# Ever had a close call while on the water?



## TheBreeze (Aug 2, 2014)

Last night went jug fishing with my young son and another boat. We put out jugs and everything was as normal but at about 9:30pm we saw a big boat coming down the channel. The area we were in is very wide - backwaters not a river channel. He was coming in our direction then starts making a direct path to my boat and is not slowing at all (he wasn't going fast and he wasn't on plane). I started shining my very bright maglight (rechargeable police carry) then started strobing it at him, my buddy started doing the same at him. He finally stopped about 100 yards from us as I started trolling wide open out of his path. I have to admit that I was shaking thinking about what just about happened. I didn't have time to fire up the outboard to go quick because I was trying to use the light to warn him. My buddy could see that he was looking down so he was probably just following his GPS line. This was the 1st time anything remotely has scared me on the water. Has anyone else had this happen and what did you learn from it? Me, I will buy the brightest spotlight that I can, just to have for this reason. Would a flare gun have helped. An air horn? Thanks for any input.


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## redbug (Aug 2, 2014)

did you have your nav lights on?? you should have some form of horn or whistle on your boat coast guard requirements 
I think anything would have helped 
you said he was coming down the channel? was the channel marked?? if so I would not be sitting in the channel at night lights or no lights... you got lucky for sure I hope you had your vest on.. be careful


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## TheBreeze (Aug 2, 2014)

redbug said:


> did you have your nav lights on?? you should have some form of horn or whistle on your boat coast guard requirements
> I think anything would have helped
> you said he was coming down the channel? was the channel marked?? if so I would not be sitting in the channel at night lights or no lights... you got lucky for sure I hope you had your vest on.. be careful


Yes. Both of our boats had all lights on. Have a whistle but didn't think about it. We were way out of the main channel, he actually came out of the channel to come my way. The area we were in was very wide.
View attachment 1

If the pic shows up, the area marked was about where we were.


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## ggoldy (Aug 2, 2014)

Absolutly. Early 70's. Floundering near our local AF Base. Stern light and flounder lights on. Waist deep water. Without warning, beside us, was a black, unmarked boat, maybe 40'er, totaly silent. No wake. We had to look UP at his deck! As he passed, his engine was just a whisper. I think he wanted to find out how close he could get before we spoted him. He did very good! The military has such cool toys.


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## Ranchero50 (Aug 2, 2014)

Bunch of times over the years. Bow rider coming down the moon reflection at night lit up correctly had a blacked out jon boat troll in front of me.

Last week, saw a kayaker heading to the ramp from the whites of his paddles about 20 yards in front of me.

Swimmers in the channel, boats anchored in the channel. Channel being the 4 feet wide stretch of deep water to get to the next level.

Last night did a public service and drug a 6' chuck of tree out of the channel to the shoreline. Upstream end of the tree was dragging the ground, downstream end was 2" out of the water. Would have absolutely sucked to hit that with a prop boat. Done that about a dozen times over the years.

In the Navy we got in an awkward situation with Iranian gun boats while trying to stop a dhow with a frigate in the gulf circa '94. 

Also nearly ran over a sinking fishing vessel in fog, pulled those guys to safety.

Lost a helo in the Red Sea. 

Ran low on fuel during hurricane evasion off the East coast. Watched the other frigate put both the bow and props out of the water while the George Washington was rocking and rolling. They were rolling too much for us to take fuel off of them...

Unrep in the middle the night, poor ship handling ripped the 1" tender line out of our hands, 50 guys climbing a shear wall to get away from it.

Hit a wall while backing into a berth in Italy.

Dumbasses deciding to have swim call while floating parallel to the trough, twice. 2nd time me having to do an antenna PM 75' up with the mast swaying 40-60' every 20 seconds or so.

Going to help some poor smuck in a tide rip off San Diego because I had a boogie board and he didn't. We got 'rescued' once we were out of it and on the way back in.

Finally, riding said boogie board into the sand down the face of a 10' wave off Coronado base alone. I plowed a furrow with my chin while me feet kept smacking the back of my head. Hurt something terrible for about a month.

As I've gotten older I've gotten more cautious while on the water...


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## TheBreeze (Aug 2, 2014)

Holy smokes Ranchero. 

I would've probably given up on water activities with that resume. I'm relatively new to water (but I'm not a spring chicken). If I'd been alone it would've just made me irritated, but scared me with my 8 year old. 

Thanks for moving the snags, I've marked them before, but never tried to drag them away.
That's good karma right there.


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## lovedr79 (Aug 2, 2014)

yes! on the Chesapeake bay we were fishing around the bridge near the first island. some moron in a cigar boat came ripping through, bounced off the side of our boat, split the gunwale from the rail down to the floor. luckily no one was hurt, made it back to the dock without taking on too much water. guy in cigar boat kept on getting it!


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## longshot (Aug 2, 2014)

When I was a kid me and my dad were crappie fishing on Halloween night in florida. We had two coleman lanterns hanging off the side of the boat plus the nav lt on. We heard a boat coming towards us at a high rate of speed and when they got to us they went right along side our anchored boat wide open. Throwing a huge wake into our boat and if had not been a Ranger it probably would have swamped us. My dad was furious and said they better not come back as he grabbed his 357 magnum. Well they tried it again down the other side and the old man put six into the side of a brand new glastron ski boat. He was so pissed he went back the next day looking in boat houses for that boat. It was halloween and they were some spoiled rich kids that probably had to explain to dad why there were bullet holes in his boat. I was shaking and holding both our poles and got a bite on both of them at the same time.


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## ccm (Aug 2, 2014)

The very first time my dad started teaching me how to drive a boat. It was on lake Fairfield which is a power plant in Texas. It was in late fall the time of the year when the air is cooler than the water temperature so it is always a little foggy. So the fog had some what lifted & my dad is sitting next to me telling me how to trim the motor, so I get the boat up on plane ( 04 SX200 Skeeter with 200 Yamaha ) & I get the boat up to 60mph & everything is fine going down lake until suddenly the boat spooks up a flock of coots that proceeds to fly right in front of us. We both get down behind the consoles. One smacks off of the trolling motor & another hits the passenger console. The boat wasn't damaged & no one was hurt but it very well could have much worse. On that lake & many other power plant lakes coots & other waterfowl always pose a danger when boating because they like to roost & huddle together in the warm water of the lake during the colder months & with a thick layer of fog covering the surface things can get a little dangerous when running across the lake.


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## great white (Aug 3, 2014)

Self inflicted one this year and all by my lonesome.

Got the 12 footer up on plane and realized my lifejacket was in front of me.

So I reached for it and my hand came off the tiller.

Motor snapped right in a split second and the boat entered a turn/skid from plane.

I was thrown against the gunwale and pinned there. The throttle kill strap pulled off my belt loop so I was trapped there for about 3-4 complete 360's.

Finally managed to grab the tiller and chop the throttle.

Had I gone over, I would have been done: 100 yds offshore, 300 feet deep, no life jacket, 5 C water and a boat spinning pinned at full throttle.

Lesson learned: don't do anything while on plane besides pilot the damned boat!

Dead in the water from now on if I need something.....I was lucky the first time. There won't be a second.

The tinny is also getting a bloody boarding ladder asap. Even if I had been able to get to the boat, there's no way I'd get back in after being dunked in freezing water....


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## onthewater102 (Aug 3, 2014)

Horns & whistles are worthless - the engine noise the driver of the other boat is exposed to almost always drowns them out unless he's right on top of you at which point it doesn't matter.

We have Candlewood lake here in CT which is full of self-righteous gimme-gimme-gimme hurray for me an F*<k you rich pricks who don't give a damn about the small boats on the water. Even bass fishermen avoid it on the weekends unless they're in a tournament because their low decks get swamped all the time.


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## joseph101088 (Aug 3, 2014)

the only close call i had came on a electric only lake i fish. it was mid summer and the weeds were thick. trolling around i stepped down to the floor and twisted my ancle. over the side i went into thick weeds and 12 ft water. lucky the boat got stuck in the weeds. i fish the same spot in winter time for crappie and chain pickeral couldnt have asked for a better time to fall in.


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## PATRIOT (Aug 3, 2014)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=361970#p361970 said:


> TheBreeze » Yesterday, 08:12[/url]"]Last night went jug fishing with my young son and another boat. We put out jugs and everything was as normal but at about 9:30pm we saw a big boat coming down the channel. The area we were in is very wide - backwaters not a river channel. He was coming in our direction then starts making a direct path to my boat and is not slowing at all (he wasn't going fast and he wasn't on plane). I started shining my very bright maglight (rechargeable police carry) then started strobing it at him, my buddy started doing the same at him. He finally stopped about 100 yards from us as I started trolling wide open out of his path. I have to admit that I was shaking thinking about what just about happened. I didn't have time to fire up the outboard to go quick because I was trying to use the light to warn him. My buddy could see that he was looking down so he was probably just following his GPS line. This was the 1st time anything remotely has scared me on the water. Has anyone else had this happen and what did you learn from it? Me, I will buy the brightest spotlight that I can, just to have for this reason. Would a flare gun have helped. An air horn? Thanks for any input.



You discovered the reason behind 180 degree red/green bow lights and 360 degree white stern lights. It's all but impossible to judge distances at night from a single "mag-light" or any other single white light.
Chalk it up to experience and invest in bow lights.

The only close call I've had is in the Intercoastal Waterway outside of South Padre Island Texas . . . almost broadsided a slow moving freighter around midnite . . . they don't have many lights down at the waterline where I was. He moved in front of a few stars which is the only way I saw him in time.


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## TheBreeze (Aug 3, 2014)

PATRIOT said:


> [url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=361970#p361970 said:
> 
> 
> > TheBreeze » Yesterday, 08:12[/url]"]Last night went jug fishing with my young son and another boat. We put out jugs and everything was as normal but at about 9:30pm we saw a big boat coming down the channel. The area we were in is very wide - backwaters not a river channel. He was coming in our direction then starts making a direct path to my boat and is not slowing at all (he wasn't going fast and he wasn't on plane). I started shining my very bright maglight (rechargeable police carry) then started strobing it at him, my buddy started doing the same at him. He finally stopped about 100 yards from us as I started trolling wide open out of his path. I have to admit that I was shaking thinking about what just about happened. I didn't have time to fire up the outboard to go quick because I was trying to use the light to warn him. My buddy could see that he was looking down so he was probably just following his GPS line. This was the 1st time anything remotely has scared me on the water. Has anyone else had this happen and what did you learn from it? Me, I will buy the brightest spotlight that I can, just to have for this reason. Would a flare gun have helped. An air horn? Thanks for any input.
> ...


I had all my lights on. Bow light and stern light (52" high). The other boat about 20 ft away had all his on too. Im guessing he was just concentrating on following a line on his GPS - maybe one he ran earlier? Maybe he just saw my buddies boat and wanted to buzz him and never saw me. I'm thinking flare across his bow next time.


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## TheBreeze (Aug 3, 2014)

[No message]


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## KMixson (Aug 3, 2014)

As I was anchored in my canoe fishing one time in a little creek off of the main river a bass boat came running full speed by me missing me by about 10 feet. There were other boats in the creek about 100 feet up the creek from me and he cared nothing about them either. I was in a u-shaped curve in the creek so I know he saw me before he actually got to me. The creek was only about 30 feet wide at that point and people fish there all the time.


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## PsychoXP18CC (Aug 6, 2014)

Have had a couple of close calls over the years with morons night fishing w/o any visible lights what so ever on their boat. 

Got grazed on the head by the wing of a duck lifting off the water one night. Was only running about 25mph, but it woulda hurt if I caught more of him. 

Backed the boat in the water one evening at a ramp, and was the only one there. Pushed off the trailer and dropped the TM in the water. Turned the TM toward the dock and stepped on the go button. The bow of the boat jerked around so hard it about threw me in the water. I was just able to go to my knees on the deck and grab the gunnel to keep from getting wet, but the downward momentum caused me to catch the gunnel just under my right eye. Seeing stars in broad daylight, I tied the boat up, pulled the truck up to park and sat there until the cobwebs cleared. Went out fishing anyway, and absolutely wore the fish out until about midnight. The wife woke me up the next morning wondering who I'd been in a fight with. i told her what happened, and was told, "whether your story is true, or you went to the bar and got in a fight, you need backup from now on for night fishing trips". She knows I don't drink, so the bar part was just her trying to be funny. I looked in the mirror and it looked just like I got punched in the eye.


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## RadarJet (Aug 6, 2014)

I was alone, headed upriver to deer hunt in 20 degree weather in my 14' 25hp jet outboard. As I rounded a small riffle my motor died suddenly, which never happens. I quickly noticed that the fuel line quick connected had popped off, so I clipped it back on and pumped the bulb. As I went to pull the starter cord I had three realizations come quickly to me. 
1- The motor has been modified to start in forward or reverse "gear". 
2. The throttle friction knob was frozen, and had locked the motor on full-throttle. 
3. I was in such a hurry to get to my stand that my life jacked was still hung over my bow case- 6 feet away.

The mariner jumped to life with all it's 2-stroke torque and threw me up against the motor. Luckily my cheek bone and rib cage contacted the motor and kept me from going over. I idled it down and put the life jacket on, only after saying a quick prayer and thanks for my safety. I learned a lesson that day.


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## Thejrod (Sep 6, 2014)

Some wild stories there boys! I've been pretty good except almost running into a little island my first night trip out... Spot and flood lights soon!


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## Tallpine (Sep 6, 2014)

I am in a wheel chair as a result of a care accident when I was 19. I bought a 12ft mirrocraft and was fishing for crappie with a friend in a log pond. He got a crappie on and when he went to lift it in the boat it came off and flopped back in the water. He jumped and made a grab for it which threw me out of my fishing seat, pushed the gunnel under water, and swamped the boat with about 6 inches of water. So there I am laying in the bottom of the boat with bruised ribs and soaking wet. We managed to get to shore and get me lifted out of the boat into my wheelchair. That was the last time I fished with him and the last time I fished in the mirrorcraft. I sold it and bought a Valco.


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