Bad Luck Fishing Stories

[SDbowhunter]

In honor of my last topic about being side swipped by a snow plow what other horror stories do people have about fishing or hunting trips.

I'll start with this one:

My friend & I were coming back from Lake of the Woods. We had caught a few fish and went to the cleaning shack to fillet them up. Once we got on the road we got about 50 miles when he realized he left his coat, keys, and wallet in the cleaning shack. We had to turn around to get it. We were on our way to Fargo and planned to drive all the way over to I-29 but missed our turn and by the time we realized we were to far gone to turn around. So we kept going on state highways then we hit heavy fog and for the next 4 hours were driving at a speed of 5-15 miles an hour. By the time we got to Fargo it was 4:30 AM. I had to be back in SD and at work at 8 I got home at about 6:30. That was a rough one.

I got a couple more I'll post later.

[Iambjm]

We had a 2 week fishing trip to Upper Bottle lake in "92". We had rented a large cabin to be shared by another couple and my brother-in-law and his beau. I had a craft fair on Saturday and headed up Sunday morning with the hubby. I was feeling a bit strange, felt a tightness in my chest. Fished a little on Sunday and early Monday, and our friend had found some Walleyes so we went out after dinner on Monday, and it seemed to be getting harder and harder to breath. Felt awful so we went in, by 9pm I was begging to go to the hospital. I was admitted, as I was unable to breath and was running a high fever.

10 Days before I had a relatively simple surgical procedure and was put on a drug called Macrobid. I asked the doctors at the hospital could I be having an allergic reaction "No, you've been on the medication for 10 days". When my hubby and our friends wife came into my room on Tuesday morning she said I looked like I had died, I was grey and gasping for air. Then I went into spasms, vomited and went into tachycardia, heart rate went to 200. Off to ICU, they figured I had a blood clot in my lung. I had to endure some horrible tests, including them inserting a needle into my artery in my leg and feeding a (cant recall the procedures name) catheter? into my lung. No clot, by Wednesday afternoon they decided to transfer me to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids by ambulance. 4 more days in the hospital and still no answers I finally went home.

My husband had to drive back up to Park Rapids and pickup our boat just in time to say Hi to his brother before he headed back to Georgia. A week after I got home my doctor told me to go back on the Macrabid for another 14 days. I immediately got sick again, called the doctor and he looked it up and discovered that I did have an allergic reaction. It took me all summer to start feeling better. I did very little fishing that summer. By the way we did pay our share of the cabin rental for the 2 weeks, and thank goodness we had insurance cause the hospital bill was $23,000.

[croixflats]

I was fishing the flats on the StCroix Just driffting along on quite calm day. One other boat was out there fishing just down from me.Fishing to rods at a time.

I wasnt to smart, I had one rod in my hand and the other sitting on the deck.I started feeling taps on the pole so I was concentrating. not really paying attetion on the other pole.

Yep,out of the corner of my I see the pole on the just take off well response was to go after it. Set my pole down and went for a swimm with a few words echoing across the river valley as I went in the water. after some searching got the pole,no fish just a snag.As I was climbing up the swim latter THE OTHER TAKES OFF.I didnt find that one but I did laugh over the whole ordeal.

Im sure that other guy fishing out was wondering what heck was going on over there. Hes in the boat then hes not ,then he is ,then hes not, the he is.

I have ahard time chewing gum and walking.

[UdeLakeTom]

We were fishing on the Vermillion just south of Hastings the day the tornado hit and the sirens failed to go off. I saw some clouds and said "let sit out this little shower near shore:. We didn't even get turned around and it really hit. My partner could hardly see in in the 12ft boat, and the motor started acting up. We made it back to the van after it was over, the river had limbs and debrey floating all over and the bottom of the boat had 3 inches of water in it. In some ways, it was good we couldn't go fast, because some of those limbs were big enough to do damage to a person. This is also why I keep a change of clothes in my vehicle. Too many times wet, and nothing to dry off with.

[Minnesnowda]

I had a close one on the lake last year.

I was going out with a few buddies, and made sure to have a buddy "put in" the plug. Apparently, he forgot to. By the time I parked the truck, and walked down to the boat, the whole back end was full of water to the ankles. Quickly I put the plug in, turned on the bilge and tied up to the dock.

Scared the bajesus out of me

[Bassman55]

My Dad and I were out prefishing for my clubs "money" tournament at the end of the year. The day started out slow, but we had many places to still check out. By about noon we had only got five bass and not one of them would have even gone 14 inches. The wind had really came up and I was starting to get frustrated. As we were fishing along some heavy matted scum where my dad and his partner had caught several big fish in years past, including a 6lber in the tournament for Lunker, a gust of wind blows us into it. We used to trolling motor to attempt to get out but it quit working. So we fired up the old Merc and blew outta there. We stopped out in open water to try to figure the trolling motor out but got nowhere. We decided to call it a day and pick up a spare trolling motor from my dads friend, who lived on the lake. We got that and headed home, but the trouble wasn't over. We pulled into the driveway and realised that we had only one lug nut left on the right side of our boat trailer. That completely wrecked everything and we ended up replacing the axle on the trailer. But we had to break one more thing that day. We had either run the batteries too hard or the onboard charger hit them to hard, which it hasn't before of since, and fried the batteries. So long story short, we wrecked alot of stuff and never fished the tournament anyway.

[DUCKJ]

I was getting fishing gear ready for a weekend tip up to Cass lake area. Put my rods, rain gear, tackle box,fishing net on my box cover from my garage. Backed up to the boat shed and proceded to load all gear into my boat. Took off down the road making the 2 hr drive. When I got there I landed my boat and headed to my first spot. Went to get my rods out of rod locker and they werent there. Headed back to landing to check back of truck. Not there either. Must have left them on my box cover. 4 musky rod and reels gone (aprox $800.00). Needless to say I went home without fishing at all.

Duck

[croixflats]

I to forgot to put plug in boat.And I have to put plug in outside of boat.

I launched boat parked truck and trailer real quik got in boat and started motering out slowly discussing where we wanted to start out.Buddy says were kinda sitting low in the water arnt we. Being its a bass boat its normal.Well I turn around and see water coming up the flore drain. Then It hits me. I kicked it down to get to drain But it wasnt Draining fast enough.Cant troll at 50 mph ,all speed she could muster with all that water.

Only choice was to head to lauch.Had to come up to dock fast let buddy get trailer while I went back to motering around on river.Man there was some p.., off people on the dock.was pushing alot of water.

Things worked out well . drained boat and went fishing

[Iambjm]

My hubby wants me to tell his story. About 15 years ago I had saved up for 6 months to buy him an ice auger. I got him a brand spanking new Strikemaster Mag III for Christmas. A week later he went ice fishing with a friend to Green Lake in Isanti County. Came time to pack up and he laid the auger on the ice beneath the tailgate of the truck, it was dark out. They left the lake and as they did they heard a loud bang, they just figured it was a bump at the landing. 20 miles down the road they noticed the topper door had popped up, stopped to shut it and the tailgate was down.......no auger. They went back to the lake and it was not there, to this day they don't know if they left it on the ice or if it had fallen out of the truck. So if anyone found a brand new auger on Green Lake he sure hopes you enjoyed it. Needless to say I bought him another (even though the budget was extremely tight at that time).

[slipperybob]

Does this involve the bad luck that happens to oneself for doing something fool-hardy or being ingorant or honest bad luck for being at the wrong time at the wrong place? LOL's

Got too many....

Falling into spear hole

Tire's popping after saying don't drive on shoulder tire's can't handle it.

bicycle inner tube popped after going out 10 miles...ever pedal's a flat tire bike...feels worse than going up a mountain

pants get's caught in bike chain

broken fish pole - after bragging about how good it is.

top piece of two piece fishing pole goes for a dive and snags bottom

Swinging like tarzan on old rotted rope will get you grounded in a snap

launching and landing boat on windy day

standing up on canoe

diving off of dock into shallow water and missing deeper water by about one foot...well maybe three feet.

not beleiving someone saying, "fly's open" only to get snagged by lure

thought someone played trick and took cap off, but someone snagged cap off head on a cast.

etc.,...

[cylinder]

About 30 yrs ago I took my new bride on a fishing camping trip to Snowbank Lake. We started out from IA at about midnight, then lost the boat trailer axle on a railroad crossing in a southern MN town. It was raining cats & dogs. I called the police on the CB radio, they called the local marina owner who came out with his tractor/loader and a new trailer in the pouring rain, lifted the boat onto the new trailer, and we were off again by 3 a.m.

After arriving at the resort at Snowbank where we were to launch the boat, I found that the boat battery had tipped over and the acid was gone. I took the battery from the truck, and we went fishing. We caught some fish and set up camp on an island. It rained hard again that night, lots of wind, but we were dry in the tent.

Next morning, we found that the fiberglass boat had been bounced against a rock in the storm. It had sunk, front end against shore, back end resting on the motor. The water was almost knee deep in the back of the boat. It was a double hull runabout with a drain hole coming from between the hulls to the drain sump in the back of the boat. I wedged a stick in the hole, bailed water till it was floating again. We flagged down a passerby, got a ride to a resort and got the resort people to tow us back.

One bright spot, even though the battery had been underwater in the boat, it still worked when I put it back in the truck. I patched the hole when we got back and everything was good. Not much fishing, but an interesting trip.

Could have been worse.

[snowgoose]

I was 16 years old and dad and I had decided to head up to Canada for a 3 day weekend of fishing. We were going to Long Legged Lake. The drive into the lake is about 30 to 40 miles of dirt road from the resort by Ear Falls.

Dad had decided to haul the 14 foot boat in the back of his truck instead of taking the 16 foot on the trailer. If I remember right we did this to save on the trailer. Other trips we had always lost fenders, sand blasted the trailer really bad or blown tires.

We get to the lake and load the gear in the boat. I have to explain that my dad is the kind of guy that brings everything he owns to go fishing. We have 2 tackle boxes, 8 rods, depth finder, trolling motor, battary,Lunch cooler and a cooler to put fish in. There is hardly enough room for the two of us. Not to mention that we are both over 6 foot tall and rather healthy in the weight department.

It is a windy day but we make our way through a bunch of islands to get to our favorite spot. We fished for about 30 minutes in 3 foot waves in a very overloaded boat. Dad had caught a northern and a couple walleye. I was busy tieing hooks on all of the rods. (Nice way to say he was outfishing me) It was starting to look like it was going to be a great day on the water.

Dad gets snagged in the rock and instead of turning the boat around to get the hook out he desided to put the old 15 horse in reverse. You got it. It took 3 waves over the back and I watched the boat sink from under my feet. Nothing we could do about it. It just happened so fast.

The boat did come back up but it was upside down. Anything that could not float was at the bottom of the lake. All I can think about is my wallet. I yell to dad to put his wallet in his life jacket pocket since I can't find mine. For some reason he wore a life jacket that day which is not normal for us. Just as I tell him that I see mine floating in between us. Lucky find.

We had about a 20 minute float to the first little ant infested rock island. It is mid June and the water was not very warm. Not really swimming weather either.

This lake at that time was a fly in lake and very few people knew how to get into it on their own. We sat on the rock, drained the boat and tried to get the old 15 started. I bet I pulled on that motor over 1000 times that day.

In the mean time I had taken a peice of rope and swam to shore to collect the cooler, a shoe, a depth finder and a couple other items that floated. It was only a couple hundred yards to shore.

It is really sinking in that we could be spending the night on this rock. About 3 hours into it we see a boat. Luckly we had a yellow rain jacket that dad was waving around to get their attention. Some nice guys from Iowa came to the rescue.

They had just got to the lake themselves and told us that if we were still there when they came back from fishing they would pull us to the landing. Well we sat there for what seemed like 15 hours. I think it was more like 8 hours before our friends from Iowa returned. We never did see anougher boat that day. I just thank the good Lord that we saw one.

They pulled us back to the landing. To say the least our trip was over. Dad drove home with one shoe. Somehow he had lost one in the lake. I remember he let me drive across the border since I still had both of mine.

Dad did go back up there with a couple of scuba divers and never did find anything that we lost.

[huntnfishsd]

My buddy and I went up to Devils Lake late this past December to do a little ice fishing. We planned on having another guy join us in the sleeper shack that was put out by a guide service up there. However, he ended up backing out on us which left us to pick up his tab ($100 apiece). I should have known then and there that this wasn't gonna be the best trip!

We got up there that night and started to enjoy some beverages and started fishin. I thought it would be a good idea to check the time on my phone. Unfortunately, the ice hole acted like a phone magnet and ate my phone. So, I was phoneless on the first night of the trip! Again, I should have realized this wasn't gonna be the best trip!

The next morning my buddy connected on a dink walleye and then a nice 16" walligator. We were hungry so we ended up fryin it up and it tasted delicious. We thought our luck was gonna start turning around, but 2 days and 3 nights later we were without any more fish even after moving all over the lake! It was truly a bad luck fishing trip!

Although we didn't have any luck fishing, I still had a good time! That's the great thing about fishing; you can have some bad luck but still have a good time! Hope you all enjoyed my bad luck! Ha!

[Bassboy1645]

DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED!!! If I didnt have bad luck I wouldnt have any at all!

Last yr i got my boat ready long ways before opener. 2days before season I put in on Shagawa lake in ely to scout out some possible locations to see if i could find any concentrations of fish anywhere. Mid lake the motor jumps and winds high not unlike hitting rock." [PoorWordUsage]! theres no rocks out here!!" no forward no reverese nothing. My cotter key had busted and my whole prop assembly and hub on the bottom of the lake. great. trolled into shore via minkota. 2 weeks later 100 dollar parts arive from japan...I lose them...a month down the drain for my rig and i finally got the parts. sweet! finally can fish out of my own boat! the truck dosent start......god

Get the idea??

[StrosLit31]

Well i dont know if its a good thing to remember bad luck fishing stories or not. but it might be good to vent a little bit.

The girlfriend and me left on a friday night to go to Millelacs ice fishing this year and we took separate vechicles because i had the 4-wheeler in the back of my truck and not enough room for her and the dog in the same truck. but on the way up there her car died in Millica, so we got her car towed to the repair shop and piled into my truck and continued to the lake. Called the repair shop in morning and couldnt get parts until Monday. so we just finished fishing for the weekend since we still had my truck. Got off the lake on Sunday and then my truck wouldnt start. would turn over but not fire... so loaded my truck with 4-wheeler in back on a flat bed trailer my buddy had and dropped it off at the same repair shop in Millica at about 8:30pm sunday night. Called the repair shop that night but no answer so called monday morning at 7am and he said the truck was there but no 4-wheeler. Filed a police report and went through the steps, but still no good luck. So we had two brokend down vehicles and a 4-wheller stolen in one weekend.... Only had liability insurance on wheeler so had to eat the cost and still no word on wheeler. dont think i will ever see that again... Just cant trust any one these days.. i dont think i will ever back to millelacs ice fishing again

[evinrude19]

i have one for you guys and gals

it was a couple years ago and i was about 14 i think and i have a 12ft lttle boat with a 10 hp motor and i tried look like im "pro" and put a transom mount trollling motor on the front of the boat like it was a bow mount trolling motor so i could stand up front of the boat like in rangers and tritons . well one day i was bass fishing around a dock with the same boat and i tried to skip under a dock and got snagged up under the dock pole so i tried to go up and un tangle it and i leaned to much in the front of the boat and the whole front end went under and i did a nose dive right of the front of the boat in about 3ft of water

pretty funny when i think about it now but back then it scared the [PoorWordUsage] out of me haha

[fishnhuntnboy]

I would say my worst luck was last summer in canada at eagle lake with my dad and i. Everything was good and all on the first day, kinda. The first night we were there, my dad and i went down to the docks and was going to go fish. well come to realize the boat that was assigned for us was gone and told the guys at the marina that our boat wasnt there. Finally we get a different boat and head out. After we have been gone for about an hour and who knows how far away from the resort we were our motor stoped working on us and all we had were orrs. so i start to row us back and my dad trys to get the motor to work and he does but it would only go in reverse so we had to drive the boat all they way back backwords and everyone gave us such a weird look and had no clue what we were doing and was confused. Well come to find out the linkage broke in the gears or something and the worst thing of it all was we didnt fish at all. After all though the owners gave us like 6 free drinks at the bar that was used up

[Fishinguy40]

Two years ago my wife and I went ice fishing for the day on a local metro lake. We were in a 2-man portable with a radiant propane heater that uses a 1lb bottle. It was a slow day. You could see fish on the Vexilar and camera but they just weren't biting. After a while the propane heater began to burn hotter and was getting noisy. I picked it up and turned the valve to turn it off but it didn't shut off. It just kept burning and sparking. At this point the wife was nervous so she got up, opent the front flap and stepped outside. Me, being as smart as I am, figured the valve was frozen so I began to unscrew the bottle from the heater. I did this as I was sitting in my seat inside the portable. Just as the threads on the propane bottle were almost disengaged from the heater propane shot out around the threads and I was engulfed in a fire ball. I immediately threw the whole assembly out the fron flap almost hitting the wife. I wasn't burnt, luckily. But you there was a slight smell of singed hair in the portable.

After getting lectured from my wife we continued to fish without a heater. We stayed until dark. She finally tired of the lack of action and wanted to go home. So she sat in the truck as I was picking up and putting things away. My rod is always the last thing to pull up and stow before collapsing the portable. You never know when you're gonna get lucky, right?

I was returning from the truck and stepped inside the shelter just as my rod and holder tipped over and my rod slowly went down the hole in the ice. It happened so fast I didn't have a chance to try and grab it.

On the way home we stopped at Gander Mtn. I bought a new rod and heater.

[jasondittrich]

went fishing with my father. i was trying to get things set up (changing leader) while he was parking truck. and ended up stepping on his rod that i just got him for fathers day, snapped it in half while stil at the dock. that day he used my rod while i used a medium light for trolling pike. later that day went to gander mtn and they replaced it free. i love their warranty

[wx_nut]

oooooh boy.

I've had a few in my day.

I've had the "Hey Joe*, did you put the plug in?" "Oh, I sure did wx_nut! It's in and snug!" "Great!"

A little while later...........

"Say, isn't the boat sitting a little low in the water?"

"Yeah, it sure is wx_nut......I wonder if we should check the plug?"

*facepalm*

Another time the SO took my boat out (yes, she can drive my boat and she hasn't crashed it yet!) and she runs it all day and never tells me. I proceed to head out at dusk to catch some nighttime eye's and on the way back realize she ran the boat out of gas.

But, the biggest doosey was two years ago....

The SO and her family have a big o'l reunion every year on East Spirit. I'm happy as a clam as I get to bring my boat out and sit in it and fish and drink beer all day. My idea of a reunion. My b-i-l, cousin-in-law, and myself are all out fishing for whatever. Tap-tap-tap-tap FISH ON!

And away we go! I'm reeling in a big o'l Bass and she starts running into the weeds. She starts running, and we keep drifting. I tell Joe* to start the motor, and he sits down, starts it up, and puts it into gear, and we don't go anywhere. He asks if there is something special to getting my boat to work. "No!" I yell back, "Just put it into gear and give it some gas! It's not that hard!" as I see the line on my reel start to dwindle and realize I am down to my last few feet of line. My fast thinking cousin plops down the trolling motor and we start using that to get back to my fish.

I get the fish in, and I proceed to ask Joe* why he couldn't get the boat in gear. We had just drifted through some weeds so we figured the prop is all tangled. I start to trim the motor up, and while I'm doing that Joe* quips "Heh, I bet you don't have a prop." I tell him to keep that kind of stuff to himself and that he'd better be joking.

I trim it all the way up, and much to Joe's* amazement, sure enough, there's no prop.

4pm. On a Saturday. With nighttime action coming upon us. With no prop. With no way to get a replacement.

I ended up using my trolling motor the rest of the way in. At least we caught out limit of Sunnies on the way back!

So somewhere, in Spirit Lake there's a nice, new prop and hub kit sitting at the bottom of the lake. If anyone happens to come across it, please let me know. I'd be pretty happy to get it back.

_____

* Not his real name.

[prechlerker]

My brother and I went fishing on a local lake. We got the holes drilled and the portable set up.I put the heater in the fish house and lit it.The heater started and flames were getting higher and higher almost hitting the roof so I threw it across the ice.I thought it was going to shoot across the ice like in Gone In Sixty Seconds.So we started to run I told my brother to move his car he said forget the car and we ran about a 100yrds. Then me a flame shot forty feet in the air we watch it until it burned out. when we left the paint on the tank was still burning.We never even got a line wet.We got home and dad said we looked like we saw a ghost.We never even used a heater the rest of the season cause we were to scared.

[Matt C]

Opener, 6 or 7 years ago. Up on Bowstring. Cold, and very windy. Those that know Bowstring can attest to the large waves it can produce...

Out in my buddies old tri-hull. We always stayed at a resort on the north end, and the good bite was always at the rocks, a bit a drive away. Beer may have played into his brave factor and us in the boat also, but the idea was to get over to the rock pile.

We made it over, barely and as soon as we got there we started to take on water, and waves moving us in to the very shallow rocks. That old early 80's 2 stroke didn't want to start....Orr's in hand, we got ourselves moved enough to be freed. Motor finally started. Minnow buckets emptied of bait, scooping water out because the bilge could not keep up. We decided its best we head back to the cabins. Longest couple a miles I have ever experienced in a boat. Inexperience at the wheel, waves, and an underpowered tri-hull. I we went through, not over so many waves, I just closed my eyes and prayed.

All in all, no fish caught as we didnt even wet a line.

Running joke...with him is ... "hey? Is the bilge on?"

[Walleyehunter82]

A year ago this last winter I was ice fishing on a northern Minnesota lake. There was about 9 inches of ice at th time. When I showed up to the landing the lot was completely full and no where to park. I had a snowmobile and trailer behind my pickup to get to the hot spot across the lake. The previous two nights I had caught 4 walleyes over 6 lbs, so I was going out. I figured heck, I've drove out on 10 inches, I'll just pull on to the ice a little. I pull about 100-150 feet from the access and unload everything and go fishing.

I quit fishing about 8 o'clock, got a few walleyes, but no hogs. So I am cruising up to the pickup with snowmobile, and I can only see about half of my rims of my pickup. I get to the pickup and it is sitting in about 10 inches of water. So I back it up and get back on to good ice with no water, in front of the landing. I load up my sled and all my gear as fast as I can. Meanwhile the water that had been sitting 100 to 150 feet away had moved in on me again. I suppose the ice was sagging so much from the pickup and trailer. I hop in my pickup and start to pull away and BANG!!!!!!! The back end dropped through the ice and trailer was still on the ice!!! There were a couple of guys coming off the lake and they gave me a pull out. They couldn't stop laughing, and neither could I. I never thought two guys could get that drunk, they were both hammered....... All in all, it could always have been worse. Chalk that I up to another lesson learned.

[Pyrex]

I go on a fishing trip to Canada every other year with 9 of my friends from high school. In 05 we went north of kenora where we hauled 3 boats, the first boat went on the first day, he was a rookie in Canada and didn't bring a spare prop, no biggie, we just rented a boat. There was a portage lake that involved a mile walk, onto a boat for a while up two beaver dams and dragging the boat up a stream that was full of big rocks, the whole portage took a couple of hours because of the dragging, by the time we got there it started pouring. We decided to wait it out and 2 and a half hours later, we were so cold and tired we went back. as soon as we got on the original lake the sun came out. To top it all off, on the way home the resort owner told us about this logging road that would knock 3 hours off our trip, and it would have if my buddys axel on his 02 lund would have held up. You dont feel helpless until your on a logging road in the middle of ontario and your trailers drivers side tire is under the motor....And, finally, Getting harassed by a 4 foot tall border patrol woman for bringing chicken with us, two hours later, we were back in MN. Last year (07) I only broke two fishing rods....I cant wait until 09!!! Good times!!

[fishguyd]

After a great morning of Salmon fishing in Cheese land, a lady in her husbands brand new Ford pick-up rear-ended my buddy (Lund 1890 Tiller) @ 50mph while I was stopped waiting for traffic--thus ending the trip instantly. The Lund transom destroyed the front of the Truck like it hit a tree! It was so violent the 9.9 4 stroke kicker I had on it flew through the air like a boomerang past my drivers door and landing in front of my truck in the on-coming traffic' lane. You had to be there--I will never forget that sound of the crash. Another reason for replacement value insurance!