Seeing as how it is Halloween, I wanted to have a post that was befitting the occasion. I settled on a Top 10 post with the theme of "The Scariest Things I Have Seen on the Water". Granted, some of them aren't that scary but just as with any top 10 list, there is going to be a little filler.
10. Big Brown
Late one night a few years back, my buddy Busch and I were fishing off a dock at Lilley's Landing on Lake Taneycomo in Branson, Missouri. We were about to call it quits around midnight when something swam between the boat slips that separated Busch and I. It was so big it scared me and I thought at first it was a muskrat or beaver. Come to find out it was the biggest brown trout I had ever seen in the wild. Busch and I threw everything we had at this dude as he swimmed upstream but he seemed to be more interested in heading to his nightly hunting ground and swam off into the darkness.
9. Snake in a Tree
My dad and I were fishing an old rock quarry one day near Richmond, Missouri. We were picking fish up here and there but what had our attention was the number of snakes we saw in the water. Now granted, I guess it could have been one really active snake, but it seemed like we found a nest of the little critters. I kept watching them out of fear and curiosity when I saw one headed towards a tree branch that was lazily lapping against the water. To my surprise, the snake slithered up the branch and up into the tree. I decided that I didn't want to fish near that particular tree for the rest of the day. My fears were confirmed when my dad and I heard a splash near said tree and saw a snake struggling to stay on the surface of the water. Oh heck no!
8. The Unknown Creature of the Niangua
After a long day of fishing at Bennett, I decided that I had a little more energy left in me to fish the Niangua, so I drove to Barclay Conservation Area. With the sun setting behind me and shining against the cliff on the opposite side of the river, I heard some creature come walking down the hillside. It made it all the way to the water's edge and then walked along the bank away from me. It was snapping branches and breaking limbs like crazy but to this day, I have no idea what species of animal was making all of the commotion. Sometimes I wonder, could it have been a black bear? A deer? Momo?
7. A Kettle of Vultures
One time my buddy Busch and I were fishing the trophy area on Lake Taneycomo. As the sun was coming up, we noticed that the dead tree behind us on the bank was increasingly becoming filled with vultures. I think Busch made the comment that he was surprised that one of the branches of the tree didn't break due to all of the vultures. The words barely left his mouth before we heard a crack and a snap. We both spun around to see a branch falling to the ground and vultures flying off in a panic.
6. Getting lost on the Niangua River
One time my buddy Busch and I got stuck on the Niangua River after dark. We were conducting our own float trip and it got so dark that we couldn't see the boat ramp. Aside from that, our trolling motor battery died, we had one oar, the river was low, we had to push through rapids, and my waders got a hole in them. We eventually pushed the boat to the bank and flagged down a car that was passing by. They informed us that we missed our boat ramp by about 100 yards and had reached our destination.
5. Falling Out of a Boat
No, I didn't fall out of a boat. It was worse than that. My 3 year old son on our second fishing trip fell out of my two-man boat. Luckily he was wearing a life jacket and lived to tell the tale.
4. Falling Off the Bank
Yep, same kid here. One time when my oldest son was four, he leaned forward too far to grab something on the edge of a pond and fell in the water. This was in November and we were trout fishing at a stocked lake in Kansas City. Thankfully, the little guy didn't get hypothermia but I'm pretty sure I had a panic attack.
3. Electrical Fire
One time my buddy Busch and I were fishing a farm pond in my two-man boat. Yep, same boat that has been mentioned. Anyhow, I guess I got the wires switched on the battery and the wires caught fire when we were in the middle of the pond. I knew I shouldn't use water to put the fire out but I couldn't detach the connection either. We sat there in awe and just waited for the wired to melt and disconnect.
2. Getting Skunked
One of my biggest fears in life is getting skunked on a fishing trip. I mean, that an nuclear war! I have nightmares about that kind of thing.
1. Fire in the Hole
About 13 years ago, I was on a fishing trip with my buddy Kyle. We were fishing for walleye and pike on Lake Thompson in South Dakota and the fishing was pretty slow. To make things worse, teh borrowed boat we were using was having some mechanical issues. It wouldn't always start and it never seemed to be the same solution every time. While Kyle was trying to fix it for the umpteenth time, he accidentally left the ignition on...I think. I'm not mechanically inclined but I'm pretty sure that's what happened. Anyway, he had disconnected the battery to clean the terminals as well as disconnected and reconnected the fuel line from the fuel cell. Let me paint a little picture for you at this point. There is a fuel cell with some gasoline on the surface of it and a battery about to be reconnected to the cords. When Kyle tried to reconnect the cords they sparked and life proceeded in slow motion as a couple sparks landed on top of the fuel cell. I was fully prepared to jump off the boat at that point due to the future fire/explosion. To this day I cannot believe that absolutely nothing happened as a result, but that was the scariest moment I have had on the water. Thanks for the memory Kyle. I hope you're still alive.
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