What's The Worst Thing That's Ever Happened To You While Fishing?

[MCS]

Nothing too bad, but the worst so far was when I lived in VA I had an hour drive with a few spots on the way. I was fishing one spot in the summer, the pond was real low, and the creek that feeds the pond was a trickle. I went to step over this little trickle and as I stepped on the other side I landed in the softest mud and went up to my crouch and I luckily got my other leg on solid ground. Needless to say I went to work covered in grey soupy mud, smelling like a swamp.

[RoLo]

I was fishing at "17 Fathoms", a bluewater tuna hole about 15 miles offshore of Sandy Hook, NJ.

Early in my journey back to port I lost my engine, it was shortly before sunset and a storm was scheduled that night.

That experience taught me the meaning of "visceral anxiety".

Roger

[GrundleLove]

When i lift my back window down to let my Veritas rod stick out, only to forget that it was sticking out and rolling up the window and breaking it. Having only used it twice. Then after i got over it 5 min later i went to launch my boat, only to realize the pin that makes the engine grab the transom unit snapped and i couldnt use my engine.

OR the time when i wrestled a large mouth i caught out of a dogs mouth that was running without a leash at my local park and grabbed it right as i brought it over the bridge railing, then proceed to almost get into a fist fight with the owner about it. It was ugly.

[outdoorsman110]

When i lift my back window down to let my Veritas rod stick out, only to forget that it was sticking out and rolling up the window and breaking it. Having only used it twice. Then after i got over it 5 min later i went to launch my boat, only to realize the pin that makes the engine grab the transom unit snapped and i couldnt use my engine.

OR the time when i wrestled a large mouth i caught out of a dogs mouth that was running without a leash at my local park and grabbed it right as i brought it over the bridge railing, then proceed to almost get into a fist fight with the owner about it. It was ugly.

Iol at the dog

[Jacob34]

I have a Heart/Neurological problem and I tend to pass out a lot. I was out fishing the Green river this last Nov. with my brother and two cousins and in the middle of fighting a fish on my fly rod I passed out and drifted down the river past my brother and one of my cousins. I ended up about 200 yds down from where I was in a shallow back eddy. If I didn't end up in that eddy I more than likely wouldn't be alive. There where some nasty rapids right ahead. My brother still is bothered somewhat about that incident. Another time while fishing in a bass tournament at Jordanelle res. I passed out while drop shot fishing and ended up in the lake. My boater didn't even realize I felt out of the boat until I came to and called for him to help me.

[VictorDevano]

I was fishing off a concrete dam and found some loose gravel/sand that caused me to slip. I slid down and could never get any traction. Worse yet, once I hit water, the concrete there was mossy so I could not climb out. Another guy had to come down and pull me out.

[Fishing Cowgirl]

This happened to me yesterday. While reaching down in the bait locker to grab a box of Space Monkeys, I heard this terrible ripping sound. Yes, my old, favorite pair of comfortable, UV protection, fishing pants ripped from the waist band down the seam to the leg. Felt a little breezy too, but at least I was wearing a bathing suit underneath.. My husband asked "what happened" and I said, I guess there's still a super moon over Toho.

BTW, we kept fishing with me sitting down when we passed near other boats, and I continued to catch some nice bass.

[WookieeJedi]

This happened to me yesterday. While reaching down in the bait locker to grab a box of Space Monkeys, I heard this terrible ripping sound. Yes, my old, favorite pair of comfortable, UV protection, fishing pants ripped from the waist band down the seam to the leg. Felt a little breezy too, but at least I was wearing a bathing suit underneath.. My husband asked "what happened" and I said, I guess there's still a super moon over Toho.

BTW, we kept fishing with me sitting down when we passed near other boats, and I continued to catch some nice bass.

That's a good one! I'm glad you didn't let a little thing like that stop your fishing.

My college roommate used to come out with me when the stripers would run in the summer, and sometimes he would bring his GF, she would fish, but always wore a bikini. (It was the 80's, the sun was good for you then) One day we are fishing parked side by side, catching them on grubs and chewing the fat. His GF got a hook into a good one, and it made a run under the boat. She had to jump up from the seat to get her rod over the side. I guess the seat had pinched the string, because the bottom came right off, and stayed attached to the seat. Like a good redneck girl, she was unfazed, untied the other side to get loose and fought the 18 pound fish to the boat. It took her about five minutes to land him, and ran her all around the boat.

[Traveler2586]

My worst moment on the water was in Oct, 2010, the day I broke my back.

I was out alone in my Ranger 185. A large yacht was heading north on the Potomac, I was heading south, as it passed me I was amazed by the very large and long plume of water being ejected out the back of the yacht by its twin hulls. My distraction was broken as I realized I was quickly approaching the yacht wake; my boat and I went airborne on its leading edge; the boat came down on the trailing side of the trough created by the wake, and then bounced up again; it was at this point I landed in my seat _ HARD.

The pain in my back and gut was so bad it took my breath away; all I could do was pull my safety lanyard, hug the steering wheel, and go with the rocking boat. After a while most of the pain subsided and I took it very slowly back to the launch. The launch was deserted, so it was up to me to do what I had to do, and somehow I got the boat on the trailer and made it home.

An hour later, an ER x-ray revealed I had a compression fracture of L-1 and bulging disks at L-4 & L-5. I’m still living with the after effects of the event today.

You’re probably asking why I didn’t call for help; after all I had a marine radio and a cellphone. Answer: I could not imagine abandoning my boat to whoever or whatever.

[outdoorsman110]

My worst moment on the water was in Oct, 2010, the day I broke my back.

I was out alone in my Ranger 185. A large yacht was heading north on the Potomac, I was heading south, as it passed me I was amazed by the very large and long plume of water being ejected out the back of the yacht by its twin hulls. My distraction was broken as I realized I was quickly approaching the yacht wake; my boat and I went airborne on its leading edge; the boat came down on the trailing side of the trough created by the wake, and then bounced up again; it was at this point I landed in my seat _ HARD.

The pain in my back and gut was so bad it took my breath away; all I could do was pull my safety lanyard, hug the steering wheel, and go with the rocking boat. After a while most of the pain subsided and I took it very slowly back to the launch. The launch was deserted, so it was up to me to do what I had to do, and somehow I got the boat on the trailer and made it home.

An hour later, an ER x-ray revealed I had a compression fracture of L-1 and bulging disks at L-4 & L-5. I’m still living with the after effects of the event today.

You’re probably asking why I didn’t call for help; after all I had a marine radio and a cellphone. Answer: I could not imagine abandoning my boat to whoever or whatever.

Holy crap man.. Ouch. Good to hear you're okay.

[fowlskies]

That's a good one! I'm glad you didn't let a little thing like that stop your fishing.

My college roommate used to come out with me when the stripers would run in the summer, and sometimes he would bring his GF, she would fish, but always wore a bikini. (It was the 80's, the sun was good for you then) One day we are fishing parked side by side, catching them on grubs and chewing the fat. His GF got a hook into a good one, and it made a run under the boat. She had to jump up from the seat to get her rod over the side. I guess the seat had pinched the string, because the bottom came right off, and stayed attached to the seat. Like a good redneck girl, she was unfazed, untied the other side to get loose and fought the 18 pound fish to the boat. It took her about five minutes to land him, and ran her all around the boat.

Ha...That sounds like the best thing to ever happen to you while fishing. You need to start a new thread, man. Actually I guess that depends if she was good looking or not so it could go either way!

[Bassun]

My worst has been pretty mild compared to some of these... The first year I had my boat, there were three boats out of my old bass club fishing an 8p-8a night tournament. On a lake that I had been on once. We all three had radios but the range was very overrated and never really heard anyone on the radios. Well, we fished alot and ran little most of the night. At about 3 am we decided we were going to fire up and move a bit down the lake. So I hit the motor, Wrr wrr wr nothing. We're a couple miles from where we put in at (if we were right about where we were) and had a dead battery. No biggie, i flipped the wires from the motor to the trolling battery and immediately heard an ominous pop. I didn't realize it but when they set the batteries they had one + - the other - + so i just reveresed the wires and blew something. So for the next 30 mins I searched for fuses... never found them.

We decided to use the trolling motor and start working our way back, very slowly. We tried calling and radioing the other boats but never got any response. Finally we made it to the main body and the wind was blowing to hard. We called a little marina where we launched from, and they sent a rescue boat out and drug us back in. Once we got there, we found out that BOTH the other boats had problems before we did and had already left. Luckily they left word with the marina owners that we were out there so they at least knew to be on the lookout. Our 12 hour trip turned into a 16 hour mess. I did learn a lot on that trip though... like how to manually raise your motor if you have no electricy at all; which I have had to do once since then...

The next closest is a massive sunburn the day before going on vacation. Long story short - we rented a jon boat, got hot - had the sun at our backs fishing most of the day. Next day I drove for 8 hours with blisters... that evening they really came up. By back was covered with huge blisters about an inch tall and some over 3 inches in diamater. I didn't sleep at all that night. We were at the beach and I figured the best I could do was to let mother nature help...so I went into the water with my shirt on and soaked in salt water. it burned but i figured it would help...and shortly it did. But as I was walking out, I didn't catch a breaker and it smashed right on my back instantaniously busting all of the blisters. IT HURT...but only breifly. I went back to the hotel, cleaned it up a bit; and by the next day I was tender but no worse than a normal sunburn.

[Talmadge]

been bit by a cotton mouth while noodling and almost drowned from some huge fish wedging themselves in the hole while my hand is in their mouths luckily i havent run into any big turtles like in my avatar in the holes, that wouldnt be fun!

[Jigs 4 Pigs]

A couple years ago I went down to Alabama with my uncle to visit some family friends. We were fishing a private pond and I happened to get hung up on a log or something. I was doing everything I could think of to try to get my lure back besides going in the water. After about ten minutes of yanking on this thing, my lure came flying out of the water like a missle headed straight for me. Tried to get out of the way, but I ended up taking a x-rap treble hook right in the calf. Had to pull it out with pliers, didn't hurt at the time because I think I was in shock. The next morning when I woke up I could barely walk, felt like someone shot me in my leg. I learned my lesson and I'm way more careful now. Trebles = Trouble