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
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
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”!
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.
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.
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!
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…
I watched an arc one day travel between my rod butt and my wrist accompanied by a buzz. I put the rod down and walked away. Two people were killed that day while on a mountain climb several miles away. That’s was enough for me.
In the west: fish from daybreak till about 10:30 am or when you see the t-clouds start to form, then pack it in. I’d rather be in a pick-up than a hospital.
When you get up in the morning this might be the last day of your life.
Whether you’re indoors and especially outdoors this is a truism.
Be vigilant is the only advice I have and be aware that lightening can strike well ahead of a front coming in.
To me… dying with my waders on, doing something I enjoy, isn’t necessarily a bad way to go.
True, but not dying is better. Especially not dying as a crispy crittur.
Death and life are the same.
How one lived and died is important only to those left behind.
When in the open, to minimize lighting hitting you, you are supposed to crouch and sit on your haunches, huddle up into a ball and tip up onto the balls of your feet. Your feet should be together minimizing the possibility of ground effects. This creates the smallest contact with the ground and minimizes your conductive footprint.
If you are going to huddle under a tree, it should be far from the tallest tree. Even if you are under a small tree but it is close to a tall tree, a strike on the tall tree can kill you by ground effect.
http://chiwulff.com/2009/04/08/fly-fishing-and-lightning-safety-part-1-illuminating-the-issue/
http://chiwulff.com/2009/04/09/fly-fishing-and-lightning-safety-part-2-be-smart-be-safe/
http://chiwulff.com/2009/04/10/fly-fishing-and-lightning-safety-part-3-help-i?ve-been-hit/
If you know a t-storm is coming, it is best to miss a day’s fishing over missing a lifetime.
I learned one of my earliest lessons in fly fishing after a thunderstorm. I was fishing without success when a thunderstorm hit. I waited the storm out and when it cleared, fish were rising but just in one spot. There was no hatch that I could see and I could see nothing on the water. I was perplexed and so I fished a dry attractor.
I happened to catch a single fish and it was taking beetles drowned in the film. That one spot happened to just under and downstream a bit from a particular tree. The thunderstorm washed beetles off of the tree into the river. I had no beetle patterns but I did have deer hair ants. I got my largest ant pattern and cut the head off to make a passable Crowe beetle pattern. It made my afternoon.
Now I look for risers near the banks and under trees and bushes just after a storm. When this happens think terrestrials. Tie on a double dry which is a variation of the dry dropper strategy. Put a beetle on and behind that as the dry “dropper” add an ant pattern. It will double your chances of choosing the correct pattern.
There’s a bridge I know where on the dropping tide huge stripers hang out waiting for herring to pass through the turbines.
Every local in the area knows about it and on prime tides they gather like flies on youknowwhat and there’s never any room for a fly fisher.
The only time I’ve ever been able to fish it alone was during the height of a thunderstorm
It was worth the risk
Last summer while fishing a stream in a very deep sided gorge in Ohio a thunder storm came up. This was pretty much a place where who have to lay on your back in June to see the sun. Anyway, couldn’t really see other that the sky was getting darker and the wind was picking up by the sound on the ridges. Got into some fish and kinda lost interest in the approaching storm. The thunder started to get closer, and then bam, a bolt hit a tree very near to where I was wading. It was one of those see the flash, and then the boom puts you to your knees while the flash is still going . Gave me a heart pounding run , about a mile, back to the truck. Luckily, only a _ss soaking, but I developed a healthy new respect for approaching storms. Won’t do that again ! Get out of the water. and if you do caught, they say crouch and stay on the balls of your feet as to give the least amount of contact with the ground.
Lightning: An electrical discharge occurring within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the ground.
Lightening: the process of removing weight.
How funny! Guess spell check is only so good!!
For those of you that get Field and Stream magazine, there is a photo of a graphite rod that got hit by a lighting strike. The end of the rod looks like a pony tail attached to the rod butt. The 17 yo. angler, Christian Neal survived after a stay in the hospital for severe burns
Christian’s father Gabe holds the rod
You can read the news report here:
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…