# Freaky,Strange,Scary Fishing Occurences



## SolarScreenGuy (Aug 15, 2005)

We've all had them. What are some of yours? First one that comes to my mind was the time we were giggin' at POC. Near Decros Point, back toward the bay side. Perfect night. Darker than a grave. Clear water, strong incoming. I ease off the first sandbar with my trusty coleman and thru the first gut toward the bank when I first saw it. It looked like a big log. Motionless, until the light from the lantern spooked him. Then all hell broke loose! It was a Sawfish! Maybe 6 footer. Came right at me and turned at the last second. Man, that saw was a wicked looking creature! Almost had a " pants go brown moment". That was somewhere in the mid 60's. First and last time I ever looked at a Sawfish. Hope I never forget it! Still pluggin'-Old Salty


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## Trouthappy (Jun 12, 2008)

Sawfish were wiped out in Texas during the late 1960s. They didn't get along with gillnets and shrimpboat nets and when they got tangled up, fishermen cut the saw off for a souveneir. Sounds like you spooked a small one; they grow to 18 feet. 

The flounder gigging back then must have been pretty impressive, and so was Pass Cavallo in those days.


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## madbeagle (Nov 20, 2009)

my uncle and I saw a sawfish out of his 23 foot mako during the spring of 1992 (he has the non-digital pics)..fish was at least 15 feet and just cruising in west bay in about 6 feet of water


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## madbeagle (Nov 20, 2009)

In the late 80's I lived in Acapulco, Mexico.. I had a 25 foot ski supreme (closed bow) converted to fishing duties with 12 foot outriggers and a center rigger.. I fished every weekend with my friends and probably caught more sailfish than any 18 year old in the world. During the late fall, HUGE schools of yellowfin tuna, dog-tooth tuna, and skipjack tuna move in close to shore. It was during one of those days that my story takes place. 
It was about 10 am and we had been catching a few skipjack tuna . These are very bloody and not very good to eat. I could see the yellowfin intermixed with the skipjack and I had the great idea of getting on the bow of the boat with a spinner rod and cast to individual fish as the swam by. The water of the south pacific was rough that day 4-5 footers and choppy. As far as the eye could see there were fish at the surface ranging from 8-60 lbs and a greenish-red substance a full 1/2 inch thick covered the outer-most layer of the ocean. This substance was blood. My father was on the boat and he said he could see big fish over the port side. As I looked into the water I saw 4 different sharks swimming by. One of them was the biggest hammerhead I have ever seen and the others I am not sure what kind of shark they were, but I suspect Mako's for their speed and choppy like tail movements that have always given them away. Right about that time, with my father distracted at the helm and me standing on the wet fiberglass of the bow a 5 foot wave struck the boat. Off I went head first into the blood filled, shark infested waters. I immediately let go of the rod and tried to pull myself up on to the bow. Try as I might I could not get but 2/3 of my body out of the water. Legs dangling and splashing in the water for what seemed like an eternity. Reason finally kicked in after the initial adrenalin rush. I had only one choice. I had to let go and fall back into the water. I dog paddled THE LONGEST 25 feet of my life to the rear ski platform. I was pretty cool and collected up until I was able to touch the platform at which time everyone on board swears I pulled myself in so fast, I simply "appeared" into the boat . I am sure many of you may not find this that scary. But let me tell you, surrounded by sharks that are known "man eaters" in a frenzy.... I think myself fortunate and I always think of that balmy fall Acapulco morning and thank the lord I can share the story with all my extremities


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## SolarScreenGuy (Aug 15, 2005)

Oh yeah! Nothing like a good shark story. My wife's cousin from Mobile was training for some sort of competition, I think they call it "Iron Man" where they run, swim and bicycle. He was swimming at Gulf Shores, AL one morning and found himself in the middle of a big school of baitfish. Shortly, He was hit by a Bullshark. He told me it was about a 7 footer. He was attacked multiple times during this event by the same shark that was determined to kill him. Finally ended up on a shallow sand bar with the shark working his way up his arm and finally it took his right arm off above the elbow. He told me he survived this fight only because of his determination to not leave his children. Man, I can't talk about this one anymore.


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## capt mullet (Nov 15, 2008)

7 or 8 years ago and my last night wading trip was because of a shark. I was on teh east shoreline of trinity fishing over shell and felt something bump me hard. Didnt think much of it because I really thought it was a redfish since I have been hit by reds before at night. Then I get bumped again and this time it knocked me off of my feet. So I walk up on the shell which is above water and I see the fin stocking out of teh water. Couldnt tell how big I just knew it was big. I was so petrified it took me and my buddy an hour before I had the cajones to wade over to the boat. We basically argued that hour on who was going to go to the boat. I lost teh argument since it was my boat. That was the last time I waded at night


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## goldie (Nov 17, 2008)

Last summer I was wade fishing the surf at San Luis pass and I was on the 2nd sand bar picking up sand trout on every other cast. So caught up in the action I too was bumped really hard almost knocked me off my feet, no sweat until I saw it come again right next my hip where I had 3 sand trout hanging that had made their way all the way up the stringer next to me. All I saw was a portion of his head and part of his body , it was about 5 or 6 ft long , I dont know what kind of shark it was but I no longer keep any fish haning on my hip when I wade fish


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## LongTallTexan (May 19, 2009)

A couple of months ago I was fishing the Freeport shoreline of the Brazos River, near the locks. A friend of mine was fishing the bow, I was at the stern. I kept seeing a 6 ft gator gar roll over with a large prop wound to its head. Its upper jar was mangled, making it looked even more menacing than a usual gator gar. This thing was freaky looking. Every time it came up, I tried to point it out to my friend. He would "yeah, yeah, yeah", and keep fishing. I happened to turn around right in time to see the the head of this thing come about 2 feet out of the water, at the bow of the boat. He saw it this time, and I saw his skin color change as he fell out of the bow chair screaming like a little girl. I was sympathetic, as this thing was UGLY! But, it was still one of the funniest things I have seen in a long, long time.


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## SolarScreenGuy (Aug 15, 2005)

*Another giggin' tale*

POC area again near Pass Cavallo. I think sort of near "The Cedars". There were many sandbars and guts running parallel to the shoreline. As we would move thru the guts to another sand bar, we would constantly be blind giggin' in front of us in case of a ray. I stuck something but out of force of habit pulled the gig right back up. Then felt a good thump on my foot and immediate serious pain in my big toe. I thought for sure it must be a stingray. I'm scared ******** cause I've heard how bad a stringray hit is. As I am telling my Dad I've been hit, I see a big flounder layin' up on top of the next sandbar. So I hobble up and stick him. When I put him on the stringer I see he has 2 gig holes. We used single prong gigs. So when we get back to the boat and I pull off my tennis shoe, I see I have 2 punctures on top of my big toe, and bleeding. My dad says "mystery solved". I had blind gigged that same same flounder and when I accidentally let him go he ran into my foot and instinctively bit me! The holes in my big toe matched the teeth in that flounders mouth. Thank God it was not a stingray! Still pluggin'-Old Salty


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## Red3Fish (Jun 4, 2004)

*Couple of tales...*

POC...."middle ground" (Shallow sandbars in Pass Cavallo..not there anymore) around early '60s..At low tide, a lot of the shallow islets and sandbars at the middle grounds were out of the water. We were wading along in shin deep crystal clear water snagging quite a few trout out in the deeper water on spoons....would lose about one out of four to sharks.

Big "fish" running giant schools of 10" mullet all over the place. All of a sudden about 1/2 an acre of mullet storm out of the water, right next to me, and about a 12' shark, and a couple dozen of the mullet leap, jump up on the sandbar/isle. The sharks' momentum carried him about 20' onto the sandbar, and there he lay, flopping around with a couple of dozen mullet around him. I backed up on the bar, and just watched....he seemed to know which direction the water was, and after about 3 or 4 min. flopped back in and swam off!

'Nother one...early 60's, San Louis Pass....Pop and I and Bob were in cousin Bobs' 13' whaler, anchored off to the side of the pass tossing mirrorlures into a hole that was an instant strike from a trout after you let it sink about 10 seconds.

All of a sudden, the boat spun around about 45 degrees and started moving offshore! We kinda looked at each other with wide eyes, and Pop said "WTH?" We were moving through the water about 5 knots, boat was pulling a wake....it took about 20 seconds for us to come to grips with the situation. SOMETHING had our anchor line and was towing us. I was in the bow, and Bob said " cut the anchor line!" I whipped out my knife and sliced through it. And there we sat, bobbing in the water laughing.

We never did see anything, but evidently, a Manta ray had swam under the boat and snagged the anchor on one of his wings and was towing us. We had to go to the back of the pass and beach the boat, and wade the flats the rest of the morning....no anchor....sure hated to have to leave the trout in that wash out!!

Sawfish....Cousin Bob on another trip behind the pass (San Louis)..hung a good fish back in the shallows...after about a 20 min fight got him up close...was about a 3 1/2' Sawfish.....this was sometimes in the early 60's. When he got close, got to splashing around and mirrorlure pulled out, so didn't have to deal with trying to land him/her! LOL

Later
R3F


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## SolarScreenGuy (Aug 15, 2005)

*Red3Fish*

Man, that big shark up on that sandbar must have been a site to see! It can be truly amazing what happens on this coast.


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## ol' salt (Jun 11, 2006)

I recently inspected a house in Pasadena for a nice young man who told me one of the best I have heard lately. He was wading the surf and felt something large displace water next to his legs. He kept fishinn, and, in a little while, it happened again. This time he went on in to put his fish in the cooler in the back of his truck. When he finished icing the fish, he turned around, and there stood a large alligator on the beach right behind him.

Told me he doesn't wade anymore.


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## Blk Jck 224 (Oct 16, 2009)

When I bought my boat, my wife agreed to let me take it out by myself. She did make me promise that if I was alone, I would stay in the boat. I was drifting the deeper end of a shoreline fed reef in Trinity by myself one Summer mid-morning during the week. Every time I crossed the end I would stick one or two trout. (better fish if I could get it to the bottom) It was difficult due to strong SE wind, with strong incoming tide. I decided to officially break my vow, as I HAD to walk out on the end of that shell bar & get on those fish. I came around once more , a little closer on the reef this time, & dropped my hook in the mud just south of the reef & was letting out rope until I drifted past & just north of the reef (3' of water). I decided it would be a good time to take a quick break, have a sandwich, & drink a beer before I broke my promise. Of course my Wade Aid was hanging in the garage so my Angel would see it as she left for work. I dug out my throw down belt & stringer and was ready to jump out. I suddenly noticed a shadow in the water about 5-6 feet behind my boat. There was a quick swirl & it came a little closer. ALL BS ASIDE...5-6' Bull Shark (guestimating 150-175 lbs). I've had a few stringers taken away from me, & had to rod whip (& break) an expensive rod on smaller sharks...This was different. I sat there & watched it for about 3-4 minutes (humbling episode) before it got bored & left. I pulled up & continued my drifting pattern. Ya'll can't blackmail me because I've confessed my potential transgression. To this day (6 years later) I have kept my promise.


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## Red3Fish (Jun 4, 2004)

*POC....Sasquatch....*

My fishing buddy has an airboat, that we usually use at POC. I am retired, and he owns his own business, so we only have fished during the week days for the last 15 or so years. One of his favaorite wades used to be from the old pier on Matagorda Isle to the Air Base...prolly 1 1/2 mile. (I say "used to be" his favorite....have caught little on this routine for last 3 yrs....I attribute it to all the shallow running boats up on the flats).

We would "park" around the old pier, and he would take off down the shore to the west, and I would fish Lighthouse Cove. I would give him enough time to do his wade then get in the airboat and go pick him up.

About 5 yrs ago, as I swung around behind him, I saw what looked like a big log in the water, where none had been before? As I "putted" by it, about 10' away and in 15" of water, all of a sudden the water exploded, and a 10' gator jumped about 1/2 out of the water!

Rob had been facing away, making a last cast, and due to the airboat noise didn't hear or see anything. As I killed the engine, and drifted up behind him, I said "Did you see that big gator 40' behind you?" He said 
"BS!!" LOL I said "common". We walked the boat over to him, and got right up next to him/her, which was all the way under the water now, just lying there. I took the anchor...(kinda like messing with Sasquatch!) and tossed it onto the gators back and all heck broke loose! He had a couple of RF on his stringer, and I think that gator had aspirations on those RF. We had a throw away camera, and took some pics and left it alone.

Funny thing, that gator stayed in that same area, for a couple of years, about 300 yds to the east of the air base channel, up in the shallow, knee deep water. We would go "visit" him for a couple of years. Nearly ALWAYS right there. We heard it bellowing early one morning, so must have been a male.

Rob would have had a story to tell, if that gator had snuck up another 40' and latched onto a couple of RF!! LOL

Later
R3F


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## capt. david (Dec 29, 2004)

did not happen to me but one of my customers. a couple of years ago a big storm hit galveston bay in the middle of the afternoon. i saw the storm coming on radar at home and told him he best get to port. well he got caught in it and was by himself. he is not a rookie on the water but this storm was bad, real bad. water was coming over the bow and stern of his boat. he had his life jacket on ect... trying to make his way to eagle point. well to make a long story short he ended up seeing one lone light from a shoreline which he went too and it lead him into topwater. robert meet him outside, helped him tie up the boat and inside they went. he was very lucky to make it back to a safe harbor. robert asked him how did you make it in and he told him because of the light ontop of your building. robert looked at him puzzled and said we haven't had power for over and hour and still don't. can you say his prayers were answered! nobody in the san leon area had power. true story!


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## Long Rodder (Oct 4, 2006)

Some time during the summer of 1983 I found myself out at the end of the Texas City Dike. A place I often frequented. Like weekly (as I then lived in Texas City). And as anyone that loves tossing long rods with 4-6 oz. weights knows, that place is snag city, especially near the end fishing towards the TC channel.

Well, dang it, another snag. After having already lost a couple rigs I decided I would not go gently into that good night. Besides, I had 60lb. line on the reel so I cranked the drag down as low as it would go. I held the surf rod over my shoulder parallel to the ground and started 'the walk of shame' across the road. Did so several times; each time gaining a little but still couldn't free it. I walked back to the granite boulders and sat down and did some thinking (my first mistake). Decided it was time to go diving. Who knows what I might find. 
I laid the rod down and wedged it just enough that I could loop one of my fingers over it so as to follow it down into the water, you know, to see where it might lead me. I had my surf baggies on, a pair of tennis shoes, grabbed a filet knife and off into the calm green water I jumped.

Forget it. The line led a little further out then I has suspected, thinking "Dang, it sure gets deep here quick!"

Had another thought; this one sheer genius. I climbed out of the water and grabbed my gaff. I used it to allow me to trace the line down. "Hey, this works!" as I finally found the nest.

In the muted light I see quite a ball of 'cool stuff.' I swam up to the surface to get my breathe and then down again. As soon as I got to the bottom I took the filet knife and started hacking and cutting all the line I could get. I made it back to the surface just nanno-seconds from goin' blue.

After a couple more deep breathes I headed back down. Cutting into tight fishing line was tougher than I had anticipated, especially with your butt floating above your head&#8230;. I had a handful of the stuff and felt that if I could grab it, I could get my feet onto the ground and then just 'pull up.' "Yeah, that ought to work!"

So I did so and, sure enough, I started to get some of the line to break. I took one last hold of the ball of 'STUFF" and started to swim up with it when all of a sudden I had this incredible pain in my right thumb. It was an eye-opener! A large hook had embedded itself just below the thumb nail! Heck, I was still a few feet from the surface&#8230; Amazing how life kinda takes on a whole new perspective at times like these.

With the remaining moments in my life I managed to cut the line from that hook (and one or two other lines caught up in it) and swam to the surface. Wasn't really a swim I did to the surface. I more or less just 'surfaced.'

In shock I'm looking at the idiots standing on the rocks. No one seemed to notice anything. I lifted my right hand as I swam nearer to where I could feel bottom; it had a very deep gouge it the thumb and was bleeding heavily. For some reason it rather ****** me off&#8230;

I squeezed on to the thumb and then squeezed the gaff and went about 10 feet out or so and hooked into some of the lines with the gaff, twisted it around a few times and managed to get close enough to the rocks to touch. I balled up what I could of the line and backed my truck to the rocks and tied the line(s) onto the trailer hitch. I took an old piece of wood and laid it under the lines atop the boulders so the line wouldn't fray and then dropped the truck into gear and hit it, freeing the ball of stuff.

Long story shorter; I had enough spider and sand weights to last me ten+ years. I recall getting over 45 of them, plus dozens of other assorted cra_. Add to that the tetanus shot and a weeks worth of antibiotics, heck, within 8 days I was good to go&#8230;

Never told the wife the whole story; and she's never heard of 'Long Rodder.'


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## davidluster (Sep 16, 2008)

Four years ago I was with my inlaws in Gulf Shores, AL. We were on a pontoon boat cruising the surf. I got on the back of the boat to chunk a spoon at some schooling lady fish. I turned around to tell my FIL to kill the engine and when I looked back there was a turtle the size of a VW Bug looking at me less than ten feet away. It scared the **** out of me. Every one on the boat was able to see it and take a few pics. We ended up seeing 4 more that day. It was unreal how big they were.


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## Bonito (Nov 17, 2008)

I've had some encounters with sharks as I sure most of us have. The scariest moment I had on the water, I was Bass fishing at night in Toledo Bend. I had taken a couple of nice bass. The only thing you could hear was the frogs and the crickets. Beautiful calm night. All the sudden a monster kicked my 14 foot boat from underneath. It sounded like a hard hit on a bass drum. The boat came up and I lost my balance. Thank goodness I fell in the boat. I was so scared, I got week in the legs and went down to my knees. I thought I was going to pass out. After I finally calmed down, I got the flash light out and 20 feet away was a pair of eyes, looking at me. Not that big ! About a 5 foot gator.


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## jfoster (Jun 30, 2008)

This brings back bad memories. Running throw lines on the Trinity at Anahuac at 2:00 in the morning, had tied off on a log jam where a huge gator had been a couple of days earlier, and snakes always laid up. Approaching looking for red eyes, snakes, etc. Had tied about a foot under water to keep lines from being cut or run, so had to reach down to pick it up. Started out and felt a good tug, so kept the line low in the water. Just said we have a good one here, when something totally engulfed my arm to the armpit. I let go the line, they said I screamed like a baby, and it took forever to get a light on. I had my foot on the gunwhale, thinking "take the arm, just don't get me out of this boat". Turned out, a huge eel had wrapped up my arm like a worm. He was as big around as my arm and had a nasty set of teeth. Thank godness he was hooked good, because he didn't quit trying to bite me until we got his head beat off with an oar. I don't know how much he weighed, but he was at least 5-6 ft. long. Scarriest moment of my life, by far.


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## Red3Fish (Jun 4, 2004)

*For me....*

I think Jfoster takes the blue ribbon for chills on the spine!! That one makes me wince and holler.

Later
R3F


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## Trouthappy (Jun 12, 2008)

Back in 1976 we were sitting on a small platform in 30 feet of water off Sabine Pass, catching a few trout. Glassy calm day. We see this 36-inch, orange buoy go cutting past at about 3 knots, half-submerged. It had to be a big shark or something, towing a broken piece of longline. We jumped down in our boat, a 15-foot Thunderbird with 70-horse Johnson, and chased after it. Caught up with it real quick, grabbed the buoy and tied it to our bow cleat, then put the motor in reverse. Faster, faster until the boat was shaking, but we still kept going forward at 3 knots. 

This went on for a half hour, and at least a mile. Then I goosed the motor ahead, and my buddy pulled up 100 feet of nice one-inch yellow vinyl rope ---we thought about cutting it for an anchor rope. We still kept making three knots, nothing could change that. Whatever it was, was huge! Big tiger shark? What should we do?

Then we noticed this 200-foot research vessel some two miles away, that was towing the rope and buoy, an oil company boat. A crowd of people were on the stern, watching these two idiots fighting their buoy...Whoops! We didn't have a VHF radio in those days...We went back to trout fishing.
We had actually left our fishing rods and trout on that platform in August heat, while chasing that buoy.


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## SolarScreenGuy (Aug 15, 2005)

jfoster said:


> This brings back bad memories. Running throw lines on the Trinity at Anahuac at 2:00 in the morning, had tied off on a log jam where a huge gator had been a couple of days earlier, and snakes always laid up. Approaching looking for red eyes, snakes, etc. Had tied about a foot under water to keep lines from being cut or run, so had to reach down to pick it up. Started out and felt a good tug, so kept the line low in the water. Just said we have a good one here, when something totally engulfed my arm to the armpit. I let go the line, they said I screamed like a baby, and it took forever to get a light on. I had my foot on the gunwhale, thinking "take the arm, just don't get me out of this boat". Turned out, a huge eel had wrapped up my arm like a worm. He was as big around as my arm and had a nasty set of teeth. Thank godness he was hooked good, because he didn't quit trying to bite me until we got his head beat off with an oar. I don't know how much he weighed, but he was at least 5-6 ft. long. Scarriest moment of my life, by far.


Wow! That's the stuff movies and nightmares are made of.


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## monkeyman1 (Dec 30, 2007)

good stories, all !!!


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## dkhunter02 (Sep 4, 2009)

In 1999 my cousin and I were wading trinity bay right outside anahuac park. It was my second time to wade fish and the only stringer I had was a old metal catfish stringer. I had 2 trout and 2 reds on the stringer when all the sudden something started draging me through the water. It seemed like a forever but was prolly on a couple of seconds. I finally got the metal stringer unhooked from my beltloop and my cousin and I "walked on water" till we got to shore. 3-4 mins later a 8-9ft gator surfaced chewing on my fish. He only ate 2 fish. After he swam off I retrieved my stringer and still had 1 full trout, 1 full red, and 2 heads. Needless to say the trip was over.


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## DEG (May 29, 2006)

Several years ago I was offshore fishing the rigs out of Matagorda. While moving from one set of rigs to another we noticed something in the distance floating. We figured since it was only a half mile out of the way to go check it out. We saw it was orange but couldn't tell what it was. The closer we got to it the more we realized it was a life preserver and something was in it. I shut the boat down to idle and we discussed whether to just call the CG or inspect further. We yelled from about 100 yds. and got no response. Finally we decided to get a closer look. Turned out to be small trash bag inflated inside the neck area of the life preserver. I was sure glad it was.


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## shifty2002 (Jul 20, 2006)

Another POC moment. Guessing somewhere around 16 years old driving a 14' aluminum boat with a jet motor into Contee Lake, made it through the shallow cut into the lake where the water deepens to 2- 3' in the lake, when all of a sudden the water in front of the boat and beside the boat EXPLODES!! two feet away, scaring the ***** out me and my buddy. 

An adult porpoise had worked his way into the back lake on an extreemly high tide and had got caught in there when the tide went out. Lets just say when a 6-7' porpoise that is half as big as your boat wants to "get away" in 2-3' of water it looks like a bomb hit the water. Still can see it like yesterday. :cheers:


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## Fishin' Soldier (Dec 25, 2007)

jfoster said:


> This brings back bad memories. Running throw lines on the Trinity at Anahuac at 2:00 in the morning, had tied off on a log jam where a huge gator had been a couple of days earlier, and snakes always laid up. Approaching looking for red eyes, snakes, etc. Had tied about a foot under water to keep lines from being cut or run, so had to reach down to pick it up. Started out and felt a good tug, so kept the line low in the water. Just said we have a good one here, when something totally engulfed my arm to the armpit. I let go the line, they said I screamed like a baby, and it took forever to get a light on. I had my foot on the gunwhale, thinking "take the arm, just don't get me out of this boat". Turned out, a huge eel had wrapped up my arm like a worm. He was as big around as my arm and had a nasty set of teeth. Thank godness he was hooked good, because he didn't quit trying to bite me until we got his head beat off with an oar. I don't know how much he weighed, but he was at least 5-6 ft. long. Scarriest moment of my life, by far.


Wow....that gave me goose bumps...


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## polacko (Jun 24, 2009)

madbeagle said:


> my uncle and I saw a sawfish out of his 23 foot mako during the spring of 1992 (he has the non-digital pics)..fish was at least 15 feet and just cruising in west bay in about 6 feet of water


 I guess I can talk about it here. When I was a kid I remember my father gigging a Sawfish in Lavaca Bay. He was about 4 feet long. It was 1967. We cut his bill off and I had it on my wall for years. As time went by I lost it. I had told a few people about it and they would all say I was crazy that Sawfish are not in Texas waters. Well I stopped talking about it and pretty much forgot about it till last Oct. My wife and I had some guests for dinner and afterwards they wanted to go walking at the pier. We went down to the Pavillion pier in Palacios and about the time we got almost to the end I heard people yelling look at the shark. Just outside the lights you could see what looked like a shark. But the more I watched it I realized it was a Sawfish. He swam back towards the beach and finally turned around in about 3 foot of water. He was about 7 feet long and I could make out the bill in the shallow water. 
When I went back to work Monday I told some friends about it and sure enough the jokes started. Everyone wanted to know what I had been smoking the night I saw him. I would love to get a good picture of one in shallow water. I doubt I will see another one any time soon. It took me 41 years to see 2 of them. :rotfl:


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## PenMakerWillie (Nov 5, 2008)

Last year I took my future wife, my buddy from work and his wife to our place in Copano for a much needed fishing trip. We had been fishing all weekend with NOTHING to show for our attempts except empty ice chests. I tried everything, live bait, dead bait, lures, wading, praying, etc... I was hopeing to get something because I wanted my future wife to get "hooked" on to fishing, the feeling after they have that first "big" catch. No matter how hard I tried we couldn't get anything. It was getting later and decided to move to a reef to try something else... so naturally I grab the anchor while my buddy guides the boat to the "just" the right spot for setting the anchor. I don't know how many of y'all use the aluminum anchors, but I prefer the steal ones.. to me they hang alot easier. My buddy has an aluminum anchor. After trying and trying the anchor would never hang. I finally gave it one last attempt... this time I tried something different. I grabbed the rope and shoved it down into the water trying to get as flat as I could... when all of the sudden a wave came that I was not ready for, and I went right over the edge into the water. One minute I'm ticked off trying to get the anchor hung, the next I'm head first in about 5 feet of water. Everyone had a great laugh at my expense and I had to crawl out of the water having everyone laughing at me... pretty funny now, but was scary at the time.


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## Blk Jck 224 (Oct 16, 2009)

I'll share one more after reading the fog thread. I had three guys with me one morning out in E Galv Bay. We had patchy fog when we launched, but it was safe to run cautiously. With variable light wind we scoped out the South shoreline & found bait around the big marsh drain on the West side of Big Pasture. I eased in & dropped two off, then eased back out & ran about 150 yards East. We trolled back to the shoreline, dropped anchor, & started a wade back to the East. The tide was up, so we were tid-de deep 10-15' from the shoreline. Within 20 minutes, the heaviest fog I've ever seen rolled in. My partner said it was sea fog. Couldn't argue as I didn't know there was diffference between bay & sea fog, but I had water dripping off my cap visor. It was gradually getting worse, & I could hear boats running in the distance. I had a strange feeling that I had to get myself & my guys out of there. I hydro-plane waded back, un-hooked the boat, & picked up my partner. We went as fast as we could west & found our other two guys. At this point, you couldn't hardly see from stern to bow. As we headed North, away from the shoreline, two boats came behind us on a plane, in 2-3 foot of water, following the shoreline. There would have been injuries had we left 1-2 minutes later than we did. Call it what you want, but I personally feel now that someone or something shot me a wakeup call that day. Ya'll be safe out there. I'll be 44 y/o if I wake up in the morning. If I'm fortunate enough to have grandkids, I want to watch them grow up & take them fishing with me. Please don't run my arse over. Thanks!


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## dragginfool (Sep 12, 2009)

*snake in the boat*

Back when I was a teenager my Grandpa and I was bass fishing in Lake Livingston when all of a sudden a 4 foot water moccasin climbed in the boat with us. Needless to say the boat had a few dents in the floor when we got back to the boat ramp!


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## reelthreat (Jul 11, 2006)

Your post made me remember about a gigging trip a couple of years ago in ESB. As we were coming in at about midnight there was a black wall in the distance... it was weird, you could see the stars but it was completely dark under them. Well, the wall was fog and when it rolled in you could barely see your hand in front of your face. I took us about an hour to go
about a mile. It was so dense we were idleing in and literally almost rear-ended a barge anchored in the ICW (I had to stop the boat with my hands and push off of it). If we did not have a GPS we never would have made it back.



Blk Jck 224 said:


> I'll share one more after reading the fog thread. I had three guys with me one morning out in E Galv Bay. We had patchy fog when we launched, but it was safe to run cautiously. With variable light wind we scoped out the South shoreline & found bait around the big marsh drain on the West side of Big Pasture. I eased in & dropped two off, then eased back out & ran about 150 yards East. We trolled back to the shoreline, dropped anchor, & started a wade back to the East. The tide was up, so we were tid-de deep 10-15' from the shoreline. Within 20 minutes, the heaviest fog I've ever seen rolled in. My partner said it was sea fog. Couldn't argue as I didn't know there was diffference between bay & sea fog, but I had water dripping off my cap visor. It was gradually getting worse, & I could hear boats running in the distance. I had a strange feeling that I had to get myself & my guys out of there. I hydro-plane waded back, un-hooked the boat, & picked up my partner. We went as fast as we could west & found our other two guys. At this point, you couldn't hardly see from stern to bow. As we headed North, away from the shoreline, two boats came behind us on a plane, in 2-3 foot of water, following the shoreline. There would have been injuries had we left 1-2 minutes later than we did. Call it what you want, but I personally feel now that someone or something shot me a wakeup call that day. Ya'll be safe out there. I'll be 44 y/o if I wake up in the morning. If I'm fortunate enough to have grandkids, I want to watch them grow up & take them fishing with me. Please don't run my arse over. Thanks!


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## htalamant (Mar 31, 2009)

A few times while flounder gigging, I have came across the "SAME" alligator. She's a big 'ole gal, something like 10+ feet and even though she never seems to care much about me or the other fishermen in the area, those times were enough for me to start carrying my wrist cracker with slug shots and double 00. -Hector


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## tickbird (Apr 11, 2008)

*POC and Pass Cavallo*

We fish between the pass and the cedars on a regular basis. Four summers ago I had a 6 to 7 foot bull shark bite into my donet trying to get to the trout I had in it. The shark got the mono of the net caught in his teeth and took off. He jerked me under and drug me several feet before getting out of the net. Needless to say, almost had a discharge in my drawers. Especially since I had gone to the donet after having a shark throw a wake over my head after trying to bite the trout I was putting on my stringer. That happened two days earlier. I still have nightmares of the big white mouth, paper plate size, coming out of the water to get the trout in my hands. I scared him just in time.


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## SolarScreenGuy (Aug 15, 2005)

*Walkin' on water*



htalamant said:


> A few times while flounder gigging, I have came across the "SAME" alligator. She's a big 'ole gal, something like 10+ feet and even though she never seems to care much about me or the other fishermen in the area, those times were enough for me to start carrying my wrist cracker with slug shots and double 00. -Hector


Witnessed a "miracle" on cedar bayou flats one morning. Me and my pal ease in for a wade toward the shallows. We anchored on the drop so we could work toward the shore hoping to find some reds. There was another wader already inside and moving toward the bayou. I noticed something in the water right near the point and moving slowly around in the area. Then I realized it was a gator and a "right good one" at that. I told my buddy "we are getting back in the boat". The other wader on the shoreline decides he is going to throw his topwater at the gator and starts moving right toward him. As I watch this scene unfold from inside my boat, I hollered at the guy "look out man, that's a big alligator!" He ignores me and keeps right on getting closer and practicing his best long casting techniques toward the beast. Mr. Gator wakes up and starts moving toward this "sportsman" at a gradually increasing rate of speed until finally this daredevil realized he was in trouble. When he turned to run it was a sight to behold. Expletives,whoops, hollers,splashing,foamy water, the whole 9 yards. It looked like he was "Walkin on water" and I thought I was going to witness either a slaughter or a miracle escape. Thank God it was the latter. Scary at the time, but right now I am LMAO! Still pluggin'-Old Salty


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## LongTallTexan (May 19, 2009)

I have had a few close calls with alligators, they have all been at Brazos Bend state park. Once, I was there in the early nineties, fishing the bank of the Old or New Horseshoe. I forget which one, it had steep banks. There was a healthy, ten footer swimming 20 yards off the shore. I slipped from the top of the bank into the mud at the waters edge. I was stuck up to my right thigh in the mud. I looked over my shoulder to see that gator disappear under the water. I freed my self from the mud and climbed to the top of the bank. My shoe was still in the bottom of the hole. I turned back to look for my shoe, and there is that gator about 2 feet from where I was stuck. I had to wait a half an hour for it leave, so I could my shoe back.


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## El Capitan de No Fish (Sep 20, 2007)

Old Salty said:


> Oh yeah! Nothing like a good shark story. My wife's cousin from Mobile was training for some sort of competition, I think they call it "Iron Man" where they run, swim and bicycle. He was swimming at Gulf Shores, AL one morning and found himself in the middle of a big school of baitfish. Shortly, He was hit by a Bullshark. He told me it was about a 7 footer. He was attacked multiple times during this event by the same shark that was determined to kill him. Finally ended up on a shallow sand bar with the shark working his way up his arm and finally it took his right arm off above the elbow. He told me he survived this fight only because of his determination to not leave his children. Man, I can't talk about this one anymore.


you win


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## bb1234 (Dec 24, 2007)

Mine was about 10yrs ago, in Palacious. If the guy that was with us is reading this that would be funny, but we were wading the east shoreline out of a boat. The water was murky & catching a few trout with live shrimp. The guy I was with had the shrimp bucket tied to him & about in waist deep water, a fin appears heading toward the shrimp bucket (a huge fin), it was very dark in color almost black, when the guy tugged on the bucket, the fin moved faster. After slapping the fin with his rod several times it submerged, and we stood motionless. Slowly we walked back and never saw it again. I know it wasn't a porpoise, so either a ray swimming sideways or a monster shark. The fin was about 18 inches tall. I don't wade in anything deeper than knee deep anymore. We guzzled tons of beer when we got on land and just sat there laughing. Donnie over at Tran couldn't believe what I had told him.


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## monster (Apr 11, 2008)

When I was about 10, my dad took me out on one of the party boats out of Galveston. We had caught a few average snapper but nothing too big. Finally, I hooked the big one. I gave everything I had to fight this fish. My dad kept his hands on my shoulders as I was close to being pulled over a few times. After 4-5 minutes, a deckhand came running up telling me to stop pulling....I was about to pull an old man on the other side of the boat overboard. Needless to say I was disappointed, but I still had some pride in the fact that I was winning a tug o war with a grown up.


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## Pat Harkins (Jun 28, 2006)

Well it's been 5 years now. I was talking with my good buddy Robert Knetig. 
"Where you gonna start in the morning" he said. "I think we'll start at the hump" I replied. "Man you're not gonna wade that are you" he said? "Aw it'll be alright, I'm gonna use a donut net to put the fish in so the sharks don't mess with em". He responded, "man you're nuts, there are some big sharks in there"!
Well Robert always does a good job entertaining his clients so guess where he started the next morning (in the boat)?
We were in a wade line 5 abreast and after 45 minutes, we had all caught good trout. I had 6 in the donut ranging from 19" to 22". I casted the Norton Sand Eel out and a slash flew by it. I hauled it in and it looked like it had been cut with scissors. Perplexed, I rebaited and casted. 
Oh, did I leave out the part about the donut was only on a 5' stringer cord? Well, you know what happened next, JAWS comes out of the water and swallows my donut, six trout and all &#8230; whole! 
Now I swear on my life that JAWS was every bit of 10' long with a girth of 3' around and a black eye that looked like a 2" PVC pipe and it was lookin at me!
With a buddy on each shoulder (good ones they are) to keep me from being drug off to sea (for what seemed like an eternity but was really only a couple of seconds) we saw pieces of the Styrofoam pop up. 
Stunned and in shock, I glanced at the end of our wade line to see another buddy scoop up his fish in his net, hold them over his head and walk, check that, run on water back to the boat!
I looked to each side to see mouths gaping open that matched mine and I said "let's get the heck outa here while he's got his mouth full"!
Well needless to say, we made record time covering the 200 yards back to the boat (no power pole remotes back then).
I climbed on board to call RK and said "did you see that"! To which he replied "yep, I tried to tell you &#8230; you big dumb a_ _!"

Um, I don't wade the hump anymore!


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## myprozac (Feb 7, 2006)

About 10 years ago when I was young and dumb I would take my 14 carrolina skiff on some pretty long trips "for that boat"... Managed to go all the way to that old deep oil channel off the intercoastal passed greens lake. Drifting through there with the trolling motor catching trout on lures. The tide was going out and i was going again it with the trolling motor and off in the distance i see a huge telephone pole floating in the water. I rememeber thinking i dont wanna hit that. So i catch another trout and that pole disapears and im thinking thats weird. 5 min. later this huge alligator the same size as my boat pops up right next to the boat. I reeled in soooo fast and was thankful my 25 yami fired up on the first pull. Pretty sure i had to change my boxers after that...


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## Tail Chaser (May 24, 2004)

One time back in the early nineties me and my buddy were pulling into Fat Boys to cap off another evening of getting skunked when a game warden rolled up on us. We told him we didn't catch anything and he told us he knew that already. Then he asked for our ID's and confiscated our beer. What's really tripped out is I didn't go to jail, he just wrote me a ticket for MIP and I sent a check in the mail to Galveston County. It took them nearly a month to cash that check, trippy.


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## live2fish247 (Jul 31, 2007)

Back about 10 years ago me and a buddy were going wading off Mosquito Island. We started off the right side of the island and could see "fish" hitting the top of the water in the distance. We of course waded over to em and as we got close I hooked up. The fish started runnin and at first I thought I had a big red. This is when we decided we were seeing redfish tailing. (Neither one of us knew much about reds at the time so reds tailing in 4' of water made perfect sense to us.lol) Just about the time we ended up in the middle of this massive school of "redfish" I realized what I had hooked. It was no red, it was a stingray and so were all of the other "tails" we were seeing. I was wearing tennis shoes, board shorts, and sunglasses. I could not slide my feet 6 inches without having a ray swim up my leg and stomach (very eerie feeling in muddy water). They were so thick they were running into us from all sides. I have never been more scared fishing and that 100' wade back to the island was the longest of my life. To this day I have never figured out exactly what those rays were doing in there. I assumed spawning or feeding.


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## bsartor (Oct 29, 2005)

Headed to a short rig from Galveston seas were 2-4 and I was in a 18ft boat, made it about 8 miles offshore and noticed my boat was heavy. I turned on the bilge and water started gushing out so I decided to turn back, I turn the boat around put the hammer down and just stall in the middle of a set of waves. In that moment it was sink or act fast so I yell at my 2 buddies to go stand on the bow which gave us enough momentum to go foward. Since we were 8 miles out only able to go half speed it was a good 30 minutes of terror boat ride. Thankfully we made it back to GYB, it turned out to be a detached stringer which caused a 18'' split in the hull.


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## Red3Fish (Jun 4, 2004)

*One More....*

When I was a kid about 10 or 12, I used to fish the pond on my Grandparents place. It was springtime, and the spring rains had put the pond out of its' banks, with about 2" of water all around it. I had a cane pole, a can of "home dug worms", and aspirations on some big perch or catfish.

I took my shoes off, rolled up my jeans above my knees, and left the shoes by the waters' edge, and waded the 30' to the ponds' edge and started fishing. I had caught a couple of nice perch, when forever what reason, I happened to look down at my feet. The water wasn't but about an inch deep here, and to my amazement there was a snake lying across my left foot.

While I am not a great fan of snakes, like MC,but I am not deathly afraid of them....said to self...just be still and it will go on its' way. About that time my cork did a nose dive, set the hook and had strong pull on the old cane pole...had to be a big catfish. In setting the hook, my weight shifted, and I stepped hard with the left foot. Wrong thing to do! Instead of lying across my foot, the snake actually had a coil AROUND IT that I hadn't noticed. Head came out of the water and I see white cotton mouth slap my bare calf three times before I can even move! This wasn't a spotted water snake...I know my snakes pretty well...it was about a 16" cotton mouth water moccasin!!

Don't let anyone ever tell you that hair doesn't rise on peoples' neck and back....I felt every hair raise on my neck, down my spine to the very end of my tail! I dropped the pole, screamed like a little girl, leaped about 3' in the air and hit the shallow water running. I ran till I was on dry land, and then remembered, don't run when you have been snake bit, and there wasn't any doubt, I had been bitten. Stopped on the dry land, and started looking for puncture wounds, expecting to see 4 or 6 holes.

Wiped away all the little dark spots of grass, and stuff, and to my amazement...not a single hole! Prolly looked for 5 minutes! I must have been standing close enough to its' head, or had it in an awkward way, where it couldn't get its' head around just right to bite me. But I felt its' head hit my calf three times!

Waded back out and got my pole (fish had towed it across the pond, then got off), gathered up my two perch, and went back to the house...I had had enough fishing for that day!

Later
R3F


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## Mike East (Jul 31, 2006)

Long Rodder said:


> Some time during the summer of 1983 I found myself out at the end of the Texas City Dike. A place I often frequented. Like weekly (as I then lived in Texas City). And as anyone that loves tossing long rods with 4-6 oz. weights knows, that place is snag city, especially near the end fishing towards the TC channel.
> 
> Well, dang it, another snag. After having already lost a couple rigs I decided I would not go gently into that good night. Besides, I had 60lb. line on the reel so I cranked the drag down as low as it would go. I held the surf rod over my shoulder parallel to the ground and started 'the walk of shame' across the road. Did so several times; each time gaining a little but still couldn't free it. I walked back to the granite boulders and sat down and did some thinking (my first mistake). Decided it was time to go diving. Who knows what I might find.
> I laid the rod down and wedged it just enough that I could loop one of my fingers over it so as to follow it down into the water, you know, to see where it might lead me. I had my surf baggies on, a pair of tennis shoes, grabbed a filet knife and off into the calm green water I jumped.
> ...


Great story. I have been tempted to do the same thing myself and I acknowledge that hindsight is 20/20. As your friend in the sport and with the utmost respect to you for being honest about your experience to raise awareness. Please, no one ever do this.. Just cut your line and your losses and move on. It is an incredibly dangerous thing to do and very easily could have resulted in an agonizing drowning. I am always thinking about what treasures lie under the water in heavily fished areas but the fear of rope, fishing line and especially HOOKS in there waiting to drown me overcomes my desire to load up. Glad you are still able to wet a hook. :0)


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## Mike East (Jul 31, 2006)

Trouthappy said:


> Back in 1976 we were sitting on a small platform in 30 feet of water off Sabine Pass, catching a few trout. Glassy calm day. We see this 36-inch, orange buoy go cutting past at about 3 knots, half-submerged. It had to be a big shark or something, towing a broken piece of longline. We jumped down in our boat, a 15-foot Thunderbird with 70-horse Johnson, and chased after it. Caught up with it real quick, grabbed the buoy and tied it to our bow cleat, then put the motor in reverse. Faster, faster until the boat was shaking, but we still kept going forward at 3 knots.
> 
> This went on for a half hour, and at least a mile. Then I goosed the motor ahead, and my buddy pulled up 100 feet of nice one-inch yellow vinyl rope ---we thought about cutting it for an anchor rope. We still kept making three knots, nothing could change that. Whatever it was, was huge! Big tiger shark? What should we do?
> 
> ...


Now THAT is a unique story.. I bet the guys watching got a HUGE laugh at your expense. Fishing for humans,, lol!


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## Mike East (Jul 31, 2006)

Heres my weak contribution.

Before I got married I was trying to get my "indoor girl" future wife interested in fishing. I decided to take her to a place where we would have a nice ride and easy fishing. We went into the JD Murphree refuge near Port Arthur, specifically #5-6 compartment ditch. Well anyway we were bass fishing and not doing much good so she was bored. Looking down the narrow (about 20' wide ditch) mile long ditch she spots a mullet jumping at least 200 yards away. Being unfamiliar with anything outdoors she warns me that there is a fish coming and its jumping out of the water and expresses concern that its going to jump in the boat. I assure her that its not going to happen and continue fishing. Repeatedly, as the fish jumps she nags me about this fish and is more emphatic with each jump. When the fish gets close she starts downright barking at me to get out of the way. I turn and in irritation bark back and said " would you please SHUT UP about the stupid fish, it is NOT going to jump in the boat!!!" I push off the edge of the boat, spun my fishing seat and casted. As I came to a stop heard a loud thump as she screamed. I looked back and a mullet about 16" long is still in contact with her chest, right between the headlights. No joke, not only did it jump in the boat,,, it hit her dead center!

Needless to say my butt was grass, and to this day 20 years later she has never fished with me again. Anytime the subject of her not fishing with me comes up in coversation with other people she is quick to explain why. That might have been the best thing that ever happened for my fishing hobby!


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## RGV AG (Aug 15, 2005)

Back in the 80's we would wade at night by the Queen Isabella causeway, and really do well on trout. Usually we would hit the bars until close to closing time and we didn't hook up there we would either go fishing or gigging if the weather was good. 

One night myself and my two roommates at the time head out wading, we were using live shrimp which my one buddy had in a shrimp bucket. He would attach the shrimp bucket to a belt loop with a caribiner tied to the rope that held the bucket. I carried a little plastic deal that I would put 2-3 shrimp in so I wouldn't have to go back all the time. 

Well apparently once when I went over to get shrimp that night, he slipped as I was getting close to him and I ended up helping him, we were in about chest deep water, and in the process he clipped the caribiner to my shorts, I did not realize this as I was focused on something else. I wander about 20 or so yards away while casting and fishing. 

At some point I slip and I lunge and all I hear is a loud "whoosh" and look back and see something white opening what I think is its mouth coming at me, and for the life of me the faster I move the closer this thing gets and the louder it gets, it also dawns on me that I can't really move too quick as something has got a hold of me, about 5000 things rush through my mind as I am pumping my legs in the best bicycle motion possible all the while this ferocious sea monster with a white mouth is behind me lunging at me each time I look back. I guess this didn't last more than 10 seconds, but it seemed lika an hour. My two roomies about about drowned they were laughing so hard. Apparently the bait bucket had gotten wrapped around my waist and was about 3 feet behind me and each time I lunged it would open the spring fed latch and make a whoosh sound and it would follow me. I was not too proud of that little deal and it took about 2 months before those guys quit making fun of me.


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## Carp (May 21, 2004)

RGV AG said:


> Back in the 80's we would wade at night by the Queen Isabella causeway, and really do well on trout. Usually we would hit the bars until close to closing time and we didn't hook up there we would either go fishing or gigging if the weather was good.
> 
> One night myself and my two roommates at the time head out wading, we were using live shrimp which my one buddy had in a shrimp bucket. He would attach the shrimp bucket to a belt loop with a caribiner tied to the rope that held the bucket. I carried a little plastic deal that I would put 2-3 shrimp in so I wouldn't have to go back all the time.
> 
> ...


That is probably they funniest one I've read in quite a while


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## Blk Jck 224 (Oct 16, 2009)

Mike East said:


> Heres my weak contribution.
> 
> Before I got married I was trying to get my "indoor girl" future wife interested in fishing. I decided to take her to a place where we would have a nice ride and easy fishing. We went into the JD Murphree refuge near Port Arthur, specifically #5-6 compartment ditch. Well anyway we were bass fishing and not doing much good so she was bored. Looking down the narrow (about 20' wide ditch) mile long ditch she spots a mullet jumping at least 200 yards away. Being unfamiliar with anything outdoors she warns me that there is a fish coming and its jumping out of the water and expresses concern that its going to jump in the boat. I assure her that its not going to happen and continue fishing. Repeatedly, as the fish jumps she nags me about this fish and is more emphatic with each jump. When the fish gets close she starts downright barking at me to get out of the way. I turn and in irritation bark back and said " would you please SHUT UP about the stupid fish, it is NOT going to jump in the boat!!!" I push off the edge of the boat, spun my fishing seat and casted. As I came to a stop heard a loud thump as she screamed. I looked back and a mullet about 16" long is still in contact with her chest, right between the headlights. No joke, not only did it jump in the boat,,, it hit her dead center!
> 
> Needless to say my butt was grass, and to this day 20 years later she has never fished with me again. Anytime the subject of her not fishing with me comes up in coversation with other people she is quick to explain why. That might have been the best thing that ever happened for my fishing hobby!


That's the breast one on this thread...


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## Naterator (Dec 2, 2004)

*how weird is this*

Well, I have to say these are some great stories. Mine is a little bit different from what you would expect to encounter on the TX coast. Around 2004-2005 FishFinder and myself were pre-fishing for a tournament on the strangely deserted north shore of East Matty, early afternoon on a cool weekday day in Novenber. We are wading crotch deep water and knee deep mud. As I am looking across the horizon to the gulf to the south, I see a cloud, on a cloudless day, looks like it's over the beach. I make another cast or two and look back, and dang if it doesn't look like that cloud is a bit closer to us. Repeat a few more times and I am sure of it, that cloud looks funny and its headed right at us. I say "Hey Tim, look at that cloud, it sure looks weird"&#8230;.to which he responded something to the effect of, "Uh huh, so what, stick a trout will you?"&#8230;another minute or so and I notice a weird buzzing noise&#8230;very high frequency, very faint, and from no discernible direction&#8230;"Hey Tim, you hear that?"&#8230;"Hear what?"&#8230;About this time I notice that the "cloud" is shifting shapes&#8230;almost like a vision or something&#8230;TIM!!! Would you please tell me what the **** that cloud is?" SO, Tim finally takes notice and agrees, we are in the path of an angry demon&#8230;.and its making noise&#8230;and its only a few hundred yards away and bearing down on us. A slot red decides this is the perfect time to slam my topwater, which I had continued to absentmindedly work. I could care less, I am about to be eaten by a strange buzzing cloud!! Within another 10 seconds, we simultaneously realized what we were dealing with&#8230;BEES!!!!! Neither of us had to think&#8230;we both submerged up to our noses in cold water&#8230;waders filling up but who cared. There is only one kind of bee that travels across the ocean in the millions, and they were right on top of us. I guess we were a lone spot of color in a deserted landscape, because they actually hovered over us for a good 5-10 seconds. I closed my eyes and prepared to submerge fully if the attack signal was sounded. Thank G-d, they decided we were not worth it and moved on. That was a very long 5-10 seconds. I remembered I had a fish on and reeled in a red. I have to think there are a 1,000 ways to die wadefishing on the Texas coast more likely than death by killer bees migrating from Africa, but we were almost that 1 in a 1000 that day.


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## 007 (Mar 11, 2008)

I'll one up all of ya'll.......try sinking a boat offshore!http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=162536


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## ComeFrom? (May 21, 2004)

Louisiana Bait Shop...


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## Savage Rods (Apr 27, 2005)

I had something bump into me twice in east bay about 3 years ago. Spooked me to no end. Haven't wade fished since. Then a friend get tagged by a stingray a few weks later. Can't see why someone would want to jump out of a perfectly good boat. I'll stick to offshore.


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## SolarScreenGuy (Aug 15, 2005)

Naterator said:


> Well, I have to say these are some great stories. Mine is a little bit different from what you would expect to encounter on the TX coast. Around 2004-2005 FishFinder and myself were pre-fishing for a tournament on the strangely deserted north shore of East Matty, early afternoon on a cool weekday day in Novenber. We are wading crotch deep water and knee deep mud. As I am looking across the horizon to the gulf to the south, I see a cloud, on a cloudless day, looks like it's over the beach. I make another cast or two and look back, and dang if it doesn't look like that cloud is a bit closer to us. Repeat a few more times and I am sure of it, that cloud looks funny and its headed right at us. I say "Hey Tim, look at that cloud, it sure looks weird"&#8230;.to which he responded something to the effect of, "Uh huh, so what, stick a trout will you?"&#8230;another minute or so and I notice a weird buzzing noise&#8230;very high frequency, very faint, and from no discernible direction&#8230;"Hey Tim, you hear that?"&#8230;"Hear what?"&#8230;About this time I notice that the "cloud" is shifting shapes&#8230;almost like a vision or something&#8230;TIM!!! Would you please tell me what the **** that cloud is?" SO, Tim finally takes notice and agrees, we are in the path of an angry demon&#8230;.and its making noise&#8230;and its only a few hundred yards away and bearing down on us. A slot red decides this is the perfect time to slam my topwater, which I had continued to absentmindedly work. I could care less, I am about to be eaten by a strange buzzing cloud!! Within another 10 seconds, we simultaneously realized what we were dealing with&#8230;BEES!!!!! Neither of us had to think&#8230;we both submerged up to our noses in cold water&#8230;waders filling up but who cared. There is only one kind of bee that travels across the ocean in the millions, and they were right on top of us. I guess we were a lone spot of color in a deserted landscape, because they actually hovered over us for a good 5-10 seconds. I closed my eyes and prepared to submerge fully if the attack signal was sounded. Thank G-d, they decided we were not worth it and moved on. That was a very long 5-10 seconds. I remembered I had a fish on and reeled in a red. I have to think there are a 1,000 ways to die wadefishing on the Texas coast more likely than death by killer bees migrating from Africa, but we were almost that 1 in a 1000 that day.


That's a Grand Slam! Freaky, Strange, and Scary! WOW!


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## FXSTB (Apr 23, 2008)

I waded the very shallow Lewis river with some buddies in remote Alaska for King Salmon, a few years ago. The fishing was good and we had our limits of big kings....45#'s+ on the stringer which unbeknown to me was tied to a log jam in the middle of the river. As I walked the river back to camp I climbed the log jam and jumped into the water right on top of 300#'s of ****** off Salmon! I found out that day that I may be only the second man to have walked on water.


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## RB II (Feb 26, 2009)

A buddy and his friend left Payco in Galv a few years ago, headed North to go under the bridge. They were running near the bridge pilings, the guy driving the boat turned in between the pilings/rip rap under the bridge only to find the passage full of a double wide barge underway. By the time their boat got turned around, he said he could literally reach out and touch the barges. The pilings and rip rap are gone now, but he still swings way wide of the passage under the bridge and inspects closely before he goes under the bridge.


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## Blk Jck 224 (Oct 16, 2009)

This one isn't strange or scary...more like STOOPID! I've launched many times at Double Bayou. The ramp ends EXACTLY at the second (last) post on the dock. At low tide I have to hang my second axle off the end to get my boat back on the trailer. Several times I have dropped off the end & set my trailer on the frame. It's not that big a deal because one man is able to lift the trailer (aluminum) up with the assist of four tires with 45lbs of air in each one. Just make D*M* sure you can trust the guy in the truck that is easing it forward not to run your arse over as you are standing in the frame of the trailer....Anyway...One Sunday afternoon we came back to the launch & there were several boats waiting to load. The man who was just ahead of me sent his wife to get the truck. As she backed down dangerously close, I mentioned to him where the ramp ended. He glared at me & kept waving her back. BAM! She dropped this big heavy galvanized single axle trailer off the end, sitting on the frame. I again tried to communicate how to solve this problem, he told me to shut up & told his wife to put it in 4 wheel drive & just goose it a little. sad3sm She ripped the axle off the trailer & drug the frame up the ramp. This guy then looked over & asked what I thought he should do now. I asked that he tell his wife to drag that busted trailer out of the way so I could load my boat. He tied his boat up at the little fish camp on the bayou, & we helped him get his axle out of the water. We rolled it over to the side & he chained it to his trailer with plans to come back the next day & install new U-bolts on it. Before we left he asked that I show him where the ramp ended & explain to him what to do if he ever dropped off the end again. I didn't rub it in too hard that his hard headed arse wouldn't listen to me in the first place :wink:


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## Boiler (Jul 16, 2006)

Have a freshwater story for you. Sitting about 300 yds off of Big Creek Marina fishing for hybrids with shad. Have two 7' rods in a tube/crate holder next to me and another 7' rod in my hand. I am set up with 3-4" shad on the bottom and a 1/4 oz weight ~ 1' above the shad. I see a storm coming up fast on the horizon, but I had just caught a nice hybrid and I wanted more. So I make a cast, and the line hangs up in the air! I looked at it like I was seeing things, but I could see the shad flopping in the water and the weight hanging in the air above it. Not believing what I was seeing, I popped the line and it fell into the water, which I then reeled up and made a second cast. Danged if it didn't hang in the air again, EXACTLY like it did the first time. Then I vaguely remembered reading an article about lightning? Then I noticed that the storm had gotten really close and the sky had gotten really dark. I immediatley put all rods under the water and stroked like a madman for shore. The sky unzipped before I got to shore, but I did not get hit. Something I'll never ever forget.


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## dieselmaker (Jul 6, 2007)

Back i the early 80's three of us were wading dollar point one summer morning. We had caught some fish early then the tide went slack around 8AM and we turned to wade to shore. One of my buddies starts messing around with his spinning reel reeling it in the water like an old egg beater. His brother told him to quite as he was scaring the fish. He said he was calling the fish. Not 30 seconds later in chest deep water a long ways from dry land and we are surronded by shark fins commong out of the water for a hundred yards in all directions. Then the jack fish showed up about a minute later. We held our stringers and bait buckets over our heads untill a boater came and picked us up and took us to shore. We still give the guy c--- about calling all of those sharks. (That wasnt the first or last time i saw sharks schooling like that in the hot summer there)

Jason


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