Scary fishing moments

[Skunkmaster-k]

A tornado hit the lake I was fishing. Sirens were blaring in town and the hail beat the living crap out of me for what seemed like an eternity. The waves were well on their way to swamping my boat. After the storm passed I did catch some nice ones though. 

[scaleface]

I was canoeing a small river . 14 miles up stream is the dam of a major reservoir . They release water randomly . It rises quickly and gets fast . I noticed the water rising so headed back downstream to my takeout point . On the way down I spotted smallmouth busting shad in a large eddy created by the rising water . I pull the canoe into a laydown tree , step on the tree and start catching bass . With the water rising , a lot of floating debris accumulated around me covering  the   surface . I slipped and fell in . When I climbed out there were dozens perhaps a hundred  spiders  clinging to me . 

[DaubsNU1]

Did a family trip to a lake in South Dakota...natural lake, pretty big my my standards.  Drove around the lake to the dock...plan was for me and my 6 year old daughter to motor across the lake, back to the cabin. 

 

This boat, 14' with 20HP Merc. Daughter had her lifejacket on, and was standing between my legs as I ran the tiller. I did not have my lifejacket on.

 

 

The wind was picking up, pushing us towards the cabin side of the lake...things started to get hairy. 

 

I remember contemplating putting my lifejacket on...but decided to hold on to my kiddo...it was getting that bad. I figured if the boat did capsize, I could keep her afloat and hold on as the wind pushed us towards the cabin. 

 

Of course, daughter was giggling and saying how much fun she was having. 

 

30 minute white-knuckle ride that I will never forget!  Daughter is 23 now...we talked about that ride a few months back...she still remembers how fun it was. I remember it well...not so fondly. 

 

 

 

 

[TnRiver46]

19 hours ago, VolFan said:

I was kayaking on Calderwood Lake on a sunny warm early summer afternoon when a thunderstorm blew right down the lake. Temp dropped about 20 degrees and I made for shore as the wind blew me down lake. Pulled my boat up enough and hid in a cave while it absolutely raged. It was like watching a hurricane. I had to build a little fire since the temp dropped and I was not outfitted for 50 degrees and wet.

Calderwood? You’ve got brass ones! There are beavers that live in that cave you can paddle through………

 

 

i found a dead body in a river one time, it wasn’t so scary for me but imagine it was for the poor fella in the water 

[gim]

I was not a part of this, but I remember it very distinctly because I had been on one of these floating death traps in Wisconsin Dells about a month earlier.  Two of those amphibious tourist duck boat things were stuck on Table Rock when a thunderstorm rolled in and one of them went down.  Once the nose goes under, its all over.

 

 

[billmac]

I had just gotten through running some rapids in my canoe, in May, when the canoe flipped.  It was swift current and I didn't want to lose the canoe so I hung on.  I tried to move the canoe toward shore but the current was too swift, and I was getting very cold.  By the time I decided to abandon the canoe, I knew I was too cold to make it to shore. No life jacket in those days.  I swear my thoughts were "If this makes me late getting home, my wife is going to kill me" and then "but I'm making good time".  Eventually the water got very shallow and I was able to stand and pull the canoe to shore.

[Randy Price]

Back in '07 three friends and I went to Sandy Beach Lodge a fly in fishing camp in Red Lake, ON.  We were fishing on Trout Lake and were preparing for a shore lunch on a remote island when out of the woods appears a black bear.  We didn't have any weapons but the bear didn't seem mean.  We assumed he/she smelled our delicious shore lunch of flesh caught walleye, fried potatoes with onions and pork and beans.  The bear just laid down and watch us eat.  After we were done we made a pile of all the left over food and slowly got back into our boats.  The bear got up and finished up our leftovers.  The bear could have been one of our pet dogs.  It was obvious it didn't mean any of us harm but it was still a little scary.

[king fisher]

For thirty years, I lived and fished in the wilderness of Alaska.  I had more close calls than I can count.  Most of the exciting moments, were encounters with Brown Bears.  Many false chargerges that ended up amounting to nothing.  I did have to shoot two bears both of them at night.  One when I was walking back to my cabin along a river full of salmon at night, and another one that stole my salmon eggs I used for bait, and when I yelled at him to go away, he charged me at the entrance of my tent.  Both were less than 5 yards away when I decided to shoot, and both died right away.

          The scariest moment wasn't the fault of a bear.  I was walking home from fishing a river an hour walk from my cabin, and while going through some thick brush I stumbled on a Bull Moose.  The rut was in full swing, and he wasn't in a good mood.  He came at me, and I shot a round in air thinking he would run off.  Before I could get another round in my gun he ran right over the top of me.  My rifle ended up ten 5 yards from where he he hit me, and I was bruised, with one broken finger, but by some miracle that was the extent of my injuries.  My fly rod wasn't even broke.  It was a hard hours walk back to the cabin, and the cabin was 60 miles from the nearest town or road.  I didn't have any phone, or radio that would reach anyone, and I wasn't due to be picked up for another month.  Even a minor injury could have become serius.  The pilot that came and picked me up, asked if I had any trouble with bears, and I told him bears are nothing you have to watch out for moose.  He got a big laugh at that.

        After that experience I decided I would need to learn to fly and get a plane if I truly wanted to be self sufficient in the Alaska Bush.   Ofcourse flying added to the scary moment list, while providing many more great fishing days.

[Skunkmaster-k]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

I was not a part of this, but I remember it very distinctly because I had been on one of these floating death traps in Wisconsin Dells about a month earlier.  Two of those amphibious tourist duck boat things were stuck on Table Rock when a thunderstorm rolled in and one of them went down.  Once the nose goes under, its all over.

 

 

That’s tragic. 

[Captain Phil]

The scariest moment I ever had when fishing happened back in the eighties.  We were living in Miami and were mostly fishing offshore for dolphin (Mahi Mahi), sailfish, Marlin and Wahoo.    It's 50 miles from Miami to Bimini and a common run in the summer.  Often we would stay overnight in Bimini and fish back.  This area is what is often called the "Devil's Triangle" and it can be some of the roughest water on Earth.   We had a good sized sport fishing boat at the time with twin diesels.  The boat was almost new and in excellent condition.  One day we were trolling about 40 miles out when the instruments started to act strange.  I opened the console and smelled what no one wants to smell on a boat... smoke!  It was only me and my wife, so I tried not to panic.  I opened the engine hatches and a cloud of smoke poured out of the bilge.  I didn't kill the engines as I wasn't sure they would restart.  I did turn off the two battery switches and the twin diesels kept running.   The smoke stopped and we limped back to Miami.  When we got back we found we had an electrical short in the water wash down pump that had melted some of the wiring.  To this day I think about my wife and I drifting alone in the Gulf Stream hanging onto a cooler.   That is something you never want to experience.  

[CrashVector]

I snagged a 6foot alligator on my grandpa's heddon wounded minnow.

 

I got him up on the bank, handed my rod to my cousin, and jumped on the gator to get my lure back.

 

I still have the lure, but don't fish with it anymore.

[fin]

I can’t imagine facing a møøse. I sometimes run into wild pigs, but a bear or møøse? Forget it.

 

Lots of boat-meet-storm stories here. Here’s mine:

We were fishing on an 1800 acre lake. There was an approaching storm, but the boat’s owner waited until the last minute to crank the boat and get out of there, and then the boat wouldn’t crank up. We had to get back with only the trolling motor. It was a huge storm. It took forever to get back to the ramp, and we were probably getting blown backwards at times. We finally made it, soaked and freezing, then we heard on the radio during the drive home that the same cell had spawned a tornado that damaged several hangers and planes at the local airport.

 

At the same lake we once saw a guy that had fallen out of his boat, the small engine still running wide open, the boat circling and the guy’s head bobbing in the water. That’s a scary sight. Real scary for him, but he made it out alive. He swam away and the boat eventually ran out of gas.

[soflabasser]

I have had sharks steal my speared fish while spearfishing, and some of those sharks got too close for comfort. I am still here since I remained as calm as possible and defended myself, which is the best thing you can do when a shark shows signs of aggression. While rod and reel fishing I have had fish hook me while I was trying to remove the hook. This taught me a valuable lesson to always use lip grippers and pliers when using lures with treble hooks. Since then I have not been hooked since I am extremely careful every time I release a fish. When I was a kid I had a female alligator chase me for a short distance since I got close to her nest without knowing it was there, this was another valuable lesson to always look where you walk when fishing in the Everglades.

[schplurg]

Not so bad, but I had a huge back spasm after walking around a local lake. Maybe 1.3 miles. Was walking on flattish ground to my back pack and for no reason at all - BAM I was on the ground.

 

My friend was with me and he grabbed my pack. I hobbled back around the lake in agony. Like someone twisting a knife in my back.

 

Moral of the story - before you head out hiking (or in a boat) try and imagine every bad thing that can happen to you and make sure you have a plan for it. Break a leg, throw out your back, whatever.

 

There are mountain lions on that side of the lake and if it was a late evening trip I'd be walking in the dark.

 

I'm sure I'll have better stories as I put more fishing years behind me

[geo g]

One of the scariest happenings for me was while fishing Alligator Alley during breeding season for big male gators.  Alligator Alley got its name for good reason, thousands of gators.  While fishing with the wind from our backs and in stealth mode, we saw a real big gator that was not happy with our approach to his territory.  He humped his back out of the water, and vibrated disturbing all the water around him, while making a deep moan.  He was about 20 yards from us and was at least 10 foot long and wide.  As we approached, he sprinted at the boat and made a shape turn at the last minute slapping the side of the boat with its powerful tail.  It was a jarring hit.  He made his point, and I hit the T/M at high speed.  I always look for this guy while fishing out there, although I see hundreds on every trip, I have never seen a gator as wide as this guy, in that area again.   I will give him his distance the next time we cross paths.  This one was not the usual in it's behavior.  He was clearly the territory bully!

[fin]

I recently learned that beavers can be dangerous. I never suspected the little vegans would be a threat. I saw a video yesterday where a guy was wading in a creek and a rabid beaver bit his butt and then followed him back on to the shore chasing him around. There are several videos of different incidents.

 

 

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, fin said:

I recently learned that beavers can be dangerous. I never suspected the little vegans would be a threat. I saw a video yesterday where a guy was wading in a creek and a rabid beaver bit his butt and then followed him back on to the shore chasing him around. There are several videos of different incidents.

 

 

I think I heard about this exact same thing in Pennsylvania one time. A guy was on the bank fishing and a beaver swam up to him, crawled out of the water and started chewing on him. He somehow killed it and it tested positive for rabies 

[Kev-mo]

I'll add a few.

When I first started wading before I knew anything about current flow, gauge height or that the usgs had a site that monitored that stuff, I decided I wanted to fish the other side of the river. So I figured water clarity is good/I can see my feet, as long as I can stay about waist level I should be good. Yeah...no, was about 30 feet from the opposite shore when my feet got swept out from under me. I think my heart stopped for a second. All turned out okay. I took a little float down the river, got me feet back under me and since I had tighter neoprene waders on only got the one arm and a small portion of chest shoulder wet. Yes I held onto my fishing pole. I think it's instinct cause now when I slip on mud or lose my balance on cobble I toss my fishing pole so I don't snap it when my hand goes down to break my fall.

 

The other one was really scary. Group of us used to go up to Canada every year for a week. Probably our 5th trip up a buddy and I were out in the lodges little aluminum boat. We were having a good afternoon picking up walleye in a light to moderate rain. At some point the fish turned off and we were done dealing with the rain etc. We got our gear stowed and started the motor to head back to the lodge. Some of you probably already now what happened next. I turned that throttle, the bow went up and all the water in the boat rushed to the back of the boat. So the bow is extra high, we are not planing(sp?) out, I look at my buddy, then I look at the back of the boat. The water inside the boat is about an inch from the top. The top of the boat is about an inch from the water. I motioned for my friend to get to get as far front as possible, grabbed the bailing can and started bailing for our lives. All turned out okay. Huge, huge lesson learned!

 

Last one is slightly comical except for the lost gear. Different buddy and I are fishing, again in an aluminum lodge boat. We are cruising across the lake and my buddy is swerving back and forth, just a little bit, nothing reckless. He stops swerving and we are going straight for 30 seconds, a minute? All of sudden water somehow comes in the boat over the transom and the boat does this sideways skid and my buddy gets thrown out. I was kicked back in the front just chillin when all this happened. My buddy yells to turn off the motor and as start to make my way up and back the boat starts sinking. I take a step, the boat sinks a little. I take another step the boat sinks a little more. Third step and I'm just going down with the boat. We grabbed as much gear as we could but it happened so fast! Plus you can only grab so much stuff and tread water at the same time. Luckily it was nice weather and some pleasure boaters pretty much immediately stopped to help us. We were young, strong, a little dumb, definitely could have swum to shore so that's why I say it's a little comical. I realize stuff like this goes bad all the time so not making light per say

[Captain Phil]

14 hours ago, geo g said:

One of the scariest happenings for me was while fishing Alligator Alley during breeding season for big male gators.

 

As you discovered, large male gators can be very aggressive during the breeding season. It probably thought your boat was a rival.  I have seen them challenge small boats running down the Miami canal.  The Everglades is no place for a kayak....   ?

[geo g]

55 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

 

As you discovered, large male gators can be very aggressive during the breeding season. It probably thought your boat was a rival.  I have seen them challenge small boats running down the Miami canal.  The Everglades is no place for a kayak....   ?

I could not agree more!!!!!!!!

[Cgolf]

An almost storm story. 

 

Was out fishing reed beds on a windy day with the wind coming out of the end I was on so it was doable. Saw some storm clouds and no lightning or thunder. All of a sudden the wind drops to nothing and the sky for real turned a shade of green. I saw no funnel clouds and within a minute or so the sky returned to a normal color and the wind started blowing again but in the opposite direction as before and with it having the full lake to blow down I headed out knowing it would be too windy. Scary at the time, and I should have head in as soon as the sky turned green, but no tornado by the lake but were really strong storms a little north of us. Lesson learned and thankfully the easy way.

 

Only other time in the boat would be in 3-4 ft waves the problem is they were spaced 4-5 feet apart, it was a very rough and nail biting ride. The vaca lake for some reason has tighly packed waves and can be a beast to run when windy, nothing like the pictures you see in fishing magazines where it looks like people are standing on water.

[MidwestBassAttack]

Scariest thing for me….Was a Saturday…bank fished a local 2700 acre lake.  Was out the entire day and not a single text or phone call from the wife all day. I thought something had happened to her!

 

I raced home and was relieved to find her with our mailman AND FedEx driver. Thank the good lord!

 

I proceeded back to the lake and ended up catching my PB! 
 

 

[Tucson]

Some great stories, scary though.  Here's mine:

 

I was fishing Lake Havasu once when I suddenly discovered that I left my lime squeezer back at the campground.  I refused to let this tragedy spoil my day however.  I wound up squeezing my limes BY HAND like some kind of barbarian.  Also, I was running kinda low on cocktail ice.  Scary day but I survived to tell the tale.

[DINK WHISPERER]

My god, where to begin ?

I've had too close encounters with Panthers, bears, gators and crazies!

The one that really got to me was on Okeechobee a few years ago. I waited too long to leave after seeing a storm moving in. I got caught out in the middle of the lake. The boat was coming so far out of the water that outboard kept cutting off. Then while trying to get it started back up we were taking water in. And of course the bilge pumps decided to not work since I never used them. I learned to leave with plenty of time to spare. 

[TnRiver46]

When I was 8 years old my fishing rod and bag of bread for bait was on my grandparents swing. I grabbed it not knowing there was a hornet nest underneath. They stung me around my ankles 9-10 times, but I wasn’t going to miss a fishing trip. My cousin took me way back into the middle of nowhere wade/bank fishing. After a while, I kept getting more and more itchy. I said there must be a mosquito in my shirt, and my cousin said well take it off and let it fly out. When I took my shirt of, he sounded a little hasty and said let’s go right now………

(He saw hives all over my skin when I took my shirt off but didn’t tell me)

 

So we walk and walk and walk, I look down at my ankles and they are spilling over the edges of my tennis shoes. They were massively swollen where the hornets got me. My cousin instructs me to walk in the cold water on the way, which I did for a while. At some point he threw me onto his back and carried me the rest of the way out of a deep valley back to the truck. When we arrived back at the grandparents  they took me into the hospital where I puked and fainted. 
 

turns out I’m allergic to hornets