18 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

I made a post about this at one time. Bank fishing at night. There was a large wooded area behind me, and I kept hearing something coming through the woods and it sounded like it was getting closer.                                                     I turned on my headlight, grabbed my stuff and got out of there pretty quickly. I never knew what it was. I think my imagination got the best of me.

 

One time, when I was alone in the wilderness at age 15, I heard something coming through the woods that sounded like a bulldozer. It was probably a moose, since they were common at that lake, but even though I was in a boat, I scooted. Silly of me, I know.

I found a corpse in the water . I think it’s still a cold  case to this day, I want to say it was about 12-13 yrs ago maybe a little less 

  After 30 years of predator hunting primary in the dark solo many miles from anything, I'm pretty heeby jeeby proof. I've called every critter that lives in Ga. that'll eat a rabbit in distress or sqeaking mouse to my lap. I also bowfished for 12 years like an addict and 95% of that was nocturnal. Before I was old enough to hunt alone, I'd fish alone right through the nights. 

But at the age of 9 or maybe 10, I was gonna hunt alone for the first time. Just me and my Harrington & Richardson 20 gauge in a 10' ladder stand. My grandpa thought it'd be a great idea to watch Grizzly the night before my first solo hunt. Right, the movie where they had to dispatch it with a bazooka. So the next morning he walks me straight to the stand with orders to stay until he returns. I climb up, load my shotgun, settle in and commence to wait for daylight.

After about 15 - 20 minutes I started to hear something large walking around me in the darkness. It was steadily getting closer and I begin hearing heavy breathing and instantly my mind clicked to thoughts of a 13' Grizzly that could only be ended with a weapon that made my single shot 20 gauge look like a joke. I was terrified and cleared my jacket from over my fixed blade knife in preparation to fight for my life and sat stone still focusing on ever sound. Well, finally the glorious Sun rose and allowed me to get a good look at a very large Black Labrador with a red collar. I vowed way back then to not let my mind play tricks on me. Thinking back on that deal, the heavy breathing may of been me. I did take a 110 lb does that morning so it was worth it.

2 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Silly of me, I know

Nor silly at all. If your gut says "Go!", listen to your gut. It may save your life.

I can say I’ve only half way panicked one time.  For a long time I wade fished the Shenandoah river and I knew every rock ledge and backwater eddy in about a 3 mile stretch of river.  There was a section that was deeper (a little over chest deep) and it could only be fished when the river was running at normal or a little lower than normal flows.  As any wade fisherman knows, being “swept” is no fun and can be downright dangerous, especially in cold water months.  Anyway, I was chest deep in water with 100 yards behind me to the shore and 25 feet in front of me to the bank.  I am bouncing on my tippy toes in the current when I look at the bank and there is a tree with at least 30 snakes all coiled and some moving.  It was mating time and remembered reading an article about how copperheads only get aggressive during mating season and they are agile swimmers.  About the time that thought cleared my brain, I saw 3 or 4 of those snakes arch up like cobras and look straight at me.  They then one by on slid off the branch overhanging the water into the river.  I didn’t know if they were copperheads or just plain water snakes but I did know they were in the water with me.  I’ll admit, I did lose it somewhat because I could not move very fast in that deep water.  There was no swimming with all my gear and felt tip boots. I may have filled my waders from the inside out.  😉😱

I was wet wading once, just shoes and shorts;  stepped on the tail of a Cottonmouth and it climbed up my leg, nearly to my shorts.  He took off without biting me when I took the next step.  Whew!

30 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

It was mating time and remembered reading an article about how copperheads only get aggressive during mating season and they are agile swimmers.  About the time that thought cleared my brain, I saw 3 or 4 of those snakes arch up like cobras and look straight at me.

 

Bear boarding the boat or copperheads in the water with ya or this:

 

"I was wet wading once, just shoes and shorts;  stepped on the tail of a Cottonmouth and it climbed up my leg, nearly to my shorts." 

 

Which one is worse? I declare a three-way tie!

About got killed by a very large water snake.

 

Screamed like a little girl.

 

Don't ask.

On 11/3/2025 at 9:38 AM, TOXIC said:

Anyway, I was chest deep in water with 100 yards behind me to the shore and 25 feet in front of me to the bank.  I am bouncing on my tippy toes in the current when I look at the bank and there is a tree with at least 30 snakes all coiled and some moving.  It was mating time and remembered reading an article about how copperheads only get aggressive during mating season and they are agile swimmers.  About the time that thought cleared my brain, I saw 3 or 4 of those snakes arch up like cobras and look straight at me.  They then one by on slid off the branch overhanging the water into the river.  I didn’t know if they were copperheads or just plain water snakes but I did know they were in the water with me.  I’ll admit, I did lose it somewhat because I could not move very fast in that deep water.  There was no swimming with all my gear and felt tip boots. I may have filled my waders from the inside out.  😉😱

 

Holy moly, I think I just filled MY waders just reading this.

 

I would have been freaking out myself.

 

 

 

 

On 11/3/2025 at 10:24 AM, Kirtley Howe said:

Nor silly at all. If your gut says "Go!", listen to your gut. It may save your life.

@Kirtley Howe is 100% correct, always listen to your gut!

 

Way, way back in 1978 when I started my LEO career, I had an old timer tell me “When the hair on the back of your neck stands up, there’s a reason. Pay attention to it.” That advice served me well for over thirty years. Still does to this day. If I tell my beautiful wife to walk on the other side of me or to wait a minute before getting out of the vehicle, she doesn’t question it.

 

 

I never experienced anything that stood the hair on my neck up while fishing. However, I've come across several people in my life that radiated a level of evilness that was extremely disturbing. I'm a firm believer that we have an "internal" radar that is always sweeping and our conscious mind usually dismisses. This inner radar or inner vision picks up on things our conscious mind misses. 2 people, one was my landlord years ago who radiated a very dark, evil energy, and the other was the mother of a dear friend who abused her daughter horribly yet knew how to play the system. Her level of darkness pinned the needle and scared the hell out of me.

 

Only once did I really get "scared" while in the wilderness. I was sleeping, warm and cozy in my debris hut and in the middle of the night I woke to a blood curdling scream right next to my hut. For a second I got scared until my functioning mind came online and realized it was a bobcat. I then drifted off back to sleep. No worries.

I was fishing and shooting photos in a stream in the Everglades near the national park center. It was the spring of 2000 and I went with the idea that I was just fishing and hiking. I was expressing my sense of adventure instead of my common sense .... Just before sundown something odd happens there. Everything goes dead silent, like nature hit the mute button. The stream I was fishing had a few gators but nothing near me or at least I thought. As the sun went down, the gators came out from their hiding spots and started feasting on whatever was on the bank. The sound of silence going to complete carnage is unreal. The stream I was fishing turned blood red and that point I was surrounded by gators that I didn't even know that were there. Just a few feet from where I was standing was a gator that was under a bush. I had been there about two hours and didn't even see him. One snap from his jaws at my feet and I was running. I didn't stop until I reached my car about two miles away. 

I used to camp a lot , and fish and hunt in many out of the way places. All in Florida except for a few times in Georgia.

I can’t remember being terrified of anything, but a few things made my skin crawl a little.The closest thing to panic was gettIng hemmed in by 2 big gators when I was wade fishing in the St Johns river. The sun went completely down and I had to walk towards one of the Gators to get out. I walked right over where he had been ( he sank when I was 50 feet from him) . I didn’t step on him thankfully, and kissed the ground when I finally emerged from the swamp at my truck…

Another time I was wade fishing Palestine lake in N central Florida. I was wading along a deep cypress swamp. I heard a big splash way back in the swamp, and then could hear something coming . I covered the 1/4 to 1/2 mile distance back to the ramp in record time lol ! Still got a validation from my friends on the man card from wade fishing in there at all…🤠

Once we were camping in the Ocala Nat. Forest and heard a strange catlike grunt. Very loud from a long distance. I lean towards it being a bobcat, but my friend was sure it was a panther…Never heard anything like that before or since…

Another time our motor wouldn’t crank up in the Ocklawaha river. We were miles downstream, and had to paddle against the current for 4 hours at night to get back to the landing. Pitch black, and around 1/3 of the way back our one flashlight died. We would paddle aways, get tired , and have to grab onto something to hold and rest. You know you’re in wild Florida when you have to beat the stump or limb with the paddle to hopefully scare moccasins off before you grab ahold  of it… At some point , barred owls began hooting. Dozens of them . It was other worldly…

Most of my somewhat apprehensive moments were from humans ( other Florida men ) though lol. 

As I read some of these "Florida" stories I keep thinking- like with Fish Tank's story... "Just before sundown something odd happens there. Everything goes dead silent,..."

 

and then I smelled this rotten smell in the air... and then I saw it! Skunk ape!

 

But back to the panthers, bob cats, and gators... they work too!

 

If its on youtube its gotta be true! Would this be a naturally occurring species? Or, an invasive species? And are they related to the big ones from up north? Ha! This guy disturbed his hunt for some lunch. Some good grubs, worms, centipedes, and maybe a snake or two in thereand some bugs!

 

Panthers and bobcats not much of a worry. Black bears and gators can be. Fortunately both have some fairly predictable behaviors we can use to our advantage. Like Mike did towering over a gator he was in the water with. If he had been swimming he would not have looked bigger and scarier than the gator and its behavior could have been different. And like he said if he had stepped onto the gator it gets instantly wild. Usually spins around with jaws open snapping away defensively. Mike got past that one!

 

Gators show a respect for us when we appear larger or taller than they are. I think it causes them to misjudge size comparisons and gators usually gives way to the taller size, but swimming in the water we appear smaller and more like prey. A whole different ballgame there.

 

Surely someone has a good skunk ape story? Or, maybe they are telling them and just blaming it on the gators. 😉

4 hours ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

Gators show a respect for us when we appear larger or taller than they are. I think it causes them to misjudge size comparisons and gators usually gives way to the taller size, but swimming in the water we appear smaller and more like prey. A whole different ballgame there.

 

Interesting. Makes sense.