Posts: 1,010
Threads: 0
Joined: Oct 2011
Reputation:
0
I was recently fishing Gunlock and it was overcast, but no rain had fallen. I have fished probably thousands of hours in much worse conditions than this, but out of nowhere, I started getting nasty "jolts" from something. Sounds stupid but it took five or six before I figured out that when my skin touched the actual rod blank, I was getting a hell of a good electrics shock. It was weird because it felt like I was being shocked from my feet up to my hands. Anyhow, it scared the piss out of me and I dropped my rod and dropped to the ground -- right into the mud. I didn't care, I didn't want to get struck by lightning. I laid there for a good ten minutes before I started army crawling back to my car.
Anyone else ever have this happen? In 30+ years of fishing! this was a first. Did I just get lucky?
[signature]
Posts: 2,007
Threads: 17
Joined: Apr 2007
Reputation:
9
Graphite is a very good conductor of electricity. Static can build up in the atmosphere to a point that it will discharge long before you see lightening. Been at Powell when the sky was clear where we were, but we were getting the humming and blue glow around the rod due to a storm miles away !! Lots of fun !!!
Posts: 762
Threads: 1
Joined: Jul 2010
Reputation:
1
That once happened to me at the Gorge. We were parked on a beach in a glass boat. It was clear where we were, but overcast and rainy looking further
South. The static electricity got so bad it would shock you to touch the gunnels or other bare fiber glass. We pulled off the beach and headed for Buckboard, but it quit doing it long before we reached there. It did, however, burn up my marine radio. Whole thing was very strange.
[signature]
Posts: 268
Threads: 1
Joined: Mar 2006
Reputation:
0
I had the same thing happen to me up at Strawberry a few years ago. It had been raining off and on then lighting started showing up in the distance and getting closer but the fishing was so good we did not want to leave. Then after I had caught a fish and was rigging my hook I could hear a snapping sound looked down and my fishing rod was sparking between it and my wet coat and every time I got bare skin close to it I would get a shock. I debated if the fishing was good enough to get hit by a lightning bolt and after some thought and a few more jolts I decided probably not so I laid the rods down in the bottom of the boat and headed for shore.
[signature]
Posts: 296
Threads: 3
Joined: Aug 2003
Reputation:
0
guess who are at the top of the lighting strike statistics in Utah, yep Fisherman.
[signature]
Posts: 3,327
Threads: 0
Joined: Jul 2011
Reputation:
0
FREAKY!!![shocked]
[signature]
Posts: 2,044
Threads: 5
Joined: Nov 2005
Reputation:
0
Its happened to me several times on the Gorge. Sparks in the eyelets, reels "humming", static in the rod. I headed straight for the marina each time.
Once while fly fishing on the Henry's Fork, I had my fly line stay in the air on a cast. Really! I made the cast, and the line floated for probably 3 or 4 seconds before landing in the softest, most beautiful cast I've ever made. I high-tailed my butt out of that river at record speed.
[signature]
Posts: 145
Threads: 0
Joined: Apr 2014
Reputation:
0
Was fishing on Owyhee Res, and seen some storm clouds starting to roll in. Did not think much of it until I cast out, and the fishing line "hung" in the air.
Weirdest thing I have every seen... 6 # mono floating in air. Needless to say, packed up and headed for the dock.
[signature]
Posts: 3,133
Threads: 87
Joined: Sep 2007
Reputation:
4
Had it happen to me in the past, not a good feeling!
[signature]
Posts: 2,553
Threads: 0
Joined: Jul 2012
Reputation:
0
As a guy who has taken not one but TWO peripheral lightning hits, you all did the right thing.
Trust me, it is not a pleasant experience. Unless you like to convulse for a couple of hours or peel melted sneakers off your feet.
[signature]
Posts: 2,044
Threads: 5
Joined: Nov 2005
Reputation:
0
Some of my customers get a little disappointed or even upset because I'm the first boat off the Gorge any time there is audible thunder or visible lightning, but there ain't a fish on the planet worth messing with that stuff for. I've had some close calls, but no more if I can help it. I'm runnin' like a scared chicken.
[signature]
Posts: 1,178
Threads: 2
Joined: Dec 2010
Reputation:
1
This has happened to me at least a couple dozen times. Always a freaky experience. One of the times at the gorge there was a lightning storm down by Jarvis canyon and I was up at Lucerne heading toward sheep creek. Just as I got to the canyon section my poles that were in the rod holders on my aluminum hardtop frame started crackling with visible static that was really loud. Before I could think much about it a bolt of electricity shot from the fishing poles or hard top (I didnt really see it) and struck me right on the balding spot on the top of my noggin! Made a sound like a .22 going off and my wife and kids saw it and said it looked like a big electricity bolt. Kinda stunned me and gave me the worlds worst head ache! Scared my wife and kids so bad that they were crying and needless to say we headed for the cover of shore. I suppose it's nothing to screw around with as it could be a precursor to a lightning strike.
I have also been shocked through my rod on a clear day so I'm not sure if it is always a dangerous situation, I just treat it like it is just to play it safe.
[signature]
Posts: 3,717
Threads: 132
Joined: May 2011
Reputation:
5
Very interesting series of posts. Any of you that may be electricians, or work with or around electronics should know about ESD (Electro-Static Discharge) The static discharge of someone walking or rubbing their feet along a positive charged floor, or just being in an environment of high static (like dry Utah) then touching someone or something that conducts electricity (like a graphite rod or the metal shaft of a golf club, can result in a shock that can be in the thousands of volts (but very miniscule amps). Very good idea to get indoors during that kind of weather, or at the least, off the water (water is GREAT conductor) and into a vehicle. The non conducting material of vehicle tires is probably the best place to be when outdoors in that weather (unless your tires are really bald and the steel tread is exposed [:/].
In over 40 years as an aircraft electrician and electronics technician, I have had so many "bites" that I sometimes jump when someone makes a sudden bzzzzzzzzzz behind me.
Since I have owned boats ( 2 in 10 years) they have both been aluminum (another good conductor). So when I start seeing the kind of weather that normally holds large static, I make for the marina, get the boat beached so it is grounded, and if it's bad enough, I get under cover, my truck, or a building. And don't you believe that lightening won't strike twice (or more) in the same place. Just find any big tree that has been hit, and you will find multiple hits. [fishin]
[signature]
"OCD = Obsessive Catfish Disorder "
Or so it says on my license plate holder
Posts: 4,630
Threads: 2
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
0
Twice I've had this happen to me. Once at Deer Creek and I was dumbfounded by the whole thing. Then at Starvation. Casted out with 10# test, jig hit the water but the line was floating in the air! Lightning flashed in the distance and my line dropped to the water. I got the hell out of there.
[signature]
Posts: 2,553
Threads: 0
Joined: Jul 2012
Reputation:
0
Only one tiny correction to your good post, Tin-Can. It isn't the car tires that give you protection, it's the fact that the metal body forms a Farraday Cage around you.
If lightning can jump a mile or more down to your car, it isn't going to be stopped by the last four inches it takes to jump around the tires.
[signature]
Posts: 3,717
Threads: 132
Joined: May 2011
Reputation:
5
Yep, OK, that's correct.
[signature]
"OCD = Obsessive Catfish Disorder "
Or so it says on my license plate holder
Posts: 1,010
Threads: 0
Joined: Oct 2011
Reputation:
0
Well, it sounds like a lot of you have had a similar experience, so I'm feeling a little better about things. Thanks to all of you for sharing your stories; good advice about just GTFO the lake and taking a break when this happens.
I still can't believe that in all my years this was the only time though... Some of you guys seem like magnets for it. I think I may have dumped my pants if my line was just hanging in the air...
[signature]
Posts: 2,553
Threads: 0
Joined: Jul 2012
Reputation:
0
I've been hit at least eight times, but six of them were in airplanes which is pretty much a non-event except for staining the seat cushions.
The two peripheral strikes while I was on the ground were both painful. In one, I was touching a metal pole when a bolt hit the building. There was a basketball of white heat around my hand, all the hair on that arm burned off, and I had whole-body muscle spasms for more than an hour.
The second time happened while camping. A bolt came down the campfire smoke about 15 feet from me. Blew me up off the ground and melted my shoes. Minor burns on my feet and that muscle spasm thing again. It's not fun.
I'm a "one rumble and outta here" kinda guy, also. Not surprising, is it?
[signature]
Posts: 1,010
Threads: 0
Joined: Oct 2011
Reputation:
0
Good heavens, man, remind me to never go fishing with you.
Well, maybe fishing, but screw getting in an aircraft with you.
[signature]
Posts: 51
Threads: 0
Joined: Jan 2012
Reputation:
0
|
