Boat ramp traffic way down and fewer boats on the water?

[Crazyboat]

I took delivery of the new boat on Friday, made the trek north from Sea Bright NJ to Jersey City. Past a small handful of pleasure boats and a slightly larger number of working bay boats (Clamming). Once into NY harbor there were tons of tourist's boats, full to the brim along with the usual ferry boats. It was a Friday early afternoon, and the weather was fair at best. I'm certain as season kicks in things will change.

 

[airshot]

Summer is here so the corn balls will be coming out !!

 

[Seafarer]

Things like this that just sit for weeks is a good tell tale of how many are still boating these days here
A later model 15hp for $250 with electric start wouldn't have lasted an hour five or ten years ago.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1422997885252408
Its likely one of the most sought after motors out there in my opinion. If it weren't over an hour away I'd have grabbed it long ago but I think most people are thinking like me these days, If I buy it, I'll need to replace a water pump, clean the carb, and then spend $20 in gas in the car to go get something I don't need because I've got 4 others just like it that I rarely use because there's no fish and no one who wants to go fishing these days.
Most of the guys I fished with over the years were older than myself, most are now gone now, those my age are either still working or don't fish. In fact I can't think of anyone I know anymore who fishes anymore.
I dug out my old boat last week, gave it a bath, got the motor up and ready to use and filled the tank on the truck, after filling the tank on the truck for $108, I'm not sure I want to spend more money on bait or boat fuel because I've got bills coming due again. I'm sure others have the same issues. The cost of everything went up but SS did not. Taxes doubled, insurance tripled, and oil for the heater cost me 2k over the winter and now its May and I'm still running the heater because its been down in the 40's at night still.

If fuel wasn't still $4/gal I'd be glad to have a cool spring after the last few years of heat but in reality, we haven't seen the end of it yet.

I did drive by the one ramp here on the way to the market and there were two rigs parked there at noon, when I left. It was a clear mostly sunny day in the mid high 60's. The one truck that remained was a newer rig with a double jetski trailer, apparently no fishermen were out today at all.
This used to be prime fishing season but so far this year all I see is the occasional older guy fishing from the bank here and there.

Worse yet, I had a guy bugging me for two months to sell my one boat, he wanted my older Starcraft SF14, just the boat and trailer, no motor. I didn't want to sell it, but he persisted. Friday he stopped by and said he had cash and was sure we could make a deal. He then offered me $250 cash and was pissed off when I laughed at him. He told me I was nuts because its old, (1993), and likely needs a ton of work, (Its a bare aluminum hull with PVC decking and rod holders that's been garage kept since new on a large tire drop style hot dip galvanized steel trailer custom built for the boat with two year old tires and LED lights.
His offer doesn't buy the trailer let alone the boat. He's not the first. I don't use that boat often, its set up only for small ponds where I run only a trolling motor, one of my older 3hp MinnKota motors that I've hoarded for years since they stopped making them.

I never thought about selling any of my other boats simply because there are so may for sale so cheap lately. Every year it gets worse it seems. 30 years ago we couldn't find a boat to fish from, they were all thousands of dollars and very few ever turned up for sale. Now they're all over the place with no takers.

Things have definitely changed for the worse, when things that so many coveted for years are now seemingly unsellable we have a big problem brewing.

On the water, the only boats I see are manned by the occasional old timer running some old two stroke that he likely bought new. There's the occasional big boat heading out to deeper water or the jetskis but the 12-16ft aluminum boat guys seem to have vanished for the most part.

I did notice since having moved back to the area where I grew up a few years ago, that many of the places we used to fish are not either gone, or no longer open to fish. One pond, right down the road went through a massive restoration process to rid it of stumps and algae but when Hurricane Sandy hit, the area flooded and undermined the dam that held back the water forming that lake. They never rebuilt the dam and all that work they did a few years prior went to waste as the area turned back into a swamp. Worse yet is the 75 or so homes that were built on that lake, (and two others) which are now basically just drained, muddy, bug and snake infested swamps with million dollar boat ramps that go no where but into the overgrowth now. I used to take a pedal boat there in the early mornings to fish the feed creek and dam but that's all gone now.
Like mentioned before here many places closed or adopted restricted hours during covid but although they reopened, due to no longer being patrolled or staffed, since covid and recent cut backs they either remain closed or have limited daytime hours.
One wildlife area which had two ramps about 20 mile from here underwent a major facelift, complete with new asphalt roads, fancy trash cans, and even lighting. then they closed it to public access due to lack of funding to patrol it. They jacked up the cost of fishing licenses, now they huckster emails looking for donations to maintain thee places that we're not allowed to fish at anymore.
I'm sure all of this has contributed to the lack of boating or fishing interest lately here.

 

[MrGiggles]

So today was a bit puzzling we decided with all the rain lately ro just take the kayaks to the 300 acre lake within 15 min of home. It's an electric only lake full of stumps several miles down rutted out dirt "roads" . I've taken a boat to this lake once and only once. It's situated in the middle of 30k acres of wildlife management area. It's way more popular with hunters than fisherman. I turned the last corner before the ramp today and their was a line of boat trailers. I've never seen anything like it on this lake. Must have been 40+ boats on the lake today typically might be 1 or 2 on the weekend. The fishing is only good for crappie in early spring the bass fishing while plentifull it's a lake full of stunted 12-14" fish. Very odd to see so many boats I've been hitting the river atleast once a week since April 1 and only seen a couple.

Someone must have made a Facebook post with a mess of fish, or was playing a prank.

 

[flatheadsteve]

Someone must have made a Facebook post with a mess of fish, or was playing a prank.

Found out from a nighbor that a local church was having a kids fishing derby. That would explain it.

 

[LDUBS]

One thing for sure, I'm not going anywhere near the ramp this weekend.

 

[airshot]

One thing for sure, I'm not going anywhere near the ramp this weekend.

They are forecasting thunderstorms for my area, just might be a good time to go....lol...

 

[flatheadsteve]

Against all better judgement we plan to go out and go tubing Sunday am. I have access to a private ramp luckily so atleast no riff raff at the ramp lol. In all seriousness we will probably launch around 8am and be done by 1pm when it starts getting busy.

 

[Billy H]

One thing for sure, I'm not going anywhere near the ramp this weekend.

Same here. Perfect weather weekend here, and the knuckleheads wil be out. Last week after an early morning of fishing. I dealt with an entitled kayaker at the ramp when I came back to leave. He had his little plastic yak tied to the dock. Pickup parked sideways blocking the whole ramp and he proceeded to take 15 minutes to load gear onto his yak. Finally I eased my boat in right behind his yak and tied off. Went up got my truck rolled down to the ramp. He finally parked his truck then proceeded to take another 10 minutes to get on his yak and go. I kept my mouth shut as much as I wanted to let this guy have it. Some folks don’t have a clue or don’t care. This guy didn’t care. Thing is there is a nice gravel launch just for yaks 30 yards away.

 

[Lost But Happy]

Same here. Perfect weather weekend here, and the knuckleheads wil be out. Last week after an early morning of fishing. I dealt with an entitled kayaker at the ramp when I came back to leave. He had his little plastic yak tied to the dock. Pickup parked sideways blocking the whole ramp and he proceeded to take 15 minutes to load gear onto his yak. Finally I eased my boat in right behind his yak and tied off. Went up got my truck rolled down to the ramp. He finally parked his truck then proceeded to take another 10 minutes to get on his yak and go. I kept my mouth shut as much as I wanted to let this guy have it. Some folks don’t have a clue or don’t care. This guy didn’t care. Thing is there is a nice gravel launch just for yaks 30 yards away.

Entitlement mentality...

 

[airshot]

Against all better judgement we plan to go out and go tubing Sunday am. I have access to a private ramp luckily so atleast no riff raff at the ramp lol. In all seriousness we will probably launch around 8am and be done by 1pm when it starts getting busy.

Sunday mornings are good as we know everyone will be in church ..... won't they?

 

[flatheadsteve]

Sunday mornings are good as we know everyone will be in church ..... won't they?

Or nursing a hangover from the night before lol

 

[hoarder]

Its suppose to rain here on Monday, but today is supposed to be the best day.
I drove by the one ramp on the river about ab hour ago, there had to be 30 old rusty jet ski trailers there and a line of them waiting to get in the water. There was one large, new looking boat with out of state registration piled high with tow behind toys being pulled with a brand new GMC crewcab one ton diesel truck.
I hope he's got wheel locks, and alarm, and good insurance on that trailer because that's not the ramp to park that thing at.

On top of that they're midway through an emergency dredging project to recreate a channel. There are pipes and dredge spoils on barges everywhere.
Not to mention it smells like sewage where ever they've been working.
There were so many people standing on the one dock it was sunk below the water line. Its been missing a float for years and those idiots aren't smart enough to not all pile on one dock.
Come Tuesday the lot will be full of trash, and only a few locals will be out on skis. Maybe a few larger boats but it seems to be only big newer boats and jet skis so far.

 

[LDUBS]

Its suppose to rain here on Monday, but today is supposed to be the best day.
I drove by the one ramp on the river about ab hour ago, there had to be 30 old rusty jet ski trailers there and a line of them waiting to get in the water. There was one large, new looking boat with out of state registration piled high with tow behind toys being pulled with a brand new GMC crewcab one ton diesel truck.
I hope he's got wheel locks, and alarm, and good insurance on that trailer because that's not the ramp to park that thing at.

On top of that they're midway through an emergency dredging project to recreate a channel. There are pipes and dredge spoils on barges everywhere.
Not to mention it smells like sewage where ever they've been working.
There were so many people standing on the one dock it was sunk below the water line. Its been missing a float for years and those idiots aren't smart enough to not all pile on one dock.
Come Tuesday the lot will be full of trash, and only a few locals will be out on skis. Maybe a few larger boats but it seems to be only big newer boats and jet skis so far.

That ramp sounds like a disaster.

 

[flatheadsteve]

We just got back from the electric only lake that's right behind us and only 1 boat trailer was at the ramp. It was a 18ft deep v pro craft and they were trying to launch in about 6 inches of water. They had to put the subaru outback they used to tow it with in the water with the water almost to the floorboards to get it unloaded. After getting it unloaded they tried to take off with the trolling motor and high centerd the boat on a stump. We dropped the kayaks and took off normally I'd offer to help but these people seemed in way over their heads.

 

[Lost But Happy]

We just got back from the electric only lake that's right behind us and only 1 boat trailer was at the ramp. It was a 18ft deep v pro craft and they were trying to launch in about 6 inches of water. They had to put the subaru outback they used to tow it with in the water with the water almost to the floorboards to get it unloaded. After getting it unloaded they tried to take off with the trolling motor and high centerd the boat on a stump. We dropped the kayaks and took off normally I'd offer to help but these people seemed in way over their heads.

I bet that Outback was crying out for mercy

 

[flatheadsteve]

So our plan to get on the water early this am to avoid the crowds worked. Not sure how needed it was the campground on this stretch of river looks 2/3 empty. Usually boats and docks line the shore for about a mile but I see most haven't even put the docks in yet. It's 10am and I've seen 1 jon boat, 1 jet ski and one open bow ski boat. I'm shocked!

 

[LaqueRatt]

Not that I want any part of weekend boating on our lake, but don't think the ramp will be too busy, it's raining cats and dogs. Not that unusual for Memorial Day weekend. Hope to get out for the first time later this week. Got two boats sitting here that have yet to be splashed.

I'm getting a sense though that a lot of people are really broke. Got a couple boats and a motor for sale and so far not a lot of interest.

 

[Stand Up]

Not that I want any part of weekend boating on our lake, but don't think the ramp will be too busy, it's raining cats and dogs. Not that unusual for Memorial Day weekend. Hope to get out for the first time later this week. Got two boats sitting here that have yet to be splashed.

I'm getting a sense though that a lot of people are really broke. Got a couple boats and a motor for sale and so far not a lot of interest.

Gas here is 4 US dollars per US gallon. Or $1.59 Canadian per litre. I would think that the price of petrol has a lot to do with it. Fill up the tow vehicle and the boat tank and then drive for an hour and boat for 4 or 5 hours and it adds up. Maybe that's why there are so many boats for sale at a steal of a price in some areas. The cost of goods has gone through the ceiling so the discretionary spending shrinks. In some areas, crime has increased a lot and owning a toy such as a boat is risky and the insurance is expensive.
For those of us who can afford to go out, it won't be so busy. Enjoy.

 

[thill]

The price of fuel is the reason that aluminum boats are so red-hot right now. People are ditching their gas-guzzling inboards and downsizing to a 17 or 18' Tracker or whatever brand, and can run all day on 10 gallons. $40 is a cheap day of entertainment, especially on the water.

I had to cross the lake twice this morning. Early, there were a few boats. On the way back, around noon, it was a MESS! Boats and jet skis everywhere. Tubers and wakeboards making swells like the bay and not a lake.

I had wanted to slip out there, but after seeing that, no thanks!