Have you ever had a bad day on the water? Have you ever had a REAL bad day on the water?

I just had one of those REALLY bad days on Saturday, thought I would share as I am trying to find some humor in the situation.

First had the guys out, as you can see from the reports, they caught some real beautiful fish! Then the fun started, broken rod on a fish, no biggy, oops wait another broken rod on another fish!! Really, two in a day. Then the fishing tapered off, no more walleyes, tried everything.

Now, I should have known that two broken rods and a taper off in the fishing action SHOULD HAVE been indicators that I was about to have a real bad day, but NOOOO, I don’t pick up on the little signs in life.

So we are heading back to the launch, current position just west of Refugee Island. Nice day, little chop on the water cruising at 40 MPH through an area that I have been a 100 times before and you guess it, instant stop in the water, WHAMO! A tree in 18 feet of water. Checked the bilge, no water, good thing no hull damage. Inspected motor, all looked good. Then restarted big motor, no issues. Then put it in gear, issue! Spun the hub, new max speed out of the 150 yamaha, about .9mph, yes that is less than 1 mph. So, lets go to the kicker motor, it’s an 8 HP but it will be fine, oops, forgot took that off and it’s in the shop for maintenance! Ok, down to my 101lb Fortrex electric. Check GPS, as the crow flies I am a about 4.5 miles away from launch, no way my batteries are gonna last after already using them all day, so I think get close and someone will be heading in or out that could render some assistance after all it is one of the busiest launches out there, right…... WRONG again, did not see even one boat!!! WTF!!! So we start cursing at a solid 2.9 mph’s at an 80% setting. Two hours later, the dock is in site, 300 yds to go and finally see a boat, didn’t wave them down, “damn it I’m going in on my own just for the sake of pride”! Believe it or not, we made it with juice still left in the batteries (Walmart batteries by the way) . Put the trailer further in the water than normal because I know that I will need to winch it up since the big motor is out. Use the trolling motor to get lined up on the trailer then went to lift trolling motor so it wouldn’t hit the trailer. What do you think happened???? Yep it hit the trailer, why you ask? Well when I pulled the string to raise it, it broke! Finally get the motor up and jump in the water to push the boat on….where’s my spare tire I thought to my self? Floating away, that’s where! Another time-out, go swim out and get tire, return tire, and put in back of truck. Done! Get the winch hooked to the boat, ok now we are making some progress ,so I think, then what do you guess happens…..winch breaks! Screw it boat is about 12 inches away from where it should be, yank it out call it good since we had a very short drive over to West Bay, what could go wrong right…..thank-fully nothing at that point.

I consider this my “clamady of errors” ! So, next time you have a BAD DAY on the water, maybe you can try to find a bright spot in my story by saying “at least it wasn’t as bad as the Nut’s day”.