Random noises out on the water

[Turkey sandwich]

You haven't experienced night fishing until you've experienced weird noises, crazy bugs, and eyes out in the distance.  Watching someone freak out when a Dobson fly gets tangled in their hair is almost indescribable hilarity, especially if you convince them they're flesh eating. 

Still one of my best and most terrifying days on the water came on a farm pond leading up to one of the most violent thunderstorms I've ever experienced breaking.  Trees fell as we ran.  It was bad.  Really bad.  I caught a limit between 4 and 6.5lbs (I'm in PA, give me some slack, a 25lb bag in northern PA borders on divine revelation...) and all hell broke loose.  Lightening struck 3-4 times within 30 yards as we were running like hell through the woods with rods in hand.  I saw two trees basically explode and lightening struck, at one point, just 20-30 feet off the swamp/trail we'd previously crossed.  At that time, never had I ever been so terrified.  Turns out, tornados touched down in the township while we were getting off the water.  We lucked out.  No one forecasted epic lightening and tornados.  

 

[BassB8Caster]

15 hours ago, S. Sass said:

"A little unnerving for first time night fishing on a pond with absolutely no lights."

Really? Who does this? Absolutely no lights and you went fishing at night no less for the first time! 

I should have been more specific.  I had lights to see in my kayak but there were no other lights on the water (no docks, camps with lights etc). 

[BassB8Caster]

Some great tales already. This topic turned out better than I expected.  My first night fishing I experienced the Beaver slap. Odd thing is I saw the Beaver come out off shore and swim out in front and around me to avoid me. Then about a minute later it sounded like a sasquatch jumped in the water.

 

[soflabasser]

8 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

Our boat broke down way up a wild river one evening and we paddled all the way back to the ramp against the current.It took us 4 hours.

On the way dozens of barred owls began hooting.lve heard them a lot but never like this.You couldn't tell when one started or when it ended.

 

Hearing owls is one of my favorite aspects of night fishing, must of been nice to hear so many owls making sounds at once.

[FordsnFishin]

10 hours ago, scaleface said:

I was catfishing in a boat one night  , sitting in the rear seat and a blue Herron came out of nowhere and landed in the front ..I'll admit , that scared me . Then I just watched it for a minute  before he took off .

They'll get ya!  There are so many where I'm at its a regular occurrence to have them scare you.  They like sitting in the trees and as soon as you troll by they fly off screeching to holy hell. 

[Red Bear]

22 hours ago, BassB8Caster said:

Lately while ive been out fishing (i fish mainly small ponds under 200 acres) i have heard more trees crash than in my life time. It seems lately every outing i hear a tree fall. Just seems super odd that all of a sudden im hearing this. I have spend many many hours in the outdoors in my life and have not heard this many trees fall. The past week i have done my first bit of night fishing, and along with a tree crashing, i have heard some sort of animal wading around in the shoreline about 100 feet away. A little unnerving for first time night fishing on a pond with absolutely no lights. The first night i went out it seemed that every little sound spooked me. 

What weird noises have you guys heard out on the water (both day and night)? 

bigfoot trying to intimidate you to get off "his" pond at night so he can enjoy it for himself. theyre known for pushing trees over. it was also him you heard wading, he may have a family to protect that uses the pond at night

 

9 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Spring turkey hunters, and then fall and winter deer and duck hunters get me when they're close by when they start blasting. 

Only one I caught explain was about a baseball sized rock getting launched at my boat out of a very thick stand of trees a couple months back. It would take some work for a person to get to the area it came from, and I was quite a ways off the shoreline, but apparently someone didn't like me fishing where I was. I couldn't see anything and didn't want to get any closer for obvious reasons. 

definitely bigfoot here. ive read a bunch of similar encounters. he wanted you gone. they love to throw rocks

[2tall79]

Fishing Lake Roosevelt few years back.   Three A-6's flew over at tree top.  Needed a change of underwear shortly after.

[J Francho]

12 hours ago, clh121787 said:

Fishin wasn't one of them

Speak for yourself, though I'm glad many think this way, lol.

[jr231]

@ I'm pretty sure what ever those "two things" may be... are just as good in the day time ! ?

[BassB8Caster]

23 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Speak for yourself, though I'm glad many think this way, lol.

I agree. After having my first child 6 weeks ago, it works out best for me to fish at night while she sleeps vs early am or day when she is awake and my wife needs help. So I think a new father was one who first fished at night. There is only 24 hours in a given day. We can't always control our schedules.  Life happens. So it's nice to still be able to venture out with nature and do some fishing at night!

[Senko lover]

14 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Spring turkey hunters, and then fall and winter deer and duck hunters get me when they're close by when they start blasting. 

Only one I caught explain was about a baseball sized rock getting launched at my boat out of a very thick stand of trees a couple months back. It would take some work for a person to get to the area it came from, and I was quite a ways off the shoreline, but apparently someone didn't like me fishing where I was. I couldn't see anything and didn't want to get any closer for obvious reasons. 

I would have pulled out your gun and showed them what real intimidation looked like.

[F14A-B]

12 hours ago, soflabasser said:

Hearing owls is one of my favorite aspects of night fishing, must of been nice to hear so many owls making sounds at once.

Yes Sir. It's one of my favorite aspects of Turkey hunting..

[Reel Guy]

I had a beaver coming close to me in an inlet from this lake I was fishing. I looked down to get my camera out of my pocket and he flapped his tail and disappeared in a water explosion! Never saw or heard that before but he obviously did not want his picture taken. He was probably within 10-15 yards when he sounded the Dive! Dive! signal! Made me jump a bit! Okay, maybe more than a little.

[Desync]

20 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Spring turkey hunters, and then fall and winter deer and duck hunters get me when they're close by when they start blasting. 

Only one I caught explain was about a baseball sized rock getting launched at my boat out of a very thick stand of trees a couple months back. It would take some work for a person to get to the area it came from, and I was quite a ways off the shoreline, but apparently someone didn't like me fishing where I was. I couldn't see anything and didn't want to get any closer for obvious reasons. 

Not sure about where you live, but if that happened around here, you can guarantee those bushes would of been lit up with gunfire and would have been wrote up as an accident of self defense.

 

Off Topic Story

Years and years and years ago, lets go back like 25 years ago, when i was about 7, my parents use to rent this house and it had a lake on the property that me and my father fished from a lot. We ended up moving out and another guy ended up buying the whole property. He always had trouble of ppl coming thru the woods and fishing on the backside of the pond, it was just a small spread of trees that seperated the pond from a main road with houses, so they would just walk thru those woods and fish at the pond whenever they wanted.

 

It got to the point they was just littering the ground really bad around there and throwing their trash into the water and he has ran them off before,  so he got a bunch of no trespassing signs and posted them around the lake and waited. He went back down there the next day and sure enough, 2 people was down there fishing again. This time he carried his deer rifle down to the water and waited until they threw their line out and he literally blew their bobber out of the water right in front of them. Of course they ran off and he went down and gathered all their rods and tackle box for his own collection. He went ahead and called the cops and told them what happened and it being his land cops told him he could do whatever he wanted on his own land, for all the cops know he was shooting at turtles .

[Turkey sandwich]

Yeah, as a guy who's taught self defense as well as some combative tactics for police and military for the better part of the last 10 years, I'm going to very strongly urge none of you to actually start shooting at people.  

[Gundog]

2 minutes ago, Turkey sandwich said:

Yeah, as a guy who's taught self defense as well as some combative tactics for police and military for the better part of the last 10 years, I'm going to very strongly urge none of you to actually start shooting at people.  

Agreed. Don't do anything you will regret later. I've been warned off property that I use to fish. And I have always been polite with those who have told to leave. Thankfully nobody has ever pulled a gun.

[N Florida Mike]

A friend and me were fishing the home lake when we were 17-18.All of a sudden, rocks began to land around us.A couple even in the boat.I saw a younger kid,maybe 14, heaving the rocks while trying to stay hidden.What he didn't know was that I was one of the best rock throwers in the county having played pitcher on my baseball teams.I immediately threw the rocks back and hit him with at least one of them.He ran in the house crying.

I think if you lived on my lake in the 70s through the 90s you had to have passed a test confirming mental illness.There were a lot of crazy people here then.Its settled down some since .

[Catch 22]

As many have said,you have not lived til you experience a beaver tail slap,blue heron squawk,bat line hit or a snake trying to enter your boat at night.I`m a seasoned vet.

Anyone ever surprise a groundhog up close.Its noisy.

C22

 

[N Florida Mike]

No,but I've surprised nutrias before.They swim away in the water but they'll hiss at you if they feel threatened.

[win300mag1]

Sounds like you could end up on finding Bigfoot lol. Not sure if you carry but I would. Obviously i wouldnt empty a magazine into the brush but seeing as I don't have sharp teeth or claws, my 1911 is a huge comfort.

[Fishing Cowgirl]

Trying to get away from a gator fight is always interesting. You can hear the gators when they grab up a wild pig or bird. Scariest is the duck hunters. You see ducks swimming and realize one group of ducks isn't swimming, and they are actually decoys. You just announce out loud.."we are leaving. this spots yours!"   But you have the poachers too that drive along shooting at ducks in the water and they don't care how far you try to get away from them. (Yes, I did call the Game and Fish agency on them because it's not only illegal but dangerous to us since they were aiming our direction too.) This was on Lake Kissimmee.

[BassB8Caster]

6 minutes ago, Fishing Cowgirl said:

Trying to get away from a gator fight is always interesting. You can hear the gators when they grab up a wild pig or bird. Scariest is the duck hunters. You see ducks swimming and realize one group of ducks isn't swimming, and they are actually decoys. You just announce out loud.."we are leaving. this spots yours!"   But you have the poachers too that drive along shooting at ducks in the water and they don't care how far you try to get away from them. (Yes, I did call the Game and Fish agency on them because it's not only illegal but dangerous to us since they were aiming our direction too.) This was on Lake Kissimmee.

Thank god we dont have gators. Couldnt imagine rolling up on then while fighting or eating. 

[Ratherbfishing]

It seems the older I get and the less food agrees with me, the more "random noises on the water" there seems to be.

[Buckeye Ron]

Fishing a local lake one sunny morning around a real small island. As I made my way around the island I heard a very loud crashing sound right behind the boat. Scared me into next week! It was a large Whitetail buck that I evidently spooked out of its hiding spot. Pretty sure I was more spooked than the deer.

[Fishing Cowgirl]

On September 2, 2016 at 1:58 PM, Ratherbfishing said:

It seems the older I get and the less food agrees with me, the more "random noises on the water" there seems to be.

My husband does random noises too. I refer to those as his fish call.  The louder the bigger the fish.