True Story- "It Could Have Been Me"*

This video reminds me of an accident I had back in 2001. I lived in Champlin MN at the time (NW of MPLS outer suburb) and was a member of the Vikings Bassmasters. Our last club tournament of the year was in August out at the Horseshoe Chain which is 20 miles SW of St. Cloud. A bunch of us stayed at one of the guy's homes out by Maple Lake to get us closer for the morning drive. This club liked to start it's tournaments right away at safe light so our convoy of 3 trucks with boats and me in my truck traveled in the dark. I brought up the rear. From the route we took the entrance to the Public Access was towards the bottom of a fairly long hill. Because of the incline, I could see up to the two lead trucks tail lights as they slowed and prepared to turn and I was watching for where they would turn. I didn't know it but they went past the access. The truck and boat in front of me knew where the turn was and because of oncoming traffic they had to stop before they could turn; As that I wasn't watching his tail lights I didn't know he was coming to a stop until it was too late.

When I did realize he was slowing down to a stop I had to slam on my breaks but my momentum and the distance was such that I slammed pretty hard into Mike Jacobson's (Guy who works at Vados Bait Store) motor. Steam went flying up and his boat surged forward pretty good. The bow stop and winch pole broke, but thank God the tow straps held. After a quick inspection, we drove the vehicles into the public access parking lot to get a better look. It was still sort of dark out so we had to use flashlights to start until it got lighter. Mike's boat and motor didn't look to be in too bad of shape, but the front of my truck, a Ford Ranger, was smashed in pretty good.

We decided there was nothing more we could do, so we launched all the boats and went fishing. I was a mess for most of the morning and it was the hardest time I've ever had concentrating on fishing during a tournament. I just felt terrible about what happened and all I could think was things were gonna work out for the worst. It was such an adrenaline rush that I was shaking even a couple of hours later. My partner that day was great and eventually got me settled down and focused on the fishing. My partner won the tournament catching several pigs and easily sealed up the club AOY. Towards the end of the day when I settled down, I managed to put a couple of nice fish in the boat, but I didn't get a limit. I can't remember if I still was able to qualify for the State Team as an alternative or not, but with the accident and anticipated repair bills that was out of the question.

I thought for sure I poked a hole in my radiator and was going to have to get towed, but after the tournament was over we would find out that wasn't the case. I was able to drive without any problems up to my parent's cabin on Sullivan Lake and Dad was able to fix my truck at the pole barn at the property where I live now. I also thought for sure I did major damage to Mike's expensive bass boat and motor and figured my insurance rates were going to skyrocket. As it turned out the damage was minor enough that I just paid a bit over a hundred out of pocket and we didn't need to involve the insurance companies at all.

Even though it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, it still sucked!

* "It Could Have Been Me" is a song by the band The Call on their Into the Woods album

Now that I think about it this story could have qualified for the Outdoor Blogger Network writing prompt "Damaged Goods" This was by far my biggest fishing train wreck ever.

Also Read: My Biggest Fishing Train Wrecks
My Biggest Fishing Train Wrecks Pt. 2