Most Terrifying Fishing Experience?

[swagkid300]

I was fishing in Florida for Sharks,

I had one hooked and boy was this a strong shark.

I had the rod hooked onto me with the rod holder thing, and the shark was dragging me a long the sand onto the beach little by little.

Luckily enough, the hook broke and i was saved. woohoo

[RivasIsland]

Scariest moment I can think of is when I went reef fishing in Turks and Caicos a couple of years ago. After some fishing I jumped in the water to cool off. While underwater, I opened my eyes and saw a 4-5 foot Barracuda inches from my face. I got out of the water as quickly as I had gotten in.

[soopd]

My partner falling in the water during early spring.  Water temps in low 40's if I remember correctly.  We were dressed with coveralls, boots, and a lot of clothes.  The current was moving the boat and him away from each other.  The net was barely long enough that he got a hand on it before he went under the 3rd time.  If I would have got the throw cushion and threw it to him it would have been too late.  The good Lord looking out for us because one second longer and it would have been too late.  Scared him so much that he has not been fishing since that incident a few years ago.  

[plumworm]

Back in the late 80's we were fishing the Madison river in MT. We rented 2 drift boats to fish about 15 miles of river. The rental company would pick us up at 4 pm. When we started our trip (8 am) the temp. was 70. All of us were wearing shorts and wading boots. The morning was great. About 11-12 am, the wind switched to the NW and the temp. started to drop. About, 1 pm, the temp was down to about 50. We still had about 6-7 miles to go and the temp kept dropping. We had quit fishing and just wanted to get down to our take out point. Remember, we had shorts and shirts and a rain jackets. By the time we got down to our pick up point, we were very close to hypothermia. Where we to be picked up, there was no wood for miles. No fire. It was bad, and to make matters worse, the guide was an hour late picking us up. By the time he picked us up we were vey aware that being outdoors can be dangerous. We had good sippin whiskey and a worm cabin to go back too, but that trip was INTERESTING.

[coryn h. fishowl]

Getting shot at by a duck hunter....

Yeah, okay...you win. Not necessarily an win you want to have...but you win.

[DILLY07]

Not a fishing story. 

 

One day, my brother and I bought a cheap leisure boat to cruise around on the Mississippi River. It flooded for 3 weeks and it finally went down. So my brother and I decided to take the boat out. My brother was driving, I was in the passenger seat listening to music and drinking some good ol' cold beer from the cooler. Cruising for good 30-40 minutes out from the area. All the sudden we were in the main channel gotten lower somehow. We could sense it. Within 10 seconds we could sense it then BAM hit a sandbar somehow in the main channel and got stuck. I hit my chin on the dash board. Bled a bit. We tried getting unstuck by going foward with the prop. We still couldn't get out. I was so stressed and everything. All the sudden the floor of the boat got wet. I was like CHECK THE PLUG!!!! My brother checked it very quick. It was still there. Him and I jumped out of the boat and found out stupid sand bar was just up to our knees! I was like Dadgum it! My brother and I pushed it about good 1/4 mile and all the sudden the sand bar dropped like cliff. We got up and fired up the boat and went back to the ramp. The prop was bent and such. 1,300 dollars to get it repaired   All that matters God kept us safe.  It was very unnerving day. 

[hawghunters]

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!

Had a similar experience on the Susquehanna River. We launched, and simply had to cross the river. It was a pretty wide part of the river, and was VERY foggy. We were running the outboard and drove around for half an hour and couldn't find land. Finally we found land, but then struggled to figure out where the current was even going. Finally we determined which side of the river we were on, and it was the wrong side. When we finally crossed the river, we realized we had run significantly too far south as we were in Maryland and not Pennsylvania.

Also struggled with fog when I was fishing the Chesapeake and my boater zips away from the ramp, hits thick fog, and looks at me and says do you know where were going? It had been about my second time fishing that area. We missed the morning bite by the time we made it to our spot.

[Pz3]

Was out in a metal canoe pretty far from the truck/launch area. A good hour or two to get back when really bad weather came out of no where. Gusts around 40. Tons of ground to air lightning and could feel the electricity everywhere. Surrounded by flat islands. Best idea I could come up with was paddling like hell 20 minutes to a roadway bridge. Tied off and waited it out for the next hour.

[bassmaster99]

I have had two scary experiences

 

One I was wading through a creek barefoot when I found some braid floating I grabbed it and it lead to right where I was standing, it turns out the "rock" my left foot was on was actually a snapping turtle. Needless to say I was up out of that creek quickly.

 

Two I was fishing a golf course in Florida when I caught about a one pounder. A 7 foot gator came flying out of the pond while I was bent over getting the hook out of the fish. I dropped the fish and my rod on the spot and booked it. The gator stopped and ate the fish but did not leave the area for about 15 minutes.

[Lucky Craft Man]

Both of my most terrifying moments dealt with lightening.  Once I was fishing a small lake when lightening hit the water on the other side.  My buddy had his rod tip in the water at the time of the strike, which he promptly dropped after getting a small jolt through it and all the hair on my neck and arm stood up.  Needless to say, we set a water speed record getting back to the dock.

 

The second time, me and a friend were fishing out on Lake Erie.  It was overcast, but nothing very menacing.  We both started to hear a humming sound actually coming from our rods (like you hear out of the electrical box by the streets).  As the humming sound got louder, we begin receiving shocks from the graphite blank it we touched it (with arcs about an inch long coming from the rod to our finger).  Then our slack line started to float in the air after a cast (that was freaky if you ever have seen that).  Needless to say, we broke our previous water speed record getting back to the dock.  You should have seen the lightening cracking down on the water in our wake.  Scary stuff there.

[Pz3]

I would say you just barely avoided death by lightning. I had the shock through the water once. Felt like I grabbed a cattle fence. Ever since then I dont tempt fait anymore.

[bmac31]

I was about 16. Me and a couple buddys take a canoe out on a local lake late one night for some catfishing and beers. One of my buddys decides he can stand in the back of the canoe and tips us. So now we have a swamped canoe that were not supposed to have out, on a lake that we've heard stories about having some sort of drain in the middle of the lake that sucks you in. We made it out dragging the swamped canoe the whole way. Its not that scary looking back on. I guess when I was 16 it felt scarier.

Brian

[Macrosill]

My most terrifying fishing moment was back in 1992 or so.  It was a summer day and a friend and I went and rented a small 12' tin boat with a small outboard at the marina to do some fluke fishing.  Well, I caught a fish.  I reel the thing in and it is some red colored alien looking animal with wings.  Once in the boat it started making grunting noises.  I had no idea what it was and was terrified.  I started beating the thing with an oar.  I think I had to change my underwear after that.

 

It turns out it was just a Sea Robin.  I must have looked like a complete idiot.  I laugh about it now but was so scared that day.

[bigbill]

Night fishing before dawn I had a bear near my car investigating it. I've heard bears hooting at night before in this area. There was a bear at a local school during the day too. I was carrying my 357magnum as i always do in the wilds. I think I spilled some bass scent on my cars bumper.

Getting caught in a micro burst in a small boat when the rollers are twice the height of the sides of the boat wasn't scary. I wish I had life preservers for my three tackle boxes. Lots of $$ in them. My son had the fish finder on and was looking at big carp in the channel as we went out. It was looking like a great trip Until the black clouds rolled in. I just repaired the leak in the boat too.

[bigbill]

My most terrifying fishing moment was back in 1992 or so. It was a summer day and a friend and I went and rented a small 12' tin boat with a small outboard at the marina to do some fluke fishing. Well, I caught a fish. I reel the thing in and it is some red colored alien looking animal with wings. Once in the boat it started making grunting noises. I had no idea what it was and was terrified. I started beating the thing with an oar. I think I had to change my underwear after that.

It turns out it was just a Sea Robin. I must have looked like a complete idiot. I laugh about it now but was so scared that day.

The sea robins have a chicken leg sized piece of meat in there backs that is very tasty. To tell the guys and gals here there ugly and have wings. Scary if you never seen them before.

[Jd_Phillips_Fishin]

This is more of a funny story than a terrifying one, last summer my grandpa invited me, my brother, and my dad to go out to the jetties and do sum shark and red fishin. This was my first time salt water fishing so I did not now what to expect. On the first day it only took 20 min. to get hooked up, so I'm battling this big black tip for about 15 min. and it started going belly up and acting like it was tired, so I peeked over the side of the boat , and the fish surged down   pulling me down, balancing my body on the side of boat with the rod still in my hand!   My grandpa quickly grabbed the rod and helpped me back on the floor of the boat.

[S_Miketa6]

This past summer I was out fishing with my dad and we got caught in a deep fog and could barely see the shoreline from where we were fishing, we were fishing a weed line and I was throwing a crank bait straight out of the front of the boat, and as I pulled my bait out of the water a musky jumped clear out of the water at my crank bait, it jumped right into the trolling motor and in one motion I basically jumped to the back of the boat, never seen anything like it! My dad thought I fell in!!! haha

[FishinCop646]

Mine would have to be the day I went fishing with my buddy and his motor would not fire after a day on the lake. It was a really nice day until a storm decided to roll in! We were stuck on the lake with nothing more than a trolling motor to get us back to the dock, about two miles. Thunder, lightning, and white caps over the side of the boat sure was not entertaining! It probably would have been better to hit the shore and wait out the storm, but by then we would have been in the dark trying to get back.

[Trent Wilson]

Wasn't bad on my part, but duck hunting out of my previous boat (17' tri hull bullet), me and some buddies were just running up the lake. Came around a corner and saw our limit. We chambered, drew, and immediately saw a man stand up in his blind yelling "Don't shoot my decoys! Don't shoot my decoys!"

[HoosierHawgs]

Snake hits a worm. Dropped my rod and booked it to the top of the hill.

[gulfcaptain]

Not fishing, but I've been caught offshore in the Gulf of Mexico 65mi from the dock with the winds blowing out of the north pushing 45-50kts.  Lets just say a 170ft crewboat feels really small in 10+ft waves or should I say white caps when you can only go at the speed of slow, throttle up one wave, then put the engines in reverse to slip down between the two to do it all over again as so the boat didn't go airborne.  5hrs and 30mi later it laid down enough (3-5ft) where I could get on top and get back to the dock.  

[everythingthatswims]

Oregon Inlet NC got nasty one day when we were heading out. The seas were around 6-8' stacked very close together and STEEP. 23' Hydra sports and the prop was coming out of the water on our way down the waves. We had to go into the waves for what seemed like forever until there was enough space in between waves to turn around. Full throttle to climb up on top of a wave and bump it in and out of gear to surf it back in. Combination of an east wind and an outgoing tide had the inlet pretty aggravated, soon afterwords it was navigable again.

 

Oregon inlet is quite possibly the worst inlet on the east coast, nothing to scoff at!

[Sam]

WIGuide, lightning can strike five miles from the edge of a thunderstorm.

 

So if you see the storm on your radar or over the horizon you can get hit when the energy moves around five miles from your location.

[blackmax135]

Fishing in the river with a buddy that's not even close to being accurate with a bait caster yet was constantly getting in the trees.  One cast got so tangled we went up to the tree and he went to snatching and shacking the tree.  Who would have guessed two cotton mouth water moccasins come flying in the boat.  There I went over board, I'm not playing with snakes; not this ol boy.  They ended up crawling out and we got back in and went home cause I was ticked and wet.

 

Few weeks later I took another friend fishing. Same problem!! went to the tree but not close enough for snakes to fall in. That didn't mater this one had a wasp nest the size of a basketball.  They stung me 4 or 5 times luckily that's all.  But I no longer have that reel or hat or sunglasses.  This is why I mostly fish alone now and cut all my lines (unless its an expensive lure).

[Jtrout]

Luckily nothin bad has happened to me yet except fishing from the bank and then looking down at my feet and see curled up snakes is striking distance it's happened quite often luckily none were poisonous. I was crabbing with my buddy using his 1200 ft trot line and we ran out of gas and 3 of us took turns using one paddle to get back to shore.