Scariest Fishing Experience

[Flytyer317]

Hi all,
What is your scariest moment while fishing, fly or non. I would say mine was last summer when me and my friend were hiking near some very fast moving water falls in a high mountain creek to get to some very nice pools, and I stepped on some moss and down I went. I fell down two, not too-awfully steep slides, into about a 5 foot deep pool. I was about a 1/2 mile back into the woods and had no other clothes with me, which ruined the day;I caught 1 little 10-inch rainbow while my freind caought about 9. Found a new way up to that pool after that.
- David

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You'll Have to speak up, I'm wearing a towel
- Homer J. Simpson

[This message has been edited by Flytyer317 (edited 16 May 2005).]

[dixieangler]

It would have to be on a Georgia mountain wild trout stream fishing with a buddy. We both had a big copperhead try to swim between our legs . Fortunately we side stepped it in time so it passed to our left.

Finding the dead doe deer with a bite out of her belly in the Helen, GA WMA Federal Park on the side of a mountain when it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop was a close second. I was over the Chattahoochee River and on the side of the other mountain so fast I don't think my feet got wet. Thankfully, I never did see the bear that did it .


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Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL

"Flip a fly"



[This message has been edited by dixieangler (edited 17 May 2005).]

[D. Micus]

i was fishing a strong rip on an incoming tide, started to catch fish and wasn't paying attention. when i turned to walk back to the beach it was nothing but water. i must have been on an elevation, because every spot i tried to walk back the water got deeper. it was 5am with no one in sight. since the tide was still coming in i figured i just had to risk it. the current was getting stronger, the water reached my chin (filled my waders which gave me some purchase) and then started to rescind. close as i ever want to get to drowning.

[Enemy_of_Carp]

It actually coincides with my login name.

Evening on my local lake, a friend and I are trying to get a few extra bass before it gets pitch dark out. Really still and quiet. We start prospecting a shallow bay near some dock lights skimming the weedline on the other side.

Suddenly we start thumping into something as we paddle along. My buddy tells me to lean down near the water to see what the hell we keep bumping into.

At that time the 30+ carp around the boat finally decide to spook. It was like a stick of dynamite going off under the boat, im soaked from head to waist and covered in weeds and algae.

Since that day Ive silently plotted my revenge.

[PanFisher]

A trip down 8 miles of class 7 rapids in a 12 foot aluminum boat comes to mind.

If it weren?t for stopping to fish once in a while we would have drowned!


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Let No One Walk Alone
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Bill




[This message has been edited by PanFisher (edited 16 May 2005).]

Waded out in the main stem of Delaware. I went a little deeper than I normally go but didn't realize how far I was from the bank. When I tried to turn around to wade out the realization hit. Far from the bank, in heavy current and lower chest high water without a wading staff. I thought for sure I was going for a swim or worse.

Well, fortunately I didn't and I learned my lesson.

By the way, this prompts me to ask a question about wading. It'll be under a separate thread.

Allan

[MarkKillam]

Speaking of carcasses, I saw an elk carcess in the water while fishing the Gallatin just outside of Yellowstone Park this weekend. It was pretty chewed up. Dont know if a bear had fed on it or not. I was definitely on my toes the whole time I was fishing there though. I do suspect that there was a bald eagle that had been feeding on it cause I had an eagle screech at me the whole time I was fishing that area.

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Take care everyone and cya around. Mark

[Sawkill]

Years ago I was fishing a small stream in Potter County, PA. It was the kind I like to call a "tunnel stream" because the vegitation is so dense that it completely surrounds the stream on the sides, and above, just as if you are in a tunnel. Any way, I was working my way up stream when I noticed an opening in the leaves, like a window, about five feet from where I stood. It was about the same height as my head and framed in it was the head of a large black bear. I was frightened, but I guess the bear was more so, because before I could move, the bear's head disappeared, and I could hear it crashing through the underbrush in a direction away from me. I decided I had had enough fishing for that day and left.

Bob

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There is a fine line between fly fishing, and standing in the water waving a stick.

Dear flytyer,

One time me and my buddies ran out of beer.

We were absolutely petrified.

I have to admit that I did get a little grossed out a couple of years back while fishing the West Branch of the Delaware.

It was early May and the fish were happily rising to tan caddis. I was doing really well, and I waded into a side channel to cast to a bunch of steadily rising fish. I started plucking them off one by one and didn't really notice the things that were bumping off my legs.

Finally the fish stopped rising and I paid some attention to what was bumping up against my legs. Turns out I was standing in a nest of lamprey eels.

I high tailed it out of that pool so fast you would have thought my feet were on fire.

Why God ever made lamprey eels I will never know, they sure are ugly though.

Regards,
Tim Murphy



[This message has been edited by Tim Murphy (edited 16 May 2005).]

Lots of good ones here. I no longer consider fishing with bears a scarry situation, comes with the territory around here. I did take pause one day though when an almost black wolf began watching me from the opposite bank. It was kinda cool until about 10 minutes later when I realized he was gone and then spotted him substantially closer back in some brush. I don't know if it was my casting or the 30' of water between us that made him leave but it did get my attention. Another time I was up a creek about 4 miles in (alone, real bright) and the back 2/3 of about a 2lb. cutty came floating by. You couldn't see 15' into the forest and I was surprised at how much my hearing had improved after that......I heard ALL KINDS of noises . (Note to self: always fish with a buddy you can outrun.) Take care - Jim