What's your biggest scare on the water?

[Champ891]

I keep hearing about rogue waves. Is that just one you didn't see? Or did it just get away from the rest of them?

. I wish that was the case

[JR19]

Lighting...I was out one summer day when a thunder storm popped up. I was in a real narrow creek with not much visibility off in the distance due to the lay of the land. I am having an excellent day fishing so when the thunder storm pops up I want to stay as long as I can. I am watching the leaves on the trees blow. The wind is blowing from my left to my right. What I can see in front of me looks like its going to go by and not get me. Problem is all I saw was the leading edge. When it arrived it was wider than what I was seeing in the distance. I could not run back to the ramp because that would be heading directly into the storm. All I could do is ride it out. I found a stump near the bank and tied off. Rain started coming down extremely hard. It was raining so hard I could only see a few yards out from the boat. I decided to crawl under the console to seek shelter from the rain. About all I can get is my upper torso under the console. I'm hunched up under the console and cant move and then BOOM lighting hits. It had to be within 100 yards or less. About scared the crap out of me.

[1BADAIR]

First scare was I casted and my tube only went like 10 yards. WTF? My braid was floating up in the air. My buddy yells get down. Started lightning all around us.
Second was On ST Clair. Have heard people say there are huge waves at times. Got really windy all of a sudden just as we were gonna run back in. Not sure how big the waves were but they were but they had to be at least 6-7 feet

[BCapes]

This week I took my 10 year old to the Okefenokee Swamp for a 3 day canoe/camping trip. We canoed into a small creek about 4 foot wide that led to a pond full of lilly pads. We were planning on fishing there. A big gator was in the pond and obviously felt cornered. He turned toward us very fast and headed underwater out of the creek to the main canal. Water splashed everywhere and muddied up the whole pond. He went under our canoe about 30 miles an hour and banged it almost flipping us. It happened all in about 3 seconds!

[rboren]

The time a guy in a skeeter hit a wave wrong and shot him across my path. Wasnt going fast as waves were terrible that morning but still loaded my boat on top of his console! Totaled his boat out and chipped some gel off the bottom of mine. He was ok but boat looked rough. My partner was too upset to fish but I went on anyway.Bad day and until this day if someone is running to close to me in rough water I back off or increase the distance between us somehow. Always worried about a nose hook. Threw the driver out but the poor passenger was still riding along. A lot of soiled britches that day! Learned a lot that day! 35 mph can be too fast sometimes

[AWilliams]

My scariest day on the water didn't involve my boat, but my rather my float tube. I was about 100' off the bank and my tube popped. I have never kicked for shore so hard in my life. Seriously...

[Jeff Hahn]

All 3 scary events were nasty waves on the Great Lakes.

1) I was 5 years old and the family was in Canada on vacation. A guy at the fish camp was killing big pike on the inlet next to the one we fished. The only way there, at that time, was by water. My Dad and Mom and my brother and I were in one boat. My Grandfather, Grandmother, and Great Aunt in another boat, and then there was the guy who was killing the pike along with his buddy and their Indian Guide in the 3rd boat. We were all in 16 foot cedar strip Powassan boats with 5 1/2 to 7 1/2 hp outboards. We went out our inlet to the open water of Georgian Bay, out past the outer shoals, and around to the next inlet. We caught a bunch of nice pike, before the storm blew in. It got windy in a hurry so we decided to leave. The two guys and their Indian Guide went out to test the waters and came back. The Indian Guide said it was way too rough and we should motor to the back of the inlet and spend the night. About that time, in from the open water came the owner of the fish camp we stayed at for years. He was worried about us and came after us. He was wearing a life jacket...this guy was scared of nothing and the fact he had a life jacket on told us how bad it was. About that time, the guy who owned the one cottage on the inlet saw our plight and came out in his fun about. He told us he had to go to town to get medicine for his daughter. So, he went out in the waves and came back. He said the waves were just big rollers and were not breaking backwards, so we could make it of we followed his instructions. He told us to all idle in a circle and synchronize out motors and then to my Dad, Grandfather, and the fish camp owner to NOT tough the throttle after that. Then, we all started out in single file, following him. Mom made my brother and I get down in the bottom of the boat and covered us with a plastic tarp to keep the spray off of us. But, I peeked out now and then. The huge rollers were crashing on the outer shoals, throwing spray 20' -30' in the air. It was a sight! When we were in the trough of a wave, we could not see the boat in front of us nor the boat behind us. My Grandfather said that his motor would go "putt, putt, putt," but as it went up a wave the rpms would drop way down...putt.....putt....putt" as the motor struggled to make it over the top of the wave. Then, the rpms would rev up as he went down the other side. Long story short, we all made it back safely. But, my Mom said that she has never seen someone whose complexion was green, but she said that my Grandfather's face was completely green! He and my Dad had the dry heaves for several hours! Yes, it was dumb...we should have gone to the back of the inlet, as the Indian Guide suggested, cleaned the fish, had a shore lunch, and stayed the night.

2) Two boats of us launched out of Ashtabula, Ohio on Erie. Fished all day and as the wind got up, I thought..."If this gets any worse, we need to go." Well, that's the time to go NOW! But, did we go? Of course, not. The wind got bad quickly and it took me over an hour to go 2 miles back to the ramp. The worst waves were 6'-8' er's.

3) This time we launched out of Conneaut, Ohio on Erie. My buddies from SC and WV had come up for 3 days. We had fished two days and wanted one more 1/2 day before they left. The NOAA Erie forecast was for 3'-5' waves out of the NE. Normally, 2'-4' waves are my limit, but when we got to the lake that morning, the waves were only 2' er's and the wind was light out of the north. NOAA is notoriously wrong and it looked like they missed the forecast again. So, out we go and down the shore about 11 miles. Within about two hours the wind shifted to the NE and the waves picked up...3'-5', as predicted. There were 3 of us in each boat...my Ranger R91 and my buddy's Champion 206. We decided to head in and fish in the harbor. But, the trip back was going to be dead in the teeth of the wind. I ran close to the bank on the way back, as the closer I got to the harbor, the smaller the waves were, as the harbor blocked the wind. My buddy took the open water route. We'd see him as he crested a wave and then he'd be gone until he came up the next wave. I took my time and made it to the outside of west break wall of Conneaut Harbor. We fished a while, but never had a bite and decided to go into the harbor. I told my buddies to put on their rain suits, because I had to go out in the bad waves far enough to make swing into the harbor and miss the lighthouse on the west point of the break wall. We all get our rain suits on and off we go. As I made the turn out into the open water out from the mouth of the harbor, I could see that the waves had gotten worse. Most were 6-7 footers...except for the THREE SISTERS that were now staring me right in the eye. For those of you who have never been on Erie, the Three Sisters are 3 consecutive waves that are substantially larger than the other waves. Those bitches were 10' high. I knew darn well that when I made it over the first sister, the second one would either swamp the boat or toss us into the break wall. So, I hit the throttle HARD and powered up the first huge wave. As I did, it turned hard right and shot inside the harbor, missing the light house point by about 20 yards. I must have looked like one of those Hawaiian surfers "shooting the curl" on a surf board! When we got in to the calm water of the harbor, my buddy from WV says to me, "That was some of the most masterful boat driving that I have ever seen!" I told him, "I had nothing to do with that. It was the hands of the Lord!" And, I truly believe that it was. Since then, I have been far more cautious on the big pond.

[MississippiBoy]

I was out in the Pearl River just north of Ross Barnett early one morning, fishing one of the backwater sloughs, and saw a jug moving up ahead of me. A jug fisherman must've been out the night before and lost one, so I thought I might as well see what was on there. Figuring it to be a catfish, I trolled up to it slowly and started pulling it up. Nothing pulled back, but there was a dead weight on there. I got it almost up to the surface, when all of a sudden, the head swung around and looked at me from about 3 feet away. It was a 6-8 foot alligator that had swallowed the hook. He made a huge splash, soaked me down, I dropped that line like it was a live wire, and the gator swam off.
It took a few minutes to get my heart rate down below 100....

[billnorman1]

Imagine I write a post that takes up an entire page. God loves me, I think. Either that or he doesn't want me muddying up the waters in Heaven. I'm 75 this year. I have had so many near-death experiences on the water it would take up an entire page. I was reaching down to pick up a grenade when I was 8 years old, it exploded and I still have all my arms, legs, hands, feet and eyes. When I woke up after the doctors operated on me, they gave me a 6 x 8 gauze bandage full of metal fragments they removed from my body as a souvnir. Jim Beam and I dug the last piece (I think) out while in S.E.Asia in 1966.
Anyhow, I just might bore you with airborne experiences, storm issues, falling over (3 times) in Winter and such. Maybe later.

[chsapeak]

Was headed out in the dark duck hunting with my brother in law. He was driving and I was holding a rope tied to a lightweight canoe. The wind had to be blowing 30mph out of the North and the waves were insane. Absolutely dangerous to cross the river, but we headed out anyways. For some reason and I still don't know why but I had decided it would be better to tie the rope to my wrist rather than try to hold onto it. 100 yards from shore I felt that the canoe wasn't directly behind us, when I shined my light back there it was in the wind about 10' off the water, floating around like a leaf. I hollered to stop the boat but the waves were too big not to continue moving. The fear of that canoe dropping into the river upside down and ripping me from the boat was terrifying, I hand pulled the 25' feet of rope as fast as I could and just before it got to the boat it landed perfectly on the water. WTF was I thinking tying the rope to me and not a cleat?

[Table Rock 1]

Fishing a club event one day, fishing was good. With a storm coming in and still had a few hours left in the tournament day we just kept fishing. Lightning was flashing all around and we were 15 miles from the ramp and no where to hide. I kept hearing this buzzing sound and turned back around to look at my partner and his hair was standing stright up, looked like Don King The boxing ProMO. I dropped my rod and lay down in the boat, that was enough for me. Lightning is a bad deal, made me rethink about fishing in a storm...

[skeeterj01]

Mine was in 2011. I just bought my first bass boat it was a skeeter zx170 with a 90 Yamaha in it. Grandpa was with me as he went in halfers with me on it. There are Friday night dogfights at the local lake. We decided to try our luck. Blast off went great and first spot ami land a 4lb spot. Started getting dark all of the sudden and my grandpa got concerned. It was forecasting pop up thunderstorms. We wasn't but two mikes from the ramp and where we were fishing was steep bluffs running the shore. We really couldn't see what the sky looked like unless lookin straight up. We decided to head to marina to seek shelter as it was getting darker. I was driving and came out of a bend into the main lake. I looked to my right and across the damn was a funnel coming right toward down lake. I looked at my grandpa and I've never seen such a worried look on a grown mans face. I did a 180 and beached it and we ran up to the closest dock awning and waited it out. I forgot to turn the bilge pumps on and had to run back down as the boat was very very close to taking water over the gunnels. They never confirmed it was a tornado but out of 20 something boats fishing I personally know of 8 that seen the funnel.

Another was a spring day over at Lanier. We had a tournament there and was fishing in march. Wind got up bad 30-40mph. I don't know if many has been in a 16.5 ft boat with a 90 but it doesn't sit far out of the water. We were 6 miles from ramp and tried getting back but was taking in to much water. The wind was the worst I've ever fished in. After idling 6 mikes to keep water from coming in the boat the following Monday we had a skeeter zx225 sitting in the driveway.

[SeaPro Admin]

Another snake scare: I was tube fishing some downed trees in about 6 ft of water in a local lake. I watched a couple of water moccasins drop from a limb and swim to another tree so I was getting a little nervous about snakes. I was floating between two trees when I felt something move across my legs and I knew it had to be a snake so I froze, quit peddling and was drifting when the fangs went through my waders and into my leg. Now I panicked and started kicking like Mark Spitz but the fangs wouldn't come out of my leg. I was completely exhausted when I finally worked up enough nerve to reach down into the water and attempt to pull the snake off my leg. I was expecting to grab a snake but instead found I had drifted into an old trot line and one of the hooks got me.

[DylanSam]

Takeoff at a BFL regional on Barkley lake years ago. Following another boat down lake. The other boat colllided head on with boat coming other direction. Killed the co-angler in boat we were following. Boat was t-boned on his side and knocked him about 10 feet up in air. We were about 50 yards away and heard collision. We took the guy back to takeoff after trying cpr. Never been that scared.

[mikepags]

Mine happened while standing on my dock. Place : Georgetown, Fla. We were having one of those summer showers across the river around Draton Island and an older couple came across the river to get out of the rain. They tied off to some old pilings next to my dock and started to fish when lightning hit their boat.I t killed the man and severely burned the lady. It was only a few feet away from me.

holy shit

[Hab Co. Slayer]

Bout 10 years ago. Was on a local lake with my dad and a buddy night fishing. Dad was driving. Had the boat on pad in a long pocket we always run to the back of. For some reason he sat the boat down about halfway back. When we got about 3/4 if the way, 4 girls about 14 years old had cut a floating dock loose and were floating in the middle. I about threw up thinking about what could have been had he not stopped halfway for whatever reason.

[CastingCall]

2 things, can't control either.

When I feel like I drank a bottle of Turbo Lax but I didn't......I have had to do headstands during a tournament just to change Gravity.

Second, year 2000, RCL Walleye Championship. Top 15 after day 2 and decide to make a run 30 miles up into Lake Michigan. Keep in mind Cell phones in 2000, not what they are today. Weather forecast called for wind but in the overnight hours. The winds of October came early. I was initially protected by the point of Door county. Looked out to "sea" and saw the water changing. What I thought were boats riding over smaller waves was actually the crests of really big waves. Waves that had been building since Canada....I was in Green Bay.

As soon as the waves hit me I packed up and started heading back to the take off. Found myself quartering 10'-12' er's in a Ranger 620. Could not go to shore because the waves were so big they would bottom my boat out a loooong way from shore. Took me 3 hours to get in. You don't know scared tis you are sitting atop a 10" wave looking down to the bottom. AT one point a wave dropped out from under me, we free fell down and speared the next wave, ripped my walk through windshield off. Cut my partner and I pretty bad. glass covered the floor and my bilge intake. the water temps were in the 50's if I recall. I had water flush with the front deck. Looked back to see what appeared to be the wave from Hawaii 5-0 about to break on my transom.....whatever made the wave drop out on me, made that wave drop too, it did not roll. Whew! I cleared the glass and the 2 1000 GPH/hour bilges cleared that water in a hurry.

If I recall a good number of tourney anglers were caught out in this wind and were lost at sea for a good while. There were a handful of Lunds and Crestliners that came in with their transoms detach from the hull, just hanging. A few others got swamped and lost electronic power and were stranded. It was scary.

I made it in feeling like I had been through H E Double hockey sticks......We were. To this day I am glad to be alive.

But that moment, on a sunny Saturday morning, without a john in site when Turbo lax kicks in scares me more!

I remember my brother telling me about this when it happened to you... was scary just hearing about it then. Glad you survived Pat!

[Quillback]

One time I was fishing on lake norfork and my wife called me and said she thought she was pregnant.

[usmc03]

Having to ride with some of you guys driving.

No kidding... some running like a bat out of hell, especially in rough water. I always respected my co angler or partner when running.

[jkarol24]

My scariest was caught on film... 20 MPH South winds on Champlain, stuffed a wave and filled the boat. Wide-angle GoPro makes the waves look small, but NOAA will confirm that waves were 5ft+
http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/co6noRfPA1