whats your worst fly fishing blooper?

[ihang10 0]

 

 

 

 

I

'll spare you the tale but give you the quick lesson learned. Never -- no, NEVER -- cast a bluegill popper at a Water Moccasin!

 

Rocco

Another lesson about snakes, learned from a friend (I did NOT do this, but he did). Never try to shoot a snake in your boat with a pistol. You'll put holes in the boat (he emptied a 9 round clip) and probably miss the snake (It calmly crawled out and swam away).

I HATE snakes! More than once I've sat down on a log in the stream to change flies, and found myself sitting next to a snake getting a tan. I now know J. C. isn't the only one who can walk on water.

Yep. Pond nearby is littered with copperheads. Ugh, no thanks. I love snakes, but not those.

[SilverCreek 0]

Worst mistake was fishing at night during a hatch and missing a lot of strikes. Finally, I checked the fly and found out that I had broken the hook off by hitting the bridge behind me on a back cast. As soon as I changed flies, I began catching trout. Now I check my fly if I start missing fish.

[Swamp Fly 0]

A group from the local fly club that I was an active member of when I still lived on the east coast of Florida drove down to the Keys for a long weekend of camping, reveling, eating "bad" for you food, and last but not least fishing. On the second or third morning my buddy and I are waiting at the dock for another couple of members to walk down to the boat tied up ahead of us so we can make a game plan. I should mention it is a really bad idea to let my buddy get bored from waiting on you because you are dawdling. I mean really bad, the results are often the stuff legends come from. Now the owner of the other boat like many other fishermen believed in the superstition of bananas being bad luck on a boat. So my buddy who is known for his joking around decided to debunk this once and for all and scrambled over to the other boat, opened the forward hatch, and hid a banana all the way up in the tip of the bow. Jimmy Hoffa's ashes could have been up there for all I know, that banana was not going to be found. He returned to my boat just in time and greeted the late arrivals, fresh coffee and danish in hand (hence the delay), with one of his infamous impish grins. After carefully checking the obvious spots for spiders, electrified metal, whoopie cushions, or what not, the other two guys shrugged it off since one of his signature jokes was to just let you think he is messing with you. We had our meeting and headed out in opposite directions. After a fruitless morning we decided to hit the outside of one of the Atlantic side flats. I'm upfront being poled around and since I'm focused on spotting fish I didn't see a couple of 2-3 foot waves heading right at us from a different angle. My buddy gave me a warning right about at first contact, big help that was. After the first wave almost sent me airborne I decided that the casting deck was not the place to be and headed aft in a hurry. I was about to step off of the deck as the second wave launched me a foot or so in the air. As I was hurtling (okay I exaggerate but that's what it felt like) back towards terra-in-firma I realized I was descending onto my buddies rods. Now I had two choices, the first being to without a doubt to take out all of the rods below my right foot, the second was to do my best imitations of one of Michal Jordan's gravity defining feats of linear levitation and just go overboard in an effort to save the rods. I felt the first rod under my foot and I just kept tucking up my legs hoping that my forward momentum would carry me over the gunnel before I ran out of leg and took out the rods anyway. Well I come up sputtering since my feet hooked the gunnel and I basically face planted into the water. I climbed back in the boat cursing. Meanwhile my buddy is deciding between laughing, being concerned, or just looking incredulous. After explaining the situation he opted for an extended fit of laughter. I must admit I joined him, it was after all funny as hell and the whole nine yards must have been a sight to behold. The bad news was that I was soaked and I did actually take out the rod I had felt under my foot. The good news was that I did not take them all out and my buddy was so amused by the situation that he thought having to send in the rod on a warranty claim was a small price to pay for the entertainment. We decided to call it a day at that point. As we pulled into the campground marina the other boat was already back, docked stern in, and the owner was polishing the already spotless metal work. Now I had forgotten all about the banana so I was a little confused when I was asked to to pull alongside the other boat rather than go to the ramp so we could pull the boat out. My buddy jumped out onto the other boat and opened the front hatch before I realized what was going on. My first thought was that I was in the splash zone and should just back the boat out into open water consequently cutting off any route of escape for him since the owner was between him and dry land. The fact of the matter was I was still feeling really guilty about the broken rod so I stayed put. Well by the look on the face of the boat owner showed he was obviously questioning the order of the universe. My buddy fished around in the bow for 10-15 seconds before he finally snagged the banana. He closed the hatch spun around, parked his rump on the casting deck, peeled the banana, and then took an oversized bite. The boat owner was in a sate of shock. Realizing that if he was going to get the most out of the situation he was going to have to poke the boat owner just a touch more, so he put on one of his best shite eating grins and asked if they had caught anything that day all the while still munching on that big chunk of banana. At this point in time the owners facial expression went from shock to anger and then to one of the most murderous visages I had ever seen. That was my signal to get the heck out of dodge. I engaged reverse gear and hit the throttle thinking that my guilt was not worth getting killed over or the hours getting the blood spatter of my boat (remember I was in the slash zone). Sensing his imminent demise or at the very least a flying lesson followed by an uncontrolled water landing, my buddy jumped up barely evading the inhuman claws of the boat owner and launched himself into my boat which was now several feet away and departing rapidly. Luckily we were and still are all good friends so we laughed about it all night long over steaks, beer, and martinis.

 

Names withheld to protect the innocent and to keep myself from getting strung up....

[cjsnyder1234 0]

Great thread lots or lol stories.

 

Here is mine. I was cleaning up a fishing spot I use to fish quite often. The last bit of mono I was picking up was long and I was standing talking to a buddy I was with and the mono got tight. So I have it a tug and felt something hit my hand. Felt like a splitshot but to my surprise is that the shank of a #2 baitholder hook that lodged it self right deep into my right ring finger. Not a fun trip to the ER let me tell you.

 

This has not stopped me from cleaning up after lazy fishermen but much more careful.

[Knuckledragger 0]

I've shortened 3 flyrods due to rolling them up in my truck windows.

[foambug 0]

My worst ..... So many to choose from .... One time fishin at quail lake in colorado , while casting I caught my hat ... My lucky hat ( I wore it during the war) , I had my fishing lic. On it - as I came forward from my back cast ,it caught , an out to the water it went !! so for the next 2 hours - I tied on my biggest ugliest popper fly that only catches fishermen an chased after it - 2 hours later my best catch !!! My hat !!! An a warden to certify with a big grin !!! ---- see ....... Lucky hat!!!!!

[TheCream 0]

I was carping in my kayak two summers back. I had hooked and landed 3 that day, including my personal best. I spotted one more fish feeding as I paddled back towards my truck and figured what the heck. Casted, ate, set, and the fish was off to the races. I'd never had a carp peel towards the backing that fast, ever. I was enjoying it, watching the fly line strip off, when I saw the slide-on loop connector I had used to connect backing to fly line fail. For a split second I was watching my fly line swim away. I immediately dropped the rod in my lap and started paddling. I never did find my line! It was a small lake, too, and I paddled the entire thing that day looking. I asked a few guys in boats to watch for it, and it never did turn up. That was the one and only time I needed to be shown that slide on connectors can, and do, fail. Never used one since.

[WVUontheFLY 0]

A buddy and myself were out fishing in mid January in WV. We were hitting a pretty tough stream that gets a good bit of pressure and the rocks there are quite slimy. My buddy had taken a couple of tumbles and had taken on some water. I was joking with him about it the majority of the day and we came to the last hole before our vehicles. I had perched myself up on a nice slippery rock in the middle of the stream about 40' upstream of a little island. Well on said island there are 3 trees. On the last cast I was going to make, I did one too many false casts and wrapped the leader around one of the trees. When I went for the forward cast my rod stopped moving and dislodged my feet from the rock. I hit the water completely horizontal, broke the leader off, lost a flybox, and karma got the best of me that day.

[Hatchet Jack 0]

I fish quite a bit out of my canoe which has an outrigger & trolling motor.

Sometimes I'll slow troll a full sink line to take a break from casting.

One morning I had a hit that whipped my rod tip down and into the water,

I thought for sure I had a Moby Dick on the fly.

 

Did a hard strip-set and nothing moved, so I though oh buggers another snag.

Turns out the fly line had gotten spun up on the prop, tighter than a wad of

cotton candy. No Moby Dick that morning, just a creased line and a sheepish grin

 

[mikechell 0]

Not so much a blooper ... but since you wrote of hits.

I was 13, fishing out of a row boat at my Grandma's cabin on Rice Lake in Canada. I had one rod cast out with a bobber and bait. While it soaked, I was casting a small minnow imitation on a fly rod. After swimming the minnow over a weed bed a few times, I put it down to check on the drowning worm. I'd left the fly rod propped against the side of the boat, with the leader and fly in the water. As soon as I picked up the bait rod, the fly rod bent over and nearly leapt out of the boat. I launch myself at it, and grabbed it just in time. After a fun couple of minutes, I boated a 3 pound bass.

Then I spent the next 15 minutes using a 3rd rod and a crank bait, finding and pulling my bait rod out of the water.

[ihang10 0]

A group from the local fly club that I was an active member of when I still lived on the east coast of Florida drove down to the Keys for a long weekend of camping, reveling, eating "bad" for you food, and last but not least fishing. On the second or third morning my buddy and I are waiting at the dock for another couple of members to walk down to the boat tied up ahead of us so we can make a game plan. I should mention it is a really bad idea to let my buddy get bored from waiting on you because you are dawdling. I mean really bad, the results are often the stuff legends come from. Now the owner of the other boat like many other fishermen believed in the superstition of bananas being bad luck on a boat. So my buddy who is known for his joking around decided to debunk this once and for all and scrambled over to the other boat, opened the forward hatch, and hid a banana all the way up in the tip of the bow. Jimmy Hoffa's ashes could have been up there for all I know, that banana was not going to be found. He returned to my boat just in time and greeted the late arrivals, fresh coffee and danish in hand (hence the delay), with one of his infamous impish grins. After carefully checking the obvious spots for spiders, electrified metal, whoopie cushions, or what not, the other two guys shrugged it off since one of his signature jokes was to just let you think he is messing with you. We had our meeting and headed out in opposite directions. After a fruitless morning we decided to hit the outside of one of the Atlantic side flats. I'm upfront being poled around and since I'm focused on spotting fish I didn't see a couple of 2-3 foot waves heading right at us from a different angle. My buddy gave me a warning right about at first contact, big help that was. After the first wave almost sent me airborne I decided that the casting deck was not the place to be and headed aft in a hurry. I was about to step off of the deck as the second wave launched me a foot or so in the air. As I was hurtling (okay I exaggerate but that's what it felt like) back towards terra-in-firma I realized I was descending onto my buddies rods. Now I had two choices, the first being to without a doubt to take out all of the rods below my right foot, the second was to do my best imitations of one of Michal Jordan's gravity defining feats of linear levitation and just go overboard in an effort to save the rods. I felt the first rod under my foot and I just kept tucking up my legs hoping that my forward momentum would carry me over the gunnel before I ran out of leg and took out the rods anyway. Well I come up sputtering since my feet hooked the gunnel and I basically face planted into the water. I climbed back in the boat cursing. Meanwhile my buddy is deciding between laughing, being concerned, or just looking incredulous. After explaining the situation he opted for an extended fit of laughter. I must admit I joined him, it was after all funny as hell and the whole nine yards must have been a sight to behold. The bad news was that I was soaked and I did actually take out the rod I had felt under my foot. The good news was that I did not take them all out and my buddy was so amused by the situation that he thought having to send in the rod on a warranty claim was a small price to pay for the entertainment. We decided to call it a day at that point. As we pulled into the campground marina the other boat was already back, docked stern in, and the owner was polishing the already spotless metal work. Now I had forgotten all about the banana so I was a little confused when I was asked to to pull alongside the other boat rather than go to the ramp so we could pull the boat out. My buddy jumped out onto the other boat and opened the front hatch before I realized what was going on. My first thought was that I was in the splash zone and should just back the boat out into open water consequently cutting off any route of escape for him since the owner was between him and dry land. The fact of the matter was I was still feeling really guilty about the broken rod so I stayed put. Well by the look on the face of the boat owner showed he was obviously questioning the order of the universe. My buddy fished around in the bow for 10-15 seconds before he finally snagged the banana. He closed the hatch spun around, parked his rump on the casting deck, peeled the banana, and then took an oversized bite. The boat owner was in a sate of shock. Realizing that if he was going to get the most out of the situation he was going to have to poke the boat owner just a touch more, so he put on one of his best shite eating grins and asked if they had caught anything that day all the while still munching on that big chunk of banana. At this point in time the owners facial expression went from shock to anger and then to one of the most murderous visages I had ever seen. That was my signal to get the heck out of dodge. I engaged reverse gear and hit the throttle thinking that my guilt was not worth getting killed over or the hours getting the blood spatter of my boat (remember I was in the slash zone). Sensing his imminent demise or at the very least a flying lesson followed by an uncontrolled water landing, my buddy jumped up barely evading the inhuman claws of the boat owner and launched himself into my boat which was now several feet away and departing rapidly. Luckily we were and still are all good friends so we laughed about it all night long over steaks, beer, and martinis.

 

Names withheld to protect the innocent and to keep myself from getting strung up....

Blood spatter vs the commonly misused "splatter". Impressive indeed. Good story too.

[mikechell 0]

Splatter can be used as a noun, too. Either is appropriate.

[ihang10 0]

Splatter can be used as a noun, too. Either is appropriate.

Forensic folks seem to thrive and keep score on their spatter corrections as though it's tied to a performance bonus.

 

I don't care either way but I've become sensitized to it.

[mikechell 0]

Huh ... I had to go looking for distinctions, Hang. I don't care much either ... but since I am against the "dumbing down" of America, I'm similar to your forensic folk, I'm sensitive.

 

Although they CAN be used for the same definition of fluid spray, the general distinction is size.

Spatter optimally means fine to small droplets.

Splatter optimally refers to dispersal patterns with larger spots in the mix.

 

One can always learn something if one tries.

 

Which brings me to another blooper of sorts. I mostly fish for members of the sunfish family. Too numerous to count are the times I've been snatching the line up to start casting again when a small fish hits.

Best case scenario, the poor little fish sails through the air to land in the water right in front of me. I get spattered with the water spray and the fish lives.

Worst case ... the hapless critter clears the water completely and gets splattered on the side of the boat.

[Saltybum 0]

While you are on technicalities... I see a lot of "casted" which is incorrect, it's "cast, caster and casting" NO casted.