Close calls?

[walleyecrazy]

I'm sure we have all had moments while out fishing where we have almost gotten hurt in one way or another. I had one while fishing the other night, and it got me wondering what you all may have had as far as close calls. Mine from the other night came while bank fishing while standing on a culvert pipe at dusk. I was using a 5" super spook, and had probably one of the biggest pickerel I have ever seen explode on it about 30 yards out. After a brief fight I went to pull it out of the water by lifting the line with my hands as I usually do on this culvert pipe. I got the pickerel about a foot out of the water when the spook came free and flew back in my direction. I'm not sure how, but I was able to get my head turned in the split second it took between the lure coming free and it smacking me in the cheek. Lucky for me the lure must have hit me with the hooks facing away from me, because I managed not to get hooked by any of the three trebles. I just stood there and laughed at myself like an idiot for about ten seconds while thinking holy crap that was close to hurting pretty bad. 

[MGF]

I've seen plenty of hooks through fingers and even ears. I always carry wire cutters. LOL

 

Flipped a canoe in December. Fortunately I had a dry bag stocked with dry clothes and fire making supplies.

 

A fair number of boating near misses...have to stay alert on a river or it'll get you.

 

That's about all. Fishing hasn't been very dangerous compared to some of the other activities I've taken part in.

[DomQ]

I stopped a guy from lipping a small pike, maybe 16" long. 

[Koz]

Gators. Multiple encounters.

[Fishes in trees]

That is the whole point of wearing a ball cap, or some sort of billed cap, when you're fishing, I think.  Not a fan of floppy brimmed hats.  Over the years, I've had several occasions when for one reason or another I jerked real hard on the line and had the bait come right back at me, pretty fast.   I instinctively dropped my head and the bait smacked into the bill of the cap.  This has happened more than once.  I try to remember not to jerk hard directly back, but occasionally you forget.  Been pretty lucky with the bait bouncing off the bill of the cap.  I've only seriously stuck myself once with a treble hook and that was totally my fault, happened when I was loading the fishing truck.  Luckily all my hook removal tools were readily available.  Got from seriously stuck to the hook out within 3 or 4 minutes.

[NYWayfarer]

I have had many lures and hooks that have come flying at me bounce off my sunglasses. I wear them all the time now. Better broken glasses than a hook in the eye.

 

I have had a few falls while bank fishing. Slippery slopes, logs and rocks. I came home a few times bruised and wet.

 

Plenty of treble hooks in the hand. Luckily none past the barb.

[haggard]

A couple "oh I'm THAT shallow?" moments in the boat when underway were reminders to pay attention, don't get distracted, and constantly watch your depth on the finder. Got lucky twice, and don't want to try a third time.

 

[galyonj]

I dunno if I count this as a close call because of how comfortable I've always been around reptiles, but I was fishing on a friend's dock one day and heard a thump behind me. Turned around to see a cottonmouth on the dock with me.

 

Totally forgot about the fishing for a minute while I watched it, mostly because I was just…really excited to get to see one up close like that.

 

Minute or so later it slipped into the water. So maybe a close call, but I thought it was pretty cool to get to see a snake like that up close and personal without being close enough that either of us had to worry.

[papajoe222]

My worst was being thrown overboard on a rainy, windy day. I was fishing off the bow with no PFD when it happened. By the time i came to my senses, my boat had been blown a good 20yrds downwind. I was 68yrs old and weighed down by my rain gear, I feared I wouldn't be able to catch up with it.  I was lucky the wind was blowing toward shore less than 100rds away. I survived, but I never fish alone without a PFD on.

[GReb]

I was pushing a jon boat in one day and cake face to face with a 4 ft copperhead. Our heads were probably one three feet apart. Have had several other close encounters with mr no shoulders

 

Almost got sunk by a wake boat Saturday. Those things should be outlawed up river where you have nowhere to go. The waves were easily 4 feet tall and nearly submerged my bow

[Bird]

Scariest for me by far was flipping a Jonboat at a low water bridge in swift current. 

I remember getting sucked under the bridge and being very dark but managed to come up on the other side unharmed. 

 

The boat didn't fair so well as it got stuck sideways in the bridge opening and was bent into a taco. 

 

Later in the year, making the same float when the river was much lower I noticed all the rebarb hanging out under the bridge where I went through previously. 

 

Could have been very bad.

[Crappiebasser]

I was out with a buddy night fishing for crappie and got hit by a 18’ G3 bass boat. We were luckily in a pontoon and they guy turned at the last second so he slide sideways into us instead of head on. Totaled both boats but we all walked away with just bumps and bruises. The driver was new to the lake and watching his gps instead of where he was going. 

 

Another time I fell overboard without a pfd in January. Luckily I was fishing brush piles and was able to use a tree to boost myself right back in the boat. I now keep a change of clothes in the boat and wear a pfd when fishing alone.

[BrianMDTX]

Was fishing with my buddy in a rental wooden rowboat with two trolling motors on a reservoir (no gas motors allowed). It was a beautiful day and we were probably a 1/2 mile from the rental dock fishing when a severe thunderstorm blossomed out of nowhere. We had to head into the wind to get back and could not make headway. Lightning was crashing down everywhere around us and the “seas” starting rising with waves 4’-5’. The boat started to swamp so we turned tail and headed downwind to shore. We beached the boat and rode out the storm in the open. I thought we were either going to get struck by lightning or be crushed by falling trees. 
 

Once it passed, we headed back and halfway to the dock the batteries gave out and we had to row the rest of the way. That was probably 45 years ago and I remember it vividly. 

[Mobasser]

My wife an I made a trip to Missouri's lake Taneycomo years ago. It rained on the 4hr drive down there. We got our cabin, and it was raining lightly. I went down to the dock and started casting a roostertail spinner. Almost right away I hooked a 14" trout. When I went to unhook him, he slipped in my hand, and the treble hook got caught on the skin between my thumb and forefinger, with the trout still flopping around. My wife backed out the hook with some needle nose pliers. My hand was sore for a couple of days. Otherwise no other harm.done.

[DitchPanda]

One time I was reaching down to lip a fish fish shook his head and I caught a book under the thumb nail just past the barb...that was neat. Just a few weeks ago I was catching some dinks on a spinnerbait..went to flip in a 12 incher the bait popped and smacked me in the mouth. No harm done.

[Hower08]

My dad smashed me between the shoulder blades with a 10 XD. We had a few unpleasant words after that haha

[schplurg]

This one is a little different but something that taught me a lesson.

 

Early this year I went to Uvas Lake here. Me and a friend walked around to the other side, a little over a mile. Bank fishing.

 

About 10 minutes into fishing I had a bad back spasm and I was on the ground. I was just walking on flat ground and boom - down. Long story short, I was eventually able to hobble back to the truck under my own power. My friend carried my backpack.

 

I was close to not being able to make the walk back at all. It hurt like a word I can't say on this forum, a bunch of 'em! The pain was excruciating and it took a long time. Like all my fishing trips, I have it on video and it hurts watching it.

 

If I were alone and fishing closer to dusk I could have been stuck there all night. There are animals on that side of the lake. I've seen torn up deer carcasses and all that. Coyotes and mountain lions are there.

 

Kinda freaked me out that something like that can happen any moment.

 

So now:

- I carry my kayak whistle with me even on shore. That would help me at this location - there are homes near enough to hear me. I will get a horn for this and the yak.

- I tell someone where I'm going and when they should start worrying.

- I have a minimal emergency kit. Alcohol or peroxide, napkins and tape if not bandages, lip balm, and a headlamp. Not much really.

- I tread more carefully.

- make sure my phone is charged. May not get a signal out there, but you may at some point.

- I have better hiking shoes. Waaaay less slips and falls now.

 

I've fallen hard many times on steep banks. Hurts but makes for a good laugh for the videos LOL. I fell once landing a fish and I swear I heard it laugh.

 

But what if I break a leg?

 

While fishing, think about what would happen if you got injured right at that moment. Plan accordingly.

[king fisher]

I have fallen through the ice fishing, Flipped rafts in rapids, numerous close calls while flying to my favorite fishing spots in marginal weather, had to shoot a brown bear, worst part was the bear didn't stop the bullet and it put a whole in the oil filter of my Honda outboard, ( killed a bear and Honda in one shot).  Hooked many times, worst was with a size 12 /0 hook buried deep in my leg with the other hook on the double hook lure still hooked to a dorodo. Worst close call was when I was 14, lost the biggest bass I had ever seen right at my feet resulting in sever psychological trauma, and over 40 years of nightmares.

[Fallser]

I think the scariest was when I was fishing a small river in central Vermont.  I'd just started learning how to wade and didn't no diddly about waders.  I was just out of college, no job, very little money.  I brought cheap pair of stocking foot waders.  I didn't know and nobody told me you were suppose to wear stocking foot waders inside a shoe.  I got to the stream bank, rigged up my spinning rod, pulled the waders on over my sneakers, and waded out into a fairly fast current.  I got about halfway across, and I slipped and found myself floating down stream feet first with my butt bouncing off the bottom and my sneakers sticking out of my waders.  Fortunately, I was pushed into a gravel bar and was able to crawl out.

  The dumbest thing I did,  a couple of years ago,  was spend most of the day fly fishing an inlet down the Jersey shore.   I'd worked my way back along the beach to the parking/boat launch area and instead of calling it a day I went out on the floating dock to make a few cast and catch one last fish.  There was a pretty good breeze blowing at my back and I had already bounced the fly off my back and head a couple times.  I made that last cast, and I figured the fly was caught in my hat or vest but following the line I found I'd acquired a bit of bling in my ear.  The guy I was fishing with wouldn't pull the hook out.  We rode over to a friend's house who removed the hook.  It was barbless.

 

 

 

 

[galyonj]

Probably for the best you had it taken out. It'd be a real chore trying to accessorize around that.

[flyfisher]

haven't had many close calls where i was nervous while fishing really.  Closest thing was when brookie fishing about 3 miles up a mountain stream i heard something...i look up to see two black bear cubs making their way down the hill and then across the creek.  Mama bear wasn't far behind so I just sat and watched.  Black bears aren't a big deal but mama bears are and i wasn't about to agitate them in any way if at all possible.  I was far enough out that and in a place not many people fish so if something happened I'd still not be found probably lol

Now rock climbing i have had lots of close calls......

[Bankc]

So many, I don't even know where to start.  I've been chased by cottonmouths more times that I can remember.  I've been hooked on the cast by plenty of novices (mostly kids).  I've watched my uncle struggle to get the door to his truck open as the brakes failed and the boat slips into the water on a boat ramp while trying to load a boat.  And I watched my grandfather hit his submerged truck with that boat and nearly knock himself unconscious on the windshield.  I've been caught in a heavy storm in the Chesapeake Bay in a small ski boat (huge mistake) with swells higher than the boat and many miles out.  

 

But the one that sticks out in my mind the most isn't a fishing story.  My dad ran me over with his ski boat while bringing the rope back to me while I was waterskiing.  I was maybe 14 and I remember the pull of the water sucking me under the bow of the boat with such force that even though I grabbed the rail on the top as he hit me (going maybe 3-5 MPH), I didn't have the strength to hold on.  And I remember kicking at the V of the hull to try to push myself away from the coming prop that I was being sucked towards.  I don't know how I missed it, but I did.  And what really got me was popping up, out by the stern, and hearing my dad laughing at me.  If you want to mess up your relationship with your kid, almost killing him and then immediately laughing about it is a good place to start.

 

I've got quite a few near death, and some involving death on the water stories (luckily none of the death stories involved people that I really knew).  After all I've seen and been through, if you really want to tick me off, get in my boat and tell me you don't need to wear a life jacket.  I will literally fight you over it.  

[Herbert Lorenzo]

Had one of the hooks on an Alabama Rig snag one of my fingers while a fish was flopping around on one of the other hooks . I got real lucky and was able to steady fish up on a lip lock while pulling hook out of finger before it got past the barb . Learned a lesson and always control fish with pliers before getting the other hand too close .

Edited June 4, 2020 by Herbert Lorenzo
Mispelled word

[DomQ]

On 6/3/2020 at 9:46 AM, Crappiebasser said:

I was out with a buddy night fishing for crappie and got hit by a 18’ G3 bass boat. We were luckily in a pontoon and they guy turned at the last second so he slide sideways into us instead of head on. Totaled both boats but we all walked away with just bumps and bruises. The driver was new to the lake and watching his gps instead of where he was going. 

 

Another time I fell overboard without a pfd in January. Luckily I was fishing brush piles and was able to use a tree to boost myself right back in the boat. I now keep a change of clothes in the boat and wear a pfd when fishing alone.

Jesus that’s crazy! So does insurance just cover the cost of the boat like car insurance does?

[Crappiebasser]

1 hour ago, DomQ said:

Jesus that’s crazy! So does insurance just cover the cost of the boat like car insurance does?

It was actually my buddy’s boat. It was a very nice pontoon he had just put a new Yamaha 90 fourstroke on. They basically only paid him for the outboard. He lost about $4-5k on the deal.