Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

[wildmaninal]

I thought I would share this true story, this happened a while back. My brother and his family were taking a trip to Tennessee on their vacation and my brother took his boat (a 17ft 1970's Stryker tri hull bass boat) along with them. Well already had a cabin rented for the week which they booked ahead of time.

Well not to long after they start enjoying a spot on the lake one of the family members heard a noise coming from the boat (I believe they were on the water when this happened). Anyhow it was a meow coming from a kitten. Well when they realized where the meow was coming from they found it was coming from the bow area of the boat if I recall right (it might of been under the driver's seat). On his bass boat the bow has a step up deck and it is all closed off except for under the driver's console and rod box I believe opens up to it. The family cat decided to have her kittens in the boat and she went along for the vacation.

My brother had to borrow a saw to cut a hole on the inside of the boat to get the kittens out. There was a total of 4 kittens I believe. They had a heck of a vacation to say the least due to that lol. At least it wasn't a snake .

Any of you ever have a similar situation?

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

Woke up to a blind-in-one-eye deer on a houseboat on lake Shasta, CA.

Not quite the same though. Your stow-away was cute and cuddly, mine scared the crap out of my parents.

 

[External Combustion]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

I was in my early twenties and was doing some river cruising in my 14 foot Appleby. I had placed my tent and gear aboard one morning just after sunrise and was rowing out to the middle of the current when a possum decided it was time to wake up and get out of the bow.

I don't know who was more surprised, the possum or me, but I can tell you he was not happy with my effort to help him ashore with the blade of my oar. He flew a good six feet before he hit the water and hissed at me all the way to the shore.

I think I would have preferred the kittens!

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

Ants!

I noticed they were going up the tire, on the axle, to the spring, across a bunk, into the bilge plug hole and then into the boat. Crafty little devils! I sprayed the trailer with bug killer and they were gone,,, so I thought.

I do a lot of night fishing and took my buddy along a few weeks later, he kept fidgeting and saying something was crawling on him, yeah right... While he was up baiting a hook I reached into his seat for a package of cookies and threw it on the engine cover. After grabbing a hand full of cookies and chowing a few I got the wheebie geebies also,,, the cookies were covered with ANTS and they were making their way up my arm! Cookies went into the water along with the other food they were into.

Oh yeah, ants don't taste half bad

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

Oh yeah, ants don't taste half bad

Especially when covered with cookies.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

Cajun version ... couple of baby Nutria in the port-o-let at the boat launch! Yup, this happened to me a couple of weeks ago! The bottom of the door wasn't flush with the floor and we had a bit of rain that morning. I guess they were just hangin out in the only dry place they could find ... which is actually kind of funny because they are aquatic animals!

 

[fishmen111]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

I picked up a cheap used jonboat about 10 years ago to use for crappie fishing in a small lake. I put a 28lb. Minn-Kota on it and was almost to the middle of the lake when I noticed a herd of spiders coming out from under the front seat. All righty now...no big deal...just a few spiders. A few black spiders...a few black spiders with red hour glasses on their backs. Stephen King would have been proud. I would have sold my soul for a can of Raid! I can only imagine what I looked like swinging a paddle at an enemy only I could see. If that Minn-Kota had had a clutch, I would have caught 2nd gear coming back in. Got to shore just as the enemy was advancing on my position. Got to my truck toolbox, found a can of carb cleaner and a lighter and put the flamethrower on their legions. Between that and the burning foam under the front seat (opps), I gained the upper hand.

In reality, there were probably less than eight of them, but it sure seemed like they were numbered in the millions at the time.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

Cajun version ... couple of baby Nutria in the port-o-let at the boat launch!

What the heck is a Nutria?

Do they taste any good?

If not, cover them in cookies and I bet they won't be half bad!

 

[BoatBuoy]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

What the heck is a Nutria?

A nutria is a coypu.

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

I picked up a cheap used jonboat about 10 years ago to use for crappie fishing in a small lake. I put a 28lb. Minn-Kota on it and was almost to the middle of the lake when I noticed a herd of spiders coming out from under the front seat. All righty now...no big deal...just a few spiders. A few black spiders...a few black spiders with red hourglasses on there backs. Stephen King would have been proud. I would have sold my soul for a can of Raid! I can only imagine what I looked like swinging a paddle at an enemy only I could see. If that Minn-Kota had had a clutch, I would have caught 2nd gear coming back in. Got to shore just as the enemy was advancing on my position. Got to my truck toolbox, found a can of carb cleaner and a lighter and put the flamethrower on their legions. Between that and the burning foam under the front seat (opps), I gained the upper hand.

In reality, there were probably less than eight of them, but it sure seemed like they were numbered in the millions at the time.

I've got the same problem around my house, though not in those hordes. Last summer I was pulling weeds and looked at my hand, and there was one sitting right on my glove... boy was I glad I wore gloves to pull weeds that day.

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

What the heck is a Nutria?

Do they taste any good?

If not, cover them in cookies and I bet they won't be half bad!

I wondered the same thing, googled them and they appear to be what we would call muskrats, and they look like they might be tasty if BBQ'd just right.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

Early one spring when the mornings are cold, we headed out in a friends boat. About 10 or so the weather started getting warm and we was at our favorite fishing spot. He opened up the anchor well cover and all heck broke loose. It turns out that a big ole hornets nest was in the anchor well. Then with the nest being attached to the lid, he destroyed their nest which really mad them mad when he opened it. I'm glad we were only a few hundred feet from the bank. That water was really cold.

Thats not the whole story. While we abandoned the boat,,,,the anchor still had not been deployed. So now we are watching as the boat drifts off into the lake while we watch. The hornets kept swarming and it looked like a dark cloud over the boat. Being early, not many boaters were out yet. So we sat on the bank soaking wet and shivering with cold. We sat there for about 3 hours wondering what to do. Then the winds shifted and shortly after that, we could see his boat headed back our way. By this time the cloud of hornets have gone or calmed down. That is when we made a plan. One of us was going to swim up to the boat and plug the drain hole with trash that was on the bank. Another was to jump into the boat, flip the cover down and throw his fishing towel over it. It worked, but a few hornets were determined to get their stingers used. We got stung a few times, but not near as bad as it could have been. There wasn't any fishing that day, but it did teach my friend that he needs to check his boat more thourghly the next time he gets his boat out for the season.

 

[tommays]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

The worst thing we had was a feral cat hooked on a fishing pole

We had to helmet,leather and super glove up to get it lose and you would though it was a tiger

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

He he he... how was it hooked? was it just like a fish? If it was, I bet it must have felt like fighting a giant blue fish that kept jumping out of the water.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

I picked up a cheap used jonboat about 10 years ago to use for crappie fishing in a small lake. I put a 28lb. Minn-Kota on it and was almost to the middle of the lake when I noticed a herd of spiders coming out from under the front seat. All righty now...no big deal...just a few spiders. A few black spiders...a few black spiders with red hourglasses on there backs. Stephen King would have been proud. I would have sold my soul for a can of Raid! I can only imagine what I looked like swinging a paddle at an enemy only I could see. If that Minn-Kota had had a clutch, I would have caught 2nd gear coming back in. Got to shore just as the enemy was advancing on my position. Got to my truck toolbox, found a can of carb cleaner and a lighter and put the flamethrower on their legions. Between that and the burning foam under the front seat (opps), I gained the upper hand.

In reality, there were probably less than eight of them, but it sure seemed like they were numbered in the millions at the time.

OMFG I would have DIED. I have the heebie jeebies just reading this. SS Mayfloats story was just as bad. I had a mouse once. Not too exciting. Except that we couldn't really get him out so he made an appearance on a couple of outings.

 

[i386]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

Good stories. No stow aways for me. I do remember being in my kayak and feeling something crawling. You never know if it's a critter or just water running down your leg.

Did y'all see the Bill Dance video with the snake that fell out of the tree into his boat? Now ain't that a fine howdy do lol.

 

[fishmen111]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

Did y'all see the Bill Dance video with the snake that fell out of the tree into his boat? Now ain't that a fine howdy do lol.

Yes, hilarious!!! I didn't know ole Bill could jump that fast.

 

[JB]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

I had the Bill Dance experience once. A harmless snake that I was not afraid of.. .one of those skinny green snakes that have round pupils in their eyes. Took it home and put it in the screen box with my anoles. Mistake. It ate one of my anoles. Took it to school and scared heck out of the girls, but Miss Huntington took it away from me and released it outside.

 

[Drowned Rat]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

While beached one evening, I had a Ring Tailed Cat jump on the bow, run over to food box and grab a whole bag of Oreo cookies. The chase ensued and we eventually caught him because he couldn't run very well carrying the bag with one hand.

 

[KnottyBuoyz]

Re: Have you ever had a surpise guest onboard your boat?

We were tied up at one of our favorite spots along the old canal to chow down a few bbq's burgers. Me, wifey and Shadow (useless cat). Shadow always sits at the head of the table and waits for a handout. Well a mouse decides to scamper along the back of the settee behind the wife and the stupid cat just sits there and watches it!!! Do y're damn job ya stupid cat and catch that mouse! Well before I could get that out it was gone.

After dinner the wifey goes to use the head. I hear: "Honey, there's no TP!" "What!" I respond. "There's no TP" "I'm sure I put two rolls in the cabinet above the sink. "Nope, none there just a bunch of shredded paper and a half chewed up cardboard tube"!

Uh oh! Two days later and 7 trapped mice stowaways captured and dispatched. Cat receives disciplinary notice on service record and I never did find the nest the nasty lil' buggers had made of the TP.

This is the useless boat cat.

I had to make a quick run to Canadian Tire (our national automotive & hardware chain) for some paint rollers. I left the boat open because I wasn't going to be gone long. When I got back I found this lil' fella havin' a good siesta in the Captain's seat no less.

He's just started coming around and we named him Frodo cause he's an ugly lil' spud with huge feet! Poor lil' fella just wanted some shelter I guess. Shouldn't have any problems with meece this year!