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Ever Feel "Uncomfortable", Night Fishing??
COLT
Member Posts: 12,637 ******
...or something "strange" happen while you were out night fishing?
...Several of us were in the crash channel,just out from Perrins AFB
down at Chorpus Christi night fishing. In a 17' bass boat. Large bay that is about 3'(tide out), 5' (tide in), with a channel about 20' deep meandering through it out to the cut, and out into open water.
We were anchored on the edge of the channel, fishing the channel as the fish move in from open water and follow the channel in, then spread out on the flat to feed. Great fishing! We have a kerosene railroad lantern going, lighting the boat, and probably lighting the area around the interior of the boat, and maybe 6-8' out from boat.
Calm winds, and being inside the breakwater, no swells or waves, except for an occasional wake from a crew boat running the channel bringing/taking people out to the offshore oil rigs.
Then, a slight scraping sound, and the back half of the boat gently raises up probably 8-10",??? Moments later I caught a "glimpse" of something BIG rolling just on the edge of the available light. BIG fish. Then an hour of "gentle bumping" and a "glimpse" of fish, several at a time. No way to identyfy the fish, never saw one clearly.
It could have been Flipper for all I know, but it still made me uncomfortable with the boat raising up, and being moved around. The boat was pretty heavy being fiberglass bass boat, loaded, w/100horse hanging off the transom! Not being able to "identify" the culprit did not help any! Big sharks? Lots of sharks there, but a lot are Black Tips, and I think 4-4 1/2' 40lbs. is BIG for these.Saw enough of the fish that they were bigger than 4', and had to weigh more than 40lbs. Hammer Heads, Bull, several types in the area.
...Any body had other "un-nerving" night fishing tales?...[:D]
...Or for you salt dogs, know what "fish" gave me my tale?
...Several of us were in the crash channel,just out from Perrins AFB
down at Chorpus Christi night fishing. In a 17' bass boat. Large bay that is about 3'(tide out), 5' (tide in), with a channel about 20' deep meandering through it out to the cut, and out into open water.
We were anchored on the edge of the channel, fishing the channel as the fish move in from open water and follow the channel in, then spread out on the flat to feed. Great fishing! We have a kerosene railroad lantern going, lighting the boat, and probably lighting the area around the interior of the boat, and maybe 6-8' out from boat.
Calm winds, and being inside the breakwater, no swells or waves, except for an occasional wake from a crew boat running the channel bringing/taking people out to the offshore oil rigs.
Then, a slight scraping sound, and the back half of the boat gently raises up probably 8-10",??? Moments later I caught a "glimpse" of something BIG rolling just on the edge of the available light. BIG fish. Then an hour of "gentle bumping" and a "glimpse" of fish, several at a time. No way to identyfy the fish, never saw one clearly.
It could have been Flipper for all I know, but it still made me uncomfortable with the boat raising up, and being moved around. The boat was pretty heavy being fiberglass bass boat, loaded, w/100horse hanging off the transom! Not being able to "identify" the culprit did not help any! Big sharks? Lots of sharks there, but a lot are Black Tips, and I think 4-4 1/2' 40lbs. is BIG for these.Saw enough of the fish that they were bigger than 4', and had to weigh more than 40lbs. Hammer Heads, Bull, several types in the area.
...Any body had other "un-nerving" night fishing tales?...[:D]
...Or for you salt dogs, know what "fish" gave me my tale?
Comments
All of a sudden there was what sounded like a scream and the sound of something large crashing through the trees up by where my car was parked 150 or so yards away. The sound of a struggle in the trees and the snarls and growling of a large "cat" echoed around the
pit.
Here I am on this rock pile in just shorts and shoes, scared silly. Three walls 50 + feet high all around me. The only way out is back to the shore and up the hill which is where the noise is coming from.
The noise dies down, but every so often I could hear a snarl and something walking around up near my car.
I stood out on the rock pile for well over half an hours trying to figure out what to do. All I had with me was a mini Mag-lite and a 3" boot knife on my belt. The longer I stood there the creepier it got and the more my imagination ran away with me.
The circus was in a city about 8 miles north of my location. I started thinking a lion, tiger or other large cat must have escaped and was up by my car. (as I said my imagination was running wild)
This was before I had a cell phone and the nearest house was over a mile away from my location. I finally decided I had to go for it and get to my car and find some help for whatever had been attacked eariler.
I waded back to shore, and listened...no noise so I headed slowly up the hill, still no noise. As I got within 20 yards of my car, I heard another crashing in the trees off to my left about 20-30 yards away. I covered the last twenty yards to my car in two steps. I had a pistol in the trunk and got it by lifting the cover of the hatchback.
I got out my big Maglite and started looking around (from inside my car)and saw nothing. I finally decided to drive to the local Sheriff's Department about five minutes away and report what had happened. On my way out I saw some eyes and then a flash crossing the road. It was a Bobcat.
I went back out the next day with my friend that works for animal control. We founds some foot prints and rabbit fur up along the ridge where I had heard the noises the night before.
The scream was one of the rabbits the bobcat had killed. Anyone that has heard a dying rabbit will know the noise.
This was the first encounter I had ever had with a bobcat as to my knowledge there were none in the area. Now fifteen years later, they are seen fairly often....
quote:All of a sudden there was what sounded like a scream and the sound of something large crashing through the trees up by where my car was parked 150 or so yards away. The sound of a struggle in the trees and the snarls and growling of a large "cat" echoed around the
pit
quote:Here I am on this rock pile in just shorts and shoes, scared silly. Three walls 50 + feet high all around me. The only way out is back to the shore and up the hill which is where the noise is coming from
quote: got out my big Maglite and started looking around (from inside my car)and saw nothing.
...[:D][:D][:D]...know the drill...[:0]
...Bright night and we were walking the last 100 yds. or so to the river, as we had to park the jeep, woods to thick for jeep.
...We had gotten about 50 yds. into the woods and were talking, not too loud as it was our lease and someone would be hunting the area come daylight. Diddy bopping along and then over our heads, like 10' above our heads, came, I swear a 200 decible high pitched scream, sounded like nothing I had never heard, twas not a cat scream.
...We all jump, run into each other, several times, like a bunch of female pinballs! In only a few seconds our macho genes kicked in, and we stopped acting like a bunch of kids that just ran into the Wolfman. Shined the maglite into the trees above us and saw what looked like a long, slender somethimg, with glowing eyes (cause of the flashlight) with a raccoons tail. No discussion, one .357, and 2 .45's blasted it out of the tree, no one concerned about spooking any deer.
...They are protected now, I think, endangered maybe. Found out later in camp from some older guys, after they spewed their beer upon hearing the story and seeing the shot up Ring Tailed Cat.
...I know the 2-step, bounce off the closest tree, person, whatever that gets in between you and away from "it"!!...[:D]
quote:The name "ringtail" comes from the seven or eight black rings on the animal's tail. Although they are not related to cats, people have referred to them as miner's cat (historically appreciated as a mouser), civet cat (because of pungent secretion from * glands), and cacomistle (an Aztec Nahuatl term meaning half mountain lion). Along with raccoons and coatimundis, ringtails are members of the Procyonidae (raccoon) family. The scientific name, Bassariscus astusus, comes from bassar (fox), isc (little), and astut (cunning).
Thanks---Peabo
We were south of Puertecitos, Baja, there are a series of beautiful lagoons
there just right for swimming at night ... which we did. Probably about 10
of us on a fish/diving trip to the Seven Sisters Islands just off the coast.
Hard day of scouting around in the boats under a hot sun, we decided to swim
in the lagoon where we were camped. Probably spent an hour and a half splashing
around in there - lots of water fights - team water fights - diving off some
low rocks - shouting - chasing around and just making a lot of smooth blue water
into bubbly white water!
The next day we were casually talking to a local shrimper there about the great
camping accommodations and offhandedly mentioned that we especially enjoyed the
solitude and swimming in the lagoon ay night!
The Mexican went pale. He told us not to swim there at night because of the
sharks! We thought he was kidding, as they do sometimes, so they can swap
'dumb gringo stories' after we headed back up north. So, we didn't give it
another thought.
Next night we all carried our lanterns down to the rocks for some night fishing
(lots of huge parrot fish and trigger fish) and as someone threw his line in - we
were using big hunks of Pismo Clams which you can dig there with a fork and shovel
- anywhere. One chunk usually factored out to one big strike/fish!
Anyway, one of the guys let out a yell 'Shark!' We took out some small hand spots
and to our surprise the lagoon was full of hammerheads! That was at about 8PM ...
and the night before we were in there from 8 until about 9:30PM!
We bumped into another dive club out on Magdalena Island, the next day, and told him
what we had seen the night before. He said, "Yeah, a lot of idiots swim in those
lagoons at night and I don't know why any of them aren't eaten! The hammerheads
come up at sunset and chase their prey into those lagoons, corner and eat them! I've
seen those lagoons so full of hammerheads that you couldn't fit one more in!"
We quietly thanked them for the info assuring him that we weren't THAT stupid and
returned to our dive. Didn't say much about it for the rest of the trip.
If you are ever there (road's paved all the way down to Gonzaga Bay now
- east coast of Baja) about 5 miles south of Puertecitos,
you can boat on out about 2 miles from the coast and snorkel around -
anywhere around
the Seven Sisters (islands) during the day and see (literally) thousands and thousands
of hammerheads aimlessly cruising down at the 200' level (water's, generally, crystal
clear) ... until, they come up after sunset and cruise towards shore to feed.
Somewhere, I heard, there are permanent signs posted there now by the Mexican Gov't.
I don't know what it took for them to do that ... but I've got a bad feeling that a few
tourists didn't come back across the border on their three day tourist visas
sometime after we were first there in 1975.
Just had that album out showing the grandkids tonight!
2?
Back when Baja was still a remote place - part of a lagoon.
I'm the guy in the middle - a bit younger and much dumber
It was Baja on a shoestring back in those days!
Then silence and a thump. We thought nothing of it and went back to
fishing. Then the rusling, silence and a thump. Ok now it has our
attention. We look around and see nothing, go back to fishing,
then the rusling, silence and a thump. I'm ready now, I spin around
and turn on my flashlight, there it was, the biggest raccoon I've
seen in years with a fish in his mouth. He was coming from the marsh
walking to the ice chest, opening it, taking out a fish and letting
the top drop. All we could do was laugh until we looked in the chest.
He took all of the biggest speckled trout.
Every so often, we would hear a loud "KER-PLUNK" splash right by the boat, but we couldn't see anything. I guess we heard a dozen or so of these splashes, and were starting to get freaked out, when we figured it out.
It was beavers. The beaver would surface near the boat, see the boat, panic, and slap its tail on the water and dive. It was a little worrisome until we figured it out.
I HAD three nice 2-3 pound lake trout on the stringer one nite.
However Momma bear convinced me that her 2 cubs needed the fish more than I.[:D]
Was cool to watch them eat 100 feet away.
[:D]
Most have hunted or fished in BFE places, yet these(self included) are willing to block out the "macho-gene" imbedded in each of us, and post their story of how some little critter, or things that go bump in the night can scare, or startle the pee out of 'em![:D][:D][:D]
One night I woke to bone chilling screams and then water splashing, ended up my buddy decided to sleep in his lawn chair on the bank and woke to find a very large water snake curled up in his lap and headed towards his neck. [:D][:D]
Another time I was sitting on the bank watching my poles sipping a few cold ones when a car stop along the rode about 150 yards up over the bank. The rode has very few homes along it and rarely has traffic especially at 3 in the morning. Any way a big fight starts and it sounds like a woman is being raped or beaten or something. I take off up there, had no gun with me, so I grabbed a branch. Ended up being four girls, lost, drunk, and fighting because one splattered piss on the other ones shoes. [8] I was pretty scared, had no idea what I was heading into. Ended up giving them directions and getting a free 6-pack. [:D]
The scare was having to preform all of those "honey do's" for the next 2 weeks[:D]