Worst Trolling Blunder or near death experience Offshore

[Free_Jumper]

So, a gunnel with three 80W's with 100lb, clickers on, drags backed almost off, masking tape wrapped around the line and the foregrip to keep the rolling from pulling line off the reel before a strike. We thought feeding em' free spool was an advantage.

An ad hoc mix of crew/fisherman (bus mans holiday) in the Norfolk Canyon give in to sleep it's at least 2:00 in the new day morning.

CLickedy,cliccccccccckkkkkkkkk. Grab the rod rip the tape, clicker off hand on the spool. Lets not wake anyone unnecessarily.

Wait, wait, rolling, wait - short spurt, nothing. Nobody's up, nothing to wake anybody over. About to put the rod back in the gunnel and the jerk with speed gets your heart pounding. Stops, wait for it wait... next the reel backlashes and the mistake is reaching down to pull line loops out - the right hand is immediately cinched in an instant to the spool.

Legs instinctively lock up underneath the gunnel, and the line begins to pull tight. The strumming, tannk, tannnnnk, tinnnnnnk, tinnnnnnnnninnnnnck, violin sounds of line singing, of everything coming tight tells you this could go bad.

Whipsnappppp!!!!, line breaks fingers sting, and you sit down in the cockpit. Just the night, stars, rolling in the waves and alive with an experience.

Years later - i'm alive retelling an experience.

[TROPHY SPORTFISHING]

During a blue marlin tournament we caught a big gaffer on a black bart pro jet with 2 10/0 7691 stainless hooks and one of my guys decided to put it on the floor fish comes off the gaff and buries the back 10/0 in his leg on the outside of the calf. After we finally got the fish under control and cut the cable between the 2 hooks we saw the mahi had buried the hook all the way to the bend amidst its thrashing around. We ended up dropping him over to swim to a friends boat who had a veteranerian on board that cut the hook out and stitched him up. Oh yeah i forgot to mention it was 8 feet that day.

[Captain Michael Buffington]

During a blue marlin tournament we caught a big gaffer on a black bart pro jet with 2 10/0 7691 stainless hooks and one of my guys decided to put it on the floor fish comes off the gaff and buries the back 10/0 in his leg on the outside of the calf. After we finally got the fish under control and cut the cable between the 2 hooks we saw the mahi had buried the hook all the way to the bend amidst its thrashing around. We ended up dropping him over to swim to a friends boat who had a veteranerian on board that cut the hook out and stitched him up. Oh yeah i forgot to mention it was 8 feet that day.

why didnt you try this technique Cap?

Angler Sticks Hook in Arm to Demonstrate Amazing Hook Removal Technique

Mike

[TROPHY SPORTFISHING]

why didnt you try this technique Cap?

Angler Sticks Hook in Arm to Demonstrate Amazing Hook Removal Technique

Mike

we were going to cut the eye off and try to push it throuh but it was in the bone.

[HOT PURSUIT CHARTERS]

Worse near death for me. My brother and two friends. 26 ft. Rabalo w/twin 200's.
Out twenty miles trolling for bluefish to use as bait for shark fishing. Do that that for two hours and head out another ten miles to start sharking. Start to drift while putting out chum and bait. Within minutes notice that the water isn't running out of the boat like it should. Didn't think much about it due to choppy seas. Few more minutes go by and now the stern of the boat is lower in the water. Bilge pump is working but just that knawing feeling something isn't right. WTF? Pull off the bilge plate in the deck and the bilge is full of water. Tell my brother to put boat in gear and get moving forward. Cut the lines. Put emergency bilge pump in the bilge to help pump out the water. Start to head in and run smack dab into an isolated storm cell. Seas pick up to around 4-5 feet, about 40 knot winds, horizonal rain and streak lightning all around us. Twenty minutes later, we're out of it. Calm seas, damn near flat, and no wind. Bilge is empty, no water coming in and no leaks. WTF? Continue in to the marina and tie up. Bilge is still empty, no water coming in anywhere. About an hour into cleaning the boat and notice the bilge has water in it, about 1/4 full. WTF? Just then the boat tilts just a couple of degrees and the water starts pouring in. Sinks within a couple of minutes, all the way to the hardtop. Salvage the boat. Surveyer can't locate the cause. Telescoping mirror in the bilge and notices a hose. Thru hull fitting from my fish box has come apart. As long as I was underway the water just slips pass it. While I was drifting, water was siphoning in the boat, filling it up. If I hadn't put the boat in gear when I did sharking, within another thirty seconds, the boat would have filled to the point that no matter what I had done, she would have sunk 30 miles out. Few sleepless nights thinking about that.

[Chico1]

Fishing out of Sitka, AK in one of those "tin can" center cabin boats they fish. The third say of fishing the reports called for 10 to 12' waves with 25 to 35 knot winds. NO PROBLEM says the charter captain as the 3 boats head out into the increasingly turbulent waters. At first we get out into the open bay and troll for some salmon. Only one person can watch the lines by wedging themselves into the rear doorway to the cabin, everyone else stays inside and dry. After a few coho the capts decide we should head across the open water to the leeward side of some other islands. Capt is gunning the motors up the face of the waves that are increasingly looking like 14' to 16', and putting the motors in reverse as we glide down the face of the waves. After about 1/2 hour of this the Capt seems to miss his timing and as we come down the face of a HUGE wave, he guns the engines FORWARD!! The bow of the 28' boat digs deep into the base of the oncoming wave and all this blue water comes in over the bow! As the boat starts back up the face of the wave, all this water flows to the stern of the boat, one of the outboards' alarm sounds that it has quit. The capt re-starts the engine, guns the boat full speed ahead and as the boat reaches the breaking crest of the wave, the water in the boat is now all in the stern and the boat seems to stand straight up on it's stern before violently slapping down on the downface of the wave. At this time my wife stands up in the cabin and says loudly, "I want to live to get back home and see my grandkids". We then proceed to "go around" the bay to get to the leeward side of a large island where we troll for salmons again. Fishing is slow and one of the three boats ventures out from "behind" the island and radios in that the Kings are "out here". WOW! cant' beleive that we are heading back out there! THe 6 to 8' waves behind the island were so nice!! We began trolling with the following seas now and it did not seem all that bad even though the waves were still 10 to 14' swells. We landed a few fish and I was braced in the doorway when I looked back to see a BIG wave coming (at this time my bud, Ron, was in the "head" a 2'x2' enclosure in the rear corner of the cabin). As the wave overtook us and the boat was pointing down on the face of the wave, the capt suddenly slipped, fell on the floor of the cabin and the boat turned sharply to the starboard side and heeled over sharply past the 45* mark!! Once again the engine alarms went off!! Ron was trapped in the head as the on deck coolers all slid across the deck and blocked the door to the head from opening! The wives helped the capt to his feet, he was shaken as he took the boat back into the leeward side of the island, where we stayed the rest of the day fishing for coho. Ironically this was my wife's first offshore charter, this was exactly what she had been afraid of! She figures she beat death and is no longer afraid to go offshore fishing! The exact opposite effect I would have expected. We both can't wait to get back to fishing Alaska. However, she does say she will not go back out when they are calling for anything more than 8'.

[LuckyLady]

we were going to cut the eye off and try to push it throuh but it was in the bone.

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LuckyLady]

Fishing out of Sitka, AK in one of those "tin can" center cabin boats they fish. The third say of fishing the reports called for 10 to 12' waves with 25 to 35 knot winds. NO PROBLEM says the charter captain as the 3 boats head out into the increasingly turbulent waters. At first we get out into the open bay and troll for some salmon. Only one person can watch the lines by wedging themselves into the rear doorway to the cabin, everyone else stays inside and dry. After a few coho the capts decide we should head across the open water to the leeward side of some other islands. Capt is gunning the motors up the face of the waves that are increasingly looking like 14' to 16', and putting the motors in reverse as we glide down the face of the waves. After about 1/2 hour of this the Capt seems to miss his timing and as we come down the face of a HUGE wave, he guns the engines FORWARD!! The bow of the 28' boat digs deep into the base of the oncoming wave and all this blue water comes in over the bow! As the boat starts back up the face of the wave, all this water flows to the stern of the boat, one of the outboards' alarm sounds that it has quit. The capt re-starts the engine, guns the boat full speed ahead and as the boat reaches the breaking crest of the wave, the water in the boat is now all in the stern and the boat seems to stand straight up on it's stern before violently slapping down on the downface of the wave. At this time my wife stands up in the cabin and says loudly, "I want to live to get back home and see my grandkids". We then proceed to "go around" the bay to get to the leeward side of a large island where we troll for salmons again. Fishing is slow and one of the three boats ventures out from "behind" the island and radios in that the Kings are "out here". WOW! cant' beleive that we are heading back out there! THe 6 to 8' waves behind the island were so nice!! We began trolling with the following seas now and it did not seem all that bad even though the waves were still 10 to 14' swells. We landed a few fish and I was braced in the doorway when I looked back to see a BIG wave coming (at this time my bud, Ron, was in the "head" a 2'x2' enclosure in the rear corner of the cabin). As the wave overtook us and the boat was pointing down on the face of the wave, the capt suddenly slipped, fell on the floor of the cabin and the boat turned sharply to the starboard side and heeled over sharply past the 45* mark!! Once again the engine alarms went off!! Ron was trapped in the head as the on deck coolers all slid across the deck and blocked the door to the head from opening! The wives helped the capt to his feet, he was shaken as he took the boat back into the leeward side of the island, where we stayed the rest of the day fishing for coho. Ironically this was my wife's first offshore charter, this was exactly what she had been afraid of! She figures she beat death and is no longer afraid to go offshore fishing! The exact opposite effect I would have expected. We both can't wait to get back to fishing Alaska. However, she does say she will not go back out when they are calling for anything more than 8'.

8' LOL your wife sounds a tad like me lol your story just reminded me of one that I will share later

[Robja]

Up until Wednesday I did not have anything to contribute to this thread. We were on our last day of fishing out of Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica with Bobby McGuinness from Golfito. When we got to the mouth of Golfo Dolce I realized it was oing to be a snarly day. We went from the flat of the gulf to 5-6 foot seas. In all the years I have been to this part of the world the worst seas were 2ft. We were on a 37 Harris express and we took a pounding going out. Kinda like fishing back home in 3-4 foot seas. When we got out to our destination about 40 mi. it was a challange battling a sail stand up for fear of going over. Seas kept building and we fished in 8-9 foot seas with an occasional 10 footer thrown in for good measure. After a successful day with 5 sails we headed for home. The ride back was stilll bouncy but not the pounding we took going out. The difference was that occasional 10 footer would slam into us on the port bow causing the boat to list and turn starboard. I was standing behind Bobby holding onto the rocket launcher and was bending over to drop a can into a box when one hit. In a flash I was headed over the side. I caught a breath of air and a little water as the water coming off the bow hit the side of my head and flipped me away from the boat. It was a scary sight watching the transom head off in the distance. In a quick vote two of my three friends voted to turn around and get me. I have heard stories of people getting thrown off the boat but until it happened to me I never paid it much mind. It is a scary feeling knowing your 20 miles out and could have easily been knocked out going over. Bobby and his crew were real quick in getting back to me and helping me in in rough seas.

[hunt4fish]

This is my tackle blunder of a life time!

It is not a good idea to teach people to count line coming off and you are better off handing them a line counter or this is the end results

20 ' becomes 40' 100' becomes 200' if they dont understand lol my bad and lesson learned don't touch my rods

Attachment 184173

I will share the near death on later on

You better be careful...I still have a photo.. Not that I was involved in this one..,Another boat or 2 caused this problemo..