Fishing and Lightning

[alexmedic]

Over a dinner party this evening, I was asked if I have had any close calls with lighting while fishing.

 

I personally have not, but I thought I would ask the rest of you..

 

Any close ones???

[stan_133]

nope

[ohhenrygsr]

I've seen people drive out into Thunderstorms during a tournament. I stayed at shore cause i think god hates me lol.

[ozaibak1]

Funny you ask, YES. It was on Pigeon Lake, minutes before the localized storm formed and made a beeline for our boat the fishing got good so I wanted to stay until the last second. When that last second came, I could not get the motor started. Thunder, lightning, hard rain + metal boat = not good. I had the image of getting roasted vividly in my head.

 

What we ended up doing was row back about 2 hours after the worst of the storm had passed, but there was still danger. A jetskier spotted us when conditions improved slightly and towed us back. I've learned a lot from that experience to say the least!

[bare foot wader]

as kids we were dumb enough to keep fishing while watching 3 separate funnels swirl around but they never actually touched down on the water or land...

 

a few close calls in a boat.....lightning cracked down within a few hundreds yards, just sat it out on an island....not too bad....but yes, i can echo the vividly picturing getting zapped....

[bigugli]

Was out on the French once and were running back to the lodge to avoid a storm. The storm got ahead of us. Heard the crack. Never saw the flash, but we felt a little shock and tingle on our bare feet.

Working in groundskeeping as a young fella, one of the co-workers was ripped by a bolt. Cut through his backside like a knife through hot butter. The foreman found him lying on the road. He never had a chance.

 

I prefer to be a chicken when it comes to lightning.

[Terry]

oh yeah

was out on simcoe

I noticed my fishing line wasn't touching the water but was about a foot above the water, thought that was strange

I brought the lure in and removed it, then I let out line which floated away from me on about a 45 deg angle up, the more line I let out the higher it went

suddenly I realized that it was static electricity which you get just before a lightning strike

we reeled in and took off, we were maybe 300 ft away from the spot when lighting hit......we was really lucky that day

[Bernie]

Got zapped while swimming in a lake east of Trout creek. No warning. Just a big white puffy cloud that turned nasty.

But it didn't affect me. affect me affect me ,.me affect,,, afeckd mi

[Bob]

I got tagged once at the mouth of Lauzon Creek while fishing off shore for salmon. Storm was way down the lake by mississauga Island and when the rain started, I folded up my gear and headed for the car... didn't make it. Must have put me out for a split second, when awareness came back I was almost on my knees in the gravel and I never heard the thunder. Light of my life was already in the car and she assumed I ducked because of the noise. I thought someone had clubbed me with a 2x4 and couldn't figure out how anyone got behind me since there was no one else close by. Didn't do any real damage but the muscles in the back of my neck were in a knot for a couple of days. Figured it was my lucky day so I immediately went and bought a lottery ticket.... didn't work.

[lew]

I like fishing just before a big storm hits as it often really turns the fish on, but it can get pretty hairy sometimes.

 

You can see the storm building just behind me in this picture and we took off as soon as I released this fish. Got back to my trailer about 10 minutes later and I no sooner got inside when a bolt of lightning hit a horseshoe peg about 150' away from me and blew out the satellite dish & receiver on my place and a television in another trailer 100' away, even though we both have lightening rods.

 

A neighbor actually saw the bolt hit the peg.

 

[solopaddler]

Was north of Armstrong on Whitewater Lake in my canoe when suddenly a storm came from nowhere.

I knew it would be bad when a water spout appeared about 300yds to my left.

 

I paddled as fast as I could for the nearest shore but before I made it the gentle swells turned to raging whitecaps and I was pelted with quarter sized hailstones.

 

Lightning hit so numerously all around me that the smell of the ozone was almost overpowering..

 

Still amazes me I managed to escape unscathed.

[DRIFTER_016]

I've had a few different experiences with lighning.

Once while running my buddies 36' Hatteras out on Lake O little lightning bolts were shooting back and forth between the two VHF antennas on the boat. We decided we would be safer driving from the lower station.

 

Another time fishing at the center pier section of the Ganny my friend had sparks shooting off the guides of his float rod. We decided to retreat to the van for a while.

 

Lastly I was bass fishing and made a cast when lighning flashed and similar to Terry my line hung in mid air. The only difference was that the lure hung there too.

[Sinker]

I got stuck in a lightening storm while icefishing a couple years ago.......at Roches point.

 

It was raining a little......no real biggy, when all of a sudden.......FLASH.........BOOM!

 

We were a good ways out, and walking. Its not a nice feeling being helpless like that, but it just came out of nowhere. We left.....

 

I've had a few crazy boat rides too. Thanked god for GPS a few times.

 

Sinker

[jediangler]

I was on a camping/fishing trip near Barry's Bay in 1994 when a big thunderstorm hit us. My tent was 3ft away from a tall old pine tree which was 10ft from the Bonnechere river. I had 3 fishing poles leaning up against the tree so no one would step on them in the dark. Lightning hit that old pine and we saw an explosion about three feet up from the ground. We were all around the fire pit and everyone scattered towards their cars for cover. I was wondering who left a propane tank near my tent as that was what I thought exploded. I went right over to my tent to find what I thought was a dead animal. It was the size of a small dog and it's all black hair was still smoking. When I gave it a kick, there was no weight to it and it just rolled over.That's when I saw my fishing reel, it was my 6'6" Berkley "Lightning Rod". At least the bottom half, the top of the 2 piece was about 20ft up the tree in the same hairball condition. Then I noticed my Mitchell ultra-light pole was also incinerated. The only rod that survived was an old fiberglass pole I kept as a backup. The tree had 2 cracks that ran all the way to the top of the tree but ended where the tips of my rods were in contact with the trunk. No one was hurt but I had to fish the rest of the weekend with a crappy fiberglass pole. I salvaged the reels from the rods that were struck but they were welded solid inside. Made the Barry's Bay newspaper and they included pics of my pole which looked like a horse's tail with a reel seat on it. I kept one pole and the campground (Tramore's Covered Bridge Camp) kept the other one. Had my rods buzz one time years after that and headed for shore in a hurry knowing what would happen if I took a hit while holding one of those poles.

[kemper]

Never while fishing, I get off the water FAST if there is any chance I think a storm is coming. It just doesnt seem safe to me, not worth it.

 

While golfing I almost got toasted once, felt the electricity in the air and there is nothing that has ever made me hair stand up like that again. For some reason the instinct from me and the 3 guys I was golfing with was to run...probably better to just drop to the ground but hey we made it...the tree beside us however didnt fare so well

[aniceguy]

last year on Sgugog, I was at pine point fishing and had to run back to port perry the entire time I was running the trailing edge of a massive summer storm with lightning and huge winds just behind me....it was actually weird if the storm tracked any other way I was toast

[Fang]

Oh Yeah!!!!

 

Top Bass tournament on Rice Lake in the mid 90's. Had all the things happen to us

 

Line was floating in the air after the cast

Graphite rods ahd a tingle to them

Hair on the back of the arms was up when you touched a rod.

 

Took shelter up the Otanabee and when the lightening came through it struck several time within a few hundred yards of us

 

Absolutely the wildest time I've ever seen out fishing.

 

Storm went through, we went back out off the Otanabee and caught 14lbs of bass in the next 30 minutes.

[nancur373]

Hey guys...just keep a 1 iron in your boat. Not even God can hit a 1 iron.

[muddler]

About 30 years ago a buddy and I went out to a local lake (Walker Lake) to do some lake trout fishing. The lake is only a couple of miles long. The forecast was clear and sunny skies. We parked in a bout 100 feet of water and baited up with minnows and a slip bobber and sat there fo a couple of hours shooting the breeze and telling stories. All of a sudden I heard a runble in the distance. We thought it was a gravel truck (some road maintance was going on) as there was no clouds and the the lake was glass calm. The next 15 minutes would scare me out of my wits.

 

Within a few minutes we heard a roar and at the far end of the lake we could see huge waves forming. Pull up anchor, but not hurrying because it was clear and sunny. It was stil glass calm where we were. We just got the the anchor in and started the motor (4 hp Merc on a 12 ft tinny) when a small black cloud came over the mountain where we heard the rumbling earlier. That's ok we were only 15-20 minutes away from the car and launch ramp. We followed close to the shoreline (50 -100 feet or so) just incase, and were making our way to the ramp. About a 100 yards or so from the ramp the waves catch up to us , 6+ footers and the wind is howling. It's raining so hard now that we can barely see the shore (where the heck is the sun anyway). A few seconds later the hair on my arms starts to stand up and feel a tingling. I turned the boat to where I thought the shore was, a few seconds later (thank God we were closer to the shore than I thought) I beached the boat with a wide open trottle. We ran for cover deep into the bush and heard a loud crack and a bang. The rain started to pound even harder. In a few minutes the rain stopped and the sky cleared , it was sunny again. We were in the bush about 50 yads or so from the launch ramp. We got back into the boat and headed to the ramp. The dock next to the ramp was hit by lightning and charred a section of it. A boat that was tied up there got hit. I've never fished Walker Lake since.

I've never been so scared in my life.

 

Had we left a few minutes earlier we would have been tied up at the dock when the lightning hit. A few minutes later and we would have been in the middle of the lake with the big waves. Someone up there was looking out of us the day.

 

muddler

[Zebco]

Not fishing, but I was in basic training and we had a bad storm, Tornado warnings and all the drill sergeants ran for there cars, we had to stay in the firing range field with the butt of our guns touching the ground and us on one knee till it passed. I thought for sure I was gonna see a tornado that day the clouds were just swirling above us and lighting everywhere. Ended up passing and we finished the day soaked and cold, but it was a expirience. I knew I never wanted to go to war with them chicken drill sergeants though!

[fishboy]

oh yeah

was out on simcoe

I noticed my fishing line wasn't touching the water but was about a foot above the water, thought that was strange

I brought the lure in and removed it, then I let out line which floated away from me on about a 45 deg angle up, the more line I let out the higher it went

suddenly I realized that it was static electricity which you get just before a lightning strike

we reeled in and took off, we were maybe 300 ft away from the spot when lighting hit......we was really lucky that day

 

I had the same "levitating line" trick happen to me on Dalrymple. There was a storm in the distance (at least I thought it was still far enough away) and the line started to rise up. As soon as the line started lifting off the surface without any significant breeze, I was thinking holy crap, that's a charge building up and got out of there. I certainly have changed my thinking on how far away a storm needs to be....

[ADB]

A buddy and I had gone to the Blue Heron casino with plans of fishing off the Scugog Causeway for a bit after we were done.

 

While we were in the casino a storm hit. The sound of the thunder nearly shook the building. I had never heard anything like it in my life.

 

When we left and got outside it was still raining a ton, and there was thunder and lightening every few seconds. Obviously, we decided to skip on the fishing.

 

As we drove down Highway 7, there were still people fishing off the causeway. Go figure.

[kemper]

A buddy and I had gone to the Blue Heron casino with plans of fishing off the Scugog Causeway for a bit after we were done.

 

While we were in the casino a storm hit. The sound of the thunder nearly shook the building. I had never heard anything like it in my life.

 

When we left and got outside it was still raining a ton, and there was thunder and lightening every few seconds. Obviously, we decided to skip on the fishing.

 

As we drove down Highway 7, there were still people fishing off the causeway. Go figure.

 

 

If there was a tornado, there would still be people fishing off that damn bridge

[express168]

Thunderstorm rolling in on Rice Lake about 14 years ago when my friend said that his fishing line was buzzing and that he was getting static shocks offf of it. I thought he was nuts but sure enough I could hear his line buzzing after we shut up. I took his word on the static shocks, we could see the lightning strikes a few kilometers away and then realized that we were the only idiots left on the lake. 3 200 pound guys in a rented tinny with a 4.5 horsepower motor on it trying to get back to camp as quick as we could. Took shelter in my truck until the lightning past, we didn't trust being in the tent. I get off the lakes fast now if I see bad weather and I always shell out for a better boat now.