Getting caught in a thunderstorm

[Steven]

Getting out tomorrow, first time this season, and a thunderstorm is supposed to be rolling through.

What's the best advice if I'm on the water (I'll be wading)?

Get under a tree? Don't get under a tree? Get out in the open? Move at least 100' away from the graphite rods?

Thanks,

Steven

[dudley]

I was witness to a spectacular show yesterday. I was fishing a farm meadow brook while lighting was striking the ridge to the north.
After the second strike, I packed it in and headed to the truck for a beer and to watch the finale in safety

[DaveP63]

What he said...Aside from that, out of the water, ground the rod. Hide in the trees if you must, the car or truck would be "more better"!

[herefishy]

If you have to get under a tree, make it the shortest in the vicinity, and do not sit on the ground, as you want to make as small a "footprint" on the ground as possible in case lightning goes through you into the ground.

[Betty Hiner]

Check out this dudes fishing rod ... then reconsider being out in a storm!! These pictures still amaze me!! If you can hear the thunder, you're too close to the lightening.

http://www.kmbc.com/news/19730665/detail.html

[Orthoman]

If you see it coming, get out of the water and sit in the car or in the brush on the bank if you have to. Sitting under a tree -- especially the only tree around is a huge mistake. Fishing with guides in Montana last year, they were very cautious about lightening and told us if need be, we would get out and lay down in the brush but not get under a tree. Waving a fly rod around in a lightening storm is asking for it bit time -- although we watched peiople keep on fishing with severe lightening coming down (actuallly goes up).

There was a great article in California Fly Fisher on lightening. It can strike from miles away -- you don't have to be in the midst of the storm to get hit.

The video mentioned above is worth watching. Those guys were LUCKY!

[PRM]

Betty's response reminds me of several incidents... While on the Yellowstone in '92, 2 guys were fishing acrossriver from us upstream from the Hayden Valley when a thunderstorm approached - low and fast. We'd taken cover under a big shale ledge well away from the water. We heard one guy say to the other "Hey, Larry - look at this..." He was holding his flyrod straight up, and it was glowing PURPLE - -like a blacklight. About a second later the air went white, with a simultaneous boom. When we got our vision back from that flash, both guys were picking themselves up - one still in the river, and the other on shore. Neither was injured, but Larry's buddy never did find his rod...

[beigefoot]

Please take a little advise from a lighting strike survivor...do not seek shelter under a tree! Find proper shelter! get to you car or in a building. If you can't do that make yourself as small a target as you can by squatting down on your haunches with as little contact with mother earth as you can. And throw your rod away from you, no sense in holding a electrical conductor. Once the storm passes, seek shelter, and carry your rod with yout tip level, not in the air. We have seen strikes travel miles from the cloud to the ground. And yes, once I quit smoking and the bouts of x-ray vision have passed, I made a full recovery...

[bonefishwhisperer]

I have taken some electric shocks and even had a strike knock me down inside the canoe and go across my arms and up into my jaw making me break my tooth from biting down and it wasnt even raining...my rods are always singing from static without even picking them up...the 15ft pushpole is a lightning rod and its what I use to get around...last yr 2 guys died within 5 miles of me...all that being said I still will continue to fish ...when its your time you will die but not until...I am proof...