After a long summer and fall we have all witnessed plenty of amazing mishaps and misfits on the boat ramps. I saw one guy get pushed in, a boat get rammed and one unhappy camper who managed to dump his new boat on the ramp on an out-going tide. That was just this year. In addition to all of this I have seen many tempers flare in the mad rush to be the first to the fish. It's so easy to dump your boat and then let it float down river a little ways before you beach it.

If you can, have someone park your truck so you can wait with the boat away from the ramp.

Try not to leave someone attending the boat that is not capable of moving it or adapting to other boaters gross stupidity.

Taking out:

The trucks are in line not the boats. This has been the source of many disagreements. It seems pretty simple to me. I usually try to avoid the dock all together until my trailer is in the water.

Hook it up and go! Don't clean up or swap stories if others are waiting.

Don't stop at the top of the ramp. Move your rig far enough away to allow others to maneuver for the ramp.

I know this all sounds like common sense to a lot of us but it seems to me that all of us could benefit from some kind of a code of conduct or ramp etiquette. Please post your amazing boat ramp stories and your thoughts on my set of rules.

If you are launching in the dark at a dual ramp turn your headlights off so the other guy can see when backing down.

Get their extra early and avoid even more people. I also like to seek out a ramp a little farther away that is less crowded and make a run in the boat rather than mess with the crowds. last year during sockeye season Now you want to talk about a mess. their was a ramp near where I moore my boat that never had anyone at it . It is a 3 mile run to fishing grounds but alot better than waiting 2-3 hours in line to put in then 2-3 hours to take out.

What gets me are bankies that insist on fishing at boat launches, i.e. Sultan and Lewis Street, they look at you like your violating their water when your trying to put in or take out.

I constantly battle all summer with either new boaters, loaners, or just rude people. The worst are the teen agers with beer who borrow daddy's boat and go for a nice joy ride. They usually seem to dump the boat in the water and then stand there with it on the ramp while the truck gets parked. I have my wife go nicely ask them to move the boat over to the empty beach so we can put in. Most the time they apologize and move it as if my boat coming down the ramp right at them isn't enough to clue them in. Now and then we run into a couple of real jackasses and I have to get out and straighten them out. These guys I give slack since they just don't know. It is the experience old salts who load their boat, then jockey with it, strap it down, unload it, all right in the water. They should know better, but don't and don't want to hear it either. I have a couple of times run down the beach and launched right next to them splashing and throwing mud after waiting 20 minutes or more and they still won't move. What is with people these days, anyway?

The other ones are the wave runners who insist that the beach next to the ramp is for them to park their wave runners and let their kids float around on tubes. Many times coming in to beach it these kids sit oblivious to the aproaching Bayliner with Mom and Dad sitting right there on their lawn chairs in their own worlds. When I ask the kids to move or blow the horn they look at me with that "Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing running up on my beach?" Some people have no idea how dangerous boating and water can really be, especially to that 3 year old little girl in the tube with no life jacket on that I really can't see who is about to get sucked into my prop.

Just to hit on a couple of issues, for those of you who don't know, rigs with headlights that come on when you start them, on click on the parking brake pushing down will turn them off, and no it won't even begin to engage the rear brakes, and my favorite, for those of you who think your first because you got to the dock first go ahead and take your boat out, and if your trailer isn't there pack it out on your back

Apologies in advance for all those that want me to turn my lights off, but my Chevy Silverado has lights that come on automatically when it is dark and stay on, emergency brake or not. The only way to turn them off is to turn off the truck, which makes it real hard to back down and/or pull out Besides it is a diesel and doesn't like to be turned off and on all the time. I back up real well even in the dark and take all of 10 seconds once in position to get my boat off the trailer and out of the way, so I'm not there for very long, but when I'm there my lights are on, sorry

TURN OFF THOSE LITES If you cant then dim them!!!!!!

I agree to that one Beezer.

when a boat trailer is sold the buyer should have to take a corse on common sense,untill that happens we all have to deal with all the brain dead morons out there.
:p :p :p :p :p
River boat ramps,back down they will get out of the way.

Chaser, how do you "dim" headlights? I have the same problem, trucks on, lights are on, no options. Dim? Maybe there is a business here. Lamp (light) shades for boat ramp usage...

Hey spawnout on my chevy silverado it has a overide button right next to the lights check yours maybe I just got lucky.

Loomis, I did look for that, even had another Chevy owner who had such a thing look for me. I don't have one, perhaps because the truck is a "Made in Canada" model Even had another guy claim that if you press the dimmer switch 3 times the lights will go off, but when he tried it on mine nothing happened. Going to have to start bringing along duct tape and cardboard I guess

On my 2002 Silverado you press the Dome button 3 or 4 times and that shuts them off (I think it's called the dome, anyway it's on the light section to the left. It's also noted in the manual.

Yeah, that's the one I tried and that another fellow tried for me - did not work on mine at all. Guess the thing is still under warranty, and if this is really supposed to work I'll talk to the shop about fixing it

Ahh, nothing better than going out to any local lake or river with a long ramp. Bring an adult beverage or two and a lounge chair...GREAT fun.
Things I saw this summer...
Guy backing down ramp with shortest line although his boat was at different ramp and couldn't understand why 50 boats had a hard time getting out of his way.

Guy that managed to actually hit 4 boats trying to get to the ramp.

2 guys proud of buying their first sled (used) only to discover after being on the water for a couple hours that they had no clue how to get it back on the trailer in a river. Figuring that the boat had to be lined up straight before floating over the trailer, they put it on the trailer doing about 25 mph. Never knew you could park a sled perpendicular to the way its supposed to be on the trailer. It was on the trailer but I think the road was a little narrow for an 18 foot sled to go home sideways.

Saw a boat slide off trailer just beautifully with the exception of being 30 feet from the water.

And the really fun one... icy ramp, people in a hurry, 2-wheel drive. Chevys don't float. Now its been proven.

My '99 Silverado does not do that dome-light-button-thing. I have to depress the E-brake a little to get the DRL's to turn off.

The only time I got really pissed at the launch was when a couple of indians launched their boat, at a WDFW boat launch, and proceeded to leave it in the water and on the ramp to work on their piece of crap motor which would'nt start!

"Some people are alive simply because it's against the law to kill them!

Actually, what really makes me angry are the folks that power their boat on the trailer. Prop or especially jet, this digs big holes in the ramp, even eventually concrete ones but especially on plank ramps. Then at low water or low tide you have axle-busting craters to deal with. All because some nitwits are too lazy to use a winch . Even better are the one's who's trailers are not even equipped with one If this resembles you, please think about what you are doing to to the launch, the launch maintenance fees, and even to the price of your fishing license. Repairs to launches are not free. My personal wish for a law on punlic boat launches would result in a "No Power Loading - Fine $500" sign posted at each launch, then you guys who persist in doing it can pay to get my launch fixed insead of me

Pleasure boaters and fisherman don't mix.

You want some good wholesome family entertainment? Stop by the Redondo ramp in July or August on a sunny Saturday or Sunday when there is a minus tide about 11 am. Fisherman are returning to the launch from fishing all morning and the pleasure boaters are just getting around to putting their boats in the water, first time this season mind you.

Tempers flare!

Spawnout,

a little anti-sled, are we?

I'll certainly accept that there are some launch locations where power loading should be restricted, where the substrate is mud, for example. But for the most part, the substrate is river rock, and I haven't seen it getting moved around much at the ramps I use. Certainly any of the larger ramps on the larger rivers are developed enough to withstand the use and seem to do so.

If you think about where the force of the sled is exerted, it has to be more than 15 feet behind where the wheels of any trailer is going to be, let alone the truck that pulls it.

This is because, a) the trailer for a sled is at least 2 feet longer than a drift boat trailer, b) the motor is at least five feet behind the trailer wheel, c), the boat is about 16 inches off the ground when on the trailer, and c) the force of the jet comes out in a narrow stream that doesn't expand to 32 inches until 8 or 10 feet behind the boat.

So, any pothole you are seeing where it counts for you, isn't being caused by a jet boat. Sorry. I think the potholes are more likely to be caused by people spinning out as they pull out.

Maybe a better proposition might be to identify sites where powering on is specifically a problem, and restrict the use there. They do this at Hammond, for example.

I also wouldn't mind my trailer having a tax graduated to the size of my boat, and therefore to the impact of my use on the ramp. To the extent that I'm a heavier user, I'm pay. But conversely, since you use the ramp as well, you should pay, too. Bankies and other non-users shouldn't have to pay for the service we need.

Or should they? What do we think?

speaking as a banky fishermen, hell no! i have enough problems dealing with a-holes on the bank. don't need to pay for problems i never use! boy, if i ever get a boat i will be sure to practice plenty as not to piss you pro's off, and i'll bring a hammer for the headlight thing.

chumster

Last winter i witnessed this guy "working on his motor" on the ramp at Blue Creek. It was a busy morning and we were waiting for one of us to finish up in the outhouse. This guy had a mercury pump on the back of a very nice sled. Everything looked brand new. He was pulled up out of the water and was revving the motor and looking back at it for like a minute (seemed like forever) I started to say he was gonna blow it when it started to puke and belched out steam. Instead of shutting down he throttles up untill we heard the unmistakable sound of rod coming through the case. everyone was just looking around in disbelief untill he started trying to restart it. we laughed all day. If it was you -sorry for laughin.

Silver Hilton, I'm talking about intertidal boat launches mostly, where the jet sled powered on at high tide for sure tears the ramp up at low tide elevations. But I'm not just blaming jet sledders, plenty of prop boaters also feel the need to power the boat onto their trailer, with similar results. At Hoodsport during shrimp season I watched a nitwit in an Arima try to load his boat about 10 times this way before he got it on straight enough and far enough to suit him, and it dug such a big hole at the end of the ramp that it was impossible for anyone to use that side of the ramp the rest of the day. I also followed a huge black V8 jet sled in at Cathlamet and watched him dig a hole right into the concrete ramp (which was already posted no power loading) that went right through into the re-enforcing mesh and left a hole over a foot deep in the middle of the ramp. I was so stunned that I didn't even think to get his boat number and turn him into the marina before he was gone. I'm sure many others have seen similar things. Jet or prop, power loading ruins ramps and increases boat launch fees. Please use your winch or get an electric one if you can't muster the energy to crank it <img border="0" alt="[fragile]" title="" src="graemlins/fragile.gif" />

Spawnout, it sounds like we agree 100%. It's pretty easy to tell which ramps might be affected this way, and then to mark them. A stiff fine for offenders under those conditions is perfectly appropriate.

I also think a lot of guys don't realize that they can burp the boat up onto the trailer and then kill the throttle to minimise impact on what's around you.