What's your worst Angling expreience

[Andy Macfarlane]

Old story....

 

Yesterday, I managed to get myself and Andy onto a ressie for some pre-spawning pike fishing, while this ressie was half empty. Yes, yes, like shooting fish in a barrel....well you'd think so....lol

I know but folk have written books by doing the same, so don't punish me for trying for a cheeky 30. I'm only human. I just thought I'd be daft to turn my nose up at the opportunity.

Anyway, back to the point of this story. We had 4 rods out between us and everything was quite comfy but at the elevation we were fishing at, we had to make do with fishing on a quiet moor with the wind and rain to keep us company.

Even with rigid arm indicators, tight line clips, heavy leads, power drive banksticks and all that stuff, we still suffered from the odd wind-bleep so we had to stay on our toes for much of the day. I believe we were down having a look at one of my rods when my brolly, which I thought was storm-proof, turned out to be very fragile and it turned inside-out and tried to make a break for it. It was promptly captured, scolded and tethered but a short time later, it made yet another bid for freedom, only this time, it's escape plan turned out to be it's undoing and it simply ex-im-ex-im....yes, imploded I think and in doing so, almost all of my tackle took off at 70mph and dispersed in a nice shotgun pattern all over the bank, ressie and part of a mud-flat, which was a little bay that was now devoid of water, due to the lack of water. I was livid and this nearly turned out to be my undoing too. Now for the less humorous part.

I had just watched my brolly cave in and my tackle was now spread evenly all over the place and it was raining. If I hadn't been boiling with anger, I may have been cold and I stomped off, mostly swearing to retrieve my odds and sods, which had been lovingly stored in a folding groundbait box. It's bright red and fairly rigid so it's ideal for keeping all my traces, unhooking gear and bits and bobs at hand. It was now lying in the middle of this mud flat, looking woeful and rather alone. I had my chesties on and so I charged onto this mud-flat without really thinking about where I was going to fetch my box, which by the way, probably costs about £4.

I had already waded across various parts of this mud to have a look around and I was fairly confident in my stupidity. I made for my lonely box and I was nearing the water's edge and then very suddenly my left leg sank extremely quickly and was gripped tightly by the surrounding mud. Within 2-3 seconds all confidence was lost, my legs were sinking, one leg was being crushed under the wight of the mud and I just panicked. My stomach suddenly knotted and my lungs heaved, probably to keep my them empty and my breathing slowed to a deep, painful gasp. Not only was I in distress now but my mind started to fire off lots of feeling and emotions and my whole body was burning up with lactic acid.

Andy, who had been tidying up what was left of our lovingly crafted camp, had noticed that something was amiss and started to make over in my direction. I think he said something along the lines of,

"Are you alright?"

The image of a helicopter and the fire-brigade had already occurred to me and so I decided now was not the time for heroics and I just blurted out,

"Get the boat Andy...hurry...please". Quite pathetic looking back on it.

Andy doubled back to get a rowing boat which was lying near our rods. I was still sinking and by now, I was up to my groin in nice, thick, cold, heavy and compacted silt. The water behind me was inches away and I was thinking about leaning towards the water whilst trying to grab the boat and somehow slip out of my waders. I was also thinking about whatBear Grylls had said about what to do if overcome by quicksand and so I was thinking about dispersing my weight across the mud to get my legs free. Yes, I thought of Bear Grylls. Even that in itself sounds bizarre now but I did, so I'll continue. Believe it or not, I thought about how black I'd be if I performed either of the two choices. I had my mobile phone and then yet another thought crossed my mind, which really, really didn't help matters.

Earlier on, I had sent a text reply back to the chap that owns the water to let him know we were going to be on the water and I had problems getting the message sent because there's very little in the way of a signal up there and now I'm in the lowest part of the surrounding landscape and I'm sinking. This is just great. Now I can't even use my fully charged phone, which was neatly tucked in my wader pocket, in easy reach. It may as well have been a lump of lead for all the use it was. This also gave me something else to chew on. What if Andy has to leave to go and fetch help? I'll be on my own and he'll be driving away. I wasn't delighted. I should make it clear that most of these thoughts and thought processes had taken place in a matter of seconds. I was still very much in the grip of panic.

I don't know what exactly happened at this point. Call it luck or just a loss of grip on the situation but I kind of relaxed to some degree and just had to take a proper lungful of air and in doing so, my left leg felt a little more at ease.

I don't recall making a conscious decision to do what happened next, but I reached down, grabbed the leg of wader, leaned FORWARDS, head-first, towards the bank and heaved like my life depended on it 'oddly enough'. I should also mention that my own toes were agony trying to hook onto the toes of my waders. If I didn't my feet would have come out, which I'm sure could well have been on the cards if this had not worked.

I managed to get my left leg out of the mud, pushed it forwards, and then sank it immediately in front of me and then tried the same manoeuvre with my right, which also came free. I wasn't out of danger because I now had to wade out of this stuff, only now I had an uphill gradient to contend with, which made the mud much, much heavier. I guess I was doing a sort of muddy, 20 m hurdles 'sprint' in the direction of the bank. It was clumsy, slow, painful and scary all at the same time but I did eventually manage to get myself onto solid ground.

If I wasn't so panic-stricken, I might well have just cried or puked or crapped or something. Anyway, now was not the time for multi-tasking. Women and their crazy ways eh.

Andy the Sailor had just about taken to the water but he noticed that I had somehow manged to get myself free and he got himself back onto dry-land, which by the way, was no mean feat in itself. He dry-anchored the boat and wandered over in my direction.

I was covered up to my groin, in thick silty mud, which weighed about 5 or 6 stone, evenly distributed all over my legs. I walked round the ressie a bit and found an area to wade in and so I climbed into the water, which was nice and scary under the circumstances and washed all the mud off me. I went to fetch my unhooking mat, which also had made a bid for freedom and then headed back towards whatever was left of our camp. It was in tatters but it was at least all in the one place at last.

I had a very welcome cigarette and then spent the next few hours going through all the feelings normally associated with 'grief' of some sort. Apart from the obvious feelings, I was mostly angered that I had got myself into that position. Andy would have been quite entitled to have went off on one and I wouldn't have been in the position to argue. If it had been me, I would probably have but this...aha!...is the point of this post.

No matter how you think you might behave in a certain scenario, you don't. I really did lose all control of the situation in a few seconds and even now, I am so annoyed at being so stupid. I guess blind fury made me go into this mud in the first place. That and the thought of retrieving all 'My Tackle', which what, costs a few pounds? When I later calmed down, I had a right good look at this mud and I cannot believe I waded into it in the first place. Like WTF? For the sake of a few pounds. It only makes it clear how people/I do the strangest things in the strangest of circumstances but I hope that if anything like that occurs again, I'll count to 10 and choose to leave my tackle exactly where it is.

 

I didn't sleep very well last night.

 

Oh yes, how could I forget. We blanked....yes indeed, we blanked. Big time.

 

.....Regards.....Andy.....

[Paul-H]

My worst experience as an angler was many years ago when I was a kid (about 14) IIRC , on the first day of the new season. Our local lake used to let anglers on the the lake the day before the first day of the new season so they could hold their swim for the 6am start on the first day of the new season. It was about 1 am and I was asleep in my sleeping bag on a camp bed, and a group of numpties thought it would be a good idea to up end my bed and tip me fully encased in my sleeping bag into the lake. Not a happy experience and to this day I have never been night fishing again. and that was nearly 40 years ago.

 

Paul

[wunnus]

Bought a new rod and then watched excited son stamp all over the tip (he was excited !!!)

 

Sob

[Hugo Curgudgeon]

Have fallen in a few times over the years. On one occasion having consumed some Merrydown a friend and I were watching a shoal of big chub on the Kennet. I told my friend not to make so much noise and to keep down. At that point I toppled over into the river.

 

Another friend did a rather good cartoon of the event, with the caption

 

"The unspeakable after the uneatable after consuming the inevitable"

 

 

Plus ca change!

 

 

 

Hugo

[Ian_87]

I went fishing with my dad and uncle ( wye knot and meatballs ) and went over to talk to my dad and uncle. I had finished talking to my dad and walked over to my uncle as he was casting, I thought I was out of harms way until a hook went through my upper lip. Got an ice cream after gettin out of a and e so not all bad. Lol

[BoldBear]

I remember falling in when I was a small lad after standing on top of an undercut bank on the Thames which collapsed with my weight; because I had not learnt how to swim someone had to dive in and get me onto dry land.

I spent the next hour or two with my clothes hanging on the fence to dry while I sat next to my dad with a see-through plastic mac over me, and turned red with embarrassment when a load of sightseers all laughed and pointed at me from a boat as they passed.

 

I also remember falling in after a friend took a picture of me with a flash gun holding a nice Tench.

The flash was so bright that when I stepped forward to return the fish to the water my foot missed the bank and I went flying headfirst into the water.

 

Another time when I was surface fishing for Carp on a local estate lake I had to strip off and swim after my favourite rod which had been pulled in by a Carp when I momentarily put it on the floor to look for something in my bag.

Luckily the rod butt was floating so I could see it heading towards a large lilly bed out in the middle of the lake.

 

I thought that I was the only person on the lake that evening but there was a guy there with his wife watching me play the small 7lb Carp while standing in the middle of the estate lake, and watch me climb out without any clothes on.

Edited November 18, 2011 by BoldBear

[gozzer]

Worst angling related experience? So many to choose from.

The top two must be, seeing a water I'd fished for years, covered with dead fish after an illegal discharge.

Second was finding out that a lake, I'd enjoyed good fishing in for many years, had been stocked with 1000 carp, adding around an extra 5000lb of fish flesh for the lake to sustain.

I think the second was the worst. A fishery can come back after being ruined by pollution.

 

John.

[BoldBear]

One of my mates told me of when he was fishing a small stream and there was a herd of cows in the field behind him.

One of the cows had started to nose around at his fishing tackle and he heard a voice from the other bank shout "just knock her on the nose! that should get rid of her!" so my mate did, but it had no effect, as the cow just looked my mate in the eye and carried on nudging his tackle.

"No!, give him a proper whack on his nose" came the voice from across the stream; so my mate clenched his fist and gave the cow an almighty whack on its nose wherebye the cow just head butted my mate and his tackle into the stream, soaking him and his tackle, and the voice from across the stream shouted "RUN!!" as the other guy scurried away fast.

Edited November 19, 2011 by BoldBear

[Janet]

I had a particularly memorable day a couple of years ago (and how I wish I could forget it!) I’d joined a local angling club, specifically so I could fish the pond at a local National Trust property. It’s a rather nice little place, and I was looking forward to it. When I arrived, as on many occasions since, I was the only angler there. I set up on what I thought was the best peg, and had a cracking day, landing lots of small roach and perch. Nothing major, but enough to keep me ticking over all day. Then I realised that I really needed to answer the call of nature….what was I to do? I couldn’t leave my gear to go down to the Hall to use the facilities there, as it was too long a walk and I didn’t want to return to find my gear gone….

 

I looked around, and found what looked like a good, discreet shelter….a large bush, away from the pond, and with a good panoramic view so that I could spot anyone approaching…..I looked around carefully, and there was nobody in the vicinity. Behind me were open fields, with a few grazing horses. Right, it was now or never! I reeled in, placed my rod on the rest and made a dash for it. Carefully checking that the area was clear, I proceeded to do what a woman has to do, especially when she’s necked two large flasks of tea! Ah, blessed relief!

 

And then I heard it….the ominous sounds of someone approaching! Aaaargh! Seemingly out of nowhere, a group of Japanese ramblers appeared, trolling down the field behind me, camcorders and digital cameras in hand! Unfortunately, it was a bit like Mastermind – “I’ve started, so I’ll finish”…..I’m sure my rather ample posterior is now on some Japanese version of You Tube, much to my embarrassment! I didn’t know whether to hide or wave! Luckily the sun was shining, so I hope they got my best side….

 

Janet