How "hardcore" is your fishing?

[nashkcn]

. I thought about it off and on during work and came to the conclusion that I made plans for fishing and this darn smoke wouldn't keep me from it.

Not yet but when the time come about im going!!!!!

[WTRDOG]

November in Maine,air temp was in the low 30's...The smallies didn't mind the snow.

[Paul Roberts]

I used to love saltwater fly-fishing, pitching streamers n such to striped bass, blues, and false albacore on the Atlantic coast. Still love it, but she's long distance affair, and just memories now.

One time I and some friends (a fishing/environmental education program I co-lead) were guests of a fly-tyer of some re-known off the coast of RI Little Naraganset. We were ferried out to an expansive sand flat off a small sandy island (Sand Island) in the bay. As the boat approached the little island (really just a spit of sand and grass) I stood up on the foredeck and saw groups of gunmetal schoolie stripers scattering ahead over the pale sand in gin clear water. Oh man, I can smell that salt air right now.

The fishing was just wonderful: Stripers from 4 to 6 lbs all around us. We could blind cast, sight fish, (some tailer's), and catch em. In that warm shallow water they were very speedy. Basically, we followed them out with the ebbing tide, where they piled up at the first drop-off, intercepting sand eels that were sucked off the flat with the tide. Terns told us where the concentrations were. It was great!

Then, well before our appointed pick-up time, a HUGE black cloud appeared to the south. We kept out eyes on it and it soon became apparent it was bearing down on us. It was truly a scary sight: huge, towering very high above us, and absolutely black. The wind picked up (we had to pocket our caps) and lightning began to show in it, big thick jagged bolts, and soon they seemed almost constant. As we realized it was going to engulf us I had everyone stack the rods at the highest point of the island, (really just a mound of sand and grass) and then get flat down in depressions away from our makeshift lightning rod. I quickly tallied the rods and noticed one was missing. I set off around the island looking for the missing boy. I made full circle and when I returned the boat was there, everyone was in it and Paige was waving me on frantically. I walked, a bit too leisurely for Paige, and when I boarded she seemed really ticked at me for my nonchalance. On the run back it rained so hard it hurt. Paige was a minister and prayed all the way in. By that time I wasn't nonchalant about storms. I guess I felt so relieved the boat was there, and everyone was accounted for, and the speed of the storm, that I was comfortable with our run time.

Back at John's tackle shop (Cove's Edge), we all sat around sipping coffee and hot cocoa and listening to Paige tell the story of the hurricane of '33 the very one that severed Sandy Point, leaving Sandy Island orphaned in its wake, and 600 dead. She had everyone's attention, and we all felt a very real connection to it.

Sometimes very intense storm cells, often the worst of them, have very calm conditions around them. And lightning can discharge well ahead. I remember watching a huge black mass to my east while I fished in sunshine, and I later heard that storm took a life. A man was watering his garden, in calm conditions, when he was struck by lightning, and I as I heard it, the bolt blew his arm off as he held the hose. His wife called the EMTs. Gosh I felt for her.

Oh yeah, one more not me this time. Some guys came into the tackle shop one day and told me what happened out in the lake. They were in a fiberglass boat and saw an approaching storm. As they fished they said they could hear ticking sounds coming from their graphite rods. They said the clicks seemed to rise up the musical scale. Then, when they looked at each other, they saw each others' hair was standing on end! They got off the water. They said that an engineer friend told them he thought that they, being in a glass boat and holding graphite rods and the approach of that big electrical storm, had become a giant electrical capacitor, and that they were lucky. I don't know electricity very well to verify if this could be so. But if I ever my graphite rods ticking I'll be outta' there if I can. I have enormous respect for lightning, and it scares me, I suppose because I really know so little about it.

[MattStrykul]

Last march or april my brother and I were fishing a tournament here in NOVA and it was thundering and lightening all day....just pretended we couldn't hear it ;D. Only managed 2 or 3 keepers that day, but caught like 30 fish!!!!

[LCpointerKILLA]

red tide.

[Jake P]

Im so hardcore i ONLY fish when winds are at a maximum of 5 mph and its 85 an sunny. These weather conditions are not for everyone so be careful.

[BassinSoldier]

 Wading with 10ft + gators in Florida when I was in my late teens.  I did however keep a sidearm just in case.  I never had any problems out of any of them.  It was almost like they knew I was looking at THEM like THEY were food (which I was).  I would have hated to have had to bust one of them outta "self defense". ;D

[Movarus]

Im so hardcore i ONLY fish when winds are at a maximum of 5 mph and its 85 an sunny. These weather conditions are not for everyone so be careful.

I braved almost these exact conditions yesterday!    The only difference is that it was cloudy, so I wasn't as far into an extreme.  

Turned out to be one of the best fishing days in forever.  It feels good to be so extreme.

It was cool to hear so many stories.   ;D

[GatorBK]

GatorBK, Wow. DO you use bait or snag them. I would think you'd have to hook them up front, in the snout , to get any control. Do you wear a harness?

I snag some . Its hard to get a hook to stick anywhere most of the time the hook just falls off them when you get them in. I tail hook a lot of them . Its tough to hold the rod in one hand and reach their head with the other when they are tail hooked . Its hard to explain  the process of catching them but I sometimes have to wade in to get to the head of a tail hooked gator.  If I hook a 10 footer 2 feet up his tail his head will still be 8 ft off the bank

There is nothing like the power of a 10 plus ft gator. They also have legs so the big ones just bull down to the bottom and face you while you pull them in. The one advantage I have is If I get wore down I just hold pressure try to rest and the gator has to come up to breathe eventually. I have seen them hold their breath for up to 3 hours.