Scary fishing moments

[Luke Barnes]

On 3/28/2022 at 9:35 AM, king fisher said:

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.

My wife and I have been watching Life Below Zero, about people living in the Alaskan wilderness. Is that how you were living? It fascinates me and I would love to live like that for a few months. To ground myself and bring me back to earth. Plus I bet the fishing was amazing!

[Sphynx]

Top 3 most high-risk situations I've been in fishing were the shark that ate a stringer of fish while I was wading in the gulf, the gator who thought I'd make a good snack and rushed me, and the guy who thought that my fishing gear was available and decided to pull a gun to discuss it with me.

[Boomstick]

On 3/27/2022 at 8:51 PM, Boomstick said:

The worst thing that happened to me...

I just thought of something else that was pretty scary at the time. I was out on a lake in my kayak with the kids and I just finished eating the sandwich I packed for dinner and my youngest son was still eating. It had started raining pretty hard, but it was coming and going all day. So while my kid is still anchored maybe 40 feet from the shore eating his dinner, lightning split a tree on the shore. I saw the lightning strike happen and my initial thought was it was going to fall right on my kid but it fell a completely different direction but in the few seconds before that tree fell was probably the scariest few seconds of my life.

[Bankbeater]

This happened to a friend of mine that was pond hopping at a state conservation area some years back.

He's the only person at this pond and another car pulls up with two guys in it.  They were sitting and watching him for about 5 minutes or so and then they drive off.  Now this is not unusual.  Other anglers will sit and watch to see if you are catching any fish or not. 

After about 10 minutes this car pulls back in and one of the guys gets out and starts walking toward my friend with his head down like he is looking for something.  My friend, who carries by the way, starts to get a very bad vibe about this. He pulls his pistol and holds it down at his side where it can be seen.  When this fellow sees my friends pistol he turns around and made a line back to the car which then pulls out of the lot fast.

[schplurg]

Maybe he really was looking for something and your friend scared the crap out of him.

[fin]

I lost the drag knob off my spinning reel once, and me and my buddy went back to the area where I had been fishing, trying to figure out where I might have lost it, but there was a guy there fishing. My buddy wanted to leave and we drove off, but I convinced him to come back. When we got back, I walked towards where I was fishing, looking at the ground for the drag knob, and when I looked up, the guy that was there fishing was standing there holding his gun. I got the heck out of there!

 

?

[the reel ess]

2 hours ago, fin said:

I lost the drag knob off my spinning reel once, and me and my buddy went back to the area where I had been fishing, trying to figure out where I might have lost it, but there was a guy there fishing. My buddy wanted to leave and we drove off, but I convinced him to come back. When we got back, I walked towards where I was fishing, looking at the ground for the drag knob, and when I looked up, the guy that was there fishing was standing there holding his gun. I got the heck out of there!

 

?

Y'all probably scared him into thinking he needed to defend himself. My buddy was bank fishing alone once. A car stopped and the passenger got out, walked up and start chatting him up. The car drove away. He said he got the feeling the guy was trying to decide if he was a candidate for robbery. Then the guy walked away and down the road without another word.

On 3/28/2022 at 10:35 AM, king fisher said:

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.

What kind of rifle do you carry where the game is that big?

On 3/27/2022 at 6:29 PM, cyclops2 said:

Should I pass legislation for MANDATORY TRAINING  course covering all of the posts about near fatal encounters ?      

 

I never knew a simple water sport could kill, cripple or impale a carefree fisherman.

 

Sort of serious to get a license.   I really am simple trusting person.

It's the life we chose. I fish a lot of private property that people are kind enough to allow me. I've told my wife, no matter what, if I die while fishing, never sue anybody. It was all my choice.

[MickD]

My son and I were fishing on a hazy warm afternoon, no sign of any weather problems, when I noticed my line not drooping into the water, but it was going up into the air then entering the water vertically.  I raised my graphite rod to try to figure out what was happening, and when I raised it really high we could hear a sizzle.  My son raised his and got the same thing.  We took off immediately, leaving the water.  In a few minutes a thunderstorm struck.  

 

We came very close to being struck by lightning.  

 

I'm sure you've seen what lightning does to graphite rods.  

[Maggiesmaster]

5 hours ago, MickD said:

ot drooping into the water, but it was going

 

One May I was in a small 14’ boat on the northwest side of a 3,000 acre lake. Looked to the southwest, where the boat ramp was, and saw the blackest cloud I’ve ever seen headed my way. Since I had to head toward the ramp, and the storm, I buckled my life jacket & headed back. The wind and waves really got bad, and the flat bottom started taking on water. I prayed “Lord, I’m not afraid of my life, because it’s warm & my life jacket is good, but if I swamp, I’ll lose my boat, motor & all my gear. If you let me get back to the ramp, I promise I’ll get insurance on this rig!”  Well, the boat got about half full of water, but I made it back ok. I then stopped at the first pay phone(pre-cell phones) and made a call to my insurance agent!

[Dogface]

On 3/28/2022 at 10:05 AM, Randy Price said:

We were fishing on Trout Lake and were preparing for a shore lunch on a remo

On 3/30/2022 at 7:37 AM, TnRiver46 said:

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 

te 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.  

 

It happened to my friend and his daughter. They were fishing Pennypack Creek in Philly and the daughter was attacked. It made the front page up here. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Darth-Baiter]

Lake Comanche.  I kayaked into “the narrows” and was getting skunked.  First visit ever. I didn’t understand the wind.  I look behind me and saw the waves and whitecaps.  I kayaked out and was tossed around like a piece of trash in the water. I would get those stomach thrills much like  you feel when riding a roller coaster.  If I wasn’t hanging on so tightly, I would have called my wife just in case i died.  I never made it back to the launch.  I beached it and hiked the two miles back to my truck. I had to pull my boat up a mountainside. 
 

it was 30 -45 mph winds.  Driving home, the generator windmills where spinning so fast and all the message boards on the freeway stated, “dangerous gusts”. 
 

I’ve never been so scared on my kayak.  I have not been back to that lake since. 

[WVU-SCPA]

On 3/27/2022 at 2:58 PM, Zcoker said:

I was yaking out baits for sharks at night, solo

Crazy doing this at night an solo.

 

Summer of 2020 I was paddling out lines through some choppy waves for my brother and 2 inexperienced anglers.  With 4 hooks in tow off the back of the yak I gave the instructions to listen to whatever my brother instructed them to do as I was already a little uneasy about the 4 lines.  Drop the first line and look back at the beach to get my bearings for number 2 when I see someone running down to the one rod and everyone else well up the beach.  As I'm paddling over to spot 2 I can see the one guy swing away like Kevin Van Dam between crests of waves.  I saw at a minimum of 10 full hook sets before the line became taunt between the rod and back of the yak and each swing started to pull my back end out.  My brother finally noticed and put at end to it before we could flip me.

 

When I got back in the explanation I got was he saw the tip bounce and thought it was a bite.....

 

 

[TnRiver46]

28 minutes ago, Dogface said:

 

It happened to my friend and his daughter. They were fishing Pennypack Creek in Philly and the daughter was attacked. It made the front page up here. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bet that was it! 

[Dogface]

3 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I bet that was it! 

 

I'll try to find a link to the story. 

[Bankbeater]

17 hours ago, schplurg said:

Maybe he really was looking for something and your friend scared the crap out of him.

I doubt it.  It was during the week and this guy wasn't acting like an angler.

[Dogface]

10 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I bet that was it! 

 

Here is a link: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna43301853

[GreenPig]

29 minutes ago, Dogface said:

 

Here is a link: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna43301853

Wild animal close enough to touch with my fishing rod is getting shot. I had 3 otters come after me and they're now permanently on the list as a target of opportunity. 

[TnRiver46]

3 hours ago, Dogface said:

 

Here is a link: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna43301853

Yeah my brother lives in Philly, I remember him telling me about it 

[N Florida Mike]

I told this one in a  similar thread a while back.

Me and 4 friends ( 2 boats) went fishing on 4th of july at Palestine lake  ( Florida).

Around 5-6 oclock pm we were fishing the North end of the lake , both boats in sight of each other. A thunderstorm started rumbling in from the northwest but it looked  like maybe it would miss us. We decided to run the 2 miles or so back down by the ramp and see what it looked like. I remember wanting to go in for a little while but got outvoted. We all went over to the southwest side of the lake and hadn’t been there long when a black cloud suddenly loomed over the trees from the south. That storm was on us before we could hardly get the motor cranked. We pulled up under some big cypress trees and was treated to the worst lightning storm I’ve ever seen. Bolts struck all around us for an hour. Nearly continuous thunder. It was raining so hard the boats were filling up with water. We had a serious prayer meeting right there in the boat. When it ended ,,we just went right back to the ramp and left without saying much as I recall…

We were treated to the fireworks display of a lifetime for a 4th of july!

[TnRiver46]

4 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

I told this one in a  similar thread a while back.

Me and 4 friends ( 2 boats) went fishing on 4th of july at Palestine lake  ( Florida).

Around 5-6 oclock pm we were fishing the North end of the lake , both boats in sight of each other. A thunderstorm started rumbling in from the northwest but it looked  like maybe it would miss us. We decided to run the 2-3 miles back down by the ramp and see what it looked like. I remember wanting to go in for a little while but got outvoted. We all went over to the southwest side of the lake and hadn’t been there long when a black cloud suddenly loomed over the trees from the south. That storm was on us before we could hardly get the motor cranked. We pulled up under some big cypress trees and was treated to the worst lightning storm I’ve ever seen. Bolts struck all around us for an hour. Nearly continuous thunder. It was raining so hard the boats were filling up with water. We had a serious prayer meeting right there in the boat. When it ended ,,we just went right back to the ramp and left without saying much as I recall…

We were treated to the fireworks display of a lifetime for a 4th of july!

That happens to me every time I go to FLA! Haha. And Alabama, and South Carolina ……… I always thought our thunderstorms were violent until I went to the deep south. 
 

now I’ve got in-laws up in the corn and soybean plains, bad thunderstorms and tornadoes there too 

[N Florida Mike]

Yeah, One of Florida’s nicknames is “ Lightning capital of the world”.

[schplurg]

6 hours ago, Bankbeater said:

I doubt it.  It was during the week and this guy wasn't acting like an angler.

I'll make sure never to approach an angler without a rod in my hand lest I get shot. During the week.

 

ETA:

I once lost my sunglasses at a local pond. That evening I went back, head down scanning the trails looking for them. No rod in hand. Sure glad I survived! Found my glasses too.

[king fisher]

7 hours ago, the reel ess said:

What kind of rifle do you carry where the game is that big?

I had a Winchester model 70 375 HH magnum I used for back up when guiding bear hunters.  carried it almost everywhere I went spring through fall.

[Zcoker]

18 hours ago, WVU-SCPA said:

Crazy doing this at night an solo.

 

Summer of 2020 I was paddling out lines through some choppy waves for my brother and 2 inexperienced anglers.  With 4 hooks in tow off the back of the yak I gave the instructions to listen to whatever my brother instructed them to do as I was already a little uneasy about the 4 lines.  Drop the first line and look back at the beach to get my bearings for number 2 when I see someone running down to the one rod and everyone else well up the beach.  As I'm paddling over to spot 2 I can see the one guy swing away like Kevin Van Dam between crests of waves.  I saw at a minimum of 10 full hook sets before the line became taunt between the rod and back of the yak and each swing started to pull my back end out.  My brother finally noticed and put at end to it before we could flip me.

 

When I got back in the explanation I got was he saw the tip bounce and thought it was a bite.....

 

 

 

Yeah, it's not always a good thing to learn the hard why when yaking baits out into the ocean. Even having other people around can be down right dangerous, as in your case. I've had other crazy experiences. During our annual turtle nesting season, the big tiger sharks come in hard and slam the kayaks. Now imagine that! Way out there in the ocean  in the pitch black night and then boom! Feels like you just hit a reef yet you KNOW its very very deep lol. The silhouette of a kayak and paddles underwater looks like a big turtle swimming, so the tigers try to slam it, spin it, just like do with the turtles. Hard to even imagine them even eating the bony things. Crazy wild world out there.