Dangerous experiences?

[papajoe222]

I've mentioned this before.

I was fishing by myself on a small public lake. It was late September, breezy and raining and I was the only one on the lake, not even a bank angler. I was picking up my marker bouys using my trolling motor when I hit a boulder bigger than a VW. Overboard I went and when I popped up my boat was already 100ft. from me and moving in the breeze.  In my rain gear, I swam with everything I had in me and was able to catch the boat about 150yrds. from where it dumped me.  I had no energy to pull myself up into the boat and knew I couldn't just hang there waiting to get my energy back because of the cold water.

I worked my way around to the transom, put my foot on the outboard and used the trim switch to lift me up high enough to where I could flop onto the rear deck.  I've never gone fishing by myself without having a PFD on the entire time I'm on the water since.

[slonezp]

13 hours ago, Mobasser said:

I was caught, along with a partner in a bad storm on Missouri's Truman lake many years ago. We made it back to the marina, but it was horrible. I'll never let that happen again.

My son is deathly afraid of lightning. Me, not so much. We were fishing a tournament when a storm passed thru. We hid in a channel off the lake but continued fishing. We watched lightning strike a tree about 50 yards from us. To me, it was like "Holy Sh**!" to him it was like I don't understand am I doing here.  

I've had him ditch me on the bank more than once fishing during a storm. Drop him off on shore until the storm passes and then pick him up. 

 

I got caught in a storm on Lake Michigan almost 30 years ago. I was salmon fishing with my son who was maybe 5 at the time. I misjudged timing on the storm and was about a mile or two from the marina when the storm let loose. I was in my dad's 26' Pro Line walk around. The sky went black and I was dealing with, 8'-10' waves. Had the kid hide in the cabin. I saw sky and water for the trek back to the marina praying every second that we would make it back alive. We were soaked head to toe when we docked. Kid had no idea how bad the situation was. I had promised him earlier that we would sleep in the cabin of the boat, not at the summer home. We went back to the summer home, dried off, and slept in the cabin of the boat that evening. It was the only time in my life I was truly scared I was going to die. Mind you, I've been held up at gunpoint twice living in Chicago. Lake Michigan was scarier than a gun.  

[Tony Christian]

9 hours ago, Zcoker said:

It was late one night on the Florida east coast beaches, maybe midnight. I was kayaking a bait out for land based shark fishing, solo. I was out about 250 yards near the second bar when suddenly a rogue wave came out of nowhere and slammed my yak up and over. Nothing I could do about it. Gone! I was underwater in mere seconds and when I tried to swim up, something had hold my right foot, yanking me hard! I finally managed to surface only to see my kayak being swept away by the waves, and every time it got swept away, I was again yanked hard underwater. Mind you, all of this was happening in pitch black darkness! Fear kept the pain away. Adrenalin kept me focused. I finally managed to get to shore and lay on the beach. And when I looked down at my bloody right foot, I was like what the #@!%&@. The 24/0 giant circle hook was stuck clean through my foot! Somehow it managed to free itself from a large chunk of stingray bait and then planted itself clean through my right foot near the ankle area. All of this happened in short seconds while being flipped over. Just wow. Thank goodness I debarb all my hooks! Easy out. The rest of the line was a tangled mess with the kayak, a big mess which had been swept in by the waves, pulling me with it. Very dangerous situation, to say the least! 

If it was barbed that would be 100% hospital. Leaving it out like that could get it infected too 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

10 hours ago, Zcoker said:

It was late one night on the Florida east coast beaches, maybe midnight. I was kayaking a bait out for land based shark fishing, solo. I was out about 250 yards near the second bar when suddenly a rogue wave came out of nowhere and slammed my yak up and over. Nothing I could do about it. Gone! I was underwater in mere seconds and when I tried to swim up, something had hold my right foot, yanking me hard! I finally managed to surface only to see my kayak being swept away by the waves, and every time it got swept away, I was again yanked hard underwater. Mind you, all of this was happening in pitch black darkness! Fear kept the pain away. Adrenalin kept me focused. I finally managed to get to shore and lay on the beach. And when I looked down at my bloody right foot, I was like what the #@!%&@. The 24/0 giant circle hook was stuck clean through my foot! Somehow it managed to free itself from a large chunk of stingray bait and then planted itself clean through my right foot near the ankle area. All of this happened in short seconds while being flipped over. Just wow. Thank goodness I debarb all my hooks! Easy out. The rest of the line was a tangled mess with the kayak, a big mess which had been swept in by the waves, pulling me with it. Very dangerous situation, to say the least! 

This the madman who I alluded to in my post regarding the member who night fished the Glades for lunkers.

 

While this didn't happen to me, I witnessed it all first hand from feet away, and your story reminded me of it.

 

One summer night I was admiring old salty redneck Shark hunters like rock stars at the end of an Outer Banks pier, and they'd lower a 25-30lb Tuna head down to a runner in a kayak below the pier where'd he paddle it out past the second sand bar.    These guys fished year-round for sharks on the piers and would catch 500lb+ ones.     

 

Long story short, they ended up catching a big Ray on one of the smaller baits, and this old salty veteran in front of a large crowd of growing sight seers, non-chantingly placed his flip flop on the top of the Ray, then reached to remove the hook.    It was at this time that the big Ray decided he'd suffered enough insult and whipped it's big poison barbed tail into this 250lb man's lower leg above the ankle region.    

 

Old boy couldn't be convinced to go to the hospital, shrugged it off immediately, but within about 20mins he had to be helped all the way back into the pier house where he was put in a chair and 911 called.     Even when EMS arrived, he refused to go to the ER so the medics ran IVs and medication right where he sat.     When I left that night, he was passed out with an IV in his arm.   Sure as the sun comes up, dude was shark fishing with a 12pack the next night like nothing happened ? 

 

Man I loved fishing from those piers as kid in the summers, funny how your story brought back a flood of amazing tales and memories in my mind.   I had to get a pic to complete my story lol.   That polaroid was taken in the pier house from the story above.  

[Swamp Girl]

I wasn't fishing at the time, but I was paddling the Mississippi source-to-sea with a rod and reel aboard. It was November and I got pinched between a big river tow and the shore. The tow's waves hit the shore, ricocheted, and collided with the incoming waves, creating wet Heck. I was struggling to stay afloat when a wave loomed over me, about to break. I gripped my paddle because I would be dead without it. The wave fell on me, broke through my spray skirt, and snapped my kayak's hull. I was only about 40 yards from shore, but my boat was heavy with water, so it took me about ten minutes to reach land.

 

I was exhausted, cold, and shaken. I built a campfire with whatever I could find right there. Unfortunately, I burned some poison ivy and inhaled it. Ever had an itch you can't reach? The next day, the cold rain began. It took me two days to reach Vicksburg and the emergency room physician said I had the worse case of poison ivy he'd ever seen.

 

Luckily, I met a fisherman from Iowa named Jim who actually had the fiberglass and resin to repair my boat. What a guy! 

 

 

[Zcoker]

9 hours ago, Tony Christian said:

If it was barbed that would be 100% hospital. Leaving it out like that could get it infected too 

Yep, I've always preached barbless for the bigger predators like sharks. In and out, works wonders, even for people. 

[Zcoker]

10 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

This the madman who I alluded to in my post regarding the member who night fished the Glades for lunkers.

 

While this didn't happen to me, I witnessed it all first hand from feet away, and your story reminded me of it.

 

One summer night I was admiring old salty redneck Shark hunters like rock stars at the end of an Outer Banks pier, and they'd lower a 25-30lb Tuna head down to a runner in a kayak below the pier where'd he paddle it out past the second sand bar.    These guys fished year-round for sharks on the piers and would catch 500lb+ ones.     

 

Long story short, they ended up catching a big Ray on one of the smaller baits, and this old salty veteran in front of a large crowd of growing sight seers, non-chantingly placed his flip flop on the top of the Ray, then reached to remove the hook.    It was at this time that the big Ray decided he'd suffered enough insult and whipped it's big poison barbed tail into this 250lb man's lower leg above the ankle region.    

 

Old boy couldn't be convinced to go to the hospital, shrugged it off immediately, but within about 20mins he had to be helped all the way back into the pier house where he was put in a chair and 911 called.     Even when EMS arrived, he refused to go to the ER so the medics ran IVs and medication right where he sat.     When I left that night, he was passed out with an IV in his arm.   Sure as the sun comes up, dude was shark fishing with a 12pack the next night like nothing happened ? 

 

Man I loved fishing from those piers as kid in the summers, funny how your story brought back a flood of amazing tales and memories in my mind.   I had to get a pic to complete my story lol.   That polaroid was taken in the pier house from the story above.  

 

Great story! I am glad it fired up into light some good memories. And, yes, I am that same guy, the night time Glades lunker hunter lol. Us sharkers can be quite stubborn, that's for sure. Thick headed and thick skinned just like the fish we pursue. They get us when least expected! Many old timers started out on those very piers of which you speak, piers like the old South Beach Pier in Miami. In fact, many techniques used today for LBSF came from those very piers. I know a few from back in the day who actually swam their baits out in a back pack! Herb Goodman of Lake Worth figured out a better way in the late '50s and built a remote control paddle boat called the RayOVac Craft. Very ahead of its time! Heck, I built a homemade air cannon out of 4" PVC pipe and a Home Depot compressor tank that can blast a whole baitfish plus a big spider weight over 200 yards out....The things people do to get the fish! 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 hour ago, Zcoker said:

 

Great story! I am glad it fired up into light some good memories. And, yes, I am that same guy, the night time Glades lunker hunter lol. Us sharkers can be quite stubborn, that's for sure. Thick headed and thick skinned just like the fish we pursue. They get us when least expected! Many old timers started out on those very piers of which you speak, piers like the old South Beach Pier in Miami. In fact, many techniques used today for LBSF came from those very piers. I know a few from back in the day who actually swam their baits out in a back pack! Herb Goodman of Lake Worth figured out a better way in the late '50s and built a remote control paddle boat called the RayOVac Craft. Very ahead of its time! Heck, I built a homemade air cannon out of 4" PVC pipe and a Home Depot compressor tank that can blast a whole baitfish plus a big spider weight over 200 yards out....The things people do to get the fish! 

Love it brother, your style of fishing is so exciting!  

[RB 77]

On 10/18/2022 at 6:38 PM, WRB said:

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

 

 

 

 

Yeah, those Makos can get airborne! Yikes!

[WRB]

We back packed into remote Golden Trout area known as Cotton Wood eastern Sierra.

Being skilled scouts we learned how to put your food in a nap sack and tie it to a parachute cord with a baseball size rick to toss over a high tree limb so bears couldn’t get into it.

We did this as we learned and put out out mummy sleeping bags around the tree we camp at, good shelter. 

I felt a heavy weight on my back and sniffing with bad breath in the night. The weight left so I peeked out of the sleeping bag in the moon light a bear was looking up at out food nap sack. The bear like a squirrel climbed up the tree and out onto the branch the bag was hanging on. The branch didn’t break from the weight, the bear climbed down and circles around then departed. 

Like a arm clock went off everyone jumped out of the sleeping bags, packed up everything in early dawn light and ran down the mountain thinking the bear was close behind.

So much for scout training.

Tom

[slonezp]

9 minutes ago, WRB said:

We back packed into remote Golden Trout area known as Cotton Wood eastern Sierra.

Being skilled scouts we learned how to put your food in a nap sack and tie it to a parachute cord with a baseball size rick to toss over a high tree limb so bears couldn’t get into it.

We did this as we learned and put out out mummy sleeping bags around the tree we camp at, good shelter. 

I felt a heavy weight on my back and sniffing with bad breath in the night. The weight left so I peeked out of the sleeping bag in the moon light a bear was looking up at out food nap sack. The bear like a squirrel climbed up the tree and out onto the branch the bag was hanging on. The branch didn’t break from the weight, the bear climbed down and circles around then departed. 

Like a arm clock went off everyone jumped out of the sleeping bags, packed up everything in early dawn light and ran down the mountain thinking the bear was close behind.

So much for scout training.

Tom

I made a couple camping trips to the BWCA with a group back in the early 80's. Never saw any bears but I recall seeing many trees with claw marks and always questioned why we would set up tents where the bark was stripped off the trees. What did I know, I was a kid. The camp leaders spent more time warning us about moose than bears.