Most scared you've been when fishing?

[Breamtim]

Hi all

Thought I'd post a thread to get some posts up on the forum.
Whats the most scared you've been when fishing? Could be animal encounters, dangerous weather, being lost, or just weird things (or people!) seen on the water.

I don't have any great stories myself, probably fishing remote Territory billabongs land based and seeing crocs close by would be it for me, but I'm sure some of you guys have got some great stories to share.

Tim

[purple5ive]

Pistol will own this thread i reckon

for me it would have to be stuck on some rockcliffs while squidding and loosing my footing if i moved. i had to sit there and wait screaming for help.
a passerby heard my wails and came and rescued me.
if i slipped i would have fallen down some nasty rocks 50m or so below and could have been finito

[jb2020]

About 20 yrs ago, pre internet weather updates - out in the bay in a runabout with 2 others when storm of the century hit Geelong - we could see the storm on the horizon but then the wind changed in an instant sending it straight for us, packed up immediately but didn't get very far. Got tossed around like we were in a washing machine, visibility zero, hailstones as big as golf balls, grabbing lifejackets. the only time ive said a hail mary out of fear - i thought we were going into the drink for sure. When it passed it felt like we had been motoring for an hour, finally got our bearings and we were roughly in the same spot. Got back to the ramp, there were dead seagulls all over the place - couple of other boats that made it to the ramp hung around for us to get back feared the worst - all the cars at the ramp were hail damaged. On the way home passed people building snowmen in the streets!

[Windknot]

Back in 1986 I was fishing at Barra Base on Bathurst Island NT. Our guide for the day offered to take another client and me up the coast about 10k to a very little fished estuary. As we approached river mouth in our small boat and we could see there was a major feeding frenzy happening just inside the mouth.

The guide brought the boat in and beached it. We could still see the action, but right where we would need to stand to cast into the frenzy, there was a 12 foot saltwater crocodile basking on the sandbank.

The guide wasn't worried, but the other client and I were certainly a bit worried, so we walked behind the guide as he approached the croc from the side away from the water. We were thinking it would just slide into the water to go away.

The croc didn't move. We got close enough to it for the guide to flick some sand at it with his foot. The croc didn't like the sand kicked in its face. It suddenly stood up really tall and making a weird hissing, growling noise, it then ran towards us at an incredible speed.

The guide turned to run, but because the other client and I were hiding behind him, he ended up running straight into us, knocking us all to the ground. Meanwhile the croc was right on us. The next thing I was flying though the air. The croc had wacked us really hard with its tail. I thought it was all over for at least one of us at that stage. When I turned around to see where it was, I saw it as it was just disappearing into the water.

It would have been hilarious to watch, I suppose, but we got a hell of a fright. We didn't fare too badly though, with just one rod broken and all our reels were full of sand. Minutes later we were catching more fish than I can remember.

[Zim man]

did a fishing trip back home, were on a tender and the guide/captain drove us to his spot, we went into a small channel, the centre of which was occupied by a rather boisterous young male hippo, not Fs were given and the captain drove straight over it and stopped at his fishing spot about 100 metres away. Hippos are mean mofos so we were a little perturbed about this (my father in law and myself)

Anyways we do some fishing, catching bream (tilapia) and we have tied up to a tree at the front of the tender, the wind was swaying us a bit so the guide gently drops a small ancher (about the size of a car battery) over the back, no splash so as not to scare the fish, , 10 minutes later the boat starts to move rather rapidly, the back is swaying back and forth with the front still tied to the tree.

my first thought is that a hippo has walked under us and got caught in the anchor rope, my father in law claims dibs on the tree to climb, i am looking at the shore 8 metres away and wondering if i can make it there in time.

I tell the captain to slowly pull the line in so we can see what we are dealing with.



a beast of a croc had been under the boat waiting for us to wash our hands or get the keep net with the fish in and had taken the anchor on the drop. the captain wants his anchor back to pulls hard and thats when the camera shakes start as i had grabbed the captain by his pants has he was going overboard. we cut the line after that..... drove the boat back over the hippo, caught a few good tiger fish and then headed back for 7am breakfast.

[stella fella]

OK, this story isn't for those with a weak stomach, but here goes: I once went on a trip with my old man to Lake St. Clair. We arrived late afternoon, chucked our gear and rods on the deck and backed the boat down the ramp where we launched without a problem. Dad parked the car and promptly returned to the boat which I was holding on to by the gunnels, the bow rope sprawled across the casting deck. Here comes the terrifying part. Dad decided that before he jumped in he would open the bow hatch and stow the rope, however in doing so he he flipped the hatch lip over directly onto the tip of my mint condition Megabass Destroyer Racing Condition Fullhouse I flipped the lid back to reveal that the rod was perfectly fine, but still, I had never been so terrified in all my life.

[CK]

I cant recall what it was that prompted us to head out. Perhaps it was the mistrust of any forecast put out by the BOM. Maybe it was the glassy sea. Or maybe just the need to get out there, I really cant recall. So off we go, not offshore or anything like that, just a leisurely jaunt around the local estuary.

Things are fine to begin with. Scattered cloud n light winds, it was actually quite pleasant. It soon looks like its about to change however, as thickening dark clouds loom in the distance. A check of the weather radar and sure enough there is rain on the way n lots of it too, but we figure the worst of it will pass well away from us.

Soon the warm bright sun is gone. replaced by the dark clouds and a cool blustery wind, which is soon followed by rain. We quickly check the radar again and make a run for it. The rain is quite localised and we feel a short 2 or 3k ride should see us out at the outer edge. Have you ever tried to run at speed in an open boat with rain falling? It stings like thousands of little needles hitting the sensitive parts of your face. I had to put sunnies on just to keep my eyes open!

As I look back over my shoulder it looks like we had dodged a bullet as it appeared that the rain had quickly become small hail, either that or it was really bucketing. We took refuge in a small crook out of the wind and waited for the rain band to pass.

We could hear the crack of thunder around us, but again decided that it was of very little threat to us and moved back to a shallow flat. We were throwing weighted plastics around in a shallow channel without much luck when a weird thing happened that REALLY had me n, I think, the crew worried.

You expect loose line from a cast to hang in the air somewhat afterwards but when that loose belly stayed high for a considerable amount of time, with very little wind and we felt slight tingles from our rods, we decided that NOW was a good time to put an end to our madness and high tail it back to the ramp.

[fatbream]

A friend and I would have been 15 or so. In our younger days we used to do a lot of wading the flats. One spot we fished regularly has a sandspit that travels out about 100m into the middle of the river with drop-offs either side. We were fishing the drop-offs.

We'd walked a fair distance out along one edge of the spit with some success. There we're a lot of decent sized mullet in the shallows on the sandspit. Experience had taught not to bother throwing lures at these things. Occasionally we'd jag hook them and watch them burn across the flats but they rarely took a lure.

The sun was setting and it was a beautiful evening. With our backs to shore looking out at the river and casting to the drop-off we fished our way out into the river. The tide was rising and we were in waist deep water when we heard some splashing. I turn to look back to shore and see the fin. There's only one thing attached to a fin above water when you are in the water. It was a man-eating bull shark of death and it was between us and the shore.

I frantically point out the fin to my friend and we start planning our escape. It looks bleak... We decided to work into the middle of the spit where the water is shallowest, try and splash as little as possible and work our way back undetected.

The fin started slashing through the water thrashing away and as the water got to knee deeps or nerves got the better of us and we started helicoptering our feet above the water to run to shore. Shells are sharp, we were dumb and barefeet were cut. Now we're bleeding in the water but we're 30m from shore!

Its every man for themselves as we hit the bank not quite believing our luck as we managed to skirt round and race past the vicious beast.

From the safety of shore we decide to inspect a little closer and enjoy the close encounter. As is often the case, from the safety of the shore fins can be attached to all manner of ocean dwellers, most commonly in the river, dolphins... It was then with feet firmly on shore we realised a dolphin and its baby had worked a school of mullet onto the bank and were feeding. The mother was rounding them up and the baby, only small at about 1.5m was thrashing through them learning to hunt.

All we could do was laugh. However, to be frank, dolphins may be friendly but i'd rather not be "investigated" by one in waist deep water on a flat. They kill sharks...