Anyone have any harrowing experiences on the lake?

[Nation]

Kinda in a nostalgic mood right now for some reason so I'll share two.

Me and my dad fished together all the time in my teenage years. We had a Lowe 17ft aluminum boat at the time that in order to run a spotlight at night, you had to run a wire from the battery which was located under the console between the driver and passenger seats.

We were fishing one night and it was so foggy you could barely see. Just putt putting along with both of us staring straight ahead to make sure we didn't run into and debris. For some reason, I happened to glance in his direction and I be damned, smoke was billowing from under the back deck where the battery, and two 10 gallons of gas happened to be.

I screamed The boat's on fire! Jumped up, and started throwing stuff out of the front compartment looking for the fire extinguisher, couldn't find the damn thing, and by this time flames were shooting out everywhere. I was two seconds from bailing when he reached into the fire and pulled the spotlight wires loose from the battery, and the flames went out. How in the fuck we didn't go up like fireworks is beyond me. The gas tanks were actually touching the battery. If ANY fumes had been present we would have been fried chicken. We found the bank and followed it the rest of the 5 or so miles back to the dock.

We had a tornado hit Lenoir City back in the 90's. By that time we had a 18ft Ranger with a 175 Johnson. We were in this little cove on Watts Bar and it was hotter than hell and we hadn't had a nibble all day. I said screw this lets go. So we got out of the cove, turned right, and before us lay the blackest sky in the middle of the day I have ever seen. It had to be at least 95 degrees, and as we went along we hit the cold air and it was FREEZING. It started hailing little dime sized hail balls that felt like needles pricking you, and the waves got so big because of the incredible wind that the nose of the boat was actually going underwater. After a little ways the trolling motor broke off and was gone, and it was lightning about every three seconds.

We used an entire tank of gas covering about a mile and a half to get back to Rockwood where we put in. We about killed ourselves tying the boat to the dock as there was no frickin' way we were gonna get it back on the trailor. We made it back to the truck, turned on the radio and was informed that tornadoes were in the area. My dad snickered and said, no shit, buddy... in a voice that was so funny I'll never forget it.

[Tnphil]

cant top those but.....we rented a boat at the lake from TWRA a couple of years back along with the trolling motor...we got about 250 yards out and I noticed water above my shoes....didnt think much at that moment but all of a sudden water was coming in fast...we turned around and had gotten about 50 yards and by this time the boat was half full....of course the trolling motor was going about .1 miles per hour and now the boat was heavy from all the water...we started paddleing as fast as we could...it seemed like those last 100 yards was a 100 miles....by the time we got back to shore only about 6 inches of the boat was out of the water...we were so wore out we could hardly walk....after I caught my breath, I walked up to the TWRA office and I told the man what had happened, he laughed and said...."yea, we knew one of our boats had a leak, we just didnt know which one it was".....if I had a gun on me I'd shot the sumbitch...he ask if we wanted another boat or our money back...I said I want my damn money back, I'm to tired to fish!!

[VolDave]

Well there was the day that I went fishing with a friend while on vacation in Naples, FL. We rented a boat up near Sanibel and were catching a few fish during a cloudy overcast day when suddenly the skys started to darken. I didn't think much of it until I looked up and saw a waterspout maybe a half a mile away. I looked my buddy Bob and said "That's it we're outta hare." He looked up and said "What are you talking about?", then he turned around and saw the waterspout and said "Oh, okay." We ran back to the dock at lightspeed as the rain came in torrents. I know waterspouts aren't nearly as dangerous as tornados, but that was a freaking scary moment.

Then there was the time my 2 brothers and I and a friend rented a jon boat to go fishing at Herb Parsons lake near Memphis about 30 years ago. We were all teenagers so we though nothing of paddling all over the lake which is maybe 150 acres. We were in the middle of the lake maybe a quarter of a mile from the shore when a huge storm came up. We rowed with all our might for the nearest shore and made it only to find ourselves halfway around the lake from the dock, so we had to walk about a half mile back to the rental office in the pouring rain.

Finally, there was the day I went with a friend to take his Donzi for a test run out on the Mississippi River. We ran upstream from downtown for a few miles passing several barges deadheading their way back upriver. Suddenly the engine started sputtering and ultimately died leaving us adrift in the middle of the river channel. As we drifted back downstream, those barges kept getting bigger and bigger. Let me tell you, that is a scary damn moment. You don't realize just how big those barges are until you have one of them bearing down on you. I'll cut this short by telling you that the way out ultimately entailed going for a swim.

[Tnphil]

Well VolDave...you swam in the Mississippi and lived to post this...thats a good thing!!!

BTW: what happened to the damn boat???

[VolDave]

My buddy tied a rope to the bow and was attempting to tow it to shore by himself when I realized that he was probably too out of shape to make it. That's when I jumped in and helped him. We ultimately got a tow back to the marina from 3 rednecks who had motored all the way down the hatchie river from near Brownsville. I later found out that that was the second time my buddy had been stuck on the river without power. Needless to say, I will never get in a boat with him. this same guy lost his spleen when he got impaled by a tree limb when he was jump shooting ducks while boating down the St. Francis River a few years later. Some people should just stay out of boats.

[Nation]

We got caught in a bad storm on Lake Chickamauga (sic?) once in the aluminum boat we had. The wind was blowing us everywhere and the motor wasn't strong enough to fight it. It blew us towards the bank and I grabbed onto a tree limb, wrapped my legs around the seat pole, and hung on for about 45 minutes.

When the storm passed I couldn't unlock my fingers from the limb. My dad had to pry them off.

[sgvolfan]

Got caught on Cherokee with waves about 5' on March in my little 16' Z660 Winner. Truck was at friends house near Dollar Island on German Creek. We were down around Point 13. Fortunately the wind was blowing the direction we needed to go. Every time we go over a wave I'd look back and the damn thing was 2' higher than the top of the motor. We'd go off the waves with a hard jolt. Our backs bothered us all that summer.

Had another boat follow us one night without lights. Threatened to shoot holes in their boat. Turned out they had mistaken us for friends of theirs.. had a small laugh about that.

Have seen skinny dippin' teenagers, listened to domestic fights, all kinds of crap if you fish at night and pay attention.

[Tnphil]

Got caught on Cherokee with waves about 5' on March in my little 16' Z660 Winner. Truck was at friends house near Dollar Island on German Creek. We were down around Point 13. Fortunately the wind was blowing the direction we needed to go. Every time we go over a wave I'd look back and the damn thing was 2' higher than the top of the motor. We'd go off the waves with a hard jolt. Our backs bothered us all that summer.

Had another boat follow us one night without lights. Threatened to shoot holes in their boat. Turned out they had mistaken us for friends of theirs.. had a small laugh about that.

Have seen skinny dippin' teenagers, listened to domestic fights, all kinds of crap if you fish at night and pay attention.

you are right..I have been out on the lake at night and its funny how the sound of.....yes..yes...yes...O'yes..yes..yes...travels over the quite water-ways...

[Nation]

Nitetime fishing is the best. We were attacked by bats, heard hysterical screaming or laughing or whatever the fuck it was coming from wooded areas, heard full, sometimes hilarious sometimes disgusting conversations coming from campers on various islands, heard titanic splashes in the middle of the lake from Gawd knows what.

Not to mention no skiers or pleasure seekers.

[tnjimbob]

Got caught out in the Gulf of Mexico a few miles offshore from Biloxi in a 23' boat. Funny how "seas 1'-3' with a light chop" can turn into "seas 5'-8' and a small craft warning" in a matter of minutes. We had had a great day of catching sharks, specks & flounder and were always fishing with one eye looking skyward. We were on our way back in & got caught in waves way too big for his boat to handle. My friend's boat had an enclosed cab and it was such a rough ride that I kept bumping my head on the roof, so I made my way to the rear & stood up, holding onto the back edge of the cab. At that point I'd rather have taken stinging sea spray in my eyes than to keep bumping my head inside. I can't remember feeling more helpless on the water before or since, having been in bigger waves but on bigger boats so it wasn't quite so scary.

At least I had a mess of fish to take home from the experience & we made it back in one piece.

[VolDave]

The sickest I have ever been in my life was when I went deep sea fishing out of Melbourne, FL about 25 years ago. The seas were reported at 2 feet when we left Orlando that morning. By the time we got to Melbourne, they were between 4 & 6 feet. The combination of heavy seas and diesel fumrs had me feeling sick 15 minutes into a 4 hour trip. I probably blew chow 10 times that day and vowed never to go back.

[sgvolfan]

Striper fishing with top water plugs at night will scare the hell out of you too, especially when a 25-30 pounder misses (or hits) your plug right at the boat..sometimes they will run into the boat, sometimes knock the plug flying. Had a friend drag a 20 pounder up onto the bank he was fishing on one night, trying to unhook the plug, the fish flopped and buried 2 of the 3 trebles in the palm of his hand...trip to ER.