Dangerous experiences?

[Tony Christian]

What are some of the most dangerous/painful or just scary experiences you had while fishing?

 

 

[WRB]

Have all the lakes frozen over?

It’s may be hard to believe but I grew in SoCal and it’s 84 today. 

However Big Bear lake in SoCal freezes over or sometimes freezes over with about 3” of ice on average. Thick enough to support a person but not always safely.

I knew better to venture out on the main lake ice. Some friends came up to ski and wanted to ice fish. We agreed to stay in the bay where the ice was safe.

Looked around and my friend Eddie was 300 yards out on the main lake.

We calling tried to him without a response so I decided to go get him. About 100’ away from Eddie The was a load crack from the ice shifting and Eddie disappeared.

Panicked I ran to him grabbed his jacked and pulled, we both ended up in the cold water. 

My brother came running toward us carrying a ladder. Bill remembered what to do and used the ladder to pull us out onto the ice. Scared so much it was the last time I ever ventured out on lake ice.

Tom

 

[gim]

I’ve taken a crank bait to the head from someone casting next to me. I won’t allow anyone to use the front deck at the same time with me ever again after that experience. When I see two anglers standing up front casting next to each other, and no one using the back deck, I just shake my head. It’s an accident waiting to happen. Bass boats have two casting decks for a reason. Use them.

 

The worst part weren’t the treble hooks lodged in my head. The worst part was when the lure hit me. It felt like a rock and I almost fainted. The injection of lidocaine to my skull later didn’t feel great either.

[slonezp]

Come fish the Chicago lakefront.

[Mr. Aquarium]

Fallen through the ice twice. Been in some horrible thunderstorms on the ocean a few times. Coyotes! Chased by rabid animals 

[Tony Christian]

3 minutes ago, slonezp said:

Come fish the Chicago lakefront.

Forget about Goliath tiger fish. Jeremy Wade would have his hands full there.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

"Warning shot" fired at us while night fishing a private lake we had permission to be on....we fired a "warning shot" back lol. 

 

Fishing below Wheeler dam in a brand-new Skeeter Bass boat when they decided to go from 3 to 4 turbines, and when we went to fire up the big engine it wouldn't crank before we perfectly squared up and hit the concreate outcropping of the dam construction.    We'd be lucky to be alive had we been in a less well-made boat that's for sure.    Spider cracked where we hit, but nothing structural.

 

Night fished a golf course lake several times before realizing it had numerous Alligators.

 

Was fishing a small private lake from the bank, not paying attention......look down and literally less than a foot from me was coiled up, ready to strike Water Moccasin.    I was dead to rights in New Balances and shorts, but thankfully they aren't known to be aggressive. 

 

Fishing is inherently dangerous oddly enough.   The saltwater stories I have are way more dangerous/scary, and the secondhand accounts I know of are the stuff nightmares are made of.

 

I forget the really cool member's name we have that night fishes the Glades...he might win the thread lol  

 

 

[dodgeguy]

Out on a NYC water supply reservoir one night bass fishing and it got foggy out. You are only allowed row boats on them and we had no GPS. We thought we were going the right direction but wound up on the complete opposite end. We didn't realize we were going in circles. It was like being in the Twilight Zone.

[slonezp]

7 minutes ago, Tony Christian said:

Forget about Goliath tiger fish. Jeremy Wade would have his hands full there.

Chicago is not as bad as people think. BUT, you should always be prepared.

I've dealt with a number of people that were questionable, while fishing, but that was long before things are the way they are today. I carry daily, work, fishing, grocery shopping, etc, 20 years ago I didn't care, attitude and fists solved most problems. 

[Stratocat_Joe]

I was on a guided trip once when a storm blew in on us.  The guide was driving from one end of the lake to the other as he tried to dodge the storm clouds. When we stopped to fish a creek arm, we could hear our rods go "snap, crackle, pop", just like a bowl of Rice Krispies.  It was from all of the static electricity in the air.  I decided to end the trip right then as one thing I don't mess around with is lightning. 

[A-Jay]

Back in the day ~

It was early the first morning of a two day trip.

We stopped for gas just outside of Hicksville.

I was hungry and scarfed down two of them semi-furry hotdogs

in the hot glass case on the counter.

Didn't wear no underpants going home at the end of that trip.

I had to use them. 

A-Jay

 

 

 

[VolFan]

I have two that I’ve posted about before: 

Fishing right below (and I mean within a few feet) Ft London dam in the slack water well away from fast water from the turbines, fishing towards the corner wall. WHOOOSH it feels like I’ve been shot straight up out of a cannon. I was parked over the outlet for the lock, and they started lowering it. I’m not proud of the noise I made.

 

Fishing Calderwood Lake in late summer and a horrific thunderstorm rolled through. My line stopped falling to the water and kind of floated/danced in the air, and there was this weird humming coming from the rod. I hauled arse to shore. Pulled the boat up a little and ducked in a small dry cave. I’ve never seen a storm like that that Jim Cantore wasn’t involved in. It lasted about an hour and the temp dropped so much I built a fire in the cave; I was getting dangerously cold. 
 

 

[geo g]

I often bank fish in south Florida and have seen many snakes over the years with cotton mouths a small percentage.  I was fishing one day in an area with ample shore coverage and pad fields extending out 20 yards from shore.  Concentrating on my line far from the bank I saw some movement between my legs.  I look down and there a five foot black water snake moving from some weeds behind me and into the water right between my feet.  I could have dropped a log right there on the spot!  I'm just glad it wasn't poisonous.

[slonezp]

7 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Back in the day ~

It was early the first morning of a two day trip.

We stopped for gas just outside of Hicksville.

I was hungry and scarfed down two of them semi-furry hotdogs

in the hot glass case on the counter.

Didn't wear no underpants going home at the end of that trip.

I had to use them. 

A-Jay

 

 

 

They were only semi furry? You lucked out,

[WRB]

Lots of off shore marlin/tuna stories after 40 years on the high seas.

The Mako Shark story is a good.

Trolling between San Clemente Island and San Diego on the 43 Spot a big mako hit a marlin lure and normally they simply bit it off. This mako somewhere got hooked and made a big jump looking like a marlin at 1st but no bill. The normal fire drill with a hook up is get the other 5 rods in, the angler who got bit takes his rod. In this case it was The captain John’s outrigger rod, John slowed the boat, got his rod and handed it down from the flying bridge as came down into the cockpit to fight his fish. The boat is a 52’ Pacifica that can be run from the cockpit controls leaving the flying bridge unmanned at the time.

The 5 of us are reeling in line going through the fish on drill , John is trying to catch up with the mako when out of the blue the big mako runs straight at the boat and jumps over the flying bridge between the Outriggers and captains seat, bounces off the far side near the ladder and left rigger, the line breaks and the estimated 700 lb mako is gone.

Holly ***** moment!

Tom

 

 

 

[N Florida Mike]

I nearly drowned in an undertow while surf fishing , but swam out of it. Barely.

I was about all in swimming across a large pond too, but eventually made it.

Got hemmed in by 2 large Gators while wade fishing the St Johns river.

Nearly stepped on a moccasin while bank fishing more than once.

Have been in sevral terrible lightning storms on the water.

Disobeyed my dad as a kid and walked out on an oyster bar mud  flat. You can imagine the outcome of that . My feet were cut to ribbons after my shoes were pulled off by the mud suction.  

Had a boat break open on it’s side while  trying to navigate a rough Lake George.

  But The hook in my eye incident was by far the worst…?

[flyfisher]

Fishing for brookies in a remote blue line that will remain nameless but along the lines of @A-Jay and lake menderchuck...i was probably 3 miles up into the mountains having a great day fishing for native brookies.  This is the type of fishing where you are usually fishing tight quarters and have to be stealthy and concentrate.  I hear a rustle in the rhododendron  and keep in mind you really can't see more than about 20 feet off the bank.  

I don't think anything of it and keep fishing.  I get to a small clearing where there is a decent sized pool and I hear some more rustling and decide to stop fishing for a minute and take a look around.  next thing you know, I see two black bear cubs come frolicking down the bank and make their way to the pool i was about to fish.  I was about 20 yards away probably so I just hunkered down and waited.  I have seen lots of black bears but never with cubs and I know mama bears aren't too nice to strangers when they have cubs.  After what seemed like forever i hear, then see mama bear come down following her cubs.

 

This isn't that big of a deal but what really set me into a slightly scared state was after the cubs were out of the water and on the bank, mama bear pauses, tilts her nose up in the air and starts sniffing all around.  I thought for sure she was gonna smell me and I was gonna have to see what she was gonna do but she didn't.  She then went along her merry way none the wiser I guess.

 

Not that dramatic but still being as far away as I was I knew if something happened it could be a bad situation.

 

Now if we are talking other outdoor situations I have had way more close calls.

[hunterPRO1]

I've been snake bitten a handful of times, there is no better feeling than the realization that the "cottonmouth" that just bit you has round eyes.

[12poundbass]

I’d say cruising around the lakes as a kid without a life jacket on was pretty dangerous. It wasn’t until I joined Bassresource and saw a video of a bass boat that broke a steering cable and the two anglers getting ejected I realized how dangerous it really could be. Once I got my G3 everyone has worn one in my boat while the outboard is running.

 

The other one I was probably 12-13 yrs old, I had gotten my boaters license. We were on Bay de noc walleye fishing and decided to call it a day. My stepdad let me drive the boat back to the ramp. We ran into some rough water, I hit a decent sized wave which got my attention, then I saw a huge wave in front of me and the only thing I thought to do was let off the throttle. Yup, I speared the wave! The look on my stepdad’s face I could tell that scared the crap out of him. He explained to me we were pretty lucky I didn’t swamp the boat. Needless to say I didn’t finish the voyage home. We still talk about that one from time to time. 

[Big Hands]

My first time fishing the Federal Breakwater in Long Beach Harbor back in the early 80's. I went with a co-worker's son and he had a small 13' tri-hull that had most of the inside removed, but had a TM on the bow and front and rear pedestal seats. There was just enough of the dash sticking out from the gunnel to hold the steering wheel and we shared the top of an ice chest to sit on while the boat was underway. 

 

We started about 9 :00 pm and headed for the opening between the jetties not far from the Queen Mary. It was just after a full moon and the moon had yet to appear so it was pretty much pitch black and we were on plane doing probably around 25-30 mph.

 

Suddenly I could barely make out a thin dark stripe across the top of the surface and it was slowly getting larger. Suddenly it was getting thicker very quickly and before I knew it, we center punched a five foot swell that washed straight over us and the boat. Must have been the wake of a ship. Never saw a ship nearby. 

 

Of course we were soaking wet and stopped to make sure everything was OK. Turned on the bilge pump and continued on to the outside of the breakwall and had one of the funnest times I have ever had fishing throwing leadhead football jigs with scampi tails and a squid strip to the calico bass and sand bass along the big rocks on the jetty until about 5:00 am.

[Columbia Craw]

I was Kokanee fishing on Merwin Reservoir when Mount St. Helens blew. Enough said.

[Bankbeater]

About 16 or 17 years ago we had a drought going on here.  I was walking the bank, fishing a lake that was around 50 acres or so in size when it was full.  It was down about 6 feet at the time I was fishing it.  It was a few days before Thanksgiving and windy so some of the dirt around the shore looked like it was dry and solid.  I walked out on what I though was a dry point and sunk down in the mud up to my waist.  The ground behind me was solid so I was able to pull myself out up out of the mud after about 5 minutes. 

I had about a 1/2 mile walk back to the car, and by the time I got there I was about frozen in those wet, muddy clothes. 

That was one time when I was glad to quit fishing and get home.

 

[ironbjorn]

Jumping out onto a stone slab in the pond from the bank to get a better angle and slipping and falling in back first, only to notice a metal rod a few inches from me that would have easily impaled me.

 

Trying to free a lipless crankbait from weeds and having it pop loose and fly back at my face at 100mph (fast, ok, fast) and hitting half an inch below my eye.

[Smokinal]

7 hours ago, VolFan said:

Fishing Calderwood Lake in late summer and a horrific thunderstorm rolled through. My line stopped falling to the water and kind of floated/danced in the air, and there was this weird humming coming from the rod.
 

 

I've had this happen to me and I'm kind of glad to hear about this happening again because when I tell this story to anyone else, they look at me and I can tell they don't believe me.

Same situation; lightning storm all around us; still fishing;  when I cast, my bait entered the water but my line (braid) literally was straight off my rod tip hovering about 3-4 ft off the surface of the water for about 40' before it went into the water. Hair standing, humm in the air...the whole thing.  It was at that point when I smartened up and went to the ramp.

 

[Tackleholic]

Wade fishing for smallmouth in skinny water, an hour away from my car, 40 miles from medical services, wearing shorts and shoes.  Standing ankle deep, I felt something on my leg, looked down at a Cottonmouth practically climbing into my shorts;  I was standing on it's tail.  He did not bite me.