"Bad Experiences"

[NoMoreCornChuckin]

Chaz, I'm curious about your "bad Experience" on Clark's. If I may ask what happened. My love of fishing was scarred many years agao by a "Bad Experience" at Stone Valley lake, many years ago while night fishing as a teenager. I was the victim of an attempt of some kind of harm, not sure what they wanted. A buddy and I were fishing from a 10 foot John boat for bass at night. From out of nowhere, two guys in a canoe appered beside our boat and we never heard them coming.( we had a lantern on, they had no lights. The fact that they arrived so silently allerted us to begin with. They asked us if we wanted to Party and we said no, they kept pushing us to party with them and we kept declining, I'd had enough and told my buddy to grab the oars and let's go. he started rowing and then one of the guys reached out and grabbed the side of our boat and said, "you're not going anywhere!", I flipped on the trolling motor we had in the boat and hit it on high, I told my buddy to grab our long handled fishing net (about 4 feet long) and hit him, he proceeded to hit this idiot on the hands, arms head, anywhere he could swing until he was just swinging at air, it sounds funny to imagine this but he started rowing and I was steering with the motor straight for shore(about 200 yards) and when we hit the boat ramp, in one fluid motion we jumpd out, lifted the boat on each side, ran with the fully loaded john boat ( tackle boxes, rods, lantern, anchor, oars, trolling motor and car battery) another 50 yards to my truck and threw it into the back )amazing the adrenaline fear can conjour up), jumped in the truck and raced home, with my buddy looking out the back window all the way home. This was 25 years ago, and while time has allowed me to venture back to the water at night, I will never be 100% at ease out there and in fact just writing about this again, I can feel my blood preasure rising a bit. It's a shame that something as pure and innocent as fishing, can be damaged by the likes of people like those guys. I'm curious to hear of any other "bad experiences" anyone has had and what did you do about it.

 

[pete41]

I had a Mexican standoff with a couple of night-riders about 3 in the morning.This was in the parking area on the upper Missouri at Beaver creek some six miles from end of pavement.I was nite fishing and had seen their headlights cruising the dirt road.as I came back to the van they came into the parking area.
I was a little leery as there had been a robbery murder a few months earlier in the area.As I was putting my stuff in the van I saw their truck edging closer and it was obvious they were trying to scare me or up to no good.So I opened the front drivers side door and assumed the position making sure they knew it was going to get bloody if they came any closer.We stared each other down for about two very long moments then they backed down the road for a couple hundred yards and turned and left.I was glad they didn't know I had gotten careless and just had a cheap .25 auto with me and not the .38 I usually carried.
I drove to a secure spot I knew and went to sleep.

 

[TheAnglerJosieWales]

Several years ago I was up on the Beaverkill in Roscoe, NY, right at Junction Pool. It was just about dark and I wandered down to the Pool before a long ride home. My brother stayed in the car because I was only going to be about 10 minutes or so.

While I'm fishing, I turn around and catch these two guys whispering to each other about twenty feet behind me. These two were in their late twenties and each had a real dirbag look to them, kind of a 'criminal' look rather than a 'mischievious' look you might associate with teenagers. After I spotted them, they split up and looked at the two rivers from different spots, not saying a thing. The moment I started to leave, one came up to me and started asking a lot of questions. I tried to walk away and this guy kept talking, moving in front of me. His friend followed him. I started across the rocks and this guy kept talking, walking next to me, edging closer so I wasn't able to get back to the trail to the car. Just then my bother calls out from the road (from the car he had seen them walk down and had gotten the same 'dirtbag' vibe as I had). Both of them jerked their heads around and stopped walking. They hadn't even known my brother was there. When I got back to the car, he said, "I was watching. I think those guys might have been trying to rob you."

 

[StudentofTheStream]

I've never had anything remotely close to what you gentlemen are speaking of (knock on wood). Though I do it more in the case of a copperhead/rattle snake encounter, I usually always have my .40 on me just in case. Better safe than sorry but hopefully it will never see the light of day. You just never know what you might find yourself crossing paths with and it's fear of the unknown that gets us all.

 

[JackM]

The only "bad experience" on a stream that I can remember is one blistering cold day in November on Elk Creek, Erie County when Maurice made me spend an hour breaking huge chunks of ice from the stream and then decided, once we were all done, that there were no steelhead in the hole and we needed to go somewhere else.

 

[Maurice]

JackM wrote:
The only "bad experience" on a stream that I can remember is one blistering cold day in November on Elk Creek, Erie County when Maurice made me spend an hour breaking huge chunks of ice from the stream and then decided, once we were all done, that there were no steelhead in the hole and we needed to go somewhere else.

"Nothing ventured...nothing gained"

Sometimes that is the difference between going home empty and getting a few hook ups.

 

[jayL]

I almost drowned. I hurt my leg in the J, and sank like a stone. Got a good lung full of water too. Here's the account from a post I made a few months ago:

An interesting story from the Juniata....

After I fished a bit, I got warm so I took a swim. There was some super swift current where I was but I was having a good time kicking around in it and whatnot. We were being a bunch of 22 year olds basically acting like kids... and it was a good time. Well, my buddy took a slide down through some rapids and over some rocks and said it was pretty cool so I took a shot. He warned me of one (thats O-N-E) big rock that I'd probably feel on the way down and to be ready for it. I was, and sure enough it hit me right in the leg. I was braced for it so it was no problem and I relaxed as I floated the rest of the way through the rapids. Well, I happened to find a second, much sharper rock that he had not warned me about and it whacked me good. I floated the rest of the way and figured I'd better get back to shore to make sure it's ok.

No problem... I'll just get on some solid ground here and wade in. Well, it was deeper than I thought. For the first time in the J, I couldnt find bottom. I started to swim back, stupidly across the current, soon finding my hurt leg cramping badly. I swam a few feet and figured I was back in shallower water so I reached for bottom again.... Nothing. By this point I was cramped badly and very suprised that I got no bottom. I started to panic. At this point, of course I should've taken a deep breath and floated down, but hindsight is 20-20. I proceeded to start to sink and make an *** out of myself and had to get my friend to come out and help me establish myself and help me get moving again.

Thanks to him for his help, that's for sure.

And that's what I get for making the first time I swim in a few years happen in some serious white water.

as seen in this post:
http://tinyurl.com/2wyyo2

 

[sundrunk]

We were fishing Big Spring...I Had my Jeep parked on one of the lower lots...Keeping my Jeep in sight I started fishing the lower stretch with the idea of moving back towards the car...My fishing buddy was going to meet me at the lot and we were going to head off and fish some more. When he arrived I was still below the lot.. As he pulled up next to me in his truck a rusty car slammed on the breaks and this shady looking young man jumped out and headed for my Jeep. They must of not noticed us below. With the pedal to the metal my friend raced his truck towards my jeep as I followed up on foot...We startled the guy and he looked pretty scared...He said my Jeep looked like his friends Jeep and he wanted to see if indeed it was...We gave him the thousand mile stare and he ran back to the rusty car and drove away...

 

[tomgamber]

Just bears, cattle (really large western cattle) and my own clumsiness...no gun totin' whoopies...I got nothin'.

 

[jayL]

I also had a bear encounter, but it turned out to be the highlight of the day, not a bad experience. For what it's worth, I don't own a gun. I'd like one, but I don't have one yet. I don't think I'll take it fishing though. If I've survived 4 years in the heart of west philly without one (though there have been quite a few close calls, mugged friends, pushy vagrants, breaking and entering in my car and neighbors' houses, stolen bikes and other stuff, etc), I think I'll be ok in the great outdoors without one.

 

[pete41]

At a place called skunk island on the Yellowstone river in the paradise valley,I was walking through a dry riverbed heading for the river when I saw bear tracks.Since I knew someone around there had a pet bear which I had seen in the back of a pickup I figured this must be the place.Went around a bend and there about 30 yds away was a bear,sitting on its haunches watching me go by.There were cattle feeding in the field behind it.This was a grizzly,hump and all.I was terrified since I was wearing waders and un armed as it was middle of the day.As calmly as I could I kept walking until I got to the river about 150 yds further on.Waded out and started fishing,no luck.When my nephew and his buddy,that I left out about a mile upstream to fish down to me,came up I said guess what I just saw.
They said a bear.I said how did you know .They said there are tracks all over.Went back to my car,the longer way and stopped at a store/tackle shop.
I stupidly asked the guy if someone in the area had a pet bear.He said not around here.I said I just saw one behind skunk island.He said that grizzlies have been coming through that drainage lately because the high country was dried up.
Now thats a bear story to live and tell about.lol
And I have witnesses to the tracks part anyway.
Postscript
Someone was just mauled about 15 miles further up the yellowstone.
This is when you know no-ones going to believe it.
Thirty yards from a grizzly,just watching me walk by,like a dog would,with cattle feeding all around it.
Come on.
but its a true story.
By the way three times I stepped on rocks with a rattler under it.Very common on rip rap along railroad tracks.

 

[jaybo41]

Interesting thread and some unfortunate stories. I guess I should consider myself lucky. No run ins with buffoons trying to rob me and fortunately no animals either. The closest I came to a bad experiernce was on Yellow Creek. I dropped a cigarette when I was still smoking, reached down to pick it up and saw what I believe was a Copperhead. Fortunately it moved away, whatever the snake was.

Other than that, my worst on stream experience would probably be fishing in the ANF and having a group of 6 guys proceed to swarm a hole that my buddy and I were fishing. To me, that's just brutal. When I'm out and I see a guy fishing a hole, I go around him and fish somewhere else and come back later. These guys were bait chuckers and had bobbers that you'd use to fish in a large river or even an ocean. With all that water in the ANF Region, why do that? We had been catching fish up to that point, and we stayed there until we hooked nearly 2 dozen fish a piece and then left with smiles on our faces.

 

[Padraic]

Before my accident, I used to hike or bike back into the State Game Lands section of Stony Creek. Stony Creek is just over the mountain from Fort Indiantown Gap. Now I'm not going to badmouth the whole of the installation. There are a lot of good people there, and they've been good stewards of the three trout streams that have headwaters on the Gap. But...

This one day I was fishing Stony up by Cold Springs. I'm in the stream and working up one pool. I don't think I was doing especially well or poorly. It was a nice day in early Spring. The only thing that was breaking the mood was a helicopter from the Gap going up and down the valley. This is not unusual or a problem really. So I continued fishing and put the noise of the helicopter out of my mind. Suddenly it became impossible to ignore. I look over my shoulder and... here the thing is coming up the stream at treetop height. I closed my eyes and held on to my hat as it flew overhead. Only it doesn't fly by. It's stopped right overtop of me. The wind is ripping all around me, leaves and twigs are flying... I waited a while, afraid to try to move while the prop wash was hitting me. Finally it started to move off and I left the area. I watched him continue up the stream for some distance. Nothing like having a half mile of stream spoiled after half hour hike.

 

Padraic:
We obviously fish the same waters, but in entirely different states!?!
Three years ago, Bishop and I were fishing on the upper St.Joe River, in north Idaho, during forest fire season.
I was at one of our favorite pools, where Quartz Creek dumps into The "Joe". It's relatively small pool, but usually holds a half dozen decent sized West Slope Cutts. As I fished, I suddenly heard........... then "felt in my chest", the familiar "thrump-thrump-thrump" of a large chopper.
Without any warning,over the ridge it came, swinging its water bucket on a long, steel, cable! Bishop had seen it coming, I had not and he yelled suddenly for me to; "Duct under the bridge, QUICK!!!", which after 28 years of fishing and general woods tramping with one another,,we'll do what each one says, when we say it and ask questions later.
I'm sure my heels hadn't cleared the safety of the Quartz Creek bridge, when the chopper dropped its bucket, opening the massive, steel jaws of it as it descended, then commenced......... in one, quick, "swoosh",to quickly and entirely.....empty my entire fishing spot and as I noticed afterwards, also the small rocks I'd been standing on!
It was one of the weirdest sights I have EVER seen while fishing........... for a good few seconds as I watched from the safety, under the bridge, the hole was dry, the river ceased flowing into it as did Quartz creek and nothing was left to flow out of the hole, either!?!
A few hours, after this, "near miss", as I walked the bank of the river, I came to a blackberry patch growing down to a small, sandy, flat at water's edge. I had to step into the water to go around the patch, then back up onto the sandy ground again, to continue.
As I stepped back up, onto the sand, I looked down to see a bear paw print. I wear a 7-1/2 hat and when I dropped my hat onto the track to gauge its size............ my hat barely covered the entire print. (the rim, of my hat, NOT the brim and all!)
Bear tracks, in North Idaho, are as common as human prints when in the woods. However, the fact that 'water was still trickling into this wet print, after it had been made", gave me pause and a a darn good reason to change direction!?!?!!

 

[tabasco_joe]

Padrac; If that happens again just drop a call to the base commander. That stuff used to happen around Willow Grove and there was a zero tolerance policy. My street got buzzed by an A-10. One of the neighbors called and bingo, no more wings for that guy.

 

[Gone4Day]

I fished Boxelder quite a bit when I lived in Wyoming and knew it was a good stream with lots of trout. So one Saturday I figured to hike into the canyon where few people go and try my luck. The stream is non navigable because of a series of waterfalls, so there had to be big, poorly educated trout down there. Hiked along the rim trail a mile or so until I found a ravine that would lead me to waters edge. Right away I caught several larger then average browns that spurred me on to explore some more. So I worked my way deeper into the canyon. It kept getting steeper and the cliffs more vertical. By late afternoon I reached the end of the line. An impassible defile with no escape but retreat. I could see downstream a mile or so and it only got worse.

That’s when I realized the water was rising. Almost made it out but got stuck on the precipice of the second waterfall. The ledge I walked in on was now about 6 feet under and what was a trickle over the falls was now a raging torrent. Clung there for about an hour contemplating my options. Nobody would miss me for for days so I could either stay the night, try to leap the falls or skirt the pool clinging to the vertical walls. I was getting soaked with spray from the falls anyway. Jumping across would definitively end with a swim in the icy water even if I made the opposite bank. So, I worked my way along the vertical wall clinging to it with my finger tips and toenails. Had I slipped, I was going for a swim and they probably wouldn’t find me until my body washed up downstream in Glenrock. I kept having to go higher up to avoid undercuts and dead ends until I was nearly out of the canyon, albeit on the wrong side. The pool I was trying to skirt looked tiny. I’m no rock climber and am not very fond of heights. It was awful.

Anyhow, I made it to the ravine by dark, soaking wet from wading across the swollen stream. Took me almost 3 more hours to climb out and hike back to the car in the dark. Freezing cold, I started the engine, put the heater on high and stripped off the wet cloths. Took another 20 minutes or so before I stopped shivering enough to drive. Bears, snakes, broke rods, lost fly boxes or getting skunked have all been a joy compared to that day

 

[Bruno]

Flybinder:

Wow ! You almost became an urban legend

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/scuba.asp

flybinder wrote:
Padraic:
We obviously fish the same waters, but in entirely different states!?!
Three years ago, Bishop and I were fishing on the upper St.Joe River, in north Idaho, during forest fire season.
I was at one of our favorite pools, where Quartz Creek dumps into The "Joe". It's relatively small pool, but usually holds a half dozen decent sized West Slope Cutts. As I fished, I suddenly heard........... then "felt in my chest", the familiar "thrump-thrump-thrump" of a large chopper.
Without any warning,over the ridge it came, swinging its water bucket on a long, steel, cable! Bishop had seen it coming, I had not and he yelled suddenly for me to; "Duct under the bridge, QUICK!!!", which after 28 years of fishing and general woods tramping with one another,,we'll do what each one says, when we say it and ask questions later.
I'm sure my heels hadn't cleared the safety of the Quartz Creek bridge, when the chopper dropped its bucket, opening the massive, steel jaws of it as it descended, then commenced......... in one, quick, "swoosh",to quickly and entirely.....empty my entire fishing spot and as I noticed afterwards, also the small rocks I'd been standing on!
It was one of the weirdest sights I have EVER seen while fishing........... for a good few seconds as I watched from the safety, under the bridge, the hole was dry, the river ceased flowing into it as did Quartz creek and nothing was left to flow out of the hole, either!?!
A few hours, after this, "near miss", as I walked the bank of the river, I came to a blackberry patch growing down to a small, sandy, flat at water's edge. I had to step into the water to go around the patch, then back up onto the sandy ground again, to continue.
As I stepped back up, onto the sand, I looked down to see a bear paw print. I wear a 7-1/2 hat and when I dropped my hat onto the track to gauge its size............ my hat barely covered the entire print. (the rim, of my hat, NOT the brim and all!)
Bear tracks, in North Idaho, are as common as human prints when in the woods. However, the fact that 'water was still trickling into this wet print, after it had been made", gave me pause and a a darn good reason to change direction!?!?!!

 

"Bruno"!!
Thank you, for the neat article! I also, love Snopes, as they're a great place to put to rest so much "internet junk stories and spam"!
However, I'll have to disagree with them, on one point.............due to budget cuts, (and WHERE ELSE, but where it's needed the MOST?), the airborne firefighters often deployed during large- out of control fires in Idaho and Montana- have to use whatever equipment they can lay their hands on at the time.
It's not at all, uncommon for them to use the "brush hog" buckets that they use for moving very large amounts of dirt, brush and debris, from "point A to point B", for water transport also, during very large fires.
As I'd witnessed, they're not as water tight as perhaps a regular fire-fighting bucket may be, but they can carry quite a bit of water a short distance. They're also deployed on lumber company, "Bettys" which are about the only logging choppers that are large enough to handle such equipment.
I've, also, seen the firefighters using the very old style "buckets".......the kind that must be completely submerged into deep enough water, to fill them, or, if shallower water is all that's available, laid down, on their sides to "fill as much as possible", before being airlifted and used!?!
When "their economy" is on fire, Idaho and Montana have to and will.......... use about any equipment and any method they can think of to douse a fire as quickly as possible!
Odd, though really, maybe the Snopes story explains why I THOUGHT I'd heard the chopper pilot hollering at me as he lowered his bucket............ "get out of the way, Dude! We don't want ANOTHER, "Lloyd Bridges" on our hands!" !?????

 

[FarmerDave]

Great thread with some good stories.

I've never been mugged.

Took several dunkings while fishing, one of which was in a PA freestone during a wet snow storm. I was with others, and we had just walked two miles to get to the stream so I stayed and fished. Luckily, it was a fairly shallow spot and only my left side got soaked. I still have all my toes.

I came closer than I would like to drowning a couple times.

I even went snorkeling with a 15 foot hammerhead once.

But I would have to say the worst experience I ever had while fishing was when I broke a fly rod over a mile from the truck. Even that wasn’t all that bad because I still enjoyed the day.

I guess I have been lucky.

 

[Padraic]

Tobasco,

The Gap is permitted to fly over the SGL, and (I believe) train at treetop level over it. I wasn't seriously injured or even inconvienienced. I mean, fishing is important to me, but not every single outing. And as I say, the GAP is a pretty good neighbor in most respects.

I did happen to speak to the public relations officer for another reason years later. I mentioned it to him, and he wasn't happy to hear that they hovered over me. But they didn't technically, break any rules. And I wasn't interested in getting anyone in trouble anyway. My feeling is... I got a pretty good story out of it. Maybe I would have felt differently if I had gotten buzzed at the beginning of the day, rather than at the end or if the fishing had been excellent.