep hills, through water, straddle logs etc - this was quite a challenging hike - about two miles to where there is supposed to be three more canoes. We get there and there are only two canoes.
Having put so much effort into it so far we decided that three of us should go back and carry a canoe to the final destination. A lot of fun this was !!
Anyhow we made it there exhausted. We regrouped and went on to finally slay these "trophies" in this unfished paradise. We paddled and paddled and paddled. We trolled, we casted, but mostly we just cussed because all we caught was two hammer handles in about 5 hrs of fishing.
We gave up and decided to go back to camp and drink heavily (our 90 degree creamy canadian beers YUK).
On the way back my father was having trouble keeping up and we all wern't getting along so well. We rested for him a couple times and mostly argued.
After we got home my father later told me he thought he was having another heart attack along that portage and I was ashamed that I had ever argued with him and wished I had scouted the portage first.
Most of us didn't talk much for several months after this trip and two of my group have never returned.

All in all this was a terrible experience but life lessons were learned. Unfortunately this was a first trip for the two that have never returned - I think I scared them !!

lobo

[Carlbob]

A come now Lobo-you have me chewing my nails off- aren't you going to tell us who it is??? I can't stand it man- I have to know cause I booked a fly in trip next summer- my first. Please tell us....

[Frank from TBay]

Sorry to repost but reading through this I definitely think you have the makings of a movie. I am going to print this out and take it out to the shack this weekend and get the boys to come up with a name for it.......The critter in the outhouse made me break up laughing when I read it for the second time. I do not mean any disrespect by laughing.......but the thought of the evil out house varmint............

[SetTheHook]

Picture something like the Caddyshack gopher as the evil outhouse varmit. LOL.

[Sunshine]

LOBO, You're the man! I also generally put the trips together and take the praise or blame for the brunt of how the trip turns out. After 23 years of going to Canada, I'm very careful on who goes and I've also found out that this site and guys like yourself, to be a great help. I really enjoyed readin' about your exploits. Merry Xmas, and thank you

[Kaz]

Hey Lobo: I have never had a trip like that, but I too use to drive to Pickle Lake. Fished St. Joe for many years, stayed at Old Post. After a while, John there, became a pain in the butt, vowed never to go back and haven't. But found another place on Lac Soul which was what it advertized to be. Lost Island at Hudson was every and all it was reported to be. Owner always there, good old timers for help, and CLEAN and fairly new cabins. I would still go there but I bought my own place on Lake of the Woods. It is not as far to drive as I go quite often. If you are looking for a place to go check Lost Island out. Jim Hayes is the owner and lives in Emo Ont. in the winter. I know how miserable a bad place is and when fishing time is so hard to fit in, and a bad time is experienced, "WHAT A BUMMER". Good luck finding a next summer fishing trip, and good luck fishing this winter. Kaz

[Jim Corey]

I don't think that this was as bad as yours, but, to me at the time, it was a nightmare.I was planning to fish about 3 miles out into Chesapeake Bay from Crisfield, Md. I was visiting a friend and was using his boat. My wife was with me, along with a friend. On the way out, the outboard began to malfunction. It was sucking gas like there was no tomorrow. Then we ran through a commercial gill net that was drifting free with no buoys attached. Over the side and treading water for half-an-hour, cussing and cutting, finally freed us from that.But now we have drifted with the tides till we are far from where we want to be, but stil in site of land and familiar landmarks.We decide not to continue on and we start back to Crisfield. The motor is still going through gasoline faster than I could believe. We had two,six gallon tanks along for what should have been a total 6 mile run, three out and three back so we couldn't possibly run out of gas. WRONG! So there we were, drifting with the tides, out of gas, 90 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.We out out the distress flag, got out the horn, and settled back to try to flag down another boat. Now, we all know that,in a case like this, according to my wife, everything is automatically MY fault.This was impressed on me over and over for hours. Finally we began to cool off as the sun went down.Still no help in sight. Boats would pass by, but none would offer help.After hours of drifting, we came near a shoreline where I could climb overboard and wade, towing the 20' tri-hull with a mooring rope.A light!We came to a dock at the edge of a mown lawn with a small cottage with a light showing through a window. Walking up and knocking, I learned that we were in Saxis, Va.The landowner was happy to fill our tanks with gas and call back to Md. to let our friend know what had happened. Now all we had to do was to fo;;ow the shoreline North and back to safety. Outboard still sucking gas and again, 12 gallons later, we're drifting again. But this time we are close to shore and I again climb overboard and resumetowing the boat. Tennis shoes, oyster shells, mud and marl do not mix well. The mosquitos were so thick that I had to wade neck deep to protect as much of my body as I could. I had no idea of the passage of time, I simply took one step after another, listening to the complaining coming from the boat, trying to see through eyes swelled nearly shut from bites and irritated from all the hours of salt water. As it began to get light we came to a deepwater creek mouth that I could not cross without going who knows how far inland. Feet bleeding from the oyster shells, I set the anchors and curled up, shivering from hypothermia, even in the mild, summer morning. Commercial crab boats passed us, heading out for a days work. Finally, one of them responded to our hailing and came near. Were we ok? did we need a tow? Well... they said that they would be GLAD to help us, but they had to make a living,after all, and they would pick us us on their way in that afternoon! And that is what they did. After over 30 hours on the water, sunburned, bleeding, swollen and itching from mosquito bites and contact with sea nettles, and with nerves and tempers strained to the breaking point, we finally made it back to Crisfield.Sorry this post is so long, but the ordeal took MUCH longer. Hope I don't have another even remotely like it again. The silver lining? NEVER has there been anything happen on a trip, no matter how bad, that could compare with this. So, when something goes wrong, I just smile and think that this is actually pretty good compared to..........

[lobo]

Kaz,
What an awful experience ! You are right about one thing - trips such as these definately put other mishaps in perspective. Thanks for the tips on the other lodges; we have found some other really nice places since this trip but will keep yours in mind.


Frank from TBay,
I talked to a biologist friend of mine when we returned from this trip (to help identify a wicked snake we came across while there !) and she said that the animal in the outhouse sounded like a marmut (sp) fyi.


Carlbob,
As much as I would like to, I'm not going to post the name of the outfitter here but you and anyone else can email me for it. I would be glad to give it to you.

lobo

[sawgrass]

Nearly dying from carbon monoxide fumes from a defective heater tainted one trip. Numerous frigid and wet Mille Lacs openers seem to be the norm, but nearly sinking my brand new boat on it's first fishing trip takes the cake. You guessed it - forgot the plug. Haven't lived it down yet!

[gofish]

Not one of your fancy fly-in or drive all day trips. However, couple years ago I decided that the fishing would be better at the far end of this small walk-in lake. I had all the kids in tow, including the wife (grumbling all the way). We start walking through tall grass, rocks, you name it. Suddenly, everyone behind me begins freaking out....wasp nest!! In the grass!! I thought those little buggers only holed up in trees and logs....not so! Try retreiving rods, tackle, etc. in tall waist high grass, long after everyone else has high-tailed it back to the car. The wife still won't let me forget that one.

[wmk]

aWhat an experience can't top it. A few years back I took a guided trip to alaska. 5 over booked flights, 3 different airlines,and our equipment showed up at denali 2 days after we arrived. Flew to outpost camp out of Homer on day 3. Stayed in a small 2 bunk cabin with propane heat. Rained every day. One of the old timers I went with had the brilliant idea to dry out his handkerchiefs above the heater. Found out quickly he was suffering from the flu. The handkerchief had turned the small cabin into a virus factory. Three out of four came down with the flu. But not me because I had not been able to tolerate the unbelievable snoring. I took my 30 below bag, found the camp van down the road, and slept in it for 3 nights.It gets better.On day 5 one of the old timers Buried a pixie spoon in his lower thunb which I sugically removed with my leatherman tool. The next day we went halibut fishing . I was watching 30 foot boats disappearing behind the waves. Everyone on the boat was chumming including the first mate. Somehow I skirted the sea-sickness. The last day developed flu like symptoms along with a terrible ear ache. The flights back drove the pain level in my ears to the point of tears. There were many other things that occured during this amazing trip. Too much to share but you get the the drift. Walt

[RMB]

This is one our family still talks about to this day......Back in 1985 I convinced my Dad who doesn't fish much, is not an outdoorsman at all, but enjoys it once in a while, to go to Canada for a fly in trip. My two younger brothers were also talked into going as well. This would be the first fly in any of us had before and of course we wanted it to be the adventure of a lifetime. After scouting the sports show, we decided on a 4 day fly out from Pickle Lake with a bonus 3 day canoe trip from our fly in lake to a predetermined pickup point on the 3rd day. The fun started when one of the wheel bearings in a borrowed trailer went out somewhere between Ignace and Dryden in the middle of nowhere in Ontario. My friend said he repacked them before I picked it up, only he just did the outer bearings....After tracking down the owner of the only shop in town that had the bearings we needed and getting him to open shop after he had closed and gone home, we proceed to replace bearings on the side of the road with no shoulder to work on. Talk about nerve racking! Finally we are on our way. After leaving the blacktop somewhere a couple hours from Pickle Lake, we blow a tire on my Dads Lincoln. Guess what? The spare is a blow up type and there is no pressure bottle to inflate it. Soon enough, along comes a family in a brand new Ford Bronco. The fellow driving stops to give us a hand and his wife and kids stay with our car while he drives us to some guys house with a makeshift barn that has about one new tire of every type you can imagine hanging on the walls. Great we think, our lucky day again. We find a match and ask how much. $150.00 he says. Dad says "Oh that's right, it's Canadien".The guy looks at us serious and says "Nope. That's U.S." We just about fall over...What do you do. He also charged $15.00 for mounting and balancing. Unreal...We get tire and proceed back to car. After the guy helps us get car in order he refuses money from us for help. At that moment, a logging truck comes out of nowhere barreling down on us, throws a big ole' rock right into the other guys windshield and shatters it. We just stood there and could not believe it. Offer him more money and he still says no. One nice guy...wish to this day I could thank him again. You may think this story is almost over...it's just starting up. (this one could be in Readers Digest, but you asked!) I will say that the first part of our trip at the fly in was quite nice. Lots of fish, fun had by all. The last three days I will never forget. Seems like it just happened yesterday. The outfitter airdropped two square back canoes the last day of our flyin, complete with two 2 HP gas outboards for our journey. We did attempt to prepare for this trip with a well thought out plan, and so here it is....We will be going approx. 40 miles by river to our pickup point. We have food, tents, air mattresses, and appropriate clothing. The river is not large and we have a map. Although the map is not very detailed, it does show areas where there are rapids and we will need to portage, and others have done this trip before us, so we are confident. Problems begin immediately upon take off. After coming to the first set of rapids we realize that the river is very low, as the rapids are almost 1/4 mile long and the outfitter told us that none we will encounter should be longer than a block or two. We can't portage as there is no broken portage trail to follow the whole distance. Ah! A plan! We have small 6# anchors secured to the front of each canoe with 35 Ft. of rope attached. We attach another 30 Ft. of rope to the rear of each canoe and float then down with a man at front and rear to steer them through the rapids. It works like a charm. We're on our way.....NOT! My younger brother owned a 2 HP motor at the time, and swore up and down that these little motors would go forever on a single tank of gas, After all, we would be paddling most of the way so we won't need them hardly at all right? Well, with the current so low and the additional time needed to traverse the unforseen rapids, we were making very slow progress. We were not going to make our first day distance and decided to utilize the motors after a few hours. Gas runs out in about 2 hours and we have no reserve. This is where the the arguing starts...I, being the main planner of this event of course was not happy aboput the heat I started to receive and tensions grow. Now my Brothers and I have been in a canoe, but my father has not. Being the biggest and strongest I am paired with my Dad who is just shy of his 52nd birthday and still smokes 1/2 pack a day. First lesson: Good attitude and determination do not always make up for age and conditioning.....Close to the end of the first day we have paddled hard and hardly fished. Not what the plan was at all....,but we are close to our first days stopping point. The base of a major lake. My brothers anxiously forge ahead of us and as we hear the last set of rapids for the day approaching, see them proceed to paddle into them and disappear. Now we had made an agreement to scout each rapids and decide the best side to approach them for walking the canoes down. Due to low water, the rapids were all but navigable. Dad and I start to argue. He's tired and says we should just follow them through without stopping to scout first. I say no way. We get to head of rapids and my brothers are standing in the river holding the canoe waving us to come on down. Tired of arguing, I say fine. Tell my Dad to not paddle at all as I will just steer from the rear. We are picking up speed now. We fly by my brothers and they are laughing. River starts to narrow and bend around unforseen corner. Guess what....WATERFALL!!! I attempt to steer canoe to shore. Dad, thinking we are out of control, sticks paddle in and hits rock, spinning us sideways. It was like slow motion. Canoe tips with me on downstream side. Next thing, I'm pinned underwater to a boulder with canoe pressing my legs to it. Started praying....littorally. Suddenly we pop free. Anchor catches, and canoe pops to surface. Neither my dad nor I were wearing lifevests. Lesson #2: Stupidity does not equate to immortality. I am hanging onto prop of motor with one hand while dad is hanging onto front of canoe for dear life. Time stops. It is quiet. So quiet that it suddenly occurs to me where we are. One look at my dad says it all. He is not going to last long hanging there. One life jacket has managed to get snagged on the motor. I somehow manage to grab it and pull myself up the canoe to him and help him put it on. I'm now exhausted so I can only guess how he's doing. Rear of canoe is hanging at the edge of about a 6-8 ft. drop. The river is necked down there and the current is impossible to try and even get our legs past horizontal. Dad wants to just let go and do the fall. I talk him out of it, as there is no guarantees that he will come out the other side and I'll be ****ed if we're taking anyone out in a canoe who's dead or injured. Here comes the brothers to the rescue. There is a small 10 ft. high cliff right next to us and they are on top asking us what to do and confirming that we should not let go. IDEA! I throw them the 30 ft. rope tied to the back of the canoe and tell them to pull us in to shore which is only 10-12 ft. away. They pull the canoe dives underwater while we hang on. Halfway in they can't pull any more as the anchor is stuck in the rocks and the current is too strong. By now about 40 minutes have gone by and I am starting to think we are in big trouble. Dad looks to be on the verge of giving up and I need to do something fast. ANOTHER IDEA! I have my brothers tie the rope I threw them to a tree. I will hand walk the rope to the shore and help pull my dad in. The minute I let go of the canoe and grab the rope the current pulls me back into the waterfall and I slide down the nylon rope at warp speed as the canoe goes into the shore. Now my brothers are helping my dad in, but I'm underwater hanging on for dear life......again! Again I start to pray and say my goodbyes. Suddenly my brothers with what I'm sure was the strength of a Divine hand pulled me upstream against the current to shore. I could not even lift my head I was so tired. They had to drag me on to shore. After hugs, some "thank you Lords" and some rest, we realized that all our stuff had floated down river and we had to find it. 2 hours later all the dry goods, sleeping bags, clothes, and tent which miraculously floated long enough, were recovered. My loss: $1200.00 in fishing gear (including my new portable depth finder). We set up tents and guess what? No air mattresses. There isn't a spot in this area that isn't rocky. If the skeeters weren't so bad I'd have propped myself against a tree all night. Anyway, no sleep for the weary. Next day we canoe to the other end of this huge lake to find another fly in camp and steal some gas. We find one and guess what? The motor on our canoe has been submerged. With a needlenose pliers and a straight screw driver I manage to take apart everything and drain out water. A few hours later we are on our way....NOT! After drying out everything I replaced the spark plug with the spare one the outfitter provided. Assuming it was the correct one I never checked it. Turns out it was a hair longer shank than the first one. There is nothing more sickening than the sound of a blown piston.......well the next two days we slept on rocks and my brothers had to tow us with their canoe. Almost no fishing time, but a nice long scenic ride....We managed to get to our destination pickup at the end of the third day, just as our outfitter was going to get a plane to look for us. Then we had to explain what happened to his motor. Needless to say, we got our adventure. Amazing noone died or we didn't kill each other in the process. When I reflect back now, I can't even believe that we attempted such a trip without the proper experience first. Now I think I could live in the woods with just a knife if I had to....Sorry this was so long. As you can see, too many events to summarize and give the real picture. Actually, I always wanted to write this down for the record. Thanks for the inspiration!

[hoghunter]

No disrespect RMB, but LMAO here.

[Tom/MN]

I may have to call a shrink because after reading a number of these I find myself feeling better about my worst. Even with all of the regs. I still wouldn't trade my yearly trips to NW Ontario. I did miss one after the birth of our first. The next year the withdrawal was too much. I convinced my wife, 6 mos. pregnant with our second, that we just had to go. Relatives think I'm nuts and the mother-in-law has the yellow pages turned to Attorney's. In 25 years I hadn't endured anything worse than the normal stuff after all.

Day one - Endure a day of hiding from lightning and Rain in Noah's Ark proportions. We're on foot as there's a washout on the road that required the Grave Digger or Bigfoot to pass. We spend the night in the van.

Day - Two We're on foot to the main road for help. The I told you so's are ringing very loudly in my ears and I'm feeling lower than the dirt on Satan's boots. We are rescued by a trapper coming in and after the assistance of a local (on his Saturday afternoon) with a front-end loader we get the road filled in and extricated the rig. The guy running the heavy equipment doesn't want any payment. Finally he says he'll take $50 for the gas it took. I give him $100 and count my blessings for yet another wonderful Canadian saving my bacon.

Day-three, since we've fished for less than an hour the first two days of a three day trip, I head for some honey holes on Lac Seul. The waves are 4-5 footers half an hour into it and we have to hide behind an island for most of the day. Finally they let up enough to troll the wind-blown shore and we catch 30 eyes in the last 90 minutes before dark, including a 28 incher, (fortunately the missus caught it and it's my favorite picture in all the 25 years of trips). After I've finished fileting the 4 we kept for dinner, packing up the stuff for the morning ride home and turning in about 2 a.m. the wife says, "Thanks Honey, I wouldn't have missed it for the world." Let's just say I'm glad the lights were off so my "most wonderful woman in the world" didn't have to see what a big baby her husband can be.

[Dave in Mpls]

Thanks for starting the hillarious thread, Lobo! And thanks to all the contributers! What a nice way to break out of an otherwise crappy morning!

Regards

[RMB]

None taken....We all laugh about it too.....now that is....Believe me, It changed my way of dealing with the outdoors forever..Just glad none of us ended up winning the Darwin Awards!

[AquaMan]

Man, what a story. I can't even come close to that one.

Your right, though, that would make a great movie. Too bad Chris Farley died. He would have been hilarious in this story. Or maybe even better would be Charles Growden (SP)

AquaMan~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--- "It all begins and ends at the water's edge"

[Frank from TBay]

Printed the post and passed it around at work........many said the same thing as far as a star goes. We could get some of the characters on the board throw in some of the humour that all fisherman have.......I think it would be a natural.I'm still laughing about that evil outhouse varmint.I'm going to be sick tomorrow........I think I'll go to the shack to get better.
Good fishing: Frank

[TC]

I thought I would throw one in since I enjoyed all the others so much. Fortunately for me I was not personally involved in this "adventure". I had a roomate who enjoyed living on the edge somewhat. He and his brother decided to take a friend for some early season trophy fishing on Erie. The trip took place in early March after a call was placed to see if the ice had broken up and dispersed yet. They were convinced that the conditions were fine as the ice flow had moved several miles offshore. (keypoint #1) They also had no reservations about taking out the only boat they had access to, which happened to be a 15' modified tri-hull (circa 1965?) powered by a slightly older and somewhat less reliable 40 horse motor. The hearty lads left a ramp from the Port Clinton area sometime around 1:00 P.M on a Saturday afternoon. They planned on fishing fairly close to shore and were not concerned about their lack of navigational equipment. They began fishing and lost track of time. As evening approached so did a thick fog bank. They began to search for shore and could not find it. To make matters worse a cold rain began to fall. These guys decided that since they had no compass or any other way to tell which direction they were going, it would be best to hunker down for the night and find the way back in the daylight. As they tried in vain to get some shut-eye in the miserable conditions they noticed a strange scraing and grating sound against the hull. The sound became louder and more pronounced. Finally one of the gentlemen looked over the side of the boat only to find that they were not only lost in fog and freezing, they were now also locked into an ice flow on all sides! The decision was made to try to get out of the ice before it carried them to Canada. They finally broke out and began to run the motor again and almost immediately ran out of gas. After drifting for some time they could make out lights on land they began to paddle furiously to reach it. They did manage to beach on this point which turned out to be the State Park in the Bass Islands. Things began to be looking up when they found gas cans on a dock and decided that under the circumstances "borrowing" it wasn't such a bad idea. They took the gas and poured it in the tank and started the motor which ran for about thirty seconds and choked to a final and disgusting death. (The gas had been sitting on the dock all winter and was full of water.) They are now adrift again and happily did reach land again on a different island. They found a pay phone, called a cab, and drank coffee at a diner until the nearest boat mechanic could be rousted from his bed and talked into rebuilding the carbourator on Sunday morning. They fired the boat back up and found their way back to the ramp at 11:00 A.M., some 22 hours after the adventure had begun. After this comedy of errors, they confined their Lake Erie efforts in the S.S. Minnow to those days on which the walleye chop was non-existant and the temperatures hung in the upper 80's. These boys are truly lucky to be alive!

[Poor man]

Does setting your wallet on the gunwale and forgetting about it count? lost $240 in cash, but amazingly found the wallet still floating! Live and learn I guess.

[sawgrass]

It's a toss up between nearly sinking my new boat on its maiden voyage (plug? What plug!) or carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty cabin heater. Still caught fish though!

[lobo]

Awesome story !!! Too many people want to go on these trips and adventures but forget that they are part of the food chain.
Bad things will happen - count on it; just try your best to be prepared and most times you come out ok - with some luck !!
One year we had a guy (non fisherman) get drunked up and doubt our bear stories. Instead of taking our fish remains to the island he spread them around the camp- we thought he was joking - no one could be that stupid ! HE actually did it and we,of course, had a major problem with this and of course he has never been invited since.


Loved your post - been meaning to take a river trip one August...

lobo

[lobo]

>Does setting your wallet on the
>gunwale and forgetting about it
>count? lost $240 in cash,
>but amazingly found the wallet
>still floating! Live and learn
>I guess.


Even the fish steal !!!
lobo - Cop in MI

[Poor Man]

That's whats known as "Being Scaled"