Angel on my Shoulder

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Had Clients on Saturday. Wanted to Crappie fish. Husband, Wife, 5 yr. old. I left the house at o' dark thirty (it's and hour and fifteen to get to the lake) cruisin down the hiway and decide I need coffee and gas (to ad to the 1/2 pot I already drank). I get out of the truck and there laying on the back deck are my boat keys floatie and all. I must have left them in the ignition....Absolutely no reason they shouldn't have blown out of the boat. So I'm back on the road (thankin my lucky stars) and I'm close to the lake. Downhill curve, wooded area 65 mph......you got it.....4 deer in my lane. No way to stop, so I mash the accelerator, crank the steering to the left (thank heavens there was no on-coming traffic) and then back to the right all the while praying that they don't move and the boat doesn't jack-knife. I look in my rear view mirror as the boat trailer comes back down on on the right two tires and I see the deer standing there looking at me (still in my lane). I stopped as soon as I found a safe spot... to change my underwear and pour out the coffee....I didn't need it anymore!!



TOXIC

 

[Rob LaMoy]

When you started with the getting gas thing I was thinking this was headed towards the sniper. That A'hole struck again this morning! Anyway, glad you were allright there Tox. sounds like some fancy driving with a trailer on.

 

[TrepMan]

Glad you were safe Tox! I always NOW keep a second set of boat keys in the glove box JUST IN CASE!! I don't EVER want to see Deer on the road LET ALONE when towing the boat - Glad your safe!!



Hey - How did the crappie fishing go, did they get fish? Did the dad try the fly rod?

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Yeah, the police have pretty much shut down DC and all of the roads in and out. They want this guy bad. From what I understand he left a note asking for $$. A-Hole.....His days are numbered. Anyway, normally I would NEVER advise anyone to swerve, I tell my wife to hold on and go straight if a deer jumps out in front of her because most accident deaths caused by deer are when people swerve and hit other cars or trees or they roll. I had no choice. I was going over 65....there were 4 deer, I came up on them so fast, I knew they weren't going to move. Ditch wasn't an option. I did check for on-coming. 2 more mph or 2 degrees harder on the wheel and I'da been doin' the @ss over elbows roll. My heart was pounding so hard, I thought my head was going to explode. If I had hit them, you wouldn't have been able to seperate me from the deer sausage!!



TOXIC

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Funny how you can react so quick without time to think. The day before the Everstart I was going to the VT/NY ferry to meet Buzz to get the new Kota TM. The roads were wet with rain. Well the ferry had just let off and lots of trucks use it. There is a 90 degree curve just up the road and the speed limit is only 35 mph. As I came around the curve there was a double trailer rig coming around at least at 50 mph, the second trailer jack knifed and slid into my lane, it was so fast, here I was looking at several tons of trailer in front of me that was sure to roll on top of me and crush the truck with me inside. Everything seemed in slow motion, I thought of my kids and wife, I looked up at the drive as he went by and he was white as a ghost, he really thought he as losing the whole rig and about to kill me you could see it on his face, but I punched the gas pulled hard right into the ditch and onto to an adjacent lawn, the rear end of the trailer just missed my side mirror by about 2-3 inches and I popped back up onto the road. Looked in my rearview to see the whole truck come to a skidding, bouncing halt blocking the whole road. All the other drivers stopped and were amazed as I just kept going on. Never stopped, got to the ferry and then checked my drawers. Happened so fast I never had time to get nervous, but during it, time seemed slow. Probably could not drive like that again if you paid me, but I'm glad I did that day. I told my wife that afternoon and she said for some reason she had stopped in town in her van and felt the need to pray for me, so she and Cody did. She thought it was something to do with the tourney the next day and my long run, but when I told her after, she knew why! NO way I could have pulled it off with a boat in tow!

 

[Mark Hofman]

Tox: Had the same situation happen to me this summer, pulling my dad's boat down off of a mountain in Colorado. It was after the sun had set. My dad was riding shotgun, with my wife in the jump seat of our F-150 behind him. We came around one of the switchbacks and my dad said, "Be careful, there are usually deer in here." No sooner had he said it than I saw a deer way down the road, on the right, at the limit of my headlights. I took my foot off the gas to start breaking, but before I could hit the brake, three more deer jumped out in front of us. My choice was to hit one or more, or go off the side of this mountain road. I clobbered the middle (and conveniently the smallest) deer, and kept control of the truck and trailer. We came to a stop down at a pull-out down the road and I shut the truck off. My dad turned to me and said, "You did that just right. Good job."



The deer I hit got confused. The front half wanted to go back to the right and the rear half wanted to keep going. As a result, its legs splayed out and the bulk of the body was down at the level of my grill and bumper. If I would have hit one of the bigger deer, or if the one I hit hadn't tried to go two directions at once, that deer would've ended up in my dad's lap and he would've ended up my wife's.



Glad you made it with no damage other than to your ego and a pair of underwear.

 

[Bob G.]

I have been fortunate to not have any mishaps while trailering my boat, but I did leave my little plastic box with my hand-held Garmin GPS, VHF radio and Digital camera along with my jacket on the front deck after fishing one day this summer. I was driving down a two lane country highway on my way to the interstate at 40mph when I had a feeling that I forgot something. I pulled over immediately and there were my electronics and jacket on the front deck! I think the electronics would have fallen down in the boat if I had made it to the interstate, but the jacket would have been gone! I know if I do this boating thing long enough I will forget something important!!



Bob G.

 

[Matt Erickson]

Awesome death escaping stories. You all are down to 8 lives left. Mine, too, but fewer than 8. I've hit a deer once at night, and had several close calls to fatal accidents (mostly due to my stupidity when younger), so I can relate to yours.



The best thing I can say is to watch out and have an emergency plan handy - and don't rush. Fish are always out there now or anytime later.



- matt

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Trep,



To make a long story short, they caught fish, big fish...some 2lber's but it was an EXTREMELY difficult day. Where the crappie were stacked was an open flat and the wind was whippin' (right Carlos!!). I couldn't hold the boat well enough for 5 bobber rods. Besides, the fish just would not bite. I maked plenty but no go. After an hour I told em' to pack up, we were moving. Went to a river feeder and had them fish behind pilings (always good for Crappie) and they loaded up. You can never be too prepared. The little one got cold...I had one of my daughter's jackets.....she got thirsty....I had filled a thermos with hot chocolate.....She had to go to the bathroom....I had a bucket, she had to do #2...I had the same bucket LOL, she got bored....I had a small tackle box of plastics and I told her she could play with them and take some home. All in all it was a good day, the guy overstated his abilities (he just about threw one of my GLoomis rods in the drink) but I had it covered...I brought a couple of Zebcos. I have never been so exhausted...all day on the TM (concrete bridge pileings and fiberglass don't go well together), untangeling lines, riggin minnows and staying between the parents casting and the daughter. BUT....it was all worth it when the little girl acted like her dad was a hero for catching fish and getting their picture on the bragging board at the marina. And I told him it was waaaay too windy for the flyrod.



TOXIC

 

[Tim King]

One nice day we were heading to OK to prefish for a toureny and my partner was having trouble with his trailer lights so he uses his filet knife to fix them. We get over into Oklahoma and he promptly is stopped for speeding through this small town. The officer is just kinda walkin up there and when he gets to the rear of the truck he stops in his tracks, puts his hand on his pistol and then sneaks up to the window. We were both wondering what the heck the deal was. He gave us a warning and left rather quickly.



When we tried to back up the brakes on the trailer wouldn't release and when my partner jumped out to fix them he noticed his nine inch filet knife still sitting nicely on the bumper where he had laid it after fixing his lights!! This thing had riden there for well over 100 miles!! We were lucky we weren't pulled out at gun point!!

 

[Matt Erickson]

Other than cars. When we were new to bass fishing, my friend bought a bunch of crankbaits and topwaters and put them all in a clear plastic organizer box. Well, when we needed to move from one spot to another and that's when the winds started to pick up a little to approx 15 to 20 mph (my guess, anyway), my friend placed that box on the floor of my boat unsecured. I asked him if that's gonna to be ok leaving that there - he replied sure just gun the motor. Ok, off I go, went to plane speed and the wind was heading in our way - as you can assume the box started to move. All of the sudden it burst open and sprayed all lures all over us and back. OUCH, they sure sting! Conveniently, he lost at least quarter of them in water and recovered all from our body and seats. He forgot to latch the box closed.



Another event, much more recent, and entirely my fault. I invited my long time high school buddy to fishing to join with my friend's 18 footer to fish at a power plant lake. I rigged mine with a raptala crank and fished out of the middle of the boat letting my buddy to have the back deck. I usually fish from the back deck when joining with my friend in his boat, so it is not usual for me to be in the middle of the boat. After few casts, I became comfortable and swung the crank wide, but suddenly had a bird nest on my reel - huh? Looked around and saw my crank sunk deep in my buddy's arm and saw his face squeeze with pain. Very embarrassing and had to drop the rod and do the emergency procedure. My crankbait treble hooks were 5/0, so that's pretty deep -- fortunately the hooks are new. I pulled out pliers, pulled the hook out of the muscle area then hook back up through the skin to cut off the barb. When I was done, he fainted and got into seizure. Oh man, that wasn't funny anymore. But he came out of it rather quickly and got a cold cup of water - and summoned us to resume fishing. Fishing was very good after that point...wasn't a total disaster like I envisioned.

 

[TrepMan]

TOXIC - Great job man, and almost HAPPY it was too windy for the fly rod! See this "concrete bridge pileings and fiberglass don't go well together" heck i had Tracker install a Anchor Mate system JUST for bridge pilings!!!



You sound like JUST the kind of guide i'd want!!!



Keep it up and keep AWAY from those Deer!!