Worst Day Fishing

[1lipripper]

We've all heard the cliches..."A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work; Work is for people who don't fish; etc." But, seriously tell us about your worst trip fishing.

For me, I was fishing a summer night tournament just after getting my first boat...a fish n ski.

When we left the ramp it was cloudy. But as we made our way out onto the the main body of the lake the clouds thickened and the wind picked up. The farther we ran up the lake the bigger the waves.

Suddenly, we hit a large wave, which rushed over the bow of the boat breaking one of the windshields and filling the boat with water. We scrambled around, headed for shore with the bilge pump working for all it was worth and us bailing water with a coffee can. Then the rain came...heavy.

There was a covered, private boat dock nearby so we took cover under it. It was really weird watching the golf ball sized hail stones plopping in the water. Splashing violently.

Then, as suddenly as it arrived it was gone. We finally got to start fishing. It was tough. Tournament started at 7pm and was going to end at 11pm. It was now about 7:30pm

We caught a couple, but nothing to write home about.

At about 9:15pm, we pulled up on a shallow water marker and began casting our spinnerbaits up on the hump. Then, I heard the strangest sound...it sounded like static from an am radio. It was coming from my rod. The higher I raised it up the louder it got. My partner said, "Look at this!" As if by magic, his fishing line began to lift out of the water. I told him, "Let's get out of here! Now!!" Static electricity was in the air.

We cranked the big engine and ran across the lake for cover. We beached the boat on the sandy shore and in one movement we both ran out of the boat up to a covered picnic table. This time when the rain, thunder and lightning passed we got in the boat, headed back down the lake to the ramp, dropped our fish back in the water, put the boat on the trailer and left, thankful to still be alive.

On the way home we were listening to the radio and the news anchor said there had been a tornado on and near the lake. We had no clue that a tornado had passed through.

The next day we learned that not one of the 63 boats in the tournament had caught a fish. They all left.

If we had just weighed in those three fish... ~rain

Now, what about yours???

[thedude]

not my worse day fishing, but a similar scenario. we were fishing a canal in on Morse Resevoir near indianapolis in a tourney. It was super muggy and overcast. Out side the mouth of the canal was the local "party island". We noticed 5 or 6 boats from our tournament had beached there and were alll looking and pointing.  As we moved down the canal, it became clear what it was about as we could the funnel cloud passy by overhead.
A tornado touched down on the opposite end of the lake also - we saw the water lifting up and we decided it was time get back. We made it out of the canal and hit a torrential downpour at 55mph... so we turned back, beached it in the canal and ran to a house that belonged to a family friend. They weren't home but we cowered under their vinyl awning for about 30 minutes as the storm moved through. Scary stuff!

[cr]

I think I have the "Worst" of the Worst day fishing story hands down . We were at the NBAA championship on the Ohio river ,day three, after coming in friday with one smallie(2.06) which ended up twelth place and second big bass ,( big bass was 2.08)and was boat No 43.

Rather than floating in the debris coming down river , trees the size of the Lincoln monument , refridgerators , propane tanks ,ETC..., we opted to stay on shore until boat No 40 or so got to us , then join in our spot in line . Jim was in a big hurry to get things going and decided to direct the take-off from the shore with a bullhorn instead of launching a boat.

Boats were strung out a 1/4 mile or so down stream fighting the ten mph current and could'nt hear what he was saying after the first couple of boats took off , and a gap developed in line.

Jim yells at us to get going , saying      " Don't worry about your number ,lets go ",so we take off from shore heading for the gap in line . There was maybe eight boats in front of us taking off on plane when we got in line and we just missed a log the size of my couch that was almost submerged , I took a quick look around to see if there was another , and then turned to go down river , when "it" happened.

One of the boats in front of me had got on plane and made a 360 degree turn wanting to cross the line of boats through the gap we had just filled . I saw him about the same time he saw us , too late . His bow hit my side just in front of the drivers console.

Nobody got hurt , but the boats got tore up , his trolling motor was knocked loose and his deck had some cracks in it . My eight week old Z520 was a mess , the whole right side of the deck was shattered and the hull had a foot wide section pushed in two inches all the way down to the water line . After exchangeing info , they borrowed a boat and finished in the money ,I think.

We fished in my boat but were afriad to make the long run to where we were fishing and did'nt boat a keeper . I took my boat back to Rangers factory where they replaced the deck and the hull , and I'm supposed to pick it up this friday . Could have been much worse , some one could have got hurt , but I just can't believe it happened , can't believe I did'nt see them , or them see me . You can be sure I'm looking in all directions at take offs now .

[dartag]

never really had what i would call " Worst Day " until last week.  First day of the FLW as a co-angler i had my " best day ".  catching a limit only to cull all of them.  meet my day 2 Pro who tells me he is in the running for Rookie of the year but has no idea where we are going only he knows it is in Ohio.

The next morning on the ride down the weather radio is saying 15-20 mph west winds 2-4 ft waves.  when i meet my pro he says he is still not sure where we are going but it is a long run.  we take off following Dave Lafebre till about the river channel when we spear our first wave.

He is from Alabama and had little experience in big waves.  we continue out and about Colechester we hit the first BIG wave and fill the boat.  He has 2 pumps running and i get a third out of storage and plug it in.  By this time Dave is gone.  We fill the boat 4 more times before he decides we will fish the back side of Peele. 2 hours after we started.

We get to our spot only to find another boat there fishing.  He pulls right in and the pros start talking while us co-anglers smile at each other.  The other CO is Fishon1219 my buddy.  WE share water for a while then move on.  I finally catch a 3 pounder.

My pro catches 2 nice ones.  I keep looking back at the point and the waves seem to be getting bigger. All i can think about is the ride back.  I kept fishing as hard as i could but it seemed like the fish were not there.  About noon he says we should start back. He does a better job of driving but it takes us 2.5 hours to get back to the river.

I manage to catch one more small keeper fish in the river.  I finished 103rd missing the money by 7 ounces.  Eveything i had with me is soaked. My tackle bag still had an inch of water in it. All my plano boxes were still full of water.  He weighed a small limit and missed winning his title.  After we weighed i asked if he had fished St-Clair at all and he said his plan was to win on erie so he figured he did not need a back-up plan.