severe weather--and you're fishing/boating--what to do-experiences...

[timfish]

I know I have been fishing before in questionable weather,both fresh and salt water---I have a Science/Fishing club at my elementary school and we are now covering severe weather preparedness (Feb/March -weather months in GA)

Tornado comes-what to do? Besides 'poo'ing yourself (which is what I would do)
a-If you can go to shore, go to shore, then what/where? What happens if you cant get to shore?
b-Outrun it?
c-Get small in your boat

MAJOR lightening/Hail Storm-
1-Go to bridge, if no bridge, go to shore if no shoreline then what? Crouch and pray
2-Outrun it knowing lightening is faster than your boat with a bigger rqange too..

[ColdSVT]

Quickest route to a safe shore/beach

[Bassman Ia.]

Table Rock, 5 miles from the resort ---Lightning ----- Made it to the resort, but I swear the lighting was chasing me.

One day at G'Ville My fishing partner and I are fishing with Troy Jens. It was a cloudy day with a light mist, off and on. Tim Horton was suppose to meet up with us, he was doing some interview at home. Tim calls Troy and tells him a tornado just went over Muscle Shoals and is headed toward G'Ville. Troy takes off WOT for the ramp we launched at, raining hard now. Since I had no goggles I kept my head down. I hear Troy say ---- "There it is boys" I look up and there is a wall of water blowing sideways next to us. We tie the boat up to this dock and go sit in his truck for 30 minutes of hard rain. Putting the boat on the trailer the boat had water as high as the Step to the front deck.

Somedays are not good days to fish

[Rider99XX]

First, check and re-check the forecast for the days you will be on the lake. I ALWAYS check the radar while I'm on the water. To me a radar will show me what's about to clobber me better than the weather guy spouting off about what's happening in the general area. The live/current radar is about as up to the minute as I can find.

Tornado, I know they are hard to outrun on land, even harder in a boat with the limited places you can go. I'd try to either find a sheltered cove or maybe a boathouse to seek shelter in. But I wouldn't rule out getting IN the water if the thing is right on top of me. Find a tree, channel marker, something to hold onto until it passes and stay low in the water. And have your PFD on of course.

I have been caught in a tornado while on Barnett back in the mid 70's. We were up river where it is pretty narrow and we couldn't see it coming before it was right on top of us. There was no way we could outrun it. My Dad tied the bow of the boat to a channel marker with a long rope and we hunkered down in the bottom of the boat with our PFD's on. Got hailed on and we about s_it our pants but we made it out OK.

As for the lightning/hail...do what ColdSVT said. Or find an empty boathouse and get in it.

[kry29]

1. Haul @$$ back to the ramp and sit in truck
2. Find the nearest dock and hide out
3. Lay in bottom of boat scared $#!+less
I've done 1 and 2, luckily haven't had to do 3 yet. Last year on toledo was the first time I was truly scared we wouldn't be going home. We heard the thunder and had picked an empty dock to get under. When the storm hit I knew we were done, atleast 60mph winds (I thought for sure it was a tornado), hail, lightning, whole nine yards. We both thought we were toast. Over the next 2 hours we watched the lake come up over 6" sitting under that dock. In between the rain a guy across the cove would come out and make sure we were ok and even offered to take one of us to the truck and show us a neighborhood ramp to use. Other guys in our club said the went to the back of a creek and laid in the bottom of the boat.

[Arpy]

If it floats it can probably sink. Get to shore and cover as quickly as possible. If you can't run away from the threat put on your PDF and get the nose of the boat into the wind. Stay low, hang on and ride it out. I have done both a couple of times. By the way, hail really stings. Float plans are a good idea too.

[docwbc]

fishing a tournament a few years ago in the Felsenthal NWR (miles and miles of shallow backwater, no bank in sight) when the tornado sirens went off at the Park (few miles away could still hear them). Had no choice, but hunker down and keep fishing. Would have taken longer to run out of there and get to a bank than it did for the storm to pass.

[tlarcher]

Prefishing a BFL years ago it started snowing so bad it filled my Ranger up with snow. It was snowing so hard I couldn't see the trolling motor. Took 2 hours to get back in going very slow and honking every few yards.

[m.t.hands]

fishing Neely Henry several years ago we got caught in a hail storm, we pulled into a vacant boat house, then lady came out and told us to come into their home, there was a tornado close by, but have also been on Rayburn and had to beach my boat and go into the woods, not completely safe but we had already seen a water spout at the mouth of Veach basin

I may be wrong but I didn't want to be setting in the boat in open water with a tornado close by, I would head to the bank if possible...

[artcarney_agr]

With lightning, head to shore but stay in the boat....getting out and standing by a tree is the worst thing you can do.

Had lightning hit within 100 yards of me, twice, within 2 minutes, in a marina. It hit the houseboats next to me as I was "idling" to the ramp ...I was much lower in the water than the houseboats. One bolt hit the rail on top of the houseboat, then a minute or two later it hit the radio antenna on a different houseboat. The crazy thing was I had my hand on the main engine with motor hood off, working the throttle by hand as the throttle cable had broke...when that lightning hit the first time I got a little jolt from an arc off of the motor and burned a spot on my knuckle.

[Deadeye1]

Some years back with a Hurricane Warning and a Small Craft Advisory for our area, a Really Good Friend and I had planned a fishing trip on our day off. I called him and he said "we're going".

We fished a lake to start then when the winds started coming up, we moved into a feeder creek (where we had launched at and fished back towards the launch). When we would reach a stretch that faced the wind we would fire up the motor and move to the next curve where the wind was shielded from us and start fishing again.

I would not have gone had Rick not made the call to go.

I set my personal record (at that time) for the most Bass caught in a day and Together we set the Record for his boat for the most Bass caught ever with 45 in the boat and who knows how many bites missed and fish lost.


I have however saw a Big Thunder Head building and moving toward me and made the run to shelter. One day on that same lake I saw it coming and told my wife to hang on we were running for shelter. I have never run that creek that fast before or since. We mad it just as it was really starting to pour. We got under the roof and waited it out. Once it passed we went back to fishing.


You have to judge each case as it comes.

[Ba$$n]

Been caught in heavy rain or lightning storms on occasion but have been fortunate enough to find an empty boat house to take shelter in. Worse thing to do is stay on the open water.

[Jocephus]

Prefishing I ALWAYS make note of shoreline structures that can be used in the event of hail/tornado.

I always look up toilet locations in case I have to crap


I’ve spent a hail storm under my console before. Never again.

my wife is a meteorologist so she starts blowing my phone up when she knows I’m out.

[BigDave65]

I try to make a habit of looking for empty boat houses if I think bad weather could pop up. At least have a plan if something catches me off guard. I check the radar on my phone pretty regular. If I see lightning I'm heading to the ramp immediately!

[KYSkipper]

Tornadoes generally move from the Southwest to Northeast. If you can run toward the Southeast you will normally get out of their path. I lived in Alabama in the 80's. Tornadoes were just part of the landscape this time of year. I can remember sitting on the porch once watching one move up the street. I always figured you couldn't get away from one if it was your time to go.

I have ridden out more than one tornado on the water. The first one was on Weiss Lake when I was a teenager. I dropped my dad off at JR's dock. We were going to put it on the trailer and get. Dad went to get the truck and it blew in while he was walking up the bank to the parking lot. I planed the boat off in the dock and drove hard toward the left side of it going into it. Most people tied up to the dock. Almost all the boats tied to the dock got swamped because the water was hitting them directly off the lake. I had a lot of water in our boat and that old army poncho I was wearing (early 80's, nobody had 100 mph suits then) I held my arms up in the air and it took off like a kite. I think Dad ducked into the dock building and it did have some damage, but fortunately everything turned out ok.

I got caught on Okeechobee once in a nasty storm with lightning and hail. Rough ride. Always have a pair of safety type glasses or a helmet.

[basscat21]

Quick lightening storm, jumped tied to boat house stepped inside, owner ran out of house in lightening threatened me with trespassing and was calling cops on phone.

next week, pop up storm, I run out of long no wake pass cop under bridge (Didnt know he was there), tear ass across lake through small bridge back on plane (No Wake). lay it down inmarina, run to truck with strikes all over. Cop finds me at marina......we go over the previous week, he yells quite a bit, he wrote me a warning.

[Dando]

Wedge it between two cypress trees and crawl in the rod locker.

[CatFan]

Lightning can strike so far from a storm that the only correct answer is not to be on the water at when there are storms anywhere in the area.

I walked to lunch one day, and just as I got there it started raining. Storm lasted about 10 minutes and the sky cleared. 20 minutes later I was walking back to work under a sunny sky and lightning hit a power pole about 100 feet from me. If you can see dark clouds, lightning can get you. Before the advent of smartphones, people got caught. With a smartphone, there is really no excuse. Be aware and don't even mess with bad weather.

[n2ratfishin]

I left claw marks under a bridge after I realized I wasn’t going to outrun a nasty hail storm/tornado on Old Hickory one day. No telling how many times I’ve been caught out in thunder storms. Make yourself lay in the bottom of the boat and ride them out if you can’t find cover is your best bet. One reason I always order an auto bulge pump.

[bobh4656]

If you can't make it to a ramp etc before the weather hits then run into a cove and beach your boat. Then wait it out. Of course you are now on land so keep low, as low as possible. On a golf course and lightening is near you are instructed to lay on the ground and even in a ditch if possible. Stay as low to grade as you can. The lower the better.