Most frightening experience while fishing?

[rayfound]

So, I'm sure we've all had our share of somewhat scary situations out on the stream. I'll give you mine, and then I look forward to hearing yours.

1. About 5 years ago I took my brother in law to the WF. He was wandering across stream to retrieve a snag. I told him "Be careful, the rocks can be slippery", he responded "What's the worst that could happen? I'm going to fall in?"... about 1 second after the sentance ended, a log, maybe 20" long and 5" diameter came down the rock face and hit him on the head. If it was a rock, or hadn't been a bit rotten, I think a serious injury was sure. As it was, he had a headache for the rest of the day.


2. Rattler's at the stream that's not shallow. 2 trips in a row, 2 rattlers I walked right past. The buzz of the second one immediately after I passed got my heart racing!

3. Yesterday. Was fishing my favorite local, scrambling around the banks to the next pool, and apparently with the recent moisture, the ground is not as stable as it usually is. I was about the top of a 3-4ft little climb when the earth gave way and I started tumbling backwards, down the little hill. I Turned to break my fall and landed face-down amongst sticks, rocks, and dirt - luckily, not hitting my head. Then a rock, about 28" x 20" x 16" pinned both legs in a hole between 2 other rocks. Everything wedged together and both legs were pinned. I was stuck, helplessly, on my knees - and I was alone.

took only about a minute to get my right leg out, but my left leg was seriously stuck. I started grabbing branches to use for leverage, but they kept breaking when I would try and pry the rock.

Eventually, I was able to pry a small hand-hold and using my back, arms, and right leg, roll the rock off enough to pull my leg free. But I was scared. Scared that I was alone, and my wife didn't really know where I was. Started thinking about getting one of those spot locators... that's for sure. And now with my Willie J pack, there is no reason not to carry basic survival gear with me. (Fire starting, a little food, mylar blanket, etc...)

Nothing ended up hurt seriously. Actually little pain today besides some stiffness in my left calf and a weird pain in my right foot.

So what about you guys? What's got your heard racing?

[beachbum]

Many years ago, three of us were floating the North Platte River in WY, in early spring. There was snow on the banks, and the water was cold. We came around a corner to see a sweeper (tree down blocking the river), and as hard as we could back row, we couldn't escape it. The water was passing under the tree, and the boat was trapped against it. I was able to hop up on the tree, but one of my buddies got sucked under, but came out the other side. After we were able to get the boat to shore on a little island , we started a fire, and thawed out. That was pretty scary. After we pulled out we headed to the Miracle Mile, where the fishing was good, and we could wade!

There are a lot of other incidents that were a bit scary, but that one could have had the worst consequences. Floating big water is a learning experience, and we learned a LOT that day.

[WanderingBlues]

Not flyfishing related, but angling related..... On a tuna trip a couple of years ago, a dorado hit the deck and went wild. Ended up catching a 3/0 hook in my calf all the way through. Had to use bolt cutters to cut the point and barb off to pull it out. Now, if a live one hits the deck, I stay as far away as possible.

[RichardCullip]

I've been pretty blessed and haven't had many scary episodes while out on the water. My scariest moment was learning the hard way that water on polished granite (Yosemite High Country) and felt-soled wading boots can be a very dangerous combination. One day, when fishing by myself, I had my feet slip out from under me and in a blink of any eye I was on the ground seeing stars when my head banged off of something much harder than it. I was lucky I didn't split my skull open. If I had, I'd still be lying there today with my wife and a search & rescue team still trying to find the body. Of course, maybe the vultures would have helped them find what was left of me.

[209er]

In the late 70s I was fishing alone on the Tule above Porterville. Was rock hopping below the bear cave and twisted my left ankle with a pop. I landed in the water and broke the tip of my Phillipson and seriously thought I broke my ankle with all the pain. I had two hundred yards and a 40 degree trail to cover on my butt moving like a crab. Yes I was scared, sweaty, and tired before I hoisted myself up in the cab what seemed like two hours from the stream. Just a severely sprained ankle and I didn't catch a thing. I did get poison oak though. 209er

[castaway]

Ray Ray Ray... I hate to say I told you so... but refer to Watchingthewater's most recent post..

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3069

I had a similar experience last summer.. except the rock DID land on my head... I saw the light (its true what they say about a near death experience).. and consider myself very lucky to be alive!

I still have ongoing issues because of it... insomnia, headaches, and sometimes it feels like my eyes are focused at different depths.... to name a few. (not to mention the 3 days of stomach aches, nausia and the squirts...)

I had a buddy get stuck in quicksand... took him a good 20 minutes to get one leg out and crawl to safety.

I hate snakes... nuff said about that...

This year is going to be EXTREMELY dangerous! Lots of rain in a short amount of time.. really loosend the banks...

and even a fall down a 4 foot embankment can be deadly...

Glad you made it out alive... Dont tell the wife... it will be your last fishing trip alone.

[1mocast]

Wet feet...climbing a sloped polished smooth granite bolder the size of a big SUV...sliding off the rock face...with at least a 6 ft drop into more rocks...falling backwards...OMG! Landing on my back....And my bright red backpack saving my butt...The water bottles and jacket cushioning the fall...just missed rocks on both sides of my head...a couple of scrapes on the thigh...Used one of my 9 lives...

[FlyinFish]

Crap Ray, glad you're okay and not hurt too seriously. That's some really scary stuff.

I usually leave the gf a note of where I'm going to be and when I plan to be out, and maybe a number of someone with me or in the area. It's maybe not a bad idea to give the significant others our logins and passwords to this site, or even just stay logged in on your computer. If anything happens, they can post up for help and info. The cops would have a hard time figuring out where "Sherpa Creek" is, or trying to scour the entire "Owens Valley" looking for one guy...



As for me, I've never had too bad of an accident, but there have been times where I stumble back onto my feet and realize how much worse that could have gone down. The rattling noise two steps back from where you just were has happened to me once fishing and I've stepped over one going downhill while hiking.

Really glad you walked away from this one duder...

[gabe]

WF of you know where about 9yrs ago. Lost my footing a bit in about waste high water. Put my hand down on a tree root on the bank of the river to catch my fall. 4' fat rattler was just slithering through the roots and my hand was an inch away from its belly. He started to rattle and as I looked over, and finally saw movement, I yelped and ran through the river and up the bank, tripping and falling in the river as I did. I was so embarrassed, but luckily there was no one around that saw me flailing around in the water. ha!

EF about 3 years ago. not as much frightening as it was painful. Decided to hike in with some friends, Antonio and Grant, despite having recently spraining my ankle. We split up to get our own beat of water. Was standing under a cliff casting for a nice fish when pebbles started to rain down. Then bigger rocks started to come down, I darted across the river and when I got to the other side and caught my breath the pain sunk in. @#$! Well at least I wasn't bonked on the head by a boulder.

[Pete]

I'll throw a couple into the ring.

Several years ago fishing the Kings, right by Boyden Cave. Fishing in early season conditions. In other words the water was raging and no fool in his right mind should have been fishing. Well, this fool wasn't in his right mind. I was boulder hopping by some water that would have drown me for sure. About 8' off the water thinking, if I fall I am dead. If they find me, in will be in Fresno. Next thing you know, I was looking up at blue sky in a free fall toward the white water. This was when I really became a firm believer in God's devine intervention. Next thing you know I am on the rock spread eagle. Looked like a lizard doing push ups on the rock. Scared me so bad I was done for the day. Elbows and knees took a whooping but, the rod or reel never touched the rock.

Second time was the upper Kings, again. Some times it doesn't matter if you are a lone or not. My neice's husband was fishing the far side, when he fell and landed on his tail bone. He has a bad back and it hurt him bad. He sat in the water right where he fell for 30 minutes. I was on my way over to him when I stepped on a boulder that was cantilevered (sp?). It flipped over and I took a tumble right on my chest. Thank god I wear a chest pack. Crushed my fly boxes, broke all my tippet spools and bruised my sternum. Let's put it this way: the wading staff I was using, was an old clothes dowel from a closet (1 1/4" or 1 1/2" dia. dowel) snapped that sucker across my chest. Again thanks for for the chest pack. Took both of us an hour to go the 50 yards to the truck. Actually thought we were going to die 50 yards from my truck. Or at least spend the night laying on the rocks. Felt like I was hit by a truck. As with the above mentioned incident I am proud to say, rod or reel never hit the rocks. That one took a couple of weeks to get over the pain. Shoot, my chest hurts just re-living this.

Hope my wife never figures out how to find this forum. If she does, I'm grounded for sure . I am getting too old for this falling crap. Recovery time is just tooooo long. Lesson learned for both these incidents: Pain hurts and the older you get the longer it hurts .

[Sasha]

Seeing a naked adult male wearing a neon rainbow colored clown wig


Ok seriously there have been a lot of close calls in this thread glad everybody has come out relatively unscathed. I have been pretty lucky so far with a lot of close calls almost falling, slipping, etc. but nothing major. I had a real close encounter with a bear once but lucky for me he decided to walk away. For some reason what really freaks me out are large cats. I have not run into any (that I know of) yet. But I hope I never do, especially given some of the places that I fish.

[Papasequoia]

Seeing a naked adult male wearing a neon rainbow colored clown wig

A frightening experience for me is when I go fishing with people and they say something like, "So I've been giving this Coed Naked Fly Fishing club some serious thought. You brought a camera with you, right?" I mean, no offense, but most of you guys are nowhere near as good looking as me and the doc.

Seriously though, the scariest experience for me in the outdoors ever was the microburst I wrote about in that Backpacker article last month. It happened while hiking back from fishing and I don't think I've ever felt so scared or so trapped in my life. Also high up there were misjudging the depth of a hole on the Kern a couple of years ago and going in over my head in late December. The wading belt wasn't as tight as it could have been, water started leaking in, and I couldn't get traction at first to get out of the hole. For a brief time I thought I would be sucked right under for good. Of course I was fishing alone.

[midger]

Gosh you folks need to be more careful or you're going to hurt yourselves, or worse.

I've led a pretty uneventful flyfishing career. I've about broke my tailbone using studded boots on the Kern (not recommended), banged my head into the rocks on the Upper O in the gorge, jammed my hand into a prickly pair cactus on the walker, taken swims on the klamath after falling into dredger holes, but nothing that scared me. These things just made me mad, and in some cases, sore.

The worse incident I'm familiar with is one that didn't happen to me, but rather, was related to me by the late Joe Lynch. While fishing by himself on a local SB mt stream, a large boulder rolled down and pinned him half in and half out of the water. According to him, it took him nearly 30 minutes to get out from under it, and that incident scared him so badly that he'd rarely fish by himself on the locals after that. This worked out for me, as I got to visit a lot of waters I hadn't fished before.

[darrin terry]

Nice, Mike. I was talking with Chris (mtnguru) this weekend and when he mentioned bow and arrow casting I was reminded of Joe. Never got to meet him, but have heard many times that he was a master of that cast. Glad you got to fish with him.

Me? No, nothing real bad has happened yet. I've fallen a few times, but have been lucky so far. Nothing more than bruises and a little blood lost to go with some embarrassment. You get over that pretty quick.

[beachbum]

There's an Island on the Firehole river, just above the juction with the Gibbon, and where the Firehole canyon flattens out. I had waded out, and was fishing a rumored big fly hatch, when I looked across stream to see a buffalo staring at me. Normally I might have gone the other way, but fishing big orange dry flies was working at the moment, so I stayed. In a flash he was through the water, and standing on the island with me.

Have you ever looked at a buffalo up close? Their heads are about 3 ft wide, with big horns sticking menacingly from the skulls. Before I could react, he started snorting, and pawing the ground. When he let out a bellow, I was gone. I plowed through the water, got up the far bank, and was out of there.

To this day, I have have a lot more respect for buffalo.