Close Call Boat Story's

[kingfish]

I was just wondering if anyone else on here has ever had any close calls/interesting boat story's? 

The main one that sticks out to me was on Reelfoot lake.  It was duck season about 1996, 5 guys in a 16'48" jon boat headed out to Green Island point blind. We had plenty of sausage, 1 loaf of wonder bread, 100 gallon tank of propane, 5 guns, way to many shells.  It was pretty foggy once we got to the boat ramp.  The driver of the boat made this same trip about 2 miles out to blind since the 80's.  Shooting time was probably around 530 that morning so we usually get there around 430 just in case we have to fix decoys.  We take off and wow it's pretty foggy and then about .5 mile later, you couldn't see past 10 ft in front of boat.  I remember getting close to the bank and him saying oh yeah i know where we are. Wrong. Talking about 5 hungry pissed off duck hunters.... we finally had to bunji strap the motor to a fixed position to make it kinda go in a straight line.  Two different people tried to make it go straight. When you just can't see far, human nature , will make you go in circles. We ended up 300 yards west of the ramp at 11:00 AM.  We all got in the truck went to the nearest restaurant ate and drove straight home. 

and yes I do have a compass now. 

[MikeA]

Stick Marsh / Farm pond 13, I was there for a week with a friend Ron Hambone Hamilton on a DIY Big Bass hunt. We were having a great day so we decided we should fish the dusk hours (imagine that)... Well we stayed too late and it got dark, really dark, and we were at the opposite end of Farm pond 13. We knew the general direction of the ramp at the other end of the Stick Marsh and we knew when we came to the dike we could find our way into the canal that runs around the Stick Marsh to the ramp.
No problem,, we're cruising along in complete darkness going about 30 mph in big alligator infested water when I start seeing shadows whizz by the boat. I holler at Ron "Hey STOP THE BOAT! He stops and we look around and discover that somehow we've gone through the opening in the dike and are smack in the middle of Stick Marsh. Now that place is riddled with stumps and trees and GATORS!. Its just a flooded orange grove with a canal around it. We tried really hard to find our way but in Fl there are no landmarks and did I mention it was dark, so we to were doing circles. Finally another boat (thank God for crazy night fishermen) shined a flashlight to us. We drove towards the light and made our way out the canal to the ramp. At the ramp we discovered that if you turn on a flashlight in that hell hole the bugs will cover your entire body within a few seconds. If you leave the truck door open,, your buddy won't speak to you the whole ride back to the motel..

That's just one of many. Steve H can attest to that huh Steve....   Ever been lost in the Back Country, in the lower Keys, on the lowest tide of the season??? We have!

[Travis C.]

This past summer I was out on Old Hickory fishing at night. That was nothing out of the norm for me as I usually fish at night while bass fishing. What different was I decided to go up Drakes creek. I am not too familiar with Drakes other than the mouth because I put in at Saundersville. But for whatever reason ventured up it in search of fish. After stopping and fishing several places I headed towards the back of the creek..... no spot light...no gps map or any other navigation device other than my flasher. Things I did not need because I always fish where I know pretty well. About half way back up the creek cruising 30 yards or so off the bank on the right hand side there is a load clang and my boat glances off of something. I immediately look to the flasher and it's going crazy. So I just braced for a blow, jerk, crash or anything. Nothing happend but I made a bee line for the ramp incase I was taking on water. Luckily I got by without any damage at all other than a love tap or swappage of paint from the bouy.

Apparently, after asking someone what the hell I hit turns out there was some sort of submerged foundations from a rock castle.   

That was the last time I went up in Drakes to fish.

[grumpy]

Gofisher scared the crap out of me & the Admiral rowing a couple weeks back

Grumpy

[Mike Hill]

Won't tell you about the time I flipped a jonboat, or the time I almost hit a ski ramp, or the time Dad and I almost got caught in Hurricane Celia, my sister getting caught in a hydraulic or I especially won't tell you about the times my friends did not survive close calls.  But I will tell a somewhat funny one.  I was 18 or 19 and apparently somewhat mature for my age as my Dad would allow me to take our boats out without him being there.  We had a cabin on a spoil island out of Corpus Christi.  Friend of mine and I decided we wanted to go fishing - so we planned a weekend trip.  In the meantime, I had heard that a girl from a neighboring town who I was birddogging was going to be coming to a dance hall in my town on Friday night.  So I talked my buddy into going to the dance for a while.  Hooked up the boat to pickup, and went to the dance.  Had a good time, and luckily the girl had to be back home early so at 11:00 we left the dance hall headed for the coast.  After a gallon of coffee we got to the ramp about 2:30, launched the boat, and made the trip down the channels on a dark night with no moon.  I'd done it a number of times, but this was the first time my buddy had and he was crapping his shorts he was so scared.  Got to our dock about 3:30 am.  Tied up, but was too tired and didn't really want to mess up the cabin, so we decided to just sleep in the boat.  Folded down the seats and as soon as we laid down, we were out.  Sometime before daybreak, I was jolted awake, found myself in a heap on the port side, on top of my buddy, with baitboxes, tackleboxes, and ice coolers on top of me, with my head over the gunwale, my nose within inches of the surface of the water.   Looked back up to the starboard side and saw that the boat was hanging off the dock by the ropes we had used to tie up to the dock cleats with.   Scared the heck out of me.  From that scare as well as the fear of running the channel at night, my buddy never went back with me when we had to run the channel at night.  Still not completely sure what happened, but something freaky must have happened with barge/tug wakes from opposite directions converging at the exact spot where our boat was.  For just a few milliseconds the water level dropped 3+ feet.  Lots of cuts and bruises, but on the plus side, no tackle was damaged, and the instantaneous evacuation of my bowels left me with more room, to eat more of the fish we caught the next day!

[Steve H]

That's just one of many. Steve H can attest to that huh Steve....   Ever been lost in the Back Country, in the lower Keys, on the lowest tide of the season??? We have!

Mike, that was one crazy ride. After having a blast catching sharks in the back country and then running the line we came in on and finding that there was no water. Eeeek!  Then getting out and towing the boat while walking through knee deep sand.

Craziness. I was glad to see that dock.

[MikeA]

The hardest part was having to head back out towards the Gulf (away from where we needed to get to) to find deeper water,,, AT NIGHT . I was almost sure we were going to spend that night in the boat..

[Steve H]

I was at the point too. Thank goodness for cell phones and GPS's.