Worst Things That Have Happened while Fishing

[Dirty_Mole]

I think the worst thing that has happened to me was Top_ender and i went fishing and i caught a good size bream and he was measuring it and dopped it. I Ended up catching that same fish three times & and i could tell from all the hook holes in it. Didn't end up with the fish. I'll tell ya what though he's a bit more careful now.

Plus i've had my fair share of hooks in the finger but nothing serious.

Cheers, Sam

[Zeeke]

bending over to tie off the anchor rope and droppingg $180 pair of spotters in the water.. would have jumped in.. but not strong enuf swimmer to fight 10 knots of current..

did it yesterday btw in Maroochy River mouth... not happy Jan

Tim

[MY-TopEnder]

Touch wood i haven't had anything major happen... i've lost a hat and sunnies but thats about all really. The odd hook in the finger, cuts from line, done a bit of a dance when a filleting knife dropped but thats it really.

And yes, i accidentally lost that good bream... ah well i was just practising C&R :P

[Dirty_Mole]

i wanted to eat that too

[MTpockets]

Worst thing was having the anchor come loose one evening and ramming another boat. The funny thing was there was 4 blokes in the other boat and they didnt say a single word, just went about pushing my boat away from theres while I appoligised over and over.....very embarresments !!!

Another time I was zooming back over the Noosa bar and went past 3 fisherman on the beach and my prop picked up all their lines. Never seen so many blokes running round trying to save their rods from diving and shaking fists angryly. Most embarredments as well.....

Old Chineese saying : Give a perfectly normal man a boat and watch him turn into a complete idiot. (I have chineese in me?)

cheers
Les

[Maria]

Mum's always referred to me as the most accident prone of the family - especially with my fishing adventures. Have lost countless things, cut myself up on oysters, knives, been spiked by fish, embedded hooks in flesh...but the best is as follows.

When I was younger, I was fishing in a creek from atop of a bridge for eels and turtles. I hooked a decent eel and proceeded to reel it in like any 13 year old fisherman does. As I did so, I was looking over the edge of the bridge at my prized metre + eel when the line snapped, causing the sinker to slingshot upwards and hit me square between the eyes.

As a result, I hit the deck cold. Fortunately, a few policemen who were conducting a speed trap only metres away saw me hit the deck and came over to see what was wrong. They ended up sorting out my wounds and arranging transport home for me.

Today whilst fishing with Dylan and Anna again, while cutting up bait within 1 minute of arriving, the knife slipped and sliced through my finger. This resulted in a trip to Wynnum hospital for treatment.

It never ends.

Ben

[Chrisso]

lol ;D hehe hehe ;D I hope you don't mind, but the funny thing is, it happens to us all at some stage.

Then again who can say they've craped over the trasom while crossing a sand bar heading outside. :-X :o (not me, but some people can) ;D

[MY-TopEnder]

On second thoughts i do have one major one... it was a few years ago now when i was a kid. Anyway i was down at the tallabudgera ramp with my brothers and cousins and being a ########, i ran down the boat ramp... stupid me hit the deck landing on an oyster... anyway i got a 25mm slash across my wrist luckily not deep enough to do any MAJOR damage. Still its rather embarresing having a slash across my wrist.

[beatle]

Travelling across Glenn Lyon dam with bimini top folded forward but not tied down wind starting to lift bimini top so put tackle box full of expensive lures and fishing gear in it on top of bimini top to weigh it down.Big,big gust of wind hits, lifts bimini top up like a slingshot and sadly watched my priceless tackle box sail twenty metres into the air and slowly sink in 100ft. of water before I could get back to it.-Beatle. [smiley=beatnik.gif]

[Big_Kev]

Worst thing is to take my sister fishing.
if you wanna know what happens I will give you her phone number and you can take her to find out.

With stories like that remind me not to let you drive when boatin if I am with you MT. LOL

[Batters]

anyone else walked out on that log that looks safe, only to find out it was floating and end going for a swim, kinda embarising when you look up and everyones watching you leaving the water soaking wet

[quinnie_600]

Camping on an isolated Whitsunday Is.
Anchored boat on beach,DOH only to awake at 0400 to find Dehavilland 16FT broached on beach and waves lapping over gunnels,petrol tank floating with other flotsam and battery underwater.
Next hour went very quickly as mate and I bailed as waves kept on refilling bath tub.Not good.
Battery was filled with saltwater and we were 26nm offshore on the eastern side of the Island.
Rowed 6nm to caretakers house for help(why is it you find out how bad your row setup on your boat is, when you desperately need it?).
He radioed a charter boat to give us a tow back to Mackay,for the small price of scrubbing there decks on the way back in.While every punter on that charter pissed themselves laughing at our misfortune.Cleanest that boats' ever been I can tell you.

Two years later same island,same bay,same mate(yeah he did come back),different boat.
No I didn't push up on the beach,moored out in deeper water.

Awoke,every couple of hours to check on boat everything seemed fine until the wee hours, next morning,looked out of tent doorway to the sight of no boat where she should be! S..t,F..k,S..t,F..k.

No not again...............

Bolted down to beach to scour horizon to find it washed up on beach sideways, 300m south of where we were camping.There is a God.

Inspected boat to find that Anchor rope had sheered on bowsprit roller.There was a gap between the actual roller and the roller holder,which the rope rubbed on.

Moral: watch the tides up there they are alot bigger,do use a stern line when anchoring on a deserted Island,use 12mm anchor rope and don't rely on manufacturers stock standard accessories.Check and double check.Don't lose sight of your sense of humour.........be able to laugh at yourself and TRY and learn from your mistakes!!!!!!
Zak..

[caloundra]

headed out one morning bright & early filled up live bait tank with water chucked the fish in and speed off. pulled up 1/2 km
up the passage as i stoped to chuck out the ancor i noticed the boat sat a little lower in the water. looked under the floor to find the boat taking on water.
shitting my self pulled the ancor up as fast as i could. and headed straight to the closed shore before i sunk the boat
as i pulled up to the bank i realised that i left the bait tank pick up open.
after pumping the water out i continued fishing
[smiley=stupid.gif]

[Mudcrab]

Offshore with John Palermo some years back in 26ft. Mariner Flybridge when the whole Volvo oke and steering "fell off" into about 100 metres of water! Came back through the Bar with John using a pair of ropes to steer us throiugh the Northern Channel!!

[philip_thomson]

when i was about 11 my dad and i were at calourdra. i caught a nice whiting that i wanted to keep and when i went to get the bucket form the car dad decided he would wash the sand off the fish. it swam away :o. i have had numerous spikes from fish especially while filleting or scaling had flathead spikes never a happy moment though (i reckon that would be an unhappy moment). had heaps of hooks in fingers. my sister wanted me to take her bait out further on the surf ski. as the line was going out she goes "oww a fish" and yanks the rod causing hook to go in my finger. >:( had a few cuts and fun experiences like that
cheers philip

[Needmorerum]

Well it all started like this, I bought this new boat, a 395 Proling Angler, first outboard I have owned. Had a few inboard ski boats, but this is the first fishing boat.
When I picked her up they told me to take it easy and run it in for 2-3 tanks of fuel. I did this and then was finally able to open it up. With just me in it for a nights fishing at the Power Station outlet it gets up and goes quite well.
I left the boat ramp with the sounder on and watched it closely, the depth got deeper as I approached the outlet, I thought this would be normal as the outlet is constantly running water out. As I passed the outlet the depth got deeper again. I was sitting on about 3/4 throttle, it was 5.30pm and low tide.
With ample depth under the boat, I twisted it up to full throttle, the 30 Merc picked up in revs quick and I shot straight up onto a sand/mud bank. The boat come to a screaming holt, threw me off the pedestal seat onto the floor, and the outboard revved its guts out.
I quickly shut it down, and then looked around to see who was watching. There were 3 blokes at the outlet flicking lures, and another 2 blokes on the other side of the river fishing as well. I looked over the side of the boat and I'm in 15mm of water. If I had of been looking at the water instead of the sounder, I would have seen the mangrove sticks poking out. Instead I was looking at a sounder that was in demo mode.
When I looked up at the blokes again, they were standing there clapping there hands, so I bent over picked up a Bundy Rum and Coke and held it up for a "cheers" sat down and started having a drink.
It took around 45min before the tide came in far enough for me to get off, and I ended up catching a 65cm Salmon.
I now make sure the sounder is set right, and watch the water instead of the screen.

Corry

[Cloud_9]

on 1 of my first trips in my first boat took wife and 8weekold baby fishing , went to place called shark bay to punmp yabbies, after being there for a while herd some bloke yelling at us,( your boat, your boat).
looked around to see the boat with 8week old on board floating away,( 50 meters or so ) #middle of winter and i had to stip off to jocks and go for swim in shark bay to retreve boat and baby.
had a lot of trounble have piss from the freezing water. :-X :-X
trip before this one launched boat without bungs in.tryingto get boat on the plain with boat on auto pilot wife and i standing on the nose of the boat ,
it took 15minite run with plugs out to empty. :-[ :-[

Cheers Cloud 9

[SeaSaw]

My biggest near mishap occured out at Fitzroy Reef on a trip out from 1770. We were doing a bit of a drift out from the reef edge, in pretty good conditions, and picking up some good sweetlip. We ended up getting a bit close to the reef edge, so we up'd lines and were about to move, when, you guessed it - ENGINE FAILURE. ??? By the time we got the anchor out we were only about 5m away from the waves breaking on the reef. :o :o :o

What to do ? Out with a pair of paddles and give them to the deckies. Have you ever seen 2 deckies paddle a 2ton + boat so hard they almost got it up on the plane. :o Amazing what a little panic can do.

It didn't get any better from here. It was 6 hours before VMR could get out to us to tow us in. Not long after they hooked us up, a 30 knot change came through. >:( It took about 5 hours travelling at 6knots to get back. My 680sf turned into a submarine practically going under every second wave rather than over. There was enough green water coming over the bow to sink a boat that didn't have self draining decks - not to mention how rought it was. The deckies tried lying on the bunks and were lifting off the bunks and hitting the roof in the cabin. :o Gee it was rough.

Final damage bill was $550 for tow. The engine had a burned out stator and power pack - $900 to replace. ??? The only time the engine has ever let me down - just happened to be 65km off the coast but only 5 metres from rocks ::)

Cheers,

Mark

[jimbamb]

Been told countless times to not leave rod lying over side of boat cuz i'd lose it.so was sittin in noosa River with rod in hand ..NOTHIN HAPPENIN ,nex thing the rod is gone!!!Last seen headin toward the vehicular ferry!! To add insult to injury 2 weeks later. fishin the same area, the minister for war hooks sumthin and pulls up a rod an reel.Not my neat little shimano outfit but a big W kids outfit worth about $2. Now i sit with both hands on the rod an dont get a nibble,,Murphys law i guess.

[MY-TopEnder]

That reminds me of an old saying... whats the best form of bilge pump?..... scared man with a bucket.

[SeaHunt]

The worst thing that can happen when you go out for a fish is not catching anything. :P

[Tezza985]

Anyone ever caught a flying fish??

No! How about a flying Gannet diving after your bait then taking off. I went from fishing to kite flying all in a few short minutes. Very embarassing, and try getting a hook out of that beak.

Tezza.

[CHRIS_aka_GWH]

At straddie classic 3 yrs back just before dawn & all was black on the deserted main beach at Moreton Is. After fishing the surf all night & not seeing a soul, had to answer the call of nature & "lay some cable".

Waders around the ankles etc just inside the dunes pitch black in the squat when ...
[smiley=bulb2.gif] [smiley=bulb2.gif] yep headlights - coming straight at me from the treeline. Mid errr motion I had no option but to bury my head in my arms & act as inconspicuous as possible as two 4wds drove past.
:-/

As I watched them disappear & cursed my cicadian rythmn I got back into the swing of things when ...
[smiley=bulb2.gif] [smiley=bulb2.gif] - yep more lights; spotties this time.

A crew of pro netters this time. Do you have any idea how long it seems to take a tractor to travel such a short distance when you are in that position #:-/

chris

[blaze]

caught my mates dog on 20lb line once on the back cast, played him out on a short line for about a mile (when the dog got home). The end result the dog very weary, the fisherboy, very weary, dog released without tagging as it was deemed the likely hood of a recapture was slim and recording of movement would be only marginal
Also left the bungs out a couple of times, but I have found that the water drains faily quick when under way
cheers
blaze

[Cheech]

Heading back from Mud Island last night and half way back to the leads I realised I had not turned the sounder on so reached down and pressed the on button, then had to find the light on button that is close to it. But no light so pressed a couple of times and finally got it going. Anyway, the reading was 10 metres, which is about what I expected for where I was. Then all of a sudden it dropped to 14 metres, the 12, then up to 8. Wow, had I found a secret spot... For those that go out that way, they will know that there is no structure of that nature that far from the island. Anyway, I was pretty excited and circled around whilst punching it into my gps.

Doh.. with all the button pressing I had set it on simulator mode.

[Dirty_Mole]

are there any good fish out there

[bidkev]

I was gonna start a thread along these lines and then I thought that my tale may be just to incredible/stupid to believe, but what the hell........this is true folks and illustrates the adage that it never rains but it pours. Not being a very good stoyteller, you really have to try and visualise this.......here goes...

I was a boy soldier home on leave and drinking in a pub when I got talking to a guy named Pete who seemed vaguely familiar. Turned out we went to the same school and we got to talking to fishing. He had just been given an old marine ply 12footer and a seagull engine but had no trailer. He said he had the materials to build one and I offered to help relishing the thought of a few free trips.

The trailer was built......we launched, and the bloody thing floated!........We'd built it outta 4x2 with no thought of the consequences......AH! the joys of youth :-)

Anyway, we got the boat off and put out to sea. Now this boat was the kind of thing that you see on boating lakes in the UK fitted with an inboard, and wasn't best suited to being pushed by an old seagull.

We had gone a fair way out when I noticed that the petrol tank was showing very little so I decided to fill her whilst on the move......fatal!......Must've touched the "spinning top" and got one helluva belt that knocked me into the water! The next ten minutes was spent with me trying to figure how to get back into the boat as everytime I tried to pull myself in she listed below the waterline. I eventually figured out how to climb into the bow and Pete and I spent the next 10 minutes clutching our sides which were aching from the howls of laughter that we generated.

Although it was summer, I was feeling a bit cold so we decided to continue fishing closer to the shore in the lee of the wind. We anchored where we knew there was some rough ground and immediately I got into something. It was a conger eel that went over 2 metres which I managed to get into the boat.........2 anglers and a conger in a 12 foot boat does not make for harmony :-) I told Pete to whack it's tail with something as this calms them down. He reached for the old tool box he'd brought with him (not trusting the engine) and brought out a lump hammer!........ Too late!........ The inevitable happened as I tried to stop him! He aimed a blow at the conger's tail and just as I had envisaged when he pulled the hammer from the box, it skidded sideways off the conger's tail and went straight through the side of the boat.

Whilst I stuffed my already sodden clothes into the hole Pete pulled anchor and attempted to start the engine.........no go!

I won't relate here the next 20 minutes of frantic bailing but we eventually had to row back to the beach, walk a mile to the trailer and then spent ages figuring out how to get the boat onto a trailer that was floating on the surface. A couple of pro bait diggers who were on the beach helped lift the boat onto the trailer and then another disaster.......it broke it's back!

The tide was flooding and we spent the next hour offloading the gear, engine etc into the back of his old land rover.....moving it up the beach as we did so, and working frantically to demolish boat and trailer with the lump hammer and anything else that came to hand. The last we saw of that boat and trailer was an axle and two tyres sitting on the beach waiting for the flooding tide and all we had left of it was the towing bracket :-)

More hassle! The Landie was bogged in the wet sand! I waded into the water, salvaged some of the timber and wedged it firmly under the Landie's tyres and out she came.

That's it folks. Talk about a comedy of errors :-)

Pete and I became firm friends and we went halves on another old boat and whenever I was on leave, we went fishing together whenever possible. Sadly, Pete died when only aged 26 but I like to think that he can look down on us, laugh about our disastrous day, and smile at how much a couple of ambitious, impulsive, but passionate teenagers learned so quickly from one days fishing......Here's to you Pete :-)

cheers

kev

[bidkev]

That reminds me of an old saying... whats the best form of bilge pump?..... scared man with a bucket.

Judging from my own experience, a scared man is usually shitting himself.........the quandry is?.........use the bucket for bailing or something else ;-)

cheers

kev

[MTpockets]

Extremely funny story Kev, mate that made my day ;D

One other time with me went like this....
My ex-father in-law bought an old Cruise Craft and wanted to go out fishing, so my 2 brothers in-law, the old fella and myself hit the Mackay harbour and went outside and fished the late afternoon and only came across a school of grey nurse, and in those days we didnt know anything about their numbers and regularly kept a few small ones to eat. We caught about 6 and decided to try inside the harbour south wall for some tailor or such. We found a nice spot and got into some nice bites and got pretty busy fishing. Things settled down a bit and as one does when bored started to notice people moving on the wharfs, and ships and certain lights and so I was basically staring at a ship being loaded at the sugar terminal.

An hour passes and I look back towards the wharf and it seemed like all the lights had been turned off, and couldn't see any action at all. It became very dark and we all agreed to go home. We started to slowly gather in lines when the old bloke yells out " shit that ship is moving, right at us !!!!"
We couldn't hear the engines untill he was almost right on top of us, and we barely had enough time to haul the pick and move out of his way. I would say he missed us by about 100 feet in the end. Thats really very close considering they travel that far in about 20 seconds. In the process we went so far towards the rock wall, we had to get out onto the rocks to hold the boat from smacking into them while we waited for the ship to pass by.
That was a very scary night, and never ever went out with them again..... name is billy bunt.... if ya get my drift !!!
cheers
Les

[wacco_fozzy]

Was fishing late afternoon at Cape Moreton years ago in a 17 foot runabout. A perfect day, calm seas but with a humungous swell caused by a cyclone off the coast somewhere.

Trolled our way to the outside of Flinders Reef and while looking at the sounder, noticed the water getting deeper, fast. Looked up to see the BIGGEST wave I've ever seen bearing down on us. Slammed the throttle down and turned into the wave, I swear we were almost vertical as we went over.

Hauled my old man out of under the stern, along with everything loose and went to go home, only to have the floor split open as we tried to get on the plane. It turns out that over the years we had worn the gelcoat a little thin on the hull dragging it over the rigid side rails and we'd split the hull there when we crashed down.

We took turns bailing (there's no better bilge pump than a nervous man with a bucket) and managed to follow a trawler round Combuyoro Point in the dark, and back to Sandgate.

Not a trip I'd care to repeat

[Hutcho]

Boat a boat, and on the same day, decided to take it out for a spin. Checked everything was right, old man put the bungs in, i oput the fuel in, canopy was up, rods were in, bait was in, sweet. Me, the old man, my missus, my sister and her boyfriend all jumped in. boat was heavy of course, and i knew no better. took off, and stopped at a location for a fish. 15 mins later, there was water coming through the back of the boat, at the floor. We all figured it was cos there was so much weight. Anyhow, went to take off after pulling in the pick, and boat hardly was moving. Not good. thought motor was stuffed after only driving for 5 minutes! Luckily, we were close to some land, and offloaded everyone except the old man. Managed to get it back to the ramp where we loaded it up on the tralier for further inspection. As soon as it was up, water started pouring out of one of the corners...old man didn't see the third bung underneath the step at the back did he...it was pretty bad, as I thought we'd just bought a dud boat only 2 hours earlier.

[blaze]

makes us realise, that i think some of us are blessed with some of these mishaps that we can look back on with a laugh
heres to lessons learnt and safe boating
cheers
blaze

[Cheech]

I'll second that.

[easyrider525]

just recently installed my new matrix finder/gps. so decided to take the boat for a look see and check out my new toy. left home 430 am for an early session just outside botany heads. took my brother in law and off we goes. hit the water around 5ish and settled in for the the duration. well it comes around half nine and we are maybe a couple of clicks out and the wind starts to blow , so i decide to head in a bit.
still not fully understanding of the gps features, i start to play with the settings whilst underway. :-[ just as we were getting closer botany heads, i looked over to see my brother in law re-rigging one of his rods, when out of nowhere this mother of a wave took us by surprise :o. it sent my bro in law flying of his seat, rod, tackle and stuff everywhere onto the deck, looked like a upside down turtle, arms legs goin everyway. me on the other hand get lifted and placed very nicely onto the side screen. just under my right ribs. i'm still trying to compose myself from his antics when i felt cartlidge being snapped from ribs. :-X oh my goodness .......that smarts.
i clutch my rib cage and sat down for a breather only to find that it hurts like all buggery when i breath. yep time to go home. doctor tells me no breaks in the ribs just soft tissue, 6 to 8 weeks of breath softly, dont make me laugh, and NO heavey lifting or CASTING . damn , i suppose thats what i get for laughing at my bro in law. :'(

[reefraider_II]

went out in now my old boat 4.30 am out the southport seaway pulled up 4km east to try a normal spot 3 persons aboard ,about 5kg of bait and 100ltrs of fuel.What happens split hull and filled her to the floor .Heart rate about 200bpm for about 30 mins while coming back.It took about 5 or 6 circles to get her on the plane let me guess...take out the bungs.Yeah farkin right when the split is forcing the water in the hull......Only thing keeping us afloat is the floor.Luckily had a 120 v4 pushing a 16ft halfcab came screaming into paradise point boatramp while sun was still coming up.Boat sank onto ramp worst day of my life :-[ :-[ :-[ oh yeah sorry to9 the people living in the anchorage approaching the ramp very big wake that morning :-/

[in_my_blood]

did not happen to me but a charter skipper in F.N.Q was marlin fishing around Lizard is when he looked back at the baits he seen a huge shape about a 100 feet behind the boat he pulled it out of gear screaming whale shark down the ladder on the deck and over the side his deckie had the marlin door open ready to go in next when the skipper came back out of the water at 100mph it was not a whale shark it was a monster tiger

[stacer_seagull]

Fishing out at corroborree billabong with a mate late at night, had gone through a number of channels to get to a spot about 5 k's from ramp, when steering cable snapped!!!!!!! i had the throttle up the front while mate had to steer motor from back, but everytime he turned the motor one way we would get more or less power, very slow trip home,hitting a few banks in the dark, took 2 hours to get back,while seeing plenty of red eyes watching us as we went.......

[blaze]

why is it that we laugh at some poor buggers miss fortunes
cause i am
cheers
blaze

[ken4159]

yesterday at the 45's watched deckies mobile go to bottom on sounder

[philip_thomson]

that would probably be something funny to see as long is it ain't your mobile.

[crayman]

My worst fishing exp was up the cape fishing with a handline hooke a big shark and faught him for about 35 mins when decided he had enough and snap causing the lump of crude lead to return to me at a great pace right in the nuts i almost fell of the jetty. Another time in the torres straits i hooked a huge shovel nose on a hand line and he nearly removed my f*** you finger i landed him and enjoyed every last mouhtful. Don't ever dive with turtles (hawks bill) they bight hard.

[craysea]

QUINNY 600
Similar deal with me ,the winds picked up early and got stuck on lady musgrave for a week On the third night me 420 dory broke loose and and i woke to find it had been bashin against the fallen trees taken water and sand big dings in the vessel and a few less fins on the outboard
still made the trip back to 1770 in not to friendly seas packin death all the way
we learn we learn we learn

[macca]

It happened a long time ago and I have since been forgiven for this tragic accident.

I was going fishing with my brother in law in his new company car, down at Evans Head. Just been pumping yabbies, I had the yabbies in a bucket on the rear footwell.

"Whoops, I've tipped the bucket over, Dave"

Stink!!!!, phew it was bad

I washed, scrubbed, shampooed, nothing would remove the smell, worse than rotten prawns.

The smell was too bad to drive the car.

Lucky my brother in law was the company director, he had to sell the car, the stink was just too bad.

I get reminded of this event occasionally but I have been forgiven.

Macca