Tell your scarest moment on the water.....

I was 14 years old, back in the late 70's with my Dad and Uncle on the Cheaspeake Bay, back then they were no laws about life jackets, drinking, and no such thing as bilge pumps at least not in their boat, We had been chumming all day for bluefish, and had a great day, and my dad and uncle were talking about the old days as they drank and drank and drank, well I noticed a large front coming our way from the north which is always the worst, and told them about it more than a few times, of course they told me to shut up boy, keep dumping the chum, and get me another beer, well when it hit, it hit with a fury, 6-8' rollers, rain, wind, just down right nasty and quick, they tried to pull anchor, which you know is not easy with 8' rollers, it just about killed my uncle, slammed his head into the boat, knocking him out completely for about 3 minutes, waves rolling over into the boat, uncle passed out, dad screaming at me like I did something wrong, he finally cuts the anchor rope before we are totally sunk, and I am freezing cold, scared out of my mind, he throws me an old bleach bottle cut in half, screams start bailing before we sink, uncle wakes up, pukes everywhere, my dad is trying to pump the bulb so he can start the boat, cracks his head, doesnt knock him out, but puts a nice gash in his head, I'm watching all of this frozen in my tracks, cause i am about to sh&% myself, finally we get the boat started, 16' deep v hull with a 125 on it, these two idiots, loved them both dearly, but at this point, I know i am at least 50 points higher on an iq scale, since they are both plastered, want to try and make it back to Lewisetta where we started, about 7 miles, instead of just trying to make it to point lookout, maybe 2 miles, so they start back, waves crushing us from the front, couple from the sides that I thought was going to tip us over, this trip usually takes maybe an 1/2 hour at the most, took us 3 hours, and it was the scariest time I have ever had in my life, boat was almost full of water when we made it back, I was beat to death, had bruises all over my body, both of them was scared sober, but I know if there wasnt a god we would of died that day, plus both of them had been on the water for over 40 years each, so I am sure that helped. Got back to the house, mom and aunt frantically been looking for us, sure enough dad tells them, ahhh the fish were biting we didnt want to leave, and it wasnt that bad out there. Mom knew how bad it was by looking at the expressions on my face, and all the lacerations to them. I never went with them again unless they agreed to take me a life jacket. Scared all of us to death, but as we got older when we got together, that story was always brought up, and everyone got a great laugh out of it.

Troutcrazy...

""""then we're gonna die and our wives are gonna be really mad at us!" """


LMAO... clearly one of us married guys.... funny how that is our first concern... how iwll our wife react... LOL

My first two happened this past year. The first I was running up a river with my buddy and the water was up so we decided to shoot up the rapids. We made it up no problem, but as soon as we got up he ran out of gas, Me not knowing what was going on and still in wow over what he just didn't, sat there speechless as he jumped to the back switched tanks and fired us back up in just the nick of time. It took him seconds and it was pretty good because we didn't have much longer. The boat going backwards down that rapid could have been a disaster.

The other I was wading bymyself in late april. It was the first time I had been wading this certain creek so early and it was one of the few times i have ever been by myself. The water was up, naturally, and still very cool so I was in Waders. I was following my normal wading path at this spot and had to cross the creek in a higher flow area. In the middle of this i realize the water is a lot more powerful than i realized at this spot with the higher water, before long i realize my legs are loosing grip and my right leg comes up and i catch it by a rock. but now im spread out and water is almost up to my waders. I can't turn back and have 2 steps to get to a safe spot. As i look at the water that i will be rolling in if i fall, i somehow get enough strength in my back leg that is spread out to push me forward and manage my way to safety. This really opened my eyes. I have no idea how i made it.

The other scary moment is a buddy and I when we were 16-17 were wading way down a stretch of the South fork of Elkhorn and we were having a decent day, but nothing to write home about. We started getting into some different, more ideal water and about that time, Bang, Bang, BAng right at the creek bank. with no one to be seen ANYWHERE. Needless to say as young men we began to make our way back up the creek and to the truck quickly.

The wife my son Erik and Jack Fitzwater fishin on Guist Creek. Jack and my son are in Jacks boat the wife and I in mine. I follow Jack up the creek and all of a sudden Jack stops in front of me. No room to turn left or right and going to fast I throw the boat into reverse which of course kills the engine. Now we are sking right at them with the bow up ahd the stern down we come to rest on top of Jacks boat. Jack grabbed Erik and shoved him down my boat is resting on his motor, rear seat and front seat. The wife runs off the front of my boat and into Jacks before we even come to rest. The Lord was with us all no one hurt and just Jack's engine cowling, windshield and back seat broken. We all tried to fish after but we couldn't so load and home for us. Erik's shirt was green from the scum off the bottom of my boat. I've been in a boat that ran aground at about 50 mph this scared me a whole lot more.

Jerry Cole

Anybody that's been on KY lake when the wind is blowing 20-30 out of the north knows the pucker factor of being in the ocean. Got caught 3 times in the nasty stuff last year, taking water over the bow in a 21 foot boat is a scary **** feeling. Will never get used to that.

My worse had to be up north, in Canada.........in a Canoe.

The weather was COLD, about 45 - 50 degrees, and the water was in the 40's. Late May, Early June....GadgetMan and I had been having a BAD day. Got turned around on a lake, paddled 5 miles out of the way..........

So, we're mad, cold WET, and it is getting dark. We paddle up to Silver Falls. THe second LARGEST waterfall in the park..........Not Niagra or anything, but pretty scary.

NO WAY around it, you have to paddle upstream, and then "cross" where the water spills into the lake. THIS is normally a trickle, but this time, the the water is really RUNNING. AND the other side, is a shear cliff, no WAY to get out, NO WAY to go around.......NOTHING but going through it.........UGLY.

We put the nose of the canoe into the TORRENT, at a 45 degree.......and PADDLED like HELL. As soon as we hit the SERIOUS water, it hit is broadside, and started to fill the canoe.............fortunately, the canoe was a Kevlar tripping canoe and was riding on top of the wave.... On the backside of the wave, we took on some more water. By the time we finished "riding it out".....we were close to crashing into the ROCK wall. THAT would have been horrible.

Gadget and I were both on our knees paddling like hell, in 8 inches of water INSIDE the canoe. How we didn't flip the canoe was a miracle. We managed to make it to the other side of the torrent, where we sat and rested a few minutes before tackling the 160 rod Silver Falls Portage........

Thinking back on this........It was REALLY SCARY.

We were already cold, the water was cold, and it was running down stream. Had we flipped our canoe, and dumped our gear, we would have had a HARD time collecting it.

And if we would have had to get out and build a fire to warm up, we would have had to float 1/4 mile before we would have found somewhere to get out and actually build a fire.

Not only that, but all of our gear would have been floating DOWNRIVER. All of our camping gear, all of our food gear, all of our spare clothes, all of our sleeping bags.....

THIS would have been a disaster, and we seriously could have died.

Here are some links to some pics of silver falls:

[url]http://www.geofisher.com/BWCA_2001_Picpage3.html[/url]
[url]http://www.geofisher.com/BWCA_2001_Picpage4.html[/url]

Later,

Geo

[quote=joebw;351629]St. Jude’s Classic Kentucky Lake in Western KY.
Team Tournament
96 Boats – Missed weigh-in. Disqualified.
Kentucky Lake was extremely rough on this day due to high winds.

On the way back to the weigh-in, my partner noticed a young girl frantically waving her arms for help. We immediately headed towards her when we noticed two other people in the water.

The boat, a small paddle boat, had been swamped by the high waves. The girl was sitting on the back of the paddle boat, which was the only part that was not submerged, with out a life jacket. Her brother was in the water with out a life jacket treading water. Her Grandmother was in the water holding two youth life jackets to help keep her afloat.

My partner and I were able to rescue all three, thank God, with out injury to any of them. We tossed them our throw cushion and our life jackets to keep them afloat until we were able to pull them out of the water. Now I know why a throw cushion is required by the coast guard and water patrol.

It turned out that the Grandmother took her two grandkids for a paddle boat ride at the mouth of a bay where they were camping. The high winds and the current pushed them out into the main lake where the high waves swamped their boat. They were actually in the channel when we got to them.

Unfortunately, they only took two youth life jackets for three people. That could have been a very life threatening mistake. The current and waves separated two of them where they could not hold on to the swamped boat to help them stay afloat.

The sad part about this story - - - at least five boats went by them with out even slowing down. I guess getting to the weigh-in was more important to those fisherman than helping people in distress. Not one bass boat even stopped to help after we started our rescue, they would veer around us and just look.

Anyway, to finish a long story, we took all three of them safely back to a dock close to their camp. We stayed with them for a few minutes to make sure they were absolutely ok. After that, we took our time getting back to the ramp, released our fish, took our boat out and reflected on the day. In our eyes this was our best finish ever at a tournament – dead last![/quote]


Amen to that, Well Done Gentlemen.

[QUOTE=HiDefFisherman;351862]Troutcrazy...

""""then we're gonna die and our wives are gonna be really mad at us!" """


LMAO... clearly one of us married guys.... funny how that is our first concern... how iwll our wife react... LOL[/QUOTE]

It's the truth...She told me later the insurance money would have been nice, but she's put way to many hours in training me so she didn't want to start over again on someone else! I told I would be okay with it...she didn't laugh.

The hail was bad, my head hurts just thinking about it, but another one for me was at the bassmasters weekend series regional at Neely Henry lake when my boater cut sharp into a bay and did a 720 in the water with a foot high wave coming into the boat to soak us. It happened so quick I am just glad I had my rainsuit on and my lifevest.

[QUOTE=Rangerman;351621]Where you at Supersprint? You will enjoy this one!

Supersprint and I were fishing a tournament on Barkley one year and they were forecasting for potentially severe storms. Long story short, we are nearing the end of the tournament hours and we noticed the sky looking kinda weird (kinda had been all day), so we decide to head back down the lake closer to weigh in. As we come out of the creek we are in we notice it looks bad so I lay the hammer down and let the big cat scratch as we head down the lake to the launch ramp. The wind which had been kinda calm starts blowing, you know what I am talking about, just like right before a bad storm. We are in the channel on one side of the lake and we need to get to the other side and we will be at the launch ramp. As we proceed across the lake the waves start getting bigger and bigger. I mean waves in the 6+ footer range. Then it hits, HAIL!!!! I mean BIG HAIL. Here we are in the middle of lake barkley and it is hailing like crazy from pea size up to golf ball+ size hail. Let me tell you it hurts like heck. The waves are rolling so big that all I can see is water at times as we are in the dip of the wave. I just keep going at a fast idle because of the rollers and also, not sure if there is a tornado in this storm (which there was). We had 3" of hail in the bottom of my boat, mashed most of the guides down on my rods that were laying out. The smaller peices of hail got under my bilge pump buttons and would not allow me to turn them on. The water was shin deep in the bottom of my Ranger when I finally ran her aground near the launch ramp. Luckily I have an automatic bilge. Needless to say, we made it but not without severe hail damage to just about every vehicle in the parking lot, ruined rods and of course our heads and hands were sore for about a week to 10 days.

Probably one of my most scarest moments on the water.[/QUOTE]

I've had some serious scary moments on Ky lake one as the sun came down and I was shooting out of Little Bear creek (which was calm) then hit one, two then THHHRREEEEE went flying into the air and it took an hour to go 3 miles.

I was on the Ohio and was up in a creek just north of Golconda and notice some wind "not too bad" I thought when I got back to the main river it was a nightmare I remember praying to God to please at least let me get my son to safety "he's young, he has alot to live for" I took an hour and a half to go 3 miles.

Last but definately not least in fact the all time scaries moment, I was in a tournament when Ike came through, I was in a creek on the Ohio, trees were crashing down everywhere, 2 different guys got knocked out of their boats, the wind was unbelievable, my son got hit in the head by a branch about 3" diameter knocked him to the bottom of the boat. Monster treetops crashing from 40 ft up. i thank God he got us home

I guess the scariest time on the water for me happened a few years ago fishing a tournament on Taylorsville. It was an all nighter and I was fishing by myself. About 11 that night it started storming. There was lightning everywhere. I was up in the Candy Branch area of the lake and was afraid to try to make the run to the ramp. I tied up to a stump close to the bank and just rode it out. I think it stormed most of the night. I could just imagine how the article in the paper was gonna read. The next morning after I made my way back to the ramp I found out that I was the only boat that weathered the storm. Every other boat in the tournament pulled out of the water and rode the storm out sitting in the parking lot. Ive only been scared on the water 3 times. Twice it involved lightning. The other time it involved my buddy falling out of my boat in March. Again, on Taylorsville and all the way up in the Candy Branch area.

After reading Cumberlandguy1's post, my mishaps don't sound so bad. Sorry for your loss CG1.

Here are a few of mine. #1 is probably when my buddy and I were heading for the ramp and doing around 50 mph when we hit a couple of big waves. Thats all I remember until I regained my senses and realized I was at the back of the boat looking at the prop wash. I looked to see where my buddy was but he was no longer in the boat. I crawled back to the steering wheel and got control of the boat. I looked around and see my buddy dog paddling behind the boat. He was thrown out of the boat but I landed at the back of the boat. Good thing because the boat was still going(no kill switch). I ended up with a cut on my head, elbow, and rear end. #2 would be the time we ran aground going wide open at night on Cherokee Lake. That one could have been very bad if we had hit where the boulders were. Intstead we drove up on a big sand bar. We were a good 12 ft from waters edge. #3 would be the time the coil burnt up as we were drifting toward Meldahl dam. The current was taking us right in the white water and all we had was the trolling motor which was on high and had no effect. My buddy says we have to point the boat at the dam and try to get some momentum to swing us out toward the next gate. I didn't like the idea, but it worked. #4 would be the time we were fishing for catfish on the Ohio River. As we pulled up to our spot, the motor dies. My buddy says the words I have gotten used to by now and says "that's not good". The coil burnt up again. He says lets go ahead and bait up and start fishing while he works on the thing. We get rigged and as he has his head down back at the motor I make a comment that it would be a bad thing if a barge would come up the river. We had drifted out in the middle of the river by now. Sure enough I look down river and see some blinking lights. I get my buddy's attention and say Oh look, a barge. I say it's a good thing we have a trolling motor. My buddy tells me it's dead. I say well at least we have an oar. He said he took it out for some reason or another. Now I'm trying to decide which is closer, Ohio or Kenucky. It's about the same distance which means I got no chance. My buddy puts the trolling motor on high and the prop is bearly turning. I keep watching the lights and they are getting closer. My buddy gets an idea. Even though the motor wouldn't start, it would give us a little boost when he turned the key because he could start it in gear. He hit that thing about a dozen times and we slowly got out of the way. Just as we get clear, three barges went by. #5 would have to be the time we were on our way to the lake when we were coming up on a big farmers truck that was stopped at a stop sign and my buddy looks at me and says "we got no brakes". I'm looking for the seat belt and making sure it is secure. I'm thinking we will take the ditch but just as we get close, he goes right around the truck and turns left. We had no idea if a car was coming from the left or right but we didn't have many options. We coast to a stop and get out to see if we can find whats wrong. My buddy gets in and starts pumping the brakes. He gets a little something and says "lets go fishin". I'm pretty well nervous now because I know I will be the one backing the boat in the water. Well no problems. I'm thinking it's going to be ok. We fish well after dark and I go get the vehicle. I'm backing down and I notice that there isn't much there so I'm getting nervous. My buddy gets the boat hooked up and I throw it in reverse by accident and now I got no brakes to stop us. My buddy throws the throttle wide open to keep us from sinking as I get it in forward and give it the gas. My buddy is hollering out for me to stop but I had nothing. We coasted to a gradual stop. It was a long drive home and I know we never really stopped but just slowed down alittle at all stop signs. These are just a few, I could go on but I'll save the rest for later.