Most Terrifying Fishing Experience?

[RMcDuffee726]

Hey guys, I'm rather new to this and I'm not sure if this is a topic already, but I thought I would give this a shot.  I was fishing once in a nice sized pond in New Hampshire like a regularly do, but this time was different.  The pond is very clear with a depth of around 40 feet, but weeds are visible at about 10 feet.  I was kayak fishing the weeds when I got hung up on some brush.  I casually paddled over to unhang myself.  When my hand was in the water, I noticed a shadow coming up from the depths of the weeds and I quickly retracted my hand out of the water.  A huge snapper came out of nowhere and bit through the top of my rod and took my lure and line to the bottom of the pond.  If my hand was still in the water I believe without a doubt I would be missing a few fingers.  I was wondering if anyone else has any similar or scary fishing stories?

[Cryoglobin]

I have bumped up against 6-7 foot alligator gar a few times in a float tube.  They aren't overly aggressive, but they are definitely powerful and have a serious set of teeth.

[SirSnookalot]

Have had 6-10 bull sharks surrounding a 21' boat while catching bonita, a bit unnerving.

[Cryoglobin]

My uncle was doing a not so smart thing once flounder fishing in chest deep surf and putting them on a stringer around his waist.  When he came out of the water, all that was left on the stringer was heads.  He said he felt something brush him a couple of times but thought it was just one of the flounder.

[Bluebasser86]

I got to the lake once and realized I'd forgotten to put the batteries in the boat 

[Bankbeater]

It had to be when I was fishing along a rock wall a couple of years back and the electric motor quit on me.  I don't think that I have ever moved so fast to crank up the gas motor and back up before the wind pushed me into the rocks.

[boostr]

I havn't had a terrifying experience fishing yet, but I did have a terrifying surfing experience involving a fish.  When I lived down In Miami I did alot of surfing along the Florida coast. One day I was surfing at Haulover pier, while paddeling out  a huge Tarpon maybe 6ft or larger rolled in front of me and scared the living crap out of me...  never pulled my legs and arms out of the water that quick before. 

[MarkH024]

Getting shot at by a duck hunter....

[Oregon Native]

Once when fishing the Columbia river the wind came up the gorge while they were pushing a lot of current. Waves were so tall we had to hit them at an angle and surf down other side. We got a bit wet and cold. Was a bit spooky.

Tight Lines

[Grizzn N Bassin]

Thats summer it was just me and fishing pole. in the middle of woods at my uncle private pond about 15 acres. well i was walking through a trail made by me around the cove and all of a sudden i hear some shuffling in by me. the loudest most disturbing scream or crying was to follow. its was a fisher cat never heard one before in person.  it was about 1 am pitch black out and it scared me real bad haha!

[boostr]

Getting shot at by a duck hunter....

Ouch.

[Goaltender]

I was getting ready to leave the dock for a tournament on Lake Winnebago in WI when a terrible fog rolled in. This was prior to GPS. The fog was so thick you couldn't see more than 20ft. My navigation was a map with compass points on it and the boat's compass. We followed to the shore line nearly running into docks time and again. What it made most un-nerving was that we could hear other boaters screaming down the lake!

[WIGuide]

I've had a few:

 

Most recently, this past summer was fishing a small lake out in the middle of nowhere and I fished until after dark. After loading my boat, I pulled ahead into the small clearing in the woods that acts as an unlit makeshift parking lot instead of staying right by the water like I normally do when I fish there. I left my Jeep lights on so I could see what I was doing while I was putting my stuff away and I was almost done when I heard a noise. It didn't register right away, but after a few seconds it hit me. It was a deep low growl that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up! Needless to say, I hopped in my Jeep and got out of there and finished putting my gear away when I got home. I also did a little research online and I'm about 99.9% sure the growl came from a wolf.

 

While prefishing for a tournament last year a storm was blowing in, and was quite a ways out. We had been tracking it on my dad’s Humminbird and it looked like it was going to miss the lake. The storm was quite a ways out too so we decided to fish a little bit longer. About 15 minutes later, we started noticing if you were to lift your rod tip anywhere above your head you’d hear these little snaps and could even feel it in your rod a little. Needless to say, it was a little unnerving to say the least.

 

The other one that comes from fairly recent memory was a time I went out knowingly before a storm on the lake we live on. I knew I had limited time but I thought I’d have at least an hour if not longer. However, I was wrong. I no more than got to my spot and started fishing (caught one right away too), and I saw a flash of lightning and heard the thunder, so I turned and headed for home. About halfway between me and our house there was a pontoon that had their motor cover off. I stopped to check on them and they had gotten lost and on top of that their motor wouldn’t start. I sat there hanging onto their pontoon while I helped them get the motor started with lightning flashing all over and in a downpour. Probably not the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but I was blessed that someone up above was protecting me that day.

[tomustang]

Not terrifying but:

 

Fishing above dams

 

Fishing around duck hunters

[A-Jay]

First off Welcome to BR ~

 

I've had a couple.  I wouldn't call them terrifying but they certainly got my attention.

 

Back in the day, I was as addicted to salt water striped bass fishing as I am for sweet water bass now.

The best fishing was at night late and early in the year.  So there I am, wearing a wet suit, standing navel deep in the surf, casting away into the blackness.  Nothing to see.  My focus directed solely on the what the big eel on the end of my line is doing.  Hoping to feel that tell tale "thump" of a big striper sucking that bait in.  And then it happens - something bumps into my leg.  MAN !  It makes me cringe just thinking about it.  Talk about needing a change of shorts.  It happened once or twice every 2 or 3 seasons.  I never would know what the heck it was, nor did I want to.  Be each time it did, I would spend the remainder of that tide in about ankle deep water.

 

Most recently I spent an hour or so battling the wind & waves on Lake Erie in November with a member here.  We got caught in a squall or a cell or whatever you want to call it.  Almost 30 years in the USCG, all on the Atlantic, I've not seen anything like that nor do I want to again.  And just for the record, Dwight Hottle, can drive the **** out of his boat.

 

A-Jay

[VolFan]

I was fishing around Ft Loudon dam in East Tennessee one in my kayak. The generators weren't running so it was just like a big rocky pond. I heard the horn sound and was thinking they'd start putting on the generators. I was in the corner closest to the dam by the lock, we'll away from the generators. I was right over the outflow for the lock when they started letting the water out of it. Even though I probably only went up a foot or two, it felt like I was riding old faithful! I ended up about 50 yards downstream before I realized what was happening and that my drawers were still clean.

[VolFan]

I had the same experience as the poster above fishing on Calderwood Lake once. A storm came up quick, and my line was actually rising in there air because of the electricity. There was also a high pitched hum/whine like the line being pulled too tight. I paddled off the lake quick, swimming the last 40 yards or so pulling the boat. I got in a cave, made a little fire and had lunch while it blew over.

[Big Jon]

I havn't had a terrifying experience fishing yet, but I did have a terrifying surfing experience involving a fish.  When I lived down In Miami I did alot of surfing along the Florida coast. One day I was surfing at Haulover pier, while paddeling out  a huge Tarpon maybe 6ft or larger rolled in front of me and scared the living crap out of me...  never pulled my legs and arms out of the water that quick before. 

 

I was boogie boarding in Hawaii when I was 12. I came in on a certain wave and my mom was running at me screaming. Apparently a barracuda (or some other large fish, I don't think she knew what it was) came swimming through the next wave right behind me. She wouldn't let me go back out. I was upset as we had only been there for an hour. 

[tbone1993]

Getting shot at by a duck hunter....

The best was when we had a hunter yell to us " boys you are going to want to get out of the cove, we've got a youth duck hunt going on. I can guarantee I wont hit you but im not so sure about them" Que us blasting the trolling motor on high and getting out of there.  

[tbone1993]

Fun and a little scary is fishing on table rock or kentucky lake and it starts to get choppy and a storm starts rolling in.  Knowing that at any point you can get pushed into a huge rock bluff or hit a rogue wave that pushes you onto a point bar or beaches you in the middle. Nothing like the great lakes but still makes you uneasy. 

[MarkH024]

The best was when we had a hunter yell to us " boys you are going to want to get out of the cove, we've got a youth duck hunt going on. I can guarantee I wont hit you but im not so sure about them" Que us blasting the trolling motor on high and getting out of there.  

I was shot at intentionally. He did hit anyone but his buck shot landed about 3 feet from our boat. I had a thread here talking about it, I'll edit this post and put the link in.

 

 

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/106570-fishermenwaterfowl-hunter-clashyour-take/?hl=%2Bduck+%2Bhunter

Edited January 21, 2014 by MarkH024

[Dwight Hottle]

Like A-Jay mentioned we got caught is some kind of a weather cell or sudden squall the likes of which I have never seen or want to see from the water again. We were about 11 miles from the dock when the wind started picking up blowing from the west. The dock was directly west where we had launched from. I always check the weather report , NOAA offshore forecast and I Wind Surf wind reports before heading out. There was nothing in the forecast to suggest what was going to happen. We were catching fish so when the wind started picking up I was not over concerned. That proved to be a major mistake. Once the waves were running 2-4 feet we stowed our tackle & gear before leaving. I had the bow pointed straight west into the wind. My boat is a 20 foot starcraft with a 19 degree deadrise deep V with a 250 merc pro xs on the back and it usually handles lake erie waves pretty good if I take it easy. The wind was blowing so hard the tops of the waves were being blown off as they were building. I thought about turning around and going directly east to another marina about 5-6 miles away. The waves would be hitting us directly in the stern but the truck & trailer would not be there. I decided to keep going west headed into the waves. I knew the land mass to our west would eventually start to break the wind & waves up as we got closer. The 2-4 footers quickly became 3-5 then 4-6 then 5 -7 then 6-8 & bigger. A-Jay shouted to me to slow down & head in closer to shore as the waves might be smaller as we went towards shallower water. As the wind keep building the waves did too. I had all I could handle keeping the bow into the wind steering & powering up each wave then getting ready for the next wave to hit. Lake erie is unique because of its shallow nature which stacks waves very close together rather than spreading them out. I don't know how big the waves got before they started to subside a little because all I could do was steer & hang on. The only trouble with a deep V with high freeboard is that it allows the wind to catch the bow & try to push it sideways. IF that happened we would be taking those waves over the side & it would have swamped us. 

When it was all said & done the wind finally started to ease. Back at the dock A-Jay told me that my boat was maxed out & we could not have handled any waves bigger than what we experienced. I thought about it and knew he was right.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

South to North wind on Kentucky lake, 18ft Bass Tracker.

 

We were across the lake from Blood River when the wind picked up and we could see the rollers. We idled across the lake with waves higher than my head going under the passenger side and exiting the driver side. Boat felt like it was at a 45 degree angle with each wave.

 

Probably the most scared I have ever felt in a boat.

[00 mod]

Heading out of the inlet in El Salvador. We were in a 38'er but that first wave hit us head on and stood the boat up almost straight up and down. Once you get past the first one it is a cake walk, but it is like that everyday. There are even locals that will pilot your boat out for you for $10 US. We were prepared and sitting on bean bags on the floor but it was still nuts. The week before they flipped a 62' Viking headed out at the same spot. I would never go back but man was that a great week of fishing!

Jeff

[flyfisher]

man, you guys have some scary stuff.....never had a bad water based experience but more than one while rock climbing