Have you ever fallen in the water?

[gozzer]

I've never had a full dunking, a few near misses, but not fully. I had a mate who was very skillful at falling in though, and although he showed me several methods, I never really picked it up.

 

The best one I remember was when fishing a stretch of the R Wharfe. I was fishing a small bay from the bank, and my mate was wading in the 'shallows' about 5-6yds upstream and trotting down to the bay, which was about 4-5ft deep. There was a small willow between him and me, and I could see his head as we fished. There was a shout, and I turned in time to see his head disappear. I ran round the willow and I saw what looked like a scene from Arthurian legend. There was an arm visible from the elbow, holding a rod and reel proud of the water! My mate was laid full length 3ft below the surface. I waded in and dragged him to the bank. His first spluttering words were, "At least I kept my new reel dry"!

 

Moral of story. When wading, always check the depth before moving, even in swims you know well.

 

John.

Edited November 25, 2009 by gozzer

[Steve Walker]

I nearly went in the canal as a kid, when another angler with a seat box on his back turned round on a narrow towpath and knocked me in. He managed to catch me before I went in beyond the knees, though!

[ubat]

Not quite a fall-in, however, remember as a youngster, I was fishing a shallow swim and some of the club “elders” walked up, these were the waxed jacket tie wearing committee members, that called all the youngsters “boy”.

We got into a respectful conversation, when I lost balance, quickly stuck my foot out over the water to stop myself falling and managed to stay upright in a strange position, one leg on the bank one in the water, swim was shallow but it still went over my wellies.

Carried on with the polite conversation, but could tell by the wide eyes of the elders that everything was not as it should, eventually they walked off and I got out of the water and emptied my boot, as they walked away I’m sure they muttered “something wrong with that one”.

[Anderoo]

I just remembered another near miss, this time for a friend. (I had successfully repressed all these unfortunate incidents TT, you bounder!)

 

We were piking in freezing conditions at the little river Wissey in Norfolk, over 15 years ago. It was so cold that there was fairly thick ice along the margins, and we were catching pike by carefully walking out onto the ice and wobbling our sprats along the margins. Fairly dangerous now I look back, if one of us had fallen in it could have been pretty serious!

 

I heard my friend say, 'Urrm...' and turned around to see him inching at glacial speed across the ice towards the river. It was quite a sight - him standing stock-still, eyes wide with terror as he slid ever so slowly towards the water! I was close enough to grab him and pull him towards me, at which point he started flailing around wildly, and delivered me a teriffic thump to the jaw. That was the thanks I got for saving him from an icy dunking, a punch in the face

[Sportsman]

I used to do a lot of Salmon fishing on the Dee and the Spey. This involved wading, sometimes chest deep, in a fast and powerful river with a river bed of football sized boulders and sudden deep holes.

Have I ever fallen in? never more than once a week (well actually 3 times in one afternoon, but we will gloss over that one)

[old novice - jeff]

i have had a dunking up to my waist when the bank gave way under foot, but the best one was the father in law, he had packed away most of his gear, walked down the bank to get his bank stick, forgot about a small stump sticking up.

he hit his foot on it and went head first into the lake, the rest of the anglers all gave him good marks for the dive.

[ubat]

That reminds me,

We had an elderly chap come on a clubbie, think he was in his eighties, fished a narrow but deep bit of water called Leasbrook. Got to his swim, put in the rod rest and went head over into the river.

Luckily a chap downstream saw his flask float by and went to check on the old 'un and saw him at the side of the river and managed to fish him out

 

On the way home the old fella mentioned he liked to look at his swim, check the depth, and flow

[Ken L]

Several times!

I've taken dunkings in almost every type of venue but the worst two were probably fishing about for dropped sunglasses on Brixham breakwater and sliding ever deeper into the water (and finally getting out covered in cuts from barnacles and bleeding freeley) while dozens of people loked on p1551ng themselves and having an undercut bank colapse on me on the severn and being dumped unto 4' of water. The last one still gives me goosebumps because it would have been so easy for the colapsing divot to have traped my legs and killed me.

Sad I know but I now have a planned startegy if it ever happens again and I fully intend to throw my legs out in fron of me and land in the water on my arse.

[tincatinca]

mmmm, I have made aquaintance with the water on several occassions in the main by accident but the one that I remember vividly is one by intent. This occassion happened many years ago when I used to do a lot of Chubbing on the River Blythe which runs into Blithfield reservoir. One of the clubs I was in at the time used to have a lovely stretch approx 2 miles long which was situated between 2 main roads and I used to get my wife to drop me off at one end and pick me up at the other end at a pre determined time. This stretch was idealistic full of bends, holes and glides where you became totally immersed in concentration and anticipation. You passed through different fields where there were always cows and at one point you passed through the bottom end of a farm where there were always chickens and ducks running loose with the occassional nanny goat. I had fished this stretch numerous times without any mishaps and waswalking through the area at the bottom of the farm when I received a thump from behind which sent me sprawling. On getting back up and looking around I was confronted by something on four legs that had the colouration of an Alsation but was sprouting two horns and was obviously getting ready for another go. It was a rampant Billy Goat which had obviously been put with the Nanny goats for a bit of procreation. As I did not fancy being mounted by such a beast for several reasons, I looked around for a means of escape but the only route to safety was into the river. Fortunately, the river was not too deep up to four feet max but had to walk down a fair way holding kit up in the air to the next fence to get out. The biggest problem was that it was a few hours later until I was picked up by my wife by which time I was cold and thoroughly miserable. When she finally stopped laughing and commenting about what she perceived as my strange preferences, I managed to get home. Every time I fished their after, it was always following an extremely detailed recce of that particular area.

[john-d]

About six years ago I took my eldest son out for an afternoon's pike fishing on the River Dove. It was a very cold, sunny late October day, we had tried a few swims with no luck but from experience I knew as the sun started to set, hopefully there would be a chance or two.

After settling in our last swims just before the sun set, my float disappeared and I had a good fish on, the pike in the Dove always seem to pull well and after a spirited fight the fish was netted.

After weighing the fish, at 18.12 it was my best off the Dove for that year my son took a couple of quick photos and I went to return her... the next thing I knew I was doing a forward roll into the river, the bank which was slightly undercut just gave way and I was in the drink.

I laugh about it now... but I was wearing waders, thermal joggers and a Barbour coat and I was being pulled under and downstream. My son actually saved me, (the swim I was fishing had a 2ft drop to the water and that was 9ft deep, at the time Paul was only 16 and I'm 6ft 3in and 19 stone) if he haddent of managed to grab hold of me I dread to think of what might of been.