Fishing stories.. or exciting stories while floating.. or ??

[flybill]

I think we've done something like this before, but thought i would share a couple of my more interesting and scary stories to start!

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Years ago I floated the Bitterroot with a friend who knew it very well and took me out. My trip started with a nice, about 19 inch fish which I held up for a picture! Not one that small was the response! True story!

We floated for a while and did catch a few more. My friends friend was rowing and we came up on some somewhat technical water so they switched places and my friend handed his 8wt, bonefish setup, to his friend then proceeded to run us through the wave train. I'm in the fromt of the boat and we go up about 3' and then down about 6' with the wave going over my head as I was casting a streamer of some sort with my knees locked into the knee brace! Life did briefly flash before me, but my friend knew I had done a fair amount of whitewater and I was as prepared as I could be!

Unfortunately the rod he had passed off, was not properly stowed and bounced out of the boat while in the rapids! We pulled over, they dragged the boat back as far as they could and dove in to see if they could recover the rod and reel, to no avail!

Fast forward to about 3 years later, my friend gets a call from one of the local fly shops and they say they found his Winston rod and Able reel! He sent them back to each company and got replacements! Happy ending and a hell of a fun day on the water!

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I did a float on the upper Yakima down to the East Cle Elum launch in a watermaster! The float was great and I thought i had prepared for the E Cle Elum launch to take out there. There used to be a big eddy, and I didn't want to get caught in it and possibly flip! You had to make a few quick strokes above the old boat launch and then just hit the landing.. well, I didn't make the strokes in time and while going by the old launch spot my feet slipped off the strap and the hydraulics sucked me down so my arms where on the tubes while I was pushed/pulled into a cut bank! I didn't panic, had on a wading belt and found handholds and then footholds as well! I was only there for less than a minute or so, before my friends came over and secured the boat and helped me get up on the bank! It was one of the longest minutes of my life though, as water lapped up into my waders, just a little and it was cold springtime water! No gear lost, everything was tied down in the back in the back of the boat. My cellphone did die, as it got wet, even though it was in a zip lock sandwich bag that was sealed!

Lesson learned, and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger! I've always had a healthy respect of the water from white water rafting and some sailing in my late 20's and 30's.

Now I carry more safety gear and try not to put myself and others in places where I don't have too! Yes, some fish were caught, but i don't recall how many or even the specifics! I can still picture both situations in my head though! Cheers and stay safe out there!

 

[DryFly82]

I'll go. When I was 21 and between my Junior and Senior year in college my dad took a sabbatical from his job for a few months and he told me not to get a summer job so that we could just go fishing all summer. We lived in Alaska and spent a lot of time fishing the Willow area and Kenai in my dad's Creek Company pontoon raft. I don't remember too many fishing details from the day other than we caught the typical rainbows and I caught a jack chinook that I kept. It was a warm and sunny day for June in Alaska and the Susitna River (it's huge) was running very high when we got to the confluence, which was the end of the fishing day for us. From there it was just a float down river to the take out. I was at the oars and we were both relaxing because we were both pretty tired after the early morning. I should have been paying more attention and ended up closer to a big cut bank than I should have been. A brand new sweeper had come down in the week since we had last been on the river and we heard it coming when we got close. I tried to row us out and hit the very end of the sweeper...if the current had pushed us out we would have been fine, but we got turned in broadside to it. My dad grabbed the sweeper and I went in the water and under the sweeper with the raft when it flipped.


I grabbed 3 of the 4 rods when I went in and stuck with the raft. I tried to swim the raft towards shore for a minute, but there was no chance in the current, so eventually I was able to pull myself on top of the upside down raft with the rods. I saw my dad make it to shore before I went around the corner. I floated down river for a while and eventually started passing the typical combat fishing crowd at Willow Creek (back when you could still fish for Kings). I got the attention of the last fisherman in the line and he started running downriver to try to find a way to help me. I tried jumping out again to swim the raft toward shore (this was stupid), but eventually was able to swim it into a logjam about 20-30 feet out from our planned takeout location. I was able to get a rope to the guy that had run down after me and together we were eventually able to work the raft in. I was hypothermic at that point so I just striped down as much as possible and sat in the sun. I wasn’t really thinking about it at the time, but if I had missed that take out there wasn’t another option until several miles downstream and that wasn’t a part of the river that boats typically traversed.



My dad had it a lot worse. I knew he was okay, but he had no idea what happened to me. He had to cross several braids of Willow Creek through thick brush. When he finally got to the combat fishing area nobody he talked to had seen me. He finally found someone at the end of the line that said something about the raft and eventually he made it down to the take out and found me. We had a few guys help us load up and they lent us some dry clothes. My backpack ended up several miles downriver, but I did eventually get that back thanks to a boat that picked it up. The only things we lost were one rod and one oar.

That's something I'll never forget and I'm so thankful we both made it out unhurt. Always wear a life jacket, maintain situational awareness, and don't go in the water if you have a choice.

 

[dirty dog]

I was fishing off a beach on Grand Bahama Island.
I was standing waist deep in the water, casting at the sea grass patches when something swam by me on my right.
It was big, maybe 5' long.
I stripped in as fast as I could and when I had about 10' of line still out, I lifted my rod to cast in the direction the fish had been swimming.
As my streamer came out of the water about 10 or 12' from me this fish came out of the water right at me.
It was a barracuda and all I could see was this open mouth full of teeth and eyes a big as silver dollars coming right at me.
Well, I backed my ass up on the sand bar in ankle deep water and stood there waiting for my heart to slow down.

 

[SurfnFish]

floating when a shark comes along...young friend named Chris and I were surfing an off grid spot known as Flat Rock. Working only on south swells, it's breaks off the outer tip of a reef atoll about 400 yards off the beach, requiring a paddle across a deep channel. The area is a marine reserve, home to a large sea lion population.
The waves were perfect, overhead sets just spinning down the shallow reef until disappearing into the deeper water. My son had just gotten out of high school and was up on the cliff getting on his wetsuit along with Curt Myers of Powerlines Productions who does all the Mavericks filming.
South swells roll for thousands of miles before reaching Norcal, that distance filters them and creates lengthy lulls before each set.
So a lull, Chris and I are chatting about how good the waves were, sitting in the take off zone few yards from the outer tip of the rock, when suddenly two big fins emerge about 20 yards seaward of us, a big gap between the front triangle fin and tail fin, and what was a big Great White leisurely turned towards us, showing an immense wide back, and than slid under the water.
Within seconds Chris and I had scrambled up the side of the rock, anxiously scanning the water, Christ starting to lose his shit, when the big bastard emerged again and slowly slid past the rock, all 12' or so of it, then submerged.
Later I would learn that my son and Curt could clearly see the outline of the shark as it slowly circled the rock and then headed back out to sea.
After standing on that rock for about 20 mins without seeing the shark gain, having to deal with a set rolling by us and flooding the rock knee deep in whitewater, I convinced a hyper-ventilating, frightened Chris we had to go for the beach, and being a stronger paddler than him I promised not to leave him behind.
So we positioned ourselves on the tip of the rock closest to the beach, and when the first waive of a new set broke outside the tip, we dove off the rock into whitewater and once the whitewater subsided in the inside lagoon began paddling furiously, turning what was normally a 15+ min paddle into an under ten minute sprint. I kept Chris right ahead of me, pushing him by his leg every few strokes. When we got to the beach Chris just broke down, said he'd been so scared.
When Chris was ready we made the hike back up the cliff where I got some heartfelt hugs from my son and a blow by blow of what they had witnessed, and then my son and I headed home for the hot tub where I was planning on soaking with a glass or three of wine.
The next evening the phone rang and my son answered the phone, talked for a few minutes and then turned to me.
"Dad, Curt went back to Flat Rock this afternoon with his camera and has video of a big white shark slamming a sea lion and tearing it up right in the lineup and wants to know if you want him to come over and show it to you."
"Tell Chris I have zero intention of ever watching that f'n video.'

 

[Salmo_g]

No one has ever called me "Mr. Excitement." My life is a long history of moderate moderation. However, I was fishing the other day when a steelhead broke me off on the strike. This was noteworthy because I was fishing with 10# Maxima as tippet, which never breaks. I've only had 8# Maxima broken on the strike on British Columbia's Thompson River. I always test my knots so as to avoid unnecessary excitement. I must have done or allowed something to happen that weakened the knot. This thought may disturb me for a long while, such was the excitement of not even seeing the fish that broke me off.

 

[Peyton00]

I took a fly fisherman from the older site way up high on the wynoochee. We hiked in with little rafts and cheap oars. It was a long rough day on the river. The rafts completed the mission, we both made it out dry, but he hasn't talked to me since.

 

[Jim in Anacortes]

Once I was fishing off a dock in San Diego Bay at night for Corvina. I landed a 7lb fish, and was unhooking it to release it, when a barbed hook ended up deep in my thumb. I managed to cut the hook, let the fish go, and walked to the local bar. Drink after drink I knew that I had to push the barbed hook through my thumb (it was not backing out). That was a long night, followed by a morning with a very sore thumb and a terrible hangover.

 

[goinoregon]

Put together my 2nd Illinois river trip, back in the early 2000's. i did it the first time, with 3 of us in a 13' solid floor raft - lots and lots of bailing way back then. anyway, i figured my rowing was much better, and my friend bill was going to man the other raft, and he knew what he was doing. its an april trip down there. we got going the first day, and i am pumped.... ended up flipping in a rapid that didnt even have a name - it had a number. we flipped and i thought wtf... my bud ends up on top of the upside down raft, and pulls me up and out. we ended up losing the oar - so, i had to run around 40 miles w/o a spare oar, with the biggest water below us... took the wind out of my sails. took the easiest runs when i could. we made it through green wall, and i gave up the oars to my bud above submarine hole, and he proceeded to put us right in the slot - oarlocks stuck on the rocks left and right, river running thru the raft....a mess. it finally let us go. i was thinking that all i had to do was let go, and there was pretty easy water below....
anyways, neve signed up for an illinois trip after that

 

[Jim in Anacortes]

One day I was having lunch on my boat offshore of San Diego. I had carelessly left my fishing rod unattended, and a fish had pulled it overboard. I put on my dive gear and dove down to get my fishing rod. I quickly found the rod and began to reel in the line. After about a hundred feet of twisting and turning through the reef, I came to the small cave that the ten pound Sheapshead was in. I tried to get him out but he just wedged himself in, and I ended up breaking the line. But I got my rod back...
And it was the only time I ever got to reel in a fish while being underwater

 

[Rio Grande King]

The River Heroes

 

[Tallguy]

we dove off the rock into whitewater and once the whitewater subsided in the inside lagoon began paddling furiously, turning what was normally a 15+ min paddle into an under ten minute sprint. I kept Chris right ahead of me, pushing him by his leg every few strokes. When we got to the beach Chris just broke down, said he'd been so scared.

Surfing is good for stories like this..

I surfed the red triangle for a bunch of years when in school and can relate.. one big, perfect late season south swell we surfed an off, off grid spot called Middens, which is just inside Ano Nuevo point near the island. It was crowded everywhere, which is why went went out there via 12' zodiac to anchor and surf it.

Jumping into the deeper water where we anchored to paddle into the break, I felt a lot like your buddy Chris. We were all scared, paddling way too fast. Three wave sets were also hard if you were out sitting by yourself of the deep water edge as your buddies were 100 yards inside. Felt like a soaked bait in those minutes.

I have been pushed out of the water three times by the landlord. The two GWs I never saw, my buddy did both times. One big one, one juvenile. The bull shark rolling right up on us in Michoacan was a lot scarier though, that one had bad intentions. Maybe an 8-9' shark, It blew up about 1' behind my friends board checking him out, then I got to watch the fin cutting water as it sank down into the water heading straight toward me from about 30' away. I felt like a mouse frozen by a cat. Pulled my feet and legs up on the board waiting to push off from it if it came for me. It didn't, and after waiting a couple minutes, we paddled in, trying not to touch the water at all.

We went elsewhere the next day, though the surf was still good.

 

[RCF]

Fishing about 5 miles above The Merc. Sun was just coming over the hill and hitting the water. The hatch started and I caught a couple of browns. I heard the bushes rustle a little across the creek. I looked up from fishing. A young moose popped out. I headed for shore. Then mama moose came out, and saw me. Immediately charged me. Made it to shore and stood next to a tree.

They are big and fast!.

The moose did not see me behind the tree. The young moose joined mama and went into the woods.

Waited a bit and got out of there.

 

[flybill]

I was going to tell an OMJ story but will save that for later!

I was in Hawaii on the Big Island, circa 2000 with a bunch of friends! We had been all over the island, golfing, watched the Ironman triathlon, a blue water fishing trip but all of these surfing stories made me think of swimming with lemon sharks! They weren't big, two feet, but the locals at the dock warned me not to go in the water!

Now as a kid, I had lived on Oahu, in Kanehoe, for a bit and had bogey boarded and body surfed, and was a very good swimmer. I snorkelled a lot too and came across an eel that scared the shit out of me.. mainly because I had seen a dead one the day before on the beach and checked out the razor sharp teeth!

So I got in the water with the sharks and swam around around without any of them approaching me. I did give them a wide berth, but wasn't scared.. it was very cool to see them cruising around while I'm sure they saw the FlyBill buffet didn't aproach! Maybe dumb luck! But it sure was fun!!

 

[SurfnFish]

Surfing is good for stories like this..

I surfed the red triangle for a bunch of years when in school and can relate.. one big, perfect late season south swell we surfed an off, off grid spot called Middens, which is just inside Ano Nuevo point near the island. It was crowded everywhere, which is why went went out there via 12' zodiac to anchor and surf it.

Jumping into the deeper water where we anchored to paddle into the break, I felt a lot like your buddy Chris. We were all scared, paddling way too fast. Three wave sets were also hard if you were out sitting by yourself of the deep water edge as your buddies were 100 yards inside. Felt like a soaked bait in those minutes.

I have been pushed out of the water three times by the landlord. The two GWs I never saw, my buddy did both times. One big one, one juvenile. The bull shark rolling right up on us in Michoacan was a lot scarier though, that one had bad intentions. Maybe an 8-9' shark, It blew up about 1' behind my friends board checking him out, then I got to watch the fin cutting water as it sank down into the water heading straight toward me from about 30' away. I felt like a mouse frozen by a cat. Pulled my feet and legs up on the board waiting to push off from it if it came for me. It didn't, and after waiting a couple minutes, we paddled in, trying not to touch the water at all.

We went elsewhere the next day, though the surf was still good.

Very cool, heard stories, never made the hike. Used to surf Ano in the early 70's with my neighbor Craig' Cowboy' McArthur who also introduced me to boating into the Ranch...RIP
During the 70's we'd heard about a whacko hippie dude living in the lighthouse bld on the island off Ano point. After a surf session in SC one day, a buddy and I were heading home to HMB and found him hitchhiking with a rucksack of groceries by the ranch where Broglio has his glassing shop...talked about he came and went from the island by wading the channel at low tides, stories of GWS ripping bull elephant seals to shreds in the channel t higher tides, couple of times when wading across they'd tried to get to him. Let him off at Ano and never saw him again.
Easily the creepiest place I could imagine living alone...

 

[DryFly82]

Now as a kid, I had lived on Oahu, in Kanehoe, for a bit and had bogey boarded and body surfed, and was a very good swimmer. I snorkelled a lot too and came across an eel that scared the shit out of me.. mainly because I had seen a dead one the day before on the beach and checked out the razor sharp teeth!

I worked 3 years out there at K-Bay. A buddy of mine showed me a few 30lb ulua that he caught out there at night, so I figured I'd give it a try. The first night I went out there the bell on my rod went off...when I reeled it in it was a 4-5ft moray eel. Nastiest teeth I've ever seen. I saw them snorkeling a few times after that I always did my best to maintain a very healthy distance based on that first encounter.

 

[Tallguy]

Very cool, heard stories, never made the hike. Used to surf Ano in the early 70's with my neighbor Craig' Cowboy' McArthur who also introduced me to boating into the Ranch...RIP
During the 70's we'd heard about a whacko hippie dude living in the lighthouse bld on the island off Ano point.

Easily the creepiest place I could imagine living alone...

Elephant seals live there now, he couldn't keep doing that once they came back for real. I think NatGeo story had pictures of them on the second floor of the lighthouse, so they were using the stairs no problem..