Launching your Boats.

[Tin-Can]

I have a question to ask.  To the ones that fish from boats. 
 I am prevented from fishing when I could go fishing 85 % of the time. The reason being, the difficulty launching and loading my boat alone or the safety concerns I have with fishing on the boat alone. My long time fishing buddies have moved or have passed away. I still could just go shore fishing, but it just doesn't give me the enjoyment that it once did. ( due to stamina and conditioning )  COPD sucks. !!!
 Do any of you guys launch and load alone. Any tips or answers to my issue to get me on the water would be Great. The Ice is coming and I have a need for that 1.8 MPH trolling speed.
                                                                                                                               Thanks, Mike K.

 
 Mike, about 90% of the time, when I'm in my boat, I'm alone.  Of course, I don't have the big rigs like dubob, and bduck, and several others. I just have a small 14' Lund with a 25 hp Merc. 
Because I don't have the ability to protect myself in harsh weather on the boat, I pay close attention to the weather forecast.  I do have a full Bimini top that I can put up when the sun is really roasting. But not if it becomes too windy. 

Because I go fishing, to fish and not to wade or swim, I never touch  the water while launching or recovering. At any body of water that has sufficient docks available, I drop my tailgate, back the trailer down the ramp till the boat stern floats, put truck in park, set parking brake, roll down the drivers side windows, shut off engine, open drivers door, step out on my running board, walk to the truck bed, climb into the bed,  sit down on the tailgate, walk along the trailer tow  to the bow stand, unhook my safety chain, climb in the boat bow, go get motor started and sonar/GPS turned on, go back to bow and unhook ratchet strap, reverse boat motor and move off trailer. Get to the dock, catch a cleat and secure boat. Usually leave motor idling in neutral to let it warm up and be sure it's drawing water up thru the impeller.  Go move truck to parking spot, make sure all my windows are up, my day use park pass and mussel sheet is displayed on my dash, head back to the dock and hit the truck door locks on the way. 

Leaving the water is pretty much a reverse action.  In the 16 years I've owned a boat I've only been in the water once and that wasn't while I was launching or recovering.   But that's an embarrassing  story for some other time    .

I have seen a couple anglers that have pretty big rigs and really high tech bow mounts. Watched a  guy at Willard Bay earlier this summer. I was on the dock, getting ready to call it a day, my boat tied to the dock. Watched him back his trailer down, his boat floated off and I thought he had tied a long rope to the dock somewhere. He drove off to park his rig, and his boat just seemed to float in the marina. I didn't see any rope attached. As he was walking back down the dock ramp I was about to ask him if he needed my help to retrieve his wayward floating boat.  But before I could ask, I saw his bow mount deploy, and rotate, and bring the boat quite nicely up to the dock where he was standing.   Now that was cool to watch, but my boat too small for something like  that and I bet that system cost a whole bunch more  than I would want to spend.